Participatory Organizational Research: Examining Voice in the Co‐production of Knowledge
| Date | 01 January 2014 |
| Published date | 01 January 2014 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2012.00841.x |
| Author | Richard Gray,Fiona Poland,Anne Killett,Paula Hyde,Diane Burns |
Methodology Corner
Participatory Organizational Research:
Examining Voice in the Co-production
of Knowledge
Diane Burns, Paula Hyde,1Anne Killett,2Fiona Poland2and Richard Gray3
University of Sheffield, Management School, Mushroom Lane, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK, 1Manchester
Business School, University of Manchester, Booth Street West, Manchester, M15 6PB, UK, 2University of
East Anglia, University Research Park, Norwich, Norfolk, NR4 7TJ, UK, and 3University of the West of
England, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, 2G01 Glenside, Bristol, UK
Corresponding author email: D.Burns@Sheffield.ac.uk
This paper advances participatory methods in management research. We propose the
term participatory organizational research to describe this adjunct to action research.
We illustrate the potential of the method to allow sometimes unheard organizational
members to generate alternative perspectives that can offer the potential for the
co-production of new forms of knowledge that are locally relevant. Participatory
methods originate from work with marginalized groups and have been used more com-
monly in community and organizational development. The aim of such research is,
generally, to change the social and organizational conditions within which participants
operate by using their perspectives as active participants to develop alternative possibili-
ties. As such, this research method has significant potential for management researchers
in providing the means for unheard organizational members to voice their perspectives:
a central component, we argue, in knowledge co-production. Based on a participatory
study of care quality in elder care institutions, we examine in detail how participatory
organizational research can enable voice and explore some of the structural limitations
particularly in respect of research ethics.
Participatory organizational research (POR), as a
type of intersubjective qualitative research, has
much in common with other forms of action-
oriented research (Cassell and Johnson, 2006;
Cunliffe, 2011; Reason, 2006) and participatory
approaches to action research have a long history
(Fals Borda, 2001; Freire, 1972; Lewin, 1946;
Reason and Bradbury, 2001). Debates continue
about the relationship between participation, par-
ticipatory methods and action research (see, for
more detail, Brown and Tandon, 1983; Hall, 2005;
Heller, 2004; Kindon, Pain and Kesby,2007). On
the whole, action research has an explicit orienta-
tion towards achieving social or organizational
change at various levels through intense contact
between researcher and community members
researched (Brannick and Coghlan, 2007; Freire,
1972; Huxham and Vangen, 2003; Reason and
Bradbury, 2001) and the results of mutual engage-
ment are commonly referred to as having been
co-produced (Gibbons et al., 1994; Gillard,
Turner and Lovell, 2010; Hyde and Davies,
2004; Macaulay et al., 1999). In addition, POR is
The authors would like to thank the panel group
members, peer researchers, residents and care home staff
and managers who generously gave their time to partici-
pate in the research. The authors are also grateful to the
two anonymous reviewers of the paper and Anne Cun-
liffe who provided helpful comments on an earlier draft,
as well as for the financial support from the Department
of Health and Comic Relief in funding the research study
(PR-AN-0608-1022). The views expressed in this paper
are not necessarily the views of the Department of Health
or Comic Relief.
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British Journal of Management, Vol. 25, 133–144 (2014)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2012.00841.x
© 2012 The Author(s)
British Journal of Management © 2012 British Academy of Management. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA, 02148, USA.
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