Insider Action Research Articles

Finding the sweet spot for insider action research

ABSTRACT This paper, delivered as a provocative keynote address to the Collaborative Action Research Network (CARN) conference in Manchester on 28th October 2023, explores the question if action research might have a sweet spot. A sweet spot is defined as an ideal location, area or combination of factors for a particular activity or purpose. It draws on the work of Edgar Schein who has argued that the essence of understanding and working with human systems is to focus on the process of how we relate rather than the structure of the relationship. Schein distinguished different levels of relationship and his framing of humble inquiry as a disposition and a skill – a disposition of accessing one’s ignorance in a given setting and a skill of collaborative conversation. The paper proposes that how collaborative relationships that are built, developed and sustained in action research through humble inquiry constitute its sweet spot.

Insider action research in palliative care – the challenges of implementing digital health in a hospice organisation in the UK

This paper describes the first-person experience of being a medical consultant and novice action researcher in a UK hospice setting. A new digital IT system resulted in unexpected changes to productivity. An action research methodology using cycles of co-operative inquiry with hospice staff was chosen to investigate. The new technology caused fears among hospice nurses that the authenticity of the hospice ethos would be lost. The hospice staff were concerned about the loss of their role and identity. Action cycles were used to positively transform the hospice nursing structure and admission process

Promoting Insider Action Research: A Practitioner-Scholar Perspective

This paper aims to identify possible actions universities can undertake to promote Insider Action Research (IAR) in a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program. DBA programs are an ideal setting for senior managers with intellectual curiosity willing to bridge the gap between academia and industry. These practitioner-scholars can benefit from using IAR, a methodology that fosters rigorous knowledge creation and practical relevance of management research conducted within the researcher’s own company or industry. We conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with a sample of senior executives enrolled in a DBA program at a Spanish university. This sample gave us an ex-ante perspective of practitioner-scholar perceptions of the methodology’s suitability and the four challenges to IAR identified in the extant literature (pre-understanding, role duality, managing ethics and politics, and community of inquiry). Based on the insights derived from these interviews, this paper proposes a series of actions universities can undertake to promote IAR in the context of a DBA, organized around three axes: education and training, the role of the dissertation advisor and other faculty, and communication. In this manner, we contribute to closing the gap between industry and academia. We also provide empirical evidence, analysis, and nuances of the interviewee’s perceptions of the abovementioned challenges.

Values-based Transformative Games: From the Physical to the Digital

In the context of game-based learning, learning is often limited to basic literacies such as math and reading, even though several educational institutions acknowledge the importance of Values education. In this paper, we discuss how to bring values into a game. We discuss the design and implementation of a customisable version of the popular board game, Snakes and Ladders to teach values to the young (ages 0-8). Values refer to “a centrally held, enduring belief which guides actions and judgements across specific situations…”. This implies that there is an inherent element of choice or decision-making in demonstrating one’s values. We discuss the process of adapting the Snakes and Ladders board game to a physical artefact by applying a Values-based Transformative Games Design Model, and further digitizing the artefact to make it more accessible. A prototype of the digital artefact is presented to demonstrate the concept. The Insider Action Game Design Research methodology is applied to create a physical artefact given the researcher’s involvement in volunteer work on values-based education for the young. The findings of this research are of immediate benefit to those wishing to introduce a digitized version of a simple and popular board game to teach values to young children. The values-based questions used in the game are easy to adapt so the game has the potential to be extended to various other basic literacies, as well as different types of values such as sustainability and cultural values. The Values-based Transformative Games design model can also be adapted and improved with further research.

Guiding Digital Transformation and Collaborative Knowledge Creation in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Through Action Research

Digital transformation initiatives in supply chain require a sector-level approach, involving multiple stakeholders. This implies the development of new models for successful implementation that move beyond the dyadic relationship level and that fosters collaboration mechanisms in multi-stakeholder and multi-level systems. This study applies an insider action research approach to the implementation of the EU system for product traceability in the pharmaceutical supply chain, the EU falsified medicines directive, focusing on stakeholder orientation's alignment. The study identifies how to overcome obstacles to the effective governance of multi-stakeholder digital transformation in supply chains. It proposes new pre-cycle and monitoring mechanisms to use in AR, highlighting the importance of formal structures to foster informal governance and relationships among different stakeholders and introducing the notion of deliberative capacity. Practical implications for managers of companies and organizations at different levels of the supply chain are discussed, illustrating the practical outcomes of the pan-European project.

