Abstract:

With origins in phenomenology, bracketing has been established as an important exercise for qualitative researchers in all domains. There is highly cited reference material on how a researcher should do bracketing at different stages of research, and yet, there is a lack of instances of bracketing in management and organisations research. To examine reasons for variation in practice of bracketing across domains, this study employs a multi-study approach across two studies. In study 1, it takes a systematic stock of the qualitative research published in the management domain with a focus on observing if and how bracketing is done. In study 2, interviews of eight contemporary qualitative researchers have been conducted to triangulate findings from study 1 and develop a comprehensive understanding of what, why and how of bracketing for management domain to make three major contributions. First, it establishes the status in practice of bracketing across wide variety of domains. Second, it integrates understanding of bracketing for management researchers on 3 broad parameters: meaning of bracketing, relationship of bracketing to paradigm and reviewer expectation towards bracketing. Finally, the paper shares instances of bracketing from management domain to help future researchers observe bracketing in action in management domain.

Please choose your submission type: Full Paper

Primary Track: Research Methodology

Keywords: Assessing the quality of business and management research  ;Reflexivity in business and management research 

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Dr. Devendra Tayade