When the grounded theory appears in the 60s, it is presented and received as methodological innovation in break by the scientific traditional model. Though it is novel in several aspects, the TA is also tributary of the American sociology and the phenomenology, a double heredity that was, and contin..

The objective of this article is to show how some elements were applied in a project of empirical investigation of the denominated style of qualitative investigation called grounded theory. This denomination talks about to that the construction of theory is based on the empirical data that sustain i..

While discussing how the grounded theory mediod has been situated during the five moments of qualitative research history, a detailed analysis is offered of die differences between the classic mode of die mediod and Strauss and Corbin's reformulation of the mediod. Such differences include: philosophical perspectives, paradigm of inquiry, intended product, dieoretical underpinnings, procedural steps and claims of rigour. Reasons for Strauss. and Corbin's elaboration of the mediod are suggested, widiin an historical context.

Background: Humanistic nursing practice which is dominated by technological advancement, outcome measurement, reduced resources, and staff shortages is challenging in the present work environment. Objective: To examine the main concern in humanistic nursing area and how the way it is solved and resolved by Iranian nurses in acute care setting. Research design: Data were collected from interviews and observations in 2009–2011 and analyzed using classic grounded theory. Memos were written during the analysis, and they were sorted once theoretical (...) saturation occurred. Participants and research context: In total, 22 nurses, 18 patients, and 12 families from two teaching hospitals in Tehran were selected by purposeful and theoretical sampling. Ethical considerations: The research was approved by the Ethics Committee of the university and hospitals. Results: The main concern for the nurses is the violation of their rights. They overcome this concern when there is a synergy of situation–education/learning, that is, a positive interaction between education and learning of values and sensitivity of the situation or existence of care promotion elements. They turn to professional values and seeking and meeting others’ needs, resulting in “success and accomplishment” of nurse/nursing manager and patient/family. Conclusion: This theory shows that professional values, elements of care promotion, and sensitivity of the situation have a key role in activation of humanistic approach in nursing. Violation of the nurses’ professional rights often leads to a decrease in care, but these factors make the nurses practice in an unsparing response approach. It is necessary to focus on development of professional values and provide essential elements of care promotion as changeable factors for realization of humanistic nursing although there is a context in which the nurses’ rights are violated. (shrink)

The objective of this article is to show how some elements were applied in a project of empirical investigation of the denominated style of qualitative investigation called grounded theory. This denomination talks about to that the construction of theory is based on the empirical data that sustain it, following a procedure of inductive analysis.El objetivo de este artículo es mostrar cómo fueron aplicados en un proyecto de investigación concreto algunos elementos del estilo de investigación cualitativa denominado "teoría (...) fundamentada" . Esta denominación se refiere a que la construcción de teoría está basada en los datos empíricos que la sustentan, siguiendo un procedimiento de análisis inductivo. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to describe and reflect ethical challenges in a grounded theory study on the dynamics of hope in HIV-positive adults and their significant others. It concentrates on the justification of a research problem, sensitive research and the relationship between the researcher and the participants in data collection. The basis of ethically sound nursing research on the dynamics of hope in these two vulnerable groups lies in the relationship between the researcher and the participant. (...) However, it is also obvious that the content, the process, the methods used and the ethics of the study cannot be divorced from this relationship. In conducting grounded theory research on the dynamics of hope in this research population, the researcher has to consider the surrounding world, that is, the reality in which these people live in hope or despair. (shrink)

Necessitarianism, as we shall use the term, is the view that natural properties and causal powers are necessarily connected in some way. In recent decades the most popular forms of necessitarianism have been the anti-Humean powers-based theories of properties, such as dispositional essentialism and the identity theory. These versions of necessitarianism have come under fire in recent years and I believe it is time for necessitarians to develop a new approach. In this paper I identify unexplored ways of positing (...) metaphysically necessary connections in nature, using the concepts of grounding and essential dependence. For example, I show that one could be a necessitarian by insisting that the properties of things necessarily ground their powers, and that one can maintain this while rejecting dispositional essentialism. Using different combinations of claims about grounding and essential dependence, I map out a spectrum of new positions and compare them to previous theories of natural modality. Some of these positions are compatible with Humean metaphysics while others are not. The overall aim of the paper is to provide a new metaphysical framework for understanding theories of powers and thereby launch a new necessitarian research programme. (shrink)

