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1. CARMA
-- Consortium for the Advancement of Research Methods and Analysis --
SHORT COURSE
_________________________________________
Interpretive Methods
by
Professor Jane K. Lê
________________________________________
May 24-27, 2021
09:30 – 14:30 CET
SHORT COURSE OVERVIEW
This applied module seeks to engage researchers in the practice of doing qualitative research.
While it introduces a variety of different approaches to qualitative research methods, the
predominant focus is on interpretive designs. In working through how to conduct interpretive
research, the module reviews the entire research process, giving particular emphasis to data
coding, analysis and presentation. Using a combination of learning techniques, including taught
sessions, individual work and group work, the module seeks to demystify the research process.
In order to maximize the relevance of this session to your own research, some of the exercises
will be based on your current research project and data. Hence, if you have already collected
data or conducted analyses, please bring these research materials with you (e.g. full transcripts,
field notes, documents; CAQDAS file). Alternatively, if you are in the early stages of your
research project, you might like to work on a fictional project for the purposes of the course,
e.g. interview peers about doing a PhD, Faculty about being an academic, friends about
working from home during lockdown, etc.
COURSE LEADER
Jane Lê holds the Chair of Strategic Management at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of
Management. She studies organizational practices and processes in organizations, and is
passionate about qualitative research and qualitative research methods. Jane has published
interpretive studies and research methods pieces in leading international journals including
Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Organization Studies,
Organizational Research Methods, Strategic Organization, and British Journal of
Management. She co-edits Research Methodology in Strategy and Management and is an
Associated Editor at Organizational Research Methods. She also sits on the editorial review
boards of Organization Studies and Strategic Organization, and is a Trustee of the Society for
the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS).

2. COURSE SCHEDULE
Each day, the course is delivered in four parts, divided by short refresher breaks.
09:30-10:30 Part One
10:30-10:45 Break (15 min)
10:45-11:45 Part Two
11:45-12:15 Break (30 min)
12:15-13:15 Part Three
13:15-13:30 Break (15 min)
13:30-14:30 Part Four
Sessions ends at 14:30
COURSE CONTENT
DAY 1: Generating interpretive data
• Taught session – Designs-in-Use; access and data generation
• Personal work – Practice run (interviewing) & reflection
• Class discussion – Characteristics of good interpretive data
• One-on-one surgery – Personalized advice for your data generation challenges
DAY 2: Coding and analysis
• Taught session – Analytic approaches and tools
• Personal work – Practice run (coding data and analysis) & reflection
• Class discussion – Characteristics of good interpretive analysis
• One-on-one surgery – Personalized advice for your data analysis challenges
DAY 3: Patterns and data presentation
• Taught session – Searching for ‘stories’ and ‘patterns’
• Personal work – Practice run (finding patterns) & reflection
• Class discussion – Characteristics of good interpretive presentation
• One-on-one surgery – Personalized advice for your data presentation challenges
DAY 4: Visualization and modelling
• Taught session – Using visual tools to emerge key findings and contributions
• Personal work – Practice run (modelling) & reflection
• Class discussion – Characteristics of good interpretive modelling
• One-on-one surgery – Personalized advice for your data modelling challenges

3. ESSENTIAL COURSE READING
These are the key references we draw on for this course; I do not expect you to read these in
advance but reading them will further build your qualitative toolset
Chai, S. (2017) Near Misses in the Breakthrough Discovery Process. Organization Science,
28(3): 411-428.
Gioia, D. A., Price, K. N., Hamilton, A. L. & Thomas, J. B. (2010). Forging an identity: An
insider-outsider study of processes involved in the formation of organizational identity.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 55(1): 1-46.
Glaser, V.L. (2017). Design performances: How organizations inscribe artifacts to change
routines. Academy of Management Journal, 60(6): 2126-2154.
Jarzabkowski, P. (2008). Shaping strategy as a structuration process. Academy of Management
Journal, 51(4), 621-650.
Jarzabkowski, P., Bednarek, R. and Lê, J.K. (2014). Producing persuasive findings:
Demystifying ethnographic textwork in strategy and organization research. Strategic
Organization 12(4): 274-287.
Jarzabkowski, P., Lê, J.K. & Feldman, M. (2012). Toward a theory of coordinating: Creating
coordinating mechanisms in practice. Organization Science, 23(4): 907-927.
Jarzabkowski, P., Lê, J.K. & Van de Ven, A. (2013). Responding to competing strategic
demands: How organizing, belonging and performing paradoxes co-evolve. Strategic
Organization, 11(3): 245-80.
Jarzabkowski, P., Lê, J.K. & Balogun, J. (2019). The social practice of co-evolving strategy
and structure during mandated radical change. Academy of Management Journal, 62(3):
850-882.
Langley, A. (1999). Strategies for theorizing from process data. Academy of Management
Review, 24: 691-710.
Langley, A., & Abdallah, C. (2011). Templates and turns in qualitative studies of strategy and
management (201-235). In D. Bergh & D. J. Ketchen (Eds.), Research Methodology in
Strategy and Management (Vol. 6). Emerald Group Publishing.
Lê, J.K. & Schmid, T. (2019). An Integrative Review of Qualitative Strategy Research:
Presenting 12 ‘Designs-in-Use’. In Research Methods in Strategy and Management, Vol
11, Ed. Brian Boyd, T. Russell Crook, Jane Lê and Anne Smith. Emerald. Publications,
pp. 115-154.
Lê, J.K. & Schmid, T. (forthcoming). The practice of innovating research methods.
Organizational Research Methods.
Lüscher, L. & Lewis, M. (2008). Organizational change and managerial sensemaking: Working
through paradox. Academy of Management Journal, 51(2): 221-240.
Maguire, S. & Hardy, C. (2009). Discourse and deinstitutionalization: The decline of DDT.
Academy of Management Journal, 52(1): 148-178.
Smets, M., Jarzabkowski, P., Burke, G. T., & Spee, P. (2015). Reinsurance trading in Lloyd’s
of London: Balancing conflicting-yet-complementary logics in practice. Academy of
Management Journal, 58(3), 932-970.