Organizational Observers as Agents of Change

Abstract

In this book we propose using verbal data such as discourses and speech as input for organizational analysis. One of the main differences between verbal data and traditional quantitative data is that the latter are objective whereas the former may give rise to multiple interpretations. In this chapter we deal with the issue of the reliability of discursive data and try to provide an answer to the following questions: How one can be sure the information contained in discourse has been correctly interpreted? Is there more than one admissible interpretation? When is an interpretation admissible? We show that in order to answer such questions the organizational analysts have to assume a mindset and research attitude that are rather different than the traditional objectivist point of view.