Learning by Doing Organization Research: Inside Views from a Dutch Nephew

The development of organization science is not without concern when it comes to the richness, rigor and relevance of the knowledge production of the discipline. The inner critics of this discipline make frequent calls for better theory, better methods and higher usefulness of the research. This paper suggests that the key to improvement can be found in a more intensive and systematic reflection of the research work itself, and proposes an approach that is not unfamiliar within organization theory: learning by doing. The challenge is to make learning a collective process with an empirical base which goes beyond the accidental inside views and professional anecdotes. This requires the development of a process theory of doing organization research, and this paper attempts to make a step into that direction. The presented improvised framework focuses on three aspects (1) the context (relevant actors), (2) content (theoretical views on doing research), and (3) the research process (sequence of actions). The research strategies are described using six metaphors. The paper is largely grounded on the experiences gathered in the studies on innovation in firms carried out at MERIT throughout the last 15 years, and upon earlier experiences within Philips.