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

274 –––––––––– QUALITATIVE METHODS IN ORGANIZATION STUDIES ––––––––––––––––––the researcher can order longitudinal data by time and sequence. This is useful in terms of thechronological flow and sequencing of events. The second author used matrices in this wayfor a series of longitudinal case studies that covered a two year period (Cassell, 1989). Othertypes of display are role ordered displays where information is ordered according to people’sroles in a formal or informal setting, or conceptually ordered displays where the data areordered around concepts or variables. In the example that follows the display focuses ondifferent levels of analysis, and data are ordered around those different levels of analysis.Matrices can also be used within a variety of epistemological approaches. Miles andHuberman define themselves as ‘in the lineage’ of ‘transcendental realism’ – the belief thatsocial phenomena exist not only in the mind but also in the objective world – and that somelawful and reasonably stable relationships are to be found among them. They acknowledgethe difficulty of attempting to explore such relationships given the complex social structuresin which these relationships are embedded (structures which are often invisible butnevertheless real) – but it is not an impossible task. Miles and Huberman could be describedas post positivists in that they share a desire for the traditional validity and replicability measuresassociated with more positivist approaches. However matrices can be used within a numberof different epistemological stances. The case that follows for example comes from aconstructivist perspective. Miles and Huberman themselves play down the importance of theirepistemological position concluding that ultimately, it is pragmatic concerns which dominate:We just want to do good analysis, and we believe, perhaps less naively than the readermight think at first, that any method that works – that will produce clear, verifiable,replicable meanings from a set of qualitative data – is grist for our mill, regardless ofits (epistemological) antecedents. (1994: 17)A CASE EXAMPLE ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Two matrices from the same research project will be presented. The focus of the research wasthe nature of the psychological contract within small businesses. A key research objective wasto assess the relevance of mainstream theory on the psychological contract to small businesses.This was explored by conducting in depth, semi-structured interviews with 10 owners of smallbusinesses. All of the interviews were tape recorded and later transcribed ready for analysis.Following each interview, first impressions and general feelings about each interview wererecorded in a research diary. This was later used to complete a ‘contact summary sheet’ foreach company. As well as a valuable source of data, the research diary provided the opportunityfor the researcher to reflect upon their role in the research process, noting for example howthey may have influenced, or may have been influenced themselves, by the interviewee. It wasimportant for such reflections to be noted as soon as possible after the interview in order tocapture the often emotional impact the interview had had on the interviewer.During the research this diary played an important role as a reflexive tool. The process ofleaving an interview and then filling the diary with reflections on that interview helped toshape how the researcher made sense of the data collected. Some of these reflections werequite factual, for example what the dominant themes were in the interview, but others werebased on the experience of the interview as a social episode. So, for example, after oneinterview the researcher experienced an intense dislike for a male interviewee. She viewedhim as a racist, sexist bigot and felt considerably patronized by the way he had shared his views