The trials and tribulations of an

1
The trials and tribulations of an insider
researcher

• Helen Stanley
• EdD student
• Head of Continuing Professional Education
• School of Nursing and Midwifery

2
Aims of presentation

• Highlight the trials and tribulations of the
  insider-outsider researcher dilemma
• Present some reflections on my experience
  undertaking commissioned research as part of a
  EdD study
• Stimulate some debate on how novice researchers
  can develop their understanding of reflexivity by
  exploring this position in their own studies

3
Context

• Head of CPE with remit to ensure NHS trusts spend
  all their contract funding
• New role for School in Educational Consultancy
• Commissioned by two Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to
  undertake a Learning Needs Analysis (LNA) survey
• Focus was on leadership and management needs of
  senior NHS managers across both trusts
• EdD needed a focus for project assignment

4
Definition of my role

• Insider research can take many forms
• A) Joint industry/Academic Research or
• B). Organisational Insider Research (Holian and
  Brooks 2004)
• This study was a Project where organisation
  (PCTs) have invited an academic as a consultant,
  with a formal contract specifying the role, task,
  outcomes and costs
• Reduced cost as part of EdD study

5
Methodology

• Qualitative, interpretative approach
• Action Research and case study
• Mixed methods
• Focus Groups (FG) then LNA questionnaire
• Codes from FG informed questionnaire
• Documentary analysis used alongside FG and LNA
  questionnaire

6
Ethical issues

• Who owns the data, who can release it for
  research purposes requested? (Cheek )
• The relationship between the participants and the
  researcher
• The nature and level of informed consent
• The nature and extent of anonymity and
  confidentiality for individuals and the
  organisation (Holian and Brooks 2004 7)

7
Findings- Wish list

• Formal courses
• Informal learning

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Obstacles

• Role of KSF/appraisal/PDP
• Organisational development
• Financial pressures
• Accessing study leave and negotiating the Study
  Leave Policy

9
Hidden surprises

• Culture of the organisation
• Lack of evaluation of education and training
• Real reason for study was damming Investors in
  People report on poor capabilities of current
  managers

10
Insider-outsider continuum

• Each position has advantages and disadvantages,
  depending on the circumstances and purposes of
  the research
• In general, the chances of findings being valid
  can be enhanced by a judicious combination of
  involvement and estrangement (Hammersley
  1993219)

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Insider advantages/disadvantages

• Researching in familiar settings
• Relative lack of culture shock or disorientation
• Possibility of enhanced rapport and communication
• Ability to gauge the honesty and accuracy of
  responses
• Participants more likely to reveal more intimate
  details of their lives to someone considered
  empathetic
• May be greater expectations of an insider than of
  a stranger
• Relativity of insider status need to be aware
  of the partialness of their insider knowledge
• Be wary of assuming their views are more
  widespread or representative than is the case
• Strategies -risk of native going stranger
  (Hockey 1993)

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Was I an insider?

• Previous relationship with some of the trust
  Education Leads (ex-student, previous joint
  project, Partnership meetings)
• Insider knowledge of some of the organisation (or
  so I thought!)
• Some insight into the organisational culture from
  previous project
• Did not feel an insider but had more knowledge
  than a new to the field outsider would have
  (general language, cultural norms, etc)
• Confidential documents shared when trust
  developed
• Being an insider researcher is not necessarily
  the same as being a member of the organisation
  being researched (Hellawell 2006 484)

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Outsider advantages/disadvantages

• May be risk of over-familiarity and
  taken-for-granted assumptions
• Stranger going native
• More objectivity, diagnostic function to feed
  back observations
• Traditional role of the external consultant
• Maybe less expectations of active participation
  in the social world of those under study
• No research really value-free all action
  researchers are part of the social scene they are
  studying (Titchen and Binnie 1993)

15
Was I an outsider?

• Role duality when role boundaries can be
  flexible
• Can be physically in one role and behaviourally
  in another (Pryor 2005)
• Felt I was on a continuum and challenged the
  polarity of the insider or outsider
  researcher identity (Bridges
• Had multiple integrities deepening awareness
  of what research integrity and trust must entail
  ( Drake and Heath 2007)
• multiple identities researcher, manager in
  local HEI, knew a number of the FG participants,
  university representative, ex-course/module
  leader, fellow student, woman, nurse,
  counsellor..

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Multiple roles role conflict

• Sometimes felt I was wearing too many hats
• Not always clear when organisation members spoke
  to be in confidence if talking to me as
  researcher or in my HEI organisational role
• Unexpected strength of politics, abuses of power,
  cover ups, rhetoric and reality (Holian 1999)

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Watch out for the crocodiles
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Backlash the personal impact

• Insider researchers may need to be cautioned and
  reminded that the research mantle may seem
  magical and may reveal earth-shattering insights,
  but it is not bullet proof (Holian and Brooks
  200414)
• May raise things that are undiscussable
• Can be uncomfortable and frightening, risk of
  burnout
• Final presentation was hijacked and behind closed
  doors to Head of HR and deputy
• Can I now publish this study?
• Will the organisation use the HEI again?
• Pressure to tell the truth and maintain
  integrity of the research process, stick to my
  principles
• PCT required register of those who attended FGs
• Sense that staff were sent rather than
  volunteered

19
Survival skills

• Phone a friend
• Reflective diary
• Supervisor support
• Sharing experiences
• Need to build in strategies to avoid bias to
  enhance the credibility of the study

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Focus of Researcher and System in
insider-research projects (Coghlan and Brannick
2005)
RESEARCHER
No intended self-study in action

• Traditional research approaches
• Collection of survey data
• ethnography
• case study

• 2. Pragmatic action research
• Internal consulting
• action learning

Intended self-study in action
SYSTEM
3. Individual engaged in reflective study of
professional practise
4. Large scale transformational change
Intended self-study in action
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Quadrant 1

• Absence of self-study in action by both
  researcher and system
• There is study but not deliberately in-action
• Researcher focusing on a perspective, issues or
  problem within the system as if external to
  himself/herself
• Unobtrusive observer of the inner life of
• No deliberate self-reflection in-action as part
  of the research process

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Quadrant 2

• Pragmatic or mechanistic action research
  directed at confronting and resolving a
  pre-identified issue
• For example, management action, internal
  consulting projects and some action learning
• Typically research undertaken in educational
  programmes e.g. MBA
• Maybe internal researcher working with external
  consultant (or both in my case!)

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Quadrant 3

• Researcher is engaged in self-study of herself in
  action for professional practice but the system
  is not
• Organistic-orientated action research where the
  inquiry process is a value in itself
• Research may be pre-selected (e.g. on the
  researchers job or role) or may emerge from
  Quadrant 2 project

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Quadrant 4

• Researcher and system are engaged in intended
  study in action
• System has made a commitment to change
• Researchers role involved being part of the
  collective reflection and learning and
  articulating what is happening

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Application to this LNA study

• Quad 2 started as a straightforward educational
  consultancy project, or so I thought!
• Quad 2 -action researcher finding that the
  problem being researched was a symptom of
  underlying cultural assumptions, resolution
  carried more far reaching implications that
  envisaged at the outset
• Quad 2 to 3 -Personal development journey
• Quad 4 would need to be more insider-outsider
  collaboration for large scale system change
• Political framework (Clarke 2003) useful for
  analysing the impact of politics to the LNA
  studies

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A framework for analysing the impact of politics
in LNA studies (Clarke 2003)
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Final thoughts

• Insiders and Outsiders in the domain of
  knowledge, unite. You have nothing to lose but
  your claims. You have a world of understanding to
  win
• Merton (1972 44)