To read this content please select one of the options below:
Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, action research within organisations and university thesis writing.
The Learning Organization
ISSN : 0969-6474
Article publication date: 1 October 2002
This paper argues that action research is more appropriate than traditional research for improving practice, and professional and organisational learning. Our particular aim is to help postgraduates in the social and human sciences to understand and clarify the difference between core action research and thesis action research; that is, between collaborative, participatory action research in the field (aimed at practical improvement in a learning organisation) and independent action research in preparing the thesis (aimed at making an original contribution to knowledge). We present a model to illustrate the distinction and relationship between thesis research, core research and thesis writing.
- Action research
- Organizational learning
Zuber‐Skerritt, O. and Perry, C. (2002), "Action research within organisations and university thesis writing", The Learning Organization , Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 171-179. https://doi.org/10.1108/09696470210428895
Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Limited
Related articles
We’re listening — tell us what you think, something didn’t work….
Report bugs here
All feedback is valuable
Please share your general feedback
Join us on our journey
Platform update page.
Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates
Questions & More Information
Answers to the most commonly asked questions here
- Technical Support
- Find My Rep
You are here
The Action Research Dissertation A Guide for Students and Faculty
- Kathryn Herr - Montclair State University, USA
- Gary L. Anderson - New York University, USA
- Description
See what’s new to this edition by selecting the Features tab on this page. Should you need additional information or have questions regarding the HEOA information provided for this title, including what is new to this edition, please email [email protected] . Please include your name, contact information, and the name of the title for which you would like more information. For information on the HEOA, please go to http://ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea08/index.html .
For assistance with your order: Please email us at [email protected] or connect with your SAGE representative.
SAGE 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, CA 91320 www.sagepub.com
Student who conducted action research dissertation finds it very helpful. Will use it again for the summer
Great text that introduces doctoral students to action research in relation to dissertation projects.
Recommended for any student or practitioner involved in research. Clearly set out and easy to follow. Used by all my dissertation students and for my own practice.
A superb book to guide dissertation students as they undertake their action research.
Supports students to study the different approaches within action research; exploring their own practice and that of others. (This publication has been recommended to both our Early Childhood Studies and Education in Lifelong Learning Degree programmes)
This book supports the students in the developmental stages of their research ideas and planning of their action research projects. It has also supported ongoing professional discussions between tutors and students.
- New sections in Chapter 1 reflect the changes and ongoing development in the field of action research, such as youth participatory action research and the emerging area of arts-based approaches to action research.
- A restructured Chapter 5 offers a substantive new introduction , expanded coverage of the proposal and proposal writing, and incorporates narratives from current dissertations to showcase the real world of dissertation writing.
- Chapter 6 includes a new composite illustration of PAR dissertations and adds a completely new case example that reflects the recent dramatic growth of EdD programs with part-time students.
- An all-new Chapter 7 is loosely structured around Guillemin & Gillam’s work that distinguishes between “procedural ethics” and “ethics in action,” and covers the ethical issues commonly encountered in action research.
KEY FEATURES:
- The text provides an interdisciplinary and thorough review of action research for graduate students.
- Case Examples and narratives from current dissertations highlight the real world of dissertation writing .
- Detailed tables offer comparisons of action research and other qualitative techniques, as well as different approaches to action research .
Sample Materials & Chapters
For instructors, select a purchasing option, related products.
Insider action research doctorates: Generating actionable knowledge
- Published: 14 September 2006
- Volume 54 , pages 293–306, ( 2007 )
Cite this article
- David Coghlan 1
The aim of this article is to contribute to understanding of the issue raised when executives do action research in their own organizations for doctorates. There are a number of significant challenges for those executives considering action research in their own organization, which are explored under the headings of, preunderstanding, role duality and organizational politics. The article reflects on the executive action research doctorate in terms of the engagement of the individual manager–researcher in first person inquiry, the collaborative activities with others in second person inquiry and the third person contribution of actionable knowledge to the practitioner and academic communities.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this article
Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)
Instant access to the full article PDF.
