Recent Trends in User Studies - Action Research and Qualitative Methods

21/03/2023, 01:07 Recent trends in user studies: action research and qualitative methods
Information Research, Vol. 5 No. 3, April 2000
Recent trends in user studies: action research and qualitative

methods
T.D. Wilson, Ph.D.

Department of Information Studies
University of Sheffield
Sheffield, UK
Abstract
This paper was commissioned by Professor Gernot Wersig of the Freie Universität,
Berlin in 1980, as part of his Project, Methodeninstrumentarium zur
Benutzforschung in Information und Dokumentation. It attempted to set out what
was, for the time, a novel perspective on appropriate methodologies for the study of
human information seeking behaviour, focusing on qualitative methods and action
research, arguing that the application of information research depended upon its
adoption into the managerial processes of organizations, rather than its self-
evident relationship to any body of theory. It is presented here as it was originally
written, with the figures re-drawn.
Contents
1. ‘Information science.’
2. Information science and the information user.
3. The information user in his contexts.
4. Information need.
5. User studies and research methods.
6. Action research.
7. Qualitative research.
8. Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Notes
References
1. ‘Information science’
In the past twenty years we have witnessed a continuing debate on the nature of
'information science’, in events such as the Aberystwyth conference of 1975 (Debons &
Cameron, 1975) and in papers such as those by Belkin (1978), Farradane (1976) and
Debons (1980). This debate has been characterized as much as anything by confusion:
confusion over the nature of 'science' as an enterprise, confusion over the possibilities of
a 'unifying theory' of information science, and confusion over the distinction between
the practice of information work and the pursuit of information science.
This being the case, it is necessary for the author of this paper to state his position,
which can be summed up as follows:
https://informationr.net/ir/5-3/paper76.html 1/18
'information science' is a multi-disciplinary field, the research 'objects' of which range from
chemical formulae for which efficient storage is being sought in computer memories to
people behaving in particular ways to obtain needed information; therefore,
a 'unifying theory' is unattainable: the research objects are so diverse, representing so many
'integrative levels' that theories drawn from many disciplines are needed to guide effective
research on each distinct sub-branch of 'information science';
furthermore, because those who practise information work are in a position to determine
research problems, to provide the research environments, and to accept or ignore research
findings, there is a strong push towards making information science an applied science rather
than a basic science.
The danger here of course is that problem-solving on a pragmatic basis may take the
place of scientific research, allowing even less theoretical work capable of being
applied.
This paper, therefore, addresses some of the issues which the author sees as a
consequence of the 'confusion' mentioned earlier.
2. Information science and the information user
However we define it, and from whatever year we choose to date it, information science
has been concerned with the information user. For example, the Royal Society Scientific
Information Conference (1948) contained several seminal studies of information users
(notably by Bernal and Urquhart) and by the time its successor was held, ten years later,
(International conference on scientific information, 1958) the subject had become a
veritable industry with the 'Literature and reference needs of scientists,' attracting
thirteen papers from the USA, the UK, Czechoslovakia, and Scandinavia. By 1977 Ford
was able to identify more than 200 investigations (mostly published since 1970) worth
listing in a literature review. By general consensus over the years all of this attention has
led to no very serious conclusion. In 1960, for example, Menzel noted:
To date there has been little awareness of the wide range of significantly different
topics and relationships that have been and can be explored in studies of scientists'
information-gathering behavior and experiences.' (Menzel, 1960:2)
Five years later Paisley found no great improvement:
‘Since no noticeable effort has been made to replicate methods we now have a
collection of case studies whose findings can be compared only if a ceteris paribus
assumption is stretched over gross differences in procedure.' (Paisley, 1965:11 - 1)
In his review of the 1967 literature Paisley also noted that, as a consequence of the
'shallow conceptualization' in information user studies,
'... it is hard to glimpse a real scientist or technologist at work, under constraints

and pressures, creating products, drawing upon the elaborate communication
network that connects him with sources of necessary knowledge.' (Paisley, 1968:2)
In some degree or other the three elements these writers drew attention to in the 1960s
have been reiterated by other researchers and writers ever since:
inadequate exploration of significant relationships;

non-comparability of results; and
shallow conceptualization.
Whether this situation can ever be resolved to everyone's satisfaction is debatable, but
the remainder of this paper can be viewed as a personal response to the issues raised.
3. The information user in his contexts
The 'user' may be found in many communication/information contexts and 'user studies'
need to distinguish among these contexts before research is planned. This process may
also help the researcher to draw upon related concepts and theories from these
alternative contexts.
The contexts that appear to be appropriate for 'user studies' and within which
investigations have been carried out include:
the user as communicator, drawing upon personal or organizational information resources in

