Page 76 - DMGT520_ORGANIZATION_CHANGE_AND_DEVELOPMENT

Unit 5: Diagnostic, Action and Process

3. OD programme leads to meet certain ........................................ in the organisation because Notes
OD is a means and not an end in itself.
4. Intervening in the system refers to ……………….....… of the planned activities during the
course of an OD programme.
5. There is an ……………….. need for careful monitoring to get precise feedback regarding
what is going on as soon as an OD programme starts.

5.2 Action Research: A Process and an Approach

Action research may be described as a process, that is, as an ongoing series of events and actions.
It may be defined as follows:

Action research is the process of systematically collecting research data about an on going
system relative to some objective, goal, or need of that system; feeding these data back into the
system; taking actions by altering selected variable within the system based both on the data
and on hypotheses; and evaluating the results of action by collecting more data.

This definition characterizes action research in terms of the activities the process. First, the
researcher takes a static picture of an organisation. On the basis of “what exists”, hunches and
hypotheses suggest action; these actions typically entail manipulating variable in the systems
that are under the action researcher’s control, which often means doing something differently
from the way it has always been done. Later, the researcher takes a second static picture of the
system to examine the effects of the action. These steps are similar to the steps OD practitioners
use when they execute OD programs.

Several authors have noted the importance of viewing action research as a process. In a study of
the Tremont Hotel in Chicago, William F. Whyte and Edith L. Hamilton described their work as
follows:
What was the project? It was an action-research program for management. We developed a
process for applying human relations research findings to the changing of organisation behavior.
The world process is important, for this was not a one-shot affair. The project involved a continuous
gathering and analysis of human relations research data and the feeding of the findings into the
organisation in such a way as to change behavior.
They study by Whyte and Hamilton is a cogent example of the relation of action research to OD.
Action research is a process in two different ways. It is a sequence of events and activities within
each iteration (data collection, feedback, and taking action based in the data); and is a cycle of
iterations of these activities, sometimes treating the same problem several times and then
moving to different problems.
Action research may also be described as an approach to problem solving, thus suggesting its
usefulness as model, guide, or paradigm. Used in this way, action research may be defined as
follows:
Action research is the application of the scientific method of fact-finding and experimentation to
practical problems requiring action solutions and involving the collaboration and cooperation
of scientists, practitioners, and laypersons.
The desired outcomes of the action research approach are solutions to immediate problems and
a contribution to scientific knowledge and theory. Viewing action research from this perspective
reveals additional important features.
In viewing action research as an approach to problem solving we note the following features:
the centrality of objectives, and the different role requirements of the consultant/change agent

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