Rent this article via DeepDyve
Institutional subscriptions
Similar content being viewed by others
A worked example of Braun and Clarke’s approach to reflexive thematic analysis
Research Methodology: An Introduction
Ethical Issues in Research: Perceptions of Researchers, Research Ethics Board Members and Research Ethics Experts
Adler P.A. and Adler P. (1987). Membership Roles in Field Research. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA
Google Scholar
Adler N. and Shani (Rami) A.B. (2001). In search of an alternative framework for the creation of actionable knowledge: Table-tennis research at Ericsson. In: Pasmore, W. and Woodman, R.W. (eds) Research in Organizational Change and Development, pp 43–79. JAI, Greenwich, CT
Chapter Google Scholar
Adler N., Shani (Rami) A.B. and Styhre A. (2004). Collaborative Research in Organizations. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA
Alvesson M. (2003). Methodology for close up studies – Struggling with closeness and closure. Higher Education 46: 167–193
Article Google Scholar
Argyris C. (2003). Actionable knowledge. In: Tsoukas, T. and Knudsen, C. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Organization Theory, pp 423–452. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Argyris C., Putnam R. and Smith D. (1985). Action Science. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco
Argyris C. and Schon D. (1996). Organizational Learning II. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA
Bourner T., Bowden R. and Laing S. (2000). Professional Doctorates : The Development of Professional Doctorates in England in the 1990s. University of Brighton Education Research Centre, Brighton, UK
Buchanan D. and Badham R. (1999). Power, Politics and Organizational Change. Sage, London
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. (http://carnegiefoundation.org/CID.index/htm accessed 20th August 2005)
Coghlan D. (2001). Insider action research projects: Implications for practising managers. Management Learning 32: 49–60
Coghlan D. (2003). Practitioner research for organizational knowledge: Mechanistic- and organistic-oriented approaches to insider action research. Management Learning 34: 451–463
Coghlan D. (2005). Action research in the academy – Why and whither? Reflections on the changing nature of research. Irish Journal of Management 25(2): 1–10
Coghlan D. and Brannick T. (2005). Doing Action Research in Your Own Organization. Sage, London
Coghlan D., Dromgoole T., Joynt P. and Sorensen P. (2004). Managers Learning in Action: Management, Learning, Research and Education. Routledge, London
Evered M. and Louis M.R. (1981). Alternatives perspectives in the organizational sciences: “Inquiry from the inside” and “inquiry from the outside”. Academy of Management Review 6: 385–395
Gibbons M., Limoges C., Nowotny H., Schwartzman S., Scott P. and Trow M. (1994). The New Production of Knowledge. Sage, London
Gosling J. and Ashton D. (1994). Action learning and academic qualifications. Management Learning 25: 263–274
Gummesson E. (2000). Qualitative Methods in Management Research. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA
Gustavsen B. (2003). New forms of knowledge production and the role of action research. Action Research 1: 153–164
Jarvis P. (1999). The Practitioner–Researcher. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco
Kakabadse A. (1991). Politics and ethics in action research. In: Craig Smith, N. and Dainty, P. (eds) The Management Research Handbook, pp 289–299. Routledge, London
Kolb D. (1984). Experiential Learning. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Krim R. (1988). Managing to learn: Action inquiry in city hall. In: Reason, P. (eds) Human Inquiry in Action, pp 144–162. Sage, London
Levin M. (2003). Action research and the research community. Concepts and Transformation 8(3): 275–280
Lockhart J. and Stablein R. (2002). Spanning the academy-practice divide with doctoral education in business. Higher Education Research and Development 21(2): 191–202
Lonergan B.F. (1957). Insight: An Essay in Human Understanding. Longman, London
MacLean D., MacIntosh R. and Grant S. (2002). Model 2 management research. British Journal of Management 13(2): 189–207
Mezirow J. (1991). Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco
Perry C. and Zuber-Skerritt O. (1992). Action research in graduate management research programs. Higher Education 23: 195–208
Perry C. and Zuber-Skerritt O. (1994). Doctorates by action research for senior practising managers. Management Learning 25: 341–364
