Management and interactive social science: critical participative research

There is a broad humanistic logic for the social scientific study of managerial practice. It is necessary to look closely at managers. One way in which this can be done is using the critical participative mode of management research. Two case studies are presented — a foundry and a telecommunications company — in which this principle was used. As a full-time participant observer within management, the researcher is no longer an ‘outsider’ but part of the ‘team’: it is thus assumed that he/she is there to help the general success of the organisation. Paradoxically, this makes possible a greater degree of critical engagement with practice than is usually possible for a researcher. The same principles can be applied in ways not entailing full-time participation.