communicating with organizational colleagues or fellows in society; the research literature in
these areas is to be found in social psychology (e.g., McQuail, 1975) and in communication
studies generally (see, for example, a recent collection edited by Weinshall, 1979);
the user as information-seeker; 'communicator' covers virtually all other contexts, but within
communication information-seeking may be identified as a separate task and one which
involves not only inter-personal communication, but also:
the use of formal information systems, defined widely, as any device, product or system
intended for information representation, storage, conservation, retrieval, or re-packaging.
That is, for example, any library, information service, abstracting journal, primary journal,
on-line bibliographic data base, organizational record file, etc., etc. User studies in the past
have often been studies of the interaction of people with systems (e.g., Burns & Hasty, 1975)
or enquiries into the use of systems in general (e.g., Bernal, 1948) rather than the study of
underlying needs;
the user as a recipient of information services: not all information systems/services are
passive, some take their products to the user: SDI and current awareness bulletins are the
most common examples in information science but radio or TV news bulletins can be looked
at in the same way. The typical mode of research in this area is evaluation, principally of
automated SDI services, which seeks to establish some kind of index of 'success' for the
service (e.g., Dugger & Klinger, 1967; Dammers, 1974);
the user as a user of information: paradoxically, user studies has been concerned with almost
everything apart from the use to which information is put by the recipient or information
seeker. The reason for this seems to be a desire to draw policy conclusions (either for a
single information agency or more generally) from data on aggregated behaviour rather than
a desire to understand the user.
The implications of this brief (and, possibly, incomplete) analysis are rather
straightforward: a total view of the information user will demand attention to all of
these aspects, and any partial view demands rigorous definition of which context
applies.
4. Information need(1)
The concept of 'information need' is central to the study of the user in any of the above
contexts and, considering this centrality, it is rather surprising that confusion exists over
the definition of the term.
Part of the difficulty lies with the troublesome concept 'information'. Numerous
definitions have been evolved and recently there have been attempts at a single concept
of information for information science (e.g., Belkin, 1978). However, the problem
seems to lie not so much with the lack of a single concept but with a failure to
distinguish among alternative, common-sense meanings of the word 'information'. It can
be variously understood, in the context of user-studies research, as a physical entity or
phenomenon (as in the case of questions relating to the number of books read in a year,
the number of journals subscribed to, and so on), as the channel of communication
through which the data are transferred (as when we speak of the incidence of oral versus
written communication), or as the subject data contained in a document or transmitted
orally. Information may also be understood as factual data objectively transferred, or as
advice or opinions into which value judgements enter.
These multiple uses of the term cause confusion because researchers sometimes fail to
distinguish between one sense and another or simply leave the reader to discover which
sense is meant by reading the paper or report. Even then, it is sometimes unclear which
of the senses the researcher had in mind when setting the research objectives.
The confusion has a more fundamental basis, however: it lies in the mere association of
the two words 'information' and 'need'. This association imbues the combined concept
with connotations of a basic 'need' qualitatively similar to other basic 'human needs'.
However, if we examine the literature on human needs we-find that it is divided by
psychologists into three categories:
physiological needs, such as need for food, water, shelter etc,
emotional or 'affective' needs, such as the need for attainment, for domination, etc,
cognitive needs, such as the need to plan, to learn a skill, etc.
(See, for example, the entry for the word NEED in Eysenck, et al., 1972)
Taking the three categories of personal needs, it will be quickly recognized that they are
inter-related: physiological needs may trigger affective and/or cognitive needs, affective
needs may give rise to cognitive needs, and problems relating to the satisfaction of
cognitive needs (such as a failure to satisfy needs, or fear of disclosing needs) may
result in affective needs (eg for reassurance). These inter-relationships are expressed in
Figure I, which shows that, as part of the search for the satisfaction of these needs, an
individual may engage in information-seeking behaviour: indeed, it may be advisable to
remove the term 'information needs' entirely from our professional vocabulary and to
think instead of 'information-seeking towards the satisfaction of needs.'
This is not to suggest that some affective or cognitive need will immediately 'trigger' the
response of information-seeking. Many factors other than the existence of a need will
play a part: the importance of satisfying the need, the penalty incurred by acting in the
absence of full information, the availability of information sources and the costs of
using them, and so forth. Many decisions are taken with incomplete information or on
the basis of beliefs, whether we call these prejudice, faith or ideology. So, information-
seeking may not occur at all, or there may be a time delay between the recognition of
the need and the information-seeking acts, or, in the case of affective needs, neither the
need nor its satisfaction may be consciously recognized by the actor, or a cognitive need
of a fairly low level of salience may be satisfied by chance days, months or even years
after it has been recognized, or the availability of the information may bring about the
recognition of a previously unrecognized cognitive need. These factors are represented
in figure I as personal, interpersonal, and environmental barriers to information-seeking.
If we take the earlier analysis of the definitions of information we can see that the
different senses are more or less related to the above needs. Thus:
the factual content, or subject data, or a document may satisfy cognitive needs, in fact this is
the usual sense in which we think about the use to which information is put. However, it may
also satisfy affective needs such as the need for security, for achievement, or for dominance.
Some documents are designed exactly with affective needs in mind from pornography to the
Tibetan 'Book of the dead';
the channel of communication, particularly the choice of oral channels may well be guided
by affective needs as much, if not more than, by cognitive needs. For example in seeking
information from a superior someone more interested in being recognized and accepted as a
