Action research as a methodology for theory development

The aim of this article is to provide some insight into ways in which action research can contribute to the development of theory about the process of health care delivery. It focuses on a variety of action research that is a methodology for carrying out research into management and organisations, which can lead to deep conceptualisations about what can happen in practice and the reasons for this. The article aims to highlight the considerations that influence the recording of data; raise some issues about the nature of action research intervention settings and their implications for theory building; provide an example method for deriving emergent theory from the data collected; and provide an example of the type of theory that can be generated.