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While action research is well-established in the field of organization development and change (ODC) its profile in human resource development (HRD) is less visible. Even less visible within HRD are accounts of how action research is conducted within organizations by their managers and other members who adopt it as an approach to managing change and other organizational challenges. In order to share thoughts and ideas on doing action research we draw from academic knowledge as well as experience integrating theory and practice, from being engaged in designing, delivering, assessing and improving group and individual activities to support ongoing learning and development. In this guest editorial, we introduce insider action research and its potential for HRD research and offer views from professional and personal experience, analysis, thoughts and speculations about how action research is important and useful for HRD and how those who use and benefit from doing it may be able to be encouraged to more widely share case studies and to write up insider action research projects for publication.

In this reflection I explore how Ed Schein's philosophy of being a scholar-practitioner is expressed through interiority. By interiority is meant a quality of attentiveness to one's cognitive processes (data of consciousness) while attending to data of sense (what one is seeing and hearing). Throughout his writings Schein explicitly accesses his experience, his questions, his understanding, and his coming to know and judging how to act. This reflection is offered both to celebrate Ed's scholarship of practice and to stimulate reflection on how scholar-practitioners may engage in their craft.

PurposeThe article brings the quality characteristics of action research to project management and explores how these quality characteristics of well-designed and executed action research can inform and enhance the practice of project management.Design/methodology/approachA reflective paper.FindingsThe article identifies five imperatives in bringing together action research and project management. The authors argue that project management may be conducted in a manner that is rigorous, reflective and relevant.Research limitations/implicationsThe integration of project management and action research is not empirically described. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test and further develop the model in relation to the design and management of projects.Practical implicationsPractical questions are posed for implementation.Social implicationsThe integration of action research and project management is a collaborative venture and the engagement imperative emphasizes that collaboration.Originality/valueBy bringing together action research and project management the article integrates five imperatives: design, engagement, improvement, action and research and quality characteristics of action research to enhance project management as rigorous, reflective and relevant.

Published accounts of action research studies in healthcare frequently underreport the quality of the action research. These studies often lack the specificity and details needed to demonstrate the rationale for the selection of an action research approach and how the authors perceive the respective study to have met action research quality criteria. This lack contributes to a perception among academics, research funding agencies, clinicians and policy makers, that action research is ‘second class’ research. This article addresses the challenge of this perception by offering a bespoke checklist called a Quality Action Research Checklist (QuARC) for reporting action research studies and is based on a quality framework first published in this journal. This checklist, comprising four factors - context, quality of relationships, quality of the action research process itself and the dual outcomes, aims to encourage researchers to provide complete and transparent reporting and indirectly improve the rigor and quality of action research. In addition, the benefit of using a checklist and the challenges inherent in such application are also discussed.

The act of theorising turns the attention from the outcome of theory generation to the act of theory generation itself. Revans' systems alpha, beta and gamma provide a foundational action theory that grounds the theorising process in action learning. This is the core of theorising in the praxeology of action learning as creating practical theory or actionable knowledge that makes Accounts of Practice more than merely interesting stories. This article explores how the process of writing an Account of Practice can also be seen as a process of theorising, articulating the kind of knowledge created from what is learned in and through action.

In this essay, we are arguing that the field of organizational change and development is positioned to face the challenges of researching change and changing for the next decade and beyond. The core values in the field—that researching change and enacting changing are collaborative ventures undertaken in the present tense where the outcome is actionable knowledge, and that it serves the practical ends of organizations and generates the knowledge of how organizations change—are of utmost relevant for the emerging workplace and organizations. Through differentiated consciousness interiority challenges the polarizations that beset the field (between science and practice) and provides an integrative process focused on the operations of human knowing.

This paper examines power dynamics and political challenges which an insider action researcher without line authority or formal power encountered while leading cross-functional New Service Development (NSD) initiatives in a traditional, publicly funded university. NSD, as any development activity, faces competing interests in organisations and often power dynamics and political tactics which may impede service actors’ development endeavours. The paper describes and reflects on how an insider action researcher together with service staff, managers and directors, conducted several different types of NSD initiatives. The paper draws on insider action research (IAR) principles, which engage theory with practice, and action with reflection. The study was carried out over an extended time period of almost three years. The paper concludes with a framework for addressing power dynamics and political action, identifying tactics available to service development actors when engaging in NSD.

