Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, by Michael Quinn Patton.

Thousand

Oaks, CA: Sage 2002

Reviewed by Karen Locke, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia

Lately, I find myself increasingly called on to offer seminars introducing graduate

students to the qualitative investigation of organizational life. Any introduction to

qualitative research, it seems to me, should provide those interested with an inclusive

menu of the considerable variety of approaches practiced under the broad umbrella

domain of qualitative research, with a taste of how to execute the operational procedures

through which data are gathered and analyzed, and with a sense of the complexity

involved in appropriately judging the fruits of their investigative labor. This substantial

book comprehensively and systematically delivers all three. It is intended to provide an

extensive overview of qualitative research in order to help prospective researchers make

informed choices about the approaches they might pursue. And, having selected an

approach, this text supports their moving from this work to original sources for more

specific design and analytic guidance. This book is a wonderful general resource for

those learning about this form of inquiry.

Michael Patton, of course, has been offering insights as a methodologist for quite

some time. Indeed, this book has had two prior incarnations, beginning as Qualitative

Evaluation Methods (1980), focusing on the application of qualitative methods to

program evaluation. Perhaps because of Patton’s association with evaluation research,

qualitative researchers in the mainstream of organization studies generally have not

drawn on his work. Whatever the reason, this is a mistake, particularly so in this third
edition in which qualitative research in general has become an additional focus of the

book alongside evaluation research. This change is represented in the book’s new title,

Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. The concern with evaluation research

persists, particularly in the latter sections of the book where it is the source of many of

the text’s examples. Whether researchers are interested using qualitative inquiry to

address more practice centered concerns such as program or policy evaluation or more

theoretical ones, this book has much to offer.

The core of the book is divided into three sections; the first section serves as a

comprehensive introduction to the qualitative research domain while sections two and

three address operational procedures. Each of these sections, and the chapters that

comprise them, can stand alone as a separate discussion and reference source. Section

one, Conceptual Issues in Qualitative Inquiry, comprehensively introduces qualitative

research via four chapters which taken together are intended to help readers appreciate

the nature of qualitative research and the range and diversity of approaches it includes.

Chapter 1 provides an overview that attempts to delineate the contours of qualitative

inquiry by describing different kinds of findings made possible by qualitative inquiry and

by providing rich illustrations of the kinds of descriptive data that qualitative researchers

collect. It also introduces a theme that recurs throughout the book, namely intended

purpose and target audience are important organizing principles to make sense of

contrasting approaches and to inform individual choice. Chapter 2 continues the effort to

describe the nature of qualitative research by detailing twelve qualitative ideals - purpose

driven sampling and context sensitivity in data analysis and interpretation are but two

examples - that are expressed (in varying degrees) in all qualitative inquiry.
 Chapters 3 and 4 move away from what unites qualitative inquiry to take on the

daunting task of mapping qualitative inquiry’s diverse approaches and the array of

alternative research possibilities they provide to researchers. There are a number of such

maps currently available, for example, Denzin and Lincoln’s (2000) historical and

Lincoln and Guba’s (2000) epistemologically based expositions. In Chapter 3, Patton

offers some 16 different theoretical perspectives on qualitative research organized by

disciplinary roots and foundational questions. They include those standard and well

trodden perspectives such as ethnography, and grounded theory, as well as some that are

less frequently encountered, such as complexity theory. Each is carefully delineated and

explicated with examples, and original studies that could form the basis for further

exploration are indicated. Whereas Chapter 3 generally speaks to researchers interested

in making theoretical contributions; Chapter 4 turns its attention to those with more

practical interests. It delineates qualitative approaches that contribute directly to useful

evaluation, practical problem solving, action research and policy analysis. As I

mentioned earlier, Patton has a distinguished career as an evaluation researcher and his

experience in applying the tools of qualitative research to address the questions and

concerns of those in the world of practice come through clearly in this chapter.

