As the process of organisational change is frequently, if not typically, a complex somewhat messy sequence of plans, meetings, conflicts, revisions and compromises between individuals, teams, across the inter-departmental group in order that an organisation adapt to environmental forces driving change (Rashford & Coghlan 1994), it is more than useful to reflect on how such complex processes might be researched. The author, in the role of internal process consultant to a religious organisation, engaged in a study of how that organisation managed its planned change over a twenty year period. He was commissioned to undertake this study in order that the current leadership might better understand the developments which had taken place in previous administrations and so provide the organisation with some frameworks for its own learning. The research involved three elements: study of archival documentation to which the researcher had open access, interviews with the key actors and then submission of the findings to the organisation to initiate further discussion and reflection. Accordingly, it was clear from the outset of the brief that the research would itself constitute an intervention to enable the organisation understand its history and engage in a reflective learning process. The research was undertaken through action science, which addresses how the generation of data in a social system with a view to helping the system learn about itself is a scientific process. The aim of this article is to present action science as a valid and useful way of doing research in organisations.