Titan Ligita, Nichole Harvey, Kristin Wicking, Intansari Nurjannah and Karen Francis
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the practical use of theoretical sampling as a method for selecting data that provide a richer and deeper understanding of the phenomenon…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the practical use of theoretical sampling as a method for selecting data that provide a richer and deeper understanding of the phenomenon being investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretical sampling is a well-known method in grounded theory studies to seek additional data based on concepts developed from initial data analysis. This method involves following where the data have led to expand and refine the evolving theory during the analytical process. However, there is a dearth of information detailing the practical steps needed to undertake theoretical sampling.
Findings
The authors used the theoretical sampling method in their study in four ways: asking additional interview questions and/or widening the scope of existing interview questions; recruiting participants with additional diversity of attributes within the same group; and adding a new group of participants and expanding research settings.
Originality/value
Theoretical sampling is a valuable and practical method for the purpose of addressing gaps in the data in qualitative research. When using theoretical sampling, it is essential to consider potential strategies for countering challenges that may arise. Practical recommendations are offered on the use of theoretical sampling during data analysis, for the purpose of achieving theoretical integration.
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Titan Ligita, Nichole Harvey, Kristin Wicking, Karen Francis and Intansari Nurjannah
This paper aims to explicate one of the major findings of a research study seeking to understand how Indonesian people with diabetes learn about their disease. The one key finding…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explicate one of the major findings of a research study seeking to understand how Indonesian people with diabetes learn about their disease. The one key finding discussed in this paper is how families influence the learning and self-management processes adopted by Indonesian people with diabetes.
Design/methodology/approach
A grounded theory methodology was adopted to investigate how Indonesian people with diabetes learn about their disease. Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews were undertaken with Indonesian people living with diabetes, families of people living with diabetes, healthcare professionals and other healthcare providers. Data was analysed by using constant comparative analysis during three coding stages.
Findings
The study explicated the basic social process of how people with diabetes in Indonesia learn about their disease through a generated theory “Learning, choosing, and acting: self-management of diabetes in Indonesia”. This study found family engagement was integral to Indonesian people living with diabetes who were self-managing their disease. Families assisted with seeking information, providing recommendations, selecting and implementing actions, appraising implemented actions, and informing others about their experiences. By acknowledging that family is involved in this process, the healthcare professional can adequately provide health education to both the person with diabetes and their families. Involving families in health education is crucial as family can influence decision making made by people with diabetes in a proper or improper way. Thus, clinicians need to also skilfully recognise difficulties these people encounter by monitoring their self-management progress and by working closely with them and their family members.
Originality/value
This is the first study conducted in Indonesia that specifically investigates the process of how people with diabetes learn about their disease. The involvement of families in this process is a central finding of the study. Families can enhance the overall health and well-being of the person with diabetes, aid in early recognition of aberration to health status and trigger the initiation of interventions to re-establish homeostasis if they are actively engaged and supported by health professionals.
