Action Research: A Remedy to Overcome the Gap between
'Theory' and 'Practice'
Abstract
Action research is an important research methodology
in management science. Though action
research has been defined and discussed by many researchers, there are still controversies about
the implication of this research tool in
academic world
. This article highlighted some important
points about action rese
arch, and provides an overview of this research method for showing its
potential as a research technique along with the history, meaning and features of action research.
It has been argued by the earlier researchers that failure of conventional research me
thodology in
solving organisational problems produces gap between „theory‟ and „practice‟, which can be
bridged with the help of action research technique, that action research can be focused on the
collaboration to bring change and solve problems in organ
isations. About the validity of action
research, some epistemological points of view has been discussed. In this article, the researchers
argued that although action research can help to overcome the gap between „theory‟ and
„practice‟, it could be a diff
icult task for any researcher to achieve.
Key Words:
Action research, participation, organisation, social science, social
action
Original Title
Action Research a Remedy to Overcome the Gap Between Theory and Practice
Action Research: A Remedy to Overcome the Gap between
'Theory' and 'Practice'
Abstract
Action research is an important research methodology
in management science. Though action
research has been defined and discussed by many researchers, there are still controversies about
the implication of this research tool in
academic world
. This article highlighted some important
points about action rese
arch, and provides an overview of this research method for showing its
potential as a research technique along with the history, meaning and features of action research.
It has been argued by the earlier researchers that failure of conventional research me
thodology in
solving organisational problems produces gap between „theory‟ and „practice‟, which can be
bridged with the help of action research technique, that action research can be focused on the
collaboration to bring change and solve problems in organ
isations. About the validity of action
research, some epistemological points of view has been discussed. In this article, the researchers
argued that although action research can help to overcome the gap between „theory‟ and
„practice‟, it could be a diff
icult task for any researcher to achieve.
Key Words:
Action research, participation, organisation, social science, social
action
Action Research: A Remedy to Overcome the Gap between
'Theory' and 'Practice'
Abstract
Action research is an important research methodology
in management science. Though action
research has been defined and discussed by many researchers, there are still controversies about
the implication of this research tool in
academic world
. This article highlighted some important
points about action rese
arch, and provides an overview of this research method for showing its
potential as a research technique along with the history, meaning and features of action research.
It has been argued by the earlier researchers that failure of conventional research me
thodology in
solving organisational problems produces gap between „theory‟ and „practice‟, which can be
bridged with the help of action research technique, that action research can be focused on the
collaboration to bring change and solve problems in organ
isations. About the validity of action
research, some epistemological points of view has been discussed. In this article, the researchers
argued that although action research can help to overcome the gap between „theory‟ and
„practice‟, it could be a diff
icult task for any researcher to achieve.
Key Words:
Action research, participation, organisation, social science, social
action
Dr. Saeed Akbar Lecturer, Liverpool Management School University of Liverpool E-mail: saeed@liv.ac.uk
*Dr. Monirul Alam Hossain Department of Accounting and MIS University of Hail P.O. Box 2440, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Tel: 966-6-5345382 (Residence) FAX: 966-6-531-0500 E-mail: monirulhossain@yahoo.com hossain@uoh.edu.sa
(Primary Draft Submitted for the presentation in the 30 th
European Accounting Association Conference (25 Th 27 th April, 2007), Lisbon, Portugal)
Draft: October, 2009
(*Correspondence to be made to the Second Author)
Action Research: A Remedy to Overcome the Gap between 'Theory' and 'Practice'
Abstract
Action research is an important research methodology in management science. Though action research has been defined and discussed by many researchers, there are still controversies about the implication of this research tool in academic world. This article highlighted some important points about action research, and provides an overview of this research method for showing its potential as a research technique along with the history, meaning and features of action research. It has been argued by the earlier researchers that failure of conventional research methodology in solving organisational problems produces gap between theory and practice, which can be bridged with the help of action research technique, that action research can be focused on the collaboration to bring change and solve problems in organisations. About the validity of action research, some epistemological points of view has been discussed. In this article, the researchers argued that although action research can help to overcome the gap between theory and practice, it could be a difficult task for any researcher to achieve.
