Dynasting Theory: Lessons in learning grounded theory

Johnben Teik-Cheok Loy, MBA, MTS, Ph.D. Abstract This article captures the key learning lessons gleaned from the author’s experience learning and developing a grounded theory for his doctoral dissertation using the classic methodology as conceived by Barney Glaser. The theory was developed through data gathered on founders and successors of Malaysian Chinese family-own businesses. The main concern for Malaysian Chinese family businesses emerged as dynasting . the building, maintaining, and growing the power and resources of the business within the family lineage. The core category emerged as dynasting across cultures, where founders and successors struggle to transition from traditional Chinese to hybrid cultural and modernized forms of family business from one generation to the next. The key learning lessons were categorized under five headings: (a) sorting through different versions of grounded theory, (b) educating and managing research stakeholders, (c) embracing experiential learning, (d) discovering the core category: grounded intuition, and (e) recognizing limitations and possibilities. Keywords: grounded theory, learning, dynasting, family business, Chinese Introduction My journey towards grounded theory began in my doctoral studies after I had engaged in and published several quantitative survey research projects and found the approach to explaining human behavior to be too limiting. First, the questions and response-choices were pre-established; second, I had no access to the respondents to ascertain how they interpreted the questions or to clarify the reason behind why they chose the responses they did; and third, the theories that guided the development of the questionnaires also seemed somewhat disembodied from the people I was studying. As a result, I decided to change my dissertation methodology to one that would better satisfy my longing to really understand what was going on for the people. I turned to qualitative methodologies at first, not expecting to end up doing a grounded theory study. Neither did I anticipate the many challenges I would have to go through along the process of learning grounded theory when I finally decided to do it. Early in my dissertation, I started an anonymous blog to keep myself motivated and connected to other graduate students. I made entries of my grounded theory learning process as I experienced it. For relief, I added touches of humor and sarcasm to my entries. Given its personal nature, I struggled as to the appropriateness of identifying my blog in this article. Surprisingly, in researching for this article, I discovered that an editor of a recent textbook on qualitative research mentioned my blog in the preface of her textbook (Lichtman, 2011, p. viii). I reasoned that if my blog had enough value to be mentioned in a textbook, I might as well fully embrace the spirit of collaborative and open learning and reveal my authorship publicly. My blog, The Lonely Dissertator, can be accessed at http://lonelydissertator.blogspot.com (I stopped updating my blog shortly after I completed my dissertation defense in May 2010). My dissertation was entitled Dynasting Across Cultures: A Grounded Theory of Malaysian Chinese Family Firms (Loy, 2010). Data were gathered from interviews, participant observations, opportunistic conversations, and also relevant literature. There were a total of 22 formal interviews with 25 different participants: 10 male successors (aged 20s-70s), 3 female successors (aged 30s-50s), 4 male founders (aged 60s-70s), 1 female founder (aged 60s), 3 family members no longer in the business (1 founder-wife in her 70s, 1 daughter aged 50s, 1 niece aged 40s), and 4 non-family members of the business (1 male staff aged 60s, 1 female staff aged 50s, and 1 friend...

Stigma in Access to HIV Treatment in African Settings: The importance of social connections...

Kingsley Oturu, MD, MBBS, MSc. [This paper partly forms basis for winning the New Investigator in Global Health Award 2011 awarded by the Global Health Council, USA] Abstract Access to antiretroviral therapy is desperately needed in Nigeria. Increased access to anti-retroviral therapy for HIV treatment contributes to improved quality of life and reduced health care costs. It may assist in reduction of stigma and risk of HIV transmission. Although a lot of global funding has been mobilised to improve access to HIV treatment, many people in Nigeria still do not have access. The HIV treatment access rate in Nigeria is 16.6%. It is often assumed that with the provision of antiretroviral therapy, patients will readily access HIV treatment. However, as this grounded theory (GT) study suggests, stigma stands out as a major barrier to HIV prevention and treatment services in Nigeria. The main concern of the participants that emerged in this GT study was the fear of different types of stigma that stand as barriers to access. Self stigma, familial stigma and community stigma, institutional stigma and organisational stigma surfaced as issues that influence access. The participants were also able to overcome stigma and other barriers to accessing HIV treatment through the use of social connections. Social connection emerges as the core category of this theory. The core determinant to engaging with social connectors is the type of disclosing strategy utilised by the research participants. The social connection theory on access developed from this study suggests that although stigma poses a major barrier to HIV treatment, social connectors can play a major role in supporting the patient in overcoming barriers to access HIV treatment. Social connectors were identified as trusted acquaintances that influenced how and when HIV patients access treatment. I therefore argue in this paper that in African settings, social connectors should be targeted in access programs and not just the individual patient. The theory may be adapted for other diseases associated with stigma, such as leprosy or mental illnesses. It may also be relevant for African patients living in western or non-African contexts or in contexts within developed countries where there is strong social capital. Introduction Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection is a global health issue that affects 33.4 million people worldwide. Sub-Saharan Africa bears the main brunt of the epidemic accounting for 67% of the HIV infections and contributing to 75% of all AIDS death in 2007 (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS [UNAIDS], 2009). With a population of 140 million and a HIV prevalence rate of 4.4%, Nigeria has the 3rd largest number of People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in the world (UNAIDS, 2009). The impact of an unchecked HIV epidemic include increasing number of AIDS orphans, increasing funeral costs, loss of time and resources caring for the sick, reduced economic productivity and stigmatization of those infected and affected by the HIV virus (Oturu, 2006; Tindyebwa, et. al., 2006). With the advent of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) for HIV treatment, people infected with HIV infection are able to live longer and have better quality of life (Alonzo, A., & Reynolds, R. (1995). However, despite a lot of initiatives, many PLWHA in Nigeria still do not have access to ARVs (POLICY, 2004). Although there are currently about 215 ARV treatment sites in Nigeria, it is estimated that only 16.6% of the 550,000 people who require ARV treatment are actually on the drugs (United Nations General Assembly Special Session, [UNGASS], 2007). This GT study discovers that stigma still...

