Have you stumbled upon the Gioia Method while looking for a suitable research method?
Now you surely want to know if this approach is a fit for your qualitative study and how the method distinguishes itself from conventional Grounded Theory methods.
Great that you’re here! Because that’s exactly what you’re going to learn about in this article.
After learning where the Gioia Method originated and what its purpose is, I’ll explain to you how to use the Gioia Method in 5 steps.
After this article, you can immediately start to analyze your qualitative data and impress your supervisor.
So, “sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!”
Where does the Gioia Method come from?
The Gioia Method was named after Professor Dennis Gioia. In the 1990s, the management scholar began, along with various co-authors, to use Grounded Theory in his research.
Already in the 1960s, Glaser and Strauss had developed the Grounded Theory approach. However, it took time for it to establish itself in disciplines other than sociology.
Gioia and his co-authors consistently received the same feedback from the review panels of management journals:
The article is wonderfully written, and the theoretical value sounds promising, but how do we know whether this is truly a result based on your interview data or if you’ve just made it up?
The application of Grounded Theory was largely limited to researchers who, following the paradigm of interpretivism, sought to counteract the prevailing positivist paradigm, or in other words, the dominance of quantitative research.
These early Grounded Theory studies were fundamentally different compared to what quantitative researchers perceived as scientific.
And that was a problem.
Gioia responded by developing his own way of doing Grounded Theory.
What is now called the Gioia Method aims to address the poor reputation of qualitative research by introducing more rigor into the theory development process.
In 2013, Gioia et al. published an article that explained the approach from A to Z.
When should you use the Gioia Method?
The Gioia Method is suitable for inductive, qualitative-interpretivist research.
In most cases, the foundation for this is data from interviews.
However, the Gioia Method can also be applied to other types of data, such as during literature reviews or for the analysis of documents or social media posts.
For those who find the classic Grounded Theory a bid elusive, they might take a liking to the Gioia Method.
In my view, it’s somewhat easier to grasp and provides a more explicit pathway on how to progress from interview data to your very own theory.
The Gioia Method in 5 Steps
#1st-Order Concepts
The data analysis starts with the formation of so-called “1st-Order Concepts”. This step is comparable to the open coding of the original Grounded Theory approach.
Here, you categorize the data and primarily use the language you find within the data.
You do not have to find very abstract categories or need to do a lot of interpretation. As coding units, you take single statements. You can also code every sentence if you want to be really serious about it.
According to Gioia, from just 10 interviews, one could derive 50 to 100 1st-Order Concepts. These concepts don’t have to be just a single word; they can also be short sentences. I’ll show you an example of this in Step 4.
#2nd-Order Themes
Next, you’ll sift through the 1st-Order Concepts, attempting to group them logically.
Can you see a pattern here?
If so, you can now identify more abstract categories that consolidate several 1st-Order Concepts.
With these abstract categories, you’ll distance yourself from the exact wording of the data, crafting themes with your own language.
If you already have an idea of how these emerging 2nd-Order Themes relate to each other, all the better. You can also begin sketching that out. This process is analogous to axial coding as introduced by Strauss and Corbin (1998).
Once you reach this juncture, it’s time to gather some fresh data.
Here, you can specifically seek experts who can tell you more about what you already found.
This is called theoretical sampling and is a hallmark of classic Grounded Theory.
Data collection ceases when you no longer uncover new 2nd-Order Concepts (also known as “Theoretical Saturation”).
#3 Aggregated Dimensions
Once the data collection is complete and you have coded them all, you consolidate your 25-30 2nd-Order Concepts once more.
This results in approximately 3-5 theoretical dimensions.
Ideally, these should be original and describe your observed phenomenon in a way no one else has done before.
#4 Form a Data Structure
Now comes the step that sets the Gioia Method apart. From the formed 1st-Order Concepts, 2nd-Order Themes, and aggregated dimensions, you’ll create what’s known as a data structure.
This is essentially a horizontal diagram that demonstrates how the 2nd-Order Themes emerged from the 1st-Order Concepts and how the aggregated dimensions arose from the 2nd-Order Concepts. You’ll then incorporate this as a figure in your methodology chapter.
This data structure allows readers to better understand how theoretical concepts have been derived from the data.
#5 Develop a Grounded Theory Model
However, the data structure is not the final outcome of the Grounded Theory study as per the Gioia Method.
While it does showcase all the theoretical components of the new theory, it remains static.
What’s missing now is integrating the dynamics and processes you’ve observed.
This means that your focus will now shift to the relationships between the concepts. Typically, a number of arrows assist in this phase. 😉
In Gioia et al.’s example on page 23, you can see how the aggregated dimensions and the 2nd-Order Concepts reappear in the model and how they are connected to each other.
Often times such a model is an inductive process model. Such a model explains a process by showing some practices that are involved in this process.
It is not necessary that the first-order concepts appear in the model, but there should be a clear connection between the data structure and the final model.
For example, the aggregated dimensions could be three phases within the model or three central practices.
If you can arrange your themes and dimensions in a way that answers your research question, you have successfully applied the Gioia method and derived your very own grounded theory!
Conclusion
Gioia et al. emphasize in their article that the approach is more akin to a methodology rather than a concrete method, even if it’s referred to as such.
This implies that deviations from this process are not only possible but also intended.
Each study is unique, and you shouldn’t rigidly adhere to individual steps if, from your perspective, a deviation from the guidelines makes sense.
However, according to Gioia et al., it’s crucial in such cases to meticulously describe the exact process of your analysis in the methodology section of your work.
Even if deviations are permissible, the defining characteristic of the Gioia Method is its structured and systematic approach.