Awareness of Residents Regarding the Construction of a Sustainable Urban Community: A Case Study of Action Research in Taiwan

Chung-Sheng Community in Taoyuan City, Taiwan is a typical urban community. By adopting participatory action research, this study examines resident awareness regarding the feasibility of transforming Chung-Sheng Community into a sustainable community. Action research can help avoid constant “trial and error” in constructing sustainable communities and enhance process efficiency. Meanwhile, an active research approach can help communities better achieve sustainable development. Constructing a sustainable urban community requires energy, effective frameworks, and professional assistance. Achieving these requires a continuous and participatory action research process, and careful exploration of the awareness of community residents, which is the focus of this investigation.     

Measurement Preconditions Systemic Action: The Case of Integral Low-Carbon Country and Sustainable Development Indicators

Sustainable development (SD) belongs to objectives of social responsibility (SR), including the ‘integral low-carbon societies’, as an objective and effort. This article presents the concept of low-carbon Slovenia and indicators of sustainable development (SDI) in Croatia and Slovenia that help in measurement efforts. Indicators reflect the national sets of SDI, developed recently; one focuses on EU and comparison with other regions in the world. Key challenges include (1) making a low-carbon country reality, (2) comparability and aggregation variability of SDI determined by SD policies; (3) SR, as a contribution to, and framework of, sustainability, as a requisitely holistic approach to current problems, based on ethics of interdependence of humans and other nature.     

Participatory Design and Technologies for Sustainable Development: an Approach from Action Research

This paper explores the relevance of the action research for design of technological solutions that lead to both systemic sustainable development and active involvement of the community. The paper shows how this idea was implemented in a project for water resource conservation with educational institutions of rural areas in Colombia. Through the use of technology, a reduction in water consumption increases in awareness about the use of this natural resource, and the active involvement of the community were sought. Additionally, social processes related to the conservation of natural resources were addressed through a socio-technical approach for analysis and design. During the application of the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), the participants and researchers created technological prototypes that allowed to: 1) give visibility to the community’s initiatives, and 2) save water in the households. This paper focuses on the importance of the design process of innovative solutions for social and environmental issues through the participative approach of action research.

     

Reflection on the Purposes of Research,Action, and Scholarship: A Case of Cross-Cultural Participatory Action Research

Beginning with some basic principles of participatory action research, the author draws upon personal experience to identify the ways in which the experience of the practice of participatory action research creates forms of publication somewhat different in intent and nature from conventional forms of research. The experience selected involves cross-cultural research, and the particular problems of representation of the other in such settings are engaged. The overall experience is then drawn upon to identify some of the key qualities of action research which differ both from other forms of research and from some of the advocacies for action research.     

Professional Development through Action Research: Case Examples in South African Higher Education

This paper identifies the quality characteristics of a professional development (PD) program on action research (AR) and presents the results of a second-order evaluation of such a program. Three case examples in South African higher education demonstrate how AR methodology has been applied to design, conduct and evaluate the PD program and to identify new ways of learning and improving professional practice in higher education. From data analysis, we distinguish six factors significant in contributing to the quality of the PD program in all three universities: facilitator expertise, adaptive planning, responsive evaluation, critical events, application, and self-efficacy. On the basis of the evaluation results, we present five models: (1) the AR workshop cycles; (2) characteristics of a quality PD program; (3) a PD program on and through AR; (4) three levels of reflection on AR; and (5) meta-action research.

Enhancing Organisational Innovation Capability Through Systemic Action Research: A Case of a Swiss SME in the Food Industry

This paper presents detailed insights into the nature of innovation dynamics of an SME operating in the food industry. Furthermore, the paper highlights how Action Research has changed and enhanced SME??s capability to innovate. Within the exploratory action research based case study described in this article, the researchers interacted closely with one company with regards to a newly launched innovation process over a time period of more than 18 months. The analysis contributes to the fields of action research and innovation research in three respects: First, it exemplifies how systemic action research as a method can be applied on the organisational level in the private sector. Second, it demonstrates how useful action research can be for fostering the innovativeness and creativity of a company. Lastly, the analysis illustrates the extensive time horizon of an action research project.     

