Judge Business SchoolDoing Interpretive Research

Geoff Walsham

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Contents

What is interpretive research?

Theory: role, generation and choice

Conducting empirical work

Analysis and contribution

Ethical issues and tensions

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Interpretive view of data

‘What we call our data are really our own constructions of other people’s constructions of what they and their compatriots are up to.’

(Geertz 1973)

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Some philosophical traditions which can underpin interpretive research studies

Phenomenology e.g. Zuboff (1988)

Ethnomethodology e.g. Suchman (1987)

Hermeneutics e.g. Boland and Day (1989)

Critical realism? See Mingers (2004)

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Interpretive versus critical

Research can be both interpretive and critical. Stronger critical emphasis comes from:

Motivation – what is wrong in the world rather than right

Focus – on issues such as asymmetries of power relations

Theory – with a critical edge e.g. Frankfurt school, Bourdieu, feminism, post-colonialism

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Role of theory

In research design/data collection

In data analysis

As final product

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Grounded theory

Due originally to Glaser and Strauss (1967)

Welcome emphasis on learning from the data rather than imposing a prior theoretical position

I find the specifics (and later variants) too programmatic for my taste

And I think we need a balance of learning from prior theory and the data

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Some Dos and Don’ts of theory generation and choice

Do read widely on different theories

Do choose theories which ‘speak’ to you (not because they are current fashion)

Don’t dismiss a theory’s value until you have read about it in depth

Don’t leave theory generation until after your empirical study

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Conducting empirical work – role of researcher

Outside researcher/involved researcher (Walsham 1995)

I see it now as a spectrum of involvement which often changes over time (Walsham 2006)

Advantages of close involvement can include in-depth access and being viewed by field subjects as aiming to make a positive contribution

Disadvantages can include time, reduced openness of field subjects, becoming ‘socialised’ and self-reporting difficulties

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Gaining and maintaining access

Need to have good social skills!

Persistence/ going at the research from different angles

Offer feedback and presentations

I normally try to avoid written reports

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Interviews and other data sources

Trying to reassure the interviewee

Balance between passivity and over-direction

I have serious doubts about tape-recording followed by transcription: expensive, may reduce openness, doesn’t capture non-verbal elements

E-mails, chat rooms, web sites, surveys (both on-line and off-line), participant observation, hanging around

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Analysing your data

Best tool for analysis is your own mind and that of others

Qualitative data analysis techniques can be useful but also time-consuming and not a replacement for thought

So read your data and then read it again. Make theory/data links.

Try your ideas on others through working papers, conversations, seminars

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Legitimising your approach – a warning about Klein and Myers (1999)

Certainly valuable to think about your work in relation to their principles

But a particular study could illustrate all of their principles and still not come up with interesting results

Don’t merely say: ‘I have applied the principles’

Do say: ‘Here are my interesting results’

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Constructing a contribution

Who is your audience?

To what literature are you aiming to contribute?

What do you claim to offer that is new to the audience and the literature?

How should others use your work?

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Ethical issues and tensions

Confidentiality for individuals

Investigating issues which are not part of the explicit research agenda

Giving the organization ‘bad news’

Reporting in the literature – being critical