"Research Action": Organizational Feedback,Understanding,and Change

Abstract

This article focuses on the relationship between "research" and "action" as contradictory and complementary activities. Recent research and theory indicate the two may be synergistic and difficult to separate. It is suggested that mutual exchange of information between investigator and respondents is critical to both increased understanding ("research") and constructive change ("action"). The events in a case study of organizational diagnosis in a school and the outcomes of feedback of that diagnosis are examined in this context. The data indicate that information sharing improved the relationships between investigators and respondents, improved the quality of the diagnosis, and increased student involvement in school life. Some implications of the concept of "research action" for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alderfer, C. P. Comparison of questionnaire responses with and without preceding interviews. J. appl. Psychol., 1968, 52, 335-340.

Alderfer, C. P. , & Brown, L. D. Designing an "empathic questionnaire" in organizational research, 1972, in press.

Argyris, C. Interpersonal competence and organizational effectiveness. Homewood, Ill.: Dorsey, 1962.

Argyris, C. Intervention theory and method. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1970.

Benedict, B. A. , Calder, P. H. , Callahan, D. M. , Hornstein, H. A. , & Miles, M. B. The clinical-experimental approach to assessing organizational change efforts. J. appl. Behav, Sci., 1967, 3, 347-380.

Brown, L. D. System information processing and change: Response to feedback at three levels of analysis. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Yale University, 1971.

Campbell, D. T. , & Stanley, J. C. Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1963.

Friedlander, F. Behavioral research as a transactional process. Human Org., 1968, 27, 369-379.

Friedlander, F. Emerging blackness in a white research world. Human Org., 1970, 29, 239-250.

10.

Hyman, J. Problems in the collection of opinion-research data. Amer. J. Sociol., 1950, 55, 362-370.

11.

Marrow, A. J. The practical theorist: The life and work of Kurt Lewin. New York: Basic Books, 1969.

12.

Orne, M. T. On the social psychology of the psychological experiment: With particular reference to demand characteristics and their implications. Amer. Psychologist, 1962, 17, 776-783.

13.

Rosenthal, R. Experimenter effects in behavioral research. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1966.

14.

Watzlawick, D. , Beavin, J. , & Jackson, D. D. Pragmatics of human communication. New York: Norton, 1967.