Methodological fit in organizational field research

Amy C. Edmondson

Methodological fit is an implicitly valued attribute of high-quality field research in organizations that receives little explicit attention in the management literature. Fit refers to internal consistency among elements of a research project -- research question, prior work, research design, and theoretical contribution. We introduce a contingency framework that relates prior work Ư the state of theory and research -- to the design of a new research project, and discuss implications of the framework for educating new field researchers.