ACT 3312 – RESEARCH METHODS

Lesson 08
Qualitative Research Design

Research methodologies/ Research designs

• The overall process of organizing on how you are going to do the research is called
research design.
• There is no single fixed approach that is appropriate for, or used for, all research
studies. No methodology is perfect.
• Different approaches, qualitative and quantitative, have their own strengths and
limitations, and differ in their ways of collecting and analyzing data, following their
own logic.
• The choice between different research methods depend on what one seeks to address
in terms of research questions (Silverman, 2000).
• Methodologies
This concept is broader/ complex and involve philosophical assumptions about
methods such as, data collection, analysis and etc. Philosophy means, assumptions
about how you think the world is. Do you think we can collect everything
objectively? everything is subjective and etc. it is not about what is right what is
wrong. It is about assumptions. It is a general approach to studying research topics.
This will not be highly focused at the undergraduate level. Here you underline the
reasons of doing the research in a particular way.
• Methods
This focuses on the techniques how am I going to collect/ generate the data or how
am I analyze and interpret the data. This is highly narrow and significant. Therefore,
this has to be focused by the undergraduates highly.

Qualitative research
• Utilizes non-numerical data, and favors analysis of words, text and images rather
than numbers. You can use numbers to support your ideas yet, key feature is being
non-numerical. Here you analyses the words/ the interviewees’ responds. Texts

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 means, various documents are analyzed. Example; internal reports, emails, memos,
circulars. Images means, pictures. Example; marketing research, advertisements.
• Non-quantifiable, focus on processes, experiences, language and meaning. We can’t
quantify the things. Example; the value, the percentages, the extent of an impact.
The process means, the way of happening things. Example; process of preparation
of budgets; authorized people, steps involve, communication, etc. example for an
experience is the employee satisfaction on the implementation of an ERP system.
However, in here, you can’t conclude the percentage of employees who satisfied.
That would be possible in a quantitative method by giving a questioner. Instead in
qualitative you can ask their opinion on the ERP whether they were happy, sad etc.
and reasons for such opinion to dig into the research problem. Language and
meanings mean, the words convey by the respondents represents a feeling,
experience.
• Presents results descriptively/ narratively and in depth as results are qualitative data
that is emerging from the words of interviews, documents, pictures.
• Prefers naturally occurring data and observation to experiment. Naturally occulting
means, the researcher will not force/ no controlled the respondents or researcher free
them to give the opinions.
• Rely heavily on “thick” “rich” verbal descriptions of a particular social context
being studied. Thick and rich means very detailed information. Assume you
interview someone for 1 hour, then researcher can ask so many probing questions
which provides thick information as different people provide different detailed
answers at their one to ones. Assume you are going to research about the
implementation of TQM in a company, then if you ask the questions from the person
who initiate TQM, he would say the effort he took, the problems he had, efficiency
of it, the reasons for implementation. But, if you go to another manager, he might
say he didn’t bother and not much considered. Then, you go to the financial
manager, he would say, it is good but expensive and so on. A lot of information will
be created. Social context means the particular organizational context that you study.
Assume the TQM implementation may differ from firm to firm.

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• So, the qualitative findings are context depended or contextual. You try to give an
understanding from the place you collected the data as what you collected is depend
on the nature of the context. However, amounts can not be given like this much of
people are happy this much of isn’t. Thant can grab only through a questioner/
survey.

Deference between quantitative and qualitative research

Quantitative Qualitative
Large sample size / random sampling
(randomly samples are selected everyone Small sample size / Purposeful sampling
has equal chance of being selected)
Focus on numbers Focus on words

Focus on variance Focus on context and process

Statistical generalization
(study the sample based on the
Analytical / theoretical generalization
population, the wider claim, inference,
conclusion is built to the population)
Generates context independent
Generates context dependent knowledge
knowledge / findings are not depend on
(richness and depth)
the context
whether and to what extend variance in x
causes variance y/ quantifying how x plays a role in causing y, and what
Example; this much of people are happy the process is that connects x and y.
about the remuneration incremental.

