Week 10: Action Research

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 What is Action Research?
Action Research is a form of research that generates knowledge
claims for the express purpose of taking action to promote social
change and social action (Greenwood and Levin, 1998)
Action researchers believe that:
Complex social systems and social situations cannot be reduced for meaningful study
Action research is a process of making sense and understanding complex interactions and
systems
AR refers to the conjunction of three elements:
Research
Action
Participation

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 According to Grundy and Kemmis there are three conditions necessary
for AR to exist:
A project takes as its subject matter a social practice, regarding it as a strategic
action susceptible to improvement
The project proceeds through a spiral of cycles of planning, acting, observing and
reflecting with each of these activities being systematically and self critically
implemented and interrelated; and
The project involves those responsible for the practice in each of the moments of
the activity, widening participation in the project gradually to include others
affected by the practice and maintaining collaborative control of the process

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 Brief history of AR
Term coined and meaning attributed to AR by Kurt Lewin in the 1940s
Tavistock institute 1950s
Technical Action Research
Practical Action Research
Emancipatory Action Research

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 Action Research Spiral

Diagnose

Diagnose Diagnose
PLAN PLAN CYCLE 3

REFLECT ACT REFLECT ACT

OBSERVE OBSERVE

CYCLE 1 CYCLE 2
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 Stages in AR cycle
Diagnosing
Action Planning (PLAN)
Action Taking (ACT)
Evaluating (OBSERVE)
Specifying learning (REFLECT theorise)

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 Understanding Action Research in
the context of Information Systems
AR is underpinned by the premise that researchers and participants are
intervening in social systems. Draws upon general systems theory and
therefore clearly of interest to IS researchers
Mumfords work on ETHICS and Checklands work on the soft
systems approach draw upon AR
Links also into the areas of organisational learning and managing
systems change specifically to theorising about practice

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 Action Research in IS
Lau (1999) Towards a framework for action research in information
systems studies (Information and Technology & People 12(2))
Lau builds on an earlier framework and presents a set of guidelines for
AR in IS and discusses the implications for IS research and practice
Identifies 4 types of action research
Action research
Participatory action research
Action science
Action learning

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 Participatory Enquiry
Reason, 1994 has 3 forms of particpatory enquiry
Co-operative enquiry
Participatory action research
Action Science and Action enquiry

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 Co-operative Enquiry
Heron, 1971; Reason & Heron,1986
Addresses a theory of persons as self-determining
4 Phases
1. Researchers identify area of experience and methods to investigate it and agree
on actions
2. Apply agreed actions/behaviours to everyday work
3. Experiential knowing from new behaviours after much application
4. Review of original propositions and regeneration to Phase 1
Validity stems from critical subjectivity = versional reality

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 Participatory Action Research
(PAR)
Founded in Liberationist movement
A process of the underclass taking control of knowledge that is power
and political force by adult education, research and sociopolitical
action
Asserts process of self awareness by collective self-enquiry and
reflection
Methodology the uses diverse methods
Knowledge production by people setting own agenda, participating in data
gathering analyses, and controlling the use of outcomes
Community orientation to the process

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 Action Science
Based on Theories of Action Argyris and Schon, 1974, 1978.
Model 1 - a defensive theory that limits action what is done
Purpose defined by principal actor
Win, not lose
Emphasize rationality
Model II normative theory that promotes open enquiry what is said
Seeks valid information
Free and informed choice
Internal commitment
Focus is on explicit cognitive models

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 Action Inquiry
Torbert, 1991
Follows Argyris and adds
Empirically measured outcomes
Self scrutiny of own acts
How to transform organisations into collaborative self-reflective communities of
inquiry
A community to practice action enquiry needs to know
Knowledge about a systems own purpose
Knowledge about its strategies theories/principles underlying its choices/modus
operandi
Knowledge of practical behavioural choices available to it
Knowledge of outside world consequences of its behaviour

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 Comparison
3 come from different
Ideological perspectives
Intellectual traditions
Emphasize different aspects of practice
Valid human enquiry requires full participation in the creation of
personal and social knowledge
Emphasize experiential knowing
Data varies definition
Argyris verbal reports
Torbert all forms of dialogue
PAR all forms of expression incl song, poetry, theatre
Cooperative inquiry rational verbal reports of experience

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 Comparison - 2
Attitudes to Leadership
PAR radically egalitarian
Action Inquiry transformational leadership distress-free charismatic authority
Paradox between need to educate to practice Action Research
PAR emphasizes upwelling from the common people, and lacks
methodology and doesnt see ability of groups to be self-destructive
Co-operative inquiry emphasizes the psychological and lacks a robust
theory of action
Action inquiry advocates rugged individualism/ego development

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 Is Action Research
the same as consulting?
5 differences between AR and consulting:
Motivation
Commitment
Approach
Basis for recommendations
Organisational understanding

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 Limitations of Action Research
Difficult to publish AR results
Tendency for inexperienced researchers to focus entirely on planning,
acting and observing phases and less upon theorising
Ethical responsibilities to other participants
Length of projects ongoing and evolutionary

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