BUS603: Managing People

1.5.1. Study participants

Seven leaders working at executive director, board or equivalent volunteered to participate in the study. They came from a wide range of different organizations with very different training, backgrounds, experiences and career trajectories. They were leaders who clearly saw themselves as leaders and who also saw themselves as engaging in some form of reflection.

1.5.2. Data collection

Semi structured interviews were used to gather the data. The following questions were asked:

• What is your definition of reflection?
• What are your processes of reflection? (when, where and how?)
• What triggers your processes of reflection?
• What helps and what hinders your processes of reflection?
• What – if any – were the benefits for you?
• What might your experiences mean for the development of future leaders?
  

The interviews were transcribed and interrogated using Grounded Theory Methodology. I chose Grounded Theory Methodology because it is a constructivist research methodology, which allows meaning to naturally emerge from the data.

1.5.3. Data analysis

Sixty‐one thousand words were transcribed and analyzed to create units of meaning or raw codes. On average about every eight words were grouped to create a new raw code, and 75% of these were coded in vivo to retain the richness of the data.

Alongside the creation of the raw codes, the simultaneous process of constant comparison enabled the grouping of the raw codes into different categories or families.

This process allowed meaning to emerge from the data and from which the meta‐concept of "Reflect to Create" finally and very naturally surfaced.