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David P. Baker is a Professor of Education and Sociology at the Pennsylvania State University, where he is also the associate director of the Social Science Research Institute. He…
Abstract
David P. Baker is a Professor of Education and Sociology at the Pennsylvania State University, where he is also the associate director of the Social Science Research Institute. He publishes widely on the comparative analysis of education and stratification, and the global impact of education as an institution. Recent publications include “Student Victimization: National and School System Effects on School Violence in 37 Nations” (American Journal of Education Research, 2002) and “Socio-Economic Status, School Quality, and National Economic Development: A Cross-National Analysis of the ‘Heyneman-Loxley Effect’ on Mathematics and Science Achievement” (Comparative Education Review, 2002).Aaron Benavot is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Grounded in an institutional approach to education and development, his research has examined historical and cross-national patterns in official school curricula, the consequences of educational expansion on economic development and democratization, the economic impacts of curricular contents, and the origins and expansion of mass education. He is currently studying the diversification of educational knowledge in local Israeli schools and also the dynamics of transnational social science research projects in the European Union.Karen Bradley is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Western Washington University. Her research examines women’s participation in higher education cross-nationally. Recent publications include “Equal but Separate? A Cross-National Study of Sex Segregation in Higher Education” (with Maria Charles, American Sociological Review, 2002) and “The Incorporation of Women into Higher Education: Paradoxical Outcomes?” (Sociology of Education, 2000). She is currently collaborating with Maria Charles on a project sponsored by the Spencer Foundation and the American Educational Research Association that examines factors underlying women’s underrepresentation in engineering and math/computer science programs in several countries.Wendy Cadge is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Bowdoin College. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton University. Her research focuses on the cultural aspects of globalization in the United States and Southeast Asia. Her first book, Heartwood: the First Generation of Theravada Buddhism in America, is forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press.Maria Charles is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego. Her research explores how cultural ideologies and social structures affect the economic and social status of individuals and groups. Most recently, Charles is author of “Deciphering Sex Segregation: Vertical and Horizontal Inequalities in Ten Countries” (Acta Sociologica 46:265–286, 2003), and coauthor of Occupational Ghettos: The Worldwide Segregation of Women and Men (with David Grusky, Stanford University Press, in press) and “Equal but Separate: A Cross-National Study of Sex Segregation in Higher Education” (with Karen Bradley, American Sociology Review 67: 573–599, 2002).Chang Y. Chung is a Statistical Programmer at the Office of Population Research, Princeton University. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of South Carolina and M.S.E. in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He is involved in multiple research projects as statistical programmer, data manager, and co-author. A recent publication is “Employment and Earnings of Foreign-Born Scientists and Engineers in U.S. Labor Markets” (with Thomas Espenshade and Margaret Usdansky, Population Research and Policy Review, 2001).Sara R. Curran is an Assistant Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Sociology at Princeton University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She has research interests in demography, migration, gender, economic development, environment, aging and Southeast Asia. She is currently writing a book, Shifting Boundaries, Transforming Lives: Globalization, Gender, and Family in Thailand. Recent publications include: Ambio. Special Issue: Population, Consumption, and Environment, (with Tundi Agardy, 2002) and “Engendering Migrant Networks: The Case of Mexican Migration,” (with Estela Rivero Fuentes, Demography, 2003).Bruce Fuller is a Professor of Education and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. His work focuses on the dilemmas around the decentering of public aims and institutions within the worlds of child care, family welfare, and school reform. Prior to becoming a full-time teacher, he worked for a state legislature, a governor, and then as a heretical sociologist at the World Bank. His most recent books are Inside Charter Schools: The Paradox of Radical Decentralization (Harvard, 2000), and Government Confronts Culture (Taylor & Francis, 1999).Emily Hannum is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on education, poverty, and social inequality, particularly in China. Recent publications include “Ethnic Differences in Basic Education in Reform-Era Rural China” (Demography, 2002) and “Education and Stratification in Developing Countries: A Review of Theories and Empirical Research” (with Claudia Buchmann, Annual Review of Sociology, 2001). Currently, she is working on a project sponsored by the Spencer Foundation and National Institutes of Health that investigates factors in the family, school, and community that support rural children’s education and healthy development in Northwest China.Nabil Khattab completed his Ph.D. at the University of Jerusalem. He is currently a Marie Curie postdoctoral research fellow at the Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research, University of Manchester. His main areas of interest are sociology of education, the ethnic and gender aspects of the labor market, and social inequality. His most recent publication is “Segregation, Ethnic Labor Market, and the Occupational Expectations of Palestinian Students in Israel” (The British Journal of Sociology, 2003). In his current project, he is looking at the labor market prospects for Pakistani-Bangladeshi women in the U.K. and Muslim women in Israel.Patricia McManus is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington. Her research centers on gender and family inequality under advanced capitalism. She will spend 2003–2004 in Berlin at the Max Planck Institute’s Center for the Study of Sociology and the Life Course, where she will study welfare state policy and married women’s work careers in the United States, Germany, and Great Britain. Current projects also include a study of the impact of