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Action Research and Organization Development

This document defines and describes action research. It states that action research is a process involving systematically collecting data about a system to meet an objective or goal, feeding the data back to the system, taking action by changing variables based on the data and hypotheses, and evaluating the results. It also notes that action research involves collaboration between researchers/change agents and those within the system being studied. The goal is to help managers learn and improve through a cyclical process of diagnosis, data gathering, action planning, action, and continued data collection.

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48 views

Action Research and Organization Development

This document defines and describes action research. It states that action research is a process involving systematically collecting data about a system to meet an objective or goal, feeding the data back to the system, taking action by changing variables based on the data and hypotheses, and evaluating the results. It also notes that action research involves collaboration between researchers/change agents and those within the system being studied. The goal is to help managers learn and improve through a cyclical process of diagnosis, data gathering, action planning, action, and continued data collection.

Uploaded by

Su_Neil
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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6.

Action Research and


Organization Development
Action research may be described as a process, that is, as an
ongoing series of events and actions. It may be defined as
follows:
Action research is the process of systematically collecting
research data about an ongoing system relative to some
objective to some objective, goal, or need of that system; feeding
these data back into the system ; taking actions by altering
selected variables within the system based both on the data and
on hypotheses; and evaluating the results of actions by collecting
more data.
The key aspects of the model are diagnosis, data gathering, feedback to the
client group , data discussion and work by the client group, action planning,
and action. The sequence trends to be cyclical, with the focus on new or
advanced problems as the client group learns to work more effectively
together.
Action research is a process in two different ways. It is a sequence of events
and activities within each iteration (data collection, feedback, and taking
action based on the data); and it is a cycle of iterations of these activities of
these activities, something treating the same problem several times and then
moving to different problems.
Action research may also be described as an approach to problem solving,
thus suggesting its usefulness as a model, guide, or paradigm. Used in this
way, action research may be defined as follows:
Action research is the application of the scientific method of fact-finding and
experimentation to practical problems requiring action solution and involving
the collaboration and cooperation of scientists, practitioners, and laypersons.
The role is to help the manager plan his actions and design his fact-finding
procedures in such a way that he can learn from them, to serve such ends as
becoming a more skillful manager, setting more realistic objectives,
discovering better ways of organizing. In this sense , the staffs concerning
with follow-up research consultants. Their task is to help manager formulate
management problems as experiments.
Three additional features deserve discussion :
first, the elements of the action research model that link it to the scientific
method of inquiry;
second , the collaborative relation among scientists, practitioners, and
laypersons that often is a component of action research; and
third, the increased richness of knowledge derived from action research
programs.
Another distinguishing feature of action research is collaboration between
individuals inside the system-clients and individuals outside the system
change agents or researchers.
Almost all authors stress the collaborative nature of action research, with
some seeing it as the primary reason for the models efficacy.

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