CHAPTER

8
THE NATURE OF
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Introduction 164 Discriminant validity 175

The main steps in quantitative research 164 The connection between reliability and validity 175

Concepts and their measurement 167 The main preoccupations of quantitative

researchers 175
What is a concept? 167
Why measure? 168 Measurement 176
Indicators 168 Causality 177
Dimensions of concepts 169 Generalization 177
Replication 178
Reliability of measures 172
The critique of quantitative research 180
Stability 172
Internal reliability 173 Criticisms of quantitative research 181
Inter-rater reliability 173 Is it always like this? 182
Validity of measures 174 Reverse operationism 182
Face validity 174 Reliability and validity testing 182
Concurrent validity 174 Sampling 183
Predictive validity 174 Key points 183
Convergent validity 175
Questions for review 184

CHAPTER OUTLINE

This chapter is concerned with the logic and key features of quantitative research. Broadly, quantitative
research covers approaches which attempt to measure and/or count social phenomena and the
relationships between them. This approach has long been the dominant one for conducting business
research and remains so, in spite of qualitative research becoming more influential since the 1980s. The
emphasis in this chapter is very much on what quantitative research typically entails, although at a later
point in the chapter some of the ways in which there are often departures from this ideal type are
outlined. This chapter explores the following areas:

• the main steps of quantitative research, which are presented as a linear succession of stages;
164 8 The nature of quantitative research

• the importance of concepts in quantitative research and • the main preoccupations of quantitative research,
the ways in which measures may be devised for concepts; which are described in terms of four features—
this includes a discussion of the important idea of an measurement, causality, generalization, and
indicator, which is devised as a way of measuring a replication;
concept for which there is no direct measure;
• some criticisms that are levelled at quantitative
• the procedures for checking the reliability and validity research.
of the measurement process;

Introduction
In Chapter 2, quantitative research was outlined as a not be taken to mean that quantification of aspects of
distinctive research strategy. In very broad terms, it was social life is all that distinguishes it from a qualitative
described as involving the collection of numerical data research strategy. The very fact that it has a distinctive
and as exhibiting a view of the relationship between the- epistemological and ontological position suggests that
ory and research as deductive, a predilection for a natural there is a good deal more to it than the mere presence
science approach (and for positivism in particular), and an of numbers. In this chapter, as well as outlining the
objectivist conception of social reality. A number of other main steps in quantitative research, we also examine
features of quantitative research were outlined, but in this some of the principal preoccupations of the strategy
chapter we will examine the strategy in much more detail. and how certain issues of concern among practitioners
It should be made clear that the description of this are addressed, such as questions about measurement
research strategy as ‘quantitative research’ should validity.

The main steps in quantitative research

Figure 8.1 outlines the main steps in quantitative influence of the natural sciences on the development of
research. These steps reflect the underlying logic of the social sciences. It is important to note, however, that
quantitative research, which is deductive. This is very a good deal of quantitative research does not require the
much an ideal-typical account of the process: it is prob- specification of a hypothesis, and instead theory acts
ably never or rarely found in this pure form, but this loosely as a set of concerns in relation to which the busi-
outline represents a useful starting point for getting to ness researcher collects data. The next step entails the
grips with the main ingredients of the approach and the selection of a research design, a topic that was explored
links between them. Research is rarely as linear and as in Chapter 3. As we have seen, the selection of research
straightforward as the figure implies, but its aim is to do design has implications for a variety of issues, such as
no more than capture the main steps and provide a rough the external validity of findings and researchers’ ability to
indication of their interconnections. impute causality to their findings. Step 4 involves devis-
Some of the chief steps have been covered in the first ing quantitative measures of the concepts in which the
two chapters of this book. The fact that we start off with researcher is interested. This process is often referred to
theory signifies a deductive logic. It is common for out- as operationalization, a term that originally derives from
lines of the main steps of quantitative research to sug- physics to refer to the operations by which a concept
gest that a hypothesis (or hypotheses) is (are) deduced (such as temperature or velocity) is measured (Bridgman
from the theory and then tested. This notion has been 1927). Aspects of this issue will be explored later in this
incorporated into Figure 8.1. Hypothesis testing is char- chapter.
acteristic of experimental research, and the popularity of The next two steps call for the selection of a research site
this approach in quantitative social science reflects the or sites and then the selection of subjects/respondents.
 The main steps in quantitative research 165
FIGURE 8.1
The process of quantitative research

1. Elaborate theory

2. Devise hypothesis

3. Select research design

4. Devise measures of concepts

5. Select research site(s)

6. Select research
subjects/respondents

7. Administer research
instruments/collect data

8. Process data

9. Analyse data

10. Develop findings/conclusions

11. Write up findings/conclusions

(Experimental researchers tend to call the people on by which researchers might go about selecting research
whom they conduct research ‘subjects’, whereas social sites and sampling respondents. In experimental research,
survey researchers typically call them ‘respondents’.) these two steps are likely to include the assignment of sub-
Thus, in social survey research an investigator must first jects into control and treatment groups.
be concerned to establish an appropriate setting for his or Step 7 involves the administration of the research
her research. Research in focus 8.1 illustrates the process instrument(s). In experimental research, this is likely
166 8 The nature of quantitative research

8.1 RESEARCH IN FOCUS

Selecting research sites and sampling respondents:
the Quality of Work and Life in Changing Europe
project
The ‘Quality of Work and Life in Changing Europe’ is a research project funded by the European Commission
(Abendroth and Den Dulk 2011; Lippe et al. 2009) that analyses international comparative data on the social
wellbeing of citizens and social quality in European workplaces in eight partner countries: UK, Finland, Sweden,
Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Hungary, and Bulgaria. The focus of the study was to understand the quality
of working life among European workers, including how public and organizational policies in different countries
affect these issues. The overall survey sample of 7867 service sector workers varied in size by country, ranging
from 676 respondents in Sweden to 1373 respondents in Portugal. Service sector workers were chosen as the
focus of the study because this is a growing sector of the economy that comprises both professional and
lower-skilled workers. In each of the eight countries, a national team of researchers surveyed employees from the
following types of workplace:

1. A bank/insurance company: included because these organizations are often at the forefront of supportive
work–life policies and are highly visible, therefore susceptible to institutional pressures to provide work–life
balance support (total of 1918 respondents).
2. A retail company: chains of shops were included because of the higher proportion of lower-skilled jobs and
female workers employed there (total of 1670 respondents).
3. An information technology (IT)/telecom company: included because of the high proportion of professional
workers and the highly competitive nature of careers in these organizations (total of 2628 respondents).
4. A public hospital: large hospitals in major cities were included as representative of public sector organizations
(total of 1651 respondents).

Because this was a non-random quota sample selected to represent various categories of organization (sampling
will be discussed in detail in Chapter 9), attempts were made in each country to select similar service sector
organizations in order to increase comparability. These sector comparisons acted as a control variable on the
sample. A questionnaire survey was developed by the researchers and translated into the language of each
country, before being back-translated for comparability. Employees in the selected organizations received a letter
in which they were asked to fill in the questionnaire, either on paper or online (see Chapter 11 for more about
questionnaires and online surveys). The response rates in different countries were variable, ranging from 17 per
cent (Hungary and the UK both being low) to 89 per cent (Bulgaria, Finland, and Sweden being relatively high).
These findings enabled the researchers to trace differences between countries in terms of the level of support
available (from the state, the workplace, and the family) for the development of work–life balance.

to mean pre-testing subjects, manipulating the independ- Step 8 simply refers to the fact that, once information
ent variable for the experimental group, and post-testing has been collected, it must be transformed into ‘data’. In
subjects. In cross-sectional research using social survey the context of quantitative research, this is likely to mean
research instruments, it will involve interviewing the that it must be prepared so that it can be quantified. With
sample members using a structured interview schedule some kinds of information this can be done in a relatively
(discussed in Chapter 10) or distributing a self-completion straightforward way—for example, for information
questionnaire (Chapter 11). In research using structured relating to such things as people’s ages, incomes, num-
observation (Chapter 13), this step will mean an observer ber of years spent at school, and so on. For other variables
(or possibly more than one) watching the setting and that are not readily measured in numbers, e.g. job sat-
the behaviour of people and then assigning categories to isfaction, quantification will entail coding the informa-
each element of behaviour. tion—that is, transforming it into numbers to facilitate
 Concepts and their measurement 167
the quantitative analysis of the data, particularly if the convinced that the research conclusions are important
analysis is going to be carried out by computer. ‘Codes’ and that the findings are robust. Thus, a significant part
act as tags that are placed on data about people to allow of the research process involves convincing others of the
the information to be processed by the computer. This significance and validity of one’s findings.
consideration leads into Step 9—the analysis of the data. Once the findings have been published, they become
In this step, the researcher uses techniques of quantita- part of the stock of knowledge (or ‘theory’ in the loose
tive data analysis to reduce the amount of data collected, sense of the word) in their domain. Thus, there is a feed-
to test for relationships between variables, to develop back loop from Step 11 back up to Step 1. The presence
ways of presenting the results of the analysis to others, of both an element of deductivism (Step 2) and induc-
and so on. tivism (the feedback loop) is indicative of the positivist
The researcher must then interpret the results of the foundations of quantitative research (see Key concept
data analysis. It is at this stage that the ‘findings’ will 2.10). Similarly, the emphasis on the translation of
emerge (Step 10). The researcher will consider the con- concepts into measures (Step 4) is symptomatic of the
nections between the findings and the theorizing that principle of phenomenalism, which is also a feature of
acted as the impetus of the research. If there is a hypoth- positivism. It is to this important phase of translating
esis, is it supported or disproven? What are the implica- concepts into measures that we now turn. As we will see,
tions of the findings for the theoretical ideas that formed certain considerations follow on from the stress placed
the background to the research? on measurement in quantitative research. By and large,
Then the research must be written up (Step 11—cov- these considerations are to do with the validity and reli-
ered in Chapter 7 of this book). The research cannot take ability of the measures devised by social scientists. These
on significance beyond satisfying the researcher’s per- considerations will figure prominently in the following
sonal curiosity until it enters the public domain in some discussion.
way, by being written up as a paper to be presented at As we noted before presenting the model in Figure 8.1,
a conference, or as a report to the agency that funded this sequence of stages is a kind of ideal-typical account,
the research, or as a book or journal article for academic and in practice not all quantitative research will adhere
business researchers. In writing up the findings and to these steps. At the end of this chapter, the section ‘Is it
conclusions, the researcher is doing more than simply always like this?’ deals with some ways in which practice
relaying to others what has been found: readers must be may diverge from this model.

