ACTION RESEARCH ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE

• ACTION RESEARCH
  ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE
• HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF ACTION RESEARCH:KURT LEWIN FIRST COINED THE TERM ACTION RESEARCH IN 1944. IN 1946 HIS PAPER “ ACTION RESEARCH AND MINORITY PROBLEMS “ HE DESCRIBED ACTION RESEARCH AS A COMPARATIVE RESEARCH ON THE CONDITIONS AND EFFECTS OF VARIOUS FORMS OF SOCIAL ACTION AND RESEARCH LEADING TO SOCIAL ACTIONS THAT USES A SPIRAL OF STEPS EACH OF WHICH IS COMPOSED OF A CIRCLE OF PLANNING,ACTION AND FACT FINDING ABOUT THE RESULT OF THE ACTION:
1. UNFREEZING
2. CHANGING
3. REFREEZING
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• WENDELL L FRENCH AND CECIL BELL DEFINED OD AT ONE POINT AS ORGANIZATION IMPROVEMENT THROUGH ACTION RESEARCH.
  
  
• INTRODUCTION OF ACTION RESEARCH

1. ACTION RESEARCH ATTEMPTS TO MEET THE DUAL GOALS OF MAKING ACTION MORE EFFECTIVE BUILDING A BODY OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AROUND THE ACTION.
2. ACTIONS IN THIS CONTEXT REFERS TO PROGRAMS AND INTERVENTION DESIGNED TO SOLVE PROBLEMS AND IMPROVE CONDITIONS.
3. KURT LWEIN PROPOSED AN ACTION RESEARCH AS A NEW METHODOLOGY FOR BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE.
4. LEWIN BELIEVED THAT RESEARCH ON ACTION PROGRAMS ESPECIALLY  SOCIALLY CHANGE PROGRAM WAS IMPERTIVE IF PROGRESS WERE TO MADE IN SOLVING SOCIAL PROBLEMS.
5. ACTION RESEARCH WOULD ADDRESSES SEVERAL NEEDS SIMULTANEOUSLY:-

1. PRESSING THE NEED FOR GREATER KNOWLEDGE ABOUT CHANGES AND DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL ILLS
2. THE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE LAWS OF SOCIAL CHANGE
3. NEED FOR GREATER COLLABORATION

• MEANING OF ACTION RESEARCH
• MAY BE DESCRIBED AS PROCESS THAT IS ON GOING SERIES OF EVENTS AND ACTIONS
• ACTION RESEARCH IS THE PROCESS OF SYSTEMATICALLY COLLECTING RESEARCH ABOUT ONGOING SYSTEM RELATIVE TO SOME OBJECTIVE,GOALS OR NEED OF THAT SYSTEM,FEEDING THESS DATA BACK INTO THE SYSTEM TAKING ACTIONS BY ALTERING SELECTED VARIABLES WITH IN THE SYSTEM BASED BOTH ON THE DATA AND ON HYPOTHESES AND EVALUATING THE RESULT OF ACTIONS BY COLLECTING MORE DATA.

• ELEMENTS OF ACTION RESEARCH

1. RESEARCHER TAKES A STATIC PICTURE OF AN ORGANIZATION
2. ON THE BAIS OF HYPOTHESES AND SUGGEST ACTION
3. THESE ACTIONS ENTAIL MANIPULATING THE VARIABLES IN THE SYSTEM THAT ARE UNDER ACTION RESEARCHER’S CONTROL WHICH OFTEN MEANS DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENTLY FROM THE WAY IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN DONE

·         PROCESS OF ACTION RESEARCH:-

·         THE CYCLE BEGINS WITH A SERIES OF PLANNING ACTION INITIATED BY THE CLIENT WITH THE HELP OF CONSULTANT WORKING TOGETHER:

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a)    PRELIMINARY DIAGNOSIS

b)    DATA GATHERING

c)    FEED BACK

d)    JOINT ACTION PLANNING

·         THE SECOND STAGE OF ACTION RESEARCH IS ACTION OR TRANSFORMATION STAGE.THIS STAGE INCLUDES ACTIONS RELATING TO LEARNING PROCESS.

• PROCESS OF ACTION RESEARCH
• FRENCH PROVIDED ACTION RESEARCH MODEL FOR ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT WHICH IS ITERATIVE AND CYCLICAL
• KEY ELEMENTS OF THE ACTION RESEARCH MODEL:_

1. DIAGNOSIS
2. DATA GATHERING
3. FEEDBACK TO THE CLIENT GROUP
4. DATA DISCUSSION
5. WORK BY THE CLIENT GROUP
6. ACTION PLANNING

• THE SEQUENCE TENDS TO CYCLICAL WITH THE FOCUS ON NEW ADVANCED PROBLEM AS THE CLIENT GROUP LEARNS TO WORK MORE EFFECTIVELY TOGETHER.
• ACTION RESEARCH

1. IT IS SEQUENCE OF EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES WITH IN EACH ITERATION( DATA COLLECTION,FEEDBACK AND TAKING ACTION)
2. CYCLICAL ITERATION OF THESE SOMETIMES TREATING THE SAME PROBLEMS MANY TIMES AND THEN MOVING TO DIFFERENT PROBLEM
3. ACTION RESEARCH MAY ALSO BE DESCRIBED AS AN APPROACH TO PROBLEM SOLVING,SUGGESTING USEFUL MODEL

