essential-guide-to-qualitative-in-organizational-research

128 –––––––––– QUALITATIVE METHODS IN ORGANIZATION STUDIES ––––––––––––––––––2000), psychodynamism/organizational learning approaches (Brown and Starkey, 2000), andintergroup relations theory (Brickson, 2000). Others explore impression or configurationmanagement (Scott and Lane, 2000; Pratt and Foreman, 2000) and process frameworks (Gioiaet al., 2000a). Many of these approaches use realist ontologies (assumptions about the socialworld we inhabit) and positivist epistemologies (assumptions about knowledge, or the way weunderstand that world) (Burrell and Morgan, 1979). Simply put, they aim to regulate orcontrol organizations and consumers. As such, the organization is seen as a bounded entitycapable of mechanical adjustment towards greater technical efficiency. The whole point is tomaintain the existing system while permitting incremental adjustments and avoiding radicalchange. Human beings are seen as passive participants, lacking agency and self-will. Gioia etal. (2000a) recognize the shortcomings of these approaches and begin to discuss postmodernalternatives, but settle on a more conventional foundation.More ‘interpretivist’ approaches explore feelings, emotions and values in order to‘understand the subjective experience of individuals’ (Burrell and Morgan, 1979: 253). Suchinsights add greatly to our knowledge of how organizations work because they help explainmore fully what underlies people’s perceptions and actions. Berger and Luckman (1965) andWeick (1979) argue that people can experience the same reality in different ways, formingtheir own ‘social constructions’, ‘constructs’, or ‘enactments’ – shared perceptions thatreconstruct reality and constitute the basic building blocks of meaning. I propose thattapping such embedded phenomena is integral to understanding organizations and decidingwhich strategies are likely to succeed. Moreover, I believe that such constructs are not justverbal, but also visual. Semiotic and visual sociologists (Chaplin, 1994; Emmison and Smith,2000) challenge mainstream sociology by using visual forms, but emphasize the role of expertsin analysing these. The approach here decentres the expert from the research process, focusingon images created and interpreted by ordinary people.According to the dictionary, an image is ‘A representation of the external form of an object’,a ‘figurative illustration’ or a ‘likeness’ of something real or imaginary (Hawkins and Allen,1991). It is a form of construct that can be either a mental representation or a more tangiblephysical representation of an object. Langer (1957: 145) distinguishes between an ‘innerpicture’ and a ‘fabrication’. The former is a subjective, projected record of a sense-experiencemainly created for someone’s own sake; the latter an impression communicated by a senderto an audience. Alvesson uses the term ‘corporate image’ to mean ‘A holistic and vividimpression held by a particular group towards a corporation’, partly because of the group’sown sense-making processes and partly because of the communication of the corporation.This can be held by external audiences or by internal members of the organization (1990:376–8). Gioia et al. (2000a) identify six different but related forms of image in the literature.Four of these definitions place organizational insiders at the centre of the construction andcommunication process. The remaining ones allow external stakeholders more agency indetermining the organization’s image. Gioia et al. believe identity and image to be separate,but closely linked: settling on identity as a self-reflective organizational concept and image inits construed external form. This study, however, sees image as synonymous with identity.This results in a broad multi-dimensional concept. Image/identity is the entire process ofexpression and impression that defines the organization to its stakeholders: the result ofconscious, unconscious and latent processes. Pictures, words and numbers are different formsin the expression of an image. They exist as elements of mental processes (inner pictures) andas more concrete representations (fabrications), such as drawings, paintings, photographs or