Theory as Fantasy: Emotional Dimensions to Grounded Theory
| Author | Russ Vince,Annette Clancy |
| Published date | 01 January 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12304 |
| Date | 01 January 2019 |
British Journal of Management, Vol. 30, 203–216 (2019)
DOI: 10.1111/1467-8551.12304
Methodology Corner
Theory as Fantasy: Emotional Dimensions
to Grounded Theory
Annette Clancy and Russ Vince1
UCD College of Business, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, D04 V1W8, Ireland, and 1School of
Management, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK
Corresponding author email: annette.clancy@ucd.ie
In this paper we discuss emotions and fantasies that inform and influence the project of
theory building. Our argument is that theory building can be improved by engaging di-
rectly with emotions and with fantasies that are defensively and creatively generated by
the researcher. Once acknowledged, these can be transformed into ideas and insights.
We provide an example of the emotional dynamics surrounding a novice researcher’s
use of grounded theory within her doctoral research. We highlight three distinctive re-
searcher fantasies of containment, coherence and purity associated with her experience
of the method. We discusshow engagement with these fantasies deepened the researcher’s
analysis and thereby enhanced the process of building theory from the data. There-
fore, our paper contributes to an understanding of how fantasies mobilized by such an
open-ended research method can help to refine our thinking about emerging theory.
Introduction
Grounded theory (GT) is a ‘discovery methodol-
ogy that allows the researcher to develop a theo-
retical account of the general features of a topic
while simultaneouslygrounding the account in em-
pirical observations or data’ (Martin and Turner,
1986: 141). The GT researcher aims to experience
the problem or issue from the perspective of the
research respondents and to develop an integrated
set of conceptual hypotheses about what is going
on. Much has been written about the best way
to do grounded theory (Corley, 2015; Gummeson,
2011; Walsh et al., 2015) but we know little about
how GT researchers, and particularly the novice
researcher, might connect with the emotional and
Several people have provided invaluable help in trans-
forming the original iterations of this paper into its cur-
rent, more focused version. We are grateful to Yiannis
Gabriel, Donncha Kavanagh and Ian Miller for their in-
sightful comments and suggestions.Our sincere thanks go
to the Editor and anonymous reviewersfor their in-depth
reviews and their challenging and supportive engagement
with the paper as it evolved.
unconscious processes stimulated byworking with
and through this method.
Any attempt to experience the problem or
issue from the perspective of respondents involves
the person of the researcher, which necessarily
includes the emotional experience (and emo-
tions resulting from inexperience) that he or she
brings to the application of the method. Our
argument is that it is important to reveal emotions
and fantasies that are defensively and creatively
generated by the researcher, so that they can be
transformed, once acknowledged, into ideas and
insights. We provide an example of the emotional
dynamics surrounding a novice researcher’s use
of GT within her doctoral research. We argue
that working with the emotional and unconscious
dynamics of GT, and with researcher fantasies of
containment,coherence and purity associated with
the method, deepened the researcher’s analysis
and thereby enhanced theory building.
Existing scholarship on the emotional aspects
of research assume that researchers know what
they are feeling when they are feeling it (Harlos
et al., 2003; Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2015).
C2018 British Academy of Management. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4
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