• Purposefully sampling means, respondents are selected based on the criteria /

suitability; age, gender, ethnicity. The people who give appropriate insights should
be selected. If the random sampling is used the significant insights might be missed.
For an instance, in order to study the TQM implementation in the company, if you
choose the random sampling, you might end up with only sales people or some of
sales people and HR people only where you do not address the research question
properly. Ensuring a coverage is not there. To get an in depth understanding/ detailed
perspective, purposefully selection should be there.

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• Focus on context and process – context is where data are collected. Whether the
firm is small or larger is important when making a sense of data. Process means,
whether people are happy or unhappy with the current process that you observe in
the firm. Their awareness, views obtaining systems, was it imposed forcefully, time
was given or not should be concerned to understand what happened.
• Statistical generalization is irrelevant to the qualitative study. Analytical or
theoretical generalization means, a theory or model is used make more sense of data
and you understand the model you used where other researches can see whether this
model or theory is applicable in their studies as well. Instead of generalization it is
called as transferability of the model or theory findings to another context. It means,
you might get similar findings if you apply it to another context. However, the
finding got through from on firm will not be applied to every other organization
similar to statistical generalization.
• Generates context dependent knowledge or the findings are depended based on the
organization or SBU you choose.
• how x plays a role in causing y, and what the process is that connects x and y means,
here we can’t concern the impact of one variable to the other. However, exploratory
situations are possible. For an instance, what people think about the remuneration
system of a firm.
• In a quantitative research, you would collect larger amount of data but may not dig
into the data. However, in qualitative study, data is collected within a limited area
and dig into the data or the data will be studied in depth/ deeper. Anyway, there are
no magic number for data collected amount. It depends on the research problem.

When are qualitative methods most useful

• When the research is:
- Concerned with interactions or processes
The process of quality management; do you have quality manuals, awareness
sessions, review meetings, review reports or what you really do is focused.
The interaction means, for an instance how the management interact with the
management accounting system; connections, differences, etc.

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 - Complex
If the study is complex, having one to one interview is better than distributing
questions as you can ask questions and get clarifications. You can aske
detailed answers. Questioners may not provide a better understanding to the
reader. Survey may not bring in depth understanding to you. Survey ia a key
in quantitative studies.
- Not quantifiable
If there are different views or perspectives, it is hard to quantify saying this
much willing to this and so on.
• Qualitative research usually asks, ‘How’ and ‘Why’ questions, rather than ‘How
much?’ and ‘How often?’ questions
- Related to the process (why/how something happens)
Example; why the activity-based costing failed in the company A
- Related to understanding (what happened, why, how)
For the how and why, people can’t answer in one word. They have to explain a lot.
In quantitative study it highly focuses on how much and how often.

The amount of data to be collected for qualitative study is less, usually 10 to 15

interviews can be done due to the time limitation and you are an undergraduate.
However, based on the firm size, research problem, depth of interview.
If it is an informative interview, a smaller number of interviews are enough while, if
you get little information from each interview, a greater number of interviews are
required to get a wholistic understanding.

Examples of qualitative research projects

• Ishanka, H. U.S., & Gooneratne, T. N. (2018). Total quality management and
changes in management accounting systems in a manufacturing company: a case
study. Asia-Pacific Management Accounting Journal, 13(1).

Here her study was focused on with the implementation of TQM, how the
organization’s management accounting system was changed.

Based on this study following two research questions were formed;

- why has the case study firm implemented TQM and what are the reasons for
its continuation;
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 - how has management accounting practices changed to facilitate the TQM
movement?
How the KPIs indicated changed when the firm focuses on the quality, how
the various reports are done, how the organization structure was changed to
facilitate TQM; reporting relationship and wages forums, presentations,
reports, KPI, incentive systems and etc.
• Kapiyangoda, K., & Gooneratne, T. N. (2018). Institutions, agency, culture and
control: A case study of a multinational operating company, Journal of Accounting
& Organizational Change, 14(4),402-428. (Emerald Publishing)
- How management control systems (MCS) of an operating company (Delta
Lanka) of a multinational corporation (MNC) is shaped through the interplay
between external institutional influences via global prescriptions stemming
from the parent company culture and localisation needs as suited to cultural
context of the operating company through the agency of practice level actors

This focused on how the control systems were shaped/ formulated based on
the cultural implications of multinational parent company and the operating
company with the aid of an example of a multinational company.

