This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Coghian, D. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Insider Action Research Projects

Implications for Practising Managers

University of Dublin School of Business Studies, Ireland, david.coghlan{at}tcd.ie

Managers are increasingly undertaking action research projects in their own organizations. Action research involves opportunistic planned interventions in real time situations and a study of those interventions as they occur, which in turn informs further interventions. Insider action research has its own dynamics, which distinguish it from an external action researcher approach. The manager-researchers are already immersed in the organization and have a preunderstanding from being an actor in the processes being studied. Challenges facing such manager-researchers are that they need to combine their action research role with their regular organizational roles and this role duality can create the potential for role ambiguity and conflict. They need to manage the political dynamics, which involves balancing the organization's formal justification of what it wants in the project with their own tactical personal justification for the project. Manager-researchers' preunderstanding, organizational role and ability to manage organizational politics play an important role in the political process of framing and selecting their action research project. In order that the action research project contribute to the organization's learning, the manager-action researcher engages in interlevel processes engaging individuals, teams, the inter-departmental group and the organization in processes of learning and change. Consideration of these challenges enables manager-action researchers to grasp the opportunities such research projects afford for personal learning, organizational learning and contribution to knowledge.

Key Words: insider action research • manager-researcher • organizational politics • project-based management • role duality

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. Moore Original sin and insider research Action Research, March 1, 2007; 5(1): 27 - 39. [Abstract] [PDF]

				T. Brannick and D. Coghlan In Defense of Being "Native": The Case for Insider Academic Research Organizational Research Methods, January 1, 2007; 10(1): 59 - 74. [Abstract] [PDF]

				G. E. Dehler and R. K. Edmonds Using Action Research to Connect Practice to Learning: A Course Project for Working Management Students Journal of Management Education, October 1, 2006; 30(5): 636 - 669. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. A. Raelin and D. Coghlan Developing Managers as Learners and Researchers: Using Action Learning and Action Research Journal of Management Education, October 1, 2006; 30(5): 670 - 689. [Abstract] [PDF]

				A. C. Baker, P. J. Jensen, and D. A. Kolb Conversation as Experiential Learning Management Learning, December 1, 2005; 36(4): 411 - 427. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. Whitehead, J. Keast, V. Montgomery, and S. Hayman A multidisciplinary osteoporosis service-based action research study Health Education Journal, January 1, 2004; 63(4): 347 - 361. [Abstract] [PDF]

				D. Coghlan Practitioner Research for Organizational Knowledge: Mechanistic- and Organistic-Oriented Approaches to Insider Action Research Management Learning, December 1, 2003; 34(4): 451 - 463. [Abstract] [PDF]