William Foote Whyte

Participatory Action Research as a Process and as a Goal

Participatory action research is presented as a social research method and process and as a goal that social research should always strive to achieve. After describing the key features and strengths of participatory action research, we briefly analyze its role in promoting social change through organizational learning in three very different kinds of organizations. We argue that participatory action research is always an emergent process that can often be intensified and that works effectively to link participation, social action, and knowledge generation.

Participatory Action Research: Through Practice to Science in Social Research.

Introduction - William Foote Whyte PAR IN INDUSTRY Participatory Action Research - William Foote Whyte, Davydd J Greenwood and Peter Lazes Through Practice to Science in Social Research Participatory Action Research - Larry A Pace and Dominick R Argona A View from Xerox Participatory Action Research - Anthony J Constanza A View from ACTWU Participatory Action Research - Jose Luis Gonzalez Santos A View from FAGOR Participatory Action Research and Action Science Compared - Chris Argyris and Donald Schon A Commentary Comparing PAR and Action Science - William Foote Whyte Research, Action and Participation - Richard E Walton and Michael Gaffney The Merchant Shipping Case Co-Generative Learning - Max Elden and Morton Levin Bringing Participation into Action Research Action Research as Method - Jan Irgen Karlsen Reflections from a Program for Developing Methods and Competence Participant Observer Research - Robert E Cole An Activist Role PAR IN AGRICULTURE Participatory Strategies in Agricultural Research and Development - William Foote Whyte A Joint Venture in Technology Transfer to Increase Adoption Rates - Ramiro Ortiz Participatory Action Research in Togo - Richard Maclure and Michael Bassey An Inquiry into Maize Storage Systems The Role of the Social Scientist in Participatory Action research - Sergio Ruano Social Scientists in International Agriculture Resarch - Douglas E Horton Ensuring Relevance and Conributing to the Knowledge Base Conclusions - William Foote Whyte

Advancing Scientific Knowledge Through Participatory Action Research

This paper aims to demonstrate the value of participatory action research (PAR) for advancing scientific knowledge as well as for solving practical problems. The article supports the argument through brief summaries of three PAR cases in industry: Norwegian shipping, Xerox Corporation, and the FAGOR group of the Mondragón cooperatives. While noting the practical gains achieved through PAR, the author concentrates particularly on the advances in substantive knowledge and theory that would have been unlikely to emerge out of more orthodox sociological research. The author suggests finally that wider use of participatory action research can have a stimulating effect upon the future development of sociology.

The Social Structure of the Restaurant

The social structures of restaurants and factories are contrasted. Increasing size of organization is related to increasing difficulty in co-ordinating restaurant activities. The frictions occuring along the flow of work from kitchen to customer are analyzed in terms of formal structure, interaction, symbols, attitudes, and layout and equipment. Finally, this research is used to illustrate certain general propositions on method and theory.

The Mondragon system of worker production cooperatives

Provides information on the system of production cooperatives in Mondragon, Spain. Components of the system; Brief history of the development of the system; Information on the economic and cultural basis of the system; Ways in which the expansion of production cooperatives has been managed. (Abstract copyright EBSCO.)

Corner Boys: A Study of Clique Behavior

Methods for a study of clique behavior and conclusions drawn from such research are discused. Observation and recording of spatial positions and interactions of corner boys shows that their informal groups are organized on a hierarchical basis. These social structures are built upon mutual obligations. A members behavior is to be explained in terms of his position in his group. Each group has a leader who functions as its chief representative and director of activities. Study of these functions indicates how the position of the corner gang in the community social organization may be determined.

On the Uses of Social Science Research

To provide a basis for judgment on federal support for social science research, in 1985 a task force of the House Science and Technology Committee directed the Congressional Research Service to report on the extent to which such research has proven to be of practical value. The CRS draft report seemed to me to provide a very weak case for such support. When David Jenness, Executive Director of COSSA, brought this report to my attention, I rushed to provide him with further ammunition. An article that appears in an academic journal long after a Congressional Committee has asked for information and ideas will have no influence on Congress, but the problems of demonstrating to policy makers (and to ourselves) the practical utility of social research will remain with us for many years to come. I am not undertaking a broad and general review of the practical contributions of social research. I limit myself to lines of research which I know best. I have been involved in organizational research in industry since 1943 in the U.S., Latin America, and Spain. From 1964 to 1983 I was involved in agricultural and rural development research in Latin America. Throughout my professional career, I have been operating from a secure academic base. Those whose primary experience has been in private consulting or employment in other organizations will, of course, have other perspectives, which I hope they will contribute to further discussion. I begin by summarizing the thesis of the CRS report and adding my own comments. I then raise additional points that help to explain the current weak position of applied social research. Finally, I provide examples of research projects or programs that have been overcoming these limitations. Since the success stories are drawn from my own experience and from that of colleagues who share some of my own interests, what follows may seem self-serving. I could overcome this impression by reporting my own numerous failures to link research with action, but such coverage would require many more pages and would deflect me from the main point of this article: that behavioral scientists are achieving some success in applied research. I also argue for broadening the CRS conception of potential users of social science research. The

FROM HUMAN RELATIONS TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR: REFLECTIONS ON THE CHANGING SCENE

This article is an interpretation of the last fifty years of behavioral science research in industry. The author, who has been active in the field since the early 1940s, describes the development since the late 1960s of two distinct streams of organizational behavior research: a main stream, characterized by a sharp separation between research and practice and rigorous specification and measurement of variables, and an alternate stream, with more applied research and sometimes active involvement in organizational change. Labor and management practitioners today are far more interested in behavioral research—at least that of the alternate stream—than they were in the 1940s and 1950s. From an analysis of the literature on the relationship between worker participation and productivity, the author concludes that the alternate stream offers more promise for advances in both science and practice.

Worker ownership, participation and control: Toward a theoretical model

The administration of the employee-owned or worker cooperative firm must provide for two conceptually separable functions: organizational governance and the management of work. Three theoretical models tend to shape the thinking of those who design the organization: authoritarian, bargaining, and town meeting or community democracy.We review the experience of self-management in Yugoslavia, the Israeli kibbutzim, Mondragon cooperative system, and employee ownership in the United States. We conclude that the model best designed to favor the growth of employee ownership in the United States will be one that combines certain features of all three theoretical models noted above.

Framework for the analysis of industrial relations: Two views

Presents views on the framework for the analysis of industrial relations behavior. Interaction of the systems of communication in labor and management organizations; Relationship between union representatives and management representatives; Origins of a collective bargaining relationship. (Abstract copyright EBSCO.)