A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action: Illustrations of the Mediated Discourse Analysis Method

• Author: Julia Claxton,Jeff Gold,Ollie Jones
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21289
• Published date: 01 December 2017
• Date: 01 December 2017

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, vol. 28, no. 4, Winter 2017 © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21289 481

METHODS PAPER

A Little Less Conversation, a

Little More Action: Illustrations

of the Mediated Discourse

Analysis Method

Ollie Jones , Jeff Gold , Julia Claxton

This article provides an introduction into the innovative use of the

methodological approach of Mediated Discourse Analysis ( MDA ) and

illustrates this with examples from an interventionist insider action

research study. An overview of the method, including its foundation and

association with the analysis of practice and how it can be situated within

a reflexive ethnographic and critical realist stance, is presented. It offers

samples of findings and analysis for each of the different aspects of method,

structured by a set of heuristic questions, as well as an example showing

the possibilities of theory development. The article constructs and shows an

analytical pathway for HRD researchers to use MDA and concludes with

a discussion about the advantages of utilizing MDA , in terms of theory

and practice, as well as the practical issues in conducting an MDA study.

The implication for the HRD research community is that MDA is a new,

innovative, and germane approach for analyzing HRD practice within

organizational settings.

Key Words: coaching, Mediated Discourse Analysis [ MDA ], power , process

improvement, routines

Introduction

This article provides an introduction to an innovative research method,

Mediated Discourse Analysis (MDA). This method is of particular interest

to both HRD researchers and practitioners because it can be utilized in HRD

interventionist research (Anderson, Nimon, & Werner, 2016 ), and can help

understand and translate into improved actual practice of HRD practitio-

ners called for by Gubbins and Rousseau ( 2015 ). Yeo and Marquardt ( 2015 )

482 Jones, Gold, Claxton

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq

identify that practice can be seen as situated actions, and they scope HRD

as action-orientated change involving individual and collective learning.

Eraut ( 2014 ) identifies that what is termed informal learning is important but

underresearched. The article will aim to show that MDA is able to illuminate

how actions taken in an organizational setting affect change and develop-

ment of practice.

The questions that this article aims to address are as follows:

1. What is MDA and what are the concepts that underpin it?

2. What are the data collection methods utilized in MDA?

3. How is the data analysis undertaken?

4. What type of advantages can this method have in developing theory and

practice?

5. What are practical considerations in using this method?

The method is demonstrated by a series of examples from an action

research program. The particular illustrations are from an intervention

research project (Savall & Zardet, 2014 ) to explore the development, partly

through coaching, of process improvement practices in a higher education

institution (HEI). The article is structured by first introducing the meth-

odology of MDA, its grounding in the practice perspective, and the six key

underpinning concepts. Second, suitable data collection methods for MDA are

discussed. This is followed by a brief overview of the research project used for

the demonstration of the MDA techniques. As MDA employs extensive meth-

ods, a significant section of the article is devoted to a set of illustrations of data

analysis from this project. We are then able to show an analytical pathway,

constructed from the experience of the research project, to guide researchers

in undertaking MDA.

There is a subsequent example of theorizing from the MDA analysis,

which, in this particular case, uses the theoretical resources of routines, coach-

ing, and power. Finally, the article concludes with a discussion about the prac-

tical issues in employing MDA and the type of potential theoretical insights

it is capable of producing. In particular, this last section addresses why the

method is a valuable addition to the HRD researchers’ arsenal of approaches

as well as being a substantive method of conveyance between HRD academics

and practitioners.

Principles of MDA

The antecedent of MDA is Activity Theory, which was formulated by the Rus-

sian cultural psychologist, Lev Vygostky (Norris & Jones, 2005 ). Activity

Theory, and hence MDA assumes that all social actions are mediated through

tools, external artefacts, or internal (to the individual). Bonk and Kim ( 1998 )

A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action 483

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq

review how Vygotsky ’ s theory, also referred to as Social Cultural Theory or

Social Cultural Activity Theory (CHAT), is a powerful idea for investigating

how learning and development of adults (in particular) occurs. MDA shares

some principles with Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA); however it has a dis-

tinct focus on action, and sees discourse as just one among many potential

mediational means or cultural tools (Scollon, 2001a ). Bonk and Kim indi-

cate (even in 1998) the large number of artefacts and cultural tools that are

potentially available as mediating tools that could influence the collaborative

learning of adults. This mode of learning resonates with that of the practice

perspective (Yeo & Marquardt, 2015 ). Nicolini ( 2012 ) identified MDA as a

key tool in itself for researchers adopting a practice perspective, and he argues

that MDA has a greater potential to provide an ontology for the practice-

discursive aspect of the social world.

The practice perspective in management research attempts to go beyond

the actions of individuals in organizations in relation to their agency but to

reconcile how these fit with the historical notions of those actions as a socially

recognizable activity—a practice (Gherardi, 2009 ). Of importance to HRD

scholars is how practices develop over time so that HRD practitioners can

intervene so that what they deem as important and useful practices can be

developed in organizations.

MDA is a form of action research (Scollon & de Saint-Georges, 2012), in

that the researcher usually immerses him- or herself to some extent in the set-

ting. It differs from classic action research as the data collection provides rich

enough data not to warrant additional action research cycles. It is a methodol-

ogy for discovering how accomplishment of actions leads to the development

of practice but is not a research approach in itself. It can therefore be adapted

and utilized or nested within other, larger research intervention designs and

is ideally suited to single-intervention studies of which there are a number of

different types (Baard, 2010).

Ron Scollon was one of the key architects of MDA (Nicolini, 2012 ),

which is why the literature on MDA is dominated by his contribution along

with a few others, including his wife, Suzie Scollon. This initial group of

researchers used MDA to explore social rather than organizational settings,

more recently this has included online interactive spaces (Lemke, 2005 ; McIl-

venny & Raudaskoski, 2005 ; Wohlwend, 2013 ).

Ron Scollon developed the six central concepts around which MDA is

organized (Scollon, 2001a ):

1. Mediated action

2. Site of engagement

3. Mediational means

4. Practice and mediational means

5. Nexus of practice

6. Community of practice