Developing the practice of scholarship: The case of insider action research

In this address I will recount and explore the development of my framework of insider action research as an exercise in developing a theoretical framework.[1] Beginning from a practical dilemma in a seminar room and subsequent shared inquiry to the publication of a framework in five editions of a successful book, numerous articles and book chapters which have formed the basis of multiple doctoral and masters dissertations, I will ground my story in the process of interiority. I will use the address as an invitation for the conference participants to engage in the same process for themselves. [1] This article is a development of a keynote address to the International Conference on Action Research (ICAR 2022), delivered online on 5th September 2022.

Editorial

Editorial

Insider Action Research for Human Resource Development

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.

Fostering insights and improvements from IIoT systems at the shop floor: a case of industry 4.0 and lean complementarity enabled by action learning

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate how manufacturers can foster insights and improvements from real-time data among shop-floor workers by developing organisational “learning-to-learn” capabilities based on both the lean- and action learning principle of learning through problem-solving. Second, the purpose is to extrapolate findings on how action learning can enable the complementarity between lean and industry 4.0.Design/methodology/approachAn insider action research approach is adopted to investigate how manufacturers can enable their shop-floor workers to foster insights and improvements from real-time data at VELUX.FindingsThe findings report that enabling shop-floor workers to use real-time data consist of developing three consecutive organisational building blocks of learning-to-learn, learning-to-learn using real-time data and learning-to-learn generating real-time data − and helping others to learn (to learn).Originality/valueFirst, the study contributes to theory and practice by demonstrating that a learning-to-learn capability is a core construct for manufacturers seeking to enable shop-floor workers to use real-time data-capturing systems to drive improvement. Second, the study outlines how lean and industry 4.0 complementarity can be enabled by action learning. Moreover, the study allows us to deduce six necessary conditions for enabling shop-floor workers to foster insights and improvements from real-time data.

The limits of spatial data? Sense-making within the development and different uses of Finnish urban-rural classification

In order to formulate relevant understanding of key sustainability challenges, evidence-based decision-making relies on comprehensive data. While the complexity of producing and processing spatial data and the potential for biases are well recognised, the social process of making sense of data and its implications for societal uses is less analysed. In this article, insights of critical data studies are applied to study the production of, as well as uses and misuses of, the Finnish urban-rural classification. The classification structures Finland into three urban classes and four rural classes and offers an alternative to classifications that utilise administrative, municipal, and regional boundaries. The classification acts as a boundary object, functioning as a common reference for parties with varying information needs and interests. Using document analysis, as well as an insider action research methodology and our own experiences as data producers, this article aims to understand the processes of sense-making of data in the context of urban-rural classification and identify ways of improving related information systems and data practices. Intended and realised uses of the classification are analysed in order to identify different ways in which data producers and users make sense of data and justify the utilisation of the classification. The process of sense-making starts from the planning of data production and shapes how data and eventually information system are formulated throughout the data cycle. Communication about the limitations of the classification remains an issue and highlights the nature of sense-making as a collective process wherein users are actively shaping data practices as they translate information systems into their own contexts. This also draws attention to the nature of information systems as inherently unneutral, inevitably affected by negotiations shaped by the various information needs.

Ledelsesudvikling i et samskabende aktionsforskningsprojekt

Based on the paradigm of social constructionism, this study includes a team of nine leaders who are involved as co-researchers in a narratively inspired action research project, with the aim of co-creating new opportunities within the notion of relational leading (Cunliffe and Eriksen 2011; Hersted and Gergen 2013; Hosking 2010). The article examines transcribed excerpts from a dialogical process in the “start-up phase” and discusses how the action researcher’s (the author’s) attention – inspired by relational ethical approaches (McNamee 2019) – can support future processes of co-creationThrough empirical analysis, the author focuses on action research in her own organization and highlights the attention paid to the insider action researcher’s ethical approach, as well as how to co-create dialogue. The study emphasizes how attention paid to ethical concerns in the dialogical process can expand the knowledge-building process through co-creation and help understand how a curious and exploratory approach to the facilitation of dialogues could support future processes of developing leadership in practice.