Background: Despite the growing importance of spiritual care, the delivery of spiritual care is still an area of disagreement among healthcare providers. Objective: To develop a grounded theory about spiritual care delivery based on Iranian nurses’ perceptions and experiences. A grounded theory approach: A qualitative study using the grounded theory approach. Participants and research context: Data were collected through holding 27 interviews with 25 participants (17 staff nurses, 3 physicians, 3 patients, 1 family member, (...) and 1 nurse assistant). The study setting was the Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex. Sampling was started purposively and continued theoretically. Data analysis was performed by the method proposed by Strauss and Corbin. Ethical consideration: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Tarbiat Modares University and the agreement of the administrators of the study setting was got before starting the study. Results: The core category of the study was “Trust building” which reflected the nature of spiritual care delivery by nurses. Trust building was the result of eight main categories or strategies including creating a positive mentality at hospital admission, understanding patients in care circumstances, having a caring presence, adhering to care ethics, developing meaningful relationships, promoting positive thinking and energy, establishing effective communication with patients, and attempting to create a safe therapeutic environment. Poor interprofessional coordination negatively affected this process while living toward developing greater cognizance of divinity and adhering to the principles of professional ethics facilitated it. The outcome of the process was to gain a sense of partial psychological security. Conclusion: The “Trust building” theory can be used as a guide for describing and expanding nurses’ roles in spiritual care delivery, developing care documentation systems and clinical guidelines, and planning educational programs for nursing students and staff nurses. (shrink)

A recent, seemingly appealing version of the powerful qualities view defines properties’ qualitativity via an essentialist claim and their powerfulness via a grounding claim. Roughly, this approach holds that properties are qualities because they have qualitative essences, while they are powerful because their instances or essences ground causal-modal facts. I argue that this theory should be replaced with one that defines the powerfulness of qualities in terms of both a grounding claim and a ‘meta-grounding’ claim. Specifically, I formulate and (...) defend a view on which qualities are powerful just if instances of those qualitiesat least partiallyground dispositionsin virtue of the essences of those qualities. (shrink)

The size and variation in both meaning-making and populations that characterize much contemporary text data demand research processes that support both discovery, interpretation and measurement. We assess one dominant strategy within the social sciences that takes a computer-led approach to text analysis. The approach is coined computational grounded theory. This strategy, we argue, relies on a set of unwarranted assumptions, namely, that unsupervised models return natural clusters of meaning, that the researcher can understand text with limited immersion and (...) that indirect validation is sufficient for ensuring unbiased and precise measurement. In response to this criticism, we develop a framework that is computer assisted. We argue that our reformulation of computational grounded theory better aligns with the principles within grounded theory, anthropological theory generation and ethnography. (shrink)

A project manager’s emotional intelligence (EI) is essential to project success. However, the mechanism in this cause and effect remains a black box in extant literature. China is now the world’s largest construction market, and figuring out the mechanism of construction project manager’s (CPM’s) EI on project success is meaningful for developing the global construction market. This study conducted an in-depth interview with 24 CPMs with more than 5-year experience in construction project management. The grounded theory was employed (...) to profile the application of CPM’s EI and to build the multilevel mechanism that explains the influence of CPM’s EI on project success. The mechanism framework conforms to the existed input–process–output (IPO) theory. It consists of a team-level mechanism (including the positive team atmosphere, shared vision, and team cohesion) and an individual-level mechanism (i.e., organizational citizenship behavior directed at the organization, perceived supervisor support, trust in leader, and subordinate’s psychological and emotional health). This study further proposed that the effect of this mechanism does not work immediately but develops with time passing. Implications for further research and project management practice are discussed in the end. (shrink)

Software development is an iterative process from designing to implementation, and to testing, in which product development staff should be closely integrated with users. Satisfying user needs effectively is often the pain point for developers. In order to alleviate this, this paper manages to establish the quantitative connection between users' online reviews and APP downloads. By analyzing user online comments, companies can dig out user needs and preferences. This could benefit them by making accurate market positioning of their APP products, (...) and therefore iteratively innovating products based on user needs, which hopefully will increase the volume of APP downloads. This paper regards WeChat APP during 47 updates periods as the research object. Based on Grounded Theory, user needs are extracted after data cleaning. Next, by using semantic analysis and word frequency analysis, we are able to obtain the implicit feedbacks such as emotion tendency, satisfaction and requirements lie under online reviews. Then, we construct a quantile regression model to study the impact of users' online reviews on downloads based on the influencing factors we extracted so as to provide a decision basis for enterprises to iteratively update their products. Results show that: Generally speaking, needs of WeChat users mainly focus on performance, reliability, usability, functional deficiency, functional insufficiency, and system adaptability; For those APP versions with relatively fewer downloads, user needs are mostly about functional deficiency, followed by functional insufficiency, performance, usability, and system adaptability. At this stage, it is found out that users' emotion tendency and user satisfaction significantly affect the volume of downloads; When the volume of APP downloads is moderate, the user needs are functional deficiency, functional insufficiency, and system adaptability. While under this circumstances, users' star ratings have a significant impact on downloads; In addition, when the volume of App downloads is high, user needs are performance, usability, and system adaptability. Our methods effectively extract users' requirements from online reviews and then successfully build up the quantitative connection between the implicit feedbacks from those requirements and APP downloads. (shrink)