Raelin J.A. (2000). Work-Based Learning. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle, NJ
Reason P. (2001). Learning and change through action research. In: Henry, J. (eds) Creative Management, pp 182–194. Sage, London
Reason P. and Torbert W.R. (2001). The action turn: Toward a transformational social science. Concepts and Transformation 6(1): 1–38
Riemer J. (1977). Varieties of opportunistic research. Urban Life 5: 467–477
Roth J., Sandberg R. and Svensson C. (2004). The dual role of the insider action researcher. In: Adler, N., Shani (Rami), A.B., and Styhre, A. (eds) Collaborative Research in Organizations, pp 117–134. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA
Rynes S., McNatt D. and Bretz R. (1999). Academic research inside organizations: Inputs, processes and outcomes. Personnel Psychology 52: 869–898
Scott D., Brown A., Lunt I and Thorne L. (2004). Professional Doctorates: Integrating Professional and Academic Knowledge. Open University Press, Maidenhead, UK
Shani (Rami) AB and Pasmore WA. (1985). Organization inquiry: Towards a new model of the action research process. In: Warrick, D.D. (eds) Contemporary Organization Development: Current Thinking and Applications, pp 438–448. Scott, Foresman, Glenview, IL
Torbert W. (1998). Developing wisdom and courage in organizing and sciencing. In: Srivastva, S. and Cooperrider, D.L. (eds) Organizational Wisdom and Executive Courage, pp 222–253. Lexington Press, San Francisco
Torbert, W.R. and associates (2004). Action Inquiry: The Secret of Timely and Transforming Leadership . San Francisco: Berrett-Kohler
Zuber-Skerritt O. and Perry C. (2002). Action research within organizations and university thesis writing. The Learning Organization 9: 171–179
Download references
Author information
Authors and affiliations.
School of Business Studies, University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
David Coghlan
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Rights and permissions
Reprints and permissions
About this article
Coghlan, D. Insider action research doctorates: Generating actionable knowledge. High Educ 54 , 293–306 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-005-5450-0
Download citation
Published : 14 September 2006
Issue Date : August 2007
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-005-5450-0
Share this article
Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:
Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.
Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative
- insider action research
- executive doctoral education
- Find a journal
- Publish with us
- Track your research
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
Abstract. This paper argues that action research is more appropriate than traditional research for improving practice, and professional and organisational learning. Our particular aim is to help postgraduates in the social and human sciences to understand and clarify the difference between core action research and thesis action research; that ...
research involves action learning, but not vice versa, because action research is more. 4. deliberate, systematic, critical, emancipatory and rigorous. Thus action research is more. relevant to ...
Explains how core action research may be incorporated into thesis research in the social sciences, resulting in more useful outcomes for improving practice. ... Action Research within Organisations and University Thesis Writing. Zuber-Skerritt, Ortrun; Perry, Chad. Learning Organization, v9 n4 p171-79 2002.
Action research within organisations and university thesis writing ... the difference between core action research and thesis action research; that is, between collaborative, participatory action ...
Abstract. The purpose of this chapter is to identify the quality characteristics of an action research thesis, compared to traditional research thesis writing, by drawing on the literature and our experience with supervising and examining action research theses. We identify key problem areas in the literature and suggest effective strategies ...
NEW TO THIS EDITION: New sections in Chapter 1 reflect the changes and ongoing development in the field of action research, such as youth participatory action research and the emerging area of arts-based approaches to action research.; A restructured Chapter 5 offers a substantive new introduction, expanded coverage of the proposal and proposal writing, and incorporates narratives from current ...
