How do you do grounded theory?

The methodological stages are:

1. Identify your substantive area

This is your area of interest. Examples of substantive areas included dying in hospitals in the United States (Glaser, 1967), online learning (Scott, 2007), a cafe (Rosenbaum, 2006), nursing practice (Nathanial,2007), management studies (Holton, 2007), work practices in journalism (Gynnild, 2007), interdisciplinary teams in health services (McCallin, 2007).Your study will be from the perspective of one of the groups of people of the substantive area. This group will  be your substantive population e.g. nurses (Glaser 1967), online learners (Scott 2007), nurses who have practiced in direct contact with patients (Nathanial, 2007), knowledge workers (Holton, 2007 ) journalists (Gynnild, 2006), health professionals (McCallin, 2007).

2. Collect data pertaining to the substantive area

A grounded theory may use qualitative data, quantitative data (e.g. Glaser 1964 and Glaser 2008) or a mixture of the two. Thus data types include but are not restricted to: collecting observations of the substantive area itself and activities occurring within the substantive area; accessing public or private record irrespective of form e.g. photograph, diary, painting, sculpture, biography, television broadcast, news report, survey, government or organisational document; conversing with individuals or a group of individuals, face-to-face or remotely either synchronously e.g. using video, audio or text chat, or asynchronously e.g using email or message forum.

3. Open code your data as you collect it.

Open coding and data collection are integrated activities thus the data collection stage and open coding stage occur simultaneously and continue until the core category is recognised/selected. (Note: there may be more than one potential core category). Open coding simply means code everything for everything – more on that in the section on getting started. Eventually, as a result of your hard work and systematic analysis, the core category and the main concern emerge. It’s not magic! The core category is the concept which explains the behaviour in the substantive area i.e. it explains how the main concern is resolved or processed. For example in my study the main concern was finding time to study and the core category was ‘temporal integration’. See Chapter 4 of Theoretical Sensitivity and Chapter 9 of Doing Grounded Theory for guidance on open coding ⁽¹⁾.

4. Write memos throughout the entire process;

The development of your theory is captured in your memos; few memos = thin theory. Method memos chronicle tussles with the method and help write the chapter on method. But most importantly theoretical memos are written about concepts and their (potential) relationships with other concepts. It’s a low risk activity, so don’t be concerned about writing ‘bad’ memos; your memos will mature as your skill and your theory develop. For excellent guidance on how to write memos see Chapter 5 of “Theoretical Sensitivity” and in particular page 89.

5. Conduct selective coding and theoretical sampling;

Now that the core category and main concern are recognised; open coding stops and selective coding – coding only for the core category and related categories – begins. Further theoretical sampling is directed by the developing theory (who do I need to ask to learn more about these issues?). and the data used to saturate the core category and related categories. See page 141 of “Doing Grounded Theory” for an explanation of when a code can be considered saturated and page 52 of Discovery for a discussion on comparison groups. When your categories are saturated:

6. Sort your memos to find the theoretical code(s) which best organise your substantive codes.

(See Chapter 4 of “Theoretical Sensitivity” and Grounded Theory Perspectives III: theoretical coding). Sorting is another low risk activity and can be done several times: for instance, you might sort to find the gaps in your theory or in order to write a working paper. When you feel that your theory is well formed…

7. Read the literature and integrate with your theory through selective coding

8. Write up your theory.

Job done!

If you follow the method as Glaser describes, you will end up with a theory. The quality of that theory will depend upon your skills and the skills you develop as you research.

Helen Scott PhD
1 November, 2009

Footnotes

⁽¹⁾These are just two examples of where Glaser discusses open coding … there are others, these are offered as a guide.