Qualitative versus quantitative research

• Alam, M., & Lawrence, S. (1994). Institutional aspects of budgetary processes: A
case study in a developing country - Qualitative study
• Chenhall, R., & Langfield-Smith, K. (1998). The relationship between strategic
priorities, management techniques and management accounting: An empirical
investigation using a systems approach - Quantitative study as it focuses on the
relationship
• Chenhall, R. H., & Morris, D. (1986). The impact of structure, environment and
interdependence on the perceived usefulness of management accounting systems -
Quantitative study as it focuses on the impact
• Cardes, S., & Gooneratne,T. N. (2016). Activity Based Costing in a Sri Lankan
manufacturing firm: a case study - Qualitative study

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• Gordon, L. A., & Naraynan,V. K. (1984). Management accounting systems,
perceived environmental uncertainty and organizational structure: an empirical
investigation - Quantitative study as it focuses on the relationship building
• Jarvinen, J. (2006). Institutional pressures for adopting new cost accounting systems
in Finnish hospitals: two longitudinal case studies - Qualitative study (longitudinal
means, the study was conducted for a long term.)

It is better if you can give an indication on the research methodology through the
words of the title.

Data collection at the planning stage; Before the field

As a qualitative researcher, you have to actually go to the field and collect the data and
it is not an instantaneous action. It requires a huge preparation and a plan/ should be
systematic. Therefore, there are three initial considerations as follows;

1. Gaining research access

2. Ethical considerations
3. Initial preparation (desk research)

1. Gaining research access

• In a qualitative study, usually it will be done in an organization or number of
organizations or may among several companies in an industry, might be based
on individuals in terms of gender, industry etc. therefore, in order to get an in
depth understanding, you should have a better access. Therefore, when trying
to study a company or companies, make sure you have their contacts well.
• Require negotiation and compromise with the gatekeepers/ top management
• Capitalize on contacts specially if you do case studies, as people are not much
willing to provide information.
• Submit summary research proposal / letter from university requesting for
assistance. To seek the permission for the data collection, a letter can be
obtained from the department to ensure the confidentiality.

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2. Ethical considerations
• Ethics are adopting the best practices, good behaviors irrespective to the methods
and methodologies.
• Ethics are more important in qualitative research as you interview lots of people,
you observe their behaviors and etc.
Example; if you want to record the particular interview, you might ask from the
interviewee the permission to record. If that person say no, you shouldn’t.
similarly, if the person do not need to answer some questions, you can’t force
them to answer too.
• Important in whatever the research tradition
• Particularly relevant for qualitative research, where people’s behavior is studied
by asking questions (Silverman, 2000).
• Obtain approval from relevant bodies, if needed. Get the ethical approval from
the department or the organization if needed. (before the data collection)
• However, at the undergraduate level there is no need to submit the research
proposal to get the permission for the study. (usually a letter)

3. Initial preparation (desk research)

• Before go to the field we should do a little preparation on data collection. This
should be done to observe the already available data.
• To gather historical / background information/ available data following sources
can be used;
- related documents from the internet
- newspapers and magazines
- industry journals
- sector reports compiled by professional entities and other institutions
- annual reports
- web pages
• To confirm the relevance of the study this has to be done. Otherwise, the data
collection efforts get failed. Also, you get a general understanding about the
organization before you really go to the field. Additionally, if a particular

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 information is already available in the above sources, no need to waste the time
of interviewee and yours. Also, when you ask the questions, you can draw the
information you already collected to imply your interest and to attract the other
person’s interest.

