Our Group Plan for a Qualitative Research Study

1. Our Group Plan for a Qualitative Research Study by John W. Creswell, Ph.D. and Vicki L. Plano Clark, M.S. University of Nebraska-Lincoln jcreswell1@unl.eduvpc@unlserve.unl.edu and Workshop Participants Andrews University, July, 2004

2. Title • The adventure of leadership • Leading team leaders • The CEO as change agent in the university setting • Setting sail on leadership • The stressors of women in leadership • **How women leaders cope in the corporate environment: A multiple qualitative case study • Environmental concerns of nanotechnology • Developing leadership awareness in qualitative research • Leadership journey

3. Topic • The topic for this study will be coping of women leaders in the corporate environment.

4. The Research Problem • This study needs to be conducted because there are not many women in top leadership roles (Catalyst, 1998). There is an extensive drop out rate (NYTimes, 2004). There is a lack of mentors for women in corporate leadership roles (ref).

5. Purpose Statement • The purpose of this qualitative study (replace later with type of qualitative tradition) will be to explore the coping strategies of six senior executive women in leadership positions (CEO, CFO, CNO) in Fortune 500 companies.

6. Central Research Question • How do these women leaders cope? • What coping strategies do these women leaders use?

7. Sub-questions • How do they cope using a balance between family and work? • Relationship with others • How do they use exercise to cope? • Coping strategies related to length of time in role • Family • Support groups

8. Procedures:Tradition to be Used • This study will use the multiple case study tradition (Stake, 1995). It was selected because it will give us an in-depth perspective on six women leaders in the corporate environment.

9. Revised Purpose Statement(with tradition in mind) • The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study will be to explore the coping strategies of six senior executive women in leadership positions (CEO, CFO, CNO) in Fortune 500 companies.

10. Data Collection • Site: Six Fortune 500 corporations • Participants: Six women in leadership roles (CEO) • Sample selection: Purposefully select using maximum variational sampling based upon working in different types of corporations • Access and permissions: From the organization, IRB approval for study, permission from the six participants • Type of data: Interviews, observations, audiovisuals • Data collection forms: Face to face interviews with participants and coworkers; Observe board meetings; Picture of office; Email times of difficult situations describing how reacted; Participants take digital pictures of situations where they need to cope

11. Data Analysis • Organizing the data into a qualitative data base. All interviews and documents are transcribed and entered into qualitative data analysis software such as N6. • Reading through the data to become familiar and memoing initial ideas. • Coding the data by assigning codes to text segments • Developing themes from the codes and developing description of each of the cases • Interrelating the themes using a multiple case analysis resulting in cross case themes (Stake, 1995; Yin, 2003)

12. Presenting the Findings • Discussing the findings, reflecting on what was learned • Use of figures and tables. Use table to show cross case comparisons.

13. Validity • Member checking • Take description of themes back to the participants and have them react to the findings. Incorporate their reactions as data into an ongoing analysis. • Use multiple data types and triangulate the findings from the different sources. • Have a colleague from Andrews do a peer review of the study’s process.

14. Interpretation (discussion) • Overall summary • Personal views • Comparisons with literature • Limitations • Future research • Implications for practice