This article describes how, the authors, as members of an action research writing group, responded to a comment about feeling vulnerable in risking bringing their work-in-progress to the group and in giving feedback to colleagues by adopting a cooperative inquiry approach to explore vulnerability and risk in the group. In cooperative inquiry group members act as both co-researcher and co-subject in the inquiry and action. The article describes the evolution of the group and how the topic of exploring risk and vulnerability emerged. The group’s exploration is grounded in the theory and practice of cooperative inquiry that gives voice to the group members questioning and reflecting. The article concludes by offering three propositions to enhance the work of writing groups.

This article explores how P (programmed learning) in Revans’ formula L=P + Q accumulates from one action learning research initiative to another. Drawing on three inter-organizational action learni...

In the context of tourism and hospitality studies, the potential of action research for generating robust actionable knowledge has not been yet realized. This chapter provides an account of the theory and practice of action research, demonstrates how it may be designed and implemented, and how it may generate actionable knowledge. It provides illustrative examples and shows how this research approach aligns effectively with some of the themes that currently engage the attention of researchers in the fields of tourism and hospitality such as process improvement, sustainability, and community-based tourism development. Thus, it makes a case for more widespread use of action research in the field.

Action research has long adopted an integrative approach to research as incorporating three inquiries and voices: the first-person voice of individuals inquiring into their own thinking and learning, the second- person inquiry into the collaborative engagements between the actors as co-researchers and the third-person contribution to knowledge for a wider audience. Third-person theory seeks to integrate among the first- and second-person practices, linking the subjective dynamics of action and inquiry (within the first-person), the intersubjective collaborative dynamics of action and inquiry (between second-persons engaged with one another) and the outcome of actionable knowledge (among a collection of third-persons-and-things at a distance from and often anonymous-to-one another). Drawing on Peirce’s articulation of abductive reasoning this article explores how abductive reasoning serves as the integrating mechanism between first-, second- and third-person practice and informs both the theory of how theory is generated through first- and second-person practices.

This article explores Edgar Schein’s sociopsychological model of change by relating Schein’s reflections on how he derived it from and extended Lewin’s model and how it informs contemporary change theory. Schein’s accounts of how he created his change model provides something of a mirror into his process of theorizing. The aim of this article is to reflect on Schein’s change model as to how he created and understands his formulation of his change model, with a view to drawing lessons for practices of creating models or theorizing in the field of organization development and change.

Contemplation has been defined as "taking a long loving look at the real." In the realm of the scholarship of nursing and midwifery, the pulls and counterpulls between disease and illness and between patient and person, for example, require that scholars and practitioners develop an understanding of the way their minds work and of the way they come to know. This dialogue takes a (short) loving look at the foundations of spirituality and spiritual development in human consciousness and invites readers to contemplate and appreciate their lives as scholars and practitioners.

This article explores how abductive reasoning is central to Mode 2 organization development and change (ODC) research, despite the rarity with which it is made explicit. It differentiates between Peirce’s notions of deduction, induction, and abduction in the field of ODC and explores how Mode 2 ODC research, particularly that involving collaboration between academics and practitioners, draws on abductive reasoning. It is when confronted with an array of puzzling and paradoxical data that insights constitute abductive reasoning, a fundamental element in both the production of knowledge and the development of successful organizational interventions.

Since 1984, the European Union (EU) has supported research and development activities covering almost all scientific disciplines through a series of multi-annual Framework Programmes. The current programme is Horizon 2020. Common across the key indicators of research project performance have been actions by companies, including introduce and test innovations new to the company or the market. Initiatives to achieve these objectives require researchers to generate transdisciplinary knowledge in partnership with practitioners as co-researchers. This paper reflects on the authors’ experience of engaging in five EU-funded complex applied research projects over 20 years. The paper locates the process of the five projects in network action learning and Mode 2 knowledge production. It offers a theoretical framework expressed in three hypotheses to guide those who design and implement projects, those who approve and provide funding, and those who exploit and build upon the resulting research.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to severe disruption of healthcare systems and elective planned care.1 While pandemics are infrequent, the disruption of elective care by acute respiratory viral infections is an annual occurrence, including administration of oral food challenges (OFCs) to children with suspected allergy. A major barrier to performing OFCs outside tertiary centres is the risk of adverse events including anaphylaxis.2 3 We recently reported a large series of food challenges in a COVID-19 stepdown facility,4 and here we describe our process of managing anaphylaxis in this setting. Five regional paediatric allergy clinics across Ireland jointly used a vacant COVID-19 field hospital over 6 weeks. OFCs were performed within a pod system, with each pod containing up to six patients (figure 1). Resuscitation protocols and equipment trolleys were identical to those in hospital. For anticipated anaphylaxis events, patient journey was mapped …

