In this part of the project, it is necessary to discuss the peculiarities of the methodological techniques and procedures that are applicable to the development and support of leaders in family organisations. The choice of methods in a project is an integral step that determines the tools and the success of the work planned. This choice should be made in regards to the already identified research goals, practical norms, epistemological concerns, and ethical, political, or even some personal characteristics of the field (Buchanan & Bryman 2007). It is suggested to use action learning as the method to promote a leadership-training programme that can be used to mentor future potential and current senior managers in the company. Coghlan and Brannick (2005) introduce action research as a sequence of events that “comprises iterative cycles of gathering data, feeding it back to those concerned, analysing the data, planning action, taking action and evaluating, leading to further data gather” and as an approach to problem solving by means of scientific methods and experimentation (4). To put it differently, the concept of action research implies that the consistent process of processing information retrieved in the course of observations or experiments should be carried out (Ellis & Wright 2013). There are other ways of looking at the subject matter, however. As a rule, several types of action research are identified; these include diagnostic, participant, experimental, empirical ones, etc. (Stringer & Baldwin 2013). Diagnostic action research is aimed at identifying the issue underlying a particular situation, whereas participant ones involve the use of experimental groups or any other form of participants’ involvement for the further data gathering and analysis. As the name suggests, experimental action research requires carrying out an experiment aimed at proving a particular hypothesis. Similarly, empirical action research denotes the study of a certain scenario; however, the given action research type involves the use of a set case that needs a solution. Studies also point to the fact that action research often implies that the service-user relationships should be analyzed in the process and that a connection between the unique characteristics of the end customer (e. g, race, ethnicity, culture, etc.) (Ellis & Wright 2013). By using the principles of action research, one will be able to promote the concept of action learning among the target audience. In other words, the outcomes of action research not only inform the target audience and the author but also incite a further analysis of the situation, thus, prompting the design of an original model for addressing the issue (Chipchase et al. 2014). Therefore, the given research type is bound to help locate the emergent issues and the tools for addressing them in an appropriate manner.
The promotion of learning among the leaders of family organisations is not an easy task that requires a sufficient combination of theory and practice. Still, there is a considerable gap that exists between the theoretical perspective, practice, and research that has to be conducted. Action research is one of the possible solutions to fill in the gap between what has to be studied and done in a learning process (Parkin 2009). It should help to comprehend how managers and leaders may choose and conduct enquiries in order to achieve their goal and improve their practices that can improve the working environment considerably (Koshy 2005).
The success of action research depends on how well all stages of the process are understood and taken. Koshy (2005) offers to consider action research as the process of generation knowledge that is based on the enquiries conducted within a specific context. It is necessary to plan a change first. Then, it is better to observe how the change is implemented and analyse the consequences. Finally, the reflection of the process and its consequences is required. If necessary, the same actions may be repeated to achieve some other results. There are several stages that can be offered to a researcher and the participants to take in order to understand how a learning programme can be introduced to the leaders of family firms:
- The identification of what should be improved (weak points in the system or poor approaches that do not solve a problem);
- The introduction of the reasons for concerns and doubts (why family firms’ leaders want to use a new learning programme);
- The description of the implementations that can be offered (leaders and managers should be interested in a new initiative);
- The collection of information should help to understand why leaders can benefit with a learning programme (cooperation of colleagues and their personal opinions may be used as the background of research);
- The choice of action research methods should be explained (interviews and observations are used to clarify what makes leaders improve their level of knowledge) (Coghlan & Brannick 2005);
- The evaluation of the information found has to be properly introduced in the project (the use of tables or graphs is appreciated).
Taking into consideration the goals of research and the necessity to use action research as the only possibility to promote learning in order to develop and support leaders in family firms, several challenges can be observed. First, it is necessary to talk with potential participants of research and explain their duties and guarantees properly. All participants should realise their roles in the project and share their opinions clearly. Second, action research requires the direct communication with leaders, managers, and educators. The conditions for communication (time, place, and duration) have to be identified and discussed beforehand (Buchanan & Bryman 2007). Finally, the offered action research method helps to find many different pieces of information that has to be generated, analysed and reported in regards to the already determined ethical and theoretical standards (Parkin 2009).
Action research is a longitudinal process that has to be planned thoroughly. As soon as the crucial theoretical aspects are covered and the professional and educational needs are clarified, the time of practical steps comes. Interviews can help to clarify why leaders want to participate in learning programmes and what they expect to get. Observations can be used to identify what actions and reactions may be expected on the basis of the offered learning programme. The tables can be used to generate the research data. The identification of the categories (personal evaluation of knowledge, expectations from the programme, participation in research, and new skills) is necessary. Still, the adjustments of the results are possible because the researcher cannot predict all of them in the interviews. It may happen that some new boundaries are discovered during action research (Coghlan & Brannick 2005). Graphs can help to identify the effectiveness of suggestions in the project.
References
Buchanan, DA & Bryman, A (2007), ‘Contextualizing methods choice in organizational research’, Organizational Research Methods, vol.10, no. 3, pp. 483-501.
Chipchase,L, Hill, A, Dunwoodie, R, Allen, S, Kane, Y, Piper, K, & Russell, T (2014), ‘Evaluating Telesupervision as a Support for Clinical Learning: an Action Research Project’, PBLH, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 40-53.
Coghlan, D & Brannick, T (2005), Doing action research: in your own organization, SAGE Publication, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Ellis, M, & Wright, J 2013, The implementation of problem-based learning as a preferred teaching methodology: an action-research view, Web.
Koshy, V (2005), Action research for improving practice: a practical guide, SAGE Publication, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Parkin, P (2009), Managing change in healthcare: using action research, SAGE Publication, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Stringer, E, & Baldwin, S (2013), Linking teaching, learning and action research in K-12 classrooms for effective instruction, Web.