RES 301

Qualitative Research
 When you have satisfactorily completed
this topic you will be able to:

Objectives Classify research interviews and

for today understand their purpose
Understand when to undertake
interviews, Case Studies, Action
Research, Observation and Ethnography
Understand the advantages and
disadvantages of interviews and other
methods
Understand data quality issues and how
to overcome them
 When should I use qualitative
methods?
Qualitative
Methods When variables cannot be quantified
When variables are best understood
in their natural settings
When variables are studied over real
time
When studying intimate details of
roles, processes, and groups
When the paramount objective is
“understanding”
 In-depth interviews
Focus groups
Qualitative Documentary analysis
Methods Case studies
 Direct observations
 Participant observation
 What skills do I need?
Must have requisite knowledge and skills
about methodology, setting and nature of the
Qualitative
issue.
Methods
Must be familiar with own biases,
assumptions, expectations, and values.
Must be empathic, intelligent, energetic, and
interested in listening.
Must be open to embracing multiple realities.
Must be prepared to produce detailed,
comprehensive, and sometimes lengthy
reports.
Source: (Kuh & Andreas, 1991)
 What is an interview?

Interviews
A research interview is about
asking purposeful questions and
listening carefully to the answers
to be able to explore these further

 Note: the nature of the interview

should be consistent with your
research questions and objectives,
aim and the research strategy
 Interviews may be formal and
structured or they may be
Types of informal and unstructured
Interviews conversations

Interviews could be categorised

as either:
– Structured interviews
– Semi-structured interviews
– Unstructured/in-depth interviews
 These use questionnaires based
on a predetermined and
Structure standardised or identical set of
d questions which are referred to as
Interviews interviewer-administered
questionnaires.

They are also used to collect

quantifiable data and are referred
to as quantitative research
interviews
 These are conducted with a fairly
open framework which feature
Semi- themes and key questions
structured allowing for focused,
Interviews conversational, two-way
communication.
Order may change
Questions may be omitted others
may be added
 Informal
To explore in depth a general area
Unstructure you are interested
d Interviews There is no predetermined list of
questions to work through in this
situation, although you need to
have a clear idea about the aspect
or aspects that you want to
explore.
The interviewee talks freely about
events, behaviour and beliefs in
relation to the topic area.
Forms of Interviews
 Field of study
Nature of study
Factors to Purpose of the study
consider Amount of human interaction or
characteristics to be studied
Desired implications and results
– Structured give you quantitative data
– Semi-structured/Unstructured give you qualitative
data
 In groups of 3/4, discuss which type of
interview you would use for the
following research purpose:
Group
– Exploratory
activity • Find out what is happening, understand the
context
• How do supervisors learn the job.
– Descriptive
• Describe a phenomenon, a situation
• Older customers do not use internet banking
– Explanatory
• Explain relationships
• Older customers do not use internet banking
because they do not access the internet as often
as younger ones.
 Type of
Interview
and
Purpose
of Study

Your research may incorporate more than one

interview type
– Example: start with unstructured interview with junior
manager to identify important themes, and then explore
them further with a structured interview with other
groups)
 Group In groups of 3/4, discuss possible
activity downsides of using semi-
structured/unstructured
interviews
Interview types Advantages Disadvantages
Structured Large, representable Respondents forced to
sample can be reached choose between
and results used to make alternative answers
statements provided by researcher
Questions asked the Researcher has to stick
same way so answers are to agreed question and
easy to understand is unable to probe
further
Unstructured/semi- Interviewees can Time consuming
structured provide as much detail (collection and analysis)
as they want
More valid information Unlikely to be
about attitudes, representative
opinions and values can
be obtained
Flexible and can capture Difficult to compare
conceptual data with other interviews as
each is unique
When to choose semi-structured/
unstructured interviews
 Face-to-face ...... A good thing?
Just a personal view point
– May not be accurate
Semi/ – Wrong person ... Wrong time
Unstructured Wrong questions ... Wrong answers
Interviews – Mismatched assumptions
– Ambiguities and language problems
Bad vibes
– Cultural clashes
– Status issues
 Making an appointment
– Clarify the purpose and agenda
– Time and location
Interview – Telephone interviews
Preparatio Agenda
n – Semi-Structured... ensures questions are
asked
– Structured ... Confined to questions like a
survey
Be prepared ...
 LISTEN
Keeping a record
Interviews: – Taking notes
On the day – Audio recording
– Capture drawings & Sketches
– Keep relaxed - Keep to time
Ask questions carefully
Watch for pitfalls and warning
signs
 Encourage the interviewee to talk
– Let them decide how to tell you
Asking – Try to work from their perspective
Questions Probe but don’t lead
– Seek explanation of relationships
– Seek other view points
– Seek deeper information
– Seek dependencies between things
Play back what you heard
 You are taking up too much of
my time
Resistance - You are wasting our (i.e. my)
the Warning
time
Signs
 File notes, recording and
documents carefully
Interviews: – Include all hand written stuff
Follow-up Transcribe recording
Write a record of the meeting
Confirm the record with the
interviewee
 A case study explores a research
topic or phenomenon within its
Case context or a number of real-life
studies contexts.

