An effective integrative review can provide important insight into the current state of research on a topic and can recommend future research directions. This article discusses different types of reviews and outlines an approach to writing an integrative review. It includes guidance regarding challenges encountered when composing integrative reviews, such as fair representation of different perspectives and synthesizing that knowledge to yield new insights. An integrative review is of unique value among other types of knowledge-synthesis vehicles, such as narrative or systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Because each has distinctive but important approaches to synthesizing empirical knowledge, our protocol for writing integrative reviews is designed to complement these other knowledge-synthesis vehicles to best advance organization science.
AguinisH.PierceC. A.BoscoF. A.DaltonD. R.DaltonC. M. (2011). Debunking myths and urban legends about meta-analysis. Organizational Research Methods, 14(2), 306–331.
2.
AkinciC.Sadler-SmithE. (2012). Intuition in management research: A historical review. International Journal of Management Reviews, 14(1), 104–122.
3.
AntebyM.ChanC. K.DiBenignoJ. (2016). Three lenses on occupations and professions in organizations: Becoming, doing, and relating. The Academy of Management Annals, 10(1), 183–244.
4.
ArgyrisC. (1996). Crossroads—Unrecognized defenses of scholars: Impact on theory and research. Organization Science, 7(1), 79–87.
5.
BacharachS. B. (1989). Organizational theories: Some criteria for evaluation. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 496–515.
6.
BartkoJ. J. (1982). The fate of published articles, submitted again. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 5(2), 199.
7.
BaumeisterR. E.TiceD. M. (1986). Four selves, two motives, and a substitute process self-regulation model. In BaumeisterR. F. (Ed.), Public self and private self (pp. 63–74). Springer.
BecharaA.DamasioH.TranelD.DamasioA. R. (1997). Deciding advantageously before knowing the advantageous strategy. Science, 275(5304), 1293–1295.
10.
BechkyB. A. (2003). Sharing meaning across occupational communities: The transformation of understanding on a production floor. Organization Science, 14(3), 312–330.
11.
BenensonZ.Kroll-PetersO.KruppM. (2012). Attitudes to IT security when using a smartphone. In Federated Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (FedCSIS) (pp. 1179–1183). Wroclaw.
12.
BladerS. L.YuS. (2017). Are status and respect different or two sides of the same coin?Academy of Management Annals, 11(2), 800–824.
13.
BorensteinM.HedgesL. V.HigginsJ. P.RothsteinH. R. (2009). Introduction to meta-analysis. Wiley.
14.
BrinerR. B.RousseauD. M. (2011). Evidence-based I–O psychology: Not there yet. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 4(1), 3–22.
15.
BrownJ. S.DuguidP. (1991). Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning, and innovation. Organization Science, 2(1), 40–57.
16.
BurrellW. G.MorganG. (1979). Sociological paradigms and organizational analysis. Heinemann.
17.
ButlerM. J.O’BroinH. L.LeeN.SeniorC. (2016). How organizational cognitive neuroscience can deepen understanding of managerial decision-making: A review of the recent literature and future directions. International Journal of Management Reviews, 18(4), 542–559.
18.
CampanarioJ. M. (1998). Peer review for journals as it stands today—Part 2. Science Communication, 19(4), 277–306.
19.
CarlileP. R. (2002). A pragmatic view of knowledge and boundaries: Boundary objects in new product development. Organization Science, 13(4), 442–455.
20.
CarlileP. R. (2004). Transferring, translating, and transforming: An integrative framework for managing knowledge across boundaries. Organization Science, 15(5), 555–568.
21.
CarpiniJ. A.ParkerS. K.GriffinM. A. (2017). A look back and a leap forward: A review and synthesis of the individual work performance literature. Academy of Management Annals, 11(2), 825–885.
22.
CloughD. R.FangT. P.VissaB.WuA. (2019). Turning lead into gold: How do entrepreneurs mobilize resources to exploit opportunities?Academy of Management Annals, 13(1), 240–271.
23.
CooperH. M. (1998). Synthesizing research: A guide for literature reviews (Vol. 2). Sage.
24.
CôtéS. (2011). How social class shapes thoughts and actions in organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, 31, 43–71.
25.
CostaA. C.FulmerC. A.AndersonN. R. (2018). Trust in work teams: An integrative review, multilevel model, and future directions. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(2), 169–184.
26.
CroninM. A.BenderskyC. (2012). The supply chain for producing quality organizational knowledge. Organizational Psychology Review, 2(1), 54–70.
