Causal mapping for crafting contemporary management studies: getting to grips with methodological and philosophical considerations

Perhaps more than ever, contemporary management studies are tasked with the urgent need to understand and keep up with the increasingly complex and fast-changing world. In light of the grand challenges and societal and organizational stresses, it is no wonder that when crafting management studies, researchers have to embrace complexity. Nonetheless, when rich, qualitative data are explored, popular analysis methods such as thematic analysis are not tailored for studying the mutual dependencies between studied phenomena and their knock-on effects without reducing the complexity and richness of the gathered qualitative material. In this paper, we systematize Eden and Ackermann’s idiographic approach to causal mapping as a technique that can be used for crafting qualitative research. By doing so, we aim to popularize causal mapping as an accessible yet structured and formalized method that can be used in various studies within broad organization and management research. In particular, we argue that causal mapping helps to address three problems in studying complex organizational settings: i) capturing and exploring systemic interdependencies within the data, ii) unpacking complexity without reducing the richness of data, and iii) resolving ‘getting stuck’ when working on the analysis of messy data. We problematize the methodological and philosophical considerations, exploring possible integrations of causal mapping with other methods for analyzing qualitative data. Finally, we elaborate on the suitability of causal mapping for working with complex organizational phenomena and contemporary topics prominent in management studies and propose ways to extend and popularize its application in future research.