Concepts and their measurement

What is a concept? ideas and observations’ (1984: 43). One item mentioned
in Chapter 3 but omitted from the list of concepts above is
Concepts are the building blocks of theory and represent
IQ. It has been omitted because it is not a concept! It is a
the points around which business research is conducted.
measure of a concept—namely, intelligence. This is a rare
Think of the numerous concepts that are mentioned in
case of a social scientific measure that has become so well
relation to just some of the research examples cited in
known that the measure and the concept are almost as
this book:
synonymous as temperature and the centigrade or Fahr-
structure, agency, deskilling, organizational size, tech- enheit scales, or as length and the metric scale. The con-
nology, charismatic leadership, followership, TQM, cept of intelligence has arisen as a result of noticing that
functional subcultures, knowledge, managerial iden- some people appear to be very clever, some quite clever,
tity, motivation to work, moral awareness, productivity, and still others not at all clever. These variations in what
stress management, employment relations, organiza- we have come to call the concept of ‘intelligence’ seem
tional development, competitive success. important, because we might try to construct theories
Each concept represents a label that we give to elements to explain these variations. We may try to incorporate
of the social world that seem to have common features the concept of intelligence into theories to explain varia-
and that strike us as significant. As Bulmer succinctly tions in such things as job competence or entrepreneur-
puts it, concepts ‘are categories for the organization of ial success. Similarly, with indicators of organizational
168 8 The nature of quantitative research

performance such as ‘productivity’ or ‘return on invest-

• Measurement gives us a consistent device or yardstick
ment’, we notice that some organizations improve their for making such distinctions. A measurement device
relative performance, others remain static, and others provides a consistent instrument for gauging differ-
decline in economic value. Out of such considerations, ences. This consistency relates to two things: our ability
the concept of organizational performance is reached. to be consistent over time, and our ability to be consist-
If a concept is to be employed in quantitative research, ent with other researchers. In other words, a measure
then logically it will have to be measured. Once they are should be something that is influenced neither by the
measured, concepts are typically classified as indepen- timing of its administration nor by the person who
dent or dependent variables. In other words, concepts administers it. The measure should generate consistent
may provide an explanation of a certain aspect of the results, other than those that occur as a result of
social world (independent variables), or they may stand changes in the phenomenon being measured. Whether
for things we want to explain (dependent variables). a measure actually possesses this quality has to do with
(There are other categories of variables, but for the sake the issue of reliability, which was introduced in Chapter
of simplicity we will not deal with them here.) A con- 3 and which will be examined again below.
cept such as organizational performance may be used in
either capacity: for example, as a possible explanation of
• Measurement provides the basis for more precise esti-
mates of the degree of relationship between concepts (for
culture (are there differences between highly successful
example, through correlation analysis, which will be
organizations and others, in terms of the cultural values,
examined in Chapter 15). Thus, if we measure both job
norms, and beliefs held by organizational members?)
satisfaction and the things with which it might be
or as something to be explained (what are the causes of
related, such as stress-related illness, we will be able to
variation in organizational performance?). Equally, we
produce more precise estimates of how closely they are
might be interested in evidence of changes in organiza-
associated than if we had not proceeded in this way.
tional performance over time or in variations between
comparable nations in levels of organizational perfor-
mance. As we start to investigate such issues, we are
Indicators
likely to formulate theories to help us understand why,
for example, rates of organizational performance vary Some social phenomena can be measured more or
between countries or over time. This will, in turn, gener- less directly. For example, we can directly measure
ate new concepts, as we try to tackle the explanation of such things as age, annual income, or organizational
variation in rates. size. Many phenomena, however, cannot be measured
directly. In such cases, in order to provide a measure of
a concept (often referred to as an operational definition,
Why measure? a term deriving from the idea of operationalization), it
The focus on measurement in quantitative research reflects is necessary to have an indicator or indicators that will
the underlying ontological assumption that there is an stand for the concept (see Key concept 8.2). There are
objective external reality, and the epistemological assump- various ways in which indicators can be devised:
tion that to develop knowledge about reality we must be
able to engage objectively with the phenomena we are
• through a question (or series of questions) that is part
of a structured interview schedule or self-completion
researching. There are three more specific reasons for the
questionnaire—the question(s) could be concerned
preoccupation with measurement in quantitative research.
with the respondents’ report of an attitude (for exam-
• Measurement allows us to delineate fine differences ple, job satisfaction) or their employment status (for
between people, organizations, or other entities in example, job title) or a report of their behaviour (for
terms of the characteristic in question. This is very use- example, job tasks and responsibilities);
ful, since, although we can often distinguish between
• through the recording of individuals’ behaviour using
entities in terms of extreme categories, finer distinc- a structured observation schedule (for example, mana-
tions are much more difficult to recognize. For exam- gerial activity);
ple, we can detect clear variation in levels of job
satisfaction—people who love their jobs and people
• through the use of existing surveys, such as the Study
of Australian Leadership (see Research in focus 3.13),
who hate their jobs—but small differences are much
which was used to measure aspects of Australian man-
more difficult to detect without measurement of it.
agement practices;
 Concepts and their measurement 169
be undertaken with reference to theory and research
• through an examination of mass media content by
way of content analysis—for example, to determine associated with that concept. For his research on corpo-
changes in the salience of an issue, such as courage in rate social responsibility among Indian IT companies,
managerial decision-making (Harris 2001). Dhanesh (2014) needed to distinguish between the dif-
ferent dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Indicators, then, can be derived from a wide variety of because one of his research questions was: ‘What dimen-
sources and methods. Concepts can be operationalized sions of CSR are most significantly related to the employ-
using either single or multi-item indicators (see Research ees’ relationships with their employing organizations?’
in focus 8.3 and 8.4). Following a review of theory and research on the subject,
he proposed four dimensions of CSR, each of which was
Dimensions of concepts measured through a multiple-item scale comprising sev-
The use of multiple-indicator measures reflects the fact that eral statements requiring respondents to reply in terms of
some phenomena are multi-dimensional. This view is level of agreement or disagreement. The four dimensions
associated particularly with Lazarsfeld (1958). The idea are presented here, each with a representative item.
behind this approach is that, when the researcher is seek-
ing to develop a measure of a concept, the different aspects • Discretionary CSR: for example, ‘This organization has
or components of that concept should be considered. a program in place to reduce the amount of energy and
This specification of the dimensions of a concept would materials wasted in its business.’

8.2 KEY CONCEPT

What is an indicator?
It is worth making two distinctions here. First, there is a distinction between an indicator and a measure. The
latter can be taken to refer to things that can be relatively unambiguously counted. At an individual level,
measures might include personal salary, age, or years of service, whereas at an organizational level they might
include annual turnover or number of employees. Measures, in other words, are quantities. If we are interested,
for example, in some of the correlates of variation in the age of employees in part-time employment, age can be
quantified in a reasonably direct way.

We use indicators to tap concepts that are less directly quantifiable. If we are interested in the causes of variation
in job satisfaction, we will need indicators that will stand for the concept of job satisfaction. These indicators will
allow job satisfaction to be measured and we can treat the resulting quantitative information as if it were a
measure. An indicator, then, is something that is devised or already exists and that is employed as though it were
a measure of a concept. It is viewed as an indirect measure of a concept such as job satisfaction. An IQ test is a
further example, in that it is a battery of indicators of the concept of intelligence.

We see here a second distinction: between direct and indirect indicators of concepts. Indicators may be direct or
indirect in their relationship to the concepts for which they stand. Thus, an indicator of marital status (‘married’ /
‘single’) has a much more direct relationship to its concept than an indicator (or set of indicators) relating to job
satisfaction. Sets of attitudes always need to be measured by batteries of indirect indicators. So too do many
forms of behaviour. When indicators are used that are not true quantities, they will need to be coded to be turned
into quantities. Directness and indirectness are not qualities inherent to indicators: a particular indicator may be
direct or indirect, depending on how it is applied. Data from a survey question on amount earned per month may
be a direct measure of personal income, but if we treat amount earned per month as an indicator of social class,
it becomes an indirect measure. The issue of indirectness raises the question of where an indirect measure
comes from—that is, how does a researcher devise an indicator of something like job satisfaction? Usually, it is
based on common-sense understandings of the forms the concept takes or on anecdotal or qualitative evidence
relating to that concept. Many phenomena will already have been measured in prior research; in such cases,
quantitative researchers often choose to use indicators which have been developed and validated in prior
published work, rather than attempting to develop new ones.
170 8 The nature of quantitative research

8.3 RESEARCH IN FOCUS

A multiple-indicator measure of a concept
The research on cultural values and management ethics by Terence Jackson (2001) involved a questionnaire
survey of part-time MBA and post-experience students in Australia, China, Britain, France, Germany, Hong Kong,
Spain, India, Switzerland, and the USA. This contained 12 phrases, each describing a specific action, and
respondents were asked to judge the extent to which they personally believed the action was ethical on a five-point
scale: 1 = unethical, 5 = ethical. The middle point on the scale allowed for a neutral response. This approach to
investigating a cluster of attitudes is known as a Likert scale. In some cases researchers use a seven-point scale
rather than a five-point scale for responses.

The 12 phrases used in Jackson’s research were as follows:

• accepting gifts/favours in exchange for preferential treatment;

• passing blame for errors to an innocent co-worker;
• divulging confidential information;
• calling in sick to take a day off;
• pilfering organization’s materials and supplies;
• giving gifts/favours in exchange for preferential treatment;
• claiming credit for someone else’s work;
• doing personal business on organization’s time;
• concealing one’s errors;
• taking extra personal time (breaks, etc.);
• using organizational services for personal use;
• not reporting others’ violations of organizational policies.

Respondents were also asked to judge the extent to which they thought their peers believed the action was ethical,
using the same scale. Finally, using the same type of Likert scale, they were asked to evaluate the frequency with
which they and their peers act in the way implied by the statement: 1 = infrequently, 5 = frequently. ‘Hence,
respondents make a judgement as to the extent to which they believe (or they think their colleagues believe) an
action is ethical: the higher the score, the higher the belief that the action is ethical’ (2001: 1283). The study
found that, across all national groups, managers saw their colleagues as less ethical than themselves. The findings
also supported the view that ethical attitudes vary according to cultural context.

economic past, in which it has emerged from a period

• Ethical CSR: for example, ‘In this organization, fairness
toward co-workers and/or business partners is an inte- of ‘crippling crony capitalism’, as he calls it (Dhanesh
gral part of the employee evaluation process.’ 2014: 141).
As well as capturing multiple dimensions of a concept
• Legal CSR: for example, ‘The managers of this organi-
and thus providing a more comprehensive measure,
zation try to comply with the law.’
multiple-indicator measures offer another potential
• Economic CSR: for example, ‘This organization has advantage. It is possible that a single indicator will
been successful at maximizing its profits.’ (Dhanesh incorrectly classify many individuals or organizations.
2014: 144–5) This may be due to the wording of the question or it may
Dhanesh found that CSR was indeed associated with be a product of misunderstanding. If there are a number
better relationships between employees and their orga- of indicators, however, then even if people are misclas-
nizations but that legal CSR was particularly impor- sified through a particular question it will be possible to
tant in this regard. He attributes this to India’s recent offset its effects.
 Concepts and their measurement 171

8.4 RESEARCH IN FOCUS

Specifying dimensions of a concept: the case
of job characteristics
A key question posed by Hackman and Oldham (1980) was: ‘How can work be structured so that employees are
internally motivated?’ Their answer to this question relied on development of a model identifying five job
dimensions that influence employee motivation. At the heart of the model is the suggestion that particular job
characteristics (‘core job dimensions’) affect employees’ experiences of work (‘critical psychological states’), which
in turn have a number of outcomes for both the individual and the organization. The three critical psychological
states are:

• experienced meaningfulness: individual perceives work to be worthwhile in terms of a broader system of

values;
• experienced responsibility: individual believes him or herself to be personally accountable for the outcome of
his or her efforts;
• knowledge of results: individual is able to determine on a regular basis whether or not the outcomes of his or
her work are satisfactory.

In addition, a particular employee’s response to favourable job characteristics is affected by his or her ‘growth
need strength’—that is, his or her need for personal growth and development. It is expected that favourable work
outcomes will occur when workers experience jobs with positive core characteristics; this in turn will stimulate
critical psychological states.

In order to measure these factors, Hackman and Oldham devised the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS), a lengthy
questionnaire that can be used to determine the Motivating Potential Score (MPS) of a particular job—that is, the
extent to which it possesses characteristics that are necessary to influence motivation. Below are the five
dimensions; in each case an example is given of an item that can be used to measure it:

1. Skill variety: ‘The job requires me to use a number of complex or high-level skills.’
2. Task identity: ‘The job provides me with the chance completely to finish the pieces of work I begin.’
3. Task significance: ‘This job is one where a lot of other people can be affected by how well the work gets done.’
4. Autonomy: ‘The job gives me considerable opportunity for independence and freedom in how I do the work.’
5. Feedback: ‘The job itself provides plenty of clues about whether or not I am performing well.’

