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

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–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ANALYTIC INDUCTION–––––––––– 177First, a criticism of AI argues that due to the small samples used, the method can rarelymake claims about the representativeness of its samples and therefore any attempt atgeneralizing is tenuous. For Mitchell (1983) such a criticism shows a confusion between theprocedures appropriate to making inferences from survey research and those which areappropriate to case study work. He argues that analytical thinking about survey data is basedupon both statistical and logical (namely causal) inference and how there is a tendency to elidethe former with the latter in that ‘the postulated causal connection among features in a samplemay be assumed to exist in some parent population simply because the features may beinferred to co-exist in that population’ (Mitchell, 1983: 200). In contrast inference in casestudy research can only be logical and derives its external validity not from itsrepresentativeness but because ‘our analysis is unassailable’ (Mitchell, 1983: 200). Suchanalytical thoroughness is achieved in AI by eliminating exceptions and revising hypothesesso that statistical tests are actually unnecessary once negative cases are removed (Fielding andFielding, 1986: 89). Thus in AI extrapolation is derived from logical inference based upon thedemonstrated power of the inductively generated and tested theoretical model ‘rather than therepresentativeness of the events’ (Mitchell, 1983: 190).Secondly AI’s procedures entail the movement from the ‘thick’ description andcategorization of actors’ phenomenological worlds to propounding theoretical explanationsof those categories. This entails an initial (re)presentation of actors’ internal logics groundedin verstehen in order to formulate categories. However, in order to avoid analytic interruptusAI requires the researcher to shift to a form of analysis that entails his/her imposition of anexternal logic which exists independently of, and explains, the actors’ internal logics. Clearlythis shift entails an overt form of what Burrell and Morgan term ‘ontological oscillation’(1979: 266) – the initial adoption of a subjectivist stance with the subsequent introduction ofincommensurable objectivist assumptions. Now the question for AI is whether, as Burrell andMorgan claim (1979), such oscillation poses a contradiction which should be avoided, or asWeick (1995: 34–8) argues, such oscillation is a vital element in sensemaking that helps usunderstand the everyday actions of people. Basically the latter view would support AI as it ispresented here, whereas the former would either necessitate the discarding of aphenomenological starting point for AI, or AI’s dissolution through a limitation tophenomenological ‘thick description’.Finally there remains a basic question regarding the extent to which ‘pure’ induction ispossible. Ironically, the claim that it is possible shares with logical positivism the implicitassumption that there exists a theory neutral observational language in which the researcheris construed as neutral conduit of cultural experience who can objectively elucidate andpresent the ‘facts’ of a cognitively accessible empirical world. For Hammersley (1992) suchissues are especially problematic for any approach which is committed to accessing members’phenomenological worlds so as to reveal their subjectivities. It creates a contradiction betweenan objectivist impulse that emphasizes how phenomenological accounts should correspondwith members’ subjectivity and a phenomenological impulse that suggests that people sociallyconstruct versions of reality – culturally derived epistemic processes to which researchers arenot immune. Perhaps a key task for any methodologist with a subjectivist agenda is to resolvethe problems posed by these epistemological ambiguities while avoiding the spectre, andquagmire, of relativism (see Alvesson and Deetz, 2000).
