A. Asking board President for JWN to be this thesis’ case study
Subject: Jabra Women Network as our possible Master Thesis case study Dear NAME,
Good afternoon!
It wasn’t long ago that I came across the Jabra Women’s Network, through Group Communication’s GN News mailing.
Intuitively, the Network caught my attention primarily based on my own gender.
It was in fact an incredibly positive surprise to come across something like this inside GN, especially just a few days after concluding a course on Diversity Management and its importance in my Master’s program.
That was in fact the second thing that drew my attention to the Network: my studies.
As I am currently taking the MSc in Strategy, Organization and Leadership at CBS, I am just 2 months away from starting my Master Thesis semester.
With a huge interest in organizational studies and particularly in change in organizational settings, me and my thesis partner, Marc, were on the looks for a case study. My eyes lit up immensely by thinking of a chance to study this topic with JWN as center. I am extremely glad to work in GN Hearing to be able to have access to internal news that help me find initiatives like this 😊 Marc of course, was equally delighted at this possibility.
We have a lot of interest in studying JWN, in a variety of ways, which we would still define – and be opened for other possibilities that you may see – in case you believe the JWN would be willing to be studied by us and collaborate through building data.
Some of these investigation topics could be, for example: a. how a network for diversity gets space and support within an organization, b. how this network creates transparency about the organization for its members, c. how this network creates awareness and acceptance of diversity for non-member
employees, d. how this network influences change in the organization through members, and e. the possible consequences tied to this network’s existence. Although the exact topic is not defined yet, we plan on doing so within the next couple of months.
All this being said, on behalf of my thesis partner and I, I kindly ask you – also on behalf of your members – whether the Jabra Women Network would do us the honor of being our Master Thesis case study, and as such, have availability to donate your time and brilliant minds to aid in building our data for it.
To give you a rough timeframe, the Thesis semester happens between February 1st and May 15th of 2020, which would mean that interviews and / or surveys would take place around late February to early March.
Page 129 of 282 I appreciate your time in advance, and look forward to hearing from you on the matter.
If you believe there is someone else in JWN that I should contact with this request instead, I kindly ask you for this person's contact information.
Kind regards, Bárbara
Best regards / Med venlig hilsen,
Bárbara Duarte | Digital Transformation Student Assistant | [email address]
GN Hearing A/S | Global Marketing | Lautrupbjerg 7 | Ballerup 2750, Denmark | gn.com
B. Inviting more individuals for initial talk (unstructured interview)
Subject: Jabra Women's Network as our Master Thesis case study Dear NAME,
It wasn’t long ago that I came across the Jabra Women’s Network, through Group Communication’s GN News emailing.
Intuitively, the Network caught my attention primarily based on my own gender, but that was not the only reason.
It was in fact an incredibly positive surprise to come across something like this inside GN, especially just a few days after concluding a course on Diversity Management and its importance, during my Master’s program.
As a student of MSc in Strategy, Organization and Leadership at Copenhagen Business School, I see a lot of aspects of my studies in the JWN, and a lot of research potential in the organization, too.
While I am currently on the journey to start writing my Master Thesis with my thesis partner, Marc, we have both been keeping our eyes out in the look for a case study that could match our interests.
With a huge interest in organizational studies, particularly in change in organizational settings, both Marc and I saw a huge opportunity for this in JWN.
We were even more certain of this after speaking to INTERVIEWEE 1a and getting further insight from an inside perspective of the network.
Right now, we are at the early stages of defining the thesis, thus we are still molding our research question - we have a lot of ideas already. To give you some examples, some of these topics could be: a.
how a network for diversity gets space and support within an organization, b. how this network creates transparency about the organization for its members, c. how this network creates awareness and acceptance of diversity for non-member employees, d. how this network influences change in the organization through members, and e. the possible consequences tied to this network’s existence.
Although the exact topic is not defined yet, we plan on doing so within the next couple of months.
And we are of course also opened for possibilities you may see as existent and relevant.
This being said, INTERVIEWEE 1a recommended us to reach out to you, seeing you have a lot of insight and data, as a member of the JWN, and could help us build our empirical research both through provision of secondary data through research and documents, but also primary data through your
Page 130 of 282 participation in e.g. an interview. We are also in touch with your Network comembers, and we believe your insights to be of great value for our project, adding up to the collective perspectives.
