The career transition from practitioner to academic

Abstract

This article explains the challenges faced when management‐practitioners decide to enter the academic environment and teach. The authors speak from the perspective of their own experiences with respect to transitions into the academic field and also highlight prominent literature on the subject. The framework for the paper begins with the explanation of a basic model associated with cultural transition. They identify three success factors for transition: task success; social interaction; and cultural understanding and awareness and develop strategies for each. The dual themes of the article are to reinforce the usefulness of practitioners into academia and to help smooth the environmental transition for practitioner‐academicians (PAs) by developing strategies for success.