MOTIVATION AND BENEFITS OF ISO 9001:2015 IMPLEMENTATION AND MAINTENANCE IN A MALAYSIAN LEGAL FIRM

This research is an insider action qualitative case study research on a legal Firm X in Malaysia which has implemented, obtained certification and maintained the ISO 9001:2015 quality management system (QMS). Data was collected from interviews, document reviews and observations that were conducted from October until December 2020. It was found that there are eight internal motivations and five external motivations for ISO 9001:2015 implementation and maintenance. Internal motivations are that the ISO 9001 standard creates work processes, to have a systematic and organised workflow followed by the intention to improve productivity and quality of work in Firm X. Other motivational factors are to have an efficient operation, a faster delivery of work, to create and follow the standard template, staff empowerment, and to gain knowledge on ISO. On the other hand, the external motivation factors are for global recognition, to secure panelship, differentiating factors, to win client trust and for business benefits. The benefits obtained by Firm X includes"systematic working process", "standard procedure", "standard documentation" and "quality delivery" where ISO implementation procedures increase the firm’s efficiency, decrease non-conformities, the costs related to reworks and to sustain the relationship with the customer. Global recognition, securing panelship, differentiating factor, client trust and business benefits are the external benefits obtained from Firm X’s implementation and maintenance of ISO 9001:2015 quality management system.

Methodological challenges and opportunities in working within a participatory paradigm in the context of sport, forced migration and settlement: an insider perspective

While a growing body of scholarship in (forced) migration, sport for development and peace, and community sport development contexts has advocated the use of participatory approaches and innovative methodologies, there is a lack of published empirical research on the complexities and challenges of implementing such approaches in the study of sport, forced migration and settlement. Drawing on the personal experiences of the authors as insider action researchers in two different geographical locations, this study aims to reveal the challenges and opportunities in working within a participatory paradigm. The insight gained through this work may provide practical tool for (sports) researchers and evaluators as well as community members taking up participatory approaches.

A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action: Participatory Insider Action Research in an Executive Team

In this paper, we describe a Participatory Insider Action Research (PIAR) intervention within the Executive Committee (EC) of a large publicly funded service for people with intellectual disabilities. I was a member of this EC and had been for 20 years. The intervention ran over a two-year period and comprised three cycles of PIAR. We addressed two specific organisational issues but our work did not deliver change in these areas in a substantial sense. We identify power dynamics and role duality challenges as the core factors that contributed to this outcome and describe their effects in this under-researched domain. We finish by offering some advice for future researchers undertaking initiatives of this nature.

Power and Politics in New Service Development: An Insider Action Research Study

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.

Flipped learning: A shift in graduate nursing education.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a shift in education. Nursing education must respond to these changing times by redesigning classroom instruction. Flipped learning (FL) is a proposed method for teaching advanced practice nurses that is student-centered and engaging, both critical areas for contemporary learners. This qualitative study explored the perspectives and experiences of the family nurse practitioner faculty and the family nurse practitioner nursing students who participated in FL. The type and level of FL practices faculty can apply to support students coming to class prepared to engage in active learning activities was also investigated. The study used an insider action research design. There were two arms of the study, faculty and student. Ten faculty-led learning circles with four faculty and three family nurse practitioner student focus groups, each with six students, were held over the course of the study. Thematic findings were developed from both student and faculty data. The results revealed that family nurse practitioner students had a positive attitude toward FL. Many expressed FL provided perceptions of gained confidence, personalized learning, increased engagement, and preparedness for classroom instruction. Overall, faculty preferred FL over traditional teaching approaches. Several active learning activities were used by faculty with clinical case studies being the most preferred by student participants. This study confirms FL is a plausible and promising approach to traditional classroom instruction. However, more robust studies are needed to determine its benefits in advanced practice nursing education.