particular kind of person than in the actual subject content of the message: in other words he
may be seeking approval or recognition. The transfer of information to others may also be
done for affective reasons: for example, to establish dominance over others by reminding
them that you are better informed and, therefore, in some sense superior;
the physical document may satisfy an affective need as when someone collects rare bindings
because of their beauty, or illustrated books for the same reason. Under extreme
circumstances documents may serve physiological needs as when the tramp on the park-
bench covers himself with newspapers to avoid freezing to death.
The fact that information may be represented in modes other than the physical
document should not be ignored, of course, particularly when those modes have either a
strong influence in a culture (e.g., television) or when the mode offers the possibility of
interaction (e.g., computer conferencing). Choice of modes to use in searching will be
guided not only by cognitive needs (e.g., when it is known that an appropriate data-base
is on-line) but also by affective needs (e.g., the greater visual variety offered by TV) and
by other environmental or economic factors.
If, as suggested here, personal needs are at the root of motivation towards information-
seeking behaviour, it must also be recognized that these needs arise out of the roles an
individual fills in social life. So far as specialized information systems are concerned
the most relevant of these roles is 'work-role', that is, the set of activities,
responsibilities, etc of an individual, usually in some organizational setting, in pursuit of
earnings and other satisfactions.
At the work-role level it will be clear that the performance of particular tasks, . and the
processes of planning and decision-making will be the principal generators of cognitive
needs; while the nature of the organization coupled with the individual's personality
structure will create affective needs such as the need for achievement, for self-
expression, and self-actualization. The particular pattern of needs and the resulting form
of information-seeking behaviour will be a function of all of these factors, plus factors
such as the organizational level at which a role is performed and the 'climate’ of the
organization.
Again, the search for determining factors related to needs and information-seeking
behaviour must be broadened to include aspects of the environment within which the
work-role is performed. The immediate work-environment and its 'climate' has been
mentioned above, but the socio-cultural environment, and the physical environment will
all have an impact in particular ways. The relationships will be too numerous to detail
here but examples can be instanced:
the economic climate and the differential stratification of resources will define some work
environments as 'information-poor' and others as 'information-rich' with consequent effects
upon the probability of information-seeking behaviour and the choice of channel of
communication;
the political system may define certain types of information as forbidden to particular groups
(including the general public) and, consequently, the non-availability of this material may
affect performance in specific work roles;
the physical environment will have clear effect upon the performance of work-roles and
upon cognitive, affective and physiological needs, determining, for example, the physical
conditions within which work is performed and the type of cognitive need that may result
(questions emerging out of drilling for oil in the North Sea are likely to differ in many cases
from those that emerge out of drilling in Saudi Arabia).
Figure 1 presents a view of probable inter-relations among personal needs and these
other factors. When we talk of "users' information needs", therefore, we should not have
in mind some conception of a fundamental, innate, cognitive or emotional 'need' for
information, but a conception of information (facts, data, opinion, advice) as one means
towards the end of satisfying such fundamental needs. Most user-studies research has
suffered from its concentration on the means rather than on the ends and it is this that
has led to dissatisfaction with the results of such research since the service implications
of the results have been far from obvious. There are exceptions: the Baltimore study-
(Warner, et al., 1973) comes immediately to mind but even here, I think, the analysis
has not been fully followed through to its logical conclusion.
5. User studies and research methods
From the analysis in Sections 3 and 4 it will be clear that 'user studies' is a term which
covers a very wide range of potential research, from the study of users' choices of books
from a university library, through reactions to on-line search outputs, to the in-depth
analysis of the underlying needs that result in information-seeking.
It should be equally clear that this implies the use of not one model of the research
process or one method of research but multiple models and methods. However, in the
past the dominant model has been that of 'scientific method' (often mis-interpreted) with
the large-scale social survey as the predominant method of data collection. It is not
suggested here that the 'scientific method' is necessarily inappropriate in the study of
information users. The process of problem definition, classification of phenomena,
hypothesis formulation, data collection, hypothesis testing and so forth, and the
interaction of theory and method, is probably relevant to any kind of study. The point at
issue, however, is whether quantitative methods have been employed in user studies
inappropriately.
Quantitative social survey methods are powerful data collection devices, so much so
that they are often misused to collect a great deal of data without the researcher having a
theoretical (or even descriptive) framework into which to fit the data. In effect,
collecting data becomes a substitute for thinking about the problem. This is to criticise
the unthinking application of methods, rather than the methods themselves.
As a result, it might fairly be said that the practitioners of information work have been
disappointed by user-studies research, largely because they fail to find within it
recommendations for service provision. Equally, information researchers have generally
failed to make an impact within any social scientific discipline because their work lacks
integration with theories within those disciplines. It is suggested below that the answer
to the first of these problems may lie in turning to a different model of research, where
its application or utilization is considered to be part of the process. An answer to the
second problem is more difficult to propose because it is bound up with the problems of
socialisation into research within a field of practice without a research tradition:
'qualitative research' is proposed as a way of confronting directly the issue of the lack of
theory in user studies.
6. Action research
Information work is carried out in the context of organizations. Either:
the work is done for people who work within organizations, or

