David Coghlan

The contribution of Edgar H. Schein to the field of management, organisation studies and applied behavioural science is both extensive and deep. For almost 70 years, he has creatively and systematically shaped theory and practice in areas including organisation development and change, career dynamics, the cultural dynamics of complex systems, leadership, process consultation and the clinical inquiry/research paradigm. He has written extensively on the process of organisational change and framed the construct of the clinical approach to research. With such an extensive corpus over such a long period, Schein has been termed a “transcendent thought leader” and it is in this spirit that a volume exploring his work offers a contribution how scholars and practitioners can come to understand their engagement in organisations. This singular volume adopts a reflective perspective on the work of Edgar Schein as a social scientist and shows how he developed his craft as an engaged organisational scholar-practitioner through reflexive attention to his experience in working with managers and organisations and generating knowledge out of action. The intended contribution is both to present Schein’s work to students and scholars of organisation studies and to offer a reflexive methodological framework to engage scholar-practitioner in any field.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

The contribution of Edgar H. Schein to the field of management, organisation studies and applied behavioural science is both extensive and deep. For almost 70 years, he has creatively and systematically shaped theory and practice in areas including organisation development and change, career dynamics, the cultural dynamics of complex systems, leadership, process consultation and the clinical inquiry/research paradigm. He has written extensively on the process of organisational change and framed the construct of the clinical approach to research. With such an extensive corpus over such a long period, Schein has been termed a “transcendent thought leader” and it is in this spirit that a volume exploring his work offers a contribution how scholars and practitioners can come to understand their engagement in organisations. This singular volume adopts a reflective perspective on the work of Edgar Schein as a social scientist and shows how he developed his craft as an engaged organisational scholar-practitioner through reflexive attention to his experience in working with managers and organisations and generating knowledge out of action. The intended contribution is both to present Schein’s work to students and scholars of organisation studies and to offer a reflexive methodological framework to engage scholar-practitioner in any field.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This practical book explores collaborative inquiry as an approach to research and change in organizations where internal members and external researchers work together as partners to address organizational issues and create knowledge about changing organizations.Taking a research-based approach, Abraham B. (Rami) Shani and David Coghlan analyze the challenges that participants face in building a partnership between researchers and practitioners throughout the phases of collaboration. Chapters explore how collaborative partners assess the organization's current and future capabilities by expressing the present and future in creative imagery and by making relevant changes in the organization to create that future. The book examines the theoretical foundations behind collaborative inquiry in addition to the methodologies of this approach to organization development and change.Mapping both the theory and practice of collaborative inquiry, this book will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of organization studies and research methods, particularly those with a focus on business and management. It will also be beneficial for practitioners interested in collaborative and action research modes.

This practical book explores collaborative inquiry as an approach to research and change in organizations where internal members and external researchers work together as partners to address organizational issues and create knowledge about changing organizations.Taking a research-based approach, Abraham B. (Rami) Shani and David Coghlan analyze the challenges that participants face in building a partnership between researchers and practitioners throughout the phases of collaboration. Chapters explore how collaborative partners assess the organization's current and future capabilities by expressing the present and future in creative imagery and by making relevant changes in the organization to create that future. The book examines the theoretical foundations behind collaborative inquiry in addition to the methodologies of this approach to organization development and change.Mapping both the theory and practice of collaborative inquiry, this book will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of organization studies and research methods, particularly those with a focus on business and management. It will also be beneficial for practitioners interested in collaborative and action research modes.

Concise and unintimidating, the fifth edition of this bestselling book is the only pragmatic, quick-start guide to the main theories, issues, and approaches to insider action research. With an encouraging and approachable tone, David is the perfect mentor for anyone conducting action research in their own organization. Calming nerves at the same time as building confidence, he helps readers devise an appropriate research design that anticipates possible challenges and fits within the limits of their environments. A complete do-it-yourself toolkit for every step of the action research process, this edition is outfitted with: Real-world student and professional case studiesAuthor video tipsAnnotated templatesProgress checklistsJournal articles, weblinks, and other further reading. To the point without losing clarity or thoroughness, this book is the hands-on manual for all the need-to-know facts about understanding and undertaking insider action research.

Concise and unintimidating, the fifth edition of this bestselling book is the only pragmatic, quick-start guide to the main theories, issues, and approaches to insider action research. With an encouraging and approachable tone, David is the perfect mentor for anyone conducting action research in their own organization. Calming nerves at the same time as building confidence, he helps readers devise an appropriate research design that anticipates possible challenges and fits within the limits of their environments. A complete do-it-yourself toolkit for every step of the action research process, this edition is outfitted with: Real-world student and professional case studiesAuthor video tipsAnnotated templatesProgress checklistsJournal articles, weblinks, and other further reading. To the point without losing clarity or thoroughness, this book is the hands-on manual for all the need-to-know facts about understanding and undertaking insider action research.

In Conducting Action Research, Coghlan and Shani explain how action research differs from more detached research methods and provides expert guidance on how to engage effectively with it, helping the reader to complete both a successful research project and produce findings that are useful in an organizational context. Ideal for Business and Management students reading for a Master’s degree, each book in the series may also serve as reference books for doctoral students and faculty members interested in the method. Part of SAGE's Mastering Business Research Methods, conceived and edited by Bill Lee, Mark N. K. Saunders and Vadake K. Narayanan and designed to support researchers by providing in-depth and practical guidance on using a chosen method of data collection or analysis.