More than 50 years ago, Glaser and Strauss constructed the grounded theory methodology to develop substantive and formal data-grounded theories. Grounded theory is a rigorous methodology for generating theory grounded in data. It incorporates compare-and-contrast and abductive reasoning as its intellectual engine. Whenever one of these cognitive processes is engaged, so is the other. However, there is a need for a systematic means to assess how rigorous the grounded theory research process (...) was employed. This paper aims to start this conversation among methodologists and practitioners by proposing three criteria to evaluate the trustworthiness of grounded theories’ research process. Grounded theory studies ought to include abductive discoveries, the results of variation-finding, and Tilly’s comparison framework. Examples from Forde’s macro-level grounded theory will be used to demonstrate the significance of adding evaluation criteria to assess the rigor of the research process. (shrink)

To rationalize the selection of a research methodology, one must understand its philosophical origins and unique characteristics. This process can be challenging in the landscape of evolving qualitative methodologies. Grounded theory is a research methodology with a distinct history that has resulted in numerous approaches. Although the approaches have key similarities, they also have differing philosophical assumptions that influence the ways in which their methods are understood and implemented. The purpose of this discussion paper is to compare and (...) contrast three widely used grounded theory approaches with key distinguishing characteristics, enabling a more thoughtful selection of approach. This work contributes to the existing literature through contrasting classic Glaserian grounded theory, Straussian grounded theory, and constructivist grounded theory in a systematic manner with prominent distinguishing characteristics developed from a review of the literature. These characteristics included historical development, philosophical perspective, role of the researcher, data analysis procedures, perspective of the grounded theory, and strengths/critique. Based on this analysis, three considerations are proposed to direct the methodological choice for a study: purpose, philosophy, and pragmatics. Understanding the similarities and differences in the grounded theory approaches can facilitate methodological transparency and determine the best fit for one's study and worldview as a researcher. (shrink)

The research methodologies of grounded theory and grounded action are framed by a systems perspective, from which they contribute their own unique properties and processes to the evolution of systems thinking. The author provides definitions for systems, theory, grounded theory, grounded action, and systems thinking, and explores the relationships between theory, grounded theory/grounded action, and systems thinking with regard to purpose, context, and usefulness for the resolution of social concerns (...) and systemic change. (shrink)

Aim: Understanding the effects of psychotherapy is a crucial concern for both research and clinical practice, especially when outcome tends to be negative. Yet, while outcome is predominantly evaluated by means of quantitative pre-post outcome questionnaires, it remains unclear what this actually means for patients in their daily lives. To explore this meaning, it is imperative to combine treatment evaluation with quantitative and qualitative outcome measures. This study investigates the phenomenon of non-improvement in psychotherapy, by complementing quantitative pre-post outcome scores (...) that indicate no reliable change in depression symptoms with a qualitative inquiry of patients’ perspectives. Methods: The study took place in the context of a Randomized Controlled Trial evaluating time-limited psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural therapy for major depression. A mixed methods study was conducted including patients’ pre-post outcome scores on the BDI-II-NL and post treatment Client Change Interviews. Nineteen patients whose data showed no reliable change in depression symptoms were selected. A grounded theory analysis was conducted on the transcripts of patients’ interviews. Findings: From the patients’ perspective, non-improvement can be understood as being stuck between knowing versus doing, resulting in a stalemate. Positive changes (mental stability, personal strength and insight) were stimulated by therapy offering moments of self-reflection and guidance, the benevolent therapist approach and the context as important motivations. Remaining issues (ambition to change but inability to do so) were attributed to the therapy hitting its limits, patients’ resistance and impossibility and the context as a source of distress. “No change” in outcome scores therefore seems to involve a “partial change” when considering the patients’ perspectives. Conclusion: The study shows the value of integrating qualitative first-person analyses into standard quantitative outcome evaluation and particularly for understanding the phenomenon of non-improvement. It argues for more multi-method and multi-perspective research to gain a better understanding of (negative) outcome and treatment effects. Implications for both research and practice are discussed. (shrink)

