Chapter 27: Work and Organizational Psychology

Jo Silvester

Work and organizational psychology Work and organizational psychology has a rich tradition in qualitative research, yet anyone coming new to the field could easily be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Most academic journals and conference papers are dominated by empirical investigations that fit a ‘scientific’ epistemology. In fact, organizational psychologists have been criticized for lagging far behind other social science disciplines in utilizing qualitative methods (Spector, 2001). This chapter explores where and why qualitative research is (or is not) used in organizational psychology. It is not intended as an exhaustive description of the literature [for an excellent recent review see Cassell and Symon (2006), and for more detailed descriptions of many of the methods described here see Cassell and Symon (2004)]. The chapter is, however, an attempt to explain the apparent tension between quantitative and qualitative research in the workplace. My specific aims are to: briefly review the contribution made by ...

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