Using a research-based approach to improve organisational performance in Knowledge Exchange: an appreciative inquiry

The purpose of this research project was to enhance organisational performance in Knowledge Exchange, through a cultural change to a UK Higher Education Institution; the University of West London (UWL). Arising from being both a work-based project intended to have a transformative effect on the organisation and doctoral level research, an Action Research (AR) approach was taken to integrate the business and research aims. The research was designed to address four challenges identified from literature, by: building on and with the prevailing UWL culture; taking a collaborative approach to embed cultural change; harnessing individual academic autonomy and choice; and including appropriate measures to understand causal links between culture change, entrepreneurial orientation, and performance. These four challenges were addressed through using Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as the form of AR. Phase One of the research identified ways in which UWL could increase its entrepreneurial orientation and encourage academic staff to engage with Knowledge Exchange (KE). Phase Two focussed on delivery of activities linked to four priority themes that arose from the Phase One research: KE Strategy, KE Support, KE Recognition, and KE Reward. This approach built on the prevailing culture by drawing appreciative views of what was working within UWL. Using Appreciative Inquiry meant the approach taken was deliberately collaborative, and activities sought to identify approaches to building and harnessing individual academic autonomy and choice, as well as providing a vehicle for engagement. To enhance evaluation, a collaboratively-developed set of measures were articulated within a theory-of-change framework, to capture and evaluate the outputs, outcomes, and any consequential direct and indirect impacts on UWL performance. Based on a review of whether the project met its business, research, and integrative aims, conclusions and reflections have produced recommendations for both research and UWL practice.

The project generated new understanding that could contribute to the body of knowledge, such as: the relatively novel application of a theory-of-change to enhance Appreciative Inquiry; understanding of practicing AR online; using the Culture web model as a tool for measurement of change; understanding HEI performance, and in particular establishing a set of performance metrics for KE; and that KE could be a basis for competitive comparison in the HE-sector. The research also reinforced previous findings, such as: the criticism of AI being very design-focussed; recognising the role of academic autonomy in order to facilitate engagement in KE; the challenges of evidencing a link between entrepreneurial orientation and performance; and that the entrepreneurial orientation model was descriptive rather than predictive. A key outcome of this project was that it directly led to both development of new ways of managing and measuring KE at UWL. While there were improvements both in terms of historic UWL performance and compared to the HE-sector, this was not clearly driven by this project. However, this research surfaced evidence that an entrepreneurial orientation sat behind this performance. Some limited evidence was found of an increase in the importance of KE, alongside the traditional cultural importance of Enterprise. The act of explicitly measuring KE performance was mainstreamed within UWL’s KE Strategy and associated KPIs, an approach which came directly from this project. Additionally, much of the KE Strategy’s Implementation Plan arose from this research. Over the timespan of this project KE became increasingly recognised as being of importance, albeit not yet prioritised within UWL culture. Therefore, importantly, there remained potential for longer-term impact to arise from this project.