Silent Voices in Organisations: Conscientization as a Reflexive Research Methodology

Whilst there has been a steady and growing interest in collaborative, and emancipatory organisational research practices that espouse inclusive organisational discourses and challenge, and reject the power relations between the researcher and the researched, few have considered the dynamics of the dialogical process that ensues within these contexts. Furthermore, the concept of what Paulo Freire calls conscientization is also largely ignored in the research literature, this being central to the ownership of research problems, processes, eventual solutions, and subsequently the liberation of the researched as they emerge from cultures of silence and oppression. This paper advocates that changes in research practice and the way those who conduct research engage with those they research are needed if modernist discourses and dominating ideologies that deny individual voice are to be challenged. It is argued this can only be achieved by means of the dialogical process. It is argued that dialogical studies offer democratic and emancipatory practices and the creation of shared meanings, and understandings for those who partake in the research act. The `four moments of dialogic research': Engagement; Self awareness; the aesthetic; and Transformation are presented to illustrate how dialogue can be used to uncover the silence of organisation life.