Data collection; In the field

After being prepared, you can actually go to the field and collect the data.
Methods of data collection

• Multiple sources / data triangulation (Mason, 2002; Yin, 2003)

Data triangulation means, bringing multiple methods of data collections to support
your findings. It is good to have in order to further validate your findings.
Example;
Assume you found something from interviews, if the same idea is reinforced through
a document review or through an observation you do make your findings further
validated.
• At the data collection most of the things are beyond your control. Make sure you are
very systematic and achieve things within the given timeframe.
• Types of data sources; Primary and secondary data sources
Primary data sources mean, data sources which you use particularly for your
studies.
Example; Questioner, interview, focused group discussion, observations
Making use of existing sources/ already available are known as secondary data,
Example; annual report data, document analysis
Range of data sources can be used.

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1. The interviews
This method is widely used among the qualitative researchers.
• Preparing for the interview:
When preparing for the interviews, as you are the interviewer you have to bare these
points in your mind;
- Contact; before you collect the data make sure to establish contacts and tell
about your study and tell why the person was selected.
- Brief about the study and reason
- Get permission to tape record/ be professional /build the trust
- Discuss confidentiality issues, establish trust and answer any questions. Tell
the information will not be disclosed and the company will be identified
hypothetically.
- Create a relaxed environment - quiet place with no interruptions. However,
it is beyond your control. And be careful about the interviewees as they do
not like to spend much time.
Example; some people answer calls and engage in their activities while
having the interview.
- Make sure that you have the necessary equipment. However, if it is possible
to record use a voice recorder and measure it operates well.
• Interviewing skills:
- When you conduct the interviews for the purpose of academic research make
sure these are followed to get the best out of these people;
⬧ Listen; since you collect the data for your study so less talk more
listening is required.
⬧ Do not interrupt; do not give your advice your opinions/ views. Because
when you point out something with your own view, the interviewee also
may stop there by saying yes.
⬧ Do not give advice
⬧ Avoid leading questions; when you ask questions keep it open. Don’t
ask a question that provoke a person to answer in a particular manner.

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 ⬧ Avoid making judgments about the opinions expressed or about the
interviewees/ be neutral
⬧ Do not express your own opinions or beliefs
⬧ Avoid arguments but get the clarification, if you are not clear. However,
when you run out of time but the interviewee keeps answering for a
longer time, then politely say “sir, there are few more questions to ask,
so let’s move to the next question”
⬧ Be professional as you represent the university and the faculty and the
position of an undergraduate.
- When you begin an interview, followings should be focused as well as you
need a better professional start too;
⬧ Explain the purpose of the research
⬧ Introduce yourself/university/organization briefly
⬧ Explain how the interviewees were selected and why he is important
⬧ Explain how long the interview will take; If you do not tell the time, that
person will only look at the time rather than focusing the interview.
- During the interview followings should be concerned;
⬧ Follow a schedule/interview guide; this is not a questioner where they
select boxes as a scale. This guide will cover several areas based on
research question.
⬧ Active listening; there are jargons which that can not be identified
should be explained to the interviewee as he has no understanding and
make sure to use the language based on the interviewee.
⬧ Recording (with permission) and then translate or transcribe the record
⬧ Avoid posing your research questions directly
⬧ Be alert for openings in responses to probe more deeply as sometime
things may pop up that you didn’t thought earlier.
⬧ Do not merely accept yes / no responses, explore in-depth. It may
be difficult to get more details from some people. They might say yes
and no and stop. Then, you can ask them to can you elaborate more and
so on.

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 ⬧ Make careful notes or electronic recording
⬧ Records descriptive as well as reflective notes about what one has seen,
heard, experienced. If you are not allowed to record, make sure to keep
things as a note and if you can put it into word document at the same
date. Sometimes, some people may give more information like reports,
notes and etc.
⬧ Note interviewee’s nonverbal behavior. Note their behavioral changes
too.
⬧ Detail is critical. Remember to have more details. That’s why you
conduct interviews.
- Managing the interview is difficult and be prepared for those things too. They
are as follows;
⬧ Interviewee referring to other people’s actions, rather than to their own;
though you are given the permission, participants may have a negative
thought towards you and reluctant to give information. Still try to get
their view saying “Thank you so much, I’ll refer to that person too.
Anyway, may I know your view too.” And try to go to the person that
they mention too.
⬧ Reluctant to answer; some people may say may be, yeah and so on. Then
ask them to elaborate more or give the reasons for such an answer saying
I like to know about it more. However, make sure to keep on asking.
(ask probing questions)
⬧ Does not elaborate
⬧ Appears uncomfortable; some people may thin their underperformance
will reveal and reluctant to answer the questions. If they do not answer
honestly, you can ask the same question from another person in the same
department or in a similar rank in another department. Having more
interviews also helpful.
⬧ Might not be giving honest answers
- At the end of the interview,
⬧ End in a professional manner

