Consensual commitment: a grounded theory of the meso-level influence of organizational design on leadership and decision-making

This research examined the relationship between organizational design and leadership in decision-making teams. It used a grounded theory-based qualitative research design. The validity of the research was enhanced by data triangulation, wherein quantitative psychometric data augmented the qualitative data that are traditionally used. The research was based upon two organizations within the substantive setting of the knowledge industry. The higher order category of consensual commitment explained effective decision-making. At the meso-level of leadership modeling, organizational design influenced both leadership style and decision-making. Specifically, an organizational design that generated lateral job roles and a relational leadership orientation was found to enhance consensual commitment, and provided a level of assurance against dysfunctional team dynamics. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Ethical challenges associated with providing continence care in residential aged care facilities : findings from a grounded theory study

A person-centred approach to care in residential aged care facilities should uphold residents’ rights to independence, choice, decision-making, participation, and control over their lifestyle. Little is known about how nurses and personal care assistants working in these facilities uphold these ideals when assisting residents maintain continence and manage incontinence. The overall aim of the study was to develop a grounded theory to describe and explain how Australian residents of aged care facilities have their continence care needs determined, delivered and communicated. This paper presents and discusses a subset of the findings about the ethical challenges nurses and personal care assistants encountered whilst providing continence care. Grounded theory methodology was used for in-depth interviews with 18 nurses and personal care assistants who had experience of providing, supervising or assessing continence care in any Australian residential aged care facility, and to analyse 88 hours of field observations in two facilities. Data generation and analysis occurred simultaneously using open coding, theoretical coding, and selective coding, until data were saturated. While addressing the day-to-day needs of residents who needed help to maintain continence and/or manage incontinence, nurses and personal care assistants struggled to enable residents to exercise choice and autonomy. The main factor that contributed to this problem was that the fact that nurses and personal care assistants had to respond to multiple, competing, and conflicting expectations about residents’ care needs. This situation was compounded by workforce constraints, inadequate information about residents’ care needs, and an unpredictable work environment. Providing continence care accentuated the ethical tensions associated with caregiving. Nurses’ and personal care assistants’ responses were mainly characterised by highly protective behaviours towards residents. Underlying structural factors that hinder high quality continence care to residents of aged care facilities should be urgently addressed.

Night-time continence care in Australian residential aged care facilities: findings from a grounded theory study

BACKGROUND: Continence care commonly disrupts sleep in residential aged care facilities, however, little is known about what staff do when providing continence care, and the factors that inform their practice. AIMS: To describe nurses' and personal careworkers' beliefs and experiences of providing continence care at night in residential aged care facilities. METHODS/DESIGN: Eighteen nurses and personal careworkers were interviewed about continence care, and 24 hours of observations were conducted at night in two facilities. RESULTS/FINDINGS: Most residents were checked overnight. This practice was underpinned by staffs' concern that residents were intractably incontinent and at risk of pressure injuries. Staff believed pads protected and dignified residents. Decisions were also influenced by beliefs about limited staff-to-resident ratios. CONCLUSION: Night-time continence care should be audited to ensure decisions are based on residents' preferences, skin health, sleep/wake status, ability to move in bed, and the frequency, severity and type of residents' actual incontinence.

Consciência regional no Grande ABC sob a ótica da Grounded Theory

Dissertação apresentada ao Programa de Mestrado em Administração da Universidade Municipal de São Caetano do Sul como requisito parcial para a obtenção do título de Mestre em Administração

GT4CCI: uma abordagem baseada em grounded theory para a identificação de interesses transversais em documentos de requisitos

When crosscutting concerns identification is performed from the beginning of development, on the activities involved in requirements engineering, there are many gains in terms of quality, cost and efficiency throughout the lifecycle of software development. This early identification supports the evolution of requirements, detects possible flaws in the requirements specification, improves traceability among requirements, provides better software modularity and prevents possible rework. However, despite these several advantages, the crosscutting concerns identification over requirements engineering faces several difficulties such as the lack of systematization and tools that support it. Furthermore, it is difficult to justify why some concerns are identified as crosscutting or not, since this identification is, most often, made without any methodology that systematizes and bases it. In this context, this paper proposes an approach based on Grounded Theory, called GT4CCI, for systematizing and basing the process of identifying crosscutting concerns in the initial stages of the software development process in the requirements document. Grounded Theory is a renowned methodology for qualitative analysis of data. Through the use of GT4CCI it is possible to better understand, track and document concerns, adding gains in terms of quality, reliability and modularity of the entire lifecycle of software

A Grounded Theory como abordagem metodológica para pesquisas qualitativas em odontologia

Este trabalho consiste na proposta de utilização, em Odontologia, de uma abordagem metodológica usada em pesquisas qualitativas, denominada Grounded Theory, quando se objetiva compreender fenômenos ou se pretende descrevê-los de acordo com o ponto de vista do sujeito. Pesquisas em saúde, utilizando abordagens qualitativas, estão sendo, cada vez mais, empregadas entre pesquisadores e, na Odontologia, esta abordagem metodológica proposta torna-se fundamental, no sentido de propiciar a exploração de assuntos ainda pouco trabalhados nesta perspectiva metodológica, possibilitando que as pesquisas adquiriram contribuições originais e, assim, ampliando nosso conhecimento. São apresentadas as etapas a serem seguidas nesta abordagem, elucidando-as com alguns exemplos de parte de entrevistas realizadas numa pesquisa que teve como objetivos: compreender a experiência do idoso com a saúde bucal ao longo da vida e desenvolver e validar um modelo teórico representativo dessa experiência.

