Listen as Method: Reframing Listening Circles as a Qualitative Approach in Business and Management Research

Abstract

Business and management research increasingly engages with complex, context-dependent challenges that demand methods capable of capturing lived experience, tacit knowledge, and collective meaning-making. In community-embedded and emerging-economy contexts, conventional extractive approaches, such as surveys and structured interviews, often fail to yield the depth of insight required for organisational decision-making, strategy development, and curriculum innovation. This paper examines listening circles as an innovative qualitative data collection method for business and management research. Drawing on participatory and dialogic research traditions, listening circles extend focus group approaches by emphasising structured listening, narrative sharing, dialogic data generation and collective reflection. Rather than positioning participants as respondents to researcher-driven questions, this method creates conditions for participants to co-construct knowledge through shared experiences and dialogue. The paper offers a conceptual and methodological analysis of listening circles in research design, outlining key considerations including facilitation, sampling, ethical protocols, and data analysis. It also demonstrates how listening circles can be integrated into qualitative and mixed-methods research designs to support organisational learning, stakeholder engagement, and contextually responsive decision-making. By reframing listening circles as a rigorous qualitative method rather than a purely engagement-focused practice, this study contributes to ongoing debates about methodological innovation, reflexivity, and ethical research in business and management studies.