27.
CroninM. A.BezrukovaK. (2019). Conflict management through the lens of system dynamics. Academy of Management Annals, 13(2), 770–806.
28.
CroninM. A.LoewensteinJ. (2018). The craft of creativity. Stanford University Press.
29.
CroninM. A.WeingartL. R. (2007). Representational gaps, information processing and conflict in functionally diverse teams. Academy of Management Review, 32, 761–773.
30.
CropanzanoR. (2009). Writing nonempirical articles for Journal of Management: General thoughts and suggestions. Journal of Management, 35(6), 1304–1311.
31.
DavisG. F. (2015). Editorial essay: What is organizational research for?Administrative Science Quarterly, 60(2), 179–188.
32.
De DreuC. K. W.WeingartL. R. (2003). Task versus relationship conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(4), 741–749.
33.
del Carmen TrianaM.RichardO. C.SuW. (2019). Gender diversity in senior management, strategic change, and firm performance: Examining the mediating nature of strategic change in high tech firms. Research Policy, 48(7), 1681–1693.
34.
DenyerD.TranfieldD. (2009). Producing a systematic review. In BuchananD. A.BrymanA. (Eds.), The Sage handbook of organizational research methods (pp. 671–689). Sage.
35.
DenyerD.TranfieldD.Van AkenJ. E. (2008). Developing design propositions through research synthesis. Organization Studies, 29(3), 393–413.
36.
DerueD. S.NahrgangJ. D.WellmanN. E. D.HumphreyS. E. (2011). Trait and behavioral theories of leadership: An integration and meta-analytic test of their relative validity. Personnel Psychology, 64(1), 7–52.
37.
DoseJ. J. (1997). Work values: An integrative framework and illustrative application to organizational socialization. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 70(3), 219–240.
38.
DoughertyD. J. (1992). Interpretive barriers to successful product innovation in large firms. Organization Science, 3(2), 179–202.
39.
EdenD. (2002). From the editors: Replication, meta-analysis, scientific progress, and AMJ’s publication policy. Academy of Management Journal, 45(5), 841–846.
40.
EdmondsonA. C.McManusS. E. (2007). Methodological fit in management field research. Academy of Management Review, 32(4), 1246–1264.
41.
EdwardsJ. R. (2010). Reconsidering theoretical progress in organizational and management research. Organizational Research Methods, 13(4), 615–619.
42.
EggerM.SmithG. D.SchneiderM.MinderC. (1997). Bias in meta-analysis detected by a simple, graphical test. The BMJ, 315(7109), 629–634.
43.
FelinT.FossN. J.PloyhartR. E. (2015). The microfoundations movement in strategy and organization theory. The Academy of Management Annals, 9(1), 575–632.
44.
FerrisG. R.HochwarterW. A.BuckleyM. R. (2012). Theory in the organizational sciences: How will we know it when we see it?Organizational Psychology Review, 2(1), 94–106.
45.
FieldA. P.GillettR. (2010). How to do a meta-analysis. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 63(3), 665–694.
46.
FossN. J.SaebiT. (2017). Fifteen years of research on business model innovation: How far have we come, and where should we go?Journal of Management, 43(1), 200–227.
47.
GatrellC.BreslinD. (2017). Editors’ statement. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19(1), 1–3.
48.
GeorgeE.ChattopadhyayP.SitkinS. B.BardenJ. (2006). Cognitive underpinnings of institutional persistence and change: A framing perspective. Academy of Management Review, 31(2), 347–365.
49.
GeorgeJ. M.ZhouJ. (2007). Dual tuning in a supportive context: Joint contributions of positive mood, negative mood, and supervisory behaviors to employee creativity. Academy of Management Journal, 50(3), 605–622.
50.
GeyskensI.KrishnanR.SteenkampJ. E. M.CunhaP. V. (2009). A review and evaluation of meta-analysis practices in management research. Journal of Management, 35(2), 393–419.
51.
GlickW. H.MillerC. C.CardinalL. B. (2007). Making a life in the field of organization science. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 28(7), 817–835.
52.
GoodN.GrossklagsJ.ThawD.PerzanowskiA.MulliganD. K.KonstanJ. (2006). User choices and regret: Understanding users’ decision process about consensually acquired spyware. Faculty Publications, 621. https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/faculty_publications/621
53.
GreenhalghT. (1997). How to read a paper: Papers that summarise other papers (systematic reviews and meta-analyses). The BMJ, 315(7109), 672–675.
