How the Data was Analysed in this Study

The following is an outline of how the transcripts were dealt with compared with the method recommended by Smith and Osborne (2003). The researcher followed the advice of Smith and Osborne (2003) of keeping a journal. While the

interviews were being conducted she endeavoured to reflect, question and write notes in her Journal about the interviews conducted. This process assisted in the interpretation of the content (Creswell, 2009; Singleton & Straits, 2010). Notes taken after each interview helped to bring the interview to life at the interpretation phase. These conserved the emotions, feelings, impressions and reflections of the researcher immediately post interview thereby conveying the level of confidence gained and therefore the authenticity value of the particular encounter. They also recalled which aspects the participant particularly emphasised or felt strongly about.

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About ten transcripts were read a number of times to become as familiar as possible with the account. One of the margins was used to annotate what was interesting or significant about the responses in light of the research questions and the literature. These were paraphrases, connections that came to mind, or

preliminary interpretations. For example, words or phrases containing words such as ‘learning’ ‘experience’, ‘know-how’, ‘parents’, ‘upbringing’, and ‘judgement’ were highlighted and linked to AVT. The word ‘virtue’ was written beside words like honesty, fairness and integrity. Learning from parents was labelled with ‘role models’. Phrases about ‘reputation’, ‘a good person’, or ‘choosing the company you keep’ were linked to ‘character’. Certain ways of understanding good/bad corporate governance were noted. Ideas and topics not linked to the research questions and the literature were marked to be set-aside for later.

With these ideas in mind the researcher returned to the research questions and literature and developed four major themes each containing sub-themes. The first three themes basically reflected the research questions embellished with the main currents of thought from the literature respectively; corporate governance and ethics, understanding of ethics/ethical theory, and AVT. The fourth was labelled ‘black-box’ and absorbed any other topics which arose in the interviews as the researcher was open to discovering new themes as she worked through the

transcripts. Next, all transcripts were read and further clustered in light of the four themes. During this process new sub-themes emerged alongside the sub-themes derived from the literature. Within the theme of understanding of ethics and ethical theories were sub-themes such as ‘type of person’, ‘lived experience not slogans’, ‘learning over time’ and ‘rules’. Within AVT were smaller themes like ‘learn by doing’, ‘role models’, ‘examples of virtues’, and ‘deeper than a code’. Corporate governance & ethics contained things like ‘good healthy discussion’, ‘monitoring’, ‘strategy’, ‘personal ethics’, ‘full understanding of the state of play’ and ‘leadership’. The ‘black box’ collected all types of issues such as ‘board diversity’, ‘comparisons across culture’, ‘legal regulation’, ‘finance companies’, ‘recent court cases’ and ‘old boys’ network’. All quotes were appropriately referenced back to the original transcript. At this stage the researcher had narrowed the data down to 110 000 words.

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Writing up the results involved translating the themes into a narrative account. Links to the literature could have been included here or discussed in a separate section. The researcher combined the findings with the analysis to create a more interesting and straightforward account. The titles of the following three chapters reflect the three major themes. Chapter Five is entitled ‘Corporate Governance and Ethics’ and reveals how directors understand good corporate governance to be intrinsically ethical. Chapter Six is entitled ‘Directors’ Understanding of Ethics’ and compares directors’ understanding of ethics to three ethical theories. The business ethics literature was used to classify directors according to their understanding of ethics. Chapter Seven specifically explores the interviews of directors who were selected for a second interview, for similarities with key features of AVT. See Appendix 7 for a summary of themes and sub-themes.

4.6 “Reliability and Validity”

Many interpretive researchers argue that issues of reliability and validity are only appropriate for assessing the quality of research based on a quantitative approach (Angen, 2000). Research based on a qualitative approach needs to address the following question: ‘how do we know when we have specific social inquiries that are faithful enough to some human construction that we may feel safe in acting upon or more importantly that members of the community in which the research is conducted may act on?’ (Lincoln & Guba, 2000, p. 180).

Angen (2000) is critical of using the notion of validity for qualitative research. She argues that ethical and substantive validation is more appropriate which emphasises that achieving trustworthiness involves a process. Ethical validation requires ensuring that the research is helpful to humanity in providing new understandings and transforming actions. This project reveals how directors understand ethics in their role of corporate governance. It is hoped that these findings can help to improve the practice of corporate governance.

Substantive validation means the researcher must show how they have done

justice to the topic by bringing into play all the various present and historical, intersubjective understandings of the topic, including their own. This requires the

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researcher to engage in a self-critical reflection. Interpretative research is a chain of interpretations that must be documented in order for others to judge the trustworthiness of the meanings arrived at in the end (Nielsen, 1995). ‘This substantive approach should allow the researcher to face criticisms of subjectivity - of this being just their opinion or even just the opinion of their participants - with evidence of what has been brought to bear on the interpretation’ (Angen, 2000, p. 390).

So substantive validation depends on procedures that are carefully thought out ‘from the inception to the completion of the inquiry process; from assessing one’s biases in the early stages through considering how they are changed by one’s engagement with the topic to giving a written account in the final product’ (Angen, 2000, p. 391). This requires the researcher to keep a written account of their own transformations which are intelligible and coherent. Ultimately the audience needs to be satisfied of the trustworthiness and feel the work is a worthwhile interpretation.

The following details the procedures that have been and will be maintained to ensure the trustworthiness of the research resulting from this study based on the work of Angen (2000) .