Volume 5, Issue no. 2/3, March/June 2006

GT Review vol. 5 no. 2-3 Volume 5, Issue no. 2/3, March/June 2006  Editorial Judith A. Holton, Ph.D. The Roots of Grounded Theory Barney G. Glaser, Ph.D., Hon. Ph.D. From a keynote presentation given to the 3rd International Qualitative Research Convention, Johor Bahru, Malaysia 23rd August 2005.   Grappling with the Literature in a Grounded Theory Study Antoinette M. McCallin, Ph.D., RN Student researchers often struggle to understand how to use literature in a grounded theory study where timing and knowing what to read are critical. Despite substantive theoretical documentation on this topic the reality of working through abstract ideas is more challenging. There is a fine line between not doing a literature review in the area of study and being informed so that a study is focused. In this paper a practical example will be presented illustrating how the student can integrate literature yet stay away from preconceived notions. The topic is interprofessional practice. This paper was originally published in Contemporary Nurse (www.contemporarynurse.com) and is reprinted with the kind permission of the publisher. Reference: McCallin, A. M. (2003). Grappling with the literature in a grounded theory study. Contemporary Nurse, 15(1-2), 61-69.   The Literature Review in Grounded Theory: A response to McCallin (2003)Tom Andrews, RN, B.Sc. (Hons), M.Sc., Ph.D. The paper by McCallin (2003) is a useful contribution to the debate surrounding the role of the literature in Grounded Theory (GT).  For the purpose of this paper and with reference to McCallin (2003) the issue will be discussed in relation to the purpose of a review within GT.  It will be argued that the misunderstanding about the function of the literature within a GT study arises partly as a result of the confusion caused by the continual re-writing of the method.  Further it will be argued that a preliminary reading of the literature is entirely consistent with the principals of GT.  Finally some practical suggestions will be made as to how the issue could be dealt with in a way that is unproblematic for GT. Thoughts on the Literature Review and GT   Alvita Nathaniel, DSN Thinking about epistemic questions always reminds me of Socrates’ cave allegory. In Plato’s most famous book, The Republic,Socrates talks to a young follower named Glaucon. I would like to include here a short excerpt of their conversation and discuss how this relates to my thoughts about preceding a classic GT study with a thorough literature review.   New Way of Using Literature in GT? Hans Thulesius, GP, Ph.D.    After having read Antoinette McCallin’s paper on literature use in GT I find myself asking the following question. Is McCallin’s way of applying the literature – letting the research area emerge in a literature search – an important modification on how to use the literature in classic GT according to Glaser?   Aspects on McCallin’s paper, “Grappling with the literature in a grounded theory study”. Helene Ekström, MD, Ph.D.   I read Antoinette McCallin’s paper with interest and I have learned that there are problems which I have foreseen perhaps because I am, as many medical doctors are, unaware of the many “theories” or different perspectives that one can chose in undertaking a study. Kirsti Malterud, Professor of General Practice in Bergen, Norway, used to say that we are theoretically ignorant and instead focus on the pragmatic issues of how to survive the day and help the “sick” in an appropriate way. However, even if I feel like a real novice, I have some...

Volume 5, issue no.1, November 2005

                                                            GT Review vol5 no1 Volume 5, Issue no. 1, November 2005  Staying Open: The use of theoretical codes in grounded theory Barney G. Glaser with the assistance of Judith Holton Keeping My Ways of Being: Middle-aged women dealing with the passage through menopause   Helene Ekstrom, Johanna Esseveld & Brigitta Hovelius Weathering Change: Coping in a context of pervasive change  Michael A. Raffanti Achieving Rigour and Relevance in Information Systems Studies: Using grounded theory to investigate organizational cases Walter D. Fernandez and Hans Hehmann Staying Open: The use of theoretical codes in grounded theory Barney G. Glaser with the assistance of Judith Holton Theoretical codes (TCs) are abstract models that emerge during the sorting and memoing stages of grounded theory (GT) analysis. They conceptualize the integration of substantive codes as hypotheses of a theory.  In this article, I explore the importance of their emergence in the development of a grounded theory and I discuss the challenge of the researcher in staying open to their emergence and earned relevance rather than their pre-conceived forcing on the theory under development.  I emphasize the importance of GT researchers developing theoretical sensitivity to a wide range of theoretical perspectives and their associated codes. It is a skill that all GT researchers can and should develop. Keeping My Ways of Being: Middle-aged women dealing with the passage through menopause   Helene Ekstrom, Johanna Esseveld & Brigitta Hovelius The meanings given to menopause by women themselves are often left aside.  In this grounded theory study, based on interviews and on open-ended questions in questionnaires answered by middle-aged women, the authors found that not being able to know what would happen and what influence menopause would have on them as individuals were sources of uncertainty. A theory of a general pattern of behaviour emerged, Keeping my ways of being, resolving the uncertainties involved. The intensity of the process and the use of its three different stages, those of Preserving present ways of being, Limiting changes and Reappraising, were considered to be dependent upon the central Personal calculation process, in which the women used their individual explanatory beliefs and evaluations of need. The theory used as a model of thinking in consultations with middle-aged women might show a high degree of workability in explaining what is going on.   Weathering Change: Coping in a context of pervasive change  Michael A. Raffanti This study of organizational change was conducted using classic grounded theory methodology (Glaser & Strauss, 1967).   Most of the relevant data came from open-ended intensive interviews with educators—classroom teachers, professional developers, learning specialists, administrators, and student teachers. Theoretical sampling was also done in organizational settings such as businesses, nonprofits, and religious institutions. The theory of weathering accounts for how organizational members continually resolve their main concern of survival in the face of pervasive change. Weathering is a basic social-psychological process that enables individuals to endure changes in a manner consistent with their personal and professional needs, goals, and values. In the sizing-up phase, an individual initially confronts an impending organizational change. In the filtering phase, one decides how to cope with the change by processing the information through personal and professional filters. The outcome of filtering determines the behaviors exhibited in the coping stage. Coping is a set of behaviors that are best characterized as resisting and acquiescing. The study suggests that leaders consider the complexities of weathering behaviours as they seek to implement organizational changes.   Achieving Rigour and Relevance in Information Systems Studies: Using grounded...