Existing social disparities in the United States are inconsistent with the promise of democracy; therefore, there was a need for critical conceptualization of the first principles that undergird American democracy and the genesis of democratic social change in America. This constructivist grounded theory study aimed to construct a grounded theory that provides an understanding of the process of American democratic social change as it emerged from the nation’s founding documents. A post hoc polytheoretical framework including Foucault’s, (...) Bourdieu’s, and Marx and Engels’s theories of power was used to understand power dynamics. The research question focused on understanding the process of democratic social change in America. The sample comprised the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and the U.S. Constitution. The documents were retrieved from the National Archives and Library of Congress. The data analysis plan incorporated successive comparison, situational and dramaturgical analysis, deconstruction, and perspective taking as strategies. The result was the construction of a democratic social change process theory preceded by five grounded theories: (a) first principles of democracy, (b) first principles of democracy conceptual framework, (c) socio-ethical principles of democracy, (d) demoralizing process, and (e) either-or approach to democracy. Positive social change implications include applying a democratic social change process to future social change endeavors across domains and levels of analysis, a normative framework for a republican form of government, and a tool to analyze and minimize the latent consequences of social justice policies. (shrink)

Our purpose in this article is to identify and suggest resolution for two core problematics of grounded theory. First, while grounded theory provides transparency to one part of the conceptualization process, where codes emerge directly from the data, it provides no such systematic or transparent way for gaining insight into the conceptual relationships between discovered codes. Producing a grounded theory depends not only on the definition of conceptual pieces, but the delineation of a relationship (...) between at least two of those pieces. Second, the conceptualization process of grounded theory is done in hierarchical fashion, where individual codes emerge from the data but then are used to generate insight into more general concepts and thematic statements. But various works on grounded theory have failed to provide any systematic way of using data specific levels of scale (the codes) to gain insight into more macro levels of scale (concepts and themes). We offer fractal concept analysis as a means of resolving both of these issues. By using a logic structure generator, fractal concept analysis delineates self-similar conceptual frameworks at various levels of abstraction, yielding a method for linking concepts together within and between levels of scale encountered in the grounded theory coding and categorization process. We conclude that this fractal analytic technique can bolster the aims of grounded theory as a formalized and systematic process for generating theory from empirical data. (shrink)

The search for a good method to analyse sermon content has been prevailing since the past decades to evaluate current practice so as to construct better theories for practice. I think that we have found it in the methodology of inductive, qualitative research of the Grounded Theory methodology. In this article, I am going to use the Grounded Theory approach to describe the phases of qualitative empirical research, namely, literature study, sampling, open coding of the data, (...) selective coding of additional new data and theoretical coding to be able to construct an emerging theory of praxis using the concepts developed for this specific action in our discipline. There are critical comments for this methodology. I will try to address these critical views and argue that the Grounded Theory is in line with the science of research. (shrink)

_Virtue as Social Intelligence: An Empirically Grounded Theory_ takes on the claims of philosophical situationism, the ethical theory that is skeptical about the possibility of human virtue. Influenced by social psychological studies, philosophical situationists argue that human personality is too fluid and fragmented to support a stable set of virtues. They claim that virtue cannot be grounded in empirical psychology. This book argues otherwise. Drawing on the work of psychologists Walter Mischel and Yuichi Shoda, Nancy E. Snow (...) argues that the social psychological experiments that philosophical situationists rely on look at the wrong kinds of situations to test for behavioral consistency. Rather than looking at situations that are objectively similar, researchers need to compare situations that have similar meanings _for the subject_. When this is done, subjects exhibit behavioral consistencies that warrant the attribution of enduring traits, and virtues are a subset of these traits. Virtue can therefore be empirically grounded and virtue ethics has nothing to fear from philosophical situationism. (shrink)

Grounded theory is one of the most common qualitative research strategies in social sciences. Currently, many applications of this theory are being developed for religious education. In the article it is argued that grounded theory deserves special attention for classroom research in religious education. For this reason, the basic features as well as the coding strategies of grounded theory will be explained and concretised. An analysis of one example sequence demonstrates how grounded (...) theory may be used to emphasise the communicative and substantive aspects of classroom interaction, therefore lending itself to data analysis. In this manner, grounded theory can also be used for an intensive analysis of a student's learning process, as the authors have done in one student profile analysis, as well as for a comparative analysis of teaching practice in an actual class or even a variety of classes. (shrink)

This study describes the cultural, cognitive, social, and emotional work that once-devout members of the LDS Church must engage in to leave the church and divest themselves of Mormon culture. A Grounded Theory approach with a multi-modal memoing process showed that, for the devout, leaving the LDS Church and Mormon culture is not a singular event, but rather a process of gradual transformation that requires time and effort, passing through a series of punctuating events. Formerly devout ex-Mormons had (...) to confront various problems, including the LDS Church’s truth claims and ethical contradictions from within the particular Mormon framework that leavers believed in and followed, which in turn had shaped and constrained both their leaving process and their post-Mormon selves. Interview data revealed a necessary reconstruction of post-Mormon emotionalities. And devout women who left Mormonism bore an added burden of overcoming internalized misogyny. (shrink)

In this paper I convey a recurring problem and possible solution that arose during my doctoral research on the topic of cross-cultural Holocaust curriculum development for Latvian schools. Specifically, as I devised the methodology for my research, I experienced a number of frustrations concerning the issue of transferability and the limitations of both reader generalizability and grounded theory. Ultimately, I found a more appropriate goal for the external applicability of this and other highly contextual research studies in the (...) form of "grounded understandings," which are tentative apprehensions of the importance or significance of phenomena and conceptualizations that hold meaning and explanatory power, but are only embryonic in their potential to generate theory. (shrink)

This paper presents a constructivist grounded theory on the decision-making process that UK home and alternative educators undertake and the related influencing factors. Twenty-one participants from a diverse range of backgrounds were interviewed between one and three times over a two-year period. Some were current home and alternative educators and others were undecided, or had changed their minds about home educating. The core process is entitled ‘Stepping out of the system?’ It was constructed from three main categories: attitudinal (...) direction, surveying the landscape and negotiating obstacles. Parents have opinions of school that developed before they began to consider how to educate their child; attitudes which are affect laden and guide the process of information gathering. The surveying the landscape stage involves both formal research and informal methods such as hearing the views of others and acting upon their own feelings. The final stage, negotiating obstacles, involves finding practical solutions to barriers they may face. The grounded theory is enriched and deepened by Reddy’s (2010) concept of emotional refuges. (shrink)

Guiding core enterprises to participate in supply chain work safety governance is an innovative mode of work safety control, which has an important impact on improving the work safety level of small and medium-sized enterprises in the supply chain. Through in-depth interviews, the grounded theory is adopted to explore the driving factors of work safety management behaviors of core enterprise. It is found that the work safety management behavior of the core enterprise is driven by both internal and (...) external factors. External driving factors are the main category of institutional pressure composed of regulatory pressure, normative pressure, and cognitive pressure. Internal driving factors are divided into the main category of behavioral awareness and the behavioral capability of the core enterprises. The behavioral awareness is composed of responsibility sense, problem cognition and behavioral effect perception. The behavioral capability is composed of safety management strength and safety coordination capability. Institutional pressure, behavioral awareness, and behavioral capability all influence the work safety management behavior of core enterprise in supply chain significantly, but with different ways and paths. On this basis, the driving mechanism model of the above three main categories on the work safety management behavior in core enterprise supply chain is explored. The research can provide targeted policy ideas and implementation paths for the government to formulate effective guiding policies to promote the work safety management behavior of core enterprise. (shrink)

본 연구는 현재 상담심리학을 포함해서 사회과학의 여러 분야에서 질적 연구방법으로 각광 받고 있는 근거이론을 연구대상으로 삼아 그것의 발생과 분기과정에서 드러나는 존재론적, 인식론적, 방법론적 전제에 대한 현상학적-해석학적 반성을 수행하고자 한다. 이를 위해서 먼저 근거이론의 등장과 분기의 과정과 구조를 대표적인 근거이론가들인 스트라우스-코빈(Strauss-Corbin)의 축코딩의 패러다임 모델을 활용해서 밝혀볼 것이다. 나아가 축코딩의 패러다임으로 밝혀지지 않는 글레이저(Glaser), 스트라우스-코빈 그리고 차마즈(Charmaz)의 대표적인 근거이론들의 존재론적, 인식론적, 방법론적 전제들을 비판적으로 성찰해봄으로써 각각 어떤 이론적 곤경에 처해 있는지 그리고 그것을 어떻게 극복하는지를 밝혀볼 것이다. 끝으로 근거이론이 겪고 있는 이론적 곤경들의 (...) 극복과정이 어떤 점에서 현상학적, 해석학적 통찰과 연관되는지를 밝혀볼 것이다. (shrink)

