Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore a contemporary European development in research into first person accounts of experience, called psychophenomenology, that offers enhancements to phenomenological interviewing. It is a form of guided introspection that seeks to develop finely grained first‐person accounts by using distinctions in language, internal sensory representations and imagery that have been incorporated from neuro‐linguistic programming (NLP). It is also a participative, relational and developmental form of interviewing, in the sense that the interviewee can gain significant insight into their experience; the process is not concerned purely with data gathering.

The authors review the theoretical assumptions on which psychophenomenology is based, then describe the principal method used in psychophenomenology, the “explicitation interview”. The interview protocol is illustrated with transcript data, through which they identify specific aspects of NLP that have been incorporated into psychophenomenology.

Psychophenomenology offers refinements to the precision of phenomenological methods found in organizational research, such as interpretative phenomenological analysis.

The epistemological claims and implications of psychophenomenology are reviewed.

These developments may provide a basis for reconsidering the research value of introspection, which has often been dismissed as non‐rigorous.

The paper introduces psychophenomenology to the field of organizational research. It also describes how psychophenomenology has innovated by drawing from NLP, an approach to personal development that is found in organizational practices such as executive coaching, in order to enhance the precision and rigour of both interviews and transcript analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the development of a health and safety (HS) representative role typology that demonstrates how representatives enact their roles and improve occupational health and safety (OHS) under New Zealand law. It aims to consider the factors that influence the roles that HS representatives’ assume.

This qualitative, cross‐perceptual study centres on the role enactments of eight HS representatives at two metal manufacturers. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with HS representatives, managers, workers, senior managers, OHS managers and a union convenor. “Types” were differentiated by the HS representatives’ purpose, activities and OHS impacts.

In total, four HS representative role “types” were identified: administrators, workshop inspectors, problem solvers and craft experts. Administrators implemented and operated OHS management systems and improved OHS management. Workshop inspectors undertook compliance and monitoring roles and improved workers’ attitudes towards OHS. Problem solvers found solutions to control hazards and improved production from an OHS perspective. Craft experts applied technical knowledge to influence strategic OHS decisions. Role enactment appeared to be influenced by representatives’ expert power, job roles and the organisational role definition. Representatives operating under both managerial and worker defined HS representative systems, increased worker “voice” by providing an avenue to redress OHS concerns.

Implications arise for OHS policy, HS representative training courses and organisational/managerial support.

The paper presents a HS representative role typology distinctively based on cross‐perceptual data that also provides a more holistic perspective of the HS representative role by considering representatives’ purpose, role enactment and OHS impact.

This chapter describes a case study of a social change project in medical education (primary care), in which the critical interpretive evaluation methodology I sought to use came up against the “positivist” approach preferred by senior figures in the medical school who commissioned the evaluation.

I describe the background to the study and justify the evaluation approach and methods employed in the case study – drawing on interviews, document analysis, survey research, participant observation, literature reviews, and critical incidents – one of which was the decision by the medical school hierarchy to restrict my contact with the lay community in my official evaluation duties. The use of critical ethnography also embraced wider questions about circuits of power and the social and political contexts within which the “social change” effort occurred.

Central to my analysis is John Gaventa’s theory of power as “the internalization of values that inhibit consciousness and participation while encouraging powerlessness and dependency.” Gaventa argued, essentially, that the evocation of power has as much to do with preventing decisions as with bringing them about. My chosen case illustrated all three dimensions of power that Gaventa originally uncovered in his portrait of self-interested Appalachian coal mine owners: (1) communities were largely excluded from decision making power; (2) issues were avoided or suppressed; and (3) the interests of the oppressed went largely unrecognized.

The account is auto-ethnographic, hence the study is limited by my abilities, biases, and subject positions. I reflect on these in the chapter.

The study not only illustrates the unique contribution of case study as a research methodology but also its low status in the positivist paradigm adhered to by many doctors. Indeed, the tension between the potential of case study to illuminate the complexities of community engagement through thick description and the rejection of this very method as inherently “flawed” suggests that medical education may be doomed to its neoliberal fate for some time to come.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the acts that constitute cyber‐bullying and to see how from a lay concept these acts are classified.

Data were gathered using two groups of participants (two Australian participants and three British participants may posit different cultural views). The first set of data was generated through cyber‐bullying element extraction from cyber‐bullying literature and interviews were conducted with five college students (three from the United Kingdom and two from Australia). The second set was generated through open ended demonstration of internet negative acts such as sending unwanted messages, rude images, threats and malicious messages in a scenario classification questionnaire. This involved the recruitment of 114 first year undergraduate psychology students in the United Kingdom. The scenario questionnaire measured participants' categorisation of internet negative acts from a lay perspective. Participants' perceptions of cyber‐bullying were examined through grounded theory and thematic narratives to see how these findings differ from literature in the cyber‐bullying arena.

Emerging theory indicates the need to treat cyber‐bullying as a standalone entity without the confounding role that the more traditional concept of bullying plays in cyber bullying definitions. Additionally, internet negative acts, irrespective of their terminological classifications, were perceived as immoral and anti‐social. Suggestions were made to aid practitioners' to implement interventions against cyber‐bullying.

Participant numbers at stage one were limited. Thus, it is suggested future replication(s) of this study employ(s) a larger number of participants so as to ascertain the generalisability of findings. It is also suggested that potential future studies should employ quantitative analyses to further triangulate the findings of the current study.

The strength of the present study lies in its rich qualitative triangulation, as well as its focus on exploring elements that constitute cyber‐bullying from a lay perspective.