Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti

Research methodology and data
point, all these issues were coded in the interview transcripts by connecting
the quotations with the corresponding codes. The next step in the analysis
was to dig deeper into the associations between the central constructs, to
create case-specific descriptions of these phenomena and to compare the
cases in the cross-case analysis. These tasks were in the focus during the
third phase of the analysis.
3.5.3 The third phase of the analysis
In the beginning of the third analysis phase, the data was again divided
based on the three cases, and case-specific analyses were conducted to
characterize the studied phenomena in each case. The categorizations
created during the second analysis phase provided a framework for this
analysis. Firstly, the identified aspects of the program-parent organization
boundary were analyzed by examining if and how they appeared in each
case. The overall boundary strength of each case program was also
characterized. A same kind of an analysis was conducted for the indicators
of readiness for change program implementation, describing whether each
identified aspect of readiness was present in the cases at the end of the
initiation and planning stage. While in cases Center and Chain two rounds
of interviews had been conducted, the assessment of readiness for program
implementation mainly relied on the data from the latter rounds of
interviews. In Bureau, the only round of interviews was conducted when the
program had just moved to the implementation stage, so readiness for
program implementation was judged based on the situation at the time.
During the third phase of the analysis, the boundary activities were
analyzed in more detail and their associations with readiness for change
program implementation as well as the related contextual factors were
examined. For the purpose of this analysis, a spreadsheet format was
chosen and Microsoft Office Excel 2007 was used as a tool. The data set
coded in Atlas.ti software during the second phase of the analysis was
revisited, focusing on the identified boundary activities. All quotations
referring to boundary activity were copied into the MS Excel spreadsheet.
One row in the spreadsheet was dedicated to each of these quotations. For
each quotation referring to a boundary activity, the following issues were
coded to the spreadsheet in separate cells: the actual quote from the
interview, the pseudonym name of the corresponding case, the interview
identification number, the type of the boundary activity, the possible
second type of the boundary activity, a short description of the distinct
boundary activity, the actor who had performed the activity, the target of
the activity (e.g. top management/employees in general), the perceived
effect on the readiness for change program implementation, and the
possibly related contextual factors. Furthermore, an additional data field
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