Transcript Lecture 3: Conducting empirical work

Conducting Empirical Work
Geoff Walsham
Lecture 3 of Course on Interpretive
Research in IS - Oslo University
Contents of Lecture 3
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Role of the researcher
Gaining and maintaining access
Conducting interviews
Gathering other field data
Working in different countries
Ethical issues and tensions
Role of the Researcher
• Outside researcher/involved researcher
(Walsham 1995)
• See it now more as a spectrum of
involvement
• From ‘neutral’ researcher (as perceived by the
research subjects) to action researcher
• Very important to make your role clear to the field
subjects
Advantages of Close Involvement
• Good for in-depth access to people, issues,
data etc.
• Being able to observe and/or participate in
action rather than merely accessing opinions
• Being seen by field participants as trying to
make a substantial contribution to the field
site, not just the literature
Disadvantages of Close Involvement
• Very time-consuming
• Field subjects may be less open with the
researcher in some cases - researcher
perceived as having a vested interest
• And there is a danger of the researcher
becoming ‘socialised’ into the views of
those in the field
• Reporting difficulties - reporting on oneself
Gaining Access
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Need to have good social skills!
Persistence
Willingness to accept ‘no’ for an answer
Going at the research situation from
different angles e.g. London Insurance
Market (Barrett and Walsham 1999)
Maintaining Access
• Need to have good social skills!
• Liked and/or respected by the field subjects
• Sensitivity to short-term problems of the
field subjects in their organizations e.g.
particularly busy times for them
• Useful reports, feedback, presentations
Conducting Interviews
(see also Walsham 1995)
• Reassuring the interviewee at the start about
your purpose/confidentiality
• Balance between passivity and overdirection during the interview
• Keeping a close watch on the agenda/time
• Ending the interview - further contact/other
people
Advantages of Tape Recording
• Truer record of what was said compared to
extensive field notes
• Can return to the transcript later for
alternative forms of analysis
• Useful for picking out direct quotes in
writing-up
• Popular with neo-positivist reviewers in
establishment journals
Disadvantages of Tape Recording
• Very time-consuming/expensive to do
transcriptions and then extract themes
• May make the interviewee less likely to be
open and/or truthful
• Does not capture the non-verbal elements of
the interview
Gathering Other Field Data
• Sectoral context - press/media/other
publications
• Internal documents - strategies/ plans/
evaluations
• Direct observation and/or participant
observation (to observe action)
Other Field Data (continued)
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E-mails
Web sites
Chat rooms
Surveys (on-line and off-line) (N.B.
Interpretive research is not only qualitative
research)
Example - Current Research Project on
Organization Linked to Open Source Software
• Sectoral context - yes - open source
software movement
• Internal documents - limited - but do have
strategy presentation
• Direct or participant observation - no
• e-mails/web sites - yes; chat rooms - not yet
• Surveys - no
Working in Different Countries
(see, for example, Walsham 2001)
• Can learn a lot about countries before going
there: history, politics, religion, ways of
living
• Through both non-fiction and fiction
sources
• Valuable in your own country also!
Different Styles of Interview
• Arranged at the last minute or planned well
in advance
• Long or short introductions
• Groups or individuals
• Attitudes to hierarchy
• Interviewing through an interpreter
Ethical Issues and Tensions
• Confidentiality for individuals
• Investigating issues which are not part of
the explicit research agenda
• Giving the organization ‘bad news’
• Reporting in the literature - disguise
• Reporting in the literature - critique