Poet Management Scholar : Jasmine Kang

Who are we?

How do teams collaborate?
How do experiences translate?
New questions to contemplate
To probe beliefs, we elaborate 

Long held thoughts, beliefs we question
Into a new space new direction
To answer how and what transpires
Not just whether and when it applies

Grounding our findings in theory
Blending in we learn ethnography
Listening to discourses and stories
Explore inquisitively data inventories

Narration of stories is integral
Action the research time is critical
In conversations and stories, we find
New revelations emerge blow our minds

Who are we? We question our credentials?
To challenge - theories since time immemorial
Our lived experiences are our treasures
Unbound by traditional academic measures

If not us, who would create the uproar?
The power of AND versus OR
To build the bridge that must exist
Between practice and theory, we insist

Narration of past has reached a crescendo
Let us interpret through the lens of NVIVO
Human experience codes new threads
Contextualize, de-layer plain vanilla bread

As a poet and management scholar
My mind explores current world order
Who are we is no longer the question
Why not us is rather the intervention


My Reflections on the session

From Quantitative methodologies we moved on to Qualitative tools. This course blew my mind! For an engineer’s logical mind the flow of hypothesis to data to statistical analysis to proof makes sense. It is like reading a book you read long time ago. The complexity is there but one knows how to navigate the maze. The questions one asks in Qualitative analysis is what took me time to get my head around. These are not always What and Why questions, these are How and Why questions.

How does collaboration work in a certain environment but doesn’t work in another? The standard theories and frameworks we read in management books don’t always work in the practitioner world. Why does that happen? We work with humans, the human factor in a specific context is a significant factor which determines the outcomes. We often like to simplify the world. We prefer frameworks and models. Our preference is predictability of outcomes based on specific inputs. I have worked in management for a long time and experienced this not to be the case. As a leader, I thought I figured out how to motivate teams. When I tried my ‘model’ in a new role it failed miserably. The reason – different people!

In this course we started to learn to ask these questions. Our professor challenged us to look beyond the what and the deductive methodology. She encouraged us to explore the inductive, interpretive research. She challenged us to think about human factors which impact the business world. The conversation during our sessions probed us to ask questions we traditionally take for granted. This research takes us to the front lines, to users, to ask questions on adoption of a process or technology. Then analyze their feedback, the words, sentences to understand the themes. This starts to help us make sense of the situation in that specific context. The story telling is key in this research. There is a danger of interpreting incorrectly by overlaying our assumptions. The academic needs to be disciplined and thorough with their research to present their interpretations.

This led to a very insightful question asked by my colleague. She asked, Who are we? Who are we to challenge the existing theories and models? Who are we to question things that have been believed to be true for a long time? Our professor turned around and responded, Why not you? This was the moment I grasped the responsibility of a researcher. Embarking on this DBA, I am expected to ask questions that have not been asked before. I am expected to do thorough research to pave the path for those who will come behind me. This was a feeling of exhilaration and responsibility. As a new researcher, six months in my journey, this course has cleared the smudge off my spectacles. I see the path ahead of me with a renewed clarity.