The Discovery Power of Staying Open
Glaser (1978) emphasized three foundational pillars of GT that must be respected: emergence, constant comparison, and theoretical sampling. While many qualitative researchers who claim to employ GT will assert their use of constant comparison and theoretical sampling, there is much less clarity aro...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Sociology Press
2017-06-01
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| Series: | Grounded Theory Review: An International Journal |
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| Online Access: | http://groundedtheoryreview.com/2017/06/23/the-discovery-power-of-staying-open/ |
| Summary: | Glaser (1978) emphasized three foundational pillars of GT that must be respected: emergence, constant comparison, and theoretical sampling. While many qualitative researchers who claim to employ GT will assert their use of constant comparison and theoretical sampling, there is much less clarity around claims to respecting GT’s emergent nature. Emergence necessitates that the researcher remains open to what is discovered empirically in the data “without first having them filtered through and squared with pre-existing hypotheses and biases” (Glaser, 1978, p. 3) or theoretical frameworks drawn from extant theory. In many qualitative studies, however, emergence is restricted to the analysis phase (e.g., Corley & Gioia, 2004) and with data collection framed through an initial review of the literature (e.g., Partington, 2000), articulation of specific research questions or interview protocols for “consistency” (Xiao, Dahya, & Lin, 2004, p. 43). |
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| ISSN: | 1556-1550 1556-1542 |