Person-Centered Methodologies in the Organizational Sciences

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 803-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre J. S. Morin ◽  
Aleksandra Bujacz ◽  
Marylène Gagné

The 2011 Organizational Research Methods Feature Topic on latent class procedures has helped to establish person-centered analyses as a method of choice in the organizational sciences. This establishment has contributed to the generation of substantive-methodological synergies leading to a better understanding of a variety of organizational phenomena and to an improvement in research methodologies. The present Feature Topic aims to provide a user-friendly introduction to these new methodological developments for applied organizational researchers. Organized around a presentation of the typological, prototypical, and methodologically exploratory nature of person-centered analyses, this introductory article introduces seven contributions aiming to: (a) clarify the meaning, advantages, and applications of person-centered analyses; (b) illustrate emerging prototypical and longitudinal cluster analytic approaches; (c) introduce researchers to multilevel person-centered analyses as well as to auxiliary approaches that will drastically increase the scope of application of these methods; and (d) describe the application of these methods for confirmatory purposes.

Author(s):  
Rebecca PRICE ◽  
Christine DE LILLE ◽  
Cara WRIGLEY ◽  
Kees DORST

There is an increasing need for organizations to adapt to rapid changes in society. This need requires organizations’ and the leader within them, to explore, recognize, build and exploit new capabilities. Researching such capabilities has drawn attention from the design management research community in recent years. Dominantly, research contributions have focused on perspectives of innovation and the strategic application of design with the researcher distanced from context. Descriptive and evaluative case studies of past organizational leadership have been vital, by building momentum for the design movement. However, there is a need now to progress toward prescriptive and explorative research perspectives that embrace context through practice and the simultaneous research of design.  Therefore, the aim of this track is to lead and progress discussion on research methodologies that support the research community in developing explorative and prescriptive research methodologies for context-orientated organizational research. This track brings together a group of diverse international researchers and practitioners to fuel discussion on design approaches and subsequent outcomes of prescriptive and explorative research methodologies.


Author(s):  
Sarah Jane Blithe ◽  
Anna Wiederhold Wolfe

Collecting qualitative data in organizations is a complex and messy process which produces subjective, performed, and partial data. In this chapter, the authors argue that analyzing “ruptures” in organizational interview data—paying attention to absences, exits, unspoken feelings, and temporal shifts--can enrich the researcher's understanding by making visible multiple aspects of the data which might otherwise have been overlooked. Examining ruptures draws attention to jarring disjunctures and previously unseen angles often missed through traditional data analysis. Drawing from interview data with brothel owners and sex workers in Nevada's legal brothels, the authors present two main contributions to qualitative organizational research: (1) the benefits of analyzing ruptures in organizational interview performances and transcripts and (2) a challenge to organizational researchers to take seriously their emotions during the interview performance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-363
Author(s):  
Harry Wels

PurposeTo further develop research methodologies for multi-species ethnographic fieldwork, based on researcher's experiences with multi-species fieldwork in private wildlife conservancies in South Africa and inspired by San tracking techniques.Design/methodology/approachReflections on methodological lessons learnt during multi-species ethnographic fieldwork in South Africa. The approach is rather “Maanenesque” in telling various types of tales of the field. These tales also implicitly show how all-encompassing ethnographic fieldwork and its accompanying reflexivity are; there is never time for leisure in ethnographic fieldwork.FindingsThat developing fieldwork methodologies in multi-species ethnographic research confronts researchers with the explicit need for and training in multi-sensory methods and interpretations, inspired by “the art of tracking” of the San.Originality/valueComes up with a concrete suggestion for a sequence of research methods for multi-species ethnography based on the trials and tribulations of a multi-species ethnographer's experiences in South Africa and inspired by San tracking techniques.


