MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

undertook. Nodes which contained no text were deleted; others
were merged. The coding scheme arising from this process is
set out in Appendix 3.
2. Fine code the data into much narrower conceptual categories.
This produced much more extensive coding structures which
were categorized by node trees. An example of this, relating to
‘mode of undertaking managerial roles’, is included in Appendix
4.
3. Analyse data to identify stimuli, mechanisms and management
action. This was undertaken on a hard copy basis. Reports from
NVivo on all the coding categories were printed off. Each data
extract was, where possible, annotated with a note of the stimuli,
mechanism and action suggested, speculating as what those
categories should be.
4. Prepare an overview of the analysis. This endeavoured to tell
the ‘story’ arising from the data and proposed new codes
reflecting the main features of the story and, as far as possible,
mechanisms leading to management action (see example at
Appendix 5). This resulted in a more rational, and parsimonious,
structure. Some codes, such as managerial actions themselves,
were regarded as descriptive and were left in their original form.
The final coding structure arising from this process is set out in
Appendix 6.
5. These processes had involved continuous speculation, using
Hales’ (1990) words about the ‘meanings’ and ‘norms’ that might
be influencing managerial action. The process of writing up the
case studies consisted of a process of continuous and
developing analysis. The project thus contains case narratives
with illustrative data examples; summary within case matrix and
cross-case tabulations; theoretical propositions and models.
It can be seen from this description how closely the process related to
that proposed by Partington (2000). As Miles and Huberman (1994)
suggest, the data analysis consists of data reduction, data display and
drawing/verification. It involves matrices and charts, as they again
suggest is an appropriate way to present realist research.
3.7. TRIANGULATION, BIAS AND TESTS FOR DESIGN QUALITY
Miles and Huberman (1994:267) say that ‘in effect, triangulation is a
way to get to the finding in the first place by seeing or hearing multiple
instances of it from different sources, by using different methods and
by squaring the finding with others it needs to be squared with.’ As has
been made clear, the principal data in this study consists of interview
transcripts. However, as has also been noted, other material has also
been collected. This is principally documentary but it includes one
video – a production prepared for the CWU when staff moved to the
new head office in Wimbledon. All this is categorized in Appendix 1.
This secondary data made possible a comparison between the results
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