Autobiographies in Organizational Research: Using Leaders' Life Stories in a Triangulated Research Design. (April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mathias, Blake D.; Smith, Anne D.
• Is Part Of: Organizational research methods. Volume 19:Number 2(2016:Apr.)
• Page Start: 204
• Page End: 230
• Publication Date: 2016-04
• Subjects: autobiography -- narratives -- qualitative methods -- triangulation -- leadership -- entrepreneurship -- sensemaking -- identity; Organization -- Research -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Organizational sociology -- Research -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Management -- Research -- Methodology -- Periodicals; 302.350721
• DOI: 10.1177/1094428115618761
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1094-4281

Abstract

Obtaining deep-level insights into the thoughts, actions, and emotions of organizational leaders can pose significant challenges to organizational scholars. Fortunately, a promising but largely untapped resource to provide such insights exists—autobiographies. We begin by providing an overview of autobiographies as a data source, including their benefits and limitations. We then discuss where autobiographies could contribute to theory development in organizational research, highlighting the areas of strategic leadership and entrepreneurship, identity, and sensemaking. To provide direction on how to incorporate these texts into a research design, we provide several research ideas and guidelines about how autobiographies could be used in a triangulated research design. We illustrate their use in a recent study conducted among craft entrepreneurs to confirm existing findings and document a series of planned studies using autobiographies to explore new findings. Together, the study, although focusing on autobiographies, offers a broader framework to advance the use of narrative forms in organizational scholarship.