Qualitative Organizational Research: Core Methods and Current Challenges

Citation

Satyendra C. Pandey (2016), "Qualitative Organizational Research: Core Methods and Current Challenges", Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 147-148. https://doi.org/10.1108/QROM-10-2015-1332

The range of texts on the subject of qualitative research has increased manifold in the past decade. Qualitative Organizational Research: Core Methods and Current Challenges edited by Gillian Symon and Catherine Cassell is a significant addition to the discipline. The book is divided into two parts: key challenges and core methods of qualitative inquiry in organizational research. The first part has 13 chapters and highlights the key issues and challenges including choosing research participants and sample size, concerns on ethical research, assessing qualitative research. The second part has 14 chapters exploring core methods such as interviews, focus groups, participant observation, auto ethnography, etc.

Chapter 1 authored by the editors discusses philosophical underpinnings by making significant effort in assimilating philosophical stances taken by qualitative researchers. Duberley, Johnson and Cassell in Chapter 2 raise some interesting issues to be kept in mind before undertaking research such as theoretical positioning of the researcher including motivation, presuppositions and personal history. Saunders in Chapter 3 deals with a recurring debate in qualitative research of choosing research participants. He maintains that selection of participants is commonly dictated by the ease to access given by the organizational gatekeepers. Tietze in Chapter 4 discusses researching one’s own organization; more relevant for practicing managers who are inclined toward obtaining professional doctorates. Haynes in Chapter 5 discusses how a researcher affects both the research process and outcome. Chapter 6 by Holt lists a number of virtues by which ethical standards can be maintained in qualitative research. He emphasizes that data collection warrants confidentiality and anonymity. Chapter 7 by Sinkovics and Alfoldi deals with the iterative nature of qualitative research. It draws attention toward making the process more manageable and rigorous through the use of software. In Chapter 8 Pritchard highlights an emerging thought of combining qualitative methods. She cautions that combination of qualitative methods should be a careful undertaking rather than constant switching which could prove confusing and counterproductive. In Chapter 9 Langley and Stensaker examine methods for doing longitudinal qualitative case studies. The challenges associated with this kind of studies are ambiguity and sensitivity. Chapter 10 authored by Cohen and Ravishankar deals with international and intercultural contexts and presents a broad overview of this subject by highlighting a significant advantage in capturing the dynamism and complexity of doing such research. In Chapter 11 Cornelissen and colleagues investigate a range of pressures and influences on the way author(s) write for publication in different kind of outlets. In Chapter 12 by Symon and Cassell quality assessments for qualitative research is discussed. They present some of the well-known quality check criteria for qualitative research such as credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. In Chapter 13 Learmonth and Humphreys draw an interesting analogy between teaching and musical performances to suggest that teaching qualitative research can be made easier where in instructors can sometimes remove the mask of an expert.

Part II opens with the chapter authored by Alvesson and Ashcraft on interviews. They state that interviews are deemed to be reliable gateways into what goes on in an organization. Chapter 15 highlights that focus groups require lot of planning, communication and persuasion. Author Binna Kandola makes an important note on the skills of facilitator to keep the discussion focused. In Chapter 16 on participatory visual methods Vince and Warren introduces two participatory visual methods, drawings and participant-led photography. In Chapter 17, Brannan and Oultram present a researcher centric mode of classification including complete participation, participant as observer, observer as participant, complete observer, peripheral membership and active membership. Humphreys and Learmonth in Chapter 18 deal with authoethnography. They maintain that authoethnography is about freedom of expression and creativity; however it also calls for drawing some rules to assure quality in research. In Chapter 19 Yanow, Ybema and van Hulst present the requirements of doing organizational ethnography while in Chapter 20 Buchanan deals with case studies in organizational settings. He draws on examples of case studies to make the text more explanatory. Cox in Chapter 21 construes action research (AR) as both liminal and hybrid in nature: liminal because it exists in the interstices between research, consulting, social action and reflection and hybrid because new forms of AR combine and supplement earlier approaches. Chapter 22 by Lee mentions documentary analysis as a rule guided process giving importance to composing, applying and reporting procedures and selection criteria for inclusion and exclusion of information when seeking answers. In Chapter 23, Kenealy suggests that grounded theory aims to discover the theory implicit in the data. Chapter 24 by King illustrates the use of template analysis as a tool of analyzing qualitative data. Greatbatch and Clark in Chapter 25 discuss the application of conversation analysis in data analysis. In Chapter 26, Oswick discusses discourse analysis as a handy tool for analyzing enormous amount of data produced in qualitative research. Narrative analysis as an approach for analyzing complex qualitative data is discussed in Chapter 27.

This book is a remarkable work in the domain of qualitative organizational research. Chapters in the book assimilate personal experiences of using the method described. Qualitative research is a craft which has rigor as well as inbuilt imagination and personalization. Qualitative Organizational Research has identified and aptly presented some of the recent advances made in the domain of qualitative research in organizations. This book is recommended for multiple audiences, including instructors of advanced graduate and doctoral courses, researchers and advanced graduate students. The most significant feature of the text is the organization of its chapters and the attempted coverage of methods and issues through personal experiences of the authors. The length of the book (523 pp.) is good keeping in mind the amount of research literature, synthesis, examples and explanations it includes.