Creating Action Research Quality in Organization Development: Rigorous,Reflective and Relevant

The purpose of the paper is to present a framework that enables action researchers to create quality action research projects within the organization development (OD) domain using the broad criteria of being rigorous, reflective and relevant and so contribute to the realm of practical knowing. What constitutes good quality action research within OD is a difficult question, given the broad range of approaches that operates in a wide variety of settings and with great diversity. It advances specific dimensions by which action researchers can create, review and assess quality in action research work. This integrative framework and criteria are practical tools to enable action researchers to create quality action research in OD.     

Managing Complexity Through Methodic Participation: The Case of Air Quality in Santiago,Chile

Three concrete results have been achieved over a 5-year period in Santiago, Chile, in a process addressed to managing through participation the difficult air quality situation of this 5-million-person metropolis: (1) a highly complex problem has become manageable, (2) a legitimate and effective Prevention and Decontamination Plan is in operation, and (3) citizens and the government are mutually committed to this process. This paper describes how these results have been achieved by applying Innovative Development, a social systems methodology developed by the author and co-workers and applied in many fields over the last 20 years. Following a review of the problem and results that have been achieved, an explanation is offered for why a participative methodology is necessary for dealing with a highly complex problem like the current one. The fourth section provides a brief outline of the Innovative Development methodology. The last section presents the case itself, describing three stages. In the short space available we have tried to balance the practical, methodological, and conceptual issues of this case and this approach.     

A History of the Action Learning,Action Research,and Process Management Association (ALARPM): From Brisbane (Australia) to the World Through Inclusion and Networks

Action Learning, Action Research, and Process Management Association (ALARPM) is an organization of volunteers dedicated to the international expansion of action learning, action research, and process management, through world congresses. It has existed for over a dozen years now, despite significant stresses and strains, and has successfully conducted five world congresses with a sixth one in 2003. This history of ALARPM shows that a small group can set out to be international and inclusive from the beginning, so long as it also develops processes to sustain itself internally.     

Systemic Development of Leadership: Action Research in an Indian Manufacturing Organization

This insider action research study differentiates between developing leaders and leadership, evolves a systemic leadership model, and intervenes on the human, social and processes dimensions for developing leadership. This is a real-time study and responds to the organizational reality of fast pace of change and its systemic nature. Consequently, the research too is fast to guide actions and influence positive changes in the organization. As the action research addresses a systemic reality, research and contributions are in multiple aspects, with new techniques having huge implications for theory building as well as improving practice. The study provides a structural solution to perceived lack of commitment in senior colleagues—a syndrome I acronym as HILE (High Intentions and Lukewarm Execution)–by re-designing organizational processes and making time available for its effective utilization in developing leadership. A new technique of triggering major changes in organizations termed “concept sublimation” distils concept from the statements of major stakeholder and sublimates it from lower to higher unit of analysis and to higher levels of positivity. Statistical simplification of a competency framework by applying concepts from Euclidian geometry and making it effective is yet a unique contribution of this action research study. The study adapts the competing values framework in developing a method of assessing cultural congruence of a candidate with the culture of the organization. The uniqueness of the study lies in bridging the gap in the literature by actually and systemically developing leadership in an organization and providing pragmatic insights on developing leadership while also creating knowledge for theory building.     

Effect of Supervision on Stress and Burnout in School Counsellors: A Case of Action Research

School counsellors are permanently in action, the success of which depends on their systemic approach to their action. Due to the difficulty, complexity and scope of their work, school counsellors are often under a lot of stress, which may eventually develop into occupational burnout. Thus, it is very important that school counsellors can use appropriate i.e. systemic, i.e. requisitely holistic ways of coping with stress and occupational burnout. Recently, after many years, supervision has been gaining importance as an action in the form of professional help to school counsellors to enable them to cope effectively with stress and to prevent occupational burnout. The primary purpose of the reported-about study is to determine how supervision, in accordance with the relational family model, affects the perception of stress and occupational burnout. The sample included 30 school counsellors in Slovenia. They were divided into an experimental group (with the presence of supervision) and a control group (without supervision). Results show a positive effect of supervision, in accordance with the relational family model, on the school counsellors’ perception of stress, since stress decreased after supervisory meetings, while the school counsellors’ perception of their professional burnout after supervisory meetings did not change significantly.     

