Fostering Undergraduate Research Through Insider Inquiry: Exploiting Student Work Experiences

Abstract

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.