Key Words: Action research, participation, organisation, social science, social action
Action Research: A Remedy to Overcome the Gap between Theory and Practice
INTRODUCTION Action research is an important research methodology in social science which has evolved over the last six decades. Many organisational scientists are increasingly raising question regarding the most fundamental assumption underlying their research activities. This appraisal of purposes, methods and epistemologies of organisational science is evident in action research. The users of action research demands a research process that is relevant for both the practitioner who is struggling with a set of problems, as well as for the scholar whose purpose is to contribute in advancement of our current knowledge in management research.
Action research may be an effective research tool providing opportunity to make social sciences applicable to the organisational life. Therefore, the nature of action research has been discussed in a broader context in many countries and it has been argued that if organisational issues are considered as social problems, action research can prove to be an effective research method. The proponents of action research have claimed that action research can overcome the problematic relationship between theory and practice.
This article provides an overview of the method to show its potential as a research technique in management research along with the history, meaning and features of action research. The researchers have shed light on this issue and have presented the views of some researchers in relation to action research. In order to clarify the issue, some epistemological point of view about action research have been discussed. Finally, the usefulness of action research as a method to bridge the gap between theory and practice has been examined.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ACTION RESEARCH Action research has the twin aims of practical guidance to people faced with immediate problems and contributing to the goals of social science (Rapoport, 1970). In its attempt to focus on practical problems of organisations and people, action research has been concerned with developing new ways of bringing change and to promote learning to ensure that the change process is sustainable. In management research Lewin is generally regarded as the first who have made conscious use of the expression action research in the 1940s (Lewin, 1946 and 1947). He produced action research as a mode of social research that intended to overcome some of the shortcomings of positivism. He combined action and research by arguing that a social situation may be best understood if a change could be introduced into it and its effects are observable.
After the work of Lewin (1946 and 1947), subsequent researchers like Argris and Schon (1989), Baburoglu and Ravn (1992), Coch and French (1948), Cock (1994), Cook (1949), Rice (1955), Emery and Trist (1972), Emery and Thorsud (1976), Elden and Chisholm (1993), Gill (1982), Gill and Johnson (1991), Greenwood, Whyte, and Harkavy (1993), Karapin (1986), Palmar and Jacobson (1971), Petter and Robbinson (1984), Rapoport (1970), Rice (1955), Shani and Bush (1987), Shani and Pasmore (1985), Sommer (1987), Susman and Evered (1978), Walton and Graffiney and Wilson, Trist and Cule (1952) have made contribution in the area, among others. MEANING OF ACTION RESEARCH According to Lewin (1947), the main feature of action research is to lead some kind of action and research, on the effects of that action by understanding the dynamic nature of change and studying it under controlled condition as it took place. However, he never provided a comprehensive definition of the action research. The question thus remains whether Lewin (1947) was only describing a new applied research strategy or wanted to propose a new epistemological basis for social research. According to Palmer and Jacobson (1971), action research is a way of using research to further social action in which "numbers of people can be organised around tasks of defining problems and finding facts in such a way that the research itself becomes a part of empowerment and action" (Palmer and Jacobson, 1971). As observed by Cook, " a basic hypothesis of action research is that a self survey is more likely than a survey conducted by outsiders to result in changes in the social practices of the group surveyed". (Cook, 1949) It has been argued that very few researchers have actually picked up the epistemological issue and tried to link the action research mode of enquiry to a particular interpretation of social science (Peters and Robinson, 1984). The most widely used definition of action research in management context is that of Rapoport (1970). As observed by Rapoport: "Action Research aims to contribute both to the practical concerns of people in an immediate problematic situation and to the goals of social science by joint collaboration within a mutually acceptable ethical framework". (Rapoport, 1970).
The above definition given by Rapoport is characterised by (a) the immediacy of researcher's involvement in action, and (b) the action of both parties (researcher on consultant and client organisation) to be involved in change.
From the above definition we can easily imagine that action research aims to solve practical problems and at the same time contribute to knowledge. Thus, we are in a position to say that action research is of higher utility because it is able to bridge the gap between theory and practice. The definition made by Rapoport (1970) essentially focused on the concept of collaboration and the aims of action research. In addition to the two aims of action research highlighted by Rapoport (1970), Susman and Evered (1978) have added a third aim of action research, that is to develop the self help competencies of people facing problems. Interestingly, with the addition of this third aim the definition has characterised contemporary action research more precisely.
