Advances in Qualitative Organization Research – serie

This volume illustrates the breadth of questions and approaches that are amenable to qualitative research. The works have both theoretical relevance and pragmatic significance, holding important implications for organizational scholars and practitioners alike. Papers presented cover topics as varied as: examining how new institutions emerge and replace former ways of doing things; an insider/outsider approach to examine the emergence and spread of organization development activities in Boston's city government; an introduction of a methodology incorporating multidimensional scaling and repertory grid procedures to produce cognitive maps; conceptual distinction between justice and injustice; an examination of how representatives of several prominent US universities reacted to questions about hate speech policies implemented by their universities but banned by court order; linkages between leadership, organizational change, and managerial work; empirical systems modelling on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship; and an extension of a study considering issues of replicability and generalization in several Indian R&D organizations.

Qualitative research encompasses all forms of field research performed with qualitative data, that is, data that is presented in non-numeric form. Purely quantitative organizational researchers should find Advances in Qualitative Organizational Research valuable as a source of grounded insights and testable hypotheses. The need for an annual series such as this grows out of the absence of a periodic outlet offering the physical space per manuscript required to write a meaningfully deep description of qualitative data and, at the same time, a sufficiently detailed theoretical interpretation and conceptual conclusion.

Over the past five years the Davis Conference on Qualitative Research has welcomed research projects by the very best qualitative, organizational researchers in the world. This conference has helped authors develop and hone theoretical ideas in an environment friendly to qualitative methods, and more importantly, has begun to build a community of qualitative researchers that work on organizational and management issues. The authors winning the "Best Presentation Awards" at the Davis Conference over the past five years have contributed chapters to this volume. The ideas in these chapters were "born" before the conference, but were nurtured through dialogue at the conference, and subsequently matured through later interactions among the community of qualitative scholars associated with the conference. As such, this volume represents the fruits of our collective labor as a qualitative research community. This collective and iterative process is a hallmark of qualitative methods, and often leads to a counter-intuitive, "ah-hah" experience for the researcher. This volume showcases some of the very best of those ah-hah experiences from the organizational, qualitative research community.

Over the past five years the Davis Conference on Qualitative Research has welcomed research projects by the very best qualitative, organizational researchers in the world. This conference has helped authors develop and hone theoretical ideas in an environment friendly to qualitative methods, and more importantly, has begun to build a community of qualitative researchers that work on organizational and management issues. The authors winning the "Best Presentation Awards" at the Davis Conference over the past five years have contributed chapters to this volume. The ideas in these chapters were "born" before the conference, but were nurtured through dialogue at the conference, and subsequently matured through later interactions among the community of qualitative scholars associated with the conference. As such, this volume represents the fruits of our collective labor as a qualitative research community. This collective and iterative process is a hallmark of qualitative methods, and often leads to a counter-intuitive, "ah-hah" experience for the researcher. This volume showcases some of the very best of those ah-hah experiences from the organizational, qualitative research community.

Over the past ten years, the Davis Conference on Qualitative Research has become the world’s leading conference for qualitative researchers in organizational studies. The authors of the "Best Presentation Awards" at the Davis Conference from the past four years have contributed chapters to this volume. These papers cover topics ranging from organizational name changes and organizational afterlife, to the use of written letters to build relationships and the use of a “creative foil” to improve one’s leadership image. Yet all of these papers are similar in that they benefited from the community of over 100 scholars developed through the Davis Conference, and represent qualitative research at its very best.

Over the past ten years, the Davis Conference on Qualitative Research has become the world’s leading conference for qualitative researchers in organizational studies. The authors of the "Best Presentation Awards" at the Davis Conference from the past four years have contributed chapters to this volume. These papers cover topics ranging from organizational name changes and organizational afterlife, to the use of written letters to build relationships and the use of a “creative foil” to improve one’s leadership image. Yet all of these papers are similar in that they benefited from the community of over 100 scholars developed through the Davis Conference, and represent qualitative research at its very best.

The Davis Conference on Organizational Research, held for the last 15 years, is the world’s leading conference for qualitative researchers in organizational studies. Scholars receiving the “Best presentation awards” at the Davis Conference for the past 6 years have contributed chapters to this volume. These papers explore social relationships in organizations and work, and cover a diverse set of topics ranging from boundary spanning in collaboration and teamwork to embodied competence at work and beliefs about availability among professionals. Yet all the papers are similar in that they benefited from the community of over 150 scholars developed through the Davis Conference, and represent qualitative research at its very best.