Lincoln, Yvonna, and Egon Guba, "Postpositivism and the Naturalist Paradigm," pp. 14-46 in Yvonna Lincoln and Egon Guba, Naturalistic Inquiry . Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1985.*

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Much has been written about theory and practice in the law, and the tension between practitioners and theorists. Judges do not cite theoretical articles often; they rarely "apply" theories to particular cases. These arguments are not revisited. Instead the Essay explores the working and interaction of theory and practice, practitioners and theorists. The Essay starts with a story about solving a legal issue using our intellectual tools - theory, practice, and their progenies: experience and "gut." Next the Essay elaborates on the nature of theory, practice, experience and "gut." The third part of the Essay discusses theories that are helpful to practitioners and those that are less helpful. The Essay concludes that practitioners theorize, and theorists practice. They use these intellectual tools differently because the goals and orientations of theorists and practitioners, and the constraints under which they act, differ. Theory, practice, experience and "gut" help us think, remember, decide and create. They complement each other like the two sides of the same coin: distinct but inseparable.

Of Theory and Practice

Developing a universal quality standard for thematic analysis (TA) is complicated by the existence of numerous iterations of TA that differ paradigmatically, philosophically and procedurally. This ...

One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis?

https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/download/14795/13847

Men and Women of the Corporation

Promoting New Research Practices in Organizational Research - Gillian Symon and Catherine Cassell Using Interviews in Qualitative Research - Nigel King Electronic Interviews in Organizational Research - Stephanie J Morgan and Gillian Symon Life Histories - Gill Musson Critical Incident Technique - Elizabeth Chell Repertory Grids - Catherine Cassell and Susan Walsh Cognitive Mapping in Organizational Research - Seonaidh McDonald, Kevin Daniels and Claire Harris The Twenty Statements Test - Anne Rees and Nigel Nicholson Qualitative Research Diaries - Gillian Symon Stories in Organizational Research - Yiannis Gabriel and Dorothy S Griffiths Pictorial Representation - David R Stiles Group Methods of Organizational Analysis - Chris Steyaert and Ren[ac]e Bouwen Participant Observation - David Waddington Analytic Induction - Phil Johnson Critical Research and Analysis in Organizations - Kate Mackenzie Davey and Andreas P D Liefooghe Hermeneutic Understanding - John McAuley Discourse Analysis - Penny Dick Talk-in-Interaction/Conversation Analysis - Dalvir Samra-Fredericks Attributional Coding - Jo Silvester Grounded Theory in Organizational Research - Hannakaisa L[um]ansisalmi, Jos[ac]e-Maria Peir[ac]o and Mika Kivim[um]aki Using Templates in the Thematic Analysis of Text - Nigel King Using Data Matrices - Sara Nadin and Catherine Cassell Preserving, Sharing and Reusing Data from Qualitative Research - Louise Corti, Paul Thompson and Janet Fink Methods and Strategies Historical Analysis of Company Documents - Michael Rowlinson Ethnography - John D Brewer Case Study Research - Jean Hartley Soft Systems Analysis - Susan Walsh and Chris Clegg Reflections and Update Action Research and Research Action - Frank Heller A Family of Methods Co-Research - John Bennington and Jean Hartley Insider/Outsider Teams for Organizational Research The Future Conference - Fran Ryan

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Essential guide to qualitative methods in organizational research

Introduction: The Context of Qualitative Organizational Research - Catherine Cassell and Gillian Symon PART ONE: THE ISSUES AND CHALLENGES OF QUALITATIVE INQUIRY IN ORGANIZATIONS Philosophies Underpinning Qualitative Research - Joanne Duberley, Phil Johnson and Catherine Cassell Choosing Research Participants - Mark Saunders Researching Your Own Organization - Suzanne Tietze Reflexivity in Qualitative Research - Kathryn Haynes Ethical Research Practice - Robin Holt Facilitating the Interaction between Theory and Data in Qualitative Research Using CAQDAS - Rudolf R. Sinkovics and Eva A. Alfoldi Combining Qualitative Methods - Katrina Pritchard Longitudinal Research and Analysis - Ann Langley and Inger Stensaker Doing Qualitative Business and Management Research in International and Intercultural Contexts - Laurie Cohen and M.N. Ravishankar Writing up as a Legitimacy-Seeking Process: Alternative Publishing Recipes for Qualitative Research - Joep Cornelissen, Hanna Gajewska-de Mattos, Rebecca Piekkari and Catherine Welch Assessing Qualitative Research - Gillian Symon and Catherine Cassell Teaching Qualitative Research in the Business School - Mark Learmonth and Mike Humphreys PART TWO: CORE METHODS OF QUALITATIVE INQUIRY IN ORGANIZATIONAL RESEARCH Interviews - Mats Alvesson and Karen Ashcraft Focus Groups - Binna Kandola Participatory Visual Methods - Russ Vince and Sam Warren Participant Observation - Matthew J. Brannan and Teresa Oultram Autoethnography in Organizational Research: Two Tales of Two Cities - Michael Humphreys and Mark Learmonth Practising Organizational Ethnography - Dvora Yanow, Sierk Ybema and Merlijn van Hulst Case Studies in Organizational Research - David A. Buchanan Action Research - Julie Wolfram Cox Using Documents in Organizational Research - Bill Lee Grounded Theory: A Theory-Building Approach - Graeme J.J. Keneally Doing Template Analysis - Nigel King Conversation Analysis in Management Research - David Greatbatch and Timothy Clark Discourse Analysis and Discursive Research - Cliff Oswick Narrative Analysis - Sally Maitlis

Qualitative organizational research : core methods and current challenges

This paper reports on empirical work recently conducted about the use and effectiveness of HRM practices in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). A telephone survey was conducted with 100 senior managers of SMEs to ascertain their use of a range of human resource practices and the extent to which they had found those practices successful in aiding the achievement of company objectives. Additionally in‐depth interviews were conducted with senior managers from a further 22 SMEs. Findings suggest that there is considerable diversity amongst SMEs in relation to their use of HR practices. A model is provided that identifies the key criteria that underlie the adoption of HRM practices, and the implications of the model are discussed.

Exploring human resource management practices in small and medium sized enterprises

Qualitative methods and analysis in organizational research

The term qualitative management research embraces an array of non-statistical research practices. Here it is argued that this diversity is an outcome of competing philosophical assumptions which produce distinctive research perspectives and legitimate the appropriation of different sets of evaluation criteria. Some confusion can arise when evaluation criteria constituted by particular philosophical conventions are universally applied to this heterogeneous management field. In order to avoid such misappropriation, this paper presents a first step towards a contingent criteriology located in a metatheoretical analysis of three modes of qualitative management research which are compared with the positivist mainstream to elaborate different forms of evaluation. It is argued that once armed with criteria that vary accordingly, evaluation can reflexively focus upon the extent to which any management research consistently embraces the particular methodological principles that are sanctioned by its a priori philosophical commitments.

Catherine Cassell

Papers

Essential guide to qualitative methods in organizational research

Qualitative organizational research : core methods and current challenges

Exploring human resource management practices in small and medium sized enterprises

Qualitative methods and analysis in organizational research

Evaluating qualitative management research: Towards a contingent criteriology