Showcasing phenomenon-driven research on organizational change

ABSTRACT

Phenomenon-driven research (PDR) is problem-oriented research that focuses on capturing, documenting, and conceptualizing an observed phenomenon of interest in order to facilitate knowledge creation and advancement. As an ideas-led and interpretive way of researching, and with an emphasis on exploring issues and challenges that bother those experiencing observed problems, PDR is an engaging way to develop new contributions to organizational change debates. Generating knowledge this way thereby allows for a variety of research paths and outcomes that may lead to a series of associated debates and research opportunities. Yet although it is widely acknowledged, this pathway to knowledge has not been properly described and documented, thus potentially leading to poor and fragmented understanding of what PDR is and how to pursue it. In order to understand better PDR, in this paper – and through this special issue – we showcase this orientation. Describing the core features of a PDR paper, demonstrated through examples, we show what published PDR looks like and describe how organizational change researchers can better accommodate this approach. With this focus on engagement with phenomena we aim to inspire researchers to return to or take up more PDR, specifically challenging organizational change scholars to develop and extend knowledge with this orientation.

KEYWORDS:

• Phenomenon-driven research
• change research
• knowledge development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Gavin M. Schwarz ([email protected]) is an associate professor in the School of Management, at the UNSW Australia Business School, University of New South Wales. His research and work interests include organizational change and organizational inertia, with a particular interest in better understanding how organizations fail when changing, and developing applied strategies for dealing with failure to change. He is also interested in exploring how knowledge develops in organizational and change theory and has published in numerous journals including Academy of Management Learning and Education, Journal of Management, Group and Organization Management; British Journal of Management, and Administrative Science Quarterly.

Inger G. Stensaker ([email protected]) is professor in Strategic Change at NHH Norwegian School of Economics. Her research interests are within the area of strategy implementation, strategic change processes, organizational change capacity, particularly exploring sensemaking processes and identity issues during change. Her research approach involves close collaboration with firms as they are undergoing strategic change. Academic publications include Human Relations, Human Resource Management, British Journal of Management, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Organizational Dynamics, and Journal of Change Management.