Respondents are asked to indicate how far they think each statement is accurate, from 1 = very inaccurate to 7 =
very accurate. In Hackman and Oldham’s initial study, the JDS was administered to 658 individuals working in 62
different jobs across 7 organizations. Interpreting an individual’s MPS score involves comparison with norms for
specific job ‘families’, which were generated on the basis of this original sample. For example, professional/
technical jobs have an average MPS of 154, whereas clerical jobs normally have a score of 106. Understanding
the motivational potential of job content thus relies on interpretation of the MPS relative to that of other jobs and in
the context of specific job families. Workers who exhibit adequate knowledge, high growth need strength, and skill,
and who are satisfied with their job context, are expected to respond best to jobs with a high MPS.

Nonetheless, the use of single indicators of concepts increase was from an already high level. The increase in
is widespread. Boyd et al. (2012) have expressed con- the use of single indicators was particularly prominent
cern about the fact that comparing articles published in for measures of dependent variables, with an increase
Strategic Management Journal in 1998–2000 with those from 57.7 per cent of articles in the earlier period to
published in 2010, there has been an increase in the pro- 76.5 per cent in 2010. It would be a mistake, however,
portion of articles using single indicators. Moreover, this to believe that investigations that use a single indicator
172 8 The nature of quantitative research

of core concepts are somehow deficient. In any case, measures are reliable and whether or not they are valid
some studies employ both single- and multiple-indicator representations of the concepts they are supposed to be
measures of concepts. What is crucial is whether or not tapping. It is to this issue that we now turn.

Reliability of measures
Although the terms ‘reliability’ and ‘validity’ seem to be If the measure is stable, we should expect to find a high
almost synonyms, they have quite different meanings in correlation between Obs1 and Obs2. Correlation is a
relation to the evaluation of measures of concepts, as was measure of the strength of the relationship between two
seen in Chapter 3. We deal with reliability in this section variables. This topic will be covered in Chapter 15 in the
of the chapter and with validity in the next. As Key con- context of a discussion about quantitative data analy-
cept 8.5 suggests, reliability is fundamentally concerned sis. Let us imagine that we develop a multiple-indicator
with issues of consistency of measures. There are at least measure that is supposed to tap a concept that we might
three different meanings of the term ‘reliability’: stability, call ‘designerism’ (a preference for buying goods, and
internal reliability, and inter-rater reliability. These are out- especially clothing, with ‘designer’ labels). We would
lined in Key concept 8.5 and elaborated upon in the next administer the measure to a sample of respondents and
three subsections of this chapter. readminister it some time later. If the correlation is low,
the measure would appear to be unstable, implying that
Stability respondents’ answers cannot be relied upon as an indica-
tion of ‘designerism’.
The most obvious way of testing for the stability of a mea- However, there are a number of problems with this
sure is the test–retest method. This involves administering approach to evaluating reliability. First, respondents’
a test or measure on one occasion and then readminister- answers at T1 may influence how they reply at T2. This
ing it to the same sample on another occasion, i.e. may result in greater consistency between Obs1 and
T1 T2 Obs2 than is in fact the case. Secondly, events may
intervene between T1 and T2 that influence the degree
Obs1 Obs2

8.5 KEY CONCEPT

What is reliability?
Reliability refers to the consistency of a measure of a concept. The following are three prominent factors involved
when considering whether a measure is reliable:

• Stability. This consideration entails asking whether or not a measure is stable over time, so that we can be
confident that the results relating to that measure for a sample of respondents do not fluctuate. This means
that, if we administer a measure to a group and then readminister it, there will be little variation over time in
the results obtained.
• Internal reliability. The key issue here is whether or not the indicators that make up the scale or index for a
concept are consistent among themselves—in other words, whether or not respondents’ scores on any one
indicator tend to be related to their scores on the other indicators associated with that concept.
• Inter-rater reliability. When a great deal of subjective judgement is involved in the recording of observations or
the translation of data into categories and where more than one rater is involved in such activities, there is the
possibility that there is a lack of consistency in their decisions. This can arise in a number of contexts: for
example, when answers to open-ended questions have to be categorized; where decisions have to be made
about how to categorize media items, as in content analysis (discussed in Chapter 13); or when observers
have to decide how to classify subjects’ behaviour, as in structured observation (Chapter 13).
 Reliability of measures 173
of consistency. For example, if a long span of time is indicators would be allocated on a random or an odd–
involved, changes in the economy or in respondents’ per- even basis. The degree of correlation between scores
sonal financial circumstances could influence their views on the two halves would then be calculated. In other
about and predilection for designer goods. Of course, if words, the aim would be to establish whether respon-
we were measuring something which is relatively stable dents scoring high on one of the two groups also scored
over time, for example aspects of personality, then we high on the other group of indicators. The calculation
would not expect this problem to manifest itself. There of the correlation will yield a figure, known as a coef-
are no obvious solutions to these problems, other than ficient, that varies between 0 (no correlation and there-
by introducing a complex research design and so turning fore no internal consistency) and 1 (perfect correlation
the investigation of reliability into a major project in its and therefore complete internal consistency). It is usu-
own right. Perhaps for these reasons, many if not most ally accepted that a result of 0.8 and above implies an
reports of research findings do not appear to carry out acceptable level of internal reliability, although for
tests of stability. many purposes 0.7 and above is accepted. Do not worry
if these figures appear somewhat opaque. The meaning
of correlation will be explored in much greater detail
Internal reliability later on. The chief point to carry away with you at this
This meaning of reliability applies to multiple-indicator stage is that the correlation establishes how closely
measures such as those examined in Research in focus respondents’ scores on the two groups of indicators are
8.3 and 8.4. When you have a multiple-item measure in related.
which each respondent’s answers to each question are Nowadays, most researchers use a test of internal
aggregated to form an overall score, the possibility is reliability known as Cronbach’s alpha (see Key con-
raised that the indicators do not relate to the same con- cept 8.6). Its use has grown as a result of its incorpo-
cept; in other words, they lack coherence. We need to ration into computer software for quantitative data
be sure that all our designerism indicators are related analysis.
to each other. If they are not, some of the items may
actually be unrelated to designerism and therefore
Inter-rater reliability
indicative of something else. An example of a study
that assessed internal reliability is given in Research in The idea of inter-rater reliability is briefly outlined in
focus 8.8. Key concept 8.5. The issues involved are rather too
One way of testing internal reliability is the split-half advanced to be dealt with at this stage and will be
method. We can take the management ethics measure briefly touched on in later chapters. Cramer (1998:
developed by Terence Jackson (2001) as an example Chapter 14) provides a very detailed treatment of the
(see Research in focus 8.3). The twelve indicators would issues around inter-rater reliability and appropriate
be divided into two halves, with six in each group. The techniques.

8.6 KEY CONCEPT

What is Cronbach’s alpha?
We may appear to be leaping ahead too much here, but it is important to appreciate the basic features of what
this widely used test means. Cronbach’s alpha is a commonly used test of internal reliability. It essentially
calculates the average of all possible split-half reliability coefficients. A computed alpha coefficient will vary
between 1 (denoting perfect internal reliability) and 0 (denoting no internal reliability). The figure 0.8 is typically
employed as a rule of thumb to denote an acceptable level of internal reliability, though many writers accept a
slightly lower figure. For example, in the case of the burnout scale replicated by Schutte et al. (2000; see
Research in focus 8.9), alpha was 0.7, which they suggest ‘as a rule of thumb’ is ‘considered to be efficient’
(2000: 56).
174 8 The nature of quantitative research

Validity of measures
As noted in Chapter 3, the issue of measurement valid- test in order to establish the quality of some measures in
ity has to do with whether or not a measure of a con- the field of strategic management.
cept really measures that concept (see Key concept 8.7).
When people argue about whether or not a person’s IQ
Concurrent validity
score really measures or reflects that person’s level of
intelligence, they are raising questions about the mea- The researcher might seek also to gauge the concurrent
surement validity of the IQ test in relation to the concept validity of the measure. Here the researcher employs a
of intelligence. Similarly, one often hears people say that criterion on which cases (for example, people) are known
they do not believe that the UK’s Retail Price Index really to differ and that is relevant to the concept in question. A
reflects inflation and the rise in the cost of living. Again, new measure of job satisfaction can serve as an example.
in such comments a query is being raised about measure- A criterion might be absenteeism, because some people
ment validity. And whenever students or lecturers debate are more often absent from work (other than through
whether or not formal examinations provide an accurate illness) than others. In order to establish the concurrent
measure of academic ability, they too are raising ques- validity of a measure of job satisfaction, we might see if
tions about measurement validity. people who are satisfied with their jobs are less likely
Writers distinguish between a number of ways of test- than those who are not satisfied to be absent from work.
ing measurement validity, which really reflect different If a lack of correspondence was found, such as frequent
ways of gauging the validity of a measure of a concept. absentees not having lower levels of job satisfaction than
These different ways of testing validity will now be other employees, doubt might be cast on whether or
outlined. not our measure is really addressing job satisfaction. An
example of a study that measured concurrent validity is
given in Research in focus 8.8.
Face validity
At the very minimum, a researcher who develops a new
measure should establish that it has face validity—that is,
Predictive validity
that the measure apparently reflects the content of the Another possible test for the validity of a new measure is
concept in question. Face validity might be established by predictive validity, whereby the researcher uses a future
asking other people whether or not the measure seems criterion measure, rather than a contemporary one as
to be getting at the concept that is the focus of attention. in the case of concurrent validity. With predictive valid-
In other words, people, possibly those with experience ity, the researcher would take future levels of absentee-
or expertise in a field, might be asked to act as judges to ism as the criterion against which the validity of a new
determine whether or not, on the face of it, the measure measure of job satisfaction would be examined. The dif-
seems to reflect the concept concerned. Face validity is, ference from concurrent validity is that a future rather
therefore, an essentially intuitive process. See Research than a simultaneous criterion measure is employed.
in focus 14.7 for a discussion that uses the face validity Research in focus 8.8 provides an example of research

8.7 KEY CONCEPT

What is validity?
Validity, when used to describe indicators, refers to the issue of whether or not an indicator (or set of indicators)
that is devised to gauge a concept really measures that concept. Several ways of establishing validity are explored
in this section: face validity; concurrent validity; predictive validity; convergent validity; and discriminant
validity. Here the term ‘validity’ is being used as a shorthand for what was referred to as measurement validity in
Chapter 3. Measurement validity should therefore be distinguished from the other terms introduced in Chapter 3:
internal validity; external validity; and ecological validity.
 The main preoccupations of quantitative researchers 175
that administered the criterion measure at a point in attending meetings, touring their organization, informal
the future. Sometimes, predictive validity is assessed by discussions, and so on), we might examine its validity by
asking respondents whether they are likely to engage tracking a number of managers and using a structured
in a certain activity in the future. For example, Sonen- observation schedule to record how much time is spent
shein et al. (2014) were interested in how people’s self- in various activities and their frequency.
evaluations influence their support for environmental
issues. They developed a scale of ‘self-assets’ which asked
Discriminant validity
respondents their level of agreement or disagreement
with statements such as ‘I stay up to date on environ- Discriminant validity entails ensuring that when a mea-
mental issues’ and ‘I am well practiced at making posi- sure is used for one construct (Construct A) it is different
tive environmental change’. As a test of the predictive in terms of its content from a measure used to measure
validity of the scale, the authors also asked respondents another construct (Construct B). For example, Little et al.
about such issues as the likelihood of them engaging in (2012) developed a scale comprising 20 items in order
environmental issue-supportive behaviour in future and to measure ‘interpersonal emotion management’. They
found a clear relationship between the two. sought to ensure that the scale did not overlap substan-
tially with (i.e. had discriminant validity from) measures
of related constructs such as self-reported emotional
Convergent validity intelligence. As the authors put it, the tests of the scale’s
In the view of some methodologists, the validity of a mea- discriminant validity ‘provided support for its distinctive-
sure ought to be gauged by comparing it to measures of ness’ (Little et al. 2012: 417). Testing for discriminant
the same concept developed through other methods. For validity is important in ensuring that there is not excessive
example, if we develop a questionnaire measure of how overlap between measures of constructs that are related.
much time managers spend on various activities (such as

The connection between reliability and validity

The preceding discussion has explained a number of can be made with respect to each of the three criteria of
ways of assessing the merit of measures which are used to reliability that have been discussed. If the measure is not
capture concepts. In quantitative research, it is important stable over time, it simply cannot be providing a valid mea-
that measures are valid and reliable; when new measures sure. The measure could not be tapping the concept it is
are developed they should always be examined for valid- supposed to be related to if the measure fluctuated. If the
ity and reliability. In practice, as noted earlier, research- measure fluctuates, it may be measuring different things
ers commonly employ measures which have previously on different occasions. If a measure lacks internal reli-
been validated and published when they are gathering ability, it means that a multiple-indicator measure is actu-
data on concepts which have featured in earlier research. ally measuring two or more different things; therefore,
It should be borne in mind that, although reliability and the measure cannot be valid. Finally, if there is a lack of
validity are analytically distinguishable, they are related inter-observer consistency, it means that observers cannot
because validity presumes reliability. This means that if agree on the meaning of what they are observing, which
your measure is not reliable, it cannot be valid. This point in turn means that a valid measure cannot be in operation.

