Читать книгу 100 Questions (and Answers) About Action Research - Luke Duesbery - Страница 26

Action research fits naturally with business, management, and industry. In business, it is often referred to as participatory action research, and less often as collaborative action research. In a nutshell, the researcher is participating in the research and collaborating with others to find solutions, not simply consuming results from others. Let’s explore an example from industry and business.

Industry and Collaborative Decision Making. At Solar Turbines, a Fortune 500 company owned by Caterpillar, management deployed something they call an Efficiency Board. Solar Turbines designs and builds turbine engines for industry. On this Efficiency Board, any employee can begin a conversation about somewhere they see a possibility for some increased efficiency. Put more plainly, somewhere an employee might see a problem. This is the beginning of the action research process, recognizing an area that needs improvement. The employee writes down and posts a suggestion on the board that is placed prominently on the production floor for all to see. In the case of Solar Turbines, they have a very large facility with varied production buildings dedicated to particular projects, so there is a board in each building. For example, in the machine shop where they craft the actual turbine parts, there is an Efficiency Board. Similarly, in the shipping and receiving facility, there is an Efficiency Board. The board is unlike a simple suggestion box of old; it invites proposed improvement, and the proposal is tracked publicly.

The board looks like a big spreadsheet, each row for an issue and each column to document the progress that issue is making. On the Efficiency Board, the situation is tracked as the issue is explored, from left to right. From the reported potential efficiency, to proposed action, to a data collection plan, a resulting decision, and follow-up data collection to evaluate results. When satisfied, the issue is retired. In this particular example, all stakeholders benefit and do so quickly. The floor worker, the manager, the supervisor, the owner, indeed the shareholders benefit from this approach to dealing with day-to-day issues. Whether the initial suggestion was a good one or was misplaced, the results benefit all. Can a floor employee re-suggest something similar? Of course. This too is a part of action research.

More questions? See questions 13, 14, and 15.