the work is done by an organization for the benefit of the community at large.
Much information research, therefore, must be related to the organizations or

organizational sub-units in which information work is practised, and information
workers will generally be more hospitable towards applied research,
Even applied research findings, however, may not find immediate utilization, no matter
how well or how widely they are disseminated. The reasons for this become apparent
when we compare 'pure scientific research' and its utilization with 'applied
organizational research' and its utilization, as in Figure 2.
In science research findings are 'used' insofar as they add to, change or refute elements
of the total body of scientific knowledge. The diffusion of research findings, therefore,
can lead directly to their utilization since the practice of science is scientific research.
The process of research utilization in organizations is not quite as straightforward. To
begin with, the findings must be perceived by managers as relevant to the organization;
they must then have sufficient weight or persuasive power to cause the manager to
contemplate changing some aspect of organizational structure, technology, tasks or staff.
Clearly, the changes must also carry with them the promise of reduced costs or
improved performance or both. Organizations, however, are generally resistant to
change and there is a definite gap between intention to change as a result of research
findings and the actual accomplishment. Resistance to change is, in fact, one of the
principal causes of organizational failure.(2)
The issues of organizational change and research utilization are tackled directly by
'action research', which, as Foster (1972) notes, owes its origins to Lewin and the
Research Centre for Group Dynamics in the USA. Definitions of action research vary,
depending, to some extent, upon the sphere of action of the writer. Cherns offers a
useful definition which emphasises the research elements:
'We have come to regard action research not only as a technique for engaging with
organizations but also as a methodology for obtaining otherwise unavailable
information and, above all, as a strategy for the diffusion of knowledge.' (Cherns,
in Clark, 1972 :xi)
Others emphasize the action elements:
'Action research aims to contribute both to the practical concerns of people in an

immediate problematic situation and to the goals of social science by joint
collaboration within a mutually acceptable ethical framework.' (Rapoport,
1970:499)
If we think of action research as being concerned with organizational change, then an

appropriate question is: 'With what aspects of the organization may action research be
concerned?' Figure 3 suggests an answer:
The crucial organizational variables are the structure of the organization the
technology(3) used for the accomplishment of tasks, and the people who use that
technology within the organizational structure. Each of these variables may be subject
to change and it is quite likely that change in any one may result in a need to change
others. We are probably most familiar today with the idea of ‘technological change' and
it is not unknown, even in conservative organizational sub-units like information
services, for such change to bring about a need for new organizational structures or a
need for different kinds of people to use the new technology.
A need for change maybe the result not of changes in technology, but of less dramatic
phenomena. Organizational growth, for example, may overwhelm existing structures,
leading to inefficient task performance. In other words, the 'problematic situation'
mentioned by Rapoport as a precursor of research may arise in any of these
organizational elements and for a variety of reasons. When such situations do occur they
offer an opportunity for action research.
Although action research has been pursued chiefly in organizations there is no need to
restrict its application in this way. Services to neighbourhoods or entire communities
may equally be the focus of the method. The situation is more complex, of course, when
it comes to gaining 'entry' to the community at large for the purpose of research and
when gaining local support for community innovation but, in principle, community
processes and institutions are as available to action research as the processes and
structures of organizations.
That opportunities are readily taken by action researchers can be indicated by drawing
attention to the wide range of issues and contexts that action research has been
concerned with, from leadership development in Japanese shipyards (Misumi, 1975),
through social work (Lees & Lees, 1975) and the probation service (Fineman & Eden,
1979), to various aspects of education: adult education for rural people (Bowers, 1977),
experiential education (Margeris, 1973) and 'merging male and female athletic or
physical-education departments' (Parkhouse & Holmen, 1978).
We can now return to the user of information and ask, 'How is action research
applicable to him?' Again, the answer can be given diagrammatically:
If we consider any information agency in terms of the four variables identified by Clark
it is clear that the user of such an agency may be affected by any one of the four.
Change in the needs of users over time may require changes in the way service tasks are
performed; or changes in technology may enable an information service to perform
tasks in service for the user not possible previously; or the needs of users may require
the appointment of subject-specialized personnel to deal with them; or the growth of the
number of users to be served (e.g., as a result of urban expansion) may lead to new
organizational structures (e.g., branch library services). The examples could be
multiplied many times over but the essentials
are there in the diagram: action research may be used to create a match between:
users and the organizational structure;

users and the tasks performed in serving them;
users and those who serve them; and
users and the technology used to deliver service.
Because action research requires an organizational or community setting the key

element in the total process is negotiation: that is, coming to agreement with the chief
executive and staff of the organization on the conditions under which the research will
be permitted, on the rights of the organizational members, and on the rights of the
researchers.
The process of negotiation whereby agreement on these issues is reached will be