The main preoccupations of quantitative researchers

Both quantitative and qualitative research can be viewed grounded beliefs about what constitutes acceptable
as exhibiting a set of distinctive and contrasting preoccu- knowledge, which are informed by ontological assump-
pations. These preoccupations reflect epistemologically tions. In this section, four distinctive preoccupations that
176 8 The nature of quantitative research

8.8 RESEARCH IN FOCUS

Assessing the internal reliability and the concurrent
and predictive validity of a measure of organizational
climate
Patterson et al. (2005) describe the way they went about validating a measure of organizational climate that they
developed. This is a rather loose concept that was first developed in the 1960s and 1970s to refer to the
perceptions of an organization by its members. Four main dimensions of climate were developed, based around
the following notions:

1. Human relations model: the extent of feelings of belonging and trust in the organization and the degree to
which there is training, good communication, and supervisory support.
2. Internal process model: the degree of emphasis on formal rules and on traditional ways of doing things.
3. Open systems model: the extent to which flexibility and innovativeness are valued.

4. Rational goal model: the degree to which clearly defined objectives and the norms and values associated with
efficiency, quality, and high performance are emphasized.

An Organizational Climate Measure, comprising 95 items in a 4-point Likert format (definitely false, mostly false,
mostly true, definitely true) was developed and administered to employees in 55 organizations, with 6869
completing a questionnaire—a response rate of 57 per cent. A factor analysis (see Key concept 8.10) was
conducted to explore the extent to which there were distinct groupings of items that tended to go together. This
procedure yielded 17 scales, such as autonomy, involvement, innovation and flexibility, and clarity of
organizational goals.

The internal reliability of the scales was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha, showing that all scales were at a level of
0.73 or above. This suggests that the measure’s constituent scales were internally reliable.

Concurrent validity was assessed following semi-structured interviews with each company’s managers in
connection with their organization’s practices. The interview data were coded to provide criteria against which the
validity of the scales could be gauged. In most cases, the scales were found to be concurrently valid. For example,
the researchers examined the correlation between a scale designed to measure the emphasis on tradition and the
degree to which practices associated with the ‘new manufacturing paradigm’ (Patterson et al. 2005: 397) were
adopted, as revealed by the interview data. The correlation was −0.42, implying that those firms that were
perceived as rooted in tradition tended to be less likely to adopt new manufacturing practices. Here the adoption
of new manufacturing practices was treated as a criterion to assess the extent to which the scale measuring
perceptions of tradition really was addressing tradition. If the correlation had been small or positive, the concurrent
validity of the scale would have been in doubt.

To assess predictive validity, the researchers asked a senior key informant at each company to complete a
questionnaire one year after the main survey had been conducted. The questionnaire was meant to address two of
the measure’s constituent scales, one of which was the innovation and flexibility scale. It asked the informants to
assess their companies in terms of their innovativeness in a number of areas. For example, the correlation
between the innovation and flexibility scale and informants’ assessment of their companies in terms of
innovativeness with respect to actual products achieved a correlation of 0.53. This implies that there was indeed a
correlation between perceptions of innovativeness and flexibility and a subsequent indicator of innovativeness.

can be discerned in quantitative research will be outlined Measurement

and examined: measurement, causality, generalization,
The most obvious preoccupation is with measurement,
and replication.
a feature that is scarcely surprising in the light of much
 The main preoccupations of quantitative researchers 177
of the discussion in the present chapter so far. From the The concern about causality is reflected in the preoc-
position of quantitative research, measurement car- cupation with internal validity that was referred to in
ries a number of advantages that have been outlined in Chapter 3. There, it was noted that a criterion of good
this chapter. It is not surprising, therefore, that issues quantitative research is frequently the extent to which
of reliability and validity are a concern for quantitative there is confidence in the researcher’s causal inferences.
researchers. Research that exhibits the characteristics of an experi-
mental design is often more highly valued than cross-
sectional research, because of the greater confidence
Causality that can be enjoyed in the causal inferences associated
There is a very strong concern with causal explanation in with the former. For their part, quantitative researchers
most quantitative research. Quantitative researchers are who employ cross-sectional designs continue to attempt
rarely content merely to describe how things are, but are to develop techniques that will allow causal inferences to
keen to say why things are the way they are. This empha- be made with greater confidence.
sis is also often taken to be a feature of the ways in which
the natural sciences proceed. Thus, researchers are often
Generalization
not only interested in describing a phenomenon, such as
motivation to work—for example, describing how moti- In quantitative research the researcher usually hopes to
vated a certain group of employees are, or what pro- be able to say that his or her findings can be generalized
portion of employees in a sample are highly motivated beyond the confines of the particular context in which
and what proportion are largely lacking in motivation. the research was conducted. This can be understood as
Rather, researchers are likely to want to explain the another legacy of quantitative research attempting to
phenomenon, which means examining its causes. The mimic the natural sciences and to develop law-like gen-
researcher may seek to explain motivation to work in eralizations about the social world. Thus, if a study of
terms of personal characteristics (such as ‘growth need motivation to work is carried out using a questionnaire
strength’, which refers to an individual’s need for per- with a number of people answering the questions, we
sonal growth and development—see Research in focus often want to say that the results can apply to individuals
8.4) or in terms of the characteristics of a particular job other than those who responded in the study. In survey
(such as ‘task interest’ or ‘degree of supervision’). In research, this concern reveals itself in the attention given
reports of research you will often come across the idea of to the question of how one can create a representative
independent and dependent variables, terms that reflect sample. Given that it is rarely feasible to send question-
the tendency to think in terms of causes and effects. naires to, or interview, whole populations (such as all
Motivation to work might be regarded as the dependent members of a town, or the whole population of a coun-
variable, which is to be explained, and ‘growth need try, or all members of an organization)—i.e. to conduct
strength’ as an independent variable, which therefore a census—we have to sample. However, we will want the
has a causal influence upon motivation. sample to be as representative as possible in order to be
When an experimental design is being employed, the able to say that the results are not unique to the particu-
independent variable is the variable that is manipulated lar group upon whom the research was conducted; in
by the researcher. There is little ambiguity about the direc- other words, we want to be able to generalize the find-
tion of causal influence. However, with cross-sectional ings beyond the cases (for example, the people) that
designs of the kind used in most social survey research, make up the sample.
there is ambiguity about the direction of causal influence Probability sampling, which will be explored in Chapter
because data concerning variables are simultaneously 9, is the main way in which researchers seek to generate a
collected. Therefore, we cannot say that an independent representative sample. This procedure largely eliminates
variable causes the dependent one. To refer to indepen- bias from the selection of a sample by using a process of
dent and dependent variables in the context of cross-sec- random selection. The use of a random selection process
tional designs, we must infer that one causes the other, does not guarantee a representative sample, because, as
as in the example concerning ‘growth need strength’ and will be seen in Chapter 9, there are factors that operate
motivation to work in the previous paragraph. We must over and above the selection system used that can jeopar-
draw on common sense or theoretical ideas to infer the dize the representativeness of a sample. A related consid-
likely temporal precedence of variables. However, there is eration here is this: even if we did have a representative
always the risk that the inference will be wrong. sample, what would it be representative of? The simple
178 8 The nature of quantitative research

answer is that it will be representative of the population the intrusion of the researcher’s values would appear to
from which it was selected. This is certainly the answer be much greater when examining the social world than
that sampling theory gives us. Strictly speaking, we can- when the natural scientist investigates the natural order.
not generalize beyond that population. This means that, Consequently, it is often regarded as important that the
if the members of the population from which a sample is researcher spells out clearly his or her procedures so that
taken are all inhabitants of a town, city, or region, or are they can be replicated by others, even if the research
all members of an organization, we can generalize only does not end up being replicated. The study by Schutte
to the inhabitants or members of that town, city, region, et al. (2000) described in Research in focus 8.9 relies on
or organization. But it is very tempting to see the findings replication of the Maslach Burnout Inventory—General
as having a more pervasive applicability, so that, even Survey, a psychological measure that has been used by
if the sample was selected from a single large organiza- the authors to test for emotional exhaustion, deperson-
tion such as IBM, the findings are relevant to all similar alization, and reduced personal accomplishment across
organizations. We should not make inferences beyond a range of occupational groups and nations.
the population from which the sample was selected, but It has been relatively straightforward and therefore
researchers frequently do so. The wish to be able to gen- quite common for researchers to replicate the Job Char-
eralize is often so deeply ingrained that the limits to the acteristics Model, developed by Hackman and Oldham
generalizability of findings are frequently forgotten or (1980, see Research in focus 8.4), in order to enhance
sidestepped. confidence in the theory and its findings. Several of
The concern with generalizability or external valid- these have attempted to improve the generalizability of
ity is particularly strong among quantitative researchers the model through its replication in different occupa-
using cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. There tional settings—for example, with teachers, university
is also concern about generalizability in experimental staff, nursery school teachers, and physical education
research, as the discussion of external validity in Chapter and sport administrators. However, some criticism has
3 suggests, but users of this research design usually give been levelled at the original research for failing to make
greater attention to internal validity issues. explicit how the respondent sample was selected, beyond
the fact that it involved a diverse variety of manual and
non-manual occupations in both manufacturing and ser-
Replication vice sectors; this lack of explicitness is seen to undermine
Natural scientists are often depicted as wishing to the potential generalizability of the investigation (Bry-
reduce to a bare minimum the contaminating influence man 1989a). A further criticism relates to the emphasis
of the scientist’s biases and values (Chalmers 2013). that the model places on particular characteristics of a
The results of a piece of research should be unaffected job, such as feedback from supervisors, which may be
by the researcher’s special characteristics or expecta- less of a feature in today’s working context than in the
tions. If biases and lack of objectivity were pervasive, late 1970s. A final criticism made of subsequent replica-
the claims of the natural sciences to provide a definitive tions of the initial study is that they fail to test the total
picture of the world would be seriously undermined. As model, focusing on the core job characteristics rather
a check upon the influence of these potentially damag- than incorporating the effects of the mediating psycho-
ing problems, scientists may seek to replicate—that is, logical states, which Hackman and Oldham suggest are
to reproduce—each other’s experiments. If replication the ‘causal core of the model’ (1976: 255).
failed, so that a scientist’s findings repeatedly could not A study by Johns et al. (1992) attempts to address this
be reproduced, serious questions would be raised about last criticism by specifically focusing on the mediating
the validity of his or her findings. Further, if a study can and moderating effects of psychological states on the
be replicated with consistent results in a number of dif- relationship between job characteristics and outcomes.
ferent contexts, this strengthens the case for generaliza- Basing their research on a random sample of 605 first-
tion from it (Bettis et al. 2016). Consequently, scientists and second-level managers in a large utility company
often attempt to be highly explicit about their procedures (response rate approximately 50 percent), the authors
so that an experiment is capable of replication. Like- used a slightly modified version of the JDS question-
wise, quantitative researchers in the social sciences often naire to determine the relationship between job char-
regard replication, or more precisely the ability to repli- acteristics, psychological states, and outcome variables.
cate, as an important ingredient of their activity. It is easy Their results provide some support for the mediating
to see why: the possibility of a lack of objectivity and of role of psychological states in determining outcomes
 The main preoccupations of quantitative researchers 179

8.9 RESEARCH IN FOCUS

Testing validity through replication: the case
of burnout
The Maslach Burnout Inventory relies on the use of a questionnaire to measure burnout, which is characterized by
emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. This syndrome is particularly
associated with individuals who do ‘people work of some kind’. Findings from the original North American study
(Maslach and Jackson 1981) led the authors to conclude that burnout has certain debilitating effects, resulting
ultimately in a loss of professional efficacy.

