Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti
Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti
Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti
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Research methodology <strong>and</strong> data<br />
control, <strong>and</strong> coordination. In this study, data from these other questions<br />
serve as background in<strong>for</strong>mation.<br />
The retrospective nature of the interview accounts can be considered as a<br />
limitation due to recall bias, post-hoc rationalization, <strong>and</strong> difficulties in<br />
determining cause <strong>and</strong> effect related to the events (see e.g. Glick et al.,<br />
1990; Leonard-Barton, 1990; Voss et al., 2002). People have a tendency to<br />
impose order retrospectively on phenomena that have actually been<br />
complex, ambiguous, <strong>and</strong> in conflict (Kimberly & Bouchikhi, 1995). The<br />
elapsed time between the events <strong>and</strong> the interviews may have been<br />
especially problematic in one case (Bureau) in which the program had been<br />
initiated as much as four years be<strong>for</strong>e the interviews. The use of multiple<br />
cases with multiple in<strong>for</strong>mants, <strong>and</strong> the review of program-related<br />
documents are assumed to diminish the problems related to the<br />
retrospective analysis. Also, as Kimberly <strong>and</strong> Bouchikhi (1995) argue, the<br />
subjective tendencies related to the retrospective accounts are “part of the<br />
story”, since organizations can be simultaneously viewed as the contexts <strong>for</strong><br />
<strong>and</strong> the results of human behavior. Thus, rather than focusing solely on<br />
objective indicators <strong>and</strong> avoiding what some researchers would treat as<br />
errors <strong>and</strong> “validity threats”, subjective accounts can rather be viewed as<br />
useful material <strong>for</strong> analytical purposes in the pursuit of uncovering the<br />
deeper patterns that lie beneath the surface (ibid.).<br />
Regarding each case, the interview data was complemented with<br />
secondary material to support the analysis <strong>and</strong> to enable the triangulation<br />
of data sources (Eisenhardt, 1989; Jick, 1979; Yin, 1994). Program-related<br />
documentation was gathered in each case, including program <strong>and</strong> project<br />
level plans, presentation materials, reports, press releases, <strong>and</strong> e-mails to<br />
the research group. Extranet documentation about the case organizations<br />
<strong>and</strong> case programs was also collected. Concerning cases Center <strong>and</strong> Chain,<br />
there was also additional interview material available, describing the<br />
organizations’ other programs <strong>and</strong> projects. These interviews were used as<br />
complementary material to gain a deeper underst<strong>and</strong>ing of the case<br />
organization <strong>and</strong> its way of conducting program <strong>and</strong> project-based work.<br />
Concerning the first case, Center, three workshops were organized in the<br />
case organization jointly with the university research team during the last<br />
six months of the program, be<strong>for</strong>e its termination. In the first workshop,<br />
general principles of program management were discussed. The last two<br />
workshops concerned the case program in particular <strong>and</strong> included attempts<br />
to clarify the program’s goals <strong>and</strong> scope. In these workshops, preliminary<br />
results from the interviews were utilized to discuss the challenges related to<br />
the program. A fourth workshop was organized two years after the program<br />
was terminated to discuss the reasons that had led to the premature<br />
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