• ACTION RESEARCH IS THE APPLICATION OF THE SCIENTIFIC METHODS OF FACT FINDING AND EXPERIMENTTATION TO PRACTICAL PROBLEMS REQUIRING ACTION SOLUTIONS AND INVOLVING THE COLLABORATION AND COOPERATION OF SCIENTISTS,PRACTITIONERS AND LAYPERSONS
• SHEPHERD’S CONCEPT OF ACTION RESEARCH MODEL
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• EXPLANATION OF SHEPARD MODEL

1. HIGHLIGHT THE RELATION AMONG GOALS,PLANNING AND ACTION
2. HE AND FRENCH STRESSES THE ACTION RESEARCH IS RESEARCH INEXTRICABLY LINKED TO ACTION
3. IT IS RESEARCH WITH PURPOSE THAT IS TO GUIDE PRESENT AND FUTURE ACTION
4. THE ROLE HIGHLIGHTED BY SHEPARD OF CONSULTANT/CHANGE AGENT:
5. ROLE IS TH HELP THE MANAGER PLANNING HISA ACTION
6. DESIGN FACT FINDING PROCEDURE
7. HELP IN MANAGER REALISTIC GOALS AND BETTER WAYS OF MANAGEMENT

• FEATURES OF ACTION RESEARCH

1. NORMATIVE FEATUER OF THE MODEL
2. CENTRALITY OF OBJECTIVE
3. DIFFERENT ROLE REQIURMENT OF THE CONSULTANT AS WELL AS THE CHANGE AGENT
4. ADDITIONAL FEATURES:
5. ELEMENSTS OF THE ACTION RESEARCH MODEL THAT LINK IT TO THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF INQUIRY
6. COLLABORATIVE RELATION AMONG SCIENTIST,PRACTITIONERS AND LAYPERSONS
7. INCREASED RICHNESS OF KNOWLEDGE DERIVED FROM ACTION RESEARCH

• EXAMPLE

1. PROBLEM IS UNPRODUCTIVE STAFF MEETING-THEY ARE POORLY ATTENDED,MEMBERS EXPRESS LOW COMMITMENT  AND LOW INVOLVEMENT
2. MANAGER OF STAFF AND MANGER OF THE MEETING IS THE SAME PERSON AND HAS DESIRE TO MAKE THE MEETING MORE VITAL AND PRODUCTIVE.

• HE WILL FOLLOW THIS ACTION RESEARCH MODEL:-

1. GATHER DATA ABOUT THE STATUS QUO
2. DATA SUGGEST THE MEETING ARE GENERALLY DISLIKED AND REGARDED AS UNPRODUCTIVE
3. SEARCH FOR THE CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM AND GENERATE ONE OR MORE HYPOTHESES THAT WILL MAKE THE GROUND TO TEST THES HYPOTHESES

• HYPOTHESES WHICH WILL HAVE TWO ASPECTS GOAL AND ACTION TO ACHIEVE THE GOAL

1.     STAFF MEETING WILL BE MORE PRODUCTIVE IF I SOLICIT AND USE AGENDA FROM THE STAFF RATHER THAN HAVE THE AGENDA MADE UP JUT BY ME

2.     STAFF MEETING WILL BE MORE PRODUCTIVE IF I ROTATE THE CHAIR OF THE MEETING AMONG THE STAFF RATHER THAN MY ALWAYS CHAIRPERSON

3.     STAFF MEETING WILL BE MORE PRODUCTIVE IF WE HOLD THEM ONCE A WEEK INSTEAD OF TWICE A WEEK

4.     I HAVE ALWAYS RUN THE STAFF MEETING IN A BRISK –ALL BUSINESS NO NONSENSE FASHION PERHAPS IF I ENCOURAGE MORE DISCUSSION AND AM MORE OPEN ABOUT HOW I AM REACTING TO WHAT IS BEING SAID THEN STAFF MEETING WILL BE MORE PRODUCTIVE.

• EXAMPLE OD INVENTION CYCLE 1
• CLIENT SYSTEM DESIRES TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ORGANIZATION. THEY DECIDE TO HIRE CONSULTANT TO APPLY VARIOUS ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS
• STEPS:-

1. PROBLEM
2. DISCUSSION BETWEEN CONSULTANT AND CLIENT
3. DISCUSSION ON USING OD INTERVENTION
4. DATA COLLECTION
5. APPLICATION OF DATA TO CLIENT SYSTEM
6. EVALUATING THE DATA
7. ASSESSING BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION
8. FEEDBACK

• EXAMPLE OD INVENTION CYCLE 2

1. PROBLEM UNRESOLVED
2. DISCUSSION BETWEEN CLIENT AND BEHAVIORAL CONSULTANT
3. NEW OD INTERVENTION
4. DAT COLLECTION
5. INTERPRETATION OF DATA
6. APPLICATION OF DAT
7. MEASURING ORGANISATION EFFECTIVENESS
8. FEEDBACK