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.     

Modeling and Control of Telerobotic Systemswith Time-delays

1IntroductionTheresearchofteleroboticsystems,ofteninvolvingcommunication,commandandcontrol,isbelongingtoanemergingkeyhi-technology.Spacerobot,underwaterrobot,internet-basedrobotaretypicalexamplesofsuchsystems.UPtonow)onaccountofthecomplexity,noefficientandsimplemethodcouldbefoundtoanalyzeanddesignsystems.Thekeydifficultiestodealwithsuchsystems:hierachicaJstructure,hybridvariables,commumicatiolibandwidthlimitations,telepresenceandtimedelays.Therefore,intelligentandrobustdesignsaretakenintocon…     

Application and transformation of action research in educational research and practice

This paper examines research and theory in the area Kurt Lewin called action research. Action research is collaborative, driven by a partnership between theorist/researchers and practitioners. It focuses on both theoretical and practical implications of issues. When viewed in the context of other work by Lewin, action research is seen as focusing on the social context of behaviors and on the dynamics of situations in which behaviors occur. Action research provides a versatile, potentially powerful approach for use in applied research on groups and group settings. Principles of action research, a tracing of the development of action research, and variations of action research approaches that have emerged in education are presented. Finally, two ongoing studies that exemplify action research are described.     

基于SD的军事行动与战略储备关系仿真模型研究

在对军事与战略储备关系进行分析描述的基础上,以系统动力学(SD)建模方法建立了军事行动与战略储备关系仿真模型,探讨了利用该仿真方法研究军事行动对战略储备影响的可行性,并对仿真实验结果进行了分析。     

The First-, Second- and Third-Person Dynamics of Learning History

Learning history is a well delineated action research process consisting of consecutive stages of inquiry where groups and individuals engage in learning and reflecting on their past shared, but often multiple, experiences as these are recorded in a ‘learning history’. Learning history has much in common with other forms of action research in that it configures first-, second- and third-person processes of inquiry in a particular way and enacts research qualities of rigour, relevance and reflexivity. Yet these and other links have as yet been tacit and under articulated - resulting in learning history often conceived as a distinctive linear method with the practice of learning history likewise confined. This reflective article opens out and makes explicit the inherent first- second- and third- person dynamics of learning history. These dynamics are explored from the point of view of different actors – the historian, the participant and the reader - in a learning history process and connections to a general empirical method are made. Finally questions of quality in a learning history are discussed. The aim of this article is to establish firmer methodological foundations for the learning history approach and to provide practical insight into how action researchers might engage more readily in learning history work.     

Action Research as a Bridge Between Two Worlds: Helping The NGOs and Humanitarian Agencies Adapt Technology to Their Needs

This paper reflects upon the process of introducing social media systems into supported employment programs for peoples with severe mental illness in Taipei. Such intervention represents the encounter of two different worlds that are often-unknown to each other, i.e. IT student engineers and job coaches in NGOs. With the participatory and cyclic feature of action research approach, the process can be divided into three stages: technology-led stage, mutual infusion stage, and service-led stage. The focus of this research is to illustrate how action research provides a site for the infusion of two different horizons, that is technology experts in academia and social service providers in NGOs. The existing problems in the use of IT within NGOs were studied and changes through co-inquiry and interventions were implemented towards better utilization of IT and higher levels of service qualities. The researchers utilized an action research approach to investigate the problems, plan the actions, intervene, assess the effectiveness resulting from the actions, and specify learning outcomes.     

Ethical Issues and Role Duality in Insider Action Research: Challenges for Action Research Degree Programmes

Insider action research describes the process when a member of an organisation undertakes an explicit action research role in addition to the normal functional roles they hold in an organisation. Real-world work-based research is relevant and important to many full-time managers, consultants and members of organisations including those who choose to undertake higher degrees in business as part-time postgraduate students. Within these programmes a proposal for an insider action research project is often associated with important and interesting research projects that have already arisen in an organisation where the researcher works full-time, and are part of their existing role and established working relationships with key stakeholders. Ethical issues in organisationally located insider action research can differ from other forms of action research because of role duality, i.e. that the researcher holds an ongoing work role and power relationships associated with this as well as the action research role. Ethical issues can be associated with choices about alternative options, expected impacts and outcomes on the researcher, participants, organisation and stakeholders, and these are important considerations for academic supervisors, institutional review boards and human research ethics committees.     

