An experimental investigation of the action research approach

Article Abstract:

Four memorial-funeral cooperative societies were studied to evaluate their dissemination and use of membership survey results. For two societies, an action research approach was used whereby the societies participated in survey planning and received both prescriptive results and technical assistance from the researchers; the other two did not participate in planning and received only descriptive results. Two additional societies also conducted surveys, one as part of the pilot study, the other on its own, with the former receiving assistance. Follow-up interviews with the societies' officers provided evidence that those societies highly involved in the survey planning that received technical assistance disseminated and used the results more often and had more favorable attitudes toward the researchers, than did those societies characterized by low involvement or no assistance. The author finds these results support the efficacy of an action research approach combining self-survey with technical assistance. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Funeral industry

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The use of negotiated order theory as a tool for the analysis and development of an interorganizational field

Article Abstract:

Negotiated order theory provides a useful tool for cooperative planning among organizations, which may be the best approach for addressing shared problems. Organizations can negotiate the terms of their future interactions with one another, and in so doing mold their interorganizational (IO) fields. Representatives of three major food manufacturers sought recommendations for policies and procedures for crisis management related to product tampering. A 2-year project was designed to (a) uncover deficiencies in the IO field's means of managing product-tampering crises, (b) describe the IO field's existing negotiated order related to such crises, and (c) recommend ways in which the IO field's highly fragmented negotiated order could be transformed to achieve greater unity. The case presented provided the groundwork for an extension of negotiated order theory to interorganizational relations. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Analysis, Interorganizational relations

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The use of survey results by democratically controlled organizations

Article Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to investigate the degrees of promulgation and utilization of the results of a survey of fifteen food cooperatives done three years earlier. Through telephone follow ups it was discovered that geography played an important role, in usage as cooperatives closer to the center doing the survey displayed more indications of use, and previously unknown instances of use were also discovered. Results indicate that such follow-up studies are a realistic way to determine actual instances of applications as opposed to broad conclusions concerning value. The study also stimulated interest in the cooperatives studied in handling research efforts of their own.

Usage, Telephone surveys

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