178 –––––––––– QUALITATIVE METHODS IN ORGANIZATION STUDIES ––––––––––––––––––FURTHER READING ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Despite the famous contributions of scholars like Znaniecki (1934), Lindesmith (1947) andCressey (1950, 1953) AI remains a very unusual approach to empirical research. Unfortunatelythere are even fewer examples of AI in organizational research. A recent exception is Lennonand Wollin’s (2001)research into organizational learning and their approach can be comparedto that put forward here and by Bloor (1976, 1978). For a discussion of many of theepistemological and ontological debates which have impacted upon the use of induction inorganizational research see Johnson and Duberley (2000) or Alvesson and Sköldberg (2000)while Locke (2000) provides an accessible overview of grounded theory in managementresearch. Obviously Glaser and Strauss’ (1967) original work on grounded theory remains akey point of reference for reseachers interested in analytic induction. However it is worthcomparing this work with the different directions taken by these authors in Strauss and Corbin(1990) and Glaser’s defence of what he sees as the original tenets of grounded theory (1992).REFERENCES ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Alvesson, M. and Deetz, S. (2000) Doing Critical Management Research, London: Sage.Alvesson, M. and Sköldberg, K. (2000) Reflexive Methodology: New Vistas for Qualitative Research, London: Sage.Bannister, P., Burman, E.,Parker, I., Taylor, M. and Tindall, C. (1994) Qualitative Methods in Psychology: A Research Guide,Buckingham: Open University Press.Batstone, E., Boraston, I. and Frenkel, S. (1977) Shop Stewards in Action, Oxford: Blackwell.Becker, H.S. (1970) ‘Problems of Inference and Proof in Participant Observation’, in W.J. Filstead (ed.), Qualitative Methodology,Chicago: Markham.Becker, H.S. (1973) Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance, London: Free Press.Berreman, G. (1962) Behind Many Masks: Ethnography and Impression Management in a Himalayan Village, Monograph 4,Society For Applied Anthropology, Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press.Beynon, J. (1983) ‘Ways in and staying in: fieldwork as problem-solving’, in M. Hammersley (ed.), The Ethnography of SchoolingMethodological Issues, Driffield: Nafferton.Bloor, M. (1976) ‘Bishop Berkeley and the adenotonsillectomy enigma: an explanation of variation in the social construction ofmedical disposals’, Sociology, 10(1): 43–61.Bloor, M. (1978) ‘On the analysis of observational data: a discussion of the worth and uses of inductive techniques andrespondent validation’, Sociology, 12(3): 545–52.Blumer, H. (1954) ‘What is wrong with social theory?’, American Sociological Review, 19(1): 3–10.Bogdan, R. (1974) Being Different: The Autobiography of Jane Fry, London: Wiley.Bulmer, M. (1975) ‘Some problems of research into class imagery’, in M. Bulmer (ed.), Working Class Images of Society, London:Routledge and Kegan Paul.Burrell, G. and Morgan, G. (1979) Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis, London: Heinemann.Cressey, D. (1950) ‘The criminal violation of financial trust’, American Sociological Review, 15: 738–43.Cressey, D. (1953) Other Peoples’ Money, Glencoe, IL: Free Press.Denzin, N. (1978) The Research Act: A Theoretical Introduction to Sociological Methods, second edition, London: McGraw-Hill.Douglas, J.D. (1976) Investigative Social Research: Individual and Team Field Research, London: Sage.Douglas, J.D. (1985) Creative Interviewing, London: Sage.Fielding, N.G. and Fielding, J.L. (1986) Linking Data, No. 4 in Qualitative Research Methods Series, London: Sage.Geertz, C. (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures, New York: Basic Books.Giddens, A. (1976) New Rules of Sociological Method, London: Hutchinson.Gill, J. and Johnson, P. (2002) Research Methods for Managers, third edition, London: Sage.Glaser, B.G. (1978) Theoretical Sensitivity, San Francisco: The Sociological Press.Glaser, B.G. (1992) Basics of Grounded Theory Research, Mill Valley: Sociology Press.Glaser, B.G. and Strauss, A. (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory, Chicago: Aldine.Glesne, C. and Peshkin, A. (1992) Becoming Qualitative Researchers: An Introduction, London: Longman.Goffman, E. (1969) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
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ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO QUALITATIVE METH
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This book is dedicated to our child
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viii ---------- CONTENTS ----------
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Notes on ContributorsJohn Benington
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AcknowledgementsIt has been 10 year
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2 ---------- QUALITATIVE METHODS IN
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4 ---- Life Histories -------------
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8 ---- The Twenty Statements Test -
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9 ---- Qualitative Research Diaries
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100 ---------- QUALITATIVE METHODS
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tended to get shovedin the backgrou
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10 ---- Stories in Organizational R
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20 ---- Grounded Theory in Organiza
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Quote Code in open coding Concept T
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Table 20.2 Examples of open coding,
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Table 20.3Collective stressors and
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21 ---- Using Templates in the Them
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Table 22.1Matrix 1: descriptive sum
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Table 22.1 cont1.1 Analysis by colu
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Table 22.2DebbieAndrewMatrix 2: con
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Table 22.2cont.Allan Petrol scam Wa
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23 ---- Preserving, Sharing and Reu
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25 ---- Ethnography ---------------
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27 ---- Soft Systems Analysis: Refl
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30 ---- The Future Conference -----
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