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2012 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

15. Grounded Theory and Information Systems: Are We Missing the Point?

verfasst von : Hans Lehmann

Erschienen in: Information Systems Theory

Verlag: Springer New York

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Abstract

Theories indigenous to the Information Systems (IS) discipline are scarce. The Grounded Theory Method (GTM) specifically aims to create theory in domains where none are. But although its use in information systems (IS) research increased over the last two decades, the number of grounded IS theories created did not. This could be because either GTM is not ‘right’ for the information systems discipline or that it is not ‘done right’. The chapter investigates both options and concludes firstly that the method is ‘right’: it is a general method, capable of accepting any kind of data and works well with information systems, which are defined as actor networks of technology and people. Furthermore, GTM’s paradigmatic position (or, more accurately, its lack of one) is very conducive to mixed-actant research. There is, however, reason to suspect that GTM is not ‘done right’ and that GTM’s core tenets are often misunderstood. Two core tenets are defined: (a) the specific rigour of its data collection and analysis; and (b) the maxim of only using concepts as the unit of analysis for developing grounded theory. To elaborate on this a brief history of concepts is given. In conclusion, the GTM analysis regime is re-stated.

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Vorheriges Kapitel The Potential of Critical Realism in IS Research

Nächstes Kapitel Developing Theories in Information Systems Research: The Grounded Theory Method Applied

Orlikowski’s 1993 research into the adoption of a systems engineering approach seems a good starting point. It is arguably the first full theory developed for the IS field using all aspects of GTM.

And not only in the IS domain – Suddaby (2006) laments the same point in an invited editorial for the Academy of Management Journal. His – excellent – compendium of common errors, misconceptions and omissions with regard to Grounded Theory research is quite familiar to reviewers and supervisors of Grounded Theory research and should be a recommended reading for every GTM researcher.

A sample drawn by a ProQuest search of papers in learned journals with ‘grounded theory’ and ‘information systems’ in abstracts and citations, published between 1990 and 2002.

This process, ‘delimiting the grounded theory’ in Glaser and Strauss terms (1967, p. 109 ff), is again not at all specific to GTM; closely related to ‘Occam’s razor’, this process is possibly one of the oldest tenets of theorising and very akin to Zetterberg’s (1965, p. 94 ff) ‘definitional reduction’ or ‘axiomatisation’, all designed to increase a theory’s parsimony; together with clarity and logical coherence this is one of the three classical ‘canons of a good theory’ (Mayhew 1981; Pfeffer 1982).

This endpoint in the cycle is defined as ‘a combination of the empirical limits of the data, the integration and density of the theory and the analyst’s theoretical sensitivity’ (Glaser and Strauss 1967, p. 62).

The author is indebted to Lynne Marcus, who showed that making concepts the sole unit of analysis is indeed the major, if not only, key distinction of the grounded theory method. Lynne had developed this essential point before, but had never taken it to publication.

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Titel: Grounded Theory and Information Systems: Are We Missing the Point?
verfasst von: Hans Lehmann
Verlag: Springer New York
Buch: Information Systems Theory
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-9706-7

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-4419-9707-4

Copyright-Jahr: 2012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9707-4_15

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