I began my first round of dissertation interviews in late summer and I’m already collecting interesting data on the influence of values on organizational processes and interactions. The local conservation contexts of red wolves and horseshoe crabs provide an interesting contrast to the perspectives of national organizations. I have had the opportunity to travel to Delaware and around DC, while conducting other interviews via Skype.

I am interviewing both volunteers and organization leaders, providing multiple perspectives on how values are negotiated in organizational contexts. I plan to complete the first round of interviews by the end of October. A second round will take place after 6 months, with data collection ending around the end of the spring semester. This part of the project is always exciting and I look forward to spending time analyzing the data.