A study by Schutte et al. (2000) attempted to replicate these findings across a number of occupational groups
(managers, clerks, foremen, technicians, blue-collar workers) in three different nations—Finland, Sweden, and
the Netherlands. However, subsequent tests of the Maslach Burnout Inventory scale suggested a need for
revisions that would enable its use as a measure of burnout in occupational groups other than the human services,
such as nurses, teachers, and social workers, for whom the original scale was intended. Using this revised,
General Survey version, the researchers sought to investigate its factorial validity, or the extent to which the
dimensions of burnout could be measured using the same questionnaire items in relation to different occupational
and cultural groupings than the original study (see Key concept 8.10 for an explanation of factor analysis).

Following Hofstede (1984; see Chapter 2), employees were drawn from the same multinational corporation in
different countries, in order to minimize the possibility that findings would reflect ‘idiosyncracies’ associated with
one company or another. The final sample size of 9055 reflected a response rate to the questionnaire of 63
percent.

The inventory comprises three subscales, each measured in terms of a series of items. An example of each is
given below:

• Exhaustion (Ex): ‘I feel used up at the end of the workday.’

• Cynicism (Cy): ‘I have become less enthusiastic about my work.’
• Professional Efficacy (PE): ‘In my opinion I am good at my job.’

The individual responds according to a seven-point scale, from 0 = never, to 6 = daily. High scores on Ex and Cy
and low scores on PE are indicative of burnout. A number of statistical analyses were carried out; for example, the
reliability of the subscales was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha as an indicator of internal consistency, meeting
the criterion of 0.70 in virtually all the (sub)samples.

Schutte et al. conclude that their study

• confirms that burnout is a three-dimensional concept;

• clearly demonstrates the factorial validity of the scale across occupational groups;
• reveals that the three subscales are sufficiently internally consistent.

Furthermore, significant differences were found in the pattern of burnout among white- and blue-collar workers,
the former scoring higher on PE and lower on Cy. In interpreting these findings they argue that the higher
white-collar PE scores may have arisen because ‘working conditions are more favourable for managers than for
workers, offering more autonomy, higher job complexity, meaningful work, and more respect for co-workers’
(2000: 64).

Conversely: ‘The relatively high scores on Cy for blue-collar workers reflect indifference and a more distant attitude
towards their jobs. This might be explained by the culture on the shopfloor where distrust, resentment, and
scepticism towards management and the organization traditionally prevail’ (2000: 64).

Finally, Schutte et al. note that there were significant differences across national samples, the Dutch employees
having scores that were consistently lower than those of their Swedish or Finnish colleagues. The authors conclude
180 8 The nature of quantitative research

that the Maslach Burnout Inventory—General Survey is a suitable instrument for measuring burnout in
occupational groups other than human services and in nations other than those in North America. Although
alternative measurement scales exist, the majority of quantitative studies of burnout continue to rely on the
Maslach Burnout Inventory—General Survey and the number of studies carried out is expanding rapidly. A recent
meta-analysis (Key concept 14.8) of quantitative research on burnout identified 86 primary studies conducted
since 2000, 48 of which had been published since 2006. This demonstrates the ongoing popularity of the
measurement tool, especially in European and English-speaking countries (Reichl et al. 2014).

based on core job characteristics—however, not always was dependent on the culture of the country in which
in the way that is specified by the model. In particular, it operates. Studies conducted in China, Egypt, France,
some personal characteristics, such as educational level, Germany, India, and Japan (e.g. Shenoy 1981) sought to
were found to affect psychological states in a reverse test the proposition that some of the characteristic dif-
manner to that which was expected—those with less ferences in organizational structure originally identified
education responded more favourably to elevated psy- by the Aston researchers remained constant across these
chological states. diverse national contexts.
Another significant interest in replication stems However, replication is not a common strategy in
from the original Aston studies (see Research in focus research in the social sciences (Lucas et al. 2013).
3.5), which stimulated a plethora of replications over Standard replications do not form the basis for attrac-
a period of more than 30 years following publication tive articles, so far as many academic journal editors
of the first generation of research in the early 1960s. are concerned. Consequently, replications of research
Most clearly associated with replication were the appear in print far less frequently than might be sup-
‘fourth-generation’ Aston researchers, who undertook posed. A further reason for the low incidence of pub-
studies that: lished replications is that it is difficult to ensure in
business research that the conditions in a replication
• used a more homogenous sample drawn from a single
are precisely the same as those that pertained in an
industry, such as electrical engineering companies,
original study. So long as there is some ambiguity about
‘to further substantiate the predictive power of the
the degree to which the conditions relating to a replica-
Aston findings’ (Grinyer and Yasai-Ardekani 1980:
tion are the same as those in the initial study, any dif-
405); or
ferences in findings may be attributable to the design
• extended the original findings to other forms of organ- of the replication rather than to some deficiency in the
ization, such as churches (e.g. Hinings et al. 1976) or original study.
educational colleges (Holdaway et al. 1975). Nonetheless, it is often regarded as crucial that the
Later proponents of the ‘Aston approach’ made inter- methods taken in generating a set of findings are made
national comparisons of firms in different countries explicit, so that it is possible to replicate a piece of
in order to test the hypothesis that the relationship research. Thus, it is replicability that is often regarded as
between the context and the structure of an organization an important quality of quantitative research.

The critique of quantitative research

Over the years, quantitative research, along with its that have been proffered. These include: criticisms of
epistemological and ontological foundations, has been quantitative research in general as a research strategy;
the focus of a great deal of criticism, particularly from criticisms of the epistemological and ontological founda-
exponents of qualitative research. To a very large extent, tions of quantitative research; and criticisms of specific
it is difficult to distinguish between different kinds of methods and research designs with which quantitative
criticism when reflecting on the different critical points research is associated.
 The critique of quantitative research 181
Criticisms of quantitative research issue relates to the question of ecological validity that
was raised in Chapter 3. Many methods of quantitative
To give a flavour of the critique of quantitative research, research rely heavily on administering research instru-
four criticisms will be covered briefly: ments to subjects (such as structured interviews and
• Quantitative researchers fail to distinguish people and self-completion questionnaires) or on controlling situ-
social institutions from ‘the world of nature’. The phrase ations to determine their effects (such as in experi-
‘the world of nature’ is from the writings of Schutz ments). However, as Cicourel (1982) asks, how do we
(1962; the passage from which it has been taken is know if survey respondents have the requisite knowl-
quoted in full in Chapter 2 of this book). Schutz and edge to answer a question or if they are similar in their
other phenomenologists charge social scientists who sense of the topic being important to them in their eve-
employ a natural science model with treating the social ryday lives? Thus, if respondents answer a set of ques-
world as if it were no different from the natural order. In tions designed to measure motivation to work, can we
so doing, they draw attention to one of positivism’s cen- be sure that they are equally aware of what it is and its
tral tenets—namely, that the principles of the scientific manifestations, and can we be sure that it is of equal
method can and should be applied to all phenomena concern to them in the ways in which it connects with
that are the focus of investigation. As Schutz argues, their everyday working life? One can go even further
this tactic essentially means turning a blind eye to the and ask how well their answers relate to their everyday
differences between the social and natural world. More lives. People may answer a question designed to meas-
particularly, as was observed in Chapter 2, it therefore ure their motivation to work, but respondents’ actual
means ignoring and riding roughshod over the fact that behaviour may be at variance with their answers
people interpret the world around them, whereas this (LaPiere 1934).
capacity for self-reflection cannot be found among the • The analysis of relationships between variables creates
objects of the natural sciences (‘molecules, atoms, and a static view of social life that is independent of people’s
electrons’, as Schutz put it). lives. Blumer argued that studies that aim to bring
• The measurement process possesses an artificial and spu- out the relationships between variables omit ‘the
rious sense of precision and accuracy. There are a num- process of interpretation or definition that goes on in
ber of aspects to this criticism, but the overarching human groups’ (1956: 685). This means that we do
criticism is that in social science quantitative data are not know how what appears to be a relationship
often qualitative data which have been ‘forced’ into between two or more variables has been produced by
numerical form. More specifically, it has been argued the people to whom it applies. This criticism incorpo-
that the connection between the measures developed rates the first and third criticisms here—that the
by social scientists and the concepts they are supposed meaning of events to individuals is ignored and that
to be revealing is assumed rather than real; hence, we do not know how such findings connect to every-
Cicourel’s (1964) notion of ‘measurement by fiat’. Test- day contexts—but adds a further element: namely,
ing for validity in the manner described in the previous that it creates a sense of a static social world that is
section cannot really address this problem, because the separate from the individuals who make up that
very tests themselves entail measurement by decree. A world. In other words, quantitative research is seen
further way in which the measurement process is as embodying an objectivist ontology that reifies the
regarded by writers like Cicourel as flawed is that it pre- social world.
sumes that when, for example, members of a sample We can see in these criticisms the application of a set of
respond to a question on a questionnaire (which is concerns associated with a qualitative research strategy.
itself taken to be an indicator of a concept), they inter- These criticisms combine an interpretivist epistemologi-
pret the key terms in the question similarly. For many cal orientation (an emphasis on meaning from the indi-
writers, respondents simply do not interpret such terms vidual’s point of view) and a constructionist ontology (an
similarly. An often-used reaction to this problem is to emphasis on viewing the social world as the product of
use questions with fixed-choice answers, but this individuals rather than as something beyond them). The
approach merely provides ‘a solution to the problem of criticisms may appear very damning, but, as we will see
meaning by simply ignoring it’ (Cicourel 1964: 108). in Chapter 17, quantitative researchers have a powerful
• The reliance on instruments and procedures hinders the battery of criticisms of qualitative research in their arse-
connection between research and everyday life. This nal as well!
182 8 The nature of quantitative research

Is it always like this?

One of the problems with characterizing any research to conceptualization. One way in which this can occur
strategy, research design, or research method is that to is when a statistical technique known as factor analysis
a certain extent one is always outlining an ideal-typical is employed (see Key concept 8.10). In order to measure
approach. In other words, we tend to create something the concept of ‘charismatic leadership’, a term that owes
that represents that strategy, design, or method by a great deal to Weber’s (1947) notion of charismatic
highlighting significant aspects of it, but that may not authority, Conger and Kanungo (1998) generated 25
be reflected in its entirety in research practice. This gap items to provide a multiple-item measure of the concept.
between the ideal type and actual practice can arise as a These items derived from their reading of existing theory
result of at least two major considerations. First, it happens and research on the subject, particularly in connection
because those of us who write about and teach research with charismatic leadership in organizations. When the
methods cannot cover every eventuality that can arise items were administered to a sample of respondents and
in the process of business research, so we tend to pro- the results were factor analysed, it was found that the
vide accounts of the research process that draw upon items bunched around six factors, each of which to all
common features. Thus a model of the process of quan- intents and purposes represents a dimension of the con-
titative research, such as that provided in Figure 8.1, cept of charismatic leadership:
should be thought of as a general tendency rather than
as a definitive description of all quantitative research. A • strategic vision and articulation behaviour;

second reason why the gap can emerge is that, to a very • sensitivity to the environment;
large extent, when writing about and teaching research • unconventional behaviour;
methods we are essentially providing an account of good
• personal risk;
practice. The fact of the matter is that these practices are
often not followed in the published research that stu- • sensitivity to organizational members’ needs;

dents are likely to encounter in the substantive courses • action orientation away from the maintenance of the
that they will be taking. This failure to follow the pro- status quo.
cedures associated with good practice is not necessarily The point to note is that these six dimensions were not
due to incompetence on the part of business researchers specified at the outset: the link between conceptualiza-
(though in some cases it can be!), but is much more likely tion and measurement was an inductive one. This is not
to be associated with matters of time, cost, and feasibil- an unusual situation so far as research is concerned (Bry-
ity—in other words, the pragmatic concerns that cannot man 1988a: 26–8).
be avoided when one does business research.