Case studies are relevant if the

researcher aims to gain a rich
understanding of the context of
the research and the processes
being enacted.
 A case study is likely to generate
answers to the questions: why;
Case what and how?
studies
Most often used in explanatory
and exploratory research

Case study designs may use

qualitative and quantitative
methods. Many use both
 Using a case study strategy
means you will use a variety of
Case methods to collect and analyse
studies data.

For example, interviews,

observation, documentary
analysis and questionnaires.

This means you are likely to

triangulate multiple sources of
data
 Single case: often used to observe and analyse a
phenomenon that few have considered before
Multiple case: focuses on whether findings can
be replicated across cases
Case study Holistic case: One unit of analysis
strategies – Unit of analysis – is the actual source of information:
individual, organisational document, artefact.
– How supervisors learn the job: follow an individual, a
team, or organisation
Embedded case: Multiple units of analysis-study
may include main & smaller units on different
levels
 Group In groups of 3/4, discuss possible
activity downsides of using case studies
 Lack of systematic data handling
Possible
downsides You cannot generalize

Takes too long and you may end

up with endless unreadable
documents
 Systematically reporting all
evidence
Handling
possible
downsides Purpose is to generalize to
theoretical propositions as
opposed to population as in
statistical research

Time limits and writing formula

would depend on the researchers
 Research that aims to contribute
to the practical concerns of
What is people in an immediate
action problematic situation (O’Brien,
research? 1998).

Studying a particular problem to

create solutions
 Problem: Number of work-related
accidents in a manufacturing
AR company
example Through observations, the AR team
found that people tended to forget
the use of gloves
They decided to see if the use of
signs to remind people would help.
Things improved but did not reach
100%
They decided to run safety training
sessions…
 Promoting organisational learning to
Purpose produce practical outcomes through :

Identify the Problem

Plan the Action
Take the Action
Evaluate the Action

 Process is emergent and iterative

 Action
research
 Training effective writers of business English through interactive feedback
Action Researchers: Anna Yu, Pionie Foo, Irene Ng and Lillian Law, Language Center, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Cycle 1

Identify the Problem

In their years as writing consultants, the instructors had found numerous problems
in students' business writings in that they did not often meet their writing purposes,
An Action essential information was missing, tone inappropriate, and set phrases inserted
inappropriately.
Research Moreover, typographical and surface errors show that students do not seem to edit
their own work.
Project: Plan the Action
To design a four-week intensive business letter writing course to help students
overcome the problems in their business letters.
Take the Action
The course introduced a number of innovations over two trials:
Situation analysis checklist: designed to help students think in depth about the
multiple facets of the writing situation.
Reader-centeredness in editing: the reader was brought into the editing situation by
an audience simulation where another student was asked to role-play the reader
and to set out their own expectations of the letter.
Interactive feedback: students obtained feedback from each other in the planning
stage while at other stages students and consultants interacted.
Evaluate
Effectiveness of the course was measured in terms of students' attitude and
performance before and after the course. Performance was also monitored over an
extended period.
Results from the trials were positive and encouraging: students showed significant
improvement in the content and tone of the letters they produced.
 Critical components of action
research include:
Action
research Participation: organisational
members need to cooperate with
the researcher

Collaboration : building a
democratic approach to
communication and decision
making at every stage
 If your research question(s) and objectives
are concerned with what people do, an
obvious way in which to discover this is to
watch them do it. Observation involves the
Observation recording, description, analysis and
interpretation of people’s behaviour.

The two types of observation are:

Participant observation: Is qualitative and

emphasises on discovering the meanings that
people attach to their actions.
Structured observation: is quantitative and is
more concerned with the frequency of those
actions.
 Participant observation is an
approach that allows the
Participant researcher to participate in or
observation closely observe the lives and
activities of those whom they are
studying.

