I Never Promised You a Rose Garden: When Research Questions Ought to Change
Research in Organizational Change and Development
ISBN: 978-1-78635-360-3, eISBN: 978-1-78635-359-7
Publication date: 21 July 2016
Abstract
This chapter addresses the common assumption that research questions are fixed at the outset of a study and should remain stable thereafter. We consider field-based organizational research and ask whether and when research questions can legitimately change. We suggest that change can, does, and indeed should occur in response to changes in the context within which the research is being conducted. Using an illustrative example, we identify refinement and reframing as two distinct types of research question development. We conclude that greater transparency over research question evolution would be a healthy development for the field.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
The idea for this chapter was first rehearsed in a key-note address given by Jean Bartunek at a Special Conference of the Strategic Management Society on Strategy in Complex Settings, held in Glasgow in 2013. The authors would also like to acknowledge all those involved in the action research project we discussed and the help of Dr Angeliki Papachroni in preparing the final manuscript.
Citation
MacIntosh, R., Bartunek, J.M., Bhatt, M. and MacLean, D. (2016), "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden: When Research Questions Ought to Change", Research in Organizational Change and Development (Research in Organizational Change and Development, Vol. 24), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 47-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0897-301620160000024003
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited