The Organizational Action Research Model

Abstract

It is a cliché to say that we are in an era of unprecedented continual change. But, change is the hallmark of our times. Some writers have called this a period of transition in which we are moving toward a new social order. Every institution in our society has, and is still, undergoing radical change, and those that have not been able to change fast enough to meet the challenges presented by the new age have been met with widespread criticism. Along with the change in our institutions, there are two parallel and concurrent changes. These are changes in the skills and abilities needed by the practitioners who manage organizations and hence a concurrent change in the training of those who are to manage. It is this latter issue that is the major focus of this chapter. We will begin by examining the parameters of the failure of the current mental model from the perspectives of a number of current authors. This will be followed by an examination of the work of David Kolb, who has given considerable thought to the ways adults in general and managers in particular, think and build knowledge. This will be followed by the Organizational Action Research Model (OARM) of organizational action research that we propose as a solution to the failure of the current model. It provides practitioners with a different knowledge-building perspective, and a way of reflecting and evaluating their practice.