Summary
Contents
Subject index
Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research is an excellent resource for students and researchers in the areas of organization studies, management research and organizational psychology, bringing together in one volume the range of methods available for undertaking qualitative data collection and analysis.
The volume includes 30 chapters, each focusing on a specific technique. The chapters cover traditional research methods, analysis techniques, and interventions as well as the latest developments in the field. Each chapter reviews how the method has been used in organizational research, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using the method, and presents a case study example of the method in use. A list of further reading is supplied for those requiring additional information about a given method.
The comprehensive and accessible nature of this collection will make it an essential and lasting handbook for researchers and students studying organizations.
Grounded Theory in Organizational Research
Grounded Theory in Organizational Research
We are going to begin this chapter with a brief introduction to grounded theory, including a short history and description of its main components. After that we will briefly describe previous applications of grounded theory in organizational studies. We will then describe a case study, which illustrates how grounded theory can be applied when studying organizational phenomena, and finally, we close the chapter by discussing methodological considerations related to the application of grounded theory in the case study described.
Introduction to Grounded Theory
Grounded theory was developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) when they observed that in sociological research, studies focusing on verifying existing classic theories flourished, while research on generating new theories hardly existed. Grounded theory is a kind of theory generated from the data collected. Grounded theory methodology, in turn, refers to a style of conducting qualitative data analysis. The aim is to discover what kinds of concepts and hypotheses are relevant to the area one wishes to understand. Grounded theory, therefore, provides new insights into the understanding of social processes emerging from the context in which they occur, without forcing and adjusting the data to previous theoretical frameworks (Glaser, 1995, 1998).
The basic elements of a grounded theory include conceptual categories and their conceptual properties, and hypotheses about or generalized relations between these categories and their properties. The researcher's task is not to produce a perfect description of the area he or she wishes to understand, but to develop a theory that accounts for much of the relevant behaviour. Grounded theory develops through constant comparative analysis, where a specific coding scheme is used to ensure conceptual development and density. With respect to data sources grounded theory often applies triangulation, namely combines different types of data collected by interviews, participative observation and analysis of documents. The data are gathered through theoretical sampling, which means that the selection of samples is guided by the development of the concepts. Once no additional data are to be found whereby one could further develop properties of a particular conceptual category, ‘theoretical saturation’ (see Glaser and Strauss, 1967) is achieved and the theory is ‘ready’.
When comparing grounded theory to other qualitative approaches, such as template analysis, the major difference is perhaps the starting point. In template analysis the researcher has an initial coding template, which is then verified and/or modified through data collection (see King, Chapter 21, this volume). Grounded theory starts from uncovering the conceptual scheme in a contextual way without any predetermined theoretical or conceptual framework. When compared to discourse analysis, grounded theory focuses more on uncovering phenomena and processes, whereas discourse analysis goes deeper and in more detail in analysing specifically the language, discourses and discourse events as instances of sociocultural practice (for example, Fairclough, 1995).
Grounded Theory in Organizational Research
Organizational psychology has recently been marked by a trend of moving from an individualistic point of view towards a more collective view based on social psychology, sociology and anthropology (Peiró, 1990; Rousseau, 1997; Schein, 1996). In this context, the application of grounded theory also has gained more popularity among organizational researchers. It has been applied in for example, studies focusing on organizational culture (Länsisalmi et al., 2000), organizational growth (Brytting, 1995), organizational change and innovation (Carrero et al., 2000; Lowe, 1995; Price, 1994), work teams (Gersick, 1988) and company survival (Lowe, 1995). Studies applying grounded theory in organizational research fall, roughly, into two categories: first studies focusing on generating new hypotheses around a specific theme (for example, Länsisalmi et al., 2000) and secondly studies that aim at revealing social processes producing a certain phenomenon (for example, Carrero et al., 2000).
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