QRM 2025 PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS

April 15, 2025, 1.30pm – 4:30 pm

We are excited to offer the three pre-conference workshops listed below. The workshops will run simultaneously on April 15, 2025 from 1:30-4:30 pm. The workshops are free, but please pre-register at qrmconf@gmail.com by April 4, 2025 so we can provide a list of attendees to the workshop presenters.

developing beautiful and good research

Giuseppe Scaratti, Silvia Ivaldi, and Maddalena Gambirasio, University of Bergamo, Italy

The workshop addresses the conditions of beautiful and good research as situated, transformative and relational, seeking for promising ways to study organizations by generating beautiful and good inquiry.

In comparison to normative and more mainstream forms, achieving good and beautiful research means to be supported by invention, imagination, and improvisation. This form of research focuses on experience, meanings, relationships, reflexivity, practice, and different forms of knowledge. The methodological implications include exploring participatory approaches, building relationships, as well the emotional involvement of the researchers – all while trying to find a balance between being too close and/or too far from the object of study. We will also explore how breaking points – when divergent thought breaks into the research path - influence the research process.

Specifically, the workshop seeks to underline some key points related to the assumption of beautiful and good research as a process of social accomplishment generated by facing critical issues and problems embedded in situated organizational contexts. The purpose is to promote a stance in which the why, the how, the what and the being struck (essential anchors of any research) are progressively carried out within material and immaterial, symbolic, historical, and relational contexts.

During the workshop, we will draw on a research project to explore the critical points through which researching and research is a profession and an art (Scaratti et al., 2022).

Prior to the workshop, participants are invited to send a description of research breaking points in which they felt-perceived-thought to realize beautiful and good and research. through which ‘realities’ are co-produced and transformed.

Bios

The workshop will be held by members of the Work and Organizational Psychology research unit of the University of Bergamo, Italy. Their research is oriented around changing organizations using practice-based approaches and action research methodologies. The team have a range of experience researching within a variety of organizations including those in health care and social enterprise. Specifically, their research interests are around: organizational learning and knowledge, transformative laboratories and practice-based studies, organizational change and communities of practice. They have presented at international conferences and also facilitated workshops in the UK and Europe on these topics.

REFLEXIVITY: JOURNALING RIGHT AND LEFT

Janet Salmons
Free-Range Scholar

Journals, whether analog or digital, are valuable for researchers and our research. Journaling right and left means drawing on both sides of our brains in forms that range from the practical to the creative. The practical side of journaling allows us to keep track of plans, details, and schedules. The creative side invites us to reflect on and reflexively make sense of our observations and experiences. Creative journaling allows us to record the essence of ourselves and research environments, or to step away and refresh our minds and spirits. We can develop keen observational skills, cultivate curiosity and imagination, while managing our own responses to the sometimes-difficult research experience. In this workshop we will explore examples and practice practical and creative journaling. You’ll take home prompts to help you incorporate journaling into your research life.

Bio

Dr. Janet Salmons is a free-range scholar and creative. Areas of interest include emerging research methods, and teaching and collaborative learning in the digital age. Her most recent books are: Doing Qualitative Research Online (2022), Reframing and Rethinking Collaboration in Higher Education and Beyond (2021), Your Super Quick Guide to Learning Online (2021), What Kind of Researcher Are You? (2020), Publishing from your Doctoral Research: Create and Use a Publication Strategy with Helen Kara (2020), Learning to Collaborate, Collaborating to Learn (2019), Find the Theory in Your Research (2019), and Gather Your Data Online (2019). She is an honorary member of the TAA Council of Fellows (2019) and received the Mike Keedy Award (2018) in recognition of enduring service to authors. Learn more at www.vision2lead.com.

MAshN-up as method: A gestalt qualitative workshop using metaphor, arts-based research, and narrative analysis

Sarah J. Tracy (with contributions from Carey Lopez)
Arizona State University, USA

This workshop provides a rationale, step-by-step process, and illustration of a playful qualitative method that provides deep reflection and understanding of the ways that people are viewing, narrating, and feeling a specific aspect of their experience. We call this iterative and multi-sensory approach MAsh-N-up, with the word itself indicating the gestalt nature as a “mash-up”, as well as highlighting via capitalization the key elements of Metaphor, Art, and Narrative. MAsh-N-up serves a variety of purposes across scholarly, pedagogical, and professional venues, but it is especially useful among groups of people making sense of situations or experiences that are difficult to articulate via typical text-based question-answer interviews. This difficulty in articulation may be due to the experience being traumatic, ambiguous, or yet-to-be named. The workshop describes Mash-N-up’s methodological and paradigmatic roots, overviews its key elements, and leads participants through the step-by-step process. Along the way, we provide visuals as well as an action worksheet that participants can use in their own research.

Bio

Dr. Sarah J. Tracy (Ph.D., University of Colorado, 2000) is School Director and Professor of organizational communication and qualitative methodology of The Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University. She is a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association, Distinguished Teacher of the Western States Communication Association, and Co-Founder of The Transformation Project, a consortium of faculty, students, and community members who seek to discover and promote creative change processes that encourage healthy communication patterns, collaborative group behavior, and equitable forms of social organization. Her scholarly work examines emotion, communication, and identity in the workplace with focus on emotional labor, compassion, bullying, and organizational flourishing. She is an interdisciplinary leader in qualitative research methods. She founded the YouTube channel Get Your Qual On and her award-winning research has resulted in two books including Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact by Wiley, with a third edition coming soon.