Application of Focus Group Interviews for Quality Management: An Action Research Project

Focus groups have the potential to provide rapid and timely collation, integration and assembly of the views of a variety of different types of stakeholders into a plausible theory. This article reflects on a tertiary education institution's utilisation of focus group interviews (FGIs) as a qualitative evaluation instrument, using action research as the methodology. Our results suggest that employing focus groups is a valuable method of gaining more insight into and adding more depth to quantitative findings during quality management. Results from focus groups enable quality assurance practitioners to provide better remedial action plans. A set of guidelines is provided for the effective conducting of focus group interviews as part of an institutional quality assurance system.     

经济周期的系统动力学研究

经济周期是宏观经济学研究的中心问题。本文使用系统动力学工具,建立模拟模型,对经济周期进行创新性研究。模型的模拟结果验证了经济周期研究中非对称性和过度投资非经济波动原因两个重要理论,证明了模型的有效性。我们进一步使用模型对不同货币和财政政策组合下的经济周期发展进行模拟,得出了对比数据,获得了一些对政策组合效果的评价结论,据此对我国宏观经济政策提出了一些建议。     

Roles,Politics, and Ethics in Action Research Design

For novice action researchers, issues of roles, politics and ethics are critical, particularly in design. The field of organization development (OD) provides many useful considerations of roles, politics and ethics. This article proposes a systemic design-based framework of the action research process that includes context, inquiry mechanisms, inquiry cycle and outcomes. Such perspective brings to the forefront the issues of context, roles, politics dynamics and ethics that are embedded in the action research process and influence its emergent process, quality and outcomes. A set of propositions for further explorations is advanced and briefly discussed.     

Student Engineers as Agents of Change: Combining Social Inclusion in the Professional Development of Electrical and Computer Engineering Students

Community-based action research helps students link subject matter to everyday life and developing sense of responsibility to their community. While combining research and a development into teaching engineering software which has been vastly conducted in engineering disciplines such as Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and Computer Science (CS), including inclusive participatory research is yet to be fully developed. We participated in the NGO by providing information technology (IT) and/or assistive technology (AT). This paper examines the practice of action research in service-learning projects that aim to introduce more socially responsible studies in the context of engineering education. It begins by exploring different forms of action research that may benefit engineering disciplines with a focus on action engagement to improve students’ involvement in marginalized communities. The article provides field-based reflections of the action research project and suggests ways in which practice of action research may increase socially responsive value in the professional development of student engineers.     

Is Action Design Research Indeed Necessary? Analysis and Synergies Between Action Research and Design Science Research

Action research is one of the research methods that seeks to develop scientific knowledge while simultaneously acting to solve real problems. Design science and design science research are approaches that address problem-solving oriented researches, converging in this aspect with the objectives of action research. A significant part of the literature discusses action research and design science research separately. However, there are some early discussions regarding the similarities and the differences between these research methods. The objective of this study is to deepen an analysis that distinguishes action research, design science and design science research as research methods considering their convergences and divergences. This leads to the discussion of the need for a third method: action design research. This study was conducted based on a configurative systematic literature review. The analysis and the synthesis of literature took into account themes and content analyses. Some results could be observed. First, there is a significant number of similarities among these research methods; second, there are complementary and positive synergies in their use; and third, the concepts of artifact and classes of problems seem to contribute both to the proposition and to the evaluation of the results obtained by action research. Finally, it was possible to establish a set of possibilities for the use of action research and design science research in a combined manner. The limitations of this study have a theoretical nature. There is a need for a comparative analysis of the use of action research and design science research and the use of action research under the paradigm of design science.     

