It is a well-known fact that many businesses struggle to get the solutions developed in various projects into use and implemented. Action research meets this challenge in that development, testing and implementation go hand in hand in a co-created learning process.

In Norway, action research as a research strategy was introduced and adopted early on through the Industrial Democracy project in the 60s, where companies and trade unions tested new work forms with the aim of increasing efficiency in parallel with improving working conditions. The organizational psychologist Kurt Lewin has been given the honour of coining action research as a research tradition. Subsequently, action research as a philosophy and through methodological choices has developed in different directions, where various choices have been emphasized differently.

Hanne Finnestrand is an Associate Professor in Organizational Theory at the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management. She has a major in Organizational Sociology from 2003 and a PhD in Organizational Development and Action Research from 2011.

From 2003-2016 she worked as a Research Scientist, and later Senior Research Scientist, at SINTEF Technology and Society, Technology Management. As a commissioned researcher, she has collaborated closely with company managers, shop stewards and employees in several (primarily manufacturing) companies over several years.

Theoretically, she positions herself within Socio-Technical Systems Theory (STS) and Action Research. She is the co-founder of STS Kompetansenettverk and cooperate with the international STS network, Global Network for SMARt organization design.

She is also Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Systemic Practice and Action Research (Springer).