affected initially by whether the approach is from the organization to the researcher, or
from the researcher to the organization. In the first case the organizational problem has
been recognized by someone in the organization who seeks research help; in the second
case the possibility of a problem or set of problems is postulated by the researcher who
then seeks an organizational setting for the work.
When the researcher makes the approach, certain issues are likely to arise:
the problem postulated by the researcher may not exist, or it may be the surface effect of
more' deeply-rooted problems. As a result, if this is not detected sufficiently early, the
researcher may be faced with issues and difficulties for which he is totally unprepared;
a variation of this is that the problem presented by the researcher may not be recognized by
organizational management as a problem;
the source of the problem is believed by the researcher to be in the organization but believed
by management to be in the environment or in some controlling body;
the concern of the researcher, in presenting his perception of organizational problems, may
be in research as an academic activity: it may be difficult to negotiate, therefore, if he fails to
realize that the manager may be more concerned with survival or growth;
is acceptance of the researcher's ideas a ploy in a personal power-game, etc., rather than a
genuine recognition that the problems outlined are real?
will key individuals seek to direct the research towards justification of decisions already
taken?
In brief, if the researcher is to be successful in negotiation he must be sensitive to these

issues.
Although problems are likely to arise at almost any stage of an action research
programme (as in any other kind of research) the process itself is relatively easy to
describe, at least in 'ideal type' terms. Figure 5 is an attempt to illustrate the essentially
cyclical nature of the process. In theory the process could continue indefinitely but,
clearly, at some point an optimum position may be reached with regard to whatever
aspect of organizational functioning is under investigation to allow the outside
researcher to withdraw. Alternatively, the research element in the process may be taken
over by organizational members themselves and continued until a satisfactory position
is reached.
Something has been said already about the negotiation phase of action research, but the
remaining elements in Figure 5 can be expanded as follows:
Data collection: all standard methods of data collection may be employed in an action
research programme. In the work described in the following chapters it will be seen that
observation and interviewing were chiefly employed but self-observation through diary-
keeping(4), self-completed questionnaires, activity records, and the analysis of
documents may all be appropriate. The nature of the organization, the degree of co-
operation that can be achieved, and the research aims will influence the final choice.
Data feedback: is an essential element in action research, which distinguishes it from

much other research. Much research is never reported directly to those from whom the
data were collected but, in action research, feedback is essential if management and
other organizational members are to be persuaded of the need for action. The feedback
may be done by written report, by oral presentation at meetings, or by both of these
means. The use of the data in in-house training courses may well be the most effective
way to give feedback.
Discussion: follows naturally upon the feedback phase, particularly in oral presentations
and training programmes. Ideas for action may emerge early in an observation phase but
the researchers' ideas will be modified in the course of translating them into action.
Action plans: are simply the conversion of the previous discussions into statements of
intent and detailed descriptions of changes to be made or innovations to be introduced
into a system. A detailed time-table will be needed and a clear understanding must be
established of the different needs of the researcher and the practitioner. This may require
further negotiation and the appointment of a steering group for the duration of the
research so that researchers and members of the client organization have a forum for the
discussion of problems as they arise.
Implementation and monitoring: the idea of 'implementation’ is self-explanatory; the

action plan is put into effect, the intended time-table is adhered to (as far as possible),
and the separate activities that constitute the change or innovation are embarked upon.
What puts the research element into this is, of course, the monitoring process.
Monitoring is simply another phase of data collection and the remarks made above
under that heading apply here. Monitoring may involve the collection of records of
various activities. For example, in assessing the use of a current awareness bulletin one
may conduct interviews with users on the uses to which the documents they received
were put, as well as collecting aggregate data on the circulation of the bulletin, demands
arising, the sources from which demands were satisfied, and costs.
Evaluation: involves the assessment of all data collected during the monitoring process
(both quantitative and qualitative) with a view to determining the 'success', 'usefulness',
or 'value' of the innovation. In many cases value judgements are bound to enter into the
treatment of-data, particularly in the weight given to different kinds and sources of data.
Such value judgements must be clearly exposed to the organization in the next phase.
Feedback: the monitoring process is necessary to enable the client organization to

