Longitudinal Tracer Studies: Research Methodology of the Middle Range
| Author | Vinh Sum Chau,Barry J. Witcher |
| Date | 01 December 2005 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2005.00459.x |
| Published date | 01 December 2005 |
Longitudinal Tracer Studies: Research
Methodology of the Middle Range
Vinh Sum Chau and Barry J. Witcher
School of Management, University of East Anglia (UEA), Chancellor’s Drive, Norwich, Norfolk, NR4 7TJ
UK.
Corresponding author e-mail: v.chau@uea.ac.uk
This article reviews the longitudinal tracer study in the context of the researcher–
practitioner relevance gap. It proposes the tracer as a methodological middle-range
approach that takes account of relevancy and which involves practitioners in the
research process. An ESRC research project about hoshin kanri (policy deployment) is
used as an example to explain the longitudinal tracer study approach. The
methodological approach is consistent with middle range theory and thinking, and
involves skeletal prior theory, tags, a practitioner network, and continuous reflexivity.
It is concluded that the longitudinal tracer study can be a useful middle-range solution
to help close the researcher–practitioner gap.
‘. .. and that the pith of all sciences, which maketh
the artsman differ from the inexpert, is in the
middle propositions, which in every particular
knowledge are taken from tradition and experience
(Sir Francis Bacon, 1605, Advancement of Learning
(Book 2: Chapter 27, Human Knowledge)’
Introduction
The aim of this article is to explicate and extend the
research approach known as longitudinal tracer
studies. The article uses an example taken from an
ESRC research project about hoshin kanri to
illustrate the approach. It is suggested that the
longitudinal tracer is a middle range methodology
for involving practitioners more closely with the
research process. As such, it goes some way to
bridge the researcher–practitioner gap (Hodgkin-
son, 2001).
Longitudinal Tracer Studies
Tracer studies were used in longitudinal research
during the 1960s at Imperial College, University
of London by Joan Woodward, to explore and to
clarify the nature of management control systems
(Woodward, 1970a). Management control was a
largely unknown area of management studies at
the time. The tracer approach was developed
during this work as a response to data overload
problems, which were largely because the inter-
views had been focused on too much social science
theory (Woodward, 1965). Researchers had found
themselves bogged down by the broad scope and
detail of the collected data. The data were not just
difficult to conceptualize, but were also difficult to
translate onto paper as a coherent account of what
had actually happened. So a more practice-focused
approach was adopted for later work, which was
based on the ‘actual as much as the perceived
character of the work of the people interviewed’
(Woodward, 1970b, p. 251).
‘[A tracer study involves] the isolation of a
particular order or batch of products, central to
and representative of the firm’s . . . activity, and by
following its progress through the planning, execu-
tion and feedback stages of the control system,
observing the way in which people become involved
in plans, decisions and tasks relating to it.
(Kynaston Reeves and Woodward, 1970, p. 40)’
British Journal of Management, Vol. 16, 343–355 (2005)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2005.00459.x
r2005 British Academy of Management
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