-----Original Message-----
From: Devi Jankowicz <anima@devi.demon.co.uk>
To: pcp@mailbase.ac.uk <pcp@mailbase.ac.uk>
Date: Thursday, June 03, 1999 4:42 PM
Subject: on Action Research
>In regard to our recent dialogue about involving respondents in the
>interpretation of repertory grid information, could I draw colleagues'
>attention to the latest issue of _Management Learning_?
>
>It's a Special Issue devoted to the subject of Action Learning / Action
>Research, edited by Joe Raelin. In my view a quick glance at just his
>editorial would be thoughtprovoking for many colleagues in the PCP field,
>regardless of their likely lack of involvement in the kinds of employee
>and management development issues with which this journal deals.
>
>Here's a whole discipline (Organisation Development: Human Resource
>Development; the Learning Organisation; Organisational Learning etc.)
>which for the last 25 years or so _has taken it for granted_ that the
>individual's active participation in research done _about_ him/her, and
>_on_ him/her, makes for valuable contributions to theory as well as
>practice; a field which, in consequence, has developed rather
>sophisticated ways of handling the implications for research, in
>comparison with which our own recent discussions appear to be somewhat
>feeble.
>
>A field in which people influenced by Kelly (Hunt; Reason; Rowan), as
>well as people who have arrived at views and values similar to Kelly's
>(Argyris; Heron; Allport; Revans; Cassell) have been active, with
>enormous distinction, for years! Just one snippet: our own Don Bannister
>contributed a paper to one of the seminal books in the field edited by
>Reason and Rowan (see below).
>
>Our own worries whether the respondent has a place in designing our
>research (yes, even that!), interpreting the findings s/he has
>contributed, and taking the lead in implementation, seem desperately
>parochial in comparison.
>
>If you want a convenient summary of the current state of play in Action
>Learning; Action Research, and related approaches, please, drop the
>Psychological Laboratory mentality for a few hours, sit back, and have a
>look at the current issue of _Management Learning_!
>
>Kind regards,
>
>Devi
>
>Bannister, D. "Personal construct theory and research method" in Reason
>P., & Rowan J. (eds.) _Human Inquiry: a Sourcebook of New Paradigm
>Research_ Chichester: Wiley 1981.
>
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