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

248 –––––––––– QUALITATIVE METHODS IN ORGANIZATION STUDIES ––––––––––––––––––Methods in phase 2FIELD DATA COLLECTIONOver a period of one month, in 1997, we conducted group interviews (n = 32) covering atotal of 90 informants in groups of two or three people. The informants were representativeof the entire population (compare Phase 1). Group interviews, instead of individual interviews,were preferred for two reasons. First, we wanted to increase the total number of informantsused in order to confirm the validity of the cultural models in a wider sample of the targetpopulation. Secondly, by interviewing a group of persons at the same time, we created asituation of social control that would minimize the emergence of individual interpretationsand maximize the emergence of collective interpretations, which were the main interest ofthe present study.The critical incidents technique (see Chell, Chapter 5, this volume) was applied with the aimof specifying how collective stress is produced in the existing culture and what kinds of copingmechanisms are used to remove or alleviate collectively experienced stress. The specific themesguiding the interviews were: first definition of well-being and its components, secondlydescription of situations or events which result in the deterioration of employee well-being, andthirdly description of situations or events which result in enhanced employee well-being.ANALYSISAn inductive analysis was conducted, following the earlier described principles of groundedtheory to confirm the validity of the cultural categories developed in the first phase, and tospecify the relationship of these categories in each culture with collective stress and coping.Figure 20.1 and Table 20.2 illustrate this process.The following two integrative categories emerged in the analysis: first collective stressors,defined as incidents and factors, interpreted by the members of the particular culture as stressproducing,and secondly collective problem-focused, appraisal-focused and emotion-focusedcoping mechanisms, defined as learned uniform reactions to collectively experienced stress.The integrative categories of coping mechanisms consisted of intentions to change thesituation or the interpretation of the situation, and of efforts to manage the emotions that arosein response to threat (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984; Miller et al., 1988).Overall resultsOur research results confirmed that stress and coping had collective qualities (see Table 20.2).Collective stress emerged as a response to two types of situations across the differentsubcultures: first adaptation to the environment of the division or work unit was somehowimperfect and secondly there was friction inside the community (Table 20.3). Of thecorresponding coping mechanisms a large proportion were also found to be collective innature. Collective coping consisted of learned uniform responses to remove the collectivelyidentified stressor, to change the interpretation of the situation or to alleviate negative feelingsproduced in the stressing situation (for more detailed research results see Länsisalmi et al.,2000).