residential mobility on gender inequality within households (with Claudia Geist), and a cross-national comparison of the wage penalties for motherhood in the United States and Germany (with Markus Gangl).Stephen L. Morgan is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Cornell University. His main areas of interest are social stratification, sociology of education, and methodology. Recent publications include “Modeling Preparatory Commitment and Non-Repeatable Decisions: Information Processing, Preference Formation and Educational Attainment” (Rationality and Society, 2002) and “Counterfactuals, Causal Effect Heterogeneity, and the Catholic School Effect on Learning” (Sociology of Education, 2001). His current projects include studies of black-white differences in educational achievement and changes in labor market inequality in the 1980s and 1990s.William R. Morgan is a Professor of Sociology at Cleveland State University. He has been studying and developing education in northern Nigeria over a period of 25 years. In Cleveland, he recently completed data collection for a seven-year study of the impact of the treatment and recovery process for cocaine-addicted women on their children’s development, sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. His new project is a pilot study of the peer recruitment method to deliver HIV/AIDS education to networks of high-risk adolescents and young women.Hiroshi Ono is an Assistant Professor at the European Institute of Japanese Studies, Stockholm School of Economics. He is interested in social stratification and inequality, and the sociology and economics of education, family, and work. Currently he is working on two projects. The first is examining Internet inequality in five countries, and the second is comparing human resource practices between foreign-owned versus domestic firms in Japan. His recent publications include “College Quality and Earnings in the Japanese Labor Market” (forthcoming, Industrial Relations), and “Gender and the Internet” (with Madeline Zavodny, Social Science Quarterly, 2003).Hyunjoon Park, a doctoral student in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is interested in social stratification, education, and health inequality with a particular focus on East Asian countries. His current project examines the process of the transition to adulthood among Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese young people across several dimensions, including educational and occupational attainment, and family formation. Two forthcoming publications include “Intergenerational Social Mobility among Korean Men: In Comparative Perspective” (Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 2003), and “Racial/Ethnic Differences in Voluntary and Involuntary Job Mobility among Young Men” (with Gary Sandefur, Social Science Research, 2003).Susan E. Short is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Associate Director of the Population Studies and Training Center at Brown University. She specializes in family sociology, social demography, and social inequality. Recent coauthored publications include “Use of Maternity Services in Rural China” (Population Studies, forthcoming); “Maternal Work and Time Spent in Child Care in China: A Multimethod Approach” (Population and Development Review, 2002); “China’s One-Child Policy and the Care of Children: An Analysis of Qualitative and Quantitative Data” (Social Forces, 2001); and “Birth Planning and Sterilization in China” (Population Studies, 2000). In on-going research, funded by the NICHD, she examines the consequences of China’s one-child policy for child well-being.Rongjun Sun is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Cleveland State University. His research focuses on population aging, and family relations in both the United States and China. Recent publications include “Old Age Support in Urban China from both Parents’ and Children’s Perspectives” (Research on Aging, 2002) and “Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Older Veterans: Does the Pneumonia Prognosis Index Help?” (with Lona Mody and Suzanne Bradley, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2002). He is currently studying the mortality of the oldest-old in China.Anchalee Varangrat is a Lecturer at the Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, Thailand. Her research focuses on family formation, population, and development. She is the author of Population Projection for Thailand, 2000–2025 (Thailand Ministry of Public Health and Mahidol University, 2003). Currently, she is working on a project sponsored by the Wellcome Trust on factors affecting Thai marriage patterns.Regina E. Werum is Associate Professor of Sociology at Emory University. Her research focuses on educational inequality from comparative historical and international perspectives. Recent publications include “Warehousing the Unemployed? Federal Job Training Programs in the Depression-Era South” (American Journal of Education, 2001), and a forthcoming chapter with B. Powell and L. Steelman titled, “Macro Causes, Micro Effects: Linking Public Policy, Family Structure, and Educational Outcomes” (in After the Bell: Educational Solutions Outside of School, edited by D. Conley). Currently, she is working on a project sponsored by the NAE/Spencer Foundation and NSF that investigates cross-cultural differences in how social capital affects academic outcomes.Raymond Sin-Kwok Wong is a Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research interests include inequality and stratification, sociology of education, quantitative methodology, urban poverty, and economic sociology, particularly Chinese entrepreneurship in East Asia. His recent publications include “Multidimensional Association Models: A Multilinear Approach” (Sociological Methods & Research, 2001), “Occupational Attainment in Eastern Europe Under Socialism” (Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 2002), and “Chinese Business Firms and Business Entrepreneurs in Hong Kong” (De-Essentializing Capitalism: Chinese Enterprise, Transnationalism, and Identity, edited by Edmund Terence Gomez and Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao, 2003).Gad Yair is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research interests include the sociology of schools and schooling, organizational theory, the sociology of learning, sociological theory and its history, and the theory-methodology nexus. Recent relevant publications are “Educational Battlefields in America: The Tug-of-War over Students’ Engagement With Instruction” (Sociology of Education, 2000) and “Decisive Moments and Key Experiences: Expanding Paradigmatic Boundaries in the Study of School Effects” in The International Handbook on the Sociology of Education: An International Assessment of New Research and Theory, 2003).