Through the Eye of a Fly: Action Research as a Support for the South African National Literacy Campaign

Globally and across the African continent, the past decade has seen an increase in the commitment to reducing adult illiteracy, inspired among other things by the Education for All (EFA) drive to halve the incidence of illiteracy among adults and youth by 2015. While literacy campaigns were less common during the 1990s, the last decade saw a new impetus for mass adult literacy campaigns as a way of improving national literacy levels. This paper examines the South African endeavour to meet its EFA target through the implementation of the South African Kha Ri Gude Mass Literacy Campaign, which was launched by the South African government in 2008 with the aim of enliterating 4,7 million adults who had little or no education as a result of the apartheid legacy. The Campaign was deemed successful receiving a number of South African awards for best practice and its work in rural and impoverished communities including the international UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy (UNESCO 2016). This article focuses on how the campaign utilised action-oriented processes, specifically the methods of participatory action research (PAR), to enhance the achievement of its goals. The methods of PAR were embedded in the campaign structure, comprising clusters of communities of practice (COPs) which provided fora for educators to voice and address challenges. Moreover, since the Campaign was implemented in post-apartheid South Africa, the article shows how the Campaign operations were guided by the ethos of ubuntu as necessary for redress and empowerment.     

Overcoming Challenges in Writing About Action Research—The Promise of the Development Story

There is great demand for articles and books describing what action researchers do but little methodological literature available explaining how researchers can go about writing such articles and books. This constitutes a serious challenge as writing high quality scientific texts is crucial for researchers to learn about and improve their practice. This paper addresses that challenge and offers a ‘recipe’ for writing, the development story, which aims to help action researchers reflect deeply on their empirical observations and convert these into concise and meaningful texts. The main purpose is to examine how using the development story as a support tool for writing impacts on engaged researchers’ field practice. We assess the value of the development story by using it to analyse and present an organizational development project in four Norwegian industrial service firms. We conclude that the development story can help instigating valuable reflection on the various roles researchers play out in the field, thereby helping them improve future practice. There is a need for more literature about analysis and writing adapted to the specific challenges of action research.     

系统学开创可持续发展理论与实践研究的新方向

简要地概述了可持续发展理论研究的生态学、经济学和社会学方向。用系统学原理,在理论上,把可持续发展的内涵解析为内部具有严格逻辑关系的五个子系统,即生存支持系统、发展支持系统、环境支持系统、社会支持系统和智力支持系统,并对每一个子系统进行论述;在实践上,设计了“五级叠加,逐层收敛,规范权重,统一排序”的系统学指标体系,以对区域可持续发展能力进行表达与评价。     

Management of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment in Brazilian Public Education Institutions: Implementation Through Action Research on a University Campus

One of the problems facing public education institutions in Brazil is the question of the correct handling and treatment of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Being that these institutions are part of the public sector, they should adhere to Decree no. 99,658/1990 for the disposal of their goods. However, this decree is not completely in accordance with the Brazilian National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS), especially when considering the regulations for disposal of public goods. Thus, these institutions have no WEEE management model which encompasses not only the Decree but also the PNRS. An example of this situation can be found at the Federal University of Itajubá (UNIFEI) in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Due to the lack of such a management model, the university warehouse is at full capacity and unable to receive additional electronic equipment. Therefore, the objective of this study is to create a management model for WEEE to be used at public education institutions using the guidelines set forth in both the Decree and the PNRS. An action research investigation was performed at UNIFEI which relied upon two improvement and learning cycles to deal with all the WEEE found at the university. The first was undertaken at the university warehouse and the second at other sectors within the institution. In addition to the practical results obtained by properly disposing of 474 WEEE products, this study showed that action research is an adequate management tool for public institutions looking to deal with problems of this nature, being that these institutions are almost always subject to bureaucratic controls with respect to their public property, and expected to follow rigorous legislation that is often times controversial.     

