Case studies typically combine data collection methods such as archives, interviews, questionnaires and observations and this research has used all of these methods (Creswell 2009, Eisenhardt 1989a). This range of methods provides a broader perspective on the context. The interpretation will provide clarity and focus for Project Two. Consistent with the Inductive Qualitative research approach to data collection and for gathering a comprehensive environmental perspective the following sources and methods have been used in Project One:
- Exploratory Focus Group
- Open-ended Questionnaire and observation of Company strategy training participants
- Textual coding and analysis of Company archives and communications - Interviews (and textual coding) of two former Heads of Strategy and Business
Development
- Observation of a Strategic Leadership training - Researcher diary and reflective notes
While the specific purpose of each of these methods will be explained in their following correlated sections, the overarching objectives of these combined methods was threefold:
1) Gain an understanding of the current and historical macro level trends, dynamics and factors operating in the company and the telecom industry
2) Begin to identify specific factors, constructs and potential elements that are impacting the strategic frames of executives at the individual level
3) Ensure that a significant degree of methods triangulation was achieved to increase the reliability and validity of the overall findings from the data
3.3.1 Exploratory Focus Group
Initial information about the firm’s strategic situation and strategic orientation were formed by the researcher during employment and from informal observation of five strategy training sessions for Strategic Leaders over the period of November 2007 to February 2009 (See Figure 7). The training involved approximately 120 executives including Executive Board members and the Head of Strategy and Planning. It was from this context that the research problem, possible questions, and related issues began to emerge and be formulated. As a means to dig deeper and explore whether there was a real foundation for further investigation one focus group was conducted at the global headquarters of the JV.
The focus group was held in a relaxed setting during March of 2009 with 7 of 10 invited Strategic Leaders participating. Due to evolving working time conflicts and the overall demand on this level of leadership, 3 participants needed to decline participation. This purposively selected target group was chosen i) as it was the category of leadership senior management had expressed strategic mindset concerns for and ii) due to the close correlation between the leadership level and the significant percentage of “time applications and focus of effort” that this leadership level applies to strategy and vision as these tasks related directly to the strategic thinking topic of this thesis (Charan and
Drotter et al. 2001). This expectation is confirmed by the company’s Strategic Thinking, Leadership Competency description for this level: “Creates Company’s strategy and promotes the vision ensuring it evolves to meet global needs” (TRN Leadership Competencies).
The participants were chosen with the intention of achieving as much gender, ethnic, age, functional, business unit and parent company heritage diversity as possible from a small group (Patton 1990). This diversity was aimed at for the purpose of revealing a full range of perspectives and avoiding a one-dimensional representation of the firm’s Strategic Leaders. A structured protocol was used to ensure that all participants were aware of the purpose, process and confidentiality of the discussion. The exact research agenda was not revealed to the participants so that preconceptions would be kept to a minimum. Consistent with this, the overall approach for the focus group discussions was to go from low to high moderator control. This approach was chosen to enable themes to emerge more freely while allowing for deeper exploration through focused discussion on concepts relate to strategic thinking of primary interest. To stimulate and guide the discussion, numerous visual cues were employed. These were primarily company logos from well-known global players. These were used to generate initial discussion and build a broader frame of reference. Companies selected included direct competitors, complementors and others from unrelated industries. Various exercises and constructs were used to allow individuals to do self-reflection and sharing of perspectives. The focus group was conducted over a two hour period and was tape-recorded and later transcribed. A series of discussions around the following themes emerged: Global Players and Speed of Change, Individual and Organizational Focus, Flexible Mindset, Market Dimensions, and Environmental Complexity.
3.3.2 Open-ended Questionnaire And Observation Of Company
Strategy Training
A portion of the researcher’s role in the Case Company involves the design and implementation of executive training. In April of 2010, the eighth of a continuing series of globally located independent four-day strategy training events for senior executives was held in Moscow, Russia. The participants were 24 Strategic Leaders representing all global regions and functions of the organization. The format of these strategy trainings included analysis and consideration of the strategic context of the company including macro-level issues, customer business models, and alignment, the competitive landscape and a deeper dive on a particular strategic issue of timely relevance.
Although the researcher had played an essential role in the previous seven strategy workshops, no formal protocol for observation had been conducted. Given that the researcher was the primary orchestrator and facilitator of the sessions the role was direct and actively involved with the work environment. However, the formal line between observer and participant was not black and white. In some portions of the events the researcher was deeply involved in facilitating and directing the activities. Whereas in other sections of the event the researcher had the possibility (and even work role duty and participant expectation) to take notes and freely capture the insights, factors, and understanding from the participants’ perspective.
For the Moscow event, the intention was to do a more comprehensive observation of the session given that many of the activities simulate strategic thinking environments and stimulate the need to think strategically from new and unusual strategic perspectives. The utilization of other stakeholders to support the facilitation of the session and thus reduce the researchers’ formal work duty would have allowed more systematic and wide observation. However, as suggested by Eisenhardt (1989a), qualitative case studies can enable opportunistic research but also require the need to adapt. The unforeseen volcanic activity that disrupted air travel across the globe and especially Northern Europe at that time deeply impacted the delivery of and resources available for the Moscow event.
