Data Collection and

Analysis Procedures B. Questionnaires

Qualitative data is descriptive rather than numerical, and it looks  A questionnaire is a predefined set of questions, assembled in
for context — it’s about people’s perceptions. You gather it to a pre-determined order. Questionnaires are frequently
understand the reasons and motivations that drive certain associated with surveys, but they are used in interviews as
behavior. For example, qualitative data can reveal people’s well.
feelings and opinions about your organization, and you can use it  Questionnaires are handy when the researcher is trying to
to determine why customers buy your products (or don’t). collect information from large numbers of people.
 Questionnaires can be:
Based on the research paradigm and the chosen research design, 1. Self-administered
there are a series of data generation methods that can be be 2. Researcher administered
used. Here are few:
A. Interviews The question content and wording, together with the order of the
B. Questionnaires questions, are extremely important. Adapting or getting
C. Observations inspiration from - existing questionnaires mignt prove very useful.
D. Document Collection
Characteristics of the Question
A. Interviews According to (Peterson, 2000), each question should be:
 It is a data collection strategy in which participants are asked to 1. Brief
talk about the area under consideration. 2. Relevant
 Interviews can be used to investigate sensitive issues. 3. Unambiguous
 Interviews can explore emotions, experiences or feelings that 4. Specific
cannot be easily observed or described through pre-defined 5. Objective
questionnaire responses.
 Interviews are widely used in phenomenologies, case studies There are basically 2 question types:
and ethnographies. 1. Open questions (a blank space is left for respondents to fill)
2. Closed questions (a pre-defined range of answers is
Kinds of of Interviews provided)
a. Unstructured/ in-depth the researcher asks the respondent a
general question regarding the area of interest and asks them What is the Format of Questions and Responses?
to tell their own story; aims to discuss a limited number of 1. Yes/ No answers
topics in great depth. 2. Quantity questions
b. Semi-structured- the interviewer has a slightly more focused. 3. Agree/ Disagree with a statement
Questions are phrased to allow the participants to tell, the 4. Degree of agreement/ Disagreement- Likert scale
story in their own way and an interview guide is used to ensure 5. Scale questions
information is gathered on areas of interest to the researcher. 6. Semantic differential scale
c. Structured- an interview in which the questions are pre- 7. List questions
determined and asked to all subjects. Closed questions are 8. Rank order questions
used with limited response choices.
d. Focus groups- interviews of groups of people with something in C. Observations
common. Focus groups are used to en cit the views of a group  Observation can be used within any research strategy.
(usually around 6 to 10 individuals) who have common Observation can take various shapes and use different senses
experiences or interests. and/or equipment.

1. Participant Observation- It requires that the researcher

becomes a participant in the culture or context being
 observed. Participant observation often requires months or
years of intensive work because the researcher needs to
become accepted as a natural
part of the culture in order to assure that the observations are
of the natural phenomenon.
2. Systematic or Direct Observation
a. The type of events to be observed, the frequency and
duration are decided in advance;
b. Systematic observation usually involves counting or
timing, so it leads to the generation of quantitative data;
c. Using an observation schedule from the literature might
prove useful;
d. Multiple observers can work on the study, if they are
properly trained and use a common observation schedule
D. Document Collections
 Document collection is used in historical research and in other
research designs in combination with other ways or data
collection.
 Found Documents: Produced by Organizations
1. Formal records: personnel, sales records, shareholder
reports, minutes of the meeting
2. Informal communications: notes, memos, email
3. Public records: electoral registers, registers of births,
marriages, and deaths
 Found Documents: Produced by Individuals
1. Personal papers: diaries, logs, letters, phone texts, emails
2. Documents from everyday lives: shopping lists, bus,
and train tickets.
 Found Documents:
- Publications
- Secondary Data
- Multimedia
Systems for Analysis of Qualitative
Data Involving Language
1. Content Analysis. Here, you start with some ideas about
hypotheses or themes that might emerge, and look for them
in the data that you have collected.
2. In grounded analysis, you do not start from a defined point.
Instead, you allow the data to ‘speak for itself’, with themes
emerging from the discussions and conversations. In
practice, this may be much harder to achieve.
3. Social Network Analysis. This form of analysis examines the
links between individuals as a way of understanding what
motivates behaviour. It’s often helpful to use a visual
approach to this kind of analysis to generate a network
diagram showing the relationships between members of a
network.
4. Discourse Analysis. This approach not only analyses
conversation, but also takes into account the social context
in which the conversation occurs, including previous
conversations, power relationships and the concept of
individual identity.
5. Narrative Analysis. This looks at the way in which stories are
told within an organisation or society to try to understand
more about the way in which people think and are organised
within groups.
6. Conversation Analysis. It assumes that conversations are all
governed by rules and patterns which remain the same
whoever is talking. It also assumes that what is said can only
be understood by looking at what went before and after.
7. Computer-Aided Analysis. There are many computer packages
designed to support and assist with the analysis of
qualitative (language-based) data, these include NVivo,
Atlas.ti and the like. They are widely used to analyse large
quantities of data, reducing the pressure on a researcher to
read and code everything him- or herself.
Characteristics of Good Data-Collection Instrument
1. concise but able to elicit the needed data
2. seeks information that cannot be obtained from other sources
3. questions are arranged in sequence (simple to complex)
4. questions are arranged according to SOP (statement of the
problem) should pass the validity and reliability easily
tabulated and interpreted