When you don't have all the answers: the value of relational focus groups as knowledge-making spaces in organization and management research

Purpose This paper examines the value of relational focus groups as knowledge-making spaces in organization and management research. Empirically, we draw on a case study of hybrid focus groups (masterclasses for data collection and practice sharing), which explored 56 organizations' experiences of employing unemployed individuals in Australia. Design/methodology/approach Empirically, we draw on a case study of hybrid focus groups (masterclasses for data collection and practice sharing), which explored 56 organizations' experiences of employing unemployed individuals in Australia. Findings We identified four themes, evidenced by micro-excerpts of conversations: (1) Partial knowledge and collective claims; (2) Opacity in practice; (3) Misalignment and alterity; and (4) Relational focus groups as social interventions. Research limitations/implications The limitations of our research include sample self-selection, organizations already engaged in inclusion), Australian policy context, employer/intermediary mix, mostly online format and time-boundedness (tight labor markets), but we argue that the relational focus group method can cross temporal, spatial, sectors and spaces. Practical implications We provide practical recommendations for researchers, incorporating a conceptual model with three design tensions (structure → openness, data → relations and data collection → intervention), guiding principles and associated practices and a researcher's checklist. Social implications Drawing on our example of organizations' perspectives on inclusive hiring, we suggest that relational focus groups can lead to lasting communities of practice that contribute to broader social change and social justice. Originality/value Our contribution underscores that the value of relational focus groups is not to merely capture individual perspectives. Rather, they must be viewed as relational encounters in which participants' understandings are co-constituted intersubjectively and disrupted by alterity and dissonance. This reframes focus groups as a form of relational craft: a method in which knowledge emerges from sequential dialogue rather than being located within individual speakers ready for extraction according to prescribed patterns.