Compassion, as an indicator for quality care, is highly valued by patients and healthcare professionals. Compassionate care is considered a moral dimension of nursing practice and an essential component of high quality care. This study aimed to answer these questions: (1) What are the facilitators and barriers of providing compassionate nursing care in the clinical setting? (2) Which strategies do nurses use to provide compassionate care? (3) What is the specific model of compassionate care for the nursing context? A (...) class='Hi'>grounded theory approach was used in this study. A total of 21 nurses working in diverse clinical settings participated in the study. Purposive and theoretical sampling was used to select the participants. Data were collected by in-depth face to face interviews and analyzed by the constant comparative method. Ethical approval was gained from the Ethical Review Board of Tabriz University of Medical sciences. The analysis resulted in the development of three main themes: (a) contextual factors affecting compassionate care, (b) the compassionate care actions, and (c) the consequences of compassionate care. The main dimensions of compassionate care are demonstrated in a Compassionate Nursing Care Model. Nurses’ ability on providing compassionate care is influenced by individual and organizational factors that may facilitate or inhibit this type of care. Leadership and nurse managers should remove the barriers which diminish the nurses’ ability to provide compassionate care and support them to engage in compassionate care programs. Identifying and recruiting compassionate nurses, developing their compassionate capacity, and providing role models of compassion could improve the flourishing of person-centered and compassionate care in clinical settings. The Compassionate Nursing Care Model (CNCM) provides a model to guide nursing care and research. (shrink)

This book brings together disparate strands of ToM research, lays out historical roots of the idea, and indicates better alternatives.

Background: Equity in providing care is also a major value in the nursing profession. Equitable care aims to provide the entire population with safe, efficient, reliable, and quality nursing services at all levels of health. Objectives: This study was conducted to explain the process of the realization of equity in nursing care. Research design: This qualitative study uses Glaser’s approach to grounded theory. Participants and research context: Sample selection began with convenience sampling and continued with purposive sampling. A (...) total of 27 people were ultimately selected as the study subjects. Data were mainly collected through unstructured in-depth individual interviews plus observation and field notes. The data were then analyzed using the “Six C’s” coding family of Glaser. Ethical considerations: The study protocol was approved by the Tehran University of Medical Sciences (91D1302870). Written informed consent was also obtained from all subjects. Findings: According to the findings, participants’ main concern in providing equitable care is the rationing of nursing care. The identification of participants’ main concern led to the emergence of the core category of the study, that is, “nurses’ domination.” The other categories revolving around the core category were conceptualized according to the six C’s coding family: “nurses being dominated,” “nurses’ ineffective power in the health system,” “low attention to equitable care in health system,” “lack of clarity in measuring equitable care,” “the health structure’s inconsistency with equity,” and “the inefficiency of the care system.” Conclusion: There is a mutual relationship between providing fair care and nurses’ perceptions of equity. Nurses who have themselves experienced equity can provide their patients the experience of equity. This mutual relationship is actualized in a context in which fair care is clearly defined and demanded. (shrink)

Background Professional ethics is the regulation and discipline of nurses’ daily nursing work. Nurses often encounter various ethical challenges and problems in their clinical work, but there are few studies on nurses' adherence to professional ethics. Research Aim An analysis of nursing adherence to nursing ethics from the perspective of clinical nurses in the Chinese public health system. Research Design This study adopts the grounded theory approach proposed by Strauss and Corbin. Participants and research context Between July 2021 (...) and January 2022, Clinical nurses were recruited for online video interviews using purposive and theoretical sampling methods in seven hospitals in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Henan, Guangdong, and Fujian, China. Data analysis was conducted using Strauss and Corbin’s coding approach. Ethical considerations This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Sanming First Hospital (MingYiLun 71/2021) Findings A total of 27 participants were included. A theoretical model of nursing staff adherence to professional ethics was constructed. The main core was adherence to professional ethics and the other cores were (1) causal conditions: professional ethics code, individual conscience; (2) intervening conditions: personal growth, social support system, matching career compensation, prediction of adverse consequences; (3) action strategies: sticking to professional values, self-regulation, flexible response, post-event improvement; and (4) outcomes: self-harmony, reduced medical disputes. Conclusions This study provides an interpretive understanding of why clinical nurses adhere to professional ethics in China and describes the challenges and issues posed by nurses’ use of strategies to cope with ethical adversity. The findings can be used to develop future complex studies. (shrink)