In Conducting Action Research, Coghlan and Shani explain how action research differs from more detached research methods and provides expert guidance on how to engage effectively with it, helping the reader to complete both a successful research project and produce findings that are useful in an organizational context. Ideal for Business and Management students reading for a Master’s degree, each book in the series may also serve as reference books for doctoral students and faculty members interested in the method. Part of SAGE's Mastering Business Research Methods, conceived and edited by Bill Lee, Mark N. K. Saunders and Vadake K. Narayanan and designed to support researchers by providing in-depth and practical guidance on using a chosen method of data collection or analysis.

Moving away from the common/traditional focus on studying organizations from a distance, this highly engaging book introduces the idea of studying them from the inside. Inside Organizations: Exploring Organizational Experiences guides placement students, and any student undertaking part-time work in an organization, through 'insider inquiry', helping them to develop key reflexive and critical thinking skills for their future careers. It encourages you to pay attention to what goes on in organizations, to question what you experience and ultimately to make sense of how organizations function, helping you to develop key reflexive and critical thinking skills for your future careers. This book is ideal for students on programmes with a placement or internship element such as business and management, nursing and health, and education and is especially useful to those doing reflective journals and essays.

Moving away from the common/traditional focus on studying organizations from a distance, this highly engaging book introduces the idea of studying them from the inside. Inside Organizations: Exploring Organizational Experiences guides placement students, and any student undertaking part-time work in an organization, through 'insider inquiry', helping them to develop key reflexive and critical thinking skills for their future careers. It encourages you to pay attention to what goes on in organizations, to question what you experience and ultimately to make sense of how organizations function, helping you to develop key reflexive and critical thinking skills for your future careers. This book is ideal for students on programmes with a placement or internship element such as business and management, nursing and health, and education and is especially useful to those doing reflective journals and essays.

Organizations change, usually driven by strategies, yet strategic management and organizational change are generally understood as separate domains in the business world. This book integrates the behavioural dynamics of learning, change and strategy at and across individual, team, interdepartmental, group and organizational levels. This new edition emphasizes what can be done in organizations to enable strategy to be effective and to help organizations to change and learn. Central to the book is a reflexive engagement approach through inviting the readers to apply concepts to their own organizational situations and via reflective exercises. The authors also offer cases from a wide range of organizations, from universities to steel and digital businesses. This practical book addresses managers, consultants, students and researchers and provides specific orientation to assist each readership group to learn from its own perspective.

Organizations change, usually driven by strategies, yet strategic management and organizational change are generally understood as separate domains in the business world. This book integrates the behavioural dynamics of learning, change and strategy at and across individual, team, interdepartmental, group and organizational levels. This new edition emphasizes what can be done in organizations to enable strategy to be effective and to help organizations to change and learn. Central to the book is a reflexive engagement approach through inviting the readers to apply concepts to their own organizational situations and via reflective exercises. The authors also offer cases from a wide range of organizations, from universities to steel and digital businesses. This practical book addresses managers, consultants, students and researchers and provides specific orientation to assist each readership group to learn from its own perspective.

Improvement is fundamental to the competitiveness of networks and requires the participating firms to collaborate in identifying and introducing changes. This book presents collaborative strategic improvement as a cycle of activities in which firms in a network can engage together. Drawing on actual cases, authors link this cycle with disciplined action learning as a means of building upon experience generated through collaborative action. They describe how a network can learn from experience and deploy that learning in the marketplace. This unique book brings together the domains of operations management, organizational learning and action learning. From an operations management perspective, the work extends the established concept of strategic improvement in operations to the network within which firms collaborate to improve and to compete. From an action learning perspective, it draws on the emerging literature on network learning, re-frames the established concept of action learning as a learning mechanism and extends action learning into the network setting. Here, it values the inter-organizational insights that emerge through collaboration. Finally, the study articulates a philosophy and a framework for action learning research, extending the reach of action learning beyond practice to knowledge generation. Directed to researchers engaged in active intervention in improvement initiatives in organizations, this insightful book will prove to be a must-have resource. Also, it will appeal strongly to practitioners, including managers and action learning facilitators.Contents: 1. Overture; Part I: The Domains; Introduction to Part I; 2. Collaborative Strategic Improvement; 3. Learning in and Between Organizations; 4. Action Learning in and Between Organizations; 5. Intermission - The State of Our Understanding; Part II: Learning in Action; Introduction to Part II; 6. Collaborative Strategic Improvement Action Learning Programme Design; 7. Effecting Collaborative Operational Strategic Improvement in a Non-Contractual Setting; 8. Effecting Collaborative Operational Strategic Improvement in the Contractual Setting of an Extended Manufacturing Enterprise; Part III: Consolidation; Introduction to Part III; 9. Realizing Strategic Improvement; 10. Guidelines for Realizing Sustainable Strategic Improvement; 11. Action Learning Research in Inter-organizational Settings; 12. Finale; Appendices; Appendix I: National Action Learning Programme (NALP): Background and Overview; Appendix II: CO-IMPROVE: Background and Overview; Appendix III: Introductory Workshop on Action Learning