Reliability and validity testing

Reverse operationism
The second reason why the gap between the ideal
As an example of the first source of the gap between the type and actual research practice can arise is because
ideal type and actual research practice we can take the researchers do not always follow recommended prac-
case of something that Bryman has referred to as ‘reverse tices. A classic case of this tendency is that while much
operationism’ (1988a: 28). The model of the process of time and effort are expended on the articulation of the
quantitative research in Figure 8.1 implies that concepts ways in which the reliability and validity of measures
are specified and measures are then provided for them. should be determined, these procedures are not always
As we have noted, this means that indicators must be followed. Boyd et al. (2012) found that for articles
devised. This is the basis of the idea of ‘operationism’ or published in Strategic Management Journal between
‘operationalism’, a term that derives from physics (Bridg- 1998 and 2000, 49.8 per cent of all possible reliability
man 1927) and that implies a deductive view of how estimates were reported for measures of independent
research should proceed. However, this view of research variables and 41 per cent for dependent variables;
neglects the fact that measurement can entail much in 2010, these percentages had increased consider-
more of an inductive element than Figure 8.1 implies. ably to 87.5 and 64.7 per cent respectively. This is
Sometimes, measures are developed that in turn lead not to say that research that fails to report reliability
 Key points 183

8.10 KEY CONCEPT

What is factor analysis?
Factor analysis is employed in relation to multiple-indicator measures to determine whether groups of indicators
tend to bunch together to form distinct clusters, referred to as factors. Its main goal is to reduce the number of
variables with which the researcher needs to deal. It is used in relation to multiple-item measures, such as Likert
scales, to see how far there is an inherent structure to the large number of items that often make up such
measures. Researchers sometimes use factor analysis to establish whether the dimensions of a measure that they
expect to exist can be confirmed. The clusters of items that are revealed by a factor analysis need to be given
names (for example, ‘innovation and flexibility’ or ‘autonomy’ in the example in Research in focus 8.8). It is a
complex technique that is beyond the level at which this book is pitched (see Bryman and Cramer 2008: Chapter
13), but it has considerable significance for the development of measures in many social scientific fields.

estimates is necessarily unstable and invalid, but that or probability samples. However, quite a lot of research
we simply do not know. is based on non-probability samples—that is, samples
The reasons why the procedures for determining sta- that have not been selected in terms of the principles
bility and validity are not as commonly used as might be of probability sampling to be discussed in Chapter 9.
supposed are almost certainly the cost and time that are Sometimes the use of non-probability samples will be
likely to be involved. Researchers tend to be concerned due to the impossibility or extreme difficulty of obtain-
with substantive issues and are less than enthusiastic ing probability samples. Yet another reason is that the
about engaging in the kind of development work that time and cost involved in securing a probability sample
would be required for a thoroughgoing determination are too great relative to the level of resources available.
of measurement quality. These remarks on the lack of And a third reason is that sometimes the opportunity
assessment of the quality of measurement should not be to study a certain group presents itself and represents
taken as a justification for readers to neglect this phase in too good an opportunity to miss. Again, such consider-
their work. Our aim is merely to draw attention to some ations should not be viewed as a justification and hence
of the ways in which practices described in this book are a set of reasons for ignoring the principles of sampling
not always followed and to suggest some reasons why examined in the next chapter, because not following the
they are not followed. principles of probability sampling carries implications
for the kind of statistical analysis that can be employed
(see Chapter 15). Instead, our purpose, as before, is to
Sampling
draw attention to the ways in which gaps between rec-
A similar point can be made in relation to sampling, ommendations about good practice and actual research
covered in Chapter 9. As we will see, good practice is practice can arise.
strongly associated with the use of random samples

!
KEY POINTS
● Quantitative research can be characterized as a linear series of steps moving from theory to
conclusions, but the process described in Figure 8.1 is an ideal type from which there may be many
departures.
● The measurement process in quantitative research entails the search for indicators.
● Establishing the reliability and validity of measures is important for assessing their quality.
184 8 The nature of quantitative research

● Quantitative research can be characterized as exhibiting certain preoccupations, the most central of
which are: measurement; causality; generalization; and replication.
● Quantitative research has been subjected to many criticisms by qualitative researchers. These
criticisms tend to revolve around the view that a natural science model is inappropriate for studying
the social world.

? QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW

The main steps in quantitative research

● What are the main steps in quantitative research?
● To what extent do the main steps follow a strict sequence?
● Do the steps suggest a deductive or inductive approach to the relationship between theory and
research?

Concepts and their measurement

● Why is measurement important for the quantitative researcher?
● What is the difference between a measure and an indicator?
● Why might multiple-indicator approaches to the measurement of concepts be preferable to those that
rely on a single indicator?

Reliability and validity

● What are the main ways of thinking about the reliability of the measurement process? Is one form of
reliability the most important?
● ‘Whereas validity presupposes reliability, reliability does not presuppose validity.’ Discuss.
● What are the main criteria for evaluating measurement validity?

The main preoccupations of quantitative researchers

● Outline the main preoccupations of quantitative researchers. What reasons can you give for their
prominence?
● Why might replication be an important preoccupation among quantitative researchers, in spite of
replications in business research being fairly rare?

The critique of quantitative research

● ‘The crucial problem with quantitative research is the failure of its practitioners to address adequately
the issue of meaning.’ Discuss.
● In the critique by qualitative researchers of quantitative research, how central is the adoption by
quantitative researchers of a natural science model of conducting research?

ONLINE RESOURCES
[Link]/uk/brm5e/

Visit the Interactive Research Guide that accompanies this book to complete an exercise focused on
the nature of quantitative research.
 144 >part II The Design of Business Research

> What Is Qualitative Research?

Managers basically do business research to understand how and why things happen. If the manager
needs to know only what happened, or how often things happened, quantitative research methodolo-
gies would serve the purpose. But to understand the different meanings that people place on their
experiences often requires research techniques that delve more deeply into people’s hidden interpre-
tations, understandings, and motivations. Qualitative research is designed to tell the researcher how
(process) and why (meaning) things happen as they do. While qualitative research currently accounts
for about 20% of research expenditures by businesses, that is set to change. With technology help-
ing to rapidly expand the insights drawn from social media analysis (netnography), ethnography,
crowdsourcing (tasking an undefined public with a problem or task), marketing research online
communities (MROCs), and virtual groups, the use of qualitative research by business is expected
to explode.1
Qualitative research includes an “array of interpretive techniques which seek to describe, decode,
translate, and otherwise come to terms with the meaning, not the frequency, of certain more or less
naturally occurring phenomena in the social world.”2 Qualitative techniques are used at both the data
collection and data analysis stages of a research project. At the data collection stage, the array of tech-
niques includes focus groups, individual depth interviews (IDIs), case studies, ethnography, grounded
theory, action research, and observation. During analysis, the qualitative researcher uses content analy-
sis of written or recorded materials drawn from personal expressions by participants, behavioral ob-
servations, and debriefing of observers, as well as the study of artifacts and trace evidence from the
physical environment. Observation as a methodology deserves special attention and is covered in detail
in Chapter 8.
Qualitative research aims to achieve an in-depth understanding of a situation, whether it explains
why a person entering a Kroger grocery proceeds down each aisle in turn or heads for the rear of the
store and chooses only alternate aisles thereafter or explains why some advertisements make us laugh
and contribute to our commitment to a brand while others generate outrage and boycotts. Judith Langer,
a noted qualitative researcher, indicates that qualitative research is ideal if you want to extract feelings,
emotions, motivations, perceptions, consumer “language,” or self-described behavior.3 Exhibit 7-1
offers some examples of appropriate uses of qualitative research in business.
Qualitative research draws data from a variety of sources, including the following:4
• People (individuals or groups).
• Organizations or institutions.
• Texts (published, including virtual ones).
• Settings and environments (visual/sensory and virtual material).
• Objects, artifacts, media products (textual/visual/sensory and virtual material).
• Events and happenings (textual/visual/sensory and virtual material).
In this chapter we will focus on the qualitative methods that draw data from people and organiza-
tions. The next chapter focuses on observation studies, which many authors consider an important
contribution to qualitative data and which also contribute to the last four categories.

> Qualitative versus Quantitative Research

The Controversy
Qualitative research methodologies have roots in a variety of disciplines, including anthropology,
sociology, psychology, linguistics, communication, economics, and semiotics. Historically, qualita-
tive methodologies have been available much longer—some as early as the 19th century—than the
quantitative tools marketers rely on so heavily. Possibly because of their origins, qualitative methods
don’t enjoy the unqualified endorsement of upper management. Many senior managers maintain that

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 >chapter 7 Qualitative Research 145

>snapshot
What Does Cyberspace Offer for Performance Review Research?

Many successful leaders understand that performance feedback networking can be leveraged for performance review? Enterprise
is important. They know how meaningful it was to them in their Rent-a-Car encourages its employees to add a widget about
personal and career growth. As a result, many successful orga- company jobs to their personal Facebook pages, and employ-
nizations have 360-degree formal feedback systems. Employ- ees get paid if the widgets result in a hire.
ees have traditionally received this feedback through periodic Rypple is a company stepping into the social-networking-for-
surveys completed by subordinates, peers, and supervisors. performance-reviews space, taking a page from Facebook and
An Accenture study, however, shows many middle manag- Twitter, to make performance appraisal research more useful.
ers value informal feedback, because the traditional formal re- What’s a Rypple? Think of it as a Tweet with a purpose. With
view process generates less specific feedback than desired and Rypple you can ask a question like, “What can I do to make
is not timely in its delivery. So with Generation Y moving into YOU more effective in your role?” or “What can I do to help us
management roles, can human resources (HR) leverage its love be more effective in reaching our division’s goals?” Using con-
of the Web as a way to enhance informal performance review? tacts from existing sources like Outlook, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail,
Employees comfortable with the Web are already using it or Facebook, you select prospects to receive a brief message
to vent publicly about their job on sites like [Link] and requesting feedback. The message contains a link to a short on-
[Link]. Others create Google discussion groups or a line form where the contact types in his or her response (called
Web forum to discuss what they like and what they don’t like a rypple) to the single question. Feedback is aggregated, quickly
about their company, their industry, and even their boss. Some returned, and semi-anonymous (restricted to those contacts to
companies are using these anonymous tirades to identify and whom you sent your message). Rypple indicates 50 percent of
address workplace issues. those asked for feedback will provide it.
Social networks have long been used in the hiring process. Daniel Portillo, the senior director of personnel at Mozilla,
According to Kenexa, a human resource company that studies makers of the Firefox browser, tried it. “It’s impossible to de-
human behavior and team dynamics in the workplace, and of- velop if you’re not getting constructive criticism.” He discovered
fers software, business processes and consulting, “more than “people are direct, but not malicious.”
30 percent of the employees being hired in private organiza- [Link]; [Link]; [Link];
tions come through employee referrals—the highest from any [Link]; [Link]
one particular source.” Is it a logical extension, then, to see if

qualitative data are too subjective and susceptible to human error and bias in data collection and in-
terpretation. They believe such research provides an unstable foundation for expensive and critical
business decisions. The fact that results cannot be generalized from a qualitative study to a larger
population is considered a fundamental weakness.
Increasingly, however, managers are returning to these techniques as quantitative techniques fall
short of providing the insights needed to make those ever-more-expensive business decisions. Manag-
ers deal with the issue of trustworthiness of qualitative data through exacting methodology:5
• Carefully using literature searches to build probing questions.
• Thoroughly justifying the methodology or combination of methodologies chosen.
• Executing the chosen methodology in its natural setting (field study) rather than a highly
controlled setting (laboratory).
• Choosing sample participants for relevance to the breadth of the issue rather than how well they
represent the target population.
• Developing and including questions that reveal the exceptions to a rule or theory.
• Carefully structuring the data analysis.
• Comparing data across multiple sources and different contexts.
• Conducting peer-researcher debriefing on results for added clarity, additional insights, and
reduced bias.