Although the researcher was able to make observations and notes the level of the structure was significantly reduced as two support resources were not able to attend due to air travel cancelations.
As a result, a post-event open-ended questionnaire was conducted with the participants. The questionnaire was intentionally implemented one month after the participants had re- entered their formal work environment. The objective was to enhance reflection on their feelings, perceptions and thoughts regarding individual and group strategic thinking practices. The questions emphasized both the strategy related activities during the workshop while also asking for a comparison of the factors impacting their “real” work conditions. The questionnaires were collected digitally and coded. Although the identification of the participants was possible, procedures were used to do the individual analysis anonymously. Memos were recorded in the MAXQDA software system for each question’s answer, and a summary was made on conclusions from each questionnaire. Themes and concepts were then summarized both at the individual questionnaire level, across questionnaires by question category, and followed by summary observation from the entire data source. (Maxwell 2005).
3.3.3 Textual Coding And Analysis Of Company Archives And
Communications
Given the role of the researcher and unrestricted access to documentation and communications of all formats, the need to be selective for the purpose of research focus was required. Initial plans were to explore a wider range of internally produced strategic support documents that are generated by the Corporate Business Intelligence units and various subscriptions available on the intranet and sharenet databases (competitor reports, customer reports, regional analysis, etc.) that are available to the Case Company’s Strategic Leaders. However during the iterative process of observing, discussing and reviewing interview material the lack of influence of this wider material became apparent. Firstly, the researcher discovered that an increasing amount of these materials are obtained from generic external sources and reflect consultant or analyst views rather than
views of the case company executives themselves. Part of this trend came from the overall reduction in resources within the strategy function and a corresponding decline in strategy sharing sessions that were intended for two-way intelligence sharing. Also, a familiar theme that emerged from the executive target group was “information overload” and relative lack of time. This can be evidenced by the following representative Moscow Survey response “This lack of time is also affecting the ability to follow the markets and the world around us, to generate any new ideas, and to read everything (or even part of) what is available for example in the TRN intranet or FYI e-mails” (Moscow Survey Respondent 3). Despite the limits of the executives and bounded rationality, these documents have had a considerable impact on the researcher, and this is something that cannot be removed from the analysis. The primary impact on the researcher was an increased understanding and insights into industry-level dynamics. As will be discussed in the results sections of this thesis, this cut back on the breadth of intelligence gathering and upwards and downwards communication did influence the overall strategic thinking potential of TRN’s Strategic Leaders.
The final choice of documents reviewed for coding and analysis are in five categories:
- Quarterly Business Review sharing documents for internal communication 2007- 2011
- Quarterly CEO Internal Communications 2007-2011
- Selective corporate level strategy documents and communications 2007-2011 - Transcripts and notes from interviews
- Moscow Open-ended Questionnaire forms
The period of the documents initiates with the legal start of the JV and ends with the closing of Project One. The first two sources above were chosen because they reflect and reveal the main activities that were being heavily communicated and emphasized at the top tiers of the organization and to the Strategic Leader target group. They also cover macro-level issues regarding industry dynamics and corporate priorities including strategy. The combination provides factual based data and interpretation of performance.
It also communicates the state of mind of the CEO/s given these messages came directly from them and contained priorities, general opinions, and personal perspectives. The documents also reveal information about the pulse of the organization. Critically the communications were shared first with senior executives and then cascaded through formal processes to the leadership teams down the organizational pipeline. Therefore, each strategic leader needed to familiarize themselves with the messages and use the available material packages to “own” the message by internalizing it and sharing it in their own individualized way.
The formal corporate level strategy documents and messages have been chosen as they are central to the strategic frames of the senior executives and essential to their role expectations.
After conducting search and analysis of several text-coding software options, the MAXQDA software system was chosen due to its high level of features that enabled depth and flexibility of analysis. It also provided the capability to code the widest range of document formats (Creswell 2009). MAXQDA was then used to code all communications including the transcripts from two former Heads of Strategy and Business Development. An open coding system was used combined with memoing. This software allowed for easy retrieval of code segments by code, document, document category and multiple other formats. It also allowed for easy revision of codes during the coding process. An example of the coding functionality is provided in Figure 8.
Figure 8 Example Of Textual Coding Using MAXQDA Software
3.3.4 Interviews With Two Former Heads Of Strategy And Business
Development
Two semi-structured interviews were conducted with former Heads of Strategy and Business Development during November of 2010. The interviews were done on the site of the interviewees new employment premises in private settings. Interviews were 1.5 hours in duration. Both interviews were recorded and later transcribed. The researcher also took careful notes during the interviews. These purposefully selected interviewees were chosen on the basis of the strategic significance and impact of the former role of the
interviewees, their relatively removed objectivity, and the tenure of their employment in the telecom industry.
