Bruce

Neely Gardner’s Action Training and Research Approach to Education and Organization Development

Raymon R. Bruce, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, University of Electrical Science and Technology China

Abstract:

Neely Gardner was a pioneer in the field of Organization Development in the 1950s. This paper examines how Neely Gardner created Action Training and Research and its evolution as a social action research framework for managing social change in organizations. As the Training Officer for the State of California, Gardner developed training as an approach to combine Action Research methods of Kurt Lewin and Eric Trist to energize the management of social change in public and private sector organizations. Later, in 1967-1972 Gardner designed and implemented his approach for using action research and organizational training at California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund. Gardner called it, Action Training and Research. In 2005, Theodore C. Smith proposed a theory in his published dissertation that the Action Training and Research and Action Learning traditions could form the basis for linking in other Action Research traditions for the development and organization of new learning organization institutions. This paper uses four subsequent Action Training and Research practitioner cases to examine the viability, value, and limitations of joining Action Training and Research and Action Learning to access other Action Research tradition as resources for them in managing social change efforts in Organization Development.

Key Words: Action Research, Training, Education, Organization Development