Action Research in Organizations

Marianne Kristiansen, Ph.d., emeritierte Professorin der Universität Aalborg, Kopenhagen, DänemarkJørgen Bloch-Poulsen, Ph.d., Senior Lecturer an der Universität Kopenhagen, Dänemark

• Preface by Werner Fricke Foreword Introduction Part I: Participation in organizational changes Chapter 1 An example of tensions and dilemmas in organizational action research ‘On the infinitely large in the infinitely small’ in Team Product Support What and why 1.Tensions between participation as involvement and/ or as co-determination 2.Tensions, positionings and the exercising of power 3.Experimental change of communication patterns in Team Product Support 4.Tensions between the smaller project context and larger organizational, societal and global agendas 5.Tensions in the management of organizational difference through dissensus Reflections Chapter 2 A historical view of employee participation: four understandings What and why 1. Participation in working life: a mixed bag 2. Participation as industrial democracy 3. Two phases of participation as individualized involvement 4. Participation as autonomy 5. Some conclusions Reflections Part II: An empathetic-critical view of participation in organizational action research in the twentieth century— From self-managing groups to co-generation of practical and theoretical change? Chapter 3 Change-oriented social science: Early organizational action research in the USA in the 1940s What and why 1.Aims and perspectives 2.The Harwood studies: Action research at Harwood 3.The Harwood Experiments 4.Discussion of Lewin’s view of participation 5.Discussion of Lewin’s theory of change 6.Lewin’s view of action research: A philosophy of science perspective 7.Some conclusions Reflections Chapter 4 The origin of socio-technical systems thinking— Studies at British coal mines in the 1950s What and why 1.Introduction and aims 2.The Tavistock group’s experiences before, during and after the Second World War 3.Initial studies at the Haighmoor mine 4.Follow-up studies in the Durham collieries 5.The new paradigm 6.Socially engaged accompanying research: between research ‘on’ and research ‘with’ 7.Conclusion Reflections Chapter 5 Industrial democracy: Experiments in Norway in the 1960s What and why 1.Introduction 2.Background: the democratic endeavour 3.Analysis of two field studies 4.A democratic paradox? 5.Discussion of NIDP as applied research 6.ConclusionsReflections Chapter 6 Democratic dialogues—Dialogue conferences in Norway and Sweden in the 1980s What and why 1.Background 2.Aims and structure 3.The organization of democratic dialogic development processes 4.An example of democratic dialogue 5.Participation in the practical dimension of the research process: deliberation and decision 6.Deliberative democracy and democratic dialogues in organizations 7.Participation and exclusion 8.Exclusion of research from democratic dialogues? 9.Conclusions Reflections Chapter 7 Pragmatic action research—Projects in Spanish cooperatives in the latter half of the 1980s What and why 1.Background 2.Aims and perspectives 3.A characterization of pragmatic action research 4.Organization of participatory action research in Fagor 5.Pragmatic action research as co-generative research 6.Is pragmatic action research a participatory, conventional, applied and/or phronetic science? 7.ConclusionsReflections Chapter 8Participation, past and future 1. Introduction 2. Differences and similarities between change-oriented social science, STS, NIDP, democratic dialogues and pragmatic action research 3. Action researchers’ exercising of power as silent discourse 4. Participation in the future? 5. A child of the Enlightenment? Bibliography Index