What Grounded Theory Is….

In 2006, Suddaby wrote a very interesting piece detailing what Grounded Theory (GT) "is not" that listed six common misconceptions: an excuse to ignore the literature, a presentation of raw data, theory testing, content analysis or word count, routine application of formulaic techniques to collected data, easiness, an excuse for the absence of methodology. Although it was at the time absolutely essential to highlight these misconceptions, it has now become even more essential and urgent to clarify what GT "is": GT is currently taught in many doctoral schools across the world in ways that are much too limited to allow creativity and full use of possible resources. As a result, GT is nowadays mostly applied as a qualitative method. This limited use of GT restrains researchers' capabilities, blocks some innovative possibilities in our times of 'big data' and the emergence of valuable and badly needed theories. This symposium brings together leading scholars, including GT's originator, Barney Glaser, to reflect on what GT "is". Amidst the recent social, economic and financial crises which have been spreading in many countries in the last few years, we have to develop new models and new paradigms in order to answer some essential questions that appear to have lost their established answers, and to engage some new ways of thinking on which to build a better world. With this panel symposium we propose GT as a full research paradigm that may help the management field of research in this immense endeavor. We propose to remind Academy scholars of the true realm of GT in order to give some freedom to their creativity while at the same time provide some essential guidelines.