Working the System: School counselors aligning to advantage

Stillman, Susan Braude. (2011). Working the System: School counselors aligning to advantage. The Grounded Theory Review, vol.10, no.2, pp.112-132. This study, based in the substantive area of school counselors, was conducted using classical grounded theory, an inductive, systemic method of data collection and analysis. The core variable, or the school counselors’ main concern and how they were resolving it, emerged as the need to develop and implement a comprehensive program within the complex ecology of a school. Working the system: Aligning to advantage was discovered to be the school counselors’ resolving process. The data revealed that as school counselors work the system, they engage in strategic actions of aligningto advantage themselves, others, and/or the overall system. Working the system comprises three stages: accessing, engaging, and sustaining, each associated with aligning behaviors, which have personal, interpersonal, andstructural dimensions. The theory is useful to school counselors and other leaders engaged in systemic change in complex ecological systems. Article...

The Theory of Social Control and the Social Psychology of Dissatisfaction: Inhibition, regression and isolation in a cultural context...

Selmes, Orsolya. (2011). The Theory of Social Control and the Social Psychology of Dissatisfaction: Inhibition, regression and isolation in a cultural context. The Grounded Theory Review, vol.10, no.2, pp.91-111. The Theory of Social Control (TSC) is grounded in satisfaction and happiness research. The study investigated the reasons behind relatively low levels of civil and personal satisfaction, subjective social well-being and experienced happiness in the post-communist Hungarian social context. The basic social process uncovered in the research is self-situating, which involves a continuous assessment of social control, which occurs on three psychological dimensions: activity, fairness and connectedness, operated viasocial flow. The culturally salient outcome of self-situating in Hungary is self-victimizing, meaning a subjective loss of control on all three dimensions. Some of the most important emotional-motivational consequences of self-victimizing are inhibition, regression and isolation, which contribute to various socio-cultural phenomenon such as distrust, bystander strategies, pessimism or anomie across a number of social situations. Based on the emerging theory, the concept of subjective social control is introduced and an expanded three-dimensional model of civil satisfaction, comfort and contribution, along with psychological and cultural implications, are discussed. Article...

Stigma in Access to HIV Treatment in African Settings: The importance of social connections...

Oturu, Kingsley. (2011). Stigma in Access to HIV Treatment in African Settings: The importance of social connections. The Grounded Theory Review, vol.10, no.2, pp.63-90. Access to antiretroviral therapy is desperately needed in Nigeria. Increased access to anti-retroviral therapy for HIV treatment contributes to improved quality of life and reduced health care costs. It may assist in reduction of stigma and risk of HIV transmission. Although a lot of global funding has been mobilised to improve access to HIV treatment, many people in Nigeria still do not have access. The HIV treatment access rate in Nigeria is 16.6%. It is often assumed that with the provision of antiretroviral therapy, patients will readily access HIV treatment. However, as this grounded theory (GT) study suggests, stigma stands out as a major barrier to HIV prevention and treatment services in Nigeria. The main concern of the participants that emerged in this GT study was the fear of different types of stigma that stand as barriers to access. Self stigma, familial stigma andcommunity stigma, institutional stigma and organisational stigma surfaced as issues that influence access. The participants were also able to overcome stigma and other barriers to accessing HIV treatment through the use of social connections. Social connection emerges as the core category of this theory. The core determinant to engaging with social connectors is the type of disclosing strategy utilised by the research participants. The social connection theory on access developed from this study suggests that although stigma poses a major barrier to HIV treatment, social connectors can play a major role in supporting the patient in overcoming barriers to access HIV treatment. Social connectors were identified as trusted acquaintances that influenced how and when HIV patients access treatment. I therefore argue in this paper that in African settings, social connectors should be targeted in access programs and not just the individual patient. The theory may be adapted for other diseases associated with stigma, such as leprosy or mental illnesses. It may also be relevant for African patients living in western or non-African contexts or in contexts within developed countries where there is strong social capital. Article...

Dynasting Theory: Lessons in learning grounded theory

Loy, Johnben Teik-Cheok. (2011). Dynasting Theory: Lessons in learning grounded theory. The Grounded Theory Review, vol.10, no.2, pp.45-62. This article captures the key learning lessons gleaned from the author’s experience learning and developing a grounded theory for his doctoral dissertation using the classic methodology as conceived by Barney Glaser. The theory was developed through data gathered on founders and successors of Malaysian Chinese family-own businesses. The main concern for Malaysian Chinese family businesses emerged as dynasting – the building, maintaining, and growing the power and resources of the business within the family lineage. The core category emerged as dynasting across cultures, where founders and successors struggle to transition from traditional Chinese to hybrid cultural and modernized forms of family business from one generation to the next. The key learning lessons were categorized under five headings: (a) sorting through different versions of grounded theory, (b) educating and managing research stakeholders, (c) embracing experiential learning, (d) discovering the core category: grounded intuition, and (e) recognizing limitations and possibilities. Article...