It is used to attempt to get to the

root of ‘what is going on’ in a
wide range of social settings.
 Four types of participant observation
They are distinguished by two
Participant separate dimensions:
observation 1. The researcher’s identity is revealed
or concealed
2. The researcher participates or not in
the activities being observed.

complete participant
complete observer
observer as participant
participant as observer
 Complete participant:
Researcher attempts to become a member of the researched
Participant group, takes part in activities
You would not reveal the purpose of your activity to those you
observer were observing.
roles E.g. Discover conflict in the workplace, which groups, causes,
resolutions, etc.
‘spying?’

Complete observer:
You do not take part in the activities of the group
You would not reveal the purpose of your activity to those you
were observing.

E.g. “Mystery Shopper” studying consumer behaviour in

supermarkets.
 Observer as participant:
Your identity and purpose would be
Participant known
observer E.g. teaching observations by the
roles Dean/Peers

Participant as observer:
You reveal your purpose as a
researcher.
You and the subjects are aware of the
fact that it is a fieldwork relationship
E.g. a PT business student using his
company for a case study
 Susanna undertook participant observation in the customer services call
centre of a retail company. Her research focused on the training and
quality assurance of call centre staff. One of the aspects of her research
project focused on the training needed to be able to deal with complex
customer issues.
For this aspect of her research project, Susanna negotiated access to
Example spend a period in the call centre. This gave her access to observe call
centre staff dealing with complex customer issues, to understand how
they used their discretion to deal with customers sensitively while
seeking to adhere to their training and to any scripted parts of their
telephone conservations with callers.
To get a better insight, she also gained the consent of individual
informants to observe each for a day or part of a day. This provided her
with the opportunity to observe a number of informants during
the period of her agreed access.

What is the role of Susana? Is she a complete participant,

complete observer, participant as observer, or observer as
participant?
Participant
observation
 High level of predetermined
structure
Structured
observation: Quantitative

E.g.
Analysing how factory workers
carry out their tasks and how long
it takes to complete these.
 Mary became interested in measuring
service quality and decided to do a
preliminary study of customer interaction
Example at Fastfoodchain.

Fastfoodchain has restaurants all over the

world.
Central to its marketing strategy is that the
customer experience should be the same
in every restaurant in every country of the
world. An important part of this strategy
is ensuring that customer-facing staff
observe the same behavioural standards in
every restaurant.
Recording sheet for observing behaviour in groups
Source: Reproduced from Figure 9.4 in L.J. Mullins (2010). Management and Organisational Behaviour (9th edn). Harlow:
Financial Times Prentice Hall. Copyright © L.J. Mullins 2010. Reprinted with permission of Pearson Education Ltd
 Many companies use the internet
to conduct structured
Structured observations
observation E.g., every time you visit a
website this is recorded, and
allows organisations to count the
number of visits
Google searches and browsing
history used for marketing and
advertising
 Ethnography is rooted firmly in the inductive
approach.
Describes and explains the social world the
Ethnography research subjects inhabit in the way in which
they would describe and explain it.

Very time consuming!!!

Takes place over an extended time period as the

researcher needs to immerse herself or himself
in the social world being researched as
completely as possible.

Research process needs to be flexible and

responsive to change
 Realist ethnography: emphasis is
on objectivity, factual reporting and
identifying true meanings
Ethnographic
strategies
Interpretive: emphasis is on
subjective interpretations and the
likelihood of multiple meanings

Critical: is designed to explore and

explain the impact of power,
privilege and authority on those
who are subject to these influences
 Appropriate for gaining insights about a
particular context and better understanding and
Strengths interpreting it from the perspective(s) of those
involved.
and
possible Possible concerns:
concerns You will need to find a setting or group that will
enable you to answer your research question and
meet your research objectives

You will need to negotiate full access

You will need to build a high degree of trust with

your participants and develop strategies to cope
with being both a full-time member of the social
context in which your research is set as well as
undertaking the research.
 ‘Reliability’ and ‘Validity’ are contentious among
qualitative researchers
Judging – ‘verification’, research integrity and robustness are as
important in qualitative studies as they are in other forms
Qualitative of research.
Research
Qualitative research should be ethical, important,
intelligibly described, and use appropriate and
rigorous methods (Cohen and Crabtree, 2008).

In qualitative research the objective stance is obsolete,

the researcher is the instrument, and ‘subjects’ become
‘participants’ who may contribute to data
interpretation and analysis (Denzin and Lincoln,
1998).

The integrity of qualitative research is defended by

trustworthiness, credibility, applicability and
consistency (Leininger, 1994).
 Must contain a robust procedural description.

The purpose of the research, how it was

conducted, procedural decisions, and details
Trustworthiness of data generation and management should
be transparent and explicit.

