Special Issue on Action Research In Information Systems: Making IS Research Relevant to Practice—Foreword

This work believes action research methods provide one potential avenue to improve the relevance of IS research and sees no reason why action research should not be accepted in the field of information systems.

Abstract

There have been frequent calls for IS researchers to make their research more relevant to (Zmud 1998), yet it seems IS researchers continue to struggle to make excellent research practically relevant. We believe action research methods provide one potential avenue to improve prac tical relevance of IS research. Action research has been accepted as a valid research method in other applied fields such as organization development and education, (e.g., Carr and Kemmis 1986; Elden and Chisholm 1993; Van Eynde and Bledsoe 1990). It has been described as the touchstone of most good organizational develop practice and remains primary methodo logy for of organizational develop ment (Van Eynde and Bledsoe 1990, p. 27). We see no reason why action research should not be accepted in field of information systems.