Methodological considerations

Abstract

This study presents the results of an interpretive research project (Denzin 1994; Deetz 2001) conducted between October 2003 and December 2004 at ‘Intech’, a large international industrial conglomerate based in Germany. The study is termed interpretive following the approach of Schwandt (1994, 118) defining this type of research as fundamentally concerned with meaning and seeking to understand social members’ definition of a situation. At the same time, it puts a focus on the ways in which organization members’ discursive practices contribute to the development of shared meaning’ (Mumby and Clair 1997, 182). Interpretive research involves building a second order theory or theory of members’ theories (Schutz 1973) in contrast to positivism which is concerned with objective reality and meanings thought to be independent of people. This means, interpretivists assume that knowledge and meaning are acts of interpretation.