DEVELOPMENT A METHODOLOGY FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY ACTION RESEARCH - A CASE-STUDY

This paper describes an approach taken to carrying out multidisciplina ry action research into contract management within the National Health Service. The work forms part of the 'Contracts and Competition Progra mme' funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The members o f the team had little experience of multidisciplinary research prior t o the start of the study and little guidance in this regard is provide d in the management science literature. Hence, there was a clearly ide ntified need to develop an approach capable of guiding the work and en suring that the wide range of disciplinary perspectives within the tea m could be successfully incorporated into an integrated whole. The app roach taken makes use of concepts from soft systems methodology to pro vide an overarching framework for this purpose and this paper reports on its successes and failures.