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Grounded Theory

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Title: Grounded Theory


1
Grounded Theory
  • With the help of the computer
  • (andreas.werr_at_hhs.se)

2
Agenda
  • Grounded theory background, characteristics and
    relevance today
  • Discussions about your theories and experiences
  • Grounded theory strengths and weaknesses
  • Reflections and additional examples of how to use
    NVivo in the research process (Love Peter)

3
Historic background of GT
  • A reaction against the prevalent ideal in the USA
    in the 60s
  • At that time two research approaches were
    dominating
  • Verification studies, quantitative based on
    positivistic ideals
  • Grand theories without empirical connections
    (e.g. Parsons)
  • Grounded theory must be understood as a reaction
    against these dominating research paradigms.
    Differences are maximized and the method appears
    as extreme
  • The method also reflects a romantic ideal of
    originality and individuality which is in harmony
    with the Zeitgeist of the 60s.

4
Relevance for contemporary management research
  • Scandinavian management research is often problem
    driven. It has its roots in practice
  • Glaser Strauss are often quoted in
    dissertations but are seldom used rigorously
  • GT has links to other methodological traditions
    which take the empirical material seriously -
    such as ethnography and ANT

5
Foundations of GT
  • Pragmatism usefulness as important criterion
  • Idiographic point of departure
  • Qualitative focus
  • Focus on exploration
  • Sensitizing concepts in constant change
  • Focus on social actions
  • Closeness to the empirical material

6
Some key aspects of GT
  • Suggests the use of a broad range of different
    and rich data
  • Coding as a central aspect of analysis
  • Create categories with properties from data
  • The power of comparison
  • Different people, different points in time,
    different categories
  • Theoretical sampling
  • Minimizing and maximizing differences in two
    steps
  • From categories to substantial (focusing on an
    empirical phenomenon) and formal (focusing on a
    theoretical phenonenon) grounded theories

(Based on Alvesson Sköldberg, 1994)
7
What is a good grounded theory?
  • Fit with data
  • Works in explaining the phenomenon
  • Has relevance through analytic explanations of
    important problems and processes in the empirical
    setting
  • Is durable through flexibility

(Charmaz, 2000)
8
Steps in developing a grounded theory
  • Develop categories
  • Use data available to develop labeled categories
    that fit data closely
  • Saturate categories
  • Accumulate examples of a given category until is
    is clear what future instances would be located
    in this category
  • Abstract definitions
  • Abstract a definition of the category by stating
    in a general form the criteria for putting
    further instances into this category
  • Use the definitions
  • Use definitions as a guide to emerging features
    of importance in further field work and as a
    stimulus to theoretical reflection

Turner (1981 Baserad på Glaser Strauss)
9
Steps in developing a grounded theory
  • Exploit categories fully
  • Be aware of additional categories suggested by
    those you have produced, their inverse, their
    opposite, more specific and more general
    instances
  • Note, develop and follow up links between
    categories
  • Note relationships and develop hypotheses about
    the links between the categories
  • Consider the conditions under which the links
    hold
  • Examine any apparent or hypothesized
    relationships and specify the conditions
  • Make connections, where relevant to existing
    theory
  • Build bridges to existing work at this stage
    rather than at the outset of the research
  • Use extreme comparisons to the maximum to test
    emerging relationships
  • Identify the key variables and dimensions and see
    whether the relationship holds at the extremes of
    these variables

Turner (1981 Baserad på Glaser Strauss)
10
Your reflections - GT strengths
  • Makes analysis traceable and easier to refine
  • Increases reliability and validity by proposing a
    rigorous process
  • Helps deal with the generalizability issue in
    qualitative research
  • Provides theories that fit data
  • Enables new insights
  • Requires and experienced and broad researcher

11
Your reflections - GT weaknesses/risks
  • Cannot be entirely theory free
  • The process/coding restricts the interpretive
    process
  • Time consuming
  • Theories become very local
  • How is prior knowledge incorporated?
  • Concept definition is a challenge

12
Critique against GT
  • Difficult to get beyond the common sense level
    of analysis. Reveals surface structures but
    misses the underlying deep structures
  • Data can never be free of theory
  • Over reliance on a mechanical coding process
  • A positivistic flavor which does not fit the
    focus on qualitative data

Based on Alvesson Sköldberg (1994)
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