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In this chapter we share some lessons we have learnt through doing research with – rather than on – people experiencing a range of mental health problems.

Our work has taken place within social, cultural, economic, and political contexts which create several problems or challenges. Through an extended dialogue, we explore how we have critically responded to each of these challenges across three phases of our projects: accessing and witnessing experiences of mental illness; understanding experiences of mental illness; and communicating mental health research.

Our aim is to stimulate creative responses to the question of how to do and disseminate research that is most likely to be helpful to people experiencing mental health problems.

The processes that underlie ability emotional intelligence (EI) are barely understood, despite decades of management research. Furthermore, the outcomes of these processes have been narrowly and prescriptively defined. To address this deficiency, I conducted a phenomenological study (n = 26). Findings from a public sector sample suggest that the underlying emotional processes of meaningful life events are – at least for now – better defined through the construct of emotion regulation. While it is part of the ability EI model, the emotional processing that occurs prior to emotion regulation being initiated is likely to be less consistent with current EI theory. Likewise, these processes lead to outcomes considerably more nuanced than currently appreciated in the EI literature. Consequently, what started as a gap-filling approach to research eventually turned into a problematization of what scholars seem to know about EI. I outline the theoretical and practical implications of this study for management, and offer suggestions for future research.

This chapter draws on longitudinal and cross-sessional research to explore the use of Bottery's variant of portrait methodology in understanding the individual experiences of a group of Chinese top-up students when they study a one-year top-up programme in a UK university. The rationale for using Bottery's variant was to understand only the perceptions of these students in their particular context, during a specific period of time in their life. Data were collected three times using semi-structured interviews, and individual portraits were produced after each set of interviews, based on the interview transcripts. The findings of the research and also the comments of the participants suggest that the use of portrait methodology helped enhance the trustworthiness of the research and also self-awareness and self-reflection of the participants. Researchers may face challenges when adopting Bottery's variant of portrait methodology in research, in particular relating to portrait writing and rapport building with the participants.

This study examines the influence of firm management’s ethical “tone at the top” (tone) and the working relationship of an auditor with his/her supervisor (senior) on the auditor’s propensity to engage in an unethical, dysfunctional auditor behavior (DAB). Findings indicate that environmental factors influence the staff auditor’s decision of whether or not to follow a course of action suggested by the supervisor that is contrary to both the audit program and generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS). Specifically, auditors are influenced by the tone that the partner sets for the firm and by the working relationship that the staff auditor has with the supervising senior auditor. The results of this research have ramifications for the auditing profession, as they identify specific factors outside of auditing standards and beyond an auditor’s moral reasoning capabilities that can influence the acceptance of unethical, dysfunctional behavior.