Search results

The purpose of this paper is to provide some context for the special issue and to introduce the collection of invited commentaries and research papers that follow. It also sets out to clarify the contribution that shadowing methods can make to the study of organizations.

This is done by briefly outlining the ways in which shadowing methods have developed in parallel within a number of disciplines. In order to tackle the question of why this has happened, a grounded approach is taken which centres on data excerpts generated by a shadowing method and three of its closest methodological neighbours: interviews, observation and participant observation. The paper further develops this analysis through the presentation of a set of illustrative analogies which use the idea of the researcher's gaze as a beam of light.

Similarities and differences between shadowing, interviews, observation and participant observation are identified, which support the articulation of shadowing as a family of following methods.

Taken together, the contributions from the invited commentaries and research papers, suggest a number of ways in which the debate surrounding shadowing research in organizations needs to be developed going forward.

The reflexive, comparative methodological approach taken here provides for the first time a systematic comparison of shadowing in relation to other common qualitative data elicitation methods. Further, the development of a critique of the extant literature on shadowing provides a basis on which to progress the field, both in terms of shadowing practices themselves and writing about them within disciplines and across the research methods literature.

Reports the preliminary conclusions derived from the initial, pathfinder phase of a study devoted to a re‐assessment of the information needs of academic researchers. This exploration of researchers’ current information requirements and information seeking practices has been undertaken with a special emphasis on examining the validity of anything and everything we have customarily been holding true as to the information component of academic research work. The groundwork for the investigation has been laid down in a pilot project of seven in‐depth critical incident method based information needs interviews with faculty at the University of Haifa (Israel). The qualitative data thus obtained as to researchers’ information needs, how they go about meeting these needs, and the barriers they encounter in the process have been analysed within the comprehensive framework proposed for a systematic description of information needs. The ensuing evaluation considers 11 aspects of the present‐day academic researcher’s information needs: subject, function, nature, intellectual level, viewpoint, quantity, quality/authority, date/currency, speed of delivery, place of publication/origin, and processing/packaging.

In late 2019, Dr. Hiroaki Kitano, the president and director of research at Sony Computer Science Laboratories (Sony CSL), had decided he would be stepping down from his position soon. Sony CSL, a small blue-sky fundamental research facility funded by Sony, had always operated on the strength of the trust between Sony's CEO and the lab's director. Sony had been hands-off in its management, leaving Kitano to hire, fire, fund, and evaluate the lab's researchers and project portfolio at his own discretion. Now that he was stepping down, however, he worried that Sony CSL could not withstand his departure. Kitano wanted to make a transparent plan for the organization's future before he handed off Sony CSL to his successor. That plan involved three key decisions. First, what should be the optimal structure and governance of Sony CSL? Should it maintain its independence and autonomy, or should it align more closely with Sony's business priorities? Second, how could Sony CSL scale its impact on Sony and society at large, given its small size? Finally, should Sony CSL establish some standard methods of measuring project success and strength of the portfolio? In making these decisions, Kitano wanted to ensure that he preserved the unique culture that had allowed Sony CSL to pursue path-breaking research and innovation.

For a variety of reasons (some good, others not so) “research” has almost become a dirty word. To many people it smacks of intellectual aloofness; to others it appears the plaything of arrogant academics; whilst by some it is regarded as a luxury which can seldom be enjoyed just to let boffins pursue fallacious flights of fancy. Some people say that research has no real role therefore, and at worst must be tolerated; it is not the practical way of life.

This paper discusses the challenges that two doctoral researchers faced while researching religious minorities and women in a culturally sensitive society such as Pakistan. Their shared interest in sensitive topics related to gender and minorities in Pakistan led both researchers to collaborate in this study to provide a better understanding of issues in qualitative research in the same research context. They discuss the challenges of interviewing participants within the educational context. They also suggest some ways to overcome such challenges.

Based on Foucualt's writings on regimes of truth, discourse and systems of exclusion, the authors in this study analyze how patriarchal and faith-based regimes of truth constrain some discourses that affect participants’ willingness and insights to reflect on the issues freely.

While reflecting on their experiences in data collection, authors report that qualitative researchers struggle to access participants to investigate issues related to gender subjectivities and minority faiths in educational contexts in developing societies like Pakistan. Researchers face a variety of problems, from their own positionality to participants’ access to their responses. The reason for this is patriarchal and religious regimes and also their intersecting relations that restrict participants’ ability to reflect on their issues. Minorities in Pakistan are often prevented from expressing their views freely by blasphemy fears. The discourses of gender are also sensitive. Therefore, the study suggests that in societies such as Pakistan, where religion and gender are emotive terms, the problem can be handled by counter-discourses that challenge truth regimes by conceiving research as a transformative practice. Moreover, such societies require a policy for protecting researchers and participants in the interest of knowledge production and dissemination.

