Alice Comi

Beyond projection: using collaborative visualization to conduct qualitative interviews

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to argue for the reflective use of visual techniques in qualitative inter-viewing and suggests using visuals not only as projective techniques to elicit answers, but also as facilitation techniques throughout the interview process. Design/methodology/approach – By reflecting on their own research projects in organization and management studies, the authors develop a practical approach to visual interviewing – making use of both projective and facilitation techniques. The paper concludes by discussing the limitations of visualization techniques, and suggesting directions for future research on visually enhanced interviewing. Findings – The integration of projective and facilitation techniques enables the interviewer to build rapport with the respondent(s), and to elicit deeper answers by providing cognitive stimulation. In the course of the interview, such an integrative approach brings along further advantages, most notably focusing attention, maintaining interaction...

Future Making and Visual Artefacts: An Ethnographic Study of a Design Project:

Current research on strategizing and organizing has explored how practitioners make sense of an uncertain future, but provides limited explanations of how they actually make a realizable course of action for the future. A focus on making rather than sensemaking brings into view the visual artefacts that practitioners use in giving form to what is ‘not yet’ – drawings, models and sketches. We explore how visual artefacts are used in making a realizable course of action, by analysing ethnographic data from an architectural studio designing a development strategy for their client. We document how visual artefacts become enrolled in practices of imagining, testing, stabilizing and reifying, through which abstract imaginings of the future are turned into a realizable course of action. We then elaborate on higher-order findings that are generalizable to a wide range of organizational settings, and discuss their implications for future research in strategizing and organizing. This paper contributes in two ways: first, it offers future making as an alternative perspective on how practitioners orient themselves towards the future (different from current perspectives such as foreseeing, future perfect thinking and wayfinding). Second, it advances our understanding of visual artefacts and their performativity in the making of organizational futures.

Knowledge Visualization in Qualitative Methods -- Or How Can I See What I Say?

In several research fields, qualitative interviewing(i.e., face-to-face individual interviews and focus groups) is an essential approach to gather high-quality, and deep data about a wide range of subjective experiences. Although being a well-established research method, qualitative interviewing is fraught with various shortcomings such as difficulties in initiating the interview process, in eliciting tacit knowledge and in avoiding information redundancies. In this paper, we propose the use of visual tools (e.g., visualization software) as a support to facilitate the interview process and to gather sound qualitative data. Visual representations provide structure, context and explicitness, and thus foster knowledge elicitation and sharing in interviews. Our contribution is two-fold: First, we provide a methodological extension of qualitative interviewing. Second, we suggest a practical approach to use visuals in interviews, presenting concrete examples from the research field. We conclude our paper by discussing the limitations of our approach, and by suggesting directions for future research on visualization-based interviewing.

Facilitating Culturally Diverse Groups with Visual Templates in Collaborative Systems: Increasing Structuration to Improve Precision

Purpose The use of visual templates has proven instrumental in supporting group meetings. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether visual templates enable culturally diverse groups to achieve greater task precision in face-to-face meetings. Design/methodology/approach Building on Adaptive Structuration Theory, it is argued that visual templates provide structuration for face-to-face meetings, even more so when they are embedded in computer-supported collaborative systems. In particular, it is hypothesized that the higher the degree of structuration imposed by visual templates, the higher the degree of task precision will be. It is also hypothesized that this relationship is positively moderated by group cultural diversity: higher cultural diversity will further sustain the positive effects of visual templates that provide higher structuration. Findings Results of an experiment with 229 managers from 49 countries confirm that facilitating groups with visual templates embedded in a computer-supported collaborative system significantly increases task precision at high levels of cultural diversity. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) by investigating the use of visual templates as a contingency factor that increases performance – specifically task precision – of co-located, culturally diverse groups. Practical implications Results indicate that visual templates embedded in a computer-supported collaborative system are an effective method for increasing task precision in face-to-face meetings of culturally diverse groups. Originality/value Theories from information systems and visualization are integrated into cross-cultural management with a view to sustaining the effectiveness of culturally diverse groups. The study sample is characterized by highly culturally diverse groups interacting in face-to-face meetings.

Visualizing practices in project-based design: tracing connections through cascades of visual representations

ABSTRACTProject-based design involves a variety of visual representations, which are evolved to make decisions and accomplish project objectives. Yet, such mediated and distributed ways of working are difficult to capture through ethnographies that examine situated design. A novel approach is developed that follows cascades of visual representations, and this is illustrated through two empirical studies. In the first case, Heathrow Terminal 5, analysis starts from paper- and model-work used to develop design, tracing connections forward to an assembly manual that forms a ‘consolidated cascade’ of visual representations. In the second, the Turning Torso, Malmo, analysis starts from a planning document, tracing connections backward to the paper- and model-work done to produce this consolidated cascade. This work makes a twofold contribution: first, it offers a methodological approach that supplements ethnographies of situated design. This allows the researcher to be nimble, tracing connections across comple...

Studying Strategy Practices with Visual Tools: From Every-Day Strategizing to Organizational Effects

Researchers interested in every-day strategizing are beginning to trace its organizational effects. Most explanations rely on micro-macro distinctions, but recent work has drawn instead on interpretive theories of practice. This approach requires new research methods. Focusing on practices that use visual strategy tools, we articulate how such methods might be used in strategic management. We build our case using an analogy with design and empirical observation of the negotiation of adjustments to architectural plans. We conclude by discussing new audiences and how such methods might expand the range of questions which strategic management scholarship can answer.