Action Research in Inter-Organisational Networks: Impartial Studies or the Trojan Horse?

Considering the corporeal to facilitate research to practice transitions

Purpose

The authors suggest that the research-to-practice gap, such as that found in evidence-based management, is due in part to a lack of attention to embodied knowledge. The recommendation is for change agents to bring attention to embodied knowing when implementing change based on research. The purpose of the paper is to address the research-to-practice gap.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper that considers limitations of the predominant approach to considering the research-to-practice gap. The literature on phenomenology, feminist theory, and learning theory form the basis for exploring these challenges as well as possible solutions for transcending the research-to-practice gap.

Findings

Strategic opportunities for introducing increased corporeal understanding are advanced. The suggestions address the research-to-practice gap at three critical stages of research-based change initiatives. These include making embodied knowledge integral to change initiatives in framing research, reducing resistance, and increasing acceptance. Among the specific strategies discussed are attending to tacit knowledge when considering the change, embracing the embrained body including attending to kinesthetic resistance and starting with the body to increase acceptance when implementing change.

Originality/value

There has been very little previous attention to the corporeal in management research and practice, including in the organizational change literature. This paper not only increases this discussion significantly but also provides suggestions for how to move forward in practice.

Ethical Challenges in Community-Based Participatory Research: A Scoping Review

Ethical challenges in community-based participatory research (CBPR) are of increasing interest to researchers; however, it is not known how widespread these challenges are or how extensively the topic has been explored. Using Arksey and O'Malley's scoping review method, studies on ethical challenges in CBPR were mapped. Findings indicate that researchers continue to raise questions about ethics associated with CBPR. Our purpose in this article is to present a thematic summary of international ethical challenges as a guide for researchers interested in community participatory approaches and to better prepare them for qualitative health research with communities.