Multi-Disciplinary North-South Collaboration in Participatory Action Research on Food Value Chains: a German-Tanzanian Case Study on Perceptions,Experiences and Challenges

Systemic Practice and Action Research - Upgrading local food value chains is a promising approach to invigorating African food systems. This endeavour warrants multi-disciplinary North-South...     

The Role Conundrums of Co-Inquiry Action Research: Lessons from the Field

This paper focuses on the role conundrums that confront action researchers who are engaged in co-inquiry designs for purposes of generating knowledge that is both actionable and makes a robust contribution to a more generalized body of knowledge. Drawing on the lived experience of researchers in such a project in U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, this paper describes the conundrums that confronted the researchers, identifies the central dynamics around which they seem to be organized, and discusses the impact on the subsequent practice of the researchers. Practices that establish reflexivity in the research process are an important part of the role of the researchers. So too is establishing relationships that provide for sensemaking and integrating rigor and relevance.

Co-design Research and Business Development: Case of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS)

This paper is presenting a case study of Scandinavian Airlines Systems (SAS) showing how improvements of service quality aspects with Avatars can be managed with a Co-design research approach. The Co-design practices are carried out in different fields of studies. Some of the key advocates of Co-design originate from business. In this study the four steps of Co-design approach is applied. From the first step of Co-design, through interviews, log analysis and a channel survey, findings show that the failed dialogues with Avatar Eva are mainly concerned with five factors: interactivity; dialogue capability; consistency; knowledge; and synonyms. In the second step, carrying out customer workshops, we suggested ten ideal scenarios for Avatar Eva to perform better. In the third step, SAS decision makers decided to implement the first three scenarios: Eva’s synonyms; knowledge and Eva’s consistency. In the fourth step, another channel survey was carried out as well as a new log analysis to know the impact of the redevelopment above three scenarios. An important result of the study was that the company adopted a continuous use of Co-design as an approach of continuous improvement of the service quality performed by the Avatar Eva. It also opens a new set of questions framing the relation and transformation between Co-design as a research approach for knowledge creation and Co-design as a method for innovation and service quality improvements. The study presents an Extended Co-design Model, which illustrates how the Co-design inspires staff to use it for other functions within and without the SAS.     

Towards an Understanding, Through Action Research, of the Socio-Organizational Issues Impacting on Mobile Technology Adoption and Diffusion Within a Small-to-Medium South African Construction Company

We investigated, through an action research approach, social issues that impact on mobile technology adoption and diffusion in a professional construction management team of a small-to-medium sized South African construction company. The outcome of the study resulted in a framework of thinking that integrates social factors at individual and organisational levels that impacted on the adoption of mobile technologies in the organisation. At the methodological level the study is part of a limited collection of papers that used AR in the study of technology adoption and diffusion and it presents an example of the capability of AR as a method to allow for the integration of the social contexts of users into adoption frameworks.     

A Fresh Look at The Systems Approach and an Agenda for Action: Peeking Through the Lens of Churchman's Aphorisms

This paper critically examines some important topics of systemic thinking to understand how our perception of problems can be enhanced and how the chances of deception can be mitigated while dealing with real-world problems. To achieve this objective, an attempt is first made to scrutinize some of the key issues of systemic thinking by looking through the lens of Churchman's aphorisms at: (1) the illusion of completeness and closure, (2) the meaning of holism, and (3) the concept of ‘Interbeing’. A preliminary ‘agenda for action’ is then laid out suggesting ways for increasing our perception and for minimizing the chances of being deceived in dealing with systems problems in practice.