ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an action research project that I carried out as an action researcher while simultaneously an employee in the personnel department of the Danish Armed Forces from 2006 to 2010; thus I conducted action research within my own organisation (Coghlan and Brannick 2005). 1 The project’s initial purpose was to reduce offensive or harassmentrelated behaviour in the Danish Armed Forces. This project was to be carried out through the establishment of a small internal organisation within the wider organisation of the personnel department. It was to be known as the ‘Organisation for Personal Counselling’ and was to be staffed by volunteers (hereafter referred to as ‘counsellors’) from among the employees, who, alongside their normal duties, were to function as counsellors dealing with offensive behaviour. 2 I was contracted by the personnel department to set up this organisation. As I began to put it together, I soon met with considerable resistance from different professional groups within the parent organisation. For instance, the counsellors were referred to as ‘amateur psychologists’. I therefore decided, together with the head of department, General Jens Frandsen, to seek outside assistance. This resulted in the transformation of the initial project into a doctoral action research project at the University of Aalborg, Denmark.
