Inter-Organizational Action Research

Origins, Traditions and Key Ideas

Ideas for IOAR are particularly associated with Rupert Chisholm in his work on developing networks. IOAR has a number of distinguishing features, including its emphasis on engaging multiple participants from many diverse organizations in complex systems of change.

Key ideas in IOAR are inter-organizing insight, insider-outsider, inter-organizational partnerships or networks, boundary spanner and institutional entrepreneur.

Traditional Action Research

Action research works on the epistemological assumption that the purpose of academic research is not just to describe, understand and explore but to change something. Therefore, there is an opportunity that through action research, an inter-organizational group may question and improve their own thinking and acting about how they work together, be it networking, co-operation or collaboration. The origins of action research lie with system change and improvement simultaneously with generating knowledge about that system, as traced to Kurt Lewin's concern with minority social issues and to developing world applications of Participatory Action Research for social change. These traditions implicitly engage action research across organizational boundaries, as does the tradition of whole industry sector change action research associated with Norway. However, in recent years, greater attention has been accorded to action research within a single organization (intra-organizational action research) and first person action research, focused on the individual's practice development. IOAR has distinctive challenges deriving from the complexity and multiplicity of the actors and groups involved.

Core Components of the Action Research Cycle

IOAR follows the typical action research cycle of pre-step, preparing study, planning, taking action, questioning, reflecting, searching and capturing learning. As with any action research, important elements are who initiates the action research for the cycle to commence and how people are drawn into the processes of inquiry and action. Somebody, somewhere within the inter-organizational system needs to trigger action in the form of a pre-step, meaning that a problem needs to be raised; there needs to be a challenge of taken-for-granted ways of doing things. This catalyst could be a member of one of the organizations, perhaps the lead organization or indeed a person working with the inter-organization arrangement. The initiator, whether individual, group or organization, is described as reflecting qualities of institutional entrepreneurship, in the sense of expressing a vision of divergent change and acting to leverage resources, mobilize allies, develop alliances, create co-operation and bridge political stakeholders across organizational boundaries to push for particular arrangements with regard to a policy interpretation.

Distinguishing Features of Inter-Organizational Action Research

IOAR has been categorized by Chisholm along five dimensions:

• 1.
  Level of system change
• 2.
  Organization of the research setting
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• 3.
  Openness of the action research process
• 4.
  Intended outcomes
• 5.
  Role of the researcher