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 146 >part II The Design of Business Research

>Exhibit 7-1 Some Appropriate Uses for Qualitative Research

Decision Arena Questions to Be Answered

Job Analysis • Does the current assignment of tasks generate the most productivity?
• Does the advancement through different job levels incorporate the
necessary training to foster the strongest performance?

Advertising Concept • What images should we use to connect with our target customers’
Development motivations?

Productivity Enhancement • What actions could we take to boost worker productivity without gen-
erating worker discontent?

New Product Development • What would our current market think of a proposed product idea?
• We need new products, but what should they be to take advantage
of our existing customer-perceived strengths?
• Which products will create the greatest synergy with our existing
products in terms of ROI and distribution partner growth?

Benefits Management • Should our compensation plan be more flexible and customizable?
• How do employees perceive wellness-prevention programs as com-
pared to corrective health programs in terms of value?

Retail Design • How do consumers prefer to shop in our store? Do they shop with a
defined purpose, or are they affected by other motives?

Process Understanding • What steps are involved in cleaning a wood floor? How is our product
perceived or involved in this process?

Market Segmentation • Why does one demographic or lifestyle group use our product more
than another?
• Who are our customers and how do they use our product to support
their lifestyle?
• What is the influence of culture on product choice?

Union Representation • How do various departments perceive the current effort to unionize
our plant? Where and what are the elements of discontent?

Sales Analysis • Why have once-loyal customers stopped buying our service?

The Distinction
To understand the distinctions between qualitative and quantitative methodologies, let’s define the
latter. Quantitative research attempts precise measurement of something. In business research,
quantitative methodologies usually measure consumer behavior, knowledge, opinions, or attitudes.
Such methodologies answer questions related to how much, how often, how many, when, and who.
Although the survey is not the only methodology of the quantitative researcher, it is considered a
dominant one.
The purpose of qualitative research is based on “researcher immersion in the phenomenon to be
studied, gathering data which provide a detailed description of events, situations and interaction be-
tween people and things, [thus] providing depth and detail.”6 Quantitative research is often used for
theory testing (Will a $1-off instant coupon or a $1.50 mail-in rebate generate more sales for Kellogg’s
Special K?), requiring that the researcher maintain a distance from the research to avoid biasing the
results. Qualitative research—sometimes labeled interpretive research because it seeks to develop
understanding through detailed description—often builds theory but rarely tests it.
Besides the purpose of the research, this process sets up several key distinctions between qualita-
tive and quantitative research, elaborated in Exhibit 7-2, including level of researcher involvement;

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 >chapter 7 Qualitative Research 147

>Exhibit 7-2 Qualitative versus Quantitative Research

Qualitative Quantitative

Focus of Research • Understand and interpret • Describe, explain, and predict

Researcher Involvement • High—researcher is participant or catalyst • Limited; controlled to prevent bias

Research Purpose • In-depth understanding; theory building • Describe or predict; build and test theory

Sample Design • Nonprobability; purposive • Probability

Sample Size • Small • Large

Research Design • May evolve or adjust during the course of the • Determined before commencing the project
project
• Uses single method or mixed methods
• Often uses multiple methods simultaneously or
• Consistency is critical
sequentially
• Involves either a cross-sectional or a longitudinal
• Consistency is not expected
approach
• Involves longitudinal approach

Participant Preparation • Pretasking is common • No preparation desired to avoid biasing the

participant

Data Type and • Verbal or pictorial descriptions • Verbal descriptions

Preparation
• Reduced to verbal codes (sometimes with com- • Reduced to numerical codes for computerized
puter assistance) analysis

Data Analysis • Human analysis following computer or human • Computerized analysis—statistical and mathemat-
coding; primarily nonquantitative ical methods dominate
• Forces researcher to see the contextual • Analysis may be ongoing during the project
framework of the phenomenon being
• Maintains clear distinction between facts and
measured—distinction between facts and
judgments
judgments less clear
• Always ongoing during the project

Insights and Meaning • Deeper level of understanding is the norm; de- • Limited by the opportunity to probe respondents
termined by type and quantity of free-response and the quality of the original data collection
questions instrument
• Researcher participation in data collection allows • Insights follow data collection and data entry, with
insights to form and be tested during the process limited ability to reinterview participants

Research Sponsor • May participate by observing research in real • Rarely has either direct or indirect contact with
Involvement time or via taped interviews participant

Feedback Turnaround • Smaller sample sizes make data collection faster • Larger sample sizes lengthen data collection;
for shorter possible turnaround Internet methodologies are shortening turnaround
but inappropriate for many studies
• Insights are developed as the research
progresses, shortening data analysis • Insight development follows data collection and
entry, lengthening research process; interviewing
software permits some tallying of responses as
data collection progresses

Data Security • More absolute given use of restricted access • Act of research in progress is often known by
facilities and smaller sample sizes competitors; insights may be gleaned by competi-
tors for some visible, field-based studies

Source: This exhibit was developed from material extracted from Judith Langer, The Mirrored Window: Focus Groups from a Moderator’s
Point of View (Ithaca, NY: Paramount Market Publishing, 2001); Hy Mariampolski, Qualitative Market Research: A Comprehensive Guide
(Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2001); David Carson, Audrey Gilmore, Chad Perry, and Kjell Gronhaug, Qualitative Marketing
Research (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2001); and Norman K. Denzin and Ynonna S. Lincoln, editors, The SAGE Handbook
of Qualitative Research, 4th ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, April 27, 2011).

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 148 >part II The Design of Business Research

sampling methodology and size; data collection processes, including participant preparation and
researcher and research sponsor involvement; data type and preparation; data analysis and timing;
processes for reaching insights and meaning; time frame of insight discovery; and the level of data
security.7
Unlike the case with quantitative data, both the researcher and research sponsor often have more sig-
nificant involvement in collecting and interpreting qualitative data. The researcher may serve as a par-
ticipant or a catalyst, as a participant observer, or as a group interview moderator. The research sponsor
may observe (in some cases via Webcast of interviews directly to the sponsor’s desktop computer),
influence interview questions, and add interpretations and insights during the process. By contrast, with
large quantitative studies, the researcher who interprets the data and draws conclusions from it is rarely
the data collector and often has no contact at all with the participant.
Since researchers are immersed in the participant’s world, any knowledge they gain can be used to
adjust the data extracted from the next participant. In quantitative research, identical data are desired
from all participants, so evolution of methodology is not acceptable.
Quantitative data often consist of participant responses that are coded, categorized, and reduced to
numbers so that these data may be manipulated for statistical analysis. One objective is the quantitative
tally of events or opinions, called frequency of response. Qualitative data are all about texts. Detailed
descriptions of events, situations, and interactions, either verbal or visual, constitute the data. Data
may be contained within transcriptions of interviews or video focus groups, as well as in notes taken
during those interactions. But by definition they generate reams of words that need to be coded and
analyzed by humans for meaning. While computer software is increasingly used for the coding process
in qualitative research, at the heart of the qualitative process is the researcher—and his or her experi-
ence—framing and interpreting the data.8
Qualitative studies with their smaller sample sizes offer an opportunity for faster turnaround of
findings. While speed should never be the primary reason for choosing a methodology, qualitative data
may be especially useful to support a low-risk decision that must be made quickly.
Multimillion-dollar strategies may lose their power if the competitor reacts too quickly. Data secu-
rity is therefore of increasing concern. Both group and individual interviewing, the mainstay techniques
of qualitative research, can be conducted in highly secure environments. In comparison, once a quan-
titative survey or field observation or experiment is started, it is quickly common knowledge among a
research sponsor’s competitors. Although the data might not be known, the area of inquiry often can be
determined. For example, in a test market—an experimental quantitative design—a research sponsor’s
competitors can often observe and extract insights right along with the sponsor.

> The Process of Qualitative Research

The process of developing a qualitative project is similar to the research process introduced in Chap-
ter 1. However, three key distinctions suggested in the previous sections do affect the research pro-
cess: (1) the level of question development in the management-research question hierarchy prior to
the commencing of qualitative research, (2) the preparation of the participant prior to the research
experience, and (3) the nature and level of data that come from the debriefing of interviewers or
observers.
The qualitative researcher starts with an understanding of the manager’s problem, but the
management-research question hierarchy is rarely developed prior to the design of research methodol-
ogy. Rather, the research is guided by a broader question more similar in structure to the management
question. Exhibit 7-3 introduces the modifications to the research process.
Much of qualitative research involves the deliberate preparation of the participant, called preex-
ercises or pretasking. This step is important due to the desire to extract detail and meaning from the
participant. A variety of creative and mental exercises draw participants’ understanding of their own
thought processes and ideas to the surface. Some of these include:
• Placing the product or medium for in-home use (with instructions to use the product or
medium—e.g., a magazine—repeatedly over the preparation period before the interview).

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 >chapter 7 Qualitative Research 149

>Exhibit 7-3 Qualitative Research and the Research Process

Clarifying the Research Question

Discover the Management Dilemma

Define the Management Question

Define the Research Question(s)

Exploration Refine the Exploration
Research Question(s)

Research
Proposal

Research Design
Strategy
(type, purpose, time frame, scope, environment)

Data Collection Sample Size &

Design Recruiting Plan

Discussion Guide
Development & Pretesting

Data Collection & Preparation Pretasking

Debriefing of Moderators,
Observers, & Participants

Insight Development &

Interpretation of Data

Research Reporting

Management
Decision

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 150 >part II The Design of Business Research

>picprofile
When Anderson Analytics wanted to help its research participants delve into their deepest thoughts on a research topic,
they used projective techniques that employed a colorful cast of characters. Participants choose one from the cast that most
closely represents them or another they are trying to describe. They then attributed attitudes, feelings, emotions, and percep-
tions to the character. “The added bonus of the characters is that some of the characters elicit similar responses [across
research projects], so we have some idea on benchmarking,” shared Anderson Analytics managing partner Tom Anderson.
“For instance the heavier male character with the guitar is often thought of as an outsider, ‘poser’ wanting desperately to fit in,
generally not well liked.” [Link]

• Having the participants bring visual stimuli (e.g., family photos of areas or rooms in their homes
that they hate to clean or have trouble decorating, or a favorite item of clothing).
• Having the participants prepare a visual collage (e.g., taking pictures over several weeks, with
a one-time-use camera, of their children’s favorite outfits for different purposes or situations or
cutting pictures out of magazines that reflect how they feel when using a particular product or
brand).
• Having the participants keep detailed diaries of behavior and perceptions (e.g., a record of their
step-by-step experience preparing a meal using a particular product).
• Having the participants draw a picture of an experience (e.g., what they felt like when they last
shopped in a particular store).
• Having the participants write a dialog of a hypothetical experience (e.g., how a conversa-
tion between the participant and a sales associate would progress when a complaint was not
resolved).9

Pretasking is rarely used in observation studies and is considered a major source of error in quantitative
studies.
In quantitative research, unless a researcher is collecting his or her own data, interviewers or data
collectors are rarely involved in the data interpretation or analysis stages. Although data collectors
contribute to the accuracy of data preparation, their input is rarely, if ever, sought in the development
of data interpretations. In qualitative studies, due to the higher level of involvement of both the spon-
sor and the interviewer/data collector, these parties in the process are often debriefed or interviewed,
with their insight adding richness to the interpretation of the data. Exhibit 7-4 provides an example of
research question formation for a qualitative project.

