INTERPRETING ORGANIZATIONAL TEXTS: A METHODOLOGICAL FOCUS ON THE APPLICATION OF HERMENEUTIC PHENOMENOLOGY TO STRATEGY TEXTS

Abstract

The field of Organizational Studies is fragmented, dichotomous and plural. These characteristics have given rise to approaches with different theories and schools of thought with the same object, but relying on assumptions and foundations that often clash and are mutually exclusive. The purpose of this paper is to present a hermeneutical framework using a phenomenological approach that can be used to interpret organizational texts from the same field, in this case, Strategy, independently of conflicting assumptions. It is hermeneutical because it deals solely with the interpretation of texts, and phenomenological because of the subjective interpretation of the researcher. While Organizational Studies approaches phenomenology through empirical reality, this proposed framework focuses on the object of analysis. The interpretation is intuitive and loaded with the researcher’s beliefs and convictions and should, therefore, be the result of a strict methodology: (1) text selection; (2) reading the texts and drawing up protocols; (3) phenomenological reduction, turning the protocols into themes; and (4) structural analysis of the phenomenon. Texts by Porter on Resource-based Theory were used to illustrate each step.