Grounded Theory in Management Research

Karen Locke is W. Brooks George Professor of Business Administration at the College of William and Mary’s school of business, where she is a member of the management area. She joined the faculty there in 1989 after earning her Ph.D in organizational behavior from Case Western Reserve University. Her work focuses on developing a sociology of knowledge in organizational studies with an emphasis on the production of scientific texts and on the use of qualitative research for the investigation of organizational phenomena. She has published in journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, and Studies in Organization, Culture and Society, and has authored Grounded Theory In Management Research. Her current work continues her interest in the processes of qualitative researching and focuses on exploring and explicating their creative and imaginative dimensions. Karen also serves as an associate action editor for Organizational Research Methods and as a member of the editorial board of Academy of Management Journal.

′…resources for conducting grounded theory are spread across a number of disciplines… making it difficult for organization and management scholars to track them down. This book describes the grounded theory approach for organization and management researchers needing to fully understand the possibilities and challenges of this method. It brings together the broadly dispersed discussions of the logic and practices of grounded theory, restoring this style of qualitative research for students and teachers of organization and management′ Management Research News′Given its content and style of writing, this book will be useful not only to organisational scholars bit also to those such fields as sociology, nursing, education and psychology′ - Mihaela Kelemen, Nurse Researcher

• IntroductionPART ONE: SITUATING THE DISCOVERY OF GROUNDED THEORYSituating the Discovery of Grounded Theory within the Tradition of Qualitative MethodsSituating Grounded Theory within Its Philosophical, Sociological and Personal ContextsPART TWO: THE GROUNDED THEORY RESEARCH APPROACHDistinguishing Characteristics of Grounded TheoriesGrounded Theory′s Research OperationsEvolution of Grounded Theory′s Research OperationsPART THREE: THE GROUNDED THEORY APPROACH IN MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION STUDIESGrounded Theory in Studies of Management and OrganizationWriting Grounded Theory