Page 287 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

The goal to understand processes of potential transformation among dialogue group participants

having various and diverse perspectives and opinions as the basis for my dissertation research.

The condensation of the aware experience of participants and facilitators in a deep dialogue

reflects the Metasphere environment, the container of engagement that opens up the four

theoretical views or perspectives to examine how members collectively move beyond tensions and

disagreements that surface during dialogue processes. This inquest and meaning making process

used the data codes derived from telephone, email exchange (for clarification) and in-person

interviews along with in-room observations which were achieved using grounded theory and

dimensional analysis.

Dimensional Analysis was developed by Schatzman (1991) as a response to the limitations

he saw in grounded theory. Dimensional analysis, like grounded theory, was designed for theory

generation directly from data. Schatzman appreciated the power of constant comparison, but it did

not fulfil the needs of a deeper understanding; the analysis/perspective needed to be viewed in a

much more expansive and complex way. Schatzman was convinced that taking perspectives into

account when doing the analysis was necessary. (Gruyter 1991)

Dimensional analysis lends structure to grounded theory analysis by highlighting and

ordering data categories in such a way that it becomes the forefront and substance of the analysis.

Dimensional analysis also allows the researcher to form an “articulation of an explicit analytic

process” (Kools et al., 1996, p. 313) which previously did not exist.

Dimensional analysis is useful in illuminating the process of discovery in grounded theory

through inquiry into the interconnected properties of complex social phenomena through

naturalistic inquiry (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) and interpretation of the component parts of the

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