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 ⬧ Thank the interviewee for time and insights and appreciate them
⬧ Request for future cooperation, if needed because sometimes you may
see some of the gaps when you go through the information, sometimes
you may see missing information too.
⬧ Tell them if I need further clarifications, I might talk to you again. If it
is a huge gap you can say them again I might bother you with regard to
the information.
⬧ Give a better ending.
• Interview details:
- When you want to refer back to the person following details of the
interviewee should be kept;

Date/time:
Place:
Name of interviewee:
Current position:
Length of service in the current position: Department/division:
Previous positions in the organization:
Year joined the organization:
Reporting relationships – reporting to whom/who reports to him/her:
Contact number:
E mail address:

Observations made during the interview:

Reactions of the interviewee:

Interviewee’s feelings about current job, position and organization:

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 - This will be a better practice and it is highly relevant. Put the relevant
information based on your research problem. Phone number and email
address will be very important.
- Tell that individual person will not be highlighted and even the company will
be referred in a hypothetical name. also, emphasize that, the firm’s
information is not shown those will be generalized.
Similarly, interviews you may do focused group discussion. This means, focused groups
are taken from different departments or level and have the similar procedure in the
interviews.
Example; Top level management focused groups, HR focused group
However, interviews are the most popular method.

2. Observation
• First hand data on programs, processes, or behaviors being studied here. The
observation may take following types;
1. Direct observation
Example;
you go to a factory or meeting and observe.
You can observe the firm, till the interviewee visits to recognize the setup,
culture, controlling, environment and etc.
- Site observations
Researcher observe while he works in the company given that he works for
data collection only. (not for the remuneration)
- Meetings
- Factory visits
2. Participant observation
- Researcher assumes a role within the organization
• Advantageous in observation;
- Provide direct information about behavior of individuals / groups
- Permit researcher to enter into and understand situation /context
- Provide opportunities for identifying unanticipated outcomes

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 You might get to know more things than you expected before.
- Exist in natural, unstructured, and flexible setting
• Disadvantages in observation;
- Time consuming
- Need well-trained observers. If you do not have such a training, you
may wee things but may not able to pick up things.
- May affect behavior of participants
People may start to change their behavior in the firm once you are
seen and they might ask from people who are you from the other
people.
- Selective perception of observer may distort data
- Behaviors observed may be atypical

3. Document analysis

• Document analysis means, “Any written or recorded material" not prepared for the
purposes of the evaluation or at the request of the inquirer (Lincoln & Guba 1985)
• Those may be;
- Annual reports
- Internal management reports
- Memos, minutes of meetings, letters, email correspondents
- Newspaper articles
• These are secondary data and you can use as the supplementary documents to
reinforced the findings for a further validity and trust.
• Below form can be prepared for the easiness.

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 Document summary form
Name of document:
Event or contact associated with the document:
Copy of document collected or reviewed:
Document given/shown by:
Significance of the document:
Summary of contents:
Document issued by / date:

Here the event or contact associated with the document means, someone has referred to
the document therefore you collected. Mention his or her position. Copy of document
collected or reviewed means, sometimes only a copy is given. Document given means,
if another party who is different from the referring person, gave the document then you
have to mark it. (Example; subordinates). Summary of content means the key things
covered; budget, actual, variance, percentage of variance and etc.

Importance of sampling/ the reason to study samples

• You cannot study everyone, everywhere, doing everything / entire population due
to the cost and time constrains
• Need to make choices about whom to talk with, where, when, about what, and why.
Sample choices are important as based on the sample select, the credibility and
viability of the study depends. Therefore, it shouldn’t be ad hoc or should be sort
out (critical) decision
• Your choices place limits on the conclusions you can draw and on how confident
others feel about your work
• Sampling is important in both qualitative as well as in quantitative research.
However, usability of sampling in those methods will be different from one another.