Throughout his discussion of variety (and in the sections of the book that follow),

Patton makes clear that his stance is decidedly inclusive and pragmatic; he will have

nothing of paradigm wars or any other kind of internecine conflict. For Patton, the social

world is sufficiently complex to withstand and warrant investigation from many

theoretical and operational perspectives; available variety expands the options for
everyone. His imperative is for researchers to clarify their purposes and get on with the

work.

Section two begins consideration of operational procedures, starting with design

basics and then moving on to data collection strategies. Chapter 5 opens with a return to

the importance of clarifying purpose as a prerequisite to making design choices and offers

a typology for so-doing developed along a theory – action continuum. Within the

consideration of various design elements, is a gem of a discussion of sampling strategies

in qualitative research that is useful not only to prospective researchers but also to more

seasoned ones. It is the most complete and carefully reasoned consideration of sampling

in qualitative research I have encountered. Chapter 6 takes prospective researchers into

the field to gather data through observation. While it does offer some guidelines for

conducting observations, its main message is that what researchers do depends on many

contingencies, including the nature of their inquiry, the characteristics of the setting, and

the skills, interests, and perspectives they bring to the endeavor.

Noting that it is not possible to observe how people organize the world and the

meanings they attach to what goes on it, Chapter 7 turns to gathering data through

interviewing, or more accurately, by asking questions about thoughts, feelings, intentions

and behaviors. And, this chapter’s specific and detailed treatment of asking questions is

another gem. So, you want your interviewee to speak about and reflect on the issues that

will help you answer your research questions? Here clearly laid out and illustrated are

values questions, sensory questions, presupposition questions, role playing questions, and

more, as well as those dichotomous questions that will get you nowhere! And, then there

are the probes and follow-up questions.

 The final section of the book addresses analysis and interpretation procedures.

Chapter 8 takes several different cuts at data analysis including constructing case studies,

inductively developing themes, developing codes and category systems and also outlines

some theoretically based analytic approaches such as phenomenological analysis and

grounded theory. Its exposition of various analytic approaches are tempered throughout

with reflections and comments that bring home the ambiguity - laden reality of assigning

meaning to other people’s words and actions, for example, “analysis brings moments of

terror that nothing sensible will emerge and times of exhilaration from the certainty of

having discovered ultimate truth. In between are long periods of hard work, deep

thinking, and weight-lifting volumes of material” (p. 431). Chapter 9 explores the issues

of quality and credibility. While exploring a number of ways of increasing the credibility

of the results of qualitative inquiry, this chapter also underscores that studies need to be

evaluated according to the kinds of claims they make and the evidence marshaled to

support them. And, it notes that different approaches and paradigms will yield different

kinds of claims, for example, traditional scientific claims, constructivist claims, critical

change claims, and so on.

As I indicated when I began this review, this is a substantial text – the journey to

the bibliography section takes some 598 pages! Yet, the journey is not an arduous one;

this book does not have the aesthetic of a traditional methodology text. Patton is an

engaging writer with an acute sense of the presence of his readers - his short biographical

sketch at the end of the book aptly notes that he is a winner of the University of

Minnesota storytelling competition. Certainly there are the rhetorical devices one would

expect to find, figures and tables summarizing complex material, but there are also a
number of devices that are quite unexpected. In addition to his own textual voice, Patton

includes the voices of varied luminaries including Lily Tomlin and Miyamoto Musashi, a

17th century Japanese warrior, who offer their perspectives on such concerns as truth and

research design. There are also the frequent appearances of the Sufi-Zen teaching master,

Halcolm, (pronounced “how come”) whose comments and stories offer opportunities for

both humor and reflection. For those more visually oriented, Patton has collaborated

with Cartoonist, Michael Cochran to produce numerous reflective illustrations of the

research enterprise. All this smoothes and lightens the journey through this detailed and

systematic exposition of qualitative research methods.

References

Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y. (2000) Introduction: The discipline and practice of

qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative

Research 2nd. Ed.:1-28. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Lincoln Y. and Guba, E. (2000) Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions, and

emerging confluences. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative

Research 2nd. ed.:163-88. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.