Expanding Organizational Research Methods Chapter uri icon

abstract

  • Collecting qualitative data in organizations is a complex and messy process which produces subjective, performed, and partial data. In this chapter, the authors argue that analyzing ruptures in organizational interview datapaying attention to absences, exits, unspoken feelings, and temporal shifts--can enrich the researcher's understanding by making visible multiple aspects of the data which might otherwise have been overlooked. Examining ruptures draws attention to jarring disjunctures and previously unseen angles often missed through traditional data analysis. Drawing from interview data with brothel owners and sex workers in Nevada's legal brothels, the authors present two main contributions to qualitative organizational research: (1) the benefits of analyzing ruptures in organizational interview performances and transcripts and (2) a challenge to organizational researchers to take seriously their emotions during the interview performance.

author list (cited authors)

  • Blithe, S. J., & Wolfe, A. W.

Book Title

  • Transformative Practice and Research in Organizational Communication

publication date

  • January 2018