Diaries as a Methodological Innovation for Studying Grand Challenges

Madeleine Rauch, Shahzad Ansari

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Abstract

We illustrate the potential of diaries for advancing scholarship on organization studies and grand challenges. Writing personal diaries is a time-honored and culturally sanctioned way of animating innermost thoughts and feelings, and embodying experiences through self-talk with famous examples, such as the diaries written by Anne Frank, Andy Warhol, or Thomas Mann. However, the use of diaries has long been neglected in organization studies, despite their historical and societal importance. We illustrate how different forms of analyzing diaries enable a “deep analysis of individuals’ internal processes and practices” (Radcliffe, 2018) which cannot be gleaned from other sources of data such as interviews and observations. Diaries exist in different forms, such as “unsolicited diaries” and “solicited diaries” and have different purposes. We evaluate how analyzing diaries can be a valuable source to illuminate the innermost thoughts and feelings of people at the forefront of grand challenges. To exemplify our arguments, we draw on diaries written by medical professionals working for Doctors Without Borders as part of our empirical research project conducted in extreme contexts. We show the value of unsolicited diaries in revealing people’s thought world that is not apprehensible from other modes of communication, and offer a set of practical guidelines on working with data from diaries. Diaries serve to enrich our methodological toolkit by capturing what people think and feel behind the scenes but may not express nor display in public.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationOrganizing for Societal Grand Challenges
EditorsAli Aslan Gümüsay, Emilio Marti, Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich, Christopher Wickert
Number of pages16
Place of PublicationBingley
PublisherEmerald Group Publishing
Publication date2022
Pages205-220
ISBN (Print)9781839098291, 9781839098260
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022
SeriesResearch in the Sociology of Organizations
Volume79
ISSN0733-558X

Keywords

  • Diaries
  • Grand challenges
  • Extreme context
  • Silence
  • Emotions
  • Methodology

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