Emergent Theory

Conceptual Overview

ET is a product of grounded theory (GT), a widely recognized and adopted research approach associated with sociologists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss. The two successfully collaborated on this qualitative research style in which theories, concepts, and hypotheses emerge from the data rather than from investigation of the literature.

The methods and analysis for GT are drawn from inductive quantitative analysis developed in the Department of Sociology and the Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia University in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, Glaser and Strauss published what has become the seminal work on ET in organization studies, in which the authors describe the importance of systematically and theoretically modeling social processes and propose that the researcher asks two formal questions that allow theory to emerge from data. The researcher asks, what is the chief concern or problem in the social phenomenon and what accounts for most of the variation in processing the problem? The researcher also asks, what category or what property of category does the incident under study indicate? Guided by these two questions, the researcher then includes the following perspectives and methods to ensure theoretical emergence.

First, the researcher does not explicitly introduce specific theoretical knowledge from the literature a priori. Next, the researcher adopts a perspective that allows abstract significant categories to be discovered from the data, an approach Glaser and Strauss termed theoretical sensitivity. The researcher also adopts a constant comparison method where incidents, rather than individuals or organizations, are observed, compared, analyzed and coded in order to identify, revisit, and redefine important concepts, categories of concepts, and interrelationships among concepts and categories. Next, as significant categories emerge from the data, the researcher may then turn to relevant literature to help inform on the emerging theory. Thus, the literature is treated as another set of data informing the researcher on the ET.

In the early 1990s, after nearly three decades as collaborators and advocates for the importance of ET to organization studies, Glaser and Strauss went down different paths. In 1990, Strauss and Corbin developed a newer framework of GT, which allowed the researcher to examine relevant literature before a study began. In 1992, Glaser responded critically to this approach, expressing concern for the loss of true ET if literature could be introduced a priori, and reinforcing the [Page 426]original precepts of GT. Both the original and the newer GT approaches continue to have their strong advocates among new and senior researchers and ET, whether informed with little or no explicit a priori theorizing, continues to be a highly regarded product of qualitative research, evidenced by the number of recent organizational scholars publishing on the subject or adopting one or both of the GT approaches.

Critical Commentary and Future Directions

While ET is widely recognized, it is not without its controversies, most notably made public when Glaser responded to the Strauss and Corbin framework by describing it as a destructive misconception of the original GT that would “force” categories on the data rather than allow concepts and categories to emerge. Glaser demanded that the authors withdraw their book from publication, and while this did not occur, a 1998 second edition by Strauss and Corbin added commentary that addressed several of Glaser's major concerns.

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