I may have a population for the diss research.
Now I have to figure out exactly how to phrase the research question. Basically, I have people voluntarily making a significant change in how they do their job. These people are independent professionals and for the most part can choose to structure the new job in whatever way works best for them – so once they decide to make widgets instead of gizmos they are not told they have to make small, red widgets. They can make their widgets pretty much how they want. They are, however constrained by the technology available for making widgets. They have a standard set of technology and they have the opportunity to go to training on how to use the technology but they still have to use their own professional judgment on how exactly to put it all together.
A lot of other people have focused their research on the widgets. What are the quality of the widgets produced if the people do X or go to training Y or use technology Z? Others have done case studies of what happens in the process and reported themes. Others have focused on how to get the people to use the technology in certain ways.
What I want to do is to follow a number of people through the process of deciding to change and observe them as they work through exactly how they are going to make their widgets, make their first batch of widgets, and have them reflect on what they have done. In order to keep this from being completely overwhelming in the data analysis phase, I need to focus on one aspect of this process. The way I’m planning to do that is to have the group of people focus on critical incidents throughout the process and analyze what their concerns are about the incident and what, if any, assistance they would like with the incident. Good incidents may elicit a desire to have a place to share successes and suggestions for other widget-makers. Difficult incidents may elicit any number or manner of possible aids or supports. I also want to know how the incident, the assistance or lack thereof available to them, the difference between the actual and preferred assistance, and the resolution of the incident influenced their attitude toward the way in which they set up their widget-making process and making widgets in general.
The outcome would hopefully be a better picture of the motivators and frustrations/demotivators experienced and what sort of structures could be put in place to better support the widget-makers as they learn what works and what doesn’t work for them as they make widgets. There will certainly be differences based on the type of widget they are making and how many widgets they are trying to make at once. I’m sure it will also vary with how complicated the widget is that they are trying to make and how long it takes them to be comfortable with the widget making technology. I would also like to develop a survey that could be sent to a larger number of people who are already making widgets to confirm or disconfirm the findings of the qualitative study.
The plan for the next month is to back this all into a reasonable theoretical model that still lets the findings emerge from the data and not be shaped by prior assumptions.
There’s more than 99% of you all wanted to know.