The monograph analyses (a) the potential impact of informationtechnology (IT) on organisational issues that directly concern thepersonnel function; (b) the nature of personnel’s…
Abstract
The monograph analyses (a) the potential impact of information technology (IT) on organisational issues that directly concern the personnel function; (b) the nature of personnel’s involvement in the decision making and activities surrounding the choice and implementation of advanced technologies, and (c) their own use of IT in developing and carrying out their own range of specialist activities. The monograph attempts to explain why personnel’s involvement is often late, peripheral and reactive. Finally, an analysis is made of whether personnel specialists – or the Human Resource Management function more generally – will play a more proactive role in relation to such technologies in the future.
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Karen R. Johnson, Tania Nery-Kjerfve, Katherine Yeager and Gary N. McLean
Qualitative paradigmatic perspectives are increasingly recognized as providing in-depth, rich and nuanced interpretations and critiques of complex phenomena. Nonetheless…
Abstract
Purpose
Qualitative paradigmatic perspectives are increasingly recognized as providing in-depth, rich and nuanced interpretations and critiques of complex phenomena. Nonetheless, positivist and post-positivist epistemologies still dominate social science disciplines. The authors were unable to identify published information on the state of qualitative research in human resource development (HRD) despite the numerous theoretical foundations, epistemological stances and global approaches that shape HRD. To fill this gap, this study determined the prevalence of qualitative designs, data collection methods and data analysis techniques that have been used in Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD)-sponsored journals. This study identified gaps in the use of qualitative research to be explored by HRD scholars to advance research and practice.
Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive case study approach was used to determine the state of qualitative research in three AHRD-sponsored journals.
Findings
Qualitative articles have increased in number but still account for a lower percentage of articles when compared with other peer-reviewed articles, including quantitative methodologies and conceptual papers. Most articles lacked grounding in stated ontology and epistemology needed to guide researchers’ investigations, potentially leading to weakened methodological choices, interpretations and authenticity of conclusions.
Research limitations/implications
To provide in-depth understanding of HRD-related phenomena, all important elements of qualitative articles should be addressed to strengthen the credibility and authenticity of the research process. Qualitative theorists and researchers can build on and embrace the soundness of qualitative research and theories in HRD. Expanding on the credibility and authenticity of rigorously conducted qualitative research will help to broaden the perspectives of researchers who may be hesitant to explore this methodology of inquiry. This will strengthen methodological sophistication and expand the knowledge base of qualitative research.
Practical implications
HRD professors/instructors will find this study to be a useful guide for graduate students who are exploring and using qualitative inquiry for their research and for understanding others’ research. Practitioners will also find it useful to understand HRD research to determine possible interventions in their workplaces.
Originality/value
This study identifies trends and patterns of epistemologies and methods used in HRD qualitative articles and provides a foundation on which to build future studies and establish unexplored, unconventional qualitative methodologies and methods.