Therefore, on behalf of Marc and myself, I would like to kindly ask you, as a member of the Jabra Women Network, would do us the honor of participating in our Master Thesis case study.
This participation would mainly include the availability of time, willingness to share your experiences, strategies and plans, and sharing of materials and research, to aid in building our data for it.
To give you a rough timeframe, the Thesis project officially happens between February 1st and May 15th of 2020, which would mean that interviews and materials gathering would take place around late February to early March.
Since this is still some weeks away, we wanted to reach out already this early in the process so as to give you a first glimpse to the project, and to get acquainted with it and ourselves.
Given the holidays are starting soon, Marc and I are both opened for an initial talk in January, before we actually start with the data collection, if you feel it would help clarify things. We found that doing this with INTERVIEWEE 1a was useful for all 3 of us.
I appreciate your time in advance, and look forward to hearing your thoughts on collaborating to our Master Thesis.
Until then, happy holidays!
Kind regards, Bárbara
Best regards / Med venlig hilsen,
Bárbara Duarte | Digital Transformation Student Assistant | [email address]
GN Hearing A/S | Global Marketing | Lautrupbjerg 7 | Ballerup 2750, Denmark | gn.com
C. Scheduling initial talk (unstructured interviews)
Subject: JWN as our possible Master Thesis case study - Initial talk Hi NAME,
As per previous message, I am setting up this meeting online, for us to discuss a bit more about mine and Marc’s Master thesis and the possibility of having JWN as our case study.
I hope this day and time work for you, but in case you have other preferences, please feel free suggest others of your convenience.
Best regards / Med venlig hilsen,
Bárbara Duarte | Digital Transformation Student Assistant | [email address]
GN Hearing A/S | Global Marketing | Lautrupbjerg 7 | Ballerup 2750, Denmark | gn.com
D. Inviting interviewees from unstructured interviews for semi-structured interviews Subject: JWN as our thesis case study - update
Page 131 of 282 Hi NAMES!
Hope you're all doing well.
Marc and I have been on a process of analysis of the preliminary talks you three kindly spared time to have with us about the JWN. We were able to formulate a problem and a question to base our thesis upon. As previously promised, we would like to share this with you.
The main factors that came to light include the socio-organizational challenges faced by the Network, male participation or lack thereof, cultural/regional external effects on the Network, and strategizing towards goals. Given the importance of sensemaking, strategy and identity to all and any organization, as well as the previous aspects, we formulated the following research question:
"How does sensemaking in JWN impact the organization's process of strategy and identity creation?"
We hope you find this interesting and relevant to the JWN and its current situation. If you have any input/feedback, please let us know.
On another note, we would like to take up your offer for a second meeting, in which we will be conducting a more in depth interview with each of you, which will constitute our research's primary data.
We are planning on setting up these interviews between the 9th and the 17th of March (both days included). We hope it's okay that we book you directly in your calendar in the available timeslots?
Thank you!
Kind regards,
Best regards / Med venlig hilsen,
Bárbara Duarte | Digital Transformation Student Assistant | [email address]
GN Hearing A/S | Global Marketing | Lautrupbjerg 7 | Ballerup 2750, Denmark | gn.com
E. Inviting new subjects for semi-structured interviews
Subject: JWN Case Study Dear NAME,
We are two students from Copenhagen Business School writing about organizational studies for our Master thesis.
We took strong interest in the Jabra Women’s Network as a case study, and in that regard, we’ve talked to INTERVIEWEE 1a, INTERVIEWEE 2a and INTERVIEWEE 3a, who have supported this
collaboration.
It is crucial then, for our thesis’ success, that we have your input. Therefore, we would like to kindly invite you for an approximately 45 minutes talk.
Page 132 of 282 We will be available to do so between March 9th and 17th at your convenience.
If you are willing to join your colleagues in the collaboration, please write back to us with a preferred date and time, and we will send back a calendar invitation.
We appreciate your time and help in advance, and look forward to hearing from you!
