Expanding Organizational Research Methods: Analyzing Ruptures in Qualitative Research

Abstract

Collecting qualitative data in organizations is a complex and messy process which produces subjective, performed, and partial data. In this chapter, the authors argue that analyzing “ruptures” in organizational interview data—paying attention to absences, exits, unspoken feelings, and temporal shifts--can enrich the researcher's understanding by making visible multiple aspects of the data which might otherwise have been overlooked. Examining ruptures draws attention to jarring disjunctures and previously unseen angles often missed through traditional data analysis. Drawing from interview data with brothel owners and sex workers in Nevada's legal brothels, the authors present two main contributions to qualitative organizational research: (1) the benefits of analyzing ruptures in organizational interview performances and transcripts and (2) a challenge to organizational researchers to take seriously their emotions during the interview performance.