An Assessment of the Scientific Merits of Action Research

1
An Assessment of the Scientific Merits of Action
Research

• Gerald I. Susman Roger D. Evered
• Presented by Scott Hendrickson
• Influenced by Peter Axel Nielsens Action
  Research in IS

2
Crisis in Organizational Science

• Crisis in the field of organizational science
  because
• Research methods and techniques have become
  increasingly less useful for solving practical,
  organizational problems
• Failure to recognize latent values behind the
  claim to neutrality about how knowledge is
  generated
• Research lacks relevance to problems faced in
  real world (separation of theory from practice)
• Really a crisis of epistemology due to adoption
  of a positivist model of science

3
What is Positivist Science

• Positivist science considers scientific knowledge
  to be obtainable only from sense data that can be
  directly experienced and verified between
  independent parties
• The world exists a priori as a unified and
  causally organized system
• The structure of the world can be inferred from
  empirical observation
• Data can be logically reconstructed into laws
  (without regard to associated human meaning)
• World can be hierarchically organized supporting
  induction and deduction

4
Deficiencies of Positivist Science

• Deficient in its capacity to generate knowledge
  for use by members of organizations for solving
  the problems they face because of the following
  assumptions
• Methods are value neutral
• Treats persons as objects of study
• Eliminates the role of history in the generation
  of knowledge
• A system is entirely defined by its denotative
  language
• Knowledge of inquirer can be excluded from an
  understanding of how knowledge is generated

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Solution Action Research

• Action research as a corrective to the
  deficiencies of positivist science...
• is future oriented
• is collaborative
• implies system development
• generates theory grounded in action
• is agnostic
• is situational

6
Action Research

• It aims to contribute to
• the practical concerns of people in an immediate
  problematic situation,
• the goals of social science, and
• to develop the self-help competencies of people
  facing problems
• by joint collaboration within a mutually
  acceptable ethical framework

• A cyclical process with five phases
• diagnosing
• action planning
• action taking
• evaluating
• specifying learning
• in order to develop a client-system
  infrastructure

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Cyclical Process of AR
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Is Action Research Scientific?

• No, when judged by positivist science
• It doesnt meet the covering law criterion
• Actions derive meaning from the end pursued, not
  prior associations
• Planned interventions and social systems cause
  variables to be dependent on context
• Actions are seldom discrete events

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Is Action Research Scientific?

• Yes, given different philosophical viewpoints
• Praxis the art of acting upon the conditions one
  faces in order to change them
• Hermeneutics the interpretation of languages,
  culture, and history (no knowledge is possible
  without presupposition)
• Existentialism asserts the importance of human
  choice and values, with respect to action, avoids
  causal explanations
• Pragmatism shifted the criterion of truth to the
  practical consequences for adopting a particular
  stmt.
• Process philosophies you cannot step into the
  same social system twice, organizations
  constantly change, they are different
• Phenomenology insists on the primacy of
  immediate subjective experience is the basis for
  knowledge
• It generates knowledge which is contingent on a
  particular situation and which develops the
  capacity of members of an organization to solve
  their own problems

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Alternate Criteria and Methods

• Positivist Science
• Explanation
• Prediction
• Deduction and induction
• Detachment
• Contemplation

• Action Research
• Understanding
• Making things happen
• Conjectures
• Engagement
• Action

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Contribution of Action Research

• Contributes differently to the growth of
  knowledge than Positivist Science
• Guides or action principles as opposed to rules
• Practics techniques providing know-how
• Enabling develops interpersonal and problem
  solving skills, competence,
• Infrastructure researcher acquires increasing
  skills of developing organizational
  infrastructure
• Collaboration enlarges domain of inquiry from
  them to us

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Comparisons of PS and AR
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Questions?

• Do you buy the argument for AR as a Science?
• Are the differences of AR from PS strengths or
  weaknesses?
• Explanation, Prediction, Deduction and induction,
  Detachment, Contemplation
• Understanding, Making things happen, Conjectures,
  Engagement, Action
• Can PS be used in conjunction with AR?
• Should AR be use on other types of systems?
• Is PS only appropriate for a very limited set of
  phenomena?