Grounded theories of management: a methodological review

This article sets forth the argument that management research should take into account the complex processes of enterprise activity and the inherent contextual issues that effect managerial behaviour. Research accounts from other areas of social inquiry have conveyed the worthiness of the grounded theory approach to qualitatively focused studies. This article reviews the central literature, along with author’s experiential reflections, thus highlighting an on‐going debate as to the faithfulness of grounded theory to generate explanations to socially constructed phenomena. It is concluded that grounded theory can be a significant approach to developing management understanding.