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Ellen T. Crumley, Karen Grandy, Binod Sundararajan and Judy Roy
The purpose of this paper is to examine the thematic content and inclusive language in leaders' media interviews to maintain legitimacy for organizational sustainability…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the thematic content and inclusive language in leaders' media interviews to maintain legitimacy for organizational sustainability activities.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory, qualitative content analysis of 24 organizational leaders' media interviews about environmental sustainability was conducted. Inclusive language (i.e. collective focus terms, collective personal pronouns, and metaphors) and thematic content were analyzed.
Findings
Legitimacy maintenance entails both describing organizational sustainability activities and conveying, through the use of inclusive language, multiple audiences' connection to the organization. The qualitative content analysis found that leaders discussed both primary and secondary stakeholders. With the exception of the code defending existing practices, leaders consistently highlighted positive sustainability activities of their organizations. The inclusive language analysis found that collective focus terms were used by all the leaders, with the most common term being “everyone.” Collective personal pronouns were found in half the interviews. Metaphors were employed by all leaders; the most common sustainability-related metaphors were journey, structural, personification, military/competition, vision and science.
Research limitations/implications
The sample is limited to 24 organizations and not representative of all industries.
Originality/value
While sustainability communication research focuses on annual reports and website and social media content, this study draws attention to a common but under-examined type of strategic external communication: senior organizational leaders' media interviews. To the authors’ knowledge, scholars have not previously considered the possible legitimacy maintenance function of organizational leaders' use of inclusive language and thematic content to address a broad array of stakeholders in their external communication.
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Karen Williams Middleton and Pamela Nowell
Effective internal dynamics of new venture teams is seen as a key contributor to venture success. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ways in which new venture teams…
Abstract
Purpose
Effective internal dynamics of new venture teams is seen as a key contributor to venture success. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ways in which new venture teams consisting of nascent entrepreneurs initiate trust and control during venture emergence.
Design/methodology/approach
Dimensions of trust and control are developed into an analytical framework applied to documented team norms. Coding detects frequency of trust and control dimensions. Supplementary data triangulate findings and explore follow-on effects in team dynamics and venture emergence.
Findings
Frequency of coded dimensions generates a venture team profile. Teams prime their dynamics through use of trust and/or control language in documented norms. Priming is seen to influence entrepreneurial perseverance during venture emergence, stemming either directly from team dynamics, or indirectly from key shareholder relationships or environmental conditions.
Research limitations/implications
Data are bounded to a specific contextual setting representing incubation and education, where the nascent entrepreneurs are simultaneously students. The complexity of venture emergence means that multiple factors influencing new venture teams may influence trust and control in ways currently unaccounted for.
Practical implications
Exploration of trust and control during venture emergence emphasizes soft-skills critical to entrepreneurial perseverance and venture success. Team norms can be designed to prime toward trust or control, and can be indicative of teams’ sensitivity to external factors, enabling evidence for intervention.
Originality/value
The paper illustrates ways in which trust and control influence team dynamics during venture emergence.
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Suggests that, with a bit of thought, breaktimes can be full ofexhilarating, challenging activities, rather than a time for aimlesslywandering around. Discusses the reasons for…
Abstract
Suggests that, with a bit of thought, breaktimes can be full of exhilarating, challenging activities, rather than a time for aimlessly wandering around. Discusses the reasons for the low level of activity among children and the resultant effects on their health. Asserts it is important to encourage children to take part in regular physical activity in order to lower their risk of developing heart disease and looks at “The Happy Heart Project”. Emphasizes the importance of enjoyment for all in order to encourage a positive attitude towards physical activity. Suggests a number of playground activities ranging from the traditional playground games such as skipping to more complicated activities that complement curriculum time such as the Photofit Game. Concludes that these activities of fun and enjoyment, organized at breaktimes in the playground, may encourage children to become more physically active. They could provide the starting point for children to develop a positive attitude towards regular physical activity and an understanding of the need for an active lifestyle.