Qualitative Organizational Research

Core Methods and Current Challenges

Gillian Symon, Catherine Cassell, Gillian Symon, Catherine Cassell

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780857024114, 9780857024107
• eBook ISBN: 9781446289839
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Social Sciences

This comprehensive text brings together in one volume both consideration of the core methods available for undertaking qualitative data collection and analysis, and discussion of common challenges faced by all researchers in conducting qualitative research.

Qualitative Organizational Research: Core Methods and Common Challenges contains 27 chapters, each written by an expert in the area. The first part of the volume considers common challenges in the design and execution of qualitative research, examining key contemporary debates in each area as well as providing practical advice for those undertaking organizational research. The second part of the volume looks at contemporary uses of core qualitative methods in organizational research, outlining each method and illustrating practical application through empirical examples.

Written by internationally renowned experts in qualitative research methods, this text is an accessible and essential resource for students and researchers in the areas of organization studies, business and management research, and organizational psychology.

Key features:

• Coverage of all the key topics in qualitative research

• Chapters written by experts drawing on their personal experiences of using methods

• Introductory chapters outlining the context for qualitative research and the philosophies which underpin it

 

Gillian Symon is Reader in Organizational Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London.

 

Catherine Cassell is Professor of Organizational Psychology at Manchester Business School.

 

1 Introduction: The Context of Qualitative Organizational Research

Catherine Cassell

Gillian Symon

Introduction

This is the fourth collection we have put together on qualitative methods in organizational research. There have been some changes since our first book in 1994. Certainly, qualitative methods are now far more widespread within organizational research than they were at that time. Additionally it would seem that there is now less of a need to document the wide variety of methods available to the qualitative researcher as this has been done by ourselves and others elsewhere during recent years (Cassell and Symon, 1994; Symon and Cassell, 1998; Cassell and Symon, 2004; Thorpe and Holt, 2008; Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2008).

In the introduction to our last book, Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research, published in 2004, we suggested that this was ‘our last venture into this particular genre’ (Symon and Cassell, 2004: 1), so why another text now? Three things have influenced the development of this collection. Firstly, together with our colleagues Phil Johnson, Vicky Bishop and Anna Buehring, an ESRC project entitled Benchmarking Good Practice in Qualitative Management Research (grant number H333250006) enabled us to discuss with a range of different stakeholder groups the processes that went into the production of good qualitative research. It also enabled us to devise a range of training materials for qualitative researchers (see www.restore.ac.uk/bgpinqmr/). From this project we learned a lot, notably about the complexity of criteria for qualitative organizational research and the criteriological debates associated with discussions of quality criteria (see Symon and Cassell, in this volume). Secondly, we set up a new journal in 2006 entitled Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal (QROM). The aim of the journal is to publish exemplars of excellent qualitative empirical work. Through our experiences of the editorial process and our interactions with our informed and constructive editorial board and contributors we have developed more insights into the struggles that qualitative researchers experience in turning their empirical work into high quality output. Thirdly, we have taught many different groups of students the joys of qualitative methods over recent years. These include undergraduates; postgraduates in work psychology, HRM and other management disciplines; doctoral students; MBAs and DBAs. With all of these groups we have seen the demands made upon them in encountering qualitative methods and using them in their dissertations for what in many cases is the first time.

From these experiences we have become more aware that the processes that go into the production and practice of high quality qualitative research are both complex and context bound. Therefore we believe there is a need for a text that not only covers key methods but also addresses the issues of research practice faced by the qualitative organizational researcher. This is what we seek to do in this book. We see it as a companion text to the Essential Guide, which focuses more exclusively on detailing the range of methods available. However, there have been some changes in the field of qualitative organizational research since we published the Essential Guide eight years ago. Indeed the context in which qualitative organizational research is conducted and assessed seems to be forever changing. In the remainder of this introductory chapter we outline what we see to be some of the key dynamics in the current context as a way of setting the scene for the chapters that follow.

Current Concerns in Research Practice

In the introduction to the Essential Guide we stated that: ‘our intention has always been to influence research practice within our own discipline’ (Symon and Cassell, 2004: 4). There are four particular things that concern us about research practice at the current time and looking towards the future: the teaching training of qualitative researchers; the impact of a variety of institutional pressures on the conduct of qualitative research; the potential standardization of qualitative research; and contemporary concerns with ethics and evidence. It is to these issues that we now turn.

