Reflecting on how action research enables theorising in operations management: a provocation to interiority

Abstract

This reflection on action research in operations management explores some undeveloped themes: the place of meaning in the social science of OM and how quality may be assessed, how knowledge/theory is developed and how action research in OM creates impact. The case is made that action researchers’ interiority as attentiveness to data of consciousness and to data of sense as they enact the cycles of action and reflection through the meta learning cycle is undeveloped in OM research and is central to cogenerating practical knowledge and grounding the impact of their work.