ABSTRACT
The grounded theory approach to qualitative research has, since the late 1960s, captured the methodological interests and imagination of researchers in all the social and administrative sciences. One of its principal inventors, Barney G. Glaser (1999), described this approach as a methodology for getting from the systematic collection of data to production of a multivariate conceptual theory. The grounded theory method has been used successfully in many different circumstances, disciplines, and cultures. The fact that it is easily generalizable to many different disciplines and a variety of research topics has contributed to its increasing acceptance worldwide. Accordingly,
Grounded theory is a general method. It can be used on any data or combination of data. It was developed partially by me with quantitative data [which] is expensive and somewhat hard to obtain. . . . Qualitative data are inexpensive to collect, very rich in meaning and observation, and rewarding to collect and analyze. So, by default to ease and growing use, grounded theory is being linked to qualitative data and is seen as a qualitative method, using symbolic interaction, by many. Qualitative grounded theory accounts for the global spread of its use. (Glaser 1999, 842)
The grounded theory method evolved from roots in the symbolic interactionism theoretical research of social psychologist George H. Mead at the University of Chicago, his one-time student Herbert Blumer, and others (Robrecht 1995). Mead believed that people defined themselves through the social roles, expectations, and perspectives they acquired from society and through the processes of socialization and social interactions.
