Action Research for Managers David Coghlan ©David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation SAGE 2014

David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014 Research in action, rather than research about action Participative Concurrent with action A sequence of events and an approach to managing change and problem solving David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

Why managers do action research Issues of organizational concern - systems improvement, organizational learning, management of change… are suitable topics as they are real events which must be managed in real time they provide opportunities for both effective action and learning and they can contribute to the development of knowledge of organizations David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

Action research is opportunistic Turning familiar situations, timely events or special expertise into objects of research, rather than neglecting “at hand” knowledge or expertise David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

Doing action research in your own organization Researcher as “complete member” Being as an actor-director in film making Engaging in learning-in-action Opportunistic research - turning timely events into objects of study David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

KEY ISSUES IN DOING ACTION RESEARCH IN YOUR OWN ORGANIZATION Preunderstanding Role Duality Organizational roles Researcher role Managing Organizational Politics Framing and Selecting a Project David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

PREUNDERSTANDING “Preunderstanding refers to such things as people’s knowledge, insights and experience before they engage in a research programme.” [Gummesson, 2000, p. 57] David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

Advantages of Preunderstanding of One’s Own Organisation Knowledge of organisation’s everyday life Knowing the jargon & critical events Knowing legitimate and taboo subjects Knowing how the informal organisation works Knowing to to turn to for gossip & news Knowing the critical events Being able to participate without people being aware of your presence David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

Limits of Preunderstanding of One’s Own Organisation Problem of having a worm’s view Difficulty of getting hold of relevant data Difficulty of avoiding preconceived ideas when interpreting When interviewing succumbing to one’s own understanding Political difficulty of writing the “truth” Accusations of spying from colleagues David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

Preunderstanding in 1st, 2nd and 3rd Person Practice David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

The challenge is to build on closeness and foster distance David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014 ROLE DUALITY Augmenting normal organizational roles with researcher role Potential for role conflict through loyalty tugs, behavioural claims and identification dilemmas Political implications David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

Role Duality in 1st, 2nd and 3rd Person Practice David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

The Political Entrepreneur POLITICS The Political Entrepreneur Performance Achieving goals etc. Showing competence “Backstaging” Networking Making deals Working on comfort zones David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

Politics and Ethics in 1st, 2nd and 3rd Person Practice David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014 ACTION RESEARCHERS Action researchers are instruments in the generation of data Key skill of learning in action self awareness reflecting on experience journal keeping as a useful tool David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

3 Strategies of Action Research First - Second- Third- person David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014 First person action research/practice skills addresses our ability to fostering an inquiring approach to our own lives and work, to develop awareness skills, to act out of that awareness and be able to learn in action. This is exciting for me. David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014 Second person action research/practice skills addresses our ability to engage Others in action research, to inquire Together into issues of mutual concern and to learn in action together. This works for us. David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

Third person action research/practice Skills aims at creating a wider community of inquiry through the dissemination of knowledge to an impersonal audience. This is interesting for them David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

IMPLEMENTING ACTION RESEARCH 3 TYPES OF STEPS Pre step - understand context & purpose 4 main steps Constructing, planning action, taking action, evaluating action, Meta step - to monitor David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

Meta-cycle of Action Research David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

Operations of human cognition and doing David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014 The Learning Window David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014 Authenticity David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014 FRAMING “FRAMING” an issue means naming it & focusing on how it might be set up for analysis and evaluation “REFRAMING” means changing your frame David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014 HOW ARE ISSUES FRAMED? PROBLEMS - convergent thinking Who gets involved Who is to blame Confidence to resolve Restrict thinking OPPORTUNITIES - divergent thinking Risk-taking David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014 IDENTIFYING ISSUES What is obvious? Why is it obvious? Issues in systems Whose interpretation? Org politics Keeping framing options open David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

Strategic Research Issues First Order Change Solve an issue without changing the fundamental structure (of the situation or thinking) Second Order Change Questioning & altering core assumptions which underlie and construct the situation Third Order Change Learning to question assumptions David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014

David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014 SELECTING PERSONAL AND ORGANISATIONAL PERSPECTIVE The degree to which it offers an opportunity for : organisational and personal growth advancing career profile damage limitation on career fitting time constraints David Coghlan, Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation 2014