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

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––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– THE FUTURE CONFERENCE––––––––– 383solutions, and that music, painting, poetry and theatre should be acceptable alternative mediafor people to learn about complex and conflict-ridden issues. She speaks of the fact that thecreation of symbolic forms are not validated by society and draws the contrast between learningin western culture where positivism reigns supreme, with Native American or Aboriginal culturewhere knowledge may not be based on questions and answers, but by suggestion, example,divining, showing and storytelling. Finally Sandercock suggests (making a link to social learningtheory) that action is the only way to know (Sandercock, 1998: 57–83).The fundamental point at the basis of these critiques is the question of power: whoseinterests are being served by the outcomes of the research? For researchers who are genuinelyinterested in using knowledge to empower people, the FC offers a pragmatic, tried and testedmethod that warrants further serious attention as a research tool. Although not in the leastconcerned with scientific method as such, Emery’s search conference and its more recentmanifestations would fit in with the requirements for more people centred approaches toresearch and decision making.I have already called the FC ‘action research’ but to support my view will briefly cover itin terms of Heller’s seven criteria: close relationship between knowledge acquisition andaction, knowledge and action are for the benefit of the participants not the ‘researcher’,validation through the learning process itself, ability to generalize findings, shared valuesbetween researcher and client, using more than one discipline and more than one knowledgeacquisition method, the FC meeting the criteria for action research. The only point wherethere might be some disagreement is whether the findings from a FC are widely available. Thisreally depends on the situation. In public sector research, the findings are usually in the publicdomain, however, within formal organizations, research may not be so widely available. Here,the FC could be seen as a consultancy approach which in Heller’s terms is defined as onewhere the results might not be openly available. My concern here is to discover appropriateand optimal methods to do research whether it is conducted by consultants or academics (andmany if not most, do both). I suggest that both groups need to have in their toolkit apragmatic approach to social science research that situates change (plans or other outcomes)at the heart of the method. When research is undertaken as a forerunner to decision makingand action, whether that be new policy on a national scale or new practice at a local level,the FC offers a method that should be considered. It may also be more effective in terms ofappropriateness of solution and speed of implementation.A final comment about the FC method is the fact that it does not need those who aretrained researchers to conduct it, an altogether different set of skills is needed. In conclusion,the FC seems to offer a pragmatic approach which also has the added benefit of meetingcurrent government requirements for participation in situations where the research is neededas a prelude to developing new policy or planning guidelines, new community, or local plans.Further research is needed as a matter of urgency to test the approach in such settings tosee if it is genuinely more effective (in terms of solution) and speedier (in terms of deliverytimescale) than traditional approaches.FURTHER READING ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Readers are directed to three books that capture most of the important material for thismethod, first of all, Merrelyn Emery and R. Purser’s book (1996) The Search Conference which
384 –––––––––– QUALITATIVE METHODS IN ORGANIZATION STUDIES ––––––––––––––––––offers the best overview of the principles underlying the method as well as a detailed andextensive bibliography. Second is Weisbord and Janoff ’s book (1995), Future Search whichoffers many excellent hints and stories and finally Futures that Work a practical guide, also withmany stories (Rehm et al., 2002).REFERENCES ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Asch, Solomon (1952) Social Psychology, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Bion,W. (1961) Experiences in Groups, London: Tavistock.Bishop, Jeff (1994) Community Involvement in Planning and Development Processes, London: HMSO.Chambers, Robert (1997) Whose Reality Counts, London: ITDG Publishing.Cooke, Bill and Kothari, Uma (eds) (2001) Participation the New Tyranny?, London and New York: Zed Books.De Bono, E. (2003) Why So Stupid, Dublin: Blackhall.De Shazer, S. (1988) Clues: Investigating Solutions in Brief Therapy, NewYork: Norton.Emery, M. (ed.) (1993) Participative Design for Participative Democracy, Canberra: Centre for Continuing Education, AustralianNational University.Emery, M. and Purser, R. (1996) The Search Conference, a Powerful Method for Planning Organizational Change and CommunityAction, San Fancisco: Jossey Bass.Lawrence, W. Gordon, Bain, Alaistair and Gould, Laurence (1999) ‘The fifth basic assumption’, Free Associations, Vol. 6, PartI, 37.Lewin, Gertrud Weiss (ed.) (1948) Resolving Social Conflicts, New York: Harper.Oels, Angela (2000) ‘The power of visioning, evaluation of Future Search conferences in England and Germany’, Unpublishedthesis. University of East Anglia, School of Environmental Sciences.Sandercock, L. (1998) Towards Cosmopolis, Chichester: John Wiley.Pretty, Jules, Gujit, Irene, Thompson, John and Scoones, Ian (1995) A Trainer’s Guide for Participatory Learning and Action,London: IIED Participatory Methodology Series.Rehm, Cebula, Ryan, F. and Large, M. (2002) Futures that Work, Stroud, UK: Hawthorn Press.Robbins, Harvey and Finley, Michael (1996) Why Change Doesn’t Work, London: Orion Business Books.Von Bertalanffy, L. (1950) ‘The theory of open systems in physics and biology’, Science, 3: 23–9.Weisbord, Marvin (1992) Discovering Common Ground, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.Weisbord, M. and Janoff, S. (1995) Future Search, San Francisco: Berrett Koehler.
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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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10 ---------- QUALITATIVE METHODS I
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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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tended to get shovedin the backgrou
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10 ---- Stories in Organizational R
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12 ---- Group Methods of Organizati
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15 ---- Critical Research and Analy
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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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