Background Internationally, the COVID‐19 pandemic severely curtailed access to hospital facilities for those awaiting elective/semi‐elective procedures. For allergic children in Ireland, already waiting up to 4 years for an elective oral food challenge (OFC), the restrictions signified indefinite delay. At the time of the initiative, there were approx 900 children on the Children's Health Ireland (CHI) waiting list. In July 2020, a project was facilitated by short‐term (6 weeks) access to an empty COVID stepdown facility built, in a hotel conference centre, commandeered by the Health Service Executive (HSE), Ireland. The aim of this study was to achieve the rapid roll‐out of an offsite OFC service, delivering high throughput of long waiting patients, while aligning with existing hospital policies and quality standards, international allergy guidelines and national social distancing standards. Methods The working group engaged key stakeholders to rapidly develop an offsite OFC facility. Consultant paediatric allergists, consultant paediatricians, trainees and allergy clinical nurse specialists were seconded from other duties. The facility was already equipped with hospital beds, bedside monitors (BP, pulse and oxygen saturation) and bedside oxygen. All medication and supplies had to be brought from the base hospital. Daily onsite consultant anaesthetic cover was resourced and a resuscitation room equipped. Standardized food challenge protocols were created. Access to the onsite hotel chef facilitated food preparation. A risk register was established. Results After 6 weeks of planning, the remote centre became operational on 7/9/2020, with the capacity of 27 OFC/day. 474 challenges were commenced: 465 (98%) were completed and 9 (2%) were inconclusive. 135 (29%) OFCs were positive, with 25 (5%) causing anaphylaxis. No child required advanced airway intervention. 8 children were transferred to the base hospital. The CHI allergy waiting list was reduced by almost 60% in only 24 days. Conclusions Oral food challenges remain a vital tool in the care of allergic children, with their cost saving and quality‐of‐life benefits negatively affected by a delay in their delivery. This project has shown it is possible to have huge impacts on a waiting list efficiently, effectively and safely with good planning and staff buy‐in—even in a pandemic. Adoption of new, flexible and efficient models of service delivery will be important for healthcare delivery in the post–COVID‐19 era.

Research is typically taught to undergraduates as an analytic activity with a focus on engaging with externalized data. Rarely are undergraduates taught to inquire into settings and situations where they are close to the data and implicated in the setting. Exploring Organizational Experiences is a final-year undergraduate business course that provides an alternative research paradigm that focuses on developing insider inquiry skills. Participants inquire critically into organizational dynamics from the perspective of being an insider-participant and practice a general empirical method that enables them to learn critical insider research skills.

Contemporary social science philosophy is bedevilled with debates about the nature of knowledge production. This article introduces the philosophical notion of interiority whereby, by focusing on t...

In the context of business and management, action research operates in the realm of strategies, practical tasks, and structured hierarchical organizational systems in diverse industries and across multiple business functions and disciplines. This article reflects on action research in generating actionable knowledge in this particular domain and shares the authors’ perspective on future developments. The reflection explores a small number of action research studies undertaken across multiple fields and disciplines in business and management and advances distinct common denominators that can guide further research and action and aid future reflection. Through the mode of interiority, readers are invited to engage in a similar reflection on their assumptions, questions, and insights in coming to judgement about the state of the field and its future.

While debates about the nature of ‘doctorateness’ are prevalent in higher education, what this might mean in the context of insider action research, where action research is undertaken by members of an organisation or community, has not received any attention. This article explores how an insider action research engagement in a thesis and core project generates a synergy between the actions, a deep discipline knowledge, competence in research through first, second and third person processes, and competence in presentation can serve as a foundation for doctorateness. The dissemination contributes to a community of practice and inquiry. Keywords: doctoral education; ‘doctorateness’, action research, insider action research, core and thesis projects, first, second and third person inquiry, communities of inquiry ----- Explorando el proceso de doctorado (doctorateness) en investigacion accion interna Resumen Mientras que los debates sobre el caracter de intensidad y calidad en estudios doctorales (referido como ‘doctorateness’) son frecuentes en la educacion superior, la investigacion de accion interna, que se lleva a cabo por los miembros de una organizacion o comunidad, no ha recibido mucha atencion. Este articulo explora como una investigacion de accion interna genera una sinergia entre las acciones, el conocimiento profundo de la disciplina, la competencia en la investigacion a traves de los procesos de primera, segunda y tercera persona, y la competencia en la presentacion, que sirve como base para el concepto de ‘doctorateness’. Las implicaciones de este articulo contribuyen a la practica en la industria y a la investigacion en el area de investigacion de accion interna. Palabras clave: educacion doctoral, doctorateness', investigacion accion, investigacion accion privilegiada, base de tesis proyectos y, primero, segundo y tercero de la investigacion, comunidades de investigacion ----- Bibliography: Coghlan, David/Coughlan, Paul/Shani, Abraham B.: Exploring Doctorateness in Insider Action Research, IJAR – International Journal of Action Research, 1-2019, pp. 47-61. https://doi.org/10.3224/ijar.v15i1.04

