James Harding's dissertation on, "Variation in Ways Chartered Financial Analysts (CFAs) Make Meaning of the Fiduciary Construct"

James Harding, Fielding's School of Human & Organizational Development

This study’s purpose was to uncover the variation in ways CFA charter holders make meaning of the fiduciary construct. The approach used was phenomenography. Through the analysis of in-depth interview transcripts the researcher created categories of description. The categories were the fiduciary construct as meeting another’s needs before our own, the fiduciary construct as contributing to another investment process, the fiduciary construct as defining a profession, the fiduciary construct as reflecting on actions, the fiduciary construct as seeing the world from the client’s perspective, and the fiduciary construct as acting morally. These categories were grouped in a hierarchical and logical manner to form an outcome space. The findings also supported two tiers of fiduciary meaning. The first tier focused on the technical needs of fiduciary work. The second tier focused on the non-technical, caretaker needs of the work.