| The study used phenomenological and hermeneutic qualitative inquiry approaches to discover and describe the conditions and circumstances, characteristics, forming nurturing work environments. Meta-analysis principles guided a review of literatures from multidisciplinary fields of study and its subsequent coalescence into five domains of thought discussing work, workplace environment, social perception, nurturance and organizational practices. A cyclical examination of ideas within and between domains, a meta-comparison, was conducted using ideational reiterative comparative analysis, a process generated from the fractal properties of self-similarity, iteration and transformation. Twelve thematic concepts, titled attending, choice, concern, connected, esteem, freedom, inclusion, mastery, options, trusted, visibility and vulnerable, emerged from the literature to form a Concept Model. Data display tables provide a view of analysis procedures and the content patterns for each thematic concept within domains. Condensing the literature ideational data into one table gives an abridged Concept Model. Using content dissection and hermeneutic explanation techniques of meta-comparison, the cyclical analysis of the content in seven interviews of Participant work experiences revealed ideational data in each thematic concept. Combining Participant and Concept Model data yielded a profile of the dimensions of nurturing work environments' characteristics. Condensing the combined data into one table gives a silhouette of the dimensions. The Description Construct, a performance goal tool, was composed from three strata, the literature and Participant content patterns data display tables, the profile data display tables and the condensed data display tables. Beginning with the initial stratum of the condensed data display tables, the profile stratum and then the content patterns stratum expands the magnitude of identifiable conditions and circumstances, characteristics, forming nurturing work environments. Prior to this study information describing or discussing the characteristics of nurturing work environments did not exist. Grounding the Description Construct in multi-disciplinary literatures and actual human experiences produced a robust analysis product that accurately portrays nurturing work environments. Meta-comparison, the cyclical analysis process of ideational iterative comparative analysis, and the Description Construct will benefit organizations changing into the new learning organization structure by highlighting problem areas, indicating the direction of changes in behaviors and attitudes and evaluating the progress of changes throughout the organization. |