Kind regards, Bárbara and Marc
Best regards / Med venlig hilsen,
Bárbara Duarte | Digital Transformation Student Assistant | [email address]
GN Hearing A/S | Global Marketing | Lautrupbjerg 7 | Ballerup 2750, Denmark | gn.com
F. Clarifying thesis for semi-structured interviews upon request
Subject: Re: JWN case study Hi NAME,
Thank you so much for your quick reply and interest in collaborating!
We are writing a paper on the concepts of strategy and sensemaking in organizations, and how the two may come together to form identity and ignite change.
Our aim is to get an understanding of how people in an organization can make change through socially interacting in loosely coupled systems.
I hope this clarifies it a little, we will give you more details as we speak.
Thank you!
Best regards / Med venlig hilsen,
Bárbara Duarte | Digital Transformation Student Assistant | [email address]
GN Hearing A/S | Global Marketing | Lautrupbjerg 7 | Ballerup 2750, Denmark | gn.com
G. Scheduling semi-structured interviews
Subject: JWN interview Hi NAME,
Thank you so much for your quick reply and interest in collaborating!
As per your preference, we'd like to invite you for this interview about the JWN during this hour.
You'll notice we're booking you for the whole hour, but it might not take all that.
Page 133 of 282 We look forward to talking to you!
Kind regards, Bárbara and Marc
Best regards / Med venlig hilsen,
Bárbara Duarte | Digital Transformation Student Assistant | [email address]
GN Hearing A/S | Global Marketing | Lautrupbjerg 7 | Ballerup 2750, Denmark | gn.com
H. Requesting observations
Subject: JWN as our thesis case study - requests Hi NAME,
As a reference to the previous email I just sent to you, INTERVIEWEE 2a and INTERVIEWEE 3a, you will notice that Marc and I will start collecting primary data for our thesis.
We will be reaching out to the other 15 members of the JWN board to request for their participation in an interview throughout this week. It is very important for us to have as many interviews as possible, and we were wondering if it is possible that you would encourage your fellow board members to participate in our research.
Last but not least, we were hoping we could supplement our interviews with observations as well, by joining one of the JWN Groups' meetings as listeners only.
We know this might be a more private environment, so we wanted to confirm that you (and of course, the group members who will of course remain anonymous in our paper) would be okay with us doing that?
Looking forward to your reply.
Thank you for your help - have a great time in Denmark! :) Kind regards,
Best regards / Med venlig hilsen,
Bárbara Duarte | Digital Transformation Student Assistant | [email address]
GN Hearing A/S | Global Marketing | Lautrupbjerg 7 | Ballerup 2750, Denmark | gn.com
I.Adapted form - Registration of Consent + Request for consent for non-confidentiality of the thesis material
Subject: JWN thesis study - registration of consent Dear NAME,
We hope you are doing well and healthy!
Page 134 of 282 As you may remember, in this past quarter me and my classmate Marc have reached out to you
requesting your input and collaboration to our Master thesis study, about how actors within larger organizations instill / ignite change from within, for Copenhagen Business School.
We would like to thank you once more for sharing your valuable time and input with us!
As we go on with our writing process, we’d like to reiterate that your voluntary participation and authorized audio recording will remain anonymous throughout our thesis. This will be guaranteed as we remove your name throughout the paper, using only anonymized quotes (when any), and making your board role title as generalized as possible.
Your role in JWN will appear in the paper as: __________
We would also like to remind you of your right to withdraw without giving reason.
[Last but not least, we would like to ask you for consent to deliver this thesis as non-confidential material.
As JWN’s board President, we understand that you would be able to speak on the organization’s behalf for this last consent.
If, however, you find there to be someone else more appropriate to ask about this, we kindly ask that you send us their way.]
Please reply to this email to confirm or deny your agreement with our approach on the above described details, or if you have any comments or concerns about our approach to registration of your
collaboration.
Kind regards, Bárbara and Marc
Best regards / Med venlig hilsen,
Bárbara Duarte | Digital Transformation Student Assistant | [email address]
GN Hearing A/S | Global Marketing | Lautrupbjerg 7 | Ballerup 2750, Denmark | gn.com