The researcher had prepared sets of questions based on several themes that had emerged during observation and analysis of the other sources of data collection outlined earlier in this section as well as from informal discussions with TRN employees. These themes were primarily around:
- the strategy process
- history of the company’s strategy and context - the strategic focus of the company
- the strategic focus of the senior executives - specific actions and stakeholders
- conclusions, perspectives, and insights
Nevertheless, the structure, format, and procedure of the interviews were kept very loose so as not to box in the interviewee and leverage any emerging perspectives that were elicited. Learning from the first interview did influence some content of the second interview, primarily on new topics unknown but revealed to the researcher during the first interview. This adjustment is consistent with the inductive nature of the data collection and research approach (Coffey and Atkinson 1996). Extensive memo taking was done in the MAXQDA software system during the transcribing process. The transcripts were then coded, and summary analysis of both interviews was done both individually and in combination.
3.3.5 Observation Of Strategic Leadership Training
Although not originally planned for in the research design a very relevant opportunity emerged at a four-day Strategic Leader training during November 2010, in Surrey, U.K. Therefore the researcher successfully sought consent from the event participants to include this in the data collection. The event was primarily organized and implemented
by an external vendor for 28 globally representative senior corporate executives who had been chosen chiefly due to their being assessed as critical resources during the Executive Board Talent Watch. This outsourcing of event management allowed the researcher to focus completely on observation and note taking during the entire event. Although not designed to be a strategy workshop a significant number of the activities focused on the company strategy and the leadership/strategic role of the participants. This multidisciplinary approach is consistent with modern leadership development practice where corporate content is a primary starting point, and the artificial separation of Leadership and Strategy is removed. Also, one full day was dedicated to reflecting on the challenges they face and the messages they would like to communicate with the Executive Board. During the four days, the researcher was able to take notes and engage in informal conversations with all the participants. The notes, reflections, and memos were recorded anonymously and confidentially in the MAXQDA software system.
3.3.6 Field Diary And The Role Of The Researcher
The nature of the central role of the researcher in collecting and interpreting data in qualitative research usually requires a discussion and sharing of the researcher’s values, biases, personal background and other relevant factors that may come to play in the interpretations of the study (Creswell 2009). Since this particular case study would be categorized as “backyard” research involving the researcher’s organization some explanation of the connection to the research setting is also needed (Creswell 2009). One of the biggest factors that enabled this study was the researcher’s four and a half years of employment inside the organization at the time of completion of Project One. This experience provided significant prior knowledge of the setting regarding details on size, structure, history and culture. In addition to familiarity with many of the strategy documents, there was significant knowledge of where to look for and how to obtain data. This awareness allowed for access to information that external researchers would not have knowledge of and would be unlikely to uncover. The ability to spend extended periods of time in the field is an advantage but makes protocols and triangulation an even more important means to guard against too much individual bias (Yin 1994). On the
positive side, being embedded in the organization provided the researcher with the possibility to gain a holistic view of the big picture and be a “complete participant” or complete observer with less intrusiveness (Creswell 2009). It also exposed the researcher to real time and other types of information not usually gained by an external researcher. This experience proved to be valuable in providing a highly informed contextual perspective and understanding of the participant’s precise situation during the data collection phase. These were minor things like knowing about recent results or relationships at play in an individual’s context or much larger things such as a publicly unannounced reorganization that was on everyone’s mind, but that would not be revealed to an outsider. Access to real-time knowledge via intranet and impromptu conversations were also extremely valuable in gaining insights. A significant number of previously mentioned “opportunistic events” emerged and were valuable in adding strategic direction and additional perspective to the study. These included several workshops/interventions with various Global Leadership Teams, Business Unit Leadership Teams and the Strategy and Business Development Insight Planning scenario planning development workshop.
On the other hand, the advanced knowledge and intimate relationship the researcher has with the firm and its employees have required that multiple forms of validity be used to guard against potential bias. Having been so involved with the organization, its success and failures meant that particular effort has been needed to step outside the role of employee and take on the role of the researcher. Protocols have been useful in this process, but there remains the view of the researcher’s role (Strategic Leadership), function (within Central Functions) and previous involvement in activities including strategy formation and sharing. One of the functional and relational dynamics that was managed is in regards to researcher’s role in Talent Management and Executive Development. The Researcher’s role carries with it associated or potentially perceived power dynamics. Several research techniques for ensuring anonymity and providing a sense of safety and neutrality in the data collection methods have been utilized to mitigate this possible factor. Further, the target group is very much at a peer level or more senior to the researcher, so the overall perceived threat has likely been minimal.
The researcher’s work and educational background are routed in executive education. In these work roles before TRN, there had been considerable exposure to senior executives in many large corporations on a comparatively global basis. While this provided some comfort, skill and multicultural perspective in facilitating interactions with the executive population, it also implied the need to be wary of the danger of being too familiar with the target group. Extra reflection via the use of memoing and using sources of additional