Teaching and Training Qualitative Researchers

In regard to the teaching and training of qualitative researchers, there are now clearly more resources available in terms of textbooks which outline the potential uses of qualitative research. Previously we mentioned the training materials we developed through our ESRC project (see www.restore.ac.uk/bgpiqmr/). From the empirical research we conducted for that project we investigated what kinds of knowledge and skills were perceived as necessary to conduct good qualitative research. Our analysis suggested that novice researchers needed to learn a range of skills including those of data collection; data analysis; writing; and critique and evaluation. They also needed to acquire knowledge about the various different methods of qualitative research available and the philosophical methods that underpin method use. Hence the inclusion in this collection of a chapter by Joanne Duberley, Phil Johnson and Catherine Cassell about the different philosophies that underlie qualitative research. Finally, we suggested that qualitative researchers also needed to develop three types of research practices for the accomplishment of good qualitative research: reflective practice, reflexive practice and phronesis (Cassell et al., 2009). The term ‘reflection’ as used here draws upon the work of Schön (1983) and refers to when the researcher explores the impact of their research in a problem-solving manner with the intention of generating some form of learning upon which future action can be based. Reflexivity (see Haynes, in this volume) encourages the researcher to understand and make sense of their research by challenging and critiquing their assumptions and research practices throughout the research process. Phronesis was originally a term used by Aristotle to describe a form of value-laden knowledge that we could draw upon to respond appropriately within a given – in this case, research – context. The experienced qualitative researcher can, for example, respond to a difficulty in an interview situation in a way that is informed by their previous understanding of how they should act within that situation given the particular set of values that inform it. This is something the qualitative researcher learns through the experience of conducting qualitative research. Clearly this is a somewhat demanding set of requirements, not all of which can be learned in the classroom. Further details of what can be achieved in the classroom can be found in Learmonth and Humphreys (Chapter 13 in this volume).

A further issue here is the extent to which students have access to training in qualitative methods in business schools. Indeed a number of our respondents in our ESRC project mentioned that the inclusion of qualitative research methods in a doctoral training programme was often dependent upon having an enthusiast on the faculty rather than upon such training being viewed as part of the mainstream curriculum. The complex nature of the research questions we face adds another dimension. For example, Lowery and Evans (2004: 307) in reviewing the changing standing of qualitative research in the discipline suggest that the big questions we face require ‘the rigorous use of a broader range of research strategies and tools than those usually taught’ in business schools. Indeed they raise the question ‘Do we teach quants and stats because they lead to useful outcomes or because they are the only ones we know how to teach?’ (2004: 318). Therefore there still seems to be need for greater provision of learning opportunities for researchers who wa...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Publisher Note
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Notes on Contributors
• 1 Introduction: The Context of Qualitative Organizational Research
• Part I The Issues and Challenges of Qualitative Inquiry in Organizational Research
• 2 Philosophies Underpinning Qualitative Research
• 3 Choosing Research Participants
• 4 Researching your Own Organization
• 5 Reflexivity in Qualitative Research
• 6 Ethical Research Practice
• 7 Facilitating the Interaction between Theory and Data in Qualitative Research Using CAQDAS
• 8 Combining Qualitative Methods
• 9 Longitudinal Research and Analysis
• 10 Doing Qualitative Business and Management Research in International and Intercultural Contexts
• 11 Writing up as a Legitimacy Seeking Process: Alternative Publishing Recipes for Qualitative Research
• 12 Assessing Qualitative Research
• 13 Teaching Qualitative Research in the Business School
• Part II Core Methods of Qualitative Inquiry in Organizational Research
• 14 Interviews
• 15 Focus Groups
• 16 Participatory Visual Methods
• 17 Participant Observation
• 18 Autoethnography in Organizational Research: Two Tales of Two Cities
• 19 Practising Organizational Ethnography
• 20 Case Studies in Organizational Research
• 21 Action Research
• 22 Using Documents in Organizational Research
• 23 Grounded Theory: A Theory Building Approach
• 24 Doing Template Analysis
• 25 Conversation Analysis in Management Research
• 26 Discourse Analysis and Discursive Research
• 27 Narrative Analysis
• Index