How to create the perfect business team? - Part 2

The Inquiry Process

The intent of this review was discussed and a search methodology was dev eloped with the assistance of Antioch Graduate Librarian, Deborah Baldwin. The first step was to identify the spheres of interest that are touched by the topic. The graphic below indicates what the first identifiers were

Besides finding the aspects that would need to be looked for in the context of the topic, it was also important to learn how the different search resources actually provide results. To make sure that understanding for this process was formed, the search engine behaviors were depicted in a graphic (shown below) to illustrate how to expand or narrow a particular search attempt

After completion of this learning step, an initial search strategy was developed. This resulted in the following list of actions:

Following this strategy, the first few searches in the PsychInfo database were conducted. It became quickly apparent that the results did not match expectations. A second round of refinement was conducted. This resulted in a more limiting but also better defined search effort. The graphic below shows the aspects of the search that was ultimately applied for this inquiry.

The articles that will be described in the next parts of this review resulted from this updated search definition. The actual search plan included three techniques using the electronic library:

• Subject Search
  • ABI/Inform, Business Source Premier
  • PsycInfo
  • SocIndex
• Citation Search
  • ISI Web of Science
• Mining Bibliographies
  • Hits in Subject Search
  • Relevant Books
  • Recent Dissertations from Dissertation Abstracts

Using the search plan that follows, more than 100 abstracts were identified.  Abstracts that appeared to match the search criteria were tagged and articles were either printed from the electronic journal database or requested from the interlibrary loan process.  Many articles presented related topics, but few met the criteria of research reported in peer review journals. In addition, a surprisingly high number of articles that we found were not empirical in nature. This occurred even after a limiting search attribute was set, partially due to mistakes in cataloguing and partially because the title attribute of study seemed to override the limiting attribute of empirical. The next step was the development of a map of inquiry that would guide and help during the search as well as during the selection process for those articles that will ultimately be reviewed here.

Axel Meierhoefer, President AMC LLC