The Pathways of My Research: A Journey of Personal Engagement and Change

Abstract

Research is a process of self-engagement, for researchers project their own identities and conflicts into their professional work. In this autobiographical account, the author describes her background as a middle-class Catholic in Cleveland, her education and work experience in chemistry, her community activism, and her experiences as a doctoral student, faculty member, and consultant in organizational behavior. From this personal history four key themes emerge that inform her work: developing meaningful relationships, dealing with diversity, commitment to social change, and empowerment. These themes are particularly evident in her work on multiparty collaboration to resolve business and social problems. The author suspects that her gravitation toward organizational transformation and collaboration reflects her own inner search for wholeness.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Berger

Luckman

(1967). The social construction of reality. New York: MacMillan.

Brown

L. D.

(1980). Planned change in under-organized systems. In Cummings

(Ed.), Systems theory for organization development. Chichester, England: John Wiley.

Bugental

J. F. T.

(1965). The search for authenticity. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

de Castillejo

I. C.

(1973). Knowing woman: A feminine psychology. New York: Harper & Row.

Diesing

(1971). Patterns of discovery in the social sciences..

Donnellon

Gray

(1989). An interactive theory of reframing in negotiation. Unpublished manuscript, The Pennsylvania State University, Center for Research in Conflict and Negotiation.

Donnellon

Gray

Bougon

M. G.

(1986). Communication, meaning and organized action. Administrative Science Quarterly, 31, 43–55.

Gouldner

(1963). Anti-Minotaur: The myth of a value-free sociology. In Stein

Vidich

(Eds.), Sociology on trial (pp. 35–52). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Gray

(1989a). Collaborating: Finding common ground for multiparty problems. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

10.

Gray

(1989b). Formal negotiations: Arenas for, reconstructing meaning. Unpublished manuscript, The Pennsylvania State University, Center for Research in Conflict and Negotiation, Philadelphia.

11.

Gray

(1990). Building interorganizational alliances: Planned change in a global environment. In Woodman

Pasmore

(Eds.), Research in organizational development and change (Vol. 3.). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

12.

Gray

Bougon

Donnellon

(1985). Organizations as constructions and destructions of meaning. Journal of Management, 11(2), 83–98.

13.

Gricar

B. G.

Baratta

(1983). Bridging the information gap at Three Mile Island. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 79(1), 35–49.

14.

Gricar

B. G.

Brown

L. D.

(1981). Conflict, power and change in a changing community. Human Relations, 34(10), 877–893.

15.

Habermas

(1971). Knowledge and human interests. ( Shapiro

, Trans.). Boston: Beacon.

16.

Kopp

Flanders

(1975). No hidden meanings. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books.

17.

Maslow

(1962). The need to know and the fear of knowing. In Toward a psychology of being. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand Rinehart.

18.

Morgan

(1983). Beyond method. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

19.

Reinharz

(1979). On becoming a social scientist. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

20.

Schutz

(1967). The phenomenology of the social world. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University. (Original work published 1932).

21.

Smircich

(1983). Organizations as shared meanings. In Pondy

L. R.

Frost

Morgan

Dandridge

(Eds.), Organizational symbolism (pp. 55–65). Greenwich, CT: JAI.

22.

Smith

(1982). Groups in conflict: Prisons in disguise. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

23.

Trist

(1983). Referent organizations and the development of interorganizational domains. Human Relations, 36(3) 247–268.

24.

Vickers

Sir (1965). The art of judgment. London: Chapman and Hall.

25.

Wilber

(1983). Eye to eye. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.