Pioneering process research: Andrew Pettigrew's contribution to management scholarship, 1962-2014

This paper takes stock of Andrew Pettigrew's contribution to management scholarship. It goes through the process, content, and context of his research career. Chronologically, the Process will be subdivided into the three distinct phases of the period leading up to the establishment of the Centre for Strategic Management and Change, his time with the centre, and the research since leaving the Centre. The content of his research focused on big problems and emerging phenomena like decision-making, organizational culture, organization development, strategic change, human resource management, competitiveness, new public management, boards of directors, innovative forms of organizing, high performing research teams, and business schools. His contextualist methodology for process research will be explicated. Pettigrew's contribution will be put in context by comparing it with contemporary research. The paper concludes that there is still a need to go for big problems and emerging phenomena, and for providing a processual understanding of management reality. There is a need to develop process research methodologies like Pettigrew's contextualism further, especially with regard to process research methods.