Desmitificando La Teoria Fundamentada

Organizational Research Methods
http://orm.sagepub.com/ Demystifying Grounded Theory for Business Research
Kelley O'Reilly, David Paper and Sherry Marx Organizational Research Methods 2012 15: 247 originally published online 8 February 2012 DOI: 10.1177/1094428111434559 The online version of this article can be found at: http://orm.sagepub.com/content/15/2/247

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Demystifying Grounded Theory for Business Research
Kelley O’Reilly1, David Paper2, and Sherry Marx3

Organizational Research Methods 15(2) 247-262 ª The Author(s) 2012Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1094428111434559 http://orm.sagepub.com

Abstract The grounded theory method (GT) remains elusive and misunderstood by many—even those who advocate its use. In practice, many research studies cite the use of GT but merely apply certain a la carte aspects or jargon of the method while not actually incorporating the fundamentalprinciples of the methodology. Consequently, the purpose of this article is fourfold: (a) to demystify the key tenets of GT, (b) to discuss the problematic impacts of adopting an a la carte approach to GT, (c) to draw attention to GT as a rigorous method for business research, and (d) to advocate for the increased use of GT by more researchers where appropriate. Throughout the article, the authorsuse the example of a recently completed GT study by the lead author to highlight the multiple dimensions of GT and how they all work together. Keywords grounded theory, qualitative research, interpretive paradigms, business research methods, methodology

Introduction
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. —Albert Einstein ‘‘New discoveries arealways the result of high-risk expeditions into unknown territory. Darwin, Columbus, and Freud, each in different ways, were conducting qualitative inquiries’’ (Suddaby, 2006, p. 633). One type of qualitative inquiry is the grounded theory method (GT), which involves the discovery of theory from data (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). The term grounded theory is typically used to label a specific mode ofqualitative inquiry and the resultant product(s) of that inquiry. In GT studies, the discovery of theory from data is accomplished by systematically discovering,

1 2

Haworth College of Business, Sales and Business Marketing Program, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, Management Information Systems, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA 3 EmmaEccles Jones College of Education and Human Services, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA Corresponding Author: Kelley O’Reilly, Western Michigan University, Haworth College of Business, Sales and Business Marketing Program, 3141 Schneider Hall, Kalamazoo, MI 49008, USA Email: kelley.oreilly@wmich.edu

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developing, and provisionally verifying theory throughout the iterative process of data collection and analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). The strength of GT is its ability to develop theory through the use of prescribed, yet flexible, tools for analysis (Charmaz, 2005). The analytic guidelines that compose GT are its fundamental tenets and include: (a) the constant comparative...