LinkedIn is often used to promote new business and workplace health and safety books, many of which have been self-published. Before Christmas, I acted on a LinkedIn post and purchased “The Pracademic’s Handbook“. I had heard many conference delegates in 2024 describe themselves as “pracademic” or express a wish to be more of one, and a handbook could be instructional. I was both disappointed and pleased with the book, but mostly disappointed.
The subtitle for this book by Garry Bergin and Paul Kellett is “Bridging Academic Theory and Industry Best Practice for Students and Professionals”. Including “best practice” in the subtitle should have been a red flag, but I focussed on the idea that this was a “handbook”. It is not a handbook like David Provan’s excellent “A Field Guide to Safety Professional Practice.” Bergin and Kellett’s book is an A to Z collection of business concept summaries that the authors acknowledge “require further detailed study and understanding”. In some ways, it is a conceptual dictionary.
The book was misrepresented on LinkedIn, but many things are on that social platform. The book is not a handbook but an index of business-related concepts. I am also unsure about the use of “pracademic” as I believed a pracademic was someone who undertakes research and who also applies that study, as Wikipedia says. The book needed a short context for each concept – where were they encountered? Are they current? – rather than pushing us to the Internet.
Is the book useful? Yes, as a quick reference or as a dictionary, but it is not a handbook. It is no more valuable to a pracademic than anyone else, and the connection to “best practice” remains a mystery. It is a shame Bergin and Kellett did not list “best practice” as a term in the book, as it is a concept that might have helped improve the accuracy of the book’s title.