KNOWLEDGE CREATION

Knowledge Creation through Action Research

Knowledge Creation through Action Research



Introduction

Action research is a process of continuous and progressive problem solving within an organization (Brannick & Coghlan, 2007). It requires participatory action research as a part of solving issues and problems related to the management of an organization. Sometimes the change in an organization takes place through an active action research plan. Knowledge creation within the organizations can be associated with the action research process. This paper discusses several aspects of knowledge creation and discuss how better collaboration between practitioners and researchers might enabled whilst maintaining research rigor. This paper will also identify the difference project outcomes and academic contribution to knowledge through using the process of action research.

Discussion

It has been observed from the literature study by Brannick and Coghlan (2007) that, there are some specific principles that lead to knowledge creation using the action research process and the researcher is consider to be the active member during this process. The main idea of action research within the context of organizations is correlated to the insider research method. The insider research method involves the research by all the members of the organizational systems including both inside and outside inquiries (Brannick & Coghlan, 2007). The inside and outside inquiry methods are discussed by Evered and Louis (1981) who presented these ideas and their approaches. Inquiry from inside involves the researcher in their local situations and the manager acts as a key player in creating the knowledge from inside experiences of the organization. However, in outside inquiry, there is no relationship of local settings with the basis of research (Evered & Louis, 1981). There are several challenges and opportunities through which the researcher is confronted during the knowledge creation through action research process. The series of opportunities and challenges is usually related to the pre- understanding, access, organizational politics and role duality. The manager of knowledge creation through action research need to navigate through such issues (Brannick & Coghlan, 2007). On the other hand, the research by Cassell and Johnson (2006) reveals that there is a presence of diversity among the interpretations of action research and it is difficult to estimate the differences among the different observational methods of research and study including participant, interactive and action research (Cassell and Johnson, 2006).

The research of Eden and Huxham (1996) discusses some contentions that provide reflection on the quality action research process ...