A little less conversation, a little more action: participatory
insider action research in an executive team
Kenefick, David and Kirrane, MelronaORCID: 0000-0002-4831-9411
(2021)
A little less conversation, a little more action: participatory
insider action research in an executive team.
Systemic Practice and Action Research, 35
.
pp. 453-469.
ISSN 1094-429X
In this paper, we describe a Participatory Insider Action Research (PIAR) intervention
within the Executive Committee (EC) of a large publicly funded service for people with
intellectual disabilities. I was a member of this EC and had been for 20 years. The intervention ran over a two-year period and comprised three cycles of PIAR. We addressed
two specific organisational issues but our work did not deliver change in these areas in
a substantial sense. We identify power dynamics and role duality challenges as the core
factors that contributed to this outcome and describe their effects in this under-researched
domain. We finish by offering some advice for future researchers undertaking initiatives of
this nature.