The research approach for this study

The previous section identifies the research approach as being interpretative, with a strong emphasis on identifying the lived experiences of Victorian local government CEOs, and understanding their reality from their own perspective. The aim of the research is to identify and capture the possible variation in the conceptions of CEOs as they reflect on their career path and subsequent move into the role of CEO. The research also considers the relationship between gender, career development and career identity. In this context the research is not about testing hypotheses, but rather an attempt to gain understanding of the research participants’ own understandings and conceptions. Ashworth and Lucas (2000) assert that research of this nature requires some fundamental principles to ensure that the research is grounded in the lived experience of the research participants and not that of the researcher. To enable this, the researcher is to set aside his or her own assumptions, in order to register the participants’ own viewpoint. This is known as ‘bracketing’ (Ashworth and Lucas 2000, p. 297). The process of setting aside researcher presuppositions is assisted by the researcher gaining empathy with the research participant. In this way the researcher detaches from his or her own life world and opens up to the experiences of the research participants (Karlsson 1993; Ashworth and Lucas 2000).

The research approach employed by this study is positioned within a phenomenographic approach, with a particular interest in gaining a second order perspective and understanding how CEO’s understand their own careers. Whilst the research is not posited on a feminist methodology, it has a number of congruencies with it. A feminist methodology would explore women’s accounts and descriptions of experience (Maynard 1994) and underpinning this methodology is a recognition that women have a perspective of their own lives, which feminist methodology would not discount (Ramazanoglu 1989). Similarly this study involves the eliciting of experience and understanding.

Chapter 3 – Conceptual Framework

Figure 3.5: Identifying the Conceptual Framework for this Study

3.4 Summary

This chapter has examined the salient issues identified in the previous research that impact on this study. It has also identified the limitations of the previous research and the subsequent identification of a research approach that responds to the gap in the literature. Further, it has identified the need for future research to consider both career progress as well as career barriers and to identify this from the perspective of the research participants in this study. The argument put forward is for the research focus to take on a second order perspective, which implies that the research focus is on experience as described by the research participants. The emphasis of this study is on lived experience and conception of Victorian local government CEOs and in particular, an examination of variation of conception. The unit of study is an examination of the

CEO conception of career development and identity Behaviour Internal /individual factors Traits Personal information External/environmental factors Councillor Organisational Ways of experiencing Categories of description Lived experience Variation Structure of awareness

How is experience understood?

Chapter 3 – Conceptual Framework different ways these CEOs experience career development and barriers in local government. The study aims to establish whether gender differentiates these experiences and in turn denotes identity. This chapter introduces the notion that experience is understood by examining the structure of awareness, which considers the context of the experience and the components that make up that experience. Of additional and significant importance is the understanding of the meaning that the research participant attributes to that experience. In responding to phenomenography’s assertion, that context is important in determining the meaning given to an experience, this study also examines the impact of Councillors on CEO career identity and specifically examines if there is a consistent determination of success across both CEOs and Councillors. It is also argued that the research interest lends itself to a particular research approach - a phenomenographic approach – in that it specifically examines variation in conception from the perspective of the research participant. Two crucial considerations were raised, first the identification of the different ways of experiencing the phenomenon (the quest and role of CEO) and second a consideration of how these are related. The chapter concludes with the development of a conceptual framework for this study that introduces the research approach and the variables to be considered as part of this research.

In the next chapter, the methodology employed in this study is presented. This includes an explanation of the research approach, the research design and the methods employed for data collection and analysis.

Chapter 4 - Methodology

Chapter 4 - Methodology

4.1 Introduction

This chapter discusses the methods employed in this study. The discussion will include the rationale for using an interpretive approach, ethical considerations, interview structure and design, sampling technique, method of data collection, and data analysis.

As discussed in chapter one, the aim of the research is to investigate the variations in experiences, career identity and career development of female and male CEOs in Victorian local government, in order to establish if gender in any way either facilitates or hinders career success. The selected research approach outlined in the preceding chapter is consistent with the aims of this study in that it follows an interpretative, qualitative research approach, that of phenomenography, which explicitly examines variation in conception.

Chapter three identified the starting point for this study is not a hypothesis to be tested but rather an attempt to understand CEOs’ own conceptions and the influence of Councillors on CEO career development and identity. Crucial to determining the research approach, as identified in chapter three, is that it allows for the consideration of the range of experiences that would ultimately capture the essence of the different ways of experiencing the phenomenon under investigation. In this case the phenomenon under investigation is the attainment, and subsequent experience, of the role of CEO in Victorian local government.