海军武器装备体系对抗的建模与仿真方法研究

提出了支持海军武器装备体系实验研究的顶层对象模型体系框架,以确保在不同研究层次、不同研究方向上保持对装备体系理解和描述的一致性。然后,针对体系对抗建模与仿真的主要目的,系统地论述了建模与仿真的方法和步骤,其中包括层次化指标体系的定义、不同层次指标之间映射关系的确定以及仿真的实验分析与结果分析。最后,对建模与仿真方法的主要特点进行了总结,并简要说明了今后的主要研究方向。     

Action Engagement: Improving Researchers’ Involvement in Action Research Projects

This article presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of Action Engagement. This is a methodological approach implying that researchers involve themselves in the organization by working as ordinary employees. Our problem statement is this: How will Action Engagement improve the quality of action research? Given the fact that the researcher has limited time to use in the initial phase, we intend to show that Action Engagement is an effective introduction to the daily organizational life. The data is from an automotive supplier and two hospitals in Norway. The analysis contributes to the field of action research in two respects. First, it offers a detailed and varied understanding of how a broad empirical basis can be obtained in an action research (AR) project. Second, it presents an empirically grounded understanding of how this method can be used to achieve increased credibility and trust in ways that enable the researcher to bring in new and important aspects in organizational dialogues.     

Action Research in Inter-Organisational Networks: Impartial Studies or the Trojan Horse?

This article addresses the distinct ethical challenges of action research in inter-organisational projects. Traditionally, the literature on action research has distinguished between two researcher roles: The problem-solver and the observer. Based on an action research project in a Danish inter-organisational network, a third role as legitimiser is identified as an ethical challenge. Potentially, the legitimacy that the researchers carry as academic knowledge-generating actors may be used by a particular company to involve other companies in the network. Thus, the researchers may be perceived as bringing into the other organisations a Trojan Horse containing the interests of this particular company. Lack of clarity in defining the role of the action researcher may thus jeopardise the trustworthiness of the researchers and the action research project. On the basis of the case study analysis, the article develops a number of preliminary points of ethical consideration for future research analysis.     

Implementing and Evaluating Performance Measurement Initiative in Public Leisure Facilities: An Action Research Project

This paper addresses issues when implementing and evaluating performance measurement initiative. Applying action research, the study began with designing an innovative performance measurement system and applied the system in three public leisure centres in England during 2005–2007. It was found that, for practitioners in the public leisure sector, inclusiveness and simplicity are the most important criteria of a good performance measurement system. That is, not only does performance data need to be inclusive, the analytical process also needs to be simple and understandable. In addition, facility managers’ analytical skills and motivations for benchmarking are two factors determining the practicability of the system developed. Finally, while conducting a long-term action research, there is a need to continually communicate the actual and potential benefits of the change with senior managers. If they are committed and enthusiastic, it is easier to gain the support of other levels of the organisation.     

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.     

Constructive Scaffolding or a Procrustean Bed? Exploring the Influence of a Facilitated,Structured Group Process in a Climate Action Group

In this paper we present a case of a structured, facilitated group process with a climate action group engaged in a local Transition initiative. We explore how the interacting contexts between action researchers and the group acted as a constraint for the trajectory of the group process, by looking at the mismatches between the group’s and the researchers’ purposes and differences in expectations about methods of engagement. A methodological framework was used for evaluating the outcomes. The primary aim of this article was to investigate and point out dynamics that may be a hindrance to the effectiveness of a facilitated local climate initiative, with the view to inform facilitation practices and improve future action research processes.     

Action Research for Emancipation Informed by Habermas and Hierarchy of Systems: Case Study on Environmental Education and Management of Water Resources in Brazil

Technology is used in order to emancipate. Emancipation for social and environmental justice ought to shape the way technology is designed and used. The relationships across action research, action research spiral, and the General Systems Theory was investigated. The case study refers to environmental education activities as part of a participative management approach to water resources on the Hydrographic Basin of the Upper Maranhão River (Brazil). By introducing action research spiral as a search of rationality in social practices, and describing the nature of lower and higher hierarchical level in General Systems Theory, the higher hierarchical level was associated with Habermasian emancipatory interest, whereas lower hierarchic levels were associated with the specific instrumental concern. To conclude, it is said that the articulation between action research spiral and General System Theory can be the means to strengthen the dialectical potential of the action research spiral in order to achieve both individual and collective empowerment.     

复杂巨系统研究的理论框架及其应用

在对复杂系统理论现状分析的基础上,提出了人为干预是造成系统复杂性的最重要因素,进而指出不可重复性是复杂巨系统最重要的特征.将具有主动性的人参与的复杂巨系统作为重点研究对象,运用系统动力学构建了复杂巨系统研究的一个理论框架,在框架中给出了复杂巨系统研究过程中定性、定量的分工与协作规则,并对这个理论框架在对抗性复杂巨系统的应用进行了研究.