Background: Nursing students, during their study, experience significant changes on their journey to become nurses. A major change that they experience is the development of their moral competency. Objective: The purpose of this study is to explore the process of moral development in Iranian nursing students. Research design: A constructivist grounded theory method was adopted. Twenty-five in-depth, semi-structured, face-to-face intensive interviews with 22 participants were conducted from September 2013 to October 2014. All interviews were audio-taped, transcribed, and analyzed (...) using writing memos and the constant comparative method. Participants and research context: The setting was three major nursing schools within Tehran, the capital of Iran. Nineteen nursing students and three lecturers participated in the study. Ethical considerations: The study was approved by the Tehran University of Medical Sciences Committee for Medical Research Ethics (92/D/130/1781). It was explained to all participants that their responses would be treated with confidentiality and that they would not be identified in any way in the research and any publication ensuing from the research. All participants agreed to be interviewed and signed written consent forms agreeing to the recording and analyses of the interview data gathered. Findings: Findings indicated three levels of moral development along with the formation of professional identity. The three levels of moral development, getting to know the identity of nursing (moral transition), accepting nursing identity (moral reconstruction), and professional identity internalization (professional morality), were connected to the levels of professional identity formation. Discussion: The proposed model added a new insight to professionalism in nursing. Conclusion: From the findings, it was concluded that to enhance higher moral practice, nursing instructors should promote the professional identity of nursing students. Reinforcement of moral characteristics and professional identity within registered nurses occurs over a series of phases and, once fully integrated into the identity of nursing students, the moral characteristics that they acquire become part of their both professional and personal identities. (shrink)

Grounded theory methodology is perceived as challenging due to its systematic and rigorous process. However, this is because most people do not realize that the strategies used in the grounded theory data analysis process are used by laypeople and professionals regularly, if not daily. This article aims to help others interested in grounded theory with a background in qualitative data analysis feel comfortable engaging in the methodology and constructing multiple theories in the same study. (...) It shares my latest experience incorporating various data analysis strategies with the constructivist approach: holistic and systems thinking, situational analysis, dramaturgical analysis, perspective taking, and abstraction. The examples remove the mystery from abstraction and abductive reasoning. (shrink)

Background In June 2016, the Parliament of Canada passed federal legislation allowing eligible adults to request Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). Since its implementation, there likely exists a degree of hesitancy among some healthcare providers due to the law being inconsistent with personal beliefs and values. It is imperative to explore how nurses in Quebec experience the shift from accompanying palliative clients through “a natural death” to participating in “a premeditated death.” Research question/aim/objectives This study aims to explore how Quebec (...) nurses personally and professionally face the new practice of MAID and their role evolution. Research design A grounded theory design was used. Participants and research context We recruited 37 nurses who participated in or coordinated at least one MAID. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted and audiotaped. Data collection and analysis followed Strauss and Corbin steps. Ethical considerations Ethics approval was received from the investigator’s affiliated University. Participants were informed regarding the research goal, signed a written consent, and were assigned pseudonyms. Findings/results Results show that nurses experienced the wide range of paradoxe during MAID centering around the following eight elements: 1) confrontation abouth death, 2) choice, 3) time of death, 4) emotional load, 5) new Bill, 6) relationship with the person, 7) communication skills, and 8) healthcare setting. The shifting of views and values in this new role is presented by the contradiction of opposites. Conclusions A better understanding of the paradox experienced by nurses involved with MAID paves the way for the development of interventions. (shrink)

Background: Plagiarism is an ethical and academic issue, which is affected by several factors. Objectives: This study is an attempt to introduce a model for elaborating on the causes of plagiarism in Iran. Research design: The study was carried out as a grounded theory study. Participants and research context: Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 32 university professors and postgraduate students at Iranian universities of medical sciences. The participants were selected through purposeful and theoretical sampling. Data (...) analysis was done following Strauss et al.’s work. To ensure study rigor, Lincoln and Guba’s measures were used. Ethical considerations: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Results: A conceptual model of the causes of plagiarism was developed based on analyzing and coding the data. The main core of the model was the emergence of plagiarism, and other cores were (1) causal condition: lack of skills, pressure by education system, and lack of awareness; (2) intervening factors: technological advances, legal gaps, and lack of efficient supervision; (3) ground factors: personal traits and attitudes of the academic community; (4) strategy and interventions: role model, supervision, national/international coordination, and higher awareness; (5) outcomes: regeneration of plagiarism and negative attitudes toward Iranian authors in the world academic communities. Conclusion: Several factors affect plagiarism. Among the approaches to attenuate plagiarism in Iranian academic communities are improving self-esteem and self-efficacy in Iranian researchers, emphasizing on quality rather than quantity of published works, discouraging boasting attitudes in the practitioners, denouncing intense competition among researchers, and introducing clear laws and severe punishments for plagiarism. (shrink)