Attraction, Autonomy, and Reciprocity in the Scientist – Supervisor Relationship1...

Barney G. Glaser, Ph.D., Hon. Ph.D. Abstract This paper explores the basis of work integration between the scientist and his supervisor in an organization devoted to basic research. 2 The analysis uses a three-dimensional model of role integration: 1) mutual attractiveness, why they get together; 2) reciprocity; and 3) autonomy, how they stabilize working together. The recognized competence in research of both parties is shown to be a source of mutual attraction, reciprocity in work and maintenance of autonomy. Introduction Shepard (1956) has noted that the “objective evidence” on the scientist-supervisor relationship is “meager.” He suggests three sources of resistance by research laboratories to its study: (1) “The traditions of science organization prescribe formal, impersonal relations but give little direct guidance for close collaborative relations.” (2) “A relatively low value is placed on collaboration in much scientific education: the student is taught to do independent work.” (3) “Personal and group relations are regarded as peripheral considerations in research, so that it is something of an imposition, if not an indignity, to have to be concerned with them.” In sum, “there is no room for the concept of supervision in the traditions of science organization. So little importance is attributed to personal and social matters as factors in scientific work that they are relegated to the category of ethics” (Shepard, 1956). To be sure, this notion was made in 1956; however, while there has been some subsequent research there is still meager objective detailed evidence on this strategic relationship, as a brief study of the comprehensive footnotes of two recent books on scientists will establish. (Kornhauser, 1962; Marcson, 1960). In contrast, the supervisor’s relationship to his subordinates has been the object of much study in other types of organizations. In a recent consolidation of findings on the role of the supervisor in formal organizations, supervision of scientists is not mentioned, indicating again the meager evidence to date (Blau & Scott, 1962). One reason this relationship has been of much interest for research in other organizations is that the supervisor is potentially a “controllable variable.” He can be taught appropriate styles of supervision. This may be another latent reason for resistance to its close study in research, since it conflicts with the value of autonomy in the institution of science. Beyond adding to the evidence on the scientist-supervisor relationship, my intent in this paper is to present a generalized model of the work integration between the scientist and his supervisor. It is my hope that this model will help guide further research and thought on the scientist-supervisor relationship as well as help consolidate what diverse evidence already exists. Just as supervisors of scientists, because of their powers of evaluation, facilities procurement, protection, support, and sponsorship, are very important to their subordinates’ research and careers, scientists, in their research as well as their successes, are important to their supervisors’ research and careers.3  At the core of this interdependence is the work that scientists and supervisors do, both for themselves and for one another. In attempting to formulate a basis of work integration between the scientist and his supervisor, this analysis employs a three-dimensional model: (1) mutual attractiveness, (2) reciprocity in work, and (3) maintenance of autonomy. According to this model, mutual attractiveness accounts for the initial establishment of a work relationship; reciprocity and autonomy explain how that relationship is stabilized to persist for a sufficient time. I shall attempt to show that socially recognized competence in research, particularly for the subordinate, is a...

