Triangulation in Organizational Research: A Re-Presentation

• Published in: Organization (London, England) Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 109 - 133
• Main Authors: Cox, Julie Wolfram, Hassard, John
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thousand Oaks, CA SAGE Publications 01.01.2005; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Concepts; Data collection; Epistemology; Metaphors; Modernism; Organization theory; Organizational behavior; Organizational Research; Positivism; Postmodernism; Reflexivity; Research methodology; Studies; System theory; United Kingdom > UK; metaphorization; postmodernism; reflexivity; organization theory
• ISSN: 1350-5084; 1461-7323
• DOI: 10.1177/1350508405048579

This paper extends the discussion of postmodern thinking in organizational theory through a re-presentation of the concept of triangulation in organizational research. Initially triangulation is defined through the contrasting lenses of positivism and post-positivism/postmodernism and analysed as a metaphor for fixing and capturing the research subject. Subsequently triangulation is ‘re-presented’ as ‘metaphorization’—in terms of process and movement between researcher-subject positions. Rethinking the lines and angles of enquiry in triangulation, the paper suggests a shift from the ‘triangulation of distance’ tradition to a more reflexive consideration of ‘researcher stance’. This movement is represented across three perspectives: the researcher as a follower of nomothetic lines; the researcher as the taker of an ideographic overview; and the researcher as the finder of a particular angle. The implications of this re-presentation are then discussed in terms of perspective, data capture, reflexivity and metatriangulation.