Proposta teórico-interpretativa em sexualidade infantil: contribuição à educação sexual a partir da Grounded Theory

Pós-graduação em Educação Escolar - FCLAR

Persisting to Graduation: A Grounded Theory Exploration of Nontraditional Undergraduate Women's Enrollment

While women maintain a numerical majority in undergraduate college enrollments and degrees earned, they also represent the numerical majority among students over 29 years old, students of color, students who are in the lowest income category, students who are single parents, and students who attend college part-time (Peter & Horn, 2005; Planty, et al., 2008). The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) has identified seven characteristics that place students at risk of not completing an undergraduate degree; (a) delayed enrollment between high school and college, (b) part-time enrollment, (c) financial independence, (d) students with dependents, (e) students who are single parents, (f) students who work full-time while enrolled, and (g) students who completed a GED as opposed to earning a high school diploma (Choy, 2002; Dickerson & Stiefer, 2006; Horn & Premo, 1995). The above characteristics overlap with the categories where women have a numerical majority, thereby placing women in greater jeopardy of not completing a bachelor's degree. A review of the existing persistence literature demonstrates a lack of research devoted to understanding the persistence experiences, challenges, strategies, and decisions of nontraditional undergraduate in favor of the "traditional" undergraduate student (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005; Reason 2003). For this doctoral dissertation, I have based the research on a critical race feminist framework, informed by my experience working with the population of nontraditional undergraduate women at a women's college and employed a critique of the persistence literature as sensitizing concepts. Using a modified grounded theory research design, I collected and analyzed data which led to the development of a grounded theory of nontraditional undergraduate women's persistence. The emergent concepts of commitment, environment, and support interact in a theory of academic momentum and I offer a critical race feminist reading of the findings and theory to expose race neutrality, honor the voices of women of color, and deconstruct the evidence presented. The implications of this research include student, institutional, and inclusive excellence approaches to increasing the persistence of nontraditional undergraduate women and contribute to the success of this unique population of learners.

Restrictive and Expansive Views of Equality: A Grounded Theory Study that Explores the Influence of Racial Consciousness on the Behaviors of White Faculty in the Classroom

Attempts to address the ever increasing achievement gap among students have failed to explain how and why educational traditions and teaching practices perpetuate the devaluing of some and the overvaluing of others. This predicament, which plagues our educational system, has been of increased concern, given the growing racial diversity among college students and the saturation of White faculty in the academy. White faculty make up the majority, 79%, of all faculty in the academy. White faculty, whether consciously or unconsciously, are less likely to interrogate how race and racism both privilege them within the academy and influence their faculty behaviors. The result of this cyclical, highly cemented process suggests that there is a relationship between racial consciousness and White faculty members' ability to employ behaviors in their classroom that promote equitable educational outcomes for racially minoritized students. An investigation of the literature revealed that racial consciousness and the behaviors of White faculty in the classroom appeared to be inextricably linked. A conceptual framework, Racial Consciousness and Its Influence on the Behaviors of White Faculty in the Classroom was developed by the author and tested in this study. Constructivist grounded theory was used to explore the role White faculty believe they play in the dismantling of the white supremacy embedded in their classrooms through their faculty behaviors. A substantive theory subsequently emerged. Findings indicate that White faculty with a higher level of racial consciousness employ behaviors in their classroom reflective of a more expansive view of equality in their pursuit of social justice, which they consider synonymous with excellence in teaching. This research bears great significance to higher education research and practice, as it is the first of its kind to utilize critical legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw's (1988) restrictive and expansive views of equality framework to empirically measure and describe excellence in college teaching. Implications for faculty preparation and continued education are also discussed.

Desarrollo cultural en las organizaciones: un modelo de estudio basado en la Grounded Theory

La cultura organizacional se configura a partir de la interrelación de los procesos de apropiación de la filosofía, la pertenencia, la adaptación, la satisfacción y el liderazgo compartidos por un grupo. Este conjunto de categorías puede ser reconocido mediante el uso de una matriz que incluye en su estructura subcategorías o conceptos y un conjunto de propiedades observables en el público interno. El presente artículo tiene por objetivo describir un modelo de estudio construido a partir de la Grounded Theory o Teoría Fundamentada que nos permita comprender el desarrollo cultural de las organizaciones. El estudio de caso se realizó en una compañía líder en Europa del sector de la distribución.