Collaborative alignment of design partners: first step towards the definition of multiple design process models used by an automotive supplier according to specific carmakers

Each player in the automotive value chain usually has its own design process model. Suppliers must evaluate the process by eliminating, adjusting (crashing), or fast-tracking steps according to each demand of a specific project. Sometimes a carmaker involves a supplier too late in the overall design process. Consequently, suppliers must pass over some validation activities and accelerate others to keep pace with the carmaker. This research aims to create a supplier design process model aligned with a carmaker's, which can support the collaborative design and prevent future problems. Based on this experiment, the broader objective is to define a set of process models for any relationship with specific carmakers. The methodology adopted is insider action research carried out in a real environment. One of the researchers is an employee of the company, which provided many insights for this research. The results confirm the reduction of the design development effort measured in engineering hours and development costs. The development lead time was also reduced, but other practices such as joint meetings may have contributed to this reduction. These practices were deployed from the integrated and aligned collaborative process model.

Insider action research towards companywide sustainable product innovation: ecodesign transition framework

PurposeThis study discusses the application of Insider Action Research to the systematic integration of an environmental perspective into industrial product innovation processes and projects. Applying Insider Action Research, it aims at a broader integration between top-down and bottom-up and soft and hard perspectives in the intersection of ecodesign and innovation and project management disciplines.Design/methodology/approachThe research design is based on action research and specificities from Insider Action Research to capture the change and transition aspects involving two main action research cycles. The longitudinal five-year research was carried out within a Brazilian cosmetics company. The outcomes of these cycles are analysed including customisation of ecodesign tools and related application, and views of different stakeholders of the challenge for the transition.FindingsThis paper describes an action research application aiming at faster learning loops in the field of sustainable innovation management. As a second contribution, an Ecodesign Transition Framework (ETF) is proposed, combining both technical and soft sides. The proposed framework is structured in three levels (strategic, tactical and operational), with two complementary perspectives of a mature ecodesign pattern and a transition pathway.Practical implicationsThe action research led to the intended outcomes both on the applied side, with increased diffusion of ecodesign in the company, and on the research side, with the ETF formulation and application. Practitioners interested in sustainable innovation can follow the ETF procedures, challenges faced, lessons learnt and conclusions.Originality/valueThe Insider Action Research addressed the literature gap to better relate the recommendations in the field to business reality. The resulting ETF brings a novel perspective for integrating environmental considerations in the product innovation process of a company. It organises the soft issues to be considered for the necessary transition towards such integration, consolidating and advancing previous theoretical views of ecodesign, with associated new practical implications.

Patient involvement in the development of the Danish surgical breast cancer patient pathway – An action research project

Although patient involvement is on the political agenda, the influence on clinical practice is poorly described. The aim of this study was to explore and evaluate the participatory process of involving patients and relatives in development of a surgical breast cancer patient pathway. The overall design was insider action research and included two Danish surgical breast cancer clinics. In dialogue meetings patients, relatives, and healthcare professionals (HCPs) discussed suggestions for improving the pathway. Patients and relatives were satisfied with the pathway organisation in general. However, suggestions related to information, communication, and choice of treatment were presented. In response to this, a patient decision aid was developed, tested, and implemented, and HCPs increased focus on male relatives, and made minor changes to the pathway. Participants were satisfied with the participatory process, however, recommendations for future dialogue meetings included shortening the follow-up period, using a skilled facilitator, reminding HCPs being open-minded, and emphasizing for patients and relatives that participation may require a surplus of mental resources. Overall, recommendations on patient involvement obtained from this project could, due to their general relevance, be implemented in clinical settings other than breast cancer. Furthermore, action research proved a suitable design for research on patient involvement.

Entrepreneurial Process Studies Using Insider Action Research: Opportunities & Challenges for Entrepreneurship Scholarship

This paper examines the opportunities and challenges of adopting insider action research (IAR) in entrepreneurial process studies. It employs a critical reflexive and narrative approach in examining our own lived experience in a real‐time digital entrepreneurial journey spanning three years while triangulating it with experiential knowledge in another role as dissertation supervisors. Our live case illustrates that IAR, when it combines reflective practice, cooperative inquiry and design science, represents a suitable but under‐exploited methodology for entrepreneurship scholarship. We build on this knowledge to offer a model for incorporating this methodology in entrepreneurship research and education. Consequently, we contribute towards responding to the need for phenomenon‐methodology fit in the discipline. Ultimately, the paper's value lies in its effort towards resolving the seemingly perennial question regarding the legitimacy of entrepreneurship as a distinctive domain of scholarship.