54.
GriffinM. A.NealA.ParkerS. K. (2007). A new model of work role performance: Positive behavior in uncertain and interdependent contexts. Academy of Management Journal, 50(2), 327–347.
55.
HaslamS. A.CornelissenJ. P.WernerM. D. (2017). Metatheories and metaphors of organizational identity: Integrating social constructionist, social identity, and social actor perspectives within a social interactionist model. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19(3), 318–336.
56.
HennesseyB. A.AmabileT. M. (2010). Creativity. Annual Review of Psychology, 61, 569–598.
57.
HodgkinsonG. P.HealeyM. P. (2008). Cognition in organizations. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 387–417.
58.
HoggM. A.TurnerJ. C.DavidsonB. (1990). Polarized norms and social frames of reference: A test of self-categorization theory of group polarization. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 11, 77–100.
59.
HongY.MorrisM. W.ChiuC.Benet-MartinezV. (2000). Multicultural minds: A dynamic constructivist approach to culture and cognition. American Psychologist, 55(7), 709–720.
60.
HuffA. S. (2008). Designing research for publication. Sage.
61.
HunterJ. E.SchmidtF. L. (2004). Methods of meta-analysis: Correcting error and bias in research findings. Sage.
62.
JangD.ElfenbeinH. A.BottomW. P. (2018). More than a phase: Form and features of a general theory of negotiation. Academy of Management Annals, 12(1), 318–356.
63.
JoshiA.RohH. (2009). The role of context in work team diversity research: A meta-analytic review. Academy of Management Journal, 52(3), 599–627.
64.
JudgeT. A.PiccoloR. F. (2004). Transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic test of their relative validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(5), 755–768.
65.
KahnemanD.SlovicS. P.SlovicP.TverskyA. (1982). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Cambridge University Press.
66.
KepesS.BanksG. C.McDanielM.WhetzelD. L. (2012). Publication bias in the organizational sciences. Organizational Research Methods, 15(4), 624–662.
67.
KluckhohnC. (1951). Values and value-orientations in the theory of action: An exploration in definition and classification. In ParsonsT.ShilsE. (Eds.), Toward a general theory of action (pp. 388–433). Harvard University Press.
68.
KudesiaR. S. (2019). Mindfulness as metacognitive practice. Academy of Management Review, 44(2), 405–423.
69.
LaudanL. (1978). Progress and its problems: Towards a theory of scientific growth (Vol. 282). University of California Press.
70.
LaughlinP. R. (1980). Social combination processes of cooperative problem-solving groups on verbal intellective tasks. In FishbeinM. (Ed.), Progress in social psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 127–155). Psychology Press.
71.
MarshH. W.JayasingheU. W.BondN. W. (2008). Improving the peer-review process for grant applications: Reliability, validity, bias, and generalizability. American Psychologist, 63(3), 160–168.
72.
MartinS. R.CôtéS. (2019). Social class transitioners: Their cultural abilities and organizational importance. Academy of Management Review, 44(3), 618–642.
73.
MathieuJ. E.GallagherP. T.DomingoM. A.KlockE. A. (2019). Embracing complexity: Reviewing the past decade of team effectiveness research. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6, 17–46.
74.
MillerD. (2007). Paradigm prison, or in praise of atheoretic research. Strategic Organization, 5(2), 177–184.
75.
MorgesonF. P.HofmannD. A. (1999). The structure and function of collective constructs: Implications for multilevel research and theory development. Academy of Management Review, 24(2), 249–265.
76.
NewellA.SimonH. A. (1972). Human problem solving. Prentice-Hall.
77.
OkhuysenG. A.RichardsonH. A. (2007). Group conflict as an emergent state: Temporal issues in the conceptualization and measurement of disagreement. In ThompsonL.BehfarK. J. (Eds.), Conflict in teams (pp. 145–179). NU Press.
78.
Otaye-EbedeL. (2019). Antecedents and outcomes of managing diversity in a UK context: Test of a mediation model. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 30(18), 2605–2627.
79.
ParéG.TrudelM.-C.JaanaM.KitsiouS. (2015). Synthesizing information systems knowledge: A typology of literature reviews. Information & Management, 52(2), 183–199.
80.
PfefferJ. (1993). Barriers to the advance of organizational science: Paradigm development as a dependent variable. Academy of Management Review, 18(4), 599–620.
81.