2019 ◽  
pp. 109442811985747
Author(s):  
Janaki Gooty ◽  
George C. Banks ◽  
Andrew C. Loignon ◽  
Scott Tonidandel ◽  
Courtney E. Williams

Meta-analyses are well known and widely implemented in almost every domain of research in management as well as the social, medical, and behavioral sciences. While this technique is useful for determining validity coefficients (i.e., effect sizes), meta-analyses are predicated on the assumption of independence of primary effect sizes, which might be routinely violated in the organizational sciences. Here, we discuss the implications of violating the independence assumption and demonstrate how meta-analysis could be cast as a multilevel, variance known (Vknown) model to account for such dependency in primary studies’ effect sizes. We illustrate such techniques for meta-analytic data via the HLM 7.0 software as it remains the most widely used multilevel analyses software in management. In so doing, we draw on examples in educational psychology (where such techniques were first developed), organizational sciences, and a Monte Carlo simulation (Appendix). We conclude with a discussion of implications, caveats, and future extensions. Our Appendix details features of a newly developed application that is free (based on R), user-friendly, and provides an alternative to the HLM program.


2020 ◽  
pp. 147447402094955
Author(s):  
Alan Latham ◽  
Lauren B Wagner

Human geography has become deeply interested in a range of research methods that focus on researchers’ corporeal engagement with their research sites. This interest has opened up an exciting set of research horizons, energising the discipline in a whole range of ways. Welcoming this engagement, this paper presents a series of meditations on the process of using the researcher’s corporeal learning as a research tool. Exploring two research projects, as well as the work of the photographer Nikki S Lee, it examines how the process of becoming corporeally capable might productively be framed as sets of ongoing experiments. Framing such engagements as experiments is a useful heuristic through which to think rigorously about what such research can claim as knowledge. More controversially, the paper argues that the heuristic of the experiment helps us to attend to the varying durations of becoming in ways that much existing work has discounted. Developing corporeal capacities – gaining a skill, becoming capable of doing a particular activity – involves becoming attuned to a range of thresholds, the crossing of which open up novel and frequently unexpected perspectives. Attunement to these thresholds does not arise simply through the process of mixing in and participating in a research site. It requires careful attention to the parameters of transformation involved in being able to participate. The paper explores how such parameters might be decided upon and calibrated as part of an ongoing engagement with a research site or event. Our aim is not to artificially restrict or constrain how human geographers approach their research design. Rather it is to encourage human geographers to show more courage in their use of corporeal based research methodologies.


2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herman Aguinis ◽  
Charles A. Pierce ◽  
Frank A. Bosco ◽  
Ivan S. Muslin

Author(s):  
Kathy Absolon ◽  
Cam Willett

In this article issues around research methodology specific to Aboriginal people will be discussed. A brief historical analysis lays a foundation for the need for unique research methodologies as it pertains to Aboriginal people both as researched and researcher. Contemporary critiques by Aboriginal writers and communities will be presented in relation to the limitations and effects of Euro-western research methods. Finally, the authors will discuss issues, possibilities and responsibilities around conducting research as Aboriginal researchers.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 574-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Busse ◽  
Andrew P. Kach ◽  
Stephan M. Wagner

Boundary conditions (BC) have long been discussed as an important element in theory development, referring to the “who, where, when” aspects of a theory. However, it still remains somewhat vague as to what exactly BC are, how they can or even should be explored, and why their understanding matters. This research tackles these important questions by means of an in-depth theoretical-methodological analysis. The study contributes fourfold to organizational research methods: First, it develops a more accurate and explicit conceptualization of BC. Second, it widens the understanding of how BC can be explored by suggesting and juxtaposing new tools and approaches. It also illustrates BC-exploring processes, drawing on two empirical case examples. Third, it analyzes the reasons for exploring BC, concluding that BC exploration fosters theory development, strengthens research validity, and mitigates the research-practice gap. Fourth, it synthesizes the analyses into 12 tentative suggestions for how scholars should subsequently approach the issues surrounding BC. The authors hope that the study contributes to consensus shifting with respect to BC and draws more attention to BC.


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