Abstract:
In case study methods of organizations,
researchers are often limited to the aggregation
of individual cases within the context
of the organizational case. Borrowing
from Stake’s (1995) use of instrumental
and intrinsic case studies, this paper presents
a fractal geometry case study method.
For the purposes of this article, on site interviews
of seventeen librarians who work
in a research institution were conducted
to learn more about their experiences with
organizational change. Instrumental case
studies of these individuals, or rather those
cases that respond to other phenomena,
were performed and analyzed at the micro
level. A clustering technique, serving as a
fractal seed, was also incorporated to draw
out themes that highlighted the interconnections
of individuals. These cases were
then recursively integrated into an emergent
framework of the intrinsic case of
the organization. The use of this method
suggests that observations of individuals,
and the subsequent meaning they generate
at the micro level, reflect the complex
interconnections of these cases. At the
same time, this method suggests that the
recursive integration of individual cases
contributes to the understanding of the
complex organization at the macro level.