This study is originally based on the primary data used in two doctoral studies.

In this chapter the authors analyse different forms of gender and class discrimination in Spanish academic institutions. Androcentrism in terms of the structures of academic institutions, the meritocratic system, the rhythms and contents of work present barriers for women advancing into positions of leadership. The intersectionality of gender and class provides different kinds of hurdles and possibilities for women and men from middle-class and working-class backgrounds. Relationships between (mostly male) supervisors and men and women researchers tend to strengthen men's capabilities of developing their own scientific aspirations and claims to leadership, while women tend to become subordinated supporters of their supervisors' objectives. Power structures dominated by men's values have the effect that some women do not perceive leadership positions as desirable.

The paper reports an intensive survey of medical library users in the Oxford teaching hospitals and the University science departments. Six survey techniques were used and selected results are given for each. It was concluded that the characteristic having most influence on information‐seeking behaviour and library usage was the relative amounts of the user's time devoted to clinical practice and to research respectively. Three distinct user types were identified and ‘rich picture’ descriptions based on the survey evidence are given for each. A second paper will describe a systems study which linked the survey to library management decision‐making.

Evidence on the methods followed by non‐Indigenous researchers for conducting research that involves Indigenous people in Australia is sparse. This paper describes the methodology and steps followed by a non‐Indigenous researcher for engaging with men from an Aboriginal community in rural Victoria in conducting mental health services research. It describes the process adopted to initiate research and build research capacity within an Indigenous community where Indigenous researchers were unavailable and the local communities were ill‐equipped to conduct research themselves. The methodology followed was informed by the values and ethics guidelines of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, the decolonising methodology of Linda Tuhiwai Smith as well as methods suggested by other authors. Lessons learnt included providing for a long time frame, which is necessary to develop relationships and trust with individuals and their Communities, adopting a flexible approach and engaging cultural advisers who represent different sections of the Community.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the fluidity of the fieldwork roles “insider” and “outsider.” The paper aims to move the discussion of insiders from an a priori categorized status and contribute to the literary insider–outsider debate by unfolding the micro process of how the role of an insider is shaped in situ. Grounded in empirical examples, the paper illustrates how the researcher’s role is shaped through interactions with organizational members and by context.

The paper is based on an ethnographic study in an IT department of a Nordic bank and draws on empirical material generated through a combination of data: shadowing, interviews, observations and documents. Excerpts from fieldnotes are included to invite the reader into “the scenes” played out in the field and are analyzed in order to illustrate the shaping of roles in situ.

The study finds that, independent of the researcher’s role as sponsored by the organization, the interactions with organizational members and context determine whether the researcher is assigned a role as insider or outsider, or even both within the same context.

The paper contributes with a new discussion of how the roles of insiders and outsiders are fluid by discussing the shaping of the roles in situ. By drawing on relational identity theories, the paper illustrates how interactions and context influence the researcher’s role, grounded in empirical examples. In addition, the paper discusses what the assigned roles enable and constrain for the ethnographer in that particular situation.

The study of Malcolm Tims, principal at Boobook Primary School, is one example of the descriptive case studies written for ten primary school principals in one N.S.W. Inspectorate. The Stephens Tissue Perfusion Monitor was used as a physiological device to monitor the levels of stress. A plethysmograph worn by the principal and connected to a small transmitter relayed signals to a receiver connected to the Tissue Perfusion Monitor. As stress levels increased, the amount of blood flowing to the tissues decreased and this was shown on the meter and numerically represented as the Tissue Perfusion Index (TPI). As stress levels decreased the TPI levels rose. Each principal was observed for several days and detailed notes were made of the various factors that caused the stress levels to vary. Changes of staff, conflicting values, attitudes and behaviours in teachers and executive staff, staff meetings and poor performance of ancillary staff were common stressors. Recalcitrant pupils, dissatisfied parents, and dealings with other officials, curriculum and policy changes, problems with school buildings and equipment (including break‐and‐enters), work overload and time pressures were also significant stressors. Principals' days seemed to be characterised by a large number of “hassles” and “uplifts”, with intervening periods of either heavy of severe stress or periods of relative calm. Stress levels were found to decrease when positive and beneficial events occurred. The study was able to determine 14 categories of such “uplifts”. Positive support, a “challenge” mentality, confidence, a higher locus of control, as well as individual application of techniques for relaxation, appeared to assist principals in lowering stress levels.