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 Sampling in qualitative research
• Qualitative research is about depth and uncovering multiple realities;
- Requires a departure from conventional sampling logic of obtaining a
representative sample and statistical generalizations (Mason, 2002)
This is the general idea of the sampling. However, statistical
generalization is not done in qualitative study. In qualitative study, it is
not expected that the population works as the sample.
- Select sample on the basis of their relevance to your research questions,
theoretical position and the explanation you are trying to develop in the
qualitative study.
- Use of small, non-random samples, nested in the context and studied in-
depth
In quantitative study the random sampling can be easily done as it is easy
to distribute 100 or 200 questioners to people. However, in qualitative
study it can not have a large area, so lower number of people are selected
and in depth they are analyzed.
Example;
You go through the organizational structure and select one person from
each department or each position in order to get more data. Therefore, it
is purposive.
- Purposive / theoretical / judgmental sampling rather than random
sampling
Common term is purposive sampling in quantitative study. This means,
you select the sample as required to the study and hand picking
selectively/ appropriately.it is not random sampling.
• Here single reality will be uncovered in a quantitative study. However, in qualitative
study multiple realities can be observed as different people, different perspectives,
their functions, age, religion, hierarchy etc. is involved. So, only a one reality will
not be correct in qualitative study.
• Therefore, the people/ samples should be selected in a way that they are able to
provide multiple realities.

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 Deciding how many to sample
• In quantitative study the sample size can be determined. However, how many is
enough in qualitative research, depends on the followings as here we do not use
the morgen table or other techniques:
- purpose of the inquiry
if it is to take a broader understanding in the industry, then you should
cover the entire industry. If you want to understand the functions, then
every function should be covered. If you want to focus on a SBU like
CSR, then only cover the CSR.
- quality of the informants
some people they provide huge amount of important information. Some
people may not talk much and not collaborating. If the quality/ the
information amount is less/ poor, then a greater number of people has to
be interviewed.
- Size of the firm
• No firm establishment of criteria or rules on sample size
• When to stop:
- Continue sampling to the point until no new information / insights are
obtained
No surprising information more
- Information redundancy /data saturation point

Sampling in qualitative research: examples

• Gooneratne, T. N., & Hoque, Z. (2016). Institutions, agency and the
institutionalization of budgetary control in a hybrid state-owned entity. Critical
Perspectives on Accounting, 36, 58-70.
- The paper develops an understanding of the roles played by external
institutional forces and organizational entrepreneurs/ internal managers
acting as agents in the institutionalization of the budgeting system within
a hybrid state-owned entity (dual pressure of private and public sector).
- Field study in two phases (a pilot study and a main study)

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 ⬧ 31 Interviews people representing various levels of management
and diverse functional areas of the bank based on he organizational
chart
⬧ 04 Interviews with people representing key external institutions
such as the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Institute of Bankers of
Sri Lanka
• Wickramasinghe, D., Gooneratne,T., & Jayakody, J.A.S.K. (2008). Interest lost: The
rise and fall of a Balanced Scorecard project in Sri Lanka. Advances in Public
Interest Accounting Envisioning a New Accountability, 13, 237-271.
- The paper illustrates a story of a “rise and fall” of a balanced scorecard
project in Sri Lanka
- Interviews started with Group Finance Director, then moved to other
members of the top management as well as to functional managers, and
consultants in the business of the balanced scorecard

Case study means, in depth enquiry to a setting. Most of the case studies are a one
single company. Also, one SBU can be studies as a case study too. (Example; CSR)
the case might be an industry too yet it is hard/difficult to cover in deep. Therefore,
evidences can be drawn from particular industry where reader get to know that you
are unable to cover everything.
No need to mention the context in a general research. Perhaps you can mention the
industry. However, show the uniqueness of your topic by bringing key things.
If you can access one or two articles of 2020/2021 with regard to your research topic,
it would be great. However, if the topic involves an older practice (example;
budgetary control) in a different context, then you can access to the old articles too.

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