The practice of action research can be said to be a cyclical inquiry process which helps to identify the problem, to plan for action executing the action plan and to evaluate the results there off. However, it can be argued here that evaluation may lead to another cycle of the above activities. In this cyclical inquiry process the researcher and the client works in close collaboration. Put it in the other way, in action research, the research "subjects" have an active part like co-researchers.
The methodology of action research is somewhat different from other research methods where the research "subjects" do not participate in the research process in the sense of having a say in the process. As we have already mentioned two of the main aims of action research are to solve real organisational problems, and to develop self help competencies in organisational members, hence those who experience or "own" the real problems must be actively involved in the action research. In fact, it is the organisational member who have the specific knowledge of the problems, who must finally live with the changes made, so it is necessary that the organisation must be directly involved.
The entire process of collaboration and co-enquiry take place at each stage of the action research process (Gill and Johnson, 1991). Even though different action research projects may have either the client or the researcher taking the initiative or regulating at any one stage, collaboration and co-inquiry is accomplished when there is a mutual agreement at each stage of the action research sequence. It is only through this way that real problems are clearly identified, the action plan implemented the way it is intended, valid data collected, the effectiveness of the outcome correctly evaluated, and self-determination capabilities developed. If developing self-help competencies is a goal, then the organisational members must learn how to make sense of their own data in terms of their own language and in relation to their own perception and values (Elden and Chisholm, 1993). Hence, we can say that their direct involvement is crucial.
It is evident from the above discussion that action research has a unique nature in the sense that the action researcher becomes involved first hand in action research. It is an essential pre- condition for any action research that the action researcher must develop close relationships with the organisational members and must thoroughly understood the organisational system beforehand. Shani and Pasmore (1985) have argued that it is only through intimate first hand knowledge that the researcher can make appropriate suggestions which provide the foundation for a better understanding for the findings of his evaluation. In action research, the first hand role of the researcher essentially enhances the collaborative type of element in it. It is the first hand role behaviour such as empathetic understanding, taking the role of the other and non- directive interviewing that are the key elements of success of the action research method (Gill and Johnson, 1991).
It may be very useful and relevant at this stage to focus on a study of action research approached by Robert Sommer (1987). Sommer has found the evidence that action research approach have more favourable results than other approaches in the social sciences. In this study, the surveys were undertaken in collaboration with a statewide federation of fourteen memorial societies. Four memorial/co-operative societies were selected for the study, two in the northern portion and two in the southern portion. For two societies, an action research methodology was used whereby the societies participated in the survey planning and received both prescriptive results and technical assistance from the researchers. The other two societies did not participate in planning and received only descriptive results. Follow up interviews with the societies officers provided evidence that those societies highly involved in the survey planning and received technical assistance disseminated and used the results more often, and had more favourable attitudes towards the researchers than did those societies characterised by low involvement or no assistance. The researcher found these results supported the efficacy of an action research approach combining self-survey with technical assistance. DISTINGUISHING FEATURES OF ACTION RESEARCH In order to identify the distinguishing features of action research, several attempts have been made by many researchers who have analysed the work of action researchers from the view point of conventional types of social research. Lewin (1947) and subsequent researchers have conceived 'action research' as a cyclical inquiry process that involves diagnosing a problem situation, planning action steps and implementing and evaluating outcome. Peter and Robinson (1984) while analysing relevant action research found that the shared features of action research are (a) problem focus, (b) action orientation, (c) cyclical process, and (d) collaboration/participation. Susman and Evered (1978) describes the essential characteristics of action research as (a) future oriented, (b) collaborative, (c) contributing to system development, (d) diagnostic, and (e) situational.
In their review of relevant literature, Shani and Bushe (1987) highlighted four key emergent processes as the salient features of an action research such as (a) the emerging socio-task system, (b) the co-inquiry process, (c) the integration process, and (d) experimentation process. On the other hand, Elden and Chisholm (1993) analysed five contemporary action research cases, and identified (a) contextual focus, (b) purposes and value choice, (c) change base, (d) participation, and (e) knowledge diffusion, as the five shared features of action research.
