Action research for practising managers

Purpose – The paper seeks to develop a coherent model for the application of action research to problems in the field of management. Design/methodology/approach – An extensive review of the literature was undertaken. Findings – No model of the process of conducting an action research programme is extant in the literature. Several scholars have commented on this anomaly. Action research has many applications and the methodological choice should be determined by the research problem. This paper provides a working model for researchers in the field of management to apply to their research problem, given that they have a reasonable understanding of the problem and can develop their research question by conducting a literature review. Practical implications – Researchers in the field of management can rely on the academic validity of following this model. Originality/value – The ideas of several respected researchers in the field of action research have been combined to provide a coherent approach to the conduct of an action research programme.