The Local-Cosmopolitan Scientist

Barney G. Glaser, Ph.D., Hon. Ph.D. [This paper was originally published in The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. LXIX, No. 3, November 1963] In contrast to previous discussions in the literature treating cosmopolitan and local as two distinct groups of scientists, this paperi demonstrates the notion of cosmopolitan and local as a dual orientation of highly motivated scientists. This dual orientation is derived from institutional motivation, which is a determinant of both high quality basic research and accomplishment of non-research organizational activities. The dual orientation arises in a context of similarity of the institutional goal of science with the goal of the organization; the distinction between groups of locals and cosmopolitans derives from a conflict between two goals. Several studies in the sociology of occupations and of organizations have concluded that some professionals in organizations tend to assume “cosmopolitan” orientation that manifests itself in their working professional goals and the approval of colleagues throughout their professional world, in focusing on a professional career, and in a concomitant lack of loyalty to and effort for the organization. Other professionals tend to assume a “local” orientation that manifests itself in their lesser commitment to the profession in more concern with the goals and approval of the organization and in focusing on an organizational career.ii With the growing movement of scientists into research organizations, there has been some interest by sociologists of science in studying the many problems and strains generated by the often conflicting professional and organizational demands and practices that, in turn, generate the adoptive cosmopolitan and local types of orientations.iii A partial list of these problems might include varying incentive systems, differential emphasis on publication of research results, types of authority and supervision related to the professional need of autonomy, divergent and conflicting influences on work situations, assignments and research problem choices, budgets of time and money, kinds of compatible work groups, focus of performance, multiple career lines and commitments. The major goals of many research organizations, particularly industrial research organizations,iv are, of course, not consistent with the major institutional goal of science: advancing knowledge by basic research. They often emphasize goals of application, product development, and expert service. The scientist seeking a professional career (one based on pursuing an institutional goal) in an organization of this type becomes a “cosmopolitan”, by and large directing his efforts to professional goals, rewards and careers. Insofar as the cosmopolitan is always looking within the community of research organizations for better professional positions and conditionsv and has little “local” loyalty to inhibit his mobility, the result is a high organizational turnover. A professional career may be impeded by a too-long stay in the industrial context. Indeed, insofar as the industrial organization needs basic research, it becomes detrimental for it to try and induce the cosmopolitan to focus his efforts on the major organizational goals – product development, application and service – since that refocusing may reduce the quality of his basic research contributions.vi Whereas studies of industrial research organizations have usually found scientists who have either a primary local or cosmopolitan orientation, I shall try to demonstrate a local-cosmopolitan orientation among highly motivated scientists in an organization devoted to the institutional goal of science. The congruence of goals reduces in considerable measure, if not completely, the strains between organizational and professional requirements that tend to generate distinct local and cosmopolitan types. My principal criterion for ascertaining the general orientation of these investigators will be the direction of their work effort. First, I...

The Literature Review in Classic Grounded Theory Studies: A methodological note...

Ólavur Christiansen, Ph.D. The place and purpose of the literature review in a Classic (Glaserian) Grounded Theory (CGT) study is to situate the research outcome within the body of previous knowledge, and thus to assess its position and place within the main body of relevant literature. The literature comparison is conceptual, i.e. the focus is on the comparison of concepts. The literature comparison is not contextual, i.e., it is not based on the origin of the data. This, of course, means that the literature comparison has to be made in a selective manner. It is obvious that relevant literature for conceptual comparison cannot be identified before stable behavioral patterns have emerged. Therefore, it is obvious that these literature comparisons have to be carried out at later stages of the research process, and especially towards the end. This restriction with regard to preliminary literature studies does not prevent the researcher from carrying out literature studies in order to find a loosely defined research topic that fits to his/her interests. However, if the researcher believes either that he/she can derive the participant’s “main concern and its recurrent solution” from this literature, or that he/she can ignore the empirical discovery of this “main concern” as the first stage of research, the choice of CGT would be meaningless. To study the literature as the first stage of the research with the deliberate purpose to define the research problem is a common pre-framing solution. If this were the case, the choice of CGT would be a meaningless choice. If the researcher wants to preconceive the research problem, he/she should choose another research method. The researcher may preconceive the research problem by defining it in accordance with what he/she thinks is most relevant, or what the literature claims to be most relevant, or by spotting gaps in the literature in order to identify untested hypotheses. If researcher has decided to use Glaser’s GT, a preliminary study of the literature in order to derive the research problem would be waste of time. The research problem, when empirically discovered from behavioral data, may be very different from what the extant or originally identified literature assumes it to be. To avoid the preconceiving and tainting influences from pre-existing literature and pre-existing concepts during treatment of the data, it is recommended that no literature studies in related fields are carried out before the empirical data work is finished and the theory has been generated from the data. However, studies that have applied CGT in closely related fields of enquiry could give some clues. Reading of them is recommended but only after the core category of a study has emerged when coding of data for “emergent fit” could be an option. Reading methodological literature does not need to be avoided. To read literature on CGT methodology may be necessary during the entire research process. It is even recommended to read totally unrelated literature or fiction, poetry or drama for analysing and recognizing behaviour patterns and their relationships. Systematic reading or “explication-de-text-reading” of unrelated literature in order to obtain general training in the discovery of behavior patterns and of relationships between these patterns is also recommended. To facilitate an appreciation of the delimiting of the literature review, it may be helpful to review the reasons behind the delimiting of the study itself. Due to the choice of research methodology, the research has been delimited to the main concern and its recurrent processing or solving for the people being studied. Essentially, what...