Drawing on insider research with a three-year EU network created to support innovation in geographically marginalized traditional food companies, this paper makes three contributions to discussions of innovation in small and micro-firms. First, we shift focus away from conceiving of knowledge as a discrete entity, and of knowledge sharing, transfer and exchange as the passing of objects. Applying a practice perspective that conceptualizes innovation as situated in the everyday activities of organizing, learning and working, we extend open innovation ideas and identify three distinct sets of knowledge-creating practices that small and micro-firm actors in this network context engage in as they interact: seek-and-take, peer exploration and critical reflection. Second, we integrate these practices into a model that suggests how different kinds of knowledge boundary (entitative, epistemic, pragmatic and existential) are differently traversed by these practices, with more complex boundaries benefitting from a practice approach. Third, we refine a practical approach for policy interventions designed to stimulate small and micro-firm innovation. The relevance of our contribution lies in the significance of small firms within peripheral economies, and the particular challenges they face in accessing new knowledge for innovation.

To mark Edgar H. Schein’s 90th birthday, a metalogue between him and David Coghlan took place to explore selected themes of their shared organization development scholarship. A metalogue is a reflective dialogue where the mode of conversation reflects the topic being explored. The themes explored are interiority, a philosophy of practical knowing, and inquiring in the present tense. The aim of the article is both celebratory and exploratory, with the latter seeking to offer readers insights from the metalogue on some core themes in the exercise of the applied behavioral science of organization development and to advance the notion of metalogue as an approach to shared inquiry.

Collaboration has become a common way for organizational actors to engage in problem solving and innovation. Yet shifting from strategic interactions (driven by reduction of transaction costs) to transformational interaction (driven by collaborative transorganizational development) appears to be difficult to achieve in practice in a network setting. This article argues that such a shift can be enhanced by adopting an action learning approach, which entails working on real-life problems without clear solutions and collectively working to resolve them. Based on an action learning research process, this article therefore explores ways to support collective knowledge creation within an interorganizational network setting. It provides rich illustrations of how the interactions in the network changed through the process, and the participants moved from a space of territorial protection to a space for collaborative exploration. From this case, the article outlines a model for learning in interorganizational networks and discusses related challenges.

This article explores how Revan’s praxeology and learning formula act as the foundation for the authors’ enactment of the scholarship of their teaching practice. Linking to accreditation re...

Purpose Doctoral education (DE) is central to the development and application of operations management (OM) thinking. The European Doctoral Educational Network (EDEN) seminar on research methodology in OM is a structured initiative developed in 1999 by European Operations Management Association (EurOMA) and European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM). This intensive five-day seminar has run annually since and, to date, has engaged 486 students. The purpose of this paper is to ask: what role has the OM EDEN seminar played in the formation and academic career development of doctoral researchers, and how has it contributed to the development of EurOMA as a community of practice? Design/methodology/approach The authors developed a retrospective case on the design, launch and growth of the OM EDEN seminar employing two data gathering methods (collecting secondary and archival data, and a survey of four selected seminar participants) and a social network analysis. Findings The EDEN seminar is an effective educational intervention in developing doctoral researchers and their subsequent academic careers. The seminar has also contributed to EurOMA as a community of practice, bringing faculty together to teach, write and publish leading edge contributions in research methods for OM. Research limitations/implications The case is focused on the OM EDEN seminar only, within which the survey is limited to four of the early participants. While another set of participants might respond differently in detail, the authors’ expectation is that participant perception of the role of the seminar would not change. The paper provides an exemplar for European academic associations to guide how they might explore the formation and academic career development of doctoral candidates within a community of practice. Practical implications The seminar merits the ongoing support of EurOMA and EIASM, not just in educating doctoral students but also in bringing faculty together to publish leading edge contributions to the OM domain. Social implications The paper draws on the areas of student formation, academic career development and communities of practice to illustrate the role played by the OM EDEN seminar. Originality/value This paper is the first description, analysis and reflection on the role played by the OM EDEN seminar.

In this article, we pose two questions. What is the process of valuing in the structure of human knowing? And, how might individual values become collective values in the context of educational act...