Summary
Contents
Subject index
This handbook provides the latest thinking, methodologies and cases in the rapidly growing area of collaborative management research. What makes collaborative management research different is its emphasis on creating a close partnership between scholars and practitioners in the search for knowledge concerning organizations and complex systems. In the ideal situation, scholars and their managerial partners would work together to define the research focus, develop the methods to be used for data collection, participate equally in the analysis of data, and work together in the application and dissemination of knowledge. The handbook contains insightful reflections on the state of the art as well as detailed descriptions of the collaborative efforts of an international group of leading edge academics and their practitioner counterparts. The applications of collaborative research methods included in this volume include those aimed at individual development, organizational development, regional development efforts and economic policy. The insights from the cases suggest that collaborative management research has been a highly effective means of getting at issues that other research methods and intervention techniques have failed to address. The rationale for conducting this highly engaging type of research is explored in the first section of the handbook, followed by sections that offer new methodologies, descriptive cases, views from those directly involved, and issues and enablers about the use of this approach in advancing knowledge and practice. The handbook does appeal to scholarly practitioners as well as practical scholars.
Collaborative Management Research Through Communities of Inquiry: Challenges and Skills
Collaborative Management Research Through Communities of Inquiry: Challenges and Skills
Abstract
Communities of inquiry, whereby distinct communities of practice (i.e., managers and researchers) form a community of inquiry, are an important way of engaging in collaborative management research. At the same time, the collaborative management research process influences the development of the community of inquiry. The interplay between collaborative management research and the community of inquiry has received little attention in the emerging body of knowledge. Following a brief discussion of the basic notions of community of inquiry, this chapter explores the dynamic interface between collaborative management research and the creation and development of a community of inquiry. Next, it focuses on the complex dynamics and challenges of a community of inquiry by using a framework that enables us to work with task and relational issues in terms of content, process, and culture. Finally, it explores the notion of quality in a community of inquiry.
Areview of the literature on collaborative management research, including the contributions to this volume, points to a lack of awareness on the part of participants of the importance of paying attention to how the simultaneous evolution of the research task and the relationships in the community of inquiry affect the outcomes of collaborative research efforts. Just setting out with an intention to collaborate in conducting research is not enough to assure high-quality outcomes for either science or the organization (see Pasmore, Woodman, & Simmons, Chapter 27in this volume). We believe strongly that it is the responsibility of researchers, and not their managerial collaborators, to develop and bring the right set of skills to the table. Without a greater understanding of what these skills are, or how they affect the outcomes of collaborative management research, it is unlikely that the quality of collaborative research efforts will improve.
The starting point for this chapter lies in the notion that collaborative management research activities trigger the development of a community of inquiry as a way of engaging in this form of research. Such a community integrates a variety of communities of practice, such as communities of managers, researchers, disciplines, functions, and organic units or subunits within and outside a system. The quality of a community of inquiry has a great deal to do with its effectiveness in producing practical and scientific outcomes. To date, little research has been conducted on the factors that affect the formation of vibrant communities of inquiry, although the chapters in this volume will certainly add to our understanding of this topic. To research a community of inquiry requires a holistic understanding of its key elements and complex dynamics and a heightened awareness of the skills that are required to first define the task and relationship factors involved in collaborative inquiry and then examine how these factors affect the quality of research efforts. The chapter is organized in three sections: The first introduces the notion of communities of inquiry and discusses how collaborative management research facilitates the creation of a community of inquiry out of the engagement of communities of practice; the second focuses on the dynamics and challenges of a community of inquiry through a framework that enables us to work with task and relational issues in terms of content, process, and culture; and the third section explores notions of quality in a community of inquiry.
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