Exploring the work and competence of interactive researchers

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the competence in use when working with interactive research, which is a continuation and elaboration of action research. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research approach was adopted for the study. The main body of empirical material in this paper is based on two sources of data – a survey comprising open-ended questions, followed by a series of focus group interviews. The respondents were researchers with varying degrees of experience in using interactive research. Findings: The findings provide illustrations of what characterises interactive research as work and identify an additional set of activities that go beyond traditional research activities. Some activities are relatively easy to describe, while others exist in the gaps between other activities – e.g. boundary spanning – and are harder to explicitly define in terms of implications for the involved researchers’ competence. The work activities reaching beyond the traditional research boundaries are implicit and are not a common shared practice. From a competence point of view, this implies that the competence in use for these implicit tasks of interactive research becomes individually carried. Based on these findings, a number of individual aspects of what constitutes competence in use are suggested. Research limitations/implications: In future studies, it would be valuable to use a mixed-method approach that also includes longitudinal observations of the actual work of conducting interactive research. Practical implications: The findings and suggestions for how to understand the competence of interactive researchers can be used as guidance for training in research education. Originality/value: This study contributes to previous research by describing important requirements and critical elements of competence in use when conducting interactive research