French and Bell (1978) defined it as: The process of systematically collecting research data about an ongoing system relative to some objective, goal or need of that system; feeding these data back into the system, taking action by altering selected variable within the system based both on the data and on hypotheses; and evaluating the results of the actions by collecting more data.
Action research essentially involves:
* taking a static picture of the organisational situation
* formulating a hypotheses based on the picture
* the manipulation of variables in control of the researcher
* taking and evaluating a second static picture of the situation.
Source:
Doing Research in Business and Management - Dan Remenyi et al.
"Action research...aims to contribute both to the practical
concerns of people in an immediate problematic situation and to further
the goals of social science simultaneously. Thus, there is a dual
commitment in action research to study a system and concurrently to
collaborate with members of the system in changing it in what is
together regarded as a desirable direction. Accomplishing this twin
goal requires the active collaboration of researcher and client, and
thus it stresses the importance of co-learning as a primary aspect of
the research process."
Source:
Bibliography
Editors, Action Research Journal
Ethnographic Action Research - 9 projects - Report on use of ICT in Poverty Reduction
Action Research Project - Zero budget natural farming
http://www.atimysore.gov.in/PDF/action_research1.pdfThe SAGE Encyclopedia of Action Research
David Coghlan, Mary Brydon-Miller
SAGE, 11-Aug-2014 - Social Science - 904 pages
Action research is a term used to describe a family of related approaches that integrate theory and action with a goal of addressing important organizational, community, and social issues together with those who experience them. It focuses on the creation of areas for collaborative learning and the design, enactment and evaluation of liberating actions through combining action and research, reflection and action in an ongoing cycle of cogenerative knowledge. While the roots of these methodologies go back to the 1940s, there has been a dramatic increase in research output and adoption in university curricula over the past decade. This is now an area of high popularity among academics and researchers from various fields—especially business and organization studies, education, health care, nursing, development studies, and social and community work.
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Action Research brings together the many strands of action research and addresses the interplay between these disciplines by presenting a state-of-the-art overview and comprehensive breakdown of the key tenets and methods of action research as well as detailing the work of key theorists and contributors to action research.
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=hNfSAwAAQBAJQualimetrics is an approach discussed in the above encyclopedia. There is a full book available on qualimetrics
The Qualimetrics Approach: Observing the Complex Object
Henri Savall, Véronique Zardet
IAP, 2011 - Business & Economics - 387 pages
Edited by Henri Savall and Veronique Zardet, Institut de Socio-Economie des Entreprises et des Organisations A volume in Research in Management Consulting Series Editor Anthony F. Buono, Bentley University. The impetus for this work emerged from Savall's belief that there is a doubleloop interaction between social and economic factors in organizations, between behaviors and structures, and between the quality of life in organizations and their economic performance. When managers underestimate this dynamic interaction, the resulting tension ultimately manifests in lowered performance and increased costs, what he refers to as the "hidden costs" of organizational life. Only by delving into the depths of these organizational dynamics can we hope to fully understand - and create the basis for improving - organizational performance. The Qualimetrics Approach presents a different and challenging way of thinking about analyzing organizations, one that draws together quantitative information, financial analysis and qualitative insights into organizational dynamics. As Savall and Zardet argue, to gain a true understanding of what is happening in organizations, intervener-researchers must focus on all three perspectives, as ignoring any one of them will lead to incomplete understandings. Their approach underscores the importance of using qualitative data to validate quantitative depictions ("the numbers") of organizational performance in understanding the construction of financial statements. The strength of Savall and Zardet's approach is that it pushes us to go deeper, to fully understand the narratives underlying the numbers and the social construction of our financial assessments."
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=P7qa0Ix2NNcCVisit Management Videos Collection
http://mgmtvideo.blogspot.com/
Updated 6.8.2025, 28 May 2017, 28 Jan 2016, 7 Jan 2012
