Grounded theory and leadership research: A critical realist perspective
Section snippets
Introduction—new opportunities for leadership research
Leadership research has begun to embrace the necessity of incorporating context and process into an understanding of the manifestation of the leadership phenomenon. The emphasis on the context and process of leadership is reflected most strongly in the methodology of grounded theory. As Parry (1998) claimed, this methodology is a fruitful direction for researchers of leadership to take. Until recently, the dominant methodologies shaping the field of leadership research have largely been
Qualitative leadership research and grounded theory
The phenomenon of leadership is argued to have global presence, but appears to have a variety of attributes and is elusive in definitional clarity (House et al., 2004). In this paper we argue that such variation is contextually derived. There is an emerging consensus that, at a very high level of abstraction, leadership is argued to be a ‘social and relational influence process that occurs within a social system’ (Parry, 1998:87; consolidating discussion from range of commentators, notably
Grounded theory and leadership: The need for an epistemological foundation
The need to explain the underlying presuppositions of scientific research is often taken for granted. Critical realism, like positivism is a philosophy of science. Positivism is predominant in our ‘doing’ of science, but other approaches which are less prominent or popular may make us reflect upon what constitutes ‘good science’. This reflection is partly what we are attempting to achieve with this article.
Grounded theory adopts a contextual examination of social processes in organizations and
Critical realism: Also ‘good science’
It should be noted at this point that critical realism differs from many versions of critical studies. The latter has drawn from critical theory and post-structuralism notably through the edited writings of Willmott and Alvesson (1992). It examines underlying issues within organizational life often associated with power asymmetries and the privileging of particular discourses. Critical realists draw upon the notion of underlying power structures that might not be conscious to people yet have
Case 1: Identifying paradox (Kan & Parry, 2004)
Case 1 researched the processes of nursing leadership in a major hospital. Data came mainly from interviews, observation, participant observation and survey questionnaire data using the psychometrically rigorous Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ; Bass & Avolio, 1990). The implementation of data triangulation was a strength of this method. As Egri and Herman (2000) remind us, this data triangulation contributes to the internal validity of grounded theory research. Analysis was the full
Case 2: Leadership learning as lived experience (Kempster, 2006)
Case 2 examined how senior managers in a single organization believed they had learnt how to lead. Within Kempster's research he explores the problematic issue associated with tacit leadership learning and argues that it is important to make conscious the nuances associated with the learning of meanings and practices of leadership, and also the timing of that learning. His review of the extant research in this field identified a broad category of ‘learning through doing’ or experiential
Conclusion—doing grounded theory even better
We have identified calls for greater use of qualitative methods for leadership research in organizational settings. These calls have been answered, with increasing enthusiasm since about the time of Conger's (1998) argument that qualitative approaches are perhaps the methodology of choice for contextually rich topics, such as leadership. Moreover, we have argued that leadership is a social process of influence. Also, grounded theory is a very suitable methodology for exploring and seeking to
Acknowledgements
We thank Steve Fleetwood for his help in brining this article to fruition.
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