decide whether to continue an innovation, extend its scope, change it in some way
indicated by the data, or end it. So that the appropriate decision can be reached it is
necessary to engage in another feedback round: again this may be a written or oral
presentation or (preferably) both. Discussion of the data, and the researcher's evaluation,
may reveal alternative lines of action not perceived by the researcher, leading naturally
to another round of investigation.
Problem re-definition, etc.: if any action other than ending the innovation results from
the evaluation it will be necessary to redefine the problem and engage in another round
of data collection, action planning, etc. At this stage the researcher may withdraw,
leaving the organization to pursue the research process alone, may remain as an advisor
giving technical assistance on method etc., or may remain fully involved. Clearly, this
will depend upon the needs and wishes of the organization and upon the availability of
research funds.
As noted earlier, the above description defines an 'ideal type' of action research and
projects may vary in the emphasis given to one phase or another, in the extent to which
the actions are viewed as experimental or permanent changes, and in the degree of
involvement of the client organization’s managerial or other staff. At this point,
therefore, it is necessary to show how a specific project matched the 'action research’
model.
Project INISS(5) was described from the planning stage as an action research project in
which there would be three stages:
a period of data-collection through structured observation in departments which would
thereby give the research staff insights into the day-to-day functioning of departments as
well as allowing the development of research hypotheses;
a stage of structured interviews to allow for the collection of a greater amount of data to test
research hypotheses developed following the third stage; and
a period of experimental implementation of innovations in information services following
upon the feedback of data from stages one and two and the choice of innovations in
consultation with departmental management and field staff.
The project, therefore, might be described as being 'research-led' rather than arising
spontaneously out of problems perceived by the participating organizations. This,
however, is too simplistic a view: the project had its origins in the research forum
mentioned earlier. Top of the participants' list of priorities was a set of studies on
'…the present state of information exchange ... including case-studies of social

services departments, their channels of communication, the information-seeking
behaviour or practitioners and the dissemination of research findings to them.'
(Mann and Wilson, 1974:25)
Furthermore, the process of identifying interested departments and then negotiating

entry ensured that the research would be carried out in departments that saw
communication and information transfer as problematical.
In general, the project followed the course described above as an ideal type: after the
first period of data-collection by observation the results were fed back to the subjects in
the form of 'narrative accounts', and, following the interview stage, reports were
submitted to each participating organization. Further feedback took place during the
negotiation stages which prefaced the experimental innovations.
The 'action plans' for the innovations were developed through discussions with
management and with a 'steering group' for each innovation. Following implementation,
monitoring and evaluation reports were made to the participating departments and
further action ensued.
Another project in the UK which was going on at the same time as Project INISS was
conducted in Wiltshire Social Services Department (Blake et al., 1979). Very little
methodological information is available for this project but it is clear that it too, was
research-led although apparently less dependent upon data-collection and more
concerned with the qualitative analysis of information needs. The final report on the
Project is not yet available.
In the USA Olson (1979) has employed an action-research approach in the analysis of
the impact of information innovations on R & D projects. One of Olson's conclusions is
extremely interesting as it draws attention to a benefit which is not usually sought from
a 'normal' research project but which is typical of an action-research project:
'It is clear that a major benefit of doing experimental research in a company is the
surfacing of the entire range of factors which affect the project's success and
greater awareness of the importance of the problem.' (Olson, 1979:IV-5)
The question may be asked: 'Is it possible to move from action research to the more
generally understood model of scientific, empirical research?' To a certain extent this
reverses what is generally seen as the direction of influence between the two modes. For
example, Clark (1972) notes that action research is 'a strategy for distributing
knowledge' and that the 'rules of the game' 'differ sharply from those adopted in
presenting papers to colleagues in the scientific community. ' However, Clark also notes
that action research is concerned with adding to the stock of social science knowledge
and it appears that this may be achieved at least two ways:
a) a practical situation of problem solving offers the possibility of testing

social/behavioural science models and theories in the 'real world.' Given sufficient case
studies involving similar situations, an appreciation of the congruence between theory

and reality can be achieved; and
b) the process of testing theory in the real world will lead to modifications in those
theories, which will result in the formulation of hypotheses which require empirical,
quantitative testing.
There should be no doubt, however, that action research is an applied research strategy
which deals with practical problems. It is not 'pure' research and never can be; the
establishment of links between 'action' and 'science' is a matter for the action researcher
to wrestle with in the course of his investigations.
7. Qualitative research
Action research had its origins in the behavioural science approaches to organizational
research and in training and organizational development (OD). Action research is
defined by French and Bell (1973) as an integral part of the OD consulting process.
'Qualitative research', another emerging trend in information science had its origins in
sociology - or, rather, in social anthropology via sociology.
Up to the 1960s it is fair to say that the dominant 'school' in sociology, particularly in
the USA, was functionalism, with Parsons (1951) as the 'headmaster'. The emphasis of
functionalism was upon causal relationships with a strong quantitative, statistical
component. As a recent text on social research method puts it:
'In general, the structural functionalist tends towards macrotheoretical

considerations. He ... tends to analyze social behavior by identifying structural
antecedents to behavior and assessing these behaviors in :terms of their functional
or disfunctional aspects ... Behavior is characteristically defined as the result of
factors acting upon individuals "causing" them to behave in a certain way. '
(Hartman & Hedblom, 1979:53)
This quantitative, causal analysis approach is also associated with the term 'positivism':
a term of abuse in the writings of some authors. Essentially, positivism identifies the
rational approach of the physical sciences (although, with the development of quantum
mechanics the notion of rationality itself is somewhat at risk even within physics, see,
for example, Zukav (1979)).
Brown notes:
'With respect to the human studies, these philosophical canons of natural science
require that persons be redefined as objects. People become bodies, actions become
motions, situations become events. Cognition is separated into objective and
subjective dimensions — corresponding to the primary and secondary qualities of
things in the external world.' (Brown, 1977: 80)
Brown comments further, in discussing the various schools that have arisen in response
to positivism:
'The naturalistic fact-world is not in itself a finding of science, it is a presupposition

