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This chapter examines existing approaches to conducting qualitative process research (i.e., studies that view phenomena as becoming or evolving over time) by analyzing published process research in six premier organizational journals from 2010 to 2017. We identify four modes of performing process research that we label evolutionary process stories, performative process stories, narrative process stories and toolkit-driven process stories, and explore the particular ways in which they formulate and link empirical and theoretical elements. We also identify some of their specific challenges and suggest directions for the future.

Purpose – This chapter presents four different approaches to doing and writing qualitative research in strategy and management based on different epistemological foundations. It describes two well-established “templates” for doing such work, and introduces two more recent “turns” that merit greater attention.

Design/Methodology/Approach – The chapter draws on methodological texts and a detailed analysis of successful empirical exemplars from the strategy and organization literature to show how qualitative research on strategy processes can be effectively carried out and written up.

Findings – The two “templates” are based on different logics and modes of writing. The first is based on a positivist epistemology and aims to develop nomothetic theoretical propositions, while the second is interpretive and more concerned to capture and gain insight from the meanings given to organizational phenomena. The two “turns” (the practice turn and the discursive turn) are not as well defined but are generating innovative contributions based on new ways of considering the social world.

Originality/Value – The chapter should be helpful to researchers considering qualitative methods for the study of strategy processes. It contributes by comparing different approaches and by recognizing that part of the challenge of doing qualitative research lies in writing it up to communicate its insights in a credible way. Thus while describing the different methods, the chapter also draws attention to effective forms of writing. In addition, it introduces and assesses two more recent “turns” that offer promising routes to novel insight as well as having particular ontological and epistemological affinities with qualitative research methods.

To stay competitive on both local and global scales, companies have to respond rapidly to their customers and to the increasing role of information technology. One way of answering the demands that face today’s management, is to increase employees’ implication in the organization by empowering them. The shift from top to bottom authority to a team‐oriented organization is part of this process. Self‐directed teams (SDT) are a key element in making this shift work. In this paper, after a brief definition and description of this kind of team, we will focus on conflict management as an important factor for their success. Conflict and its mechanisms will first be developed, its consequences on group decision making will be studied at the SDTs level, and a set of conflict management alternatives will finally be presented.

Previous work on paradox and contradiction has argued for management approaches that transcend dilemmas through a kind of creative synthesis. The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically how change leaders' efforts to transcend contradictions emerge, evolve and contribute to organizational change.

The paper analyses three case studies in different sectors drawing on interviews, documents and observations.

It is found that discourses of transcendence emerge as leaders bring new elements to the debate and supply a rationale that creatively bridges opposite poles of a dilemma. The credibility of the discourse is enhanced when it is embedded in extant institutional ideas, when stakeholders' interests and values appear to be accommodated and when leaders are viewed as legitimate. However, inherent contradictions tend to resurface over time, suggesting that while transcendence offers a powerful stimulus for change, its range and lifetime may be transitory. Three mechanisms associated with the acceptance of transcendent ideas (quasi‐resolution of conflict, strategic ambiguity and groupthink) may sow the seeds of their eventual re‐evaluation and dissolution.

By examining the antecedents and consequences of transcendent discourses over time, the paper provides a nuanced view of their potential and limitations.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce this special themed section which explores the relationship between contradiction and organizational change.

This paper analyzes the four papers included in this special themed section, drawing links between the different texts.

A review of the papers shows that they contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of organizational change by focusing on how contradictions manifest themselves and how they are managed in various change contexts.

This introduction provides readers of the themed section with an overview of the four papers.

In this volume, we take the baton from previous editors Dave Ketchen and Don Bergh in the Research Methodology in Strategy and Management series. Our approach is to stand on the shoulders of these editors and authors who have published in the series. So, we begin, in this chapter, by highlighting innovative work published in this volume that has provided actionable and practical suggestions for problems researchers face in their work. We briefly describe the chapters, including the first two chapters in this volume from Kathleen M. Eisenhardt and Dennis Gioia, and introduce new methodologies and tools to guide researchers in their efforts to build high quality, publishable work. We also describe future work that, in our view, needs to be addressed for the fields of strategic management in particular and management more generally to continue to evolve.

Welcome to volume 6 of Research Methodology in Strategy and Management! In creating this series about eight years ago, our belief was that the organizational sciences needed a forum wherein leading scholars could openly express their views about important and emerging issues within research methods. In particular, we wanted the book series to serve as a metaphorical bridge between areas of inquiry that could benefit from increased interaction with each other. This sixth volume of the series recalls these roots by being built around the theme of “Building methodological bridges.”