January 2025 Online Short Course

Process Data

Process Data

Dr. Anne Smith

January 6th – 9th 2025

Lecture Abstract

Pragmatic qualitative data analysis through an interpretive lens.

This course will discuss and give hands-on exercises to approach and analyze data, primarily textual, in interpretive field research. By textual data, I am referring to data generated in an interpretive inquiry; data can include interview transcriptions, archival documents supporting the research inquiry, field notes, and other textual data. [To clarify: This course is NOT covering how to analyze a large corpus of textual data (“Big Data”) using tools such as structured and unstructured big data analysis.]

The course will provide a hands-on approach to analyze data (primarily data related to organizational or individual processes, actions over time) by providing pragmatic ways to interrogate all your data and to move a process study forward. We will work through several exercises that include coding and creating analytical artifacts to begin to see potential theoretical connections and contributions. Qualitative analysis will use actual interview data and coding exercises will be undertaken “by hand” (in Word or Excel). (If you have access to with a Computer Aided/Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS), such as NVivo, QDA Miner, or atlas.ti, please feel free to use it for the exercises, but absolutely CAQDAS is NOT required.) If you are working on a project and would like input, we will conduct a masterclass style to review projects and provide advice. Time can also be built in for individual consulting during the course.

Meet the Presenter

Anne Smith, a King & Judy Rogers Professor of Business in the Management & Entrepreneurship Department at the Haslam College of Business, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, brings extensive experience, having previously led the department for seven years. Her teaching delves into the factors behind organizational success, stagnation, and failure. In her research, she specializes in qualitative methodologies, particularly the analysis of interview data and photographs. Smith has contributed significantly to the field, currently serving as Associate Editor at Academy of Management Journal (methods initiative, qualitative) and having served as an associate editor at Organizational Research Methods (ORM) for five years and continuing her involvement on the editorial board. Her research has been published in Journal of Management, Organization Science, ORM, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, and Journal of Management Inquiry.