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

–––––––––––––––––––––– GROUP METHODS OF ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS–––––––––– 147interaction is not between the interviewer and interviewee, but between the participants. Alsoother (social) processes are involved. One concerns the public character of the storiesparticipants bring in. Another concerns the group processes which steer the general outcomeof the interview. This requires insights into group dynamics and the ability to facilitate theprocess rather than the content.Finally, one of the main outcomes of the group interviews, which only became clearafterwards, was that within the research team, which consisted of two researchers fromdifferent universities and from different academic backgrounds, a joint research experience wascreated. This made discussion of our own research process possible and helped us tounderstand our different perspectives. Indeed, as a research team, we also meet and discuss inorder to research (or learn from) our own research process.The project group study: the context of innovationThrough the next story, we want to describe and document the use of observation and analysisof group meetings and group discussions in their ‘natural context’. On the one hand, thedistinctive contribution of the group study will be illustrated in relation to the largerorganization case study which consisted of the use of interviews, questionnaires, the study ofdocuments and feedback sessions as well. On the other hand, we will describe more practicallyhow we learnt to use this application of the group method. The case study from whichexamples will be given was part of a three year research project with the general aim ofunderstanding the organizational processes underlying the implementation of innovation. It isone of seven longitudinal case studies which were set up for this research project. The researcherattended 18 project meetings as a participant observer. Besides the observation and analysis ofthis long sequence of group meetings, 28 interviews, an organizational climate survey, 100 pagesof documents and a two-day feedback session were all part of the ‘data collection’.WHY GROUP STUDY?Besides the epistemological considerations for using a project group study, more pragmaticreasons were involved. In the context of innovation, where project groups are the focus of theinnovative activities, group observation becomes advantageous compared to other methods forunderstanding how organizations innovate differently. Our aim was not to study project groupsas such, but to understand how the organizational innovation process develops by observinggroup meetings. As teamwork becomes more and more crucial for the well-functioning andeffectiveness of all kinds of firms, increasing numbers of researchers will be confronted withstudying groups at work with the aim of describing and understanding the whole organization.PREPARING AND FOLLOWING THE GROUP MEETINGSThe preparation of and the participation in one actual meeting is not very demanding. Duringthe meeting the researcher took notes both of what was said and by whom. He also madenon-verbal observations (who came in late, silences, laughs, and so on). There was no taperecordingas the amount of data would have become too vast.This research activity can be seen as an evolutionary task. The important step for theresearcher at this stage is to get integrated and accepted in the social system of a firm and theparticular project group. It takes some time before you as a researcher get invitedspontaneously to the next meeting. Get a copy of the notes and summaries of the participants,