Abstract

Conducting long term research in organizational settings which are subject to change and upheaval is particularly challenging. In this paper, an example of practitioner-led action research is described, where managers in a pan-European project to implement new software used collaborative learning techniques to facilitate the emergence of best practice across a glass repair company. Action research provided a framework for managing both the research process and the process of learning and intervention and one of the many learning outcomes from this project is that the quality of such research seems to be inextricably bound with the manner in which the inquiry was conducted. It is suggested that in research collaborations between industry and academia, it is essential to manage the expectations of industry participants and that meaningful collaboration and learning is only possible if the theory, methods and tools employed in the research process are open and accessible to all research participants, not just the academic team. This approach can ensure that key performance indicators for a research project are met for both the industrial and academic teams.