A reviewer should be able to follow the

progression of events and decisions and
understand their logic as there is adequate
description, explanation and justification of
methodology and methods (Kitto et al.,
2008)
 Credibility is the criterion for evaluating the truth
value or internal validity of qualitative research.

A qualitative study is credible when results

Credibility presented with adequate descriptions of context,
are recognizable to people who share the
experience.

As the instrument in qualitative research, the

researcher defends its credibility through practices
such as reflection, triangulation and substantial
description of the interpretation process and
including quotations from the data to illustrate and
support interpretations (Sandelowski, 1986).

Where excerpts of data and interpretations are

contrasting, the credibility of the study is in doubt.
 Applicability, or transferability of the
research findings, is the criterion for
evaluating external validity.
– findings can fit into contexts outside the
Applicability study situation
Larger sample sizes do not produce
greater applicability. Depth may be
sacrificed to breadth or there may be too
much data for adequate analysis.
– Sample sizes in qualitative research are
typically small.
The threat of bias is irrelevant;
participants are recruited and selected
specifically because they can illuminate
the phenomenon being studied.
 Consistency, or dependability of
the results, is the criterion for
assessing reliability.
Consistency – given the same data, other
researchers would find similar
patterns.
Researchers often seek maximum
variation in the experience of a
phenomenon, to discourage
fulfilment of limited researcher
expectations
 • Data triangulation
– Gathering data using multiple
sampling strategies.
Triangulatio
• Investigator triangulation,
n – more than one observer in the field
• Multiple triangulation
– combination of multiple methods,
data types, observers and theories
• Methodological triangulation,
– researcher employs varieties of
data gathering techniques
 Ethical
• checklist
Have I honoured my commitments about
in
confidentiality and privacy?
qualitativ
• Have I acted in the spirit of informed consent?
e research
• Have I used my research effectively and
morally?
• Do I have a responsibility to anticipate how
others might use my research and
explanations?
 Research that uses qualitative methods is not an
easy option, nor is it a collation of anecdotes.
Points
It usually involves a complex theoretical or
to philosophical framework.
note
Rigorous analysis is conducted without the aid of
straightforward mathematical rules.

Researchers must demonstrate the validity of their

analysis and conclusions, resulting in longer
papers and occasional frustration with the word
limits of publication outlets.

Qualitative and quantitative methods may be used

together for corroboration , elaboration,
complementarity or contradiction
 How to classify research interviews?
When to undertake interviews?
The advantages and disadvantages of
Do we now interviews?
know... The data quality issues associated with
qualitative data and how to overcome them?
Case study strategies?
What action research is?
When to undertake action research?
What ethnography entails?
The different participant observer roles?
 In groups, answer the following questions:
What are the different types of interviews
When can you undertake
semistructured/unstructured interviews?
What are the advantages and
Recap.. disadvantages of
semistructured/unstructured interviews?
What are the data quality issues
associated with qualitative data and how
can you overcome them?
List the case study strategies
 Saunders, M., Lewis, P., and
Thornhill, A., (2012) ‘Research
Recommended Methods for Business Students.’
reading for (6th Ed). Harlow: Prentice Hall.
this session

Chapters 5, 9 & 10.

 References
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Bryman, Alan & Bell, Emma (2011). Business Research Methods (Third Edition), Oxford University Press.
•
Cohen, D.J. and Crabtree, B.F., 2008. Evaluative criteria for qualitative research in health care: controversies and
recommendations. The Annals of Family Medicine, 6(4), pp.331-339.
•
Collis, Jill & Hussey, Roger. (2014). Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate
students.
•
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1994). Handbook of qualitative research. London: Sage Publications.
•
Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (1998). Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry (Thousand Oaks, Sage).
•
Kitto, S.C., Chesters, J. and Grbich, C., 2008. Quality in qualitative research. Medical journal of Australia, 188(4),
pp.243-246.
•
Kuh, G.D. and Andreas, R.E., 1991. It's about Time: Using Qualitative Methods in Student Life Studies. Journal of
college student Development, 32(5), pp.397-405.
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Leininger, M. (1994). Evaluation criteria and critique of qualitative studies. InJ. Morse (Ed.), Critical issues in
qualitative research methods (pp. 95-115). Newbury Park, CA: Sage
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Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (2003). Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions, and emerging confluences. In N. K.
Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The landscape of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 253-291). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
•
Sandelowski, M., 1986. The problem of rigor in qualitative research. Advances in nursing science.
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Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2012). Research Methods for Business Students, (12th ed.) London: Pearson.

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