From the different views held by different researchers, it can be emphasised that their thought are not unanimous in their definition of action research and particularly in their methodological approaches. Nonetheless, all these stand as one when they show that the central features of action research are collaboration and achievements of its three aims solely through problem focus. As action research focuses on problems, Susman and Evered (1978) held the opinion that it takes on an approach that is concerned with the development of action principles or guides that evaluate actions within organisational contexts. It was further argued by them that action research " facilitates the developments of 'practices' which provide the action researcher with know-how such as how to act in un-prescribed non programmed situations, how to generate organisational self-help , how to establish action guides where none exist, how to review, revise, redefine the system of which we are part, how to formulate fruitful metaphors, constructs, and images for articulating a more desirable future".
(Susman and Evered, 1978) In addition, the unique feature of action research is that essentially it provides different kind of epistemological base which helps in achieving its goals in contributing to our knowledge, solving real problems and enabling organisations to develop self-help competencies (Susman and Evered, 1978).
THE GAP BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE The main thrust in this section is to what extent action research can help to overcome the gap between 'theory' and 'practice'. For the solution of organisational problems, conventional research has generally failed to assist managers which is called the theory-practice gap. It may be argued that conventional methods of social research can be criticised as theory focused and hence, it has a very little value to managers as well as practitioners. Then a question normally arises why? Thomas (1993) has made a valuable discussion on this issue, and has mentioned that there are three areas where this lack of integration is visible.
The first point raised by Thomas (1993) is the lack of integration between various social science disciplines like sociology, psychology, and economics with their different terminologies, theories and research methods, no wonder they find it difficult to communicate across disciplinary boundaries. This becomes particularly tangible when we look at the curriculum for management programmes. On the one hand, subjects like organisational behaviour draw heavily from the theories of psychology and sociology, and on the other hand, subjects like finance and accounting rely heavily on the theoretical foundations of econometrics, economics, mathematics, and operational research, and it is not unusual to find, would be managers specialising in one or few functional areas as many a time paying very inadequate attention to particular disciplines. This continues on their jobs as well, because of higher level of specialisation involved in the nature of jobs. Thomas (1993) has made it clear that why most of the time managers question the utility of social science in practice.
The second point raised by Thomas (1993) is that the problem faced by managers and the problem addressed by social scientists do not match. In the third point Thomas (1993) argues that there is a lack of social integration between social scientists and managers. The requirements of social scientists and managers are different. Social scientists live in their academic world with different career interests and have got preferences for making contributions to knowledge, while managers live in the world of business and industry with different career interests and desires. In spite of this, managers are facing the pressure of competition in the fast growing modern business and industry world, and sometimes short perspective of the situation.
In practice, these the above mentioned difficulties are responsible for limited acceptance and utilisation of social sciences. However, action research approach provides the opportunity to overcome these difficulties for the client organisation, as s/he works closely with the client. Due to its participatory nature and directly addressing the organisational problems, action research has the potential to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Through action research approach, action researcher has to keep his or her academic goals in mind as well as to do something useful.
According to Susman and Evered (1978), as a social science, the aim of action research is not formulation of universal laws, but to focus situation specific insights. The action researcher intervenes the problem situation for improving the self-help action taking competencies of the individuals as well as to facilitate learning at the level of the organisation. The purpose of action research is to advance theories about the new organisation and the range process that produced it (Walten and Gaffney, 1989).
Baburgo and Ravn (1992) has criticises action research on the ground that the relation between practical knowledge and scientific knowledge produced through action research is not clear. It is very difficult to say whether action research is a synthesis of action and research or a mere juxtaposition of action and research. These researchers provided a new concept of scientific organisational knowledge which can be produced through what they called 'normative action research'. They introduced three closely related normative planning approaches, which they argue may serve as a new basis for scientific knowledge of organisational research. These three approaches are (a) the concepts of 'active adaptive planning' proposed by Emery and Trist (1972); (b) 'normative planning' proposed by Ozbekhan (1970); and (c) 'interactive planning' proposed by Ackoff (1975). These three approaches share that social action must be guided by an imagined, desirable future rather than by a fragmented problematic present alone. These approaches are quite different from conventional planning approaches in which the future is mere extension and extrapolating of present and past.
