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This article presents concept mapping as an alternative method to existing codebased and word-based text analysis techniques for one type of qualitative text data-open-ended survey questions. It is argued that the concept mapping method offers a unique blending of the strengths of these approaches while minimizing some of their weaknesses. This method appears to be especially well suited for the type of text generated by open-ended questions as well for organizational research questions that are exploratory in nature and aimed at scale or interview question development and/or developing conceptual coding schemes. A detailed example of concept mapping on open-ended survey data is presented. Reliability and validity issues associated with concept mapping are also discussed.Qualitative text data in the form of brief, open-ended survey responses are often elicited in organizational research to gather new information about an experience or topic, to explain or clarify quantitative findings, and to explore different dimensions of respondents' experiences (Sproull, 1988). For example, they can provide details in the employees' "own words" as to why they feel stress on the job, why there may be resistance to an organizational change effort, or why employee perceptions have changed toward an organization policy. The appeal of this type of data is that it can provide a somewhat rich description of respondent reality at a relatively low cost to the researcher. In comparison to interviews or focus groups, open-ended survey questions can offer greater anonymity to respondents and often elicit more honest responses (Erickson & Kaplan, 2000). They can also capture diversity in responses and provide alternative explanations to those that closed-ended survey questions are able to capture (Miles & Huberman, 1994;Pothas, Andries, & DeWet, 2001;Tashakkori & Teddlie, 1998). Open-ended questions are used in organizational research to explore, explain, and/or reconfirm existing ideas.However, the drawbacks are that open-ended survey data are often time-consuming to analyze, some respondents do not answer the questions, and coding decisions made by researchers can pose threats to the reliably and validity of the results (Krippendorff, 1980;Seidel & Kelle, 1995). Depending on the method chosen for analysis, there are different trade-offs that limit the type of inference we can draw and the strength of theory we can build from this type of data (Fine & Elsbach, 2000). In this article, we present concept mapping as an alternative method to existing text analysis techniques that is particularly well suited to the type of text generated by open-ended questions as well as to the exploratory nature of these types of questions. By blending the strengths of existing text analysis techniques and coupling them with the use of advanced multivariate statistical methods, concept mapping offers organizational researchers a way to code and represent meaning in text data based on respondent input with considerable savings in analysis time and improvem...

Structured conceptualization is a specific form of concept mapping that is a mixed methods participatory approach that combines group processes (brainstorming, sorting, group interpretation) with a sequence of multivariate statistical analyses (multidimensional scaling, hierarchical cluster analysis). Concept mapping's relevance to health care quality and services is described. The basic steps and analysis sequence in the concept mapping method are outlined and a brief example of the results for a health planning project are presented. Several examples of the use of concept mapping in health are provided.

This article explores the linkages between strategies for managing different types of conflict and group performance and satisfaction. Results from a qualitative study of 57 autonomous teams suggest that groups that improve or maintain top performance over time share 3 conflict resolution tendencies: (a) focusing on the content of interpersonal interactions rather than delivery style, (b) explicitly discussing reasons behind any decisions reached in accepting and distributing work assignments, and (c) assigning work to members who have the relevant task expertise rather than assigning by other common means such as volunteering, default, or convenience. The authors' results also suggest that teams that are successful over time are likely to be both proactive in anticipating the need for conflict resolution and pluralistic in developing conflict resolution strategies that apply to all group members.

In this article, the authors introduce concept mapping as a useful participatory research method for public health researchers interested in generating hypotheses and developing theory. The authors first provide an overview of concept mapping, which combines qualitative approaches with quantitative analytical tools to produce visual displays of the relationship between ideas. Then, they present an illustrative research application of the method to the exploration of women's perceptions of the relationship between residential neighborhood factors and intimate partner violence experiences. They give attention to the data collection and analysis procedures and to demonstrating the intricacies of using concept mapping for public health research purposes. Finally, the article concludes with a discussion of the unique contributions and challenges associated with concept mapping.

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Implementation by public health professionals of the 8 simple rules we derived from the clusters in the map identified here will help to address challenges and improve the organization of systems that protect the public's health.