Davis J. (2004). Writing an action research thesis: One researcher's resolution of the problematic of form and process. In McWilliam E., Danby S., & Knight J ... & Perry C. (2002). Action research within organisations and university thesis writing. The Learning Organization, 9(4), 171-179. Crossref. Google Scholar. Cite article Cite article ...
Action research within organisations and university thesis writing Buy Article: ... in the social and human sciences to understand and clarify the difference between core action research and thesis action research; that is, between collaborative, participatory action research in the field (aimed at practical improvement in a learning ...
This paper focuses on university-firm relationships in terms of individual interactions between researchers and practitioners. More specifically, we focus on an analysis of the main factors that influence the use of the action research (AR) to achieve a successful doctoral thesis. In order to achieve this, we developed a Delphi study with 15 panelists whose common characteristic is that they ...
Action research is a research method that aims to simultaneously investigate and solve an issue. In other words, as its name suggests, action research conducts research and takes action at the same time. It was first coined as a term in 1944 by MIT professor Kurt Lewin.A highly interactive method, action research is often used in the social sciences, particularly in educational settings.
This paper argues that action research is more appropriate than traditional research for improving practice, and professional and organisational learning. Our particular aim is to help postgraduates in the social and human sciences to understand and clarify the difference between core action research and thesis action research; that is, between collaborative, participatory action research in ...
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how action research may be applied to graduate management research programs. After distinguishing action research from traditional research and establishing that the former is more appropriate for developing managerial competencies than the latter, the paper discusses issues of conducting action research within a graduate management research program.
Zuber-Skerritt, O. and Perry, C. 2002, 'Action research within organisations and university thesis writing' Organisational Learning, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 171-179. Action research within ...
Zuber-Skerrit O, Perry C (2002) Action research within organisations and university thesis writing. Learn Organ 9(4):171-179. Article Google Scholar Zuber-Skerrit O, Wood L, Bob D (2013) Action research for sustainable development in a turbulent world: reflections and future perspectives.
Action research has come to be understood as a global family of related approaches that integrates theory and practice with a goal of addressing important organizational, community, and social issues together with those who experience them (Bradbury, 2015; Brydon-Miller & Coghlan, 2014).It focuses on the creation of areas for collaborative learning and the design, enactment, and evaluation of ...
Becoming critical: Education, knowledge and action research. Geelong: Deakin University . Google Scholar. Carson, T. R. (1997). Reflection and its resistances: Teacher education as a living practice. ... Action research within organisations and university thesis writing . The Learning Organization, 9(4), 171-179 . Google Scholar. Cite article
Doing and writing action research, by Jean McNiff and Jack Whitehead, London, Sage, 2009, 202 pp., $38.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-84787-175-6. Writing up action research has some distinctive ...
My Research and Language Selection My Research Sign into My Research Create My Research Account English; Help and support Help and support. Support Center Find answers to questions about products, access, use, setup, and administration. Contact Us Have a question, idea, or some feedback? We want to hear from you.
Action Research Within Organisations and University Thesis Writing - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site.
The purpose of this chapter is to identify the quality characteristics of an action research thesis, compared to traditional research thesis writing, by drawing on the literature and our experience with supervising and examining action research theses. We identify key problem areas in the literature and suggest effective strategies for meeting these challenges and avoiding pitfalls through ...
Effective change management through action research and action learning ... 2001. 477: 2001: Action research within organisations and university thesis writing. O Zuber‐Skerritt, C Perry. The learning ... Action research for change and development. O Zuber-Skerritt. Routledge, 2021. 304: 2021: The quality of an action research thesis in the ...
The quality of an action research thesis in the social sciences. O. Zuber-Skerritt, M. Fletcher. Published 2 October 2007. Education, Sociology. Quality Assurance in Education. Purpose - The paper seeks to identify the quality characteristics of critical action research and action research theses compared to traditional research thesis ...
There are a number of significant challenges for those executives considering action research in their own organization, which are explored under the headings of, preunderstanding, role duality and organizational politics. ... Action research within organizations and university thesis writing. The Learning Organization 9: 171-179.