Normative planning process takes the future as the starting point. It encourages the stakeholders of the system to question the self-imposed constraints and assumptions as well as transcend the conventional definitions of what is possible and realistic and engage in creating more desirable state of affairs. The question is what has normative planning approaches with explicit futures orientation got to do with action research? This question have been answered by Susman and Evered (1978) as follows: "Action Research is future oriented. In dealing with practical concerns of the people, action research is oriented toward creating a more desirable future for them. Human beings are therefore recognised as purposeful systems the actions of which are guided by goals, objectives and ideas. Being future oriented, action research has close affinities to the planning process, so that planning research may be potentially useful in informing action research and vice versa". (Susman and Evered, 1978)
From the above discussion, it is evident that action research possesses some unique properties to bridge the gap between theory and practice. We have identified certain reasons for theory practice gap and if each one is evaluated against the properties of action research, one may be able to determine the extent to which it can overcome the theory-practice gap.
EPISTEMOLOGICAL POINT OF VIEW ABOUT ACTION RESEARCH It has been argued by several researchers that from the epistemological point of view action research is not scientific, which is a clear contradiction of the principles of positivism and empiricism (Schon, 1983; Elden and Chisholm, 1993; and Susman and Evered, 1978). If social science is to be held by the principles of positivism, then action research cannot contribute to knowledge and thus will be incapable to achieve one of its aims. If action research can be accepted as a kind of science with a different epistemological base, that is capable of producing a kind of knowledge which is contingent in the particular situation, and which develops the capacity of members of the organisation to solve their own problems (Susman and Evered, 1978) then action research is acceptable to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
Whereas, Karapin (1986) argued that "it is less certain that social science researchers actually use positivists methodologies in their work", Elden and Chisholm (1993) supported the view of Susman and Evered (1978) when they defined action research as an enabling science. Further, since action research is based on change, there is no other science that can better study change which is a continuous and unpredictable phenomenon in an organisation. Apart from this, social science has failed to address whole practical problems. Action research attempts to enhance knowledge that is grounded on the real world problems, and real problems are not grounded on a single discipline. As such the emphasis is on getting the manager to define the problem, agree on an appropriate framework, decide and implement a change strategy to make himself reliant. In order to do so, it is important that one should be able to view the problem from the angle of the various disciplines. Participative and collaborative work promotes this and hence, action research does help to overcome the gap between theory and practice.
Another problem is the 'interesting study acceptable to the specific community' which expects to exist until the concept of 'practice generates theory' becomes acceptable to the social scientists. Finally, there is a lack of social integration between social scientists and managers, which seems to continue for an equally long time. The soothing point is that collaboration in action research forces mental agreement and mutual education at every stage of the process between the social scientists and the managers. This has greatly enhanced communication between the two and promotes the bridging between theory practice gap.
It may be emphasised here that collaboration is not an easily achievable phenomenon as many factors can hinder such collaborations. Ethical issues may arise, one may attempt to control the other, change being a new experience may cause partnerships to fall apart, and the social scientists and the managers has always set different priorities to the two main aims of action research. In such a situation, one may argue that though action research may help to overcome the gap between the theory and practice, it may be a difficult process to achieve.
CONCLUSIONS In essence, action research focuses on the collaboration to bring change in an organisation and to solve real problems faced by organisation. Organisations are always in a dynamic state with an ever-changing environment to their problems. Hence, the most significant contribution of action research is not to solve an immediate problem, but to facilitate the development of self-help competencies so that the organisational members are able to continue the cyclical process of action research even after the social scientists has left the scene. This would be the greatest contribution the social scientists can make to bridge the theory practice gap.
All organisations have important problems to solve and opportunities for significant improvements. The task of action researcher is to refine and improve the generalisability of the theory, which encourages others. Research opportunities have been made available to researcher, which would probably not, otherwise, have come to light. Professionals have been able to work with academic researchers and vice versa with the objective of, mutually, satisfying their goals.
The action research methodology is particularly helpful when the certainties of the past and the present cannot be assumed to hold true for the future, and searching for causal links in the past may shed light on the reality of the future. Despite various stages of action research which evolve working closely with the client system, the researcher has to try and keep his/her academic goals in mind as well as deliver something useful to the client system. Although the action researcher faces some dilemmas, it is not an unusual issue in social science research only; it is there in the natural science as well. Looking at the potential of action research to reduce the gap between knowledge and action, the dilemmas needs to be faced and action research needs to be encouraged. As a matter of fact there is a need for a bridge to link the knowledge producing action research and the application of that knowledge. Action research methodology can be that bridge, perhaps standing on epistemological pillars which is different from those supporting the positivist methodologies.
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