PosenH. E.KeilT.KimS.MeissnerF. D. (2018). Renewing research on problemistic search—A review and research agenda. Academy of Management Annals, 12(1), 208–251.
82.
RamanujamR.RousseauD. M. (2006). The challenges are organizational not just clinical. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior, 27(7), 811–827.
83.
RipA.CourtialJ. (1984). Co-word maps of biotechnology: An example of cognitive scientometrics. Scientometrics, 6(6), 381–400.
84.
RobertsC. M. (2010). The dissertation journey: A practical and comprehensive guide to planning, writing, and defending your dissertation. Corwin Press.
85.
RobertsK. H. (1990). Managing high reliability organizations. California Management Review, 32(4), 101–113.
86.
SalasE.Cannon-BowersJ. A. (2001). The science of training: A decade of progress. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 471–499.
87.
SerfatyD.EntinE. E.JohnstonJ. H. (1998). Team coordination training. In Cannon-BowersJ. A.SalasE. (Eds.), Making decisions under stress: Implications for individual and team training (pp. 221–245). American Psychological Association.
88.
ShapiroS. (1994). Meta-analysis/shmeta-analysis. American Journal of Epidemiology, 140(9), 771–778.
89.
SimonH. A. (1957). Models of man; social and rational. Wiley.
90.
StakeR. E. (2005). Qualitative case studies. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S. (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 443–466). Sage Publications.
91.
StermanJ. D. (2000). Business dynamics: Systems thinking and modeling for a complex world. McGraw-Hill Education.
92.
StrykerS. (1980). Symbolic interactionism: A social structural version. Benjamin-Cummings Publishing Company.
93.
TorracoR. J. (2005). Writing integrative literature reviews: Guidelines and examples. Human Resource Development Review, 4(3), 356–367.
94.
TranfieldD.DenyerD.SmartP. (2003). Towards a methodology for developing evidence-informed management knowledge by means of systematic review. British Journal of Management, 14(3), 207–222.
95.
TranfieldD.StarkeyK. (1998). The nature, social organization and promotion of management research: Towards policy. British Journal of Management, 9(4), 341–353.
96.
TurnerS. F.CardinalL. B.BurtonR. M. (2017). Research design for mixed methods: A triangulation-based framework and roadmap. Organizational Research Methods, 20(2), 243–267.
97.
VaaraE.SonensheinS.BojeD. (2016). Narratives as sources of stability and change in organizations: Approaches and directions for future research. The Academy of Management Annals, 10(1), 495–560.
98.
van EckN.WaltmanL. (2009). Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics, 84(2), 523–538.
99.
Van KnippenbergD.SitkinS. B. (2013). A critical assessment of charismatic—Transformational leadership research: Back to the drawing board?The Academy of Management Annals, 7(1), 1–60.
100.
WagnerD. G.BergerJ. (1985). Do sociological theories grow?American Journal of Sociology, 90(4), 697–728.
101.
WallerM. J.OkhuysenG. A.SaghafianM. (2016). Conceptualizing emergent states: A strategy to advance the study of group dynamics. The Academy of Management Annals, 10(1), 561–598.
102.
WashR.RaderE.VanieaK.RizorM. (2014). Out of the loop: How automated software updates cause unintended security consequences. In Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (pp. 89–104). USENIX Association. https://www.usenix.org/system/files/soups14-paper-wash.pdf
103.
WeickK. E.PutnamT. (2006). Organizing for mindfulness: Eastern wisdom and Western knowledge. Journal of Management Inquiry, 15(3), 275–287.
104.
WeickK. E.SutcliffeK. M. (2006). Mindfulness and the quality of organizational attention. Organization Science, 17(4), 514–524.
105.
WengerE. (1999). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press.
106.
WhettenD. A. (1989). What constitutes a theoretical contribution?Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 490–495.
107.
WhitleyR. (1984). The fragmented state of management studies: Reasons and consequences. Journal of Management Studies, 21(3), 331–348.
108.
WilliamsC. (1998). The pitfalls of narrative reviews in clinical medicine. Annals of Oncology, 9(6), 601–605.
109.
ZhaoE. Y.ThatcherS. M.JehnK. A. (2019). Instigating, engaging in, and managing group conflict: A review of the literature addressing the critical role of the leader in group conflict. Academy of Management Annals, 13(1), 112–147.
110.
ZhuJ.WanbergC. R.HarrisonD. A.DiehnE. W. (2016). Ups and downs of the expatriate experience? Understanding work adjustment trajectories and career outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(4), 549–568.