The article reports findings of a study conducted to explore the cognitive moral logics used for considering software piracy as ethical or unethical. Since the objective was to elicit the moral logics from the respondents, semi-structured in-depth interviews of 38 software professionals of India were conducted. The content of the interviews was analyzed using the grounded theory framework which does not begin with constructs and their interlinkages and then seek proof instead it begins with an area of study (...) and allows them to emerge from that area of study. Given the objective of exploring moral logics, grounded theory seemed an appropriate choice. Results revealed that 21 respondents considered software piracy unethical whereas 17 did not. Though economic reasons formed the most fundamental logic in both the cases, an overall analysis revealed that the respondents mostly used moral justification (neutralization) for not considering software piracy unethical whereas those considering it unethical used normative (principled) logics. The interconnections among logics are analyzed and results are discussed along with the limitations of the study. (shrink)

Background: Dignity is seen as an important but complex concept in the healthcare context. In this context, the discussion of dignity includes concepts of other ethical principles such as autonomy and privacy. Patients consider dignity to cover individuality, patient’s feelings, communication, and the behavior of healthcare personnel. However, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the realization of patients’ dignity in hospital care and the focus of the study is therefore on the realization of dignity of the vulnerable group of (...) patients with stroke. Aim: The aim of the study was to create a theoretical construct to describe the dignity realization of patients with stroke in hospital care. Research design and participants: Patients with stroke (n = 16) were interviewed in 2015 using a semi-structured interview containing open questions concerning dignity. The data were analyzed using constant comparison of Grounded Theory. Ethical considerations: Ethical approval for the research was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the University. The permission for the research was given by the hospital. Informed consent was obtained from participants. Findings: The “Theory of Dignity Realization of Patients with Stroke in Hospital Care” consists of a core category including generic elements of the new situation and dignity realization types. The core category was identified as “Dignity in a new situation” and the generic elements as health history, life history, individuality and stroke. Dignity of patients with stroke is realized through specific types of realization: person-related dignity type, control-related dignity type, independence-related dignity type, social-related dignity type, and care-related dignity type. Discussion: The theory has similar elements with the previous literature but the whole construct is new. The theory reveals possible special characteristics in dignity realization of patients with stroke. Conclusion: For healthcare personnel, the theory provides a frame for a better understanding and recognition of how dignity of patients with stroke is realized. (shrink)

Grounded theory has become an established approach in (applied) qualitative research. Researchers could have an on-going, relative freedom when using this research strategy but their creativity will have been limited by the number of participants and interviews, and by the methodology that they have declared in their research ethics committee application. Since no robust evidence exists about potential harm in qualitative research in general and grounded theory in particular, we should rethink whether a greater freedom might (...) be allowed to researchers when using a grounded theory approach. It is concluded that a greater freedom should be allowed, but only to skilled researchers as those with less experience might use less rigid rules to cover their lack of skills and research experience, potentially burdening the study participants unnecessarily. (shrink)

Grounded theory, a research method born out of the social sciences field, offers a flexible technique that allows simultaneous data collection and processing. Researchers using this method immerse themselves in an area of study, focusing their observations on the data and taking into consideration not only their own interpretations, but also those of the other subjects involved, in order to strengthen their understanding of the social phenomena under examination. This text briefly describes the concept of grounded (...) class='Hi'>theory and uses concrete examples to illustrate how data are analysed from the standpoint of the stereotype as an object of study. La teoría fundamentada, nacida al interior de las ciencias sociales, es un método de investigación que posee una técnica flexible y que realiza simultáneamente la recolección y el procesamiento de los datos. En este método, el investigador se encuentra inmerso en el campo de estudio y sus observaciones se abocan al dato, considerando tanto su interpretación como la de los otros sujetos implicados, con la finalidad de fortalecer la comprensión del fenómeno social investigado. En este texto se describe brevemente la teoría fundamentada y cómo se analizan los datos mediante ejemplos concretos, que se presentan a partir del estereotipo como objeto de estudio. (shrink)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is often criticized for being undertheorized, contested, and largely redundant in the field of business and society. Yet limited attention has been paid to diverse ways of theorizing CSR. Driven by the identified weaknesses in the theoretical development of CSR, this research aims to explore the potential of theory elaboration implemented via grounded theory (GT) in strengthening CSR theorization. In doing so, the study offers a unique contribution by being the first study to (...) offer actionable steps and guidelines for implementing theory elaboration via GT in CSR research. The study also offers a typology that can serve as a decision-making tool for researchers seeking to implement theory elaboration through GT in their CSR studies. Lastly, as a result of conducting two sets of literature reviews, the study outlines a number of CSR topics that can benefit from the proposed research pathway, and the particular theoretical CSR benefits theory elaboration via GT can offer. Hence, the study aspires to serve as a “stepping stone” for offering enhanced CSR theory. (shrink)