International award for David Coghlan

August 11, 2021 in coronavirus, Featured News, News

David Coghlan SJ, Associate Professor Emeritus of Business Studies at Trinity College Dublin, has been awarded the Passmore-Woodman Award from the Academy of Management, the pre-eminent professional association for scholars of management and organizations established in 1936.

The award category was that of Organisational Development and Change (ODC). The award was jointly presented to David and his longtime colleague in that field, Abraham B Shani of California Polytechnic State University. The citation from the Acadamy stated, “In recognition of the longevity of your working relationship and outstanding contribution to ODC research.”

David Coghlan wrote his latest book, Collaborative Inquiry for Organization Development and Change, with Abraham Shani, during the Covid-19 crisis whilst living for over a year in what he calls his ‘introverts paradise’.

Both men were cocooned, and there was an eight-hour time difference between them, so one wrote while the other was in bed and then the process was reversed. Drafts were revised on a daily basis and discussed through a nightly Skype call.

It was a fruitful process. The book, completed within four months, is research-based and practical in nature.

David and Abraham use collaborative inquiry as an approach to research and change in organizations where internal members and external researchers work together as partners to address organizational issues and create knowledge about changing organizations. They also analyze the challenges that participants face in building a partnership between researchers and practitioners throughout the phases of collaboration.

David continues to lecture in Business Studies in TCD. He is a leading expert on ‘action research’, and has written many books in that field. He is co-editor of The SAGE Encyclopedia of Action Research. As the name suggests, ‘action research’ involves a business, community, group or individual engaging strategically in research so that a desired action or change results.

Abraham Shami is a Professor of Organization Behavior and Development and, Associate Dean of Faculty and Research at the Orfalea College of Business, California Polytechnic State University.

Both academics have designed and led a variety of courses, seminars, and executive development programmes in universities and third-level institutions around the world, in the areas of Organization Behavior, Organization Design, Organization Change and Development and, Research Methodologies.

David is a member of the Irish Jesuit Province and was a  keynote speaker at the conference on ‘Spirituality in Society and the Professions’ in Waterford Institute of Technology in 2019. His presentation focussed on the inseparability of his academic life and his spirituality and you can listen to him talk about that here in a post-lecture interview with Pat Coyle of Irish Jesuit Communications.