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This paper seeks to raise for discussion and reflection some of the key dynamics of action research projects‐in‐practice. It focuses in particular on how action researchers broker academic and client interests, and how this brokering shifts over time.

The paper is based on participant observation, drawing on the reflective and processual accounts of action researchers involved in a collaborative academic–industry–government project.

The paper argues that the scope of action research projects to effectively address the needs of both audiences is compromised by managerialism in universities and organizations. However, the emergent and chaotic nature of action research provides opportunities for researchers to overcome some of these limitations.

The paper provides a model and case analysis to support critical reflection amongst action researchers.

If the argument of the paper is accepted, then action researchers are required to pay greater attention to the dangers of managerialism in universities, and explore how such dangers can be overcome.

The originality of the paper lies in its self‐critical sociological reflexivity. Its value depends on whether or not this is found to be valuable by action researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the early stages of change and the way that stories can open up forms of collaborative dialogue and creative thinking among divergent stakeholders on known but “intractable” problems by enabling multiple voices to be heard in the co-construction of future possibilities for change. The empirical focus is on a project undertaken by two organizations located in Australia. The organizations – AAC, a large aged care provider and Southern Disability Services, a disability support service – collaborated with the researchers in identifying and re-characterizing the nature of the problem in the process of storying new pathways for tackling the transitioning needs of people with intellectual disabilities into aged care services.

An action research approach was used in conducting interviews in the case organizations to ascertain the key dimensions of the presenting problem and to identify change options, this was followed by an ethnographic study of a Pilot Project used to trial the provision of disability day service programmes within an aged care setting.

A key finding of the study centres on the importance of stories at the early stages of change in widening the arena of innovative opportunities, in facilitating collective acceptance of new ideas and in initiating action to resolve problems. The paper demonstrates how stories are used not only in retrospective sensemaking of existing problems but also in giving prospective sense to the possibilities for resolving protracted problems through innovative solutions that in turn facilitates a level of collective acceptance and commitment to opening up new pathways for change.

The paper focuses on problem characterization during the early stages of change and bring to the fore the often hidden notion of time in utilizing concepts from a range of literatures in examining temporality, stories and sensemaking in a context in which future possibilities are made sense of in the present through restorying experiences and events from the past. On a practical and policy front, the paper demonstrates the power of stories to mobilize commitment and action and presents material for rethinking change possibilities in the delivery of aged and disability care.

This article aims to explore the relationship among high performance work systems (HPWS), innovation, and knowledge sharing in project-based organizations.

Using the ability, motivation, and opportunity (AMO) framework under the theory of HPWS, our article hypothesizes that the AMO enhancing practices of project-based organizations lead to better innovation performance of their employees through the mediating role of knowledge sharing. Time-lagged data of AMO practices and knowledge sharing practices were collected from the employees of these organizations over three weeks. Furthermore, the innovation performance data were collected from the supervisors of these employees over an additional three-week period.

Our results confirm the initial hypothesis of the causal relationship of two of the AMO HRM practices, that is, ability and motivation with innovation performance with the mediation of knowledge sharing, while the third hypothesis of opportunity enhancing HRM practice was not accepted.

This research has implications for both theory and practice and it can help the project managers of these organizations to better design HRM practices in order to improve the creativity and innovation performance of their employees. Accordingly, this is one of the first studies dealing with the effectiveness of HRM on AMO, and the key role of knowledge sharing.

Presents a case study of a new approach to collective storytelling in companies using a highly participative approach in order to create believable and authentic corporate films. An Australian company in the process industry had undergone a large‐scale organizational change project; in order to disseminate the experiences and knowledge gained during the project a corporate film was produced that told the story of the change project. The story and dialogue have been developed by the employees involved in the change project, and shop‐floor workers were cast as the characters of the film. The resulting corporate film has been highly accepted by the employees, who considered it a true and believable representation of their collective experience. Therefore corporate films produced with high levels of employee involvement and participation can provide a powerful and efficient means to capture and disseminate organizational knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how and why personality tests are used in workplace training. This research paper is guided by three research questions that inquire about the role of external and internal stakeholders, the value of psychometric and practical considerations in test selection, and the purpose of personality test use in workplace training.

This research paper uses multiple-case study analysis. Interviews, test reports, product flyers and email correspondence were collected and analyzed from publishers, associations, psychologists and human resource development (HRD) practitioners in Germany, the UK and The Netherlands between 2012 and 2016.

Themes emerge around industry tensions among practitioners and professional associations, psychologists and non-psychologists. Ease of use is a more important factor than psychometrics in the decision-making process. Also, practitioners welcome publishers that offer free coaching support. In the process of using tests for development rather than assessment, re-labeling takes place when practitioners and publishers use positive terms for personality tests as tools for personal stocktaking and development.

Despite extensive data collection and analysis efforts, this study is limited by its focus on a relatively small number of country cases and stakeholders per case.

By combining scientific evidence with practical application, stakeholders can take first steps toward more evidence-based HRD practice around personality testing in workplace training.

Little academic literature exists on the use of personality testing in workplace training. Without a clear understanding of the use of personality testing outside personnel selection, the current practice of personality tests for developmental purposes could raise ethical concerns about the rights and responsibilities of test takers.

The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic review and analysis of existing research articles on new product development (NPD) published in the 12-year period starting from 1998 to 2009.

To explore the articles related to NPD, four key words namely new product, product design, product development and product innovation were used in combination of title or abstract or keyword of the articles through several knowledge databases. The abstracts of journal papers were read and a decision as to whether article belongs to any NPD research issue or not was made. In total, 1,127 research articles were categorized systematically and then analyzed on various principal NPD information groups.

Analysis of selected articles led to a certain level of dispersion in the publication of NPD research in different journals. It is found that more attention needs to be on knowledge and creativity management, communication and information transfer in any NPD process.

By observing extended literature from authors reviewing articles from various journals, growth in research, and variety of topics covered in NPD, a broad systematic multi journal review of NPD literature is clearly overdue. The authors have developed a comprehensive listing of publications on NPD where they have classified the surveyed papers according to various principal NPD information groups like: published year, NPD research stream, type of organization studied (industrial/consumer/service), level of innovation (high/moderate/low), NPD focus on frameworks, performance perspective (success, failure or both), NPD research design (conceptual/empirical and qualitative/quantitative) and NPD relevant best practice element. Based on the classification scheme, the issues were analyzed from the system's perspective and their implications to NPD research.