or assertion about the nature of Being in general ... positive science gives
procedures for identifying shared attributes and temporal correlations of entities ...
Yet, ... these procedures offer no help in knowing either the nature of the entities
themselves or the meaning or relevance of the attributed causes, probabilities or
laws.' (Brown, 1977:94)
This philosophical shift from social facts as objective facts to the idea of facts as
subjectively and socially constructed has come to be associated with the concept of
qualitative research - indeed, it can be said that the ideas are necessarily associated
since a change in the metaphysical basis of investigation demands a change in methods
of research.
In the field of economics Piore came to a similar conclusion noting that 'information' in
this field is synonymous with the values of parameters in an economic model:
'...limited information ... in economics generally means lack of information about

the precise value of a given set of variables.' (Piore, 1979:565-566)
He comments further:
"This conception of the problem, however, obscures a priori step in the

epistemological process, identifying the variables that are worth estimating in the
first place. Econometrics avoids this step by drawing upon economic theory. But
economic theory also skips this step! It attributes to the economic actors a priori
knowledge about how the world is structured and what the values in the relevant
variables actually are ... [but] it is not at all clear how the actors acquire the
knowledge that economists attribute to them ..." (Piore, 1979:: 566)
The methodological consequence for Piore was to use open-ended, unstructured

interviewing rather than the structured schedule he had employed at the beginning of his
investigation. The result, for Piore, was striking:
"The stories [free-flowing comment in interviews] revealed that the processes of

technological change and labor allocation, indeed the basic process of business
management, were totally different from the ways in which the original project had
been conceived.' (Piore, 1979: 561)
The methods employed in qualitative research overlap to some extent those of

traditional 'quantitative' social research in that they include interviewing but the
qualitative researcher is likely to use less formally structured interviewing procedures
and may, in addition, use methods such as observation, free-flowing discussion, and the
analysis of documents, whether personal or organizational, produced by the subjects.
Under one school of thought, 'Qualitative research ... is concerned with developing
concepts rather than applying pre-existing concepts,' (Halfpenny, 1979) and, given the
state of theory in information science (that is, its undeveloped state) it can well be
argued that 'developing concepts' is what is needed. At a recent seminar at the Open
University some of the main points of difference between quantitative and qualitative
research were identified by speakers:
the epistemological issue is fundamental: social phenomena are different in kind from
physical phenomena and the fact that different ways of knowing are appropriate should
direct one's entire research strategy;
associated with this is the notion of differing perceptions of the same phenomena or
situations by the different actors, and the need to uncover these perceptions through the
choice of appropriate method;
the in-depth analysis of situations and their perception is more appropriately undertaken
through the study of cases than through the study of samples;
the analysis of case data proceeds by interpretation rather than by causal analysis. It is here
that problems arise in demonstrating the rigour of qualitative research and of revealing how
the interpretation has been performed;
to speak of 'data' in qualitative research may be misleading: the word 'evidence' may be more
appropriate since the relevance of the evidence to the research objectives involves a greater
exercise of judgement than in quantitative research;
in qualitative research the emphasis is on interpretative analysis and understanding, while in
quantitative research the emphasis is on causal analysis and predictive understanding;
finally, the application of the results of qualitative research must take place through a
comparison of a given situation with that reported: the researcher says, "This is what I
believe to be the case in the situations I have studied. Examine my evidence and my
interpretation and consider for yourself whether the conclusions I reach are applicable
to your situation. ' In quantitative research the results and conclusions are presumed to
be of general applicability because of the representative nature of the sample members.
Qualitative research seems particularly appropriate to the study of the needs underlying
information-seeking behaviour because:
our concern is with uncovering the facts of the everyday life of the people we are studying;
by uncovering those facts we aim to understand the needs that exist which press the
individual towards information-seeking behaviour;
by better understanding of those needs we are able to understand what meaning information
has in the everyday life of the people; and
by all of the foregoing we should have a better understanding of the user, be better able to
design more effective information services, and be better able to create useful theory of
information-seeking behaviour and information use.
8. Conclusion
This paper suggests a number of related propositions:
that 'information science' is a multi-disciplinary field rather than a single, united discipline;
that information science studies of information users have often been unsatisfactory because
of, (a) a lack of theory to guide research; and (b) an overly crude use of social research
methods;
that the development of a theory of information-seeking behaviour and information use must
be related to factors that generate cognitive and affective needs in individuals and their
resulting goal-seeking behaviour;
that, methodologically, these relationships are more likely to be found through the use of
qualitative research methods, certainly as a preliminary to quantitative research and,
possibly, as a complete alternative; and
that the insights gained through basic research are most likely to find practical application
through action research in organizations.
These propositions are closely inter-related and, clearly, may be seen as the basis of a
plan to improve the quality of user studies research, its application to systems and more
effective systems design.
A shift of focus in information science research towards qualitative methods and action
research would support the proposition that information science is a social science by
insisting upon the more intelligent use of social research methods for the development
of models from the point-of-view of the philosophy of social (rather than physical)
science. It would require that such models pay more attention to the behavioural and
organizational contexts of information-seeking than hitherto, and to the totality of
information resources and transfer mechanisms. Information science is likely to make
more progress in this way than by seeking to evolve on the basis of socially sterile
models from cybernetic theory.
An information science firmly founded upon an understanding of information users in

