Action research engages people in collaborative inquiry around issues of high mutual concern. Because it is embedded in practice it has clear practical relevance and bridges the theory-practice gap by simultaneously generating novel action and innovative knowledge. As such, it offers a powerful philosophy and approach for scholar-practitioners who want to help navigate the grand challenges that increasingly become the impetus for management and organization studies. In fact, one of the premises of this PDW is that action research plays an important role in developing new knowledge and new forms of knowing for organizational and societal change. It, by definition, does so through participatory inquiry with, rather than on or for, those who are involved. This PDW is directed to doctoral students, their supervisors, and others who are interested in conducting action research as a rigorous approach for impact-driven studies. Indeed, it will be introduced as a pathway for both deeper level understanding and robust, collective action. Participants in this PDW will be invited to focus on their own research context, experiences, ambitions and questions. These will serve as reference points for a shared exploration of action research orientations and principles, design choices, potentials and challenges. Participants will leave with an increased awareness of how to undertake and/or supervise action research as a mode of pragmatic scholarship while increasing participants’ and organizations’ capabilities to learn and change.
