Data Analysis

‘Coding means categorizing segments of data with a short name that simultaneously summarizes and accounts for each piece of data’. (Charmaz, 2006, p.43)

57

After transcribing all the interviews, we began by ‘initial coding’ to make sense of our data by both staying close to the data but open to explore what it suggests.

We firstly named segments grounded in the data which we categorized in codes that constituted the initial basis of our analytical work. This categorization was not built upon predefined codes but emergent, cumulative and data driven ones.

We then proceeded to ‘focused coding’ in order to develop categories and concepts. Known also as ‘Axial coding’, we followed the principle of constant comparison (Glaser and Strauss, 1967, p.106), and we systematically compared the content of each coded interview to new ones to assess if a new category has emerged and needs to be addressed on its own which has led to the revision of established categories. The revision included merging two categories into one, removing categories, splitting one category into two or more or relabeling categories. In parallel, we undertook the writing of our first theoretical memos about the categories and their relationships.

The last step of analysis consisted in engaging ‘theoretical coding’; we were able to transform categories from very close data to more conceptual data. This was carried out through broader reading of data to conclude with fundamental regularities that constituted the ground of our theoretical frame.

The process we undertook implied that interviews which were conducted late after the previous ones were transcribed and analyzed (in part). The list of interviews was set but the interviews were conducted within a time window that allows the transcription and analysis of the previous interviews as Glaser and Strauss recommend (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). Our sampling was thus theoretical and not predetermined neither was it randomly taken. As the list of participants was selected in early stages, the interview guide evolved in a way that answers the needed information.

The following table 12 shows one example of the process we undertook to analyze our data and the different levels of coding.

58

Concepts

Categories/

themes Initial Codes Examples

Privacy invasion Private and professional life boundaries, Continuous connexion Have to be reachable, overwhelmed, no time,

I work as a team manager within a 24 hour- service. I need to be reachable all time. I wake up at 5 in the morning...if there are no emails, I am

like...something is certainly going wrong. how comeI didn’t receive emails…while I should definitely tell myself it is the opposite.

My alarm clock is my professional phone; I shut it down and directly check my inbox. I am exhausted but I check my inbox, who has sent what, I don’t read the content but see who sent it and the subject. I feel overwhelmed…

There is no longer a separation between private and professional life. We confuse both and respond to all… Information overload Too much information Mountains/ piles of information, overwhelmed, a lot of stress, hard to manage,

It is huge… huge the quantity of information we have to treat every day. Mountains of information, data, reports, figures…

You feel like you’ll never be able to treat all that. If I try to treat all, at the end of the day, I feel like I worked a lot but didn’t do anything significant. We really feel overwhelmed … we spend long days from 9 a .m to 10 p.m.. it is a lot of stress. The most difficult thing is , I think to manage the multi- tasking Work overload Work load / work hours Long hours, until very late,

I worked until 2 in the morning every day. I stay in the office until 10 p.m and then go home and begin again at 11 p.m You don’t have time for anything else.

I worked in a 24 hour- service.

IT overload

IT Problems / too many technologies

I have hit my screen with my phone many times because it irritates me, I don’t understand how it works!

When you click and don’t get the result you expect , it is really frustrating!!!

Computers are their enemies...they get irritated when using SAP or other software.. .There are always people to struggle with computers… let alone if it does not work as they want to. Email

Overload

Oh Emails…it is too much Not necessarily useful ones

59 Quantity Easiness Costless Infernal, too much, excess,

The issue of the cc… who needs it?

It’s infernal…people try to reach you at all costs. The problem is that only 60% of emails are interesting… I believe it is the facility to do it that makes people send t many emails. It is not paper and it does not take much place, we tend to send and over use the cc even for a thank you or a yes. We are so in a context of maximum reactivity we feel obliged to check our inboxes. Sometimes these emails are so stupid, questions that they ask again and again…

It is hard to set rules to decrease the usage of emails… Interruption Hard to concentrate, waste of time, non-planned, disrupted activity…

It is true that each time you need time to

reconcentrate on your initial task. It is a time loss from 2 to 5 minutes…of course you check other websites, your private inbox, begin a discussion with a colleague before going back to the initial task. It is getting harder to cut yourself of the whole thing to concentrate…

That’s why we go back to the initial issue... what is a manager today? He has to handle multitasking, have the capability to do many things at one time, aggregate many sources of information, to

reconcentrate after interruptions… it is not easy at all to manage an interrupted, non-planned and constantly disturbed activity.

Handling emergencies

Emergencies, constraints, last

minute calls

Everything is half done...Answers are never well thought out… you need an additional treatment. Especially with emails, we work in total emergency. you are constantly asked to do something other than what you have in hands

I have my work, my meetings, my emails, my appointments and all my software… I used to be able to concentrate on just one task… now there is always something that interrupts you.

Your day planning is disturbed in 80% of cases because you have last minute calls and requests… it is a recurrent thing

Now I set appointments between 10 and 12 a.m. I know I will be disturbed after that with emails and other requests.

60 Constant fear

of missing information

Somehow you are never disconnected from your work environment… Technically you can but you will keep thinking you’re missing something important.

I stay connected during weekends to handle emergencies

When you receive something important, you can’t get it out of your head… you have to answer. It is the only way to get it out of your head.

Table 12: Initial, focused and theoretical coding (Example)