the context of their work is also likely to be of more use to the information practitioner
by pointing the way to practical innovations in information services and to potentially
beneficial associations with other communication/information-related systems. It does
little injustice to the historic record to suggest that information sercice has developed
more by copying previously-existing examples than by genuine analysis of the needs of
potential users. An orientation towards the user in the true sense, that is, avoiding
preconceptions about what constitutes 'information' while concentrating upon the
problems that create cognitive and/or affective needs in the information user, must result
in a greater humility about the potential value of traditional information practices and a
greater willingness to innovate and experiment.
Acknowledgements
My thanks first, to Professor Gernot Wersig for taking the trouble to discover a copy of
this report in his archives, which are obviously much better organized than my own! At
the time the report was written, it owed much to the work I had carried out on the INISS
project with my colleagues, David Streatfield, Christine Mullings, Barbara Pendleton
and Vivien Lowndes-Smith, and I would like to acknowledge my debt in this re-
publication.
Notes:
1 The ideas presented here also appear in a paper submitted for publication (Wilson,
1980)
2 The additional, methodological point made in the diagram is that pure scientific
research is incremental because of continued attention to the same problems usually by
more than one researcher or research team. Applied organizational research has no such
guarantee of continuity or replication.
3 'Technology' as used here simply means 'the ways in which things are done.'
4 See Stewart (1979) for an excellent survey of the advantages and disadvantages of
diaries for data-collection in organizational research.
5 The acronym stood for two titles over the life of the Project: 'Information needs and
information services in local government social services departments', and 'Information
innovations in social services'. (Wilson and Streatfield, 1977; Wilson, Streatfield and
Mullings, 1979, Streatfield and Wilson, 1980)
Bibliographical note: I suggest that the appropriate bibliographic reference for this
paper should be:
Wilson, T.D. Recent trends in user studies: action research and qualitative methods.
Berlin: Freie Universität, Institut fűr Publizistik und Dokumentationswissenschaft,
1980. (Projekt Methodeninstrumentarium zur Benutzerforschung in Information
und Dokumentation, MIB P1 11/80) Available at:
http://InformationR.net/ir/paper76.html
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How to cite this paper:
Wilson, T.D. (2000) "Recent trends in user studies: action research and qualitative
methods" Information Research, 5(3) Available at: http://informationr.net/ir/5-
3/paper76.html
© the author, 2000. Last updated: 18th March 2000
Articles citing this paper, according to Google Scholar
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21/03/2023, 01:07 Recent trends in user studies: action research and qualitative methods

Information Research, Vol. 5 No. 3, April 2000

Recent trends in user studies: action research and qualitative

T.D. Wilson, Ph.D.

2. Information science and the information user

Five years later Paisley found no great improvement:

'... it is hard to glimpse a real scientist or technologist at work, under constraints

inadequate exploration of significant relationships;

3. The information user in his contexts

the user as communicator, drawing upon personal or organizational information resources in

5. User studies and research methods

Information work is carried out in the context of organizations. Either:

the work is done for people who work within organizations, or

Much information research, therefore, must be related to the organizations or

Others emphasize the action elements:

'Action research aims to contribute both to the practical concerns of people in an

If we think of action research as being concerned with organizational change, then an

users and the organizational structure;

Because action research requires an organizational or community setting the key

The process of negotiation whereby agreement on these issues is reached will be

In brief, if the researcher is to be successful in negotiation he must be sensitive to these

Data feedback: is an essential element in action research, which distinguishes it from

Implementation and monitoring: the idea of 'implementation’ is self-explanatory; the

Feedback: the monitoring process is necessary to enable the client organization to

'…the present state of information exchange ... including case-studies of social

Furthermore, the process of identifying interested departments and then negotiating

a) a practical situation of problem solving offers the possibility of testing

studies involving similar situations, an appreciation of the congruence between theory

'In general, the structural functionalist tends towards macrotheoretical

'The naturalistic fact-world is not in itself a finding of science, it is a presupposition

'...limited information ... in economics generally means lack of information about

"This conception of the problem, however, obscures a priori step in the

The methodological consequence for Piore was to use open-ended, unstructured

"The stories [free-flowing comment in interviews] revealed that the processes of

The methods employed in qualitative research overlap to some extent those of

This paper suggests a number of related propositions:

An information science firmly founded upon an understanding of information users in

Belkin, N. (1978) 'Information concepts for information science.' Journal of Documentation

How to cite this paper:

© the author, 2000. Last updated: 18th March 2000

Articles citing this paper, according to Google Scholar

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