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 >chapter 7 Qualitative Research 151

>Exhibit 7-4 Formulating the Qualitative Research Question

1
Discover
Management
Dilemma
1a Exploration
Literature Search and Expert Interviews
Sales in many of our established • What new product categories show evidence
product categories are flat. We need of long-term strength?
to increase revenues.
• Which product categories match our expertise
in manufacturing? in customer profile? in
distribution?
• In which categories do our current competitors
lack competency? Have superior competency?

2
Define
Management
Question
2a
Qualitative Research
• What new product categories pose
the best opportunities for sales? Convergent Interviewing Focus Groups with
• To what degree are we positioned in • Industry analysts • Current customers
the minds of our customers to take
advantage of these opportunities? • Futurists Using
• Engineers • Component sort
• Imaginary universe

3
Define
Research
Question(s)

• Does product A or B have the most

potential for success?
• How should each of these be
positioned in the marketplace for
best performance?

> Qualitative Research Methodologies

The researcher chooses a qualitative methodology based on the project’s purpose; its schedule, includ-
ing the speed with which insights are needed; its budget; the issue(s) or topics(s) being studied; the
types of participants needed; and the researcher’s skill, personality, and preferences.

Sampling
One general sampling guideline exists for qualitative research: Keep sampling as long as your breadth
and depth of knowledge of the issue under study are expanding; stop when you gain no new knowledge
or insights. That said, sample sizes for qualitative research vary by technique but are generally small.

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 152 >part II The Design of Business Research

A study might include just two or three focus groups or a few dozen individual depth interviews. How-
ever unusual, one AT&T study, conducted to develop its 800 Reasons ad campaign for using AT&T
long-distance service, used thousands of structured interviews in dozens of cities over several weeks.
These interviews provided numerous reasons why businesses used the AT&T 800 service, and each of
these “reasons” became the focus of a television and/or magazine ad in the multi-ad campaign.10
Qualitative research involves nonprobability sampling—where little attempt is made to generate a
representative sample. Several types of nonprobability sampling are common:
• Purposive sampling. Researchers choose participants arbitrarily for their unique characteristics
or their experiences, attitudes, or perceptions; as conceptual or theoretical categories of partici-
pants develop during the interviewing process, researchers seek new participants to challenge
emerging patterns.
• Snowball sampling. Participants refer researchers to others who have characteristics, experi-
ences, or attitudes similar to or different from their own.
• Convenience sampling. Researchers select any readily available individuals as participants.

Interviews
The interview is the primary data collection technique for gathering data in qualitative methodologies.
Interviews vary based on the number of people involved during the interview, the level of structure,
the proximity of the interviewer to the participant, and the number of interviews conducted during the
research.
An interview can be conducted individually (individual depth interview, or IDI) or in groups.
Exhibit 7-5 compares the individual and the group interview as a research methodology. Both have a
distinct place in qualitative research.
Interviewing requires a trained interviewer (often called a moderator for group interviews) or the
skills gained from experience. These skills include making respondents comfortable, probing for detail
without making the respondent feel harassed, remaining neutral while encouraging the participant to
talk openly, listening carefully, following a participant’s train of thought, and extracting insights from
hours of detailed descriptive dialogue. Skilled interviewers learn to use their personal similarities with

>Exhibit 7-5 A Comparison of Individual Depth Interviews and Group Interviews

Individual Interview Group Interview

Research Objective
• Explore life of individual in depth • Orient the researcher to a field of inquiry and the language of the
field
• Create case histories through repeated interviews over time
• Test a survey
• Explore a range of attitudes, opinions, and behaviors
• Observe a process of consensus and disagreement
• Add contextual detail to quantitative findings

Topic Concerns
• Detailed individual experiences, choices, biographies • Issues of public interest or common concern
• Sensitive issues that might provoke anxiety • Issues where little is known or of a hypothetical nature

Participants
• Time-pressed participants or those difficult to recruit (e.g., • Participants whose backgrounds are similar or not so dissimilar
elite or high-status participants) as to generate conflict or discomfort
• Participants with sufficient language skills (e.g., those older • Participants who can articulate their ideas
than seven)
• Participants who offer a range of positions on issues
• Participants whose distinctions would inhibit participation

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 >chapter 7 Qualitative Research 153

or differences from their interviewee to mine for information; similarities are used to convey sympathy
and understanding, while differences are used to demonstrate eagerness to understand and empathize.
In quantitative research we are more interested in the data collector’s following a prescribed proce-
dure, whereas in qualitative research the individual conducting the interview needs a fuller understand-
ing of the dilemma and how the insights will be used. So a skilled interviewer must be a “quick-study,”
someone who can grasp an understanding of an issue without necessarily having prior experience with
the product or service or being a technical expert.
The researcher chooses either an unstructured interview (no specific questions or order of topics to
be discussed, with each interview customized to each participant; generally starts with a participant nar-
rative) or a semistructured interview (generally starts with a few specific questions and then follows the
individual’s tangents of thought with interviewer probes) or a structured interview (often uses a detailed
interview guide similar to a questionnaire to guide the question order and the specific way the questions
are asked, but the questions generally remain open-ended). Structured interviews permit more direct com-
parability of responses; question variability has been eliminated and thus answer variability is assumed to
be real. Also, in the structured interview, the interviewer’s neutrality has been maintained.
Most qualitative research relies on the unstructured or semistructured interview. The unstructured
and semistructured interviews used in qualitative research are distinct from the structured interview in
several ways. They:
• Rely on developing a dialog between interviewer and participant.
• Require more interviewer creativity.
• Use the skill of the interviewer to extract more and a greater variety of data.
• Use interviewer experience and skill to achieve greater clarity and elaboration of answers.
Many interviews are conducted face-to-face, with the obvious benefit of being able to observe and
record nonverbal as well as verbal behavior. An interview, however, can be conducted by phone or
online. Phone and online interviews offer the opportunity to conduct more interviews within the same
time frame and draw participants from a wider geographic area. These approaches also save the travel
expenses of moving trained interviewers to participants, as well as the travel fees associated with
bringing participants to a neutral site. Using interviewers who are fresher and more comfortable in con-
ducting an interview—often from their home or office—should increase the quality of the interview.
Also, depending on the group from which participants are drawn, there may be insufficient numbers to
conduct group interviews in any one market, forcing the use of phone or online techniques.

Interviewer Responsibilities
The interviewer needs to be able to extract information from a willing participant who often is not
consciously aware that he or she possesses the information desired. The actual interviewer is usually
responsible for generating the interview or discussion guide, the list of topics to be discussed (unstruc-
tured interview) or the questions to be asked (semistructured) and in what order (structured). In build-
ing this guide, many interviewers employ a hierarchical questioning structure, depicted in Exhibit 7-6.
Broader questions start the interview, designed to put participants at ease and give them a sense that
they have a lot to contribute, followed by increasingly more specific questions to draw out detail.
The interviewer is often responsible for generating the screening questions used to recruit partici-
pants for the qualitative research. This preinterview uses a device similar to a questionnaire, called
a recruitment screener. Exhibit 7-7 provides the various elements necessary for a comprehensive
recruitment screener. Each question is designed to reassure the researcher that the person who has the
necessary information and experiences, as well as the social and language skills to relate the desired in-
formation, is invited to participate. Data gathered during the recruitment process are incorporated into
the data analysis phase of the research, as recruitment data provide additional context for participants’
expressions.
In general, then, the interviewer is a consultant with wide-ranging responsibilities:11
• Recommends the topics and questions.
• Controls the interview, but also plans—and may manage—the locations and facilities for the study.

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 154 >part II The Design of Business Research

>Exhibit 7-6 The Interview Question Hierarchy

Broad Issue
What do participants consider entertaining?

Narrow to one topic:

What type of movie do participants consider most entertaining?

Narrow the topic:

What do participants find most entertaining about action movies?

Narrow to the client’s specific interest:

Within action movies, how do the computer-enhanced or computer-generated
action sequences contribute to the movie’s entertainment experience?

Source: This graphic was adapted from one developed by Judith Langer and published in The Mirrored Window: Focus Group from a Moderator’s Point
of View (Ithaca, NY: Paramount Market Publishing, 2001), [Link].

>Exhibit 7-7 What Is Included in a Recruitment Screener?

For best effect, qualitative research takes creative, articulate, expressive individuals. Finding appropriate participants is
the task of the researcher. Here are some common elements addressed at this phase of the research.

Type of Information Description

Heading Include project name, date of interviews, identity of screener.

Screening Requirements Specify conditions that must be met to extend a prospect an offer to participate;
may include quotas for various demographic, lifestyle, attitudinal, or usage
questions.
Identity Information Include name of prospect, address, phone, e-mail.
Introduction Describe purpose of study in a motivational way. Completely “blind” studies do not
motivate participation.
Security Questions Reveal possible participant overparticipation or conflicts of interest; similar informa-
tion on spouse or immediate family members.
Demographic Questions Determine match for age, gender, ethnicity or race, income, geography, employ-
ment status, or occupation.
Product/Brand Usage/Purchase Questions Establish frequency of use, purchase, loyalty, etc.
Lifestyle Questions Establish the participant’s daily life experiences, as well as those of the person with
whom the participant shares his or her life.
Attitudinal and Knowledge Questions Look for breadth in perceptions, attitudes, opinions, knowledge.
Articulation and Creative Questions Seek evidence that participant can articulate his or her ideas and form and express
opinions; scenarios might include problem–solution questions or ask participant
to confront an unusual challenge. (“What could you do with a brick?”)
Offer/Termination Invite participation, discuss compensation and pretasking, set up interview, or indi-
cate that the person is not right for the current study but may be right for future
studies.

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 >chapter 7 Qualitative Research 155

• Proposes the criteria for drawing the sample participants.

• Writes the recruitment screener and may recruit participants.
• Develops the various pretasking exercises.
• Prepares any research tools (e.g., picture sorts or written exercises) to be used during the
interview.
• Supervises the transcription process.
• Helps analyze the data and draw insights.
• Writes or directs the writing of the client report, including extracting video clips for the oral report.

Projective Techniques
Because researchers are often looking for hidden or suppressed meanings, projective techniques can
be used within the interview structures. Some of these techniques include:12

• Word or picture association Participants are asked to match images, experiences, emotions,
products and services, even people and places, to whatever is
being studied. “Tell me what you think of when you think of
Kellogg’s Special K cereal.”
• Sentence completion Participants are asked to complete a sentence. “Complete this
sentence: People who buy over the Internet . . .”
• Cartoons or empty balloons Participants are asked to write the dialog for a cartoonlike pic-
ture. “What will the customer comment when she sees the sales-
person approaching her in the new-car showroom.”
• Thematic Apperception Test Participants are confronted with a picture (usually a photograph
or drawing) and asked to describe how the person in the picture
feels and thinks.
• Component sorts Participants are presented with flash cards containing compo-
nent features and asked to create new combinations.
• Sensory sorts Participants are presented with scents, textures, and sounds,
usually verbalized on cards, and asked to arrange them by one
or more criteria.
• Laddering or benefit chain Participants are asked to link functional features to their physi-
cal and psychological benefits, both real and ideal.
• Imagination exercises Participants are asked to relate the properties of one thing/per-
son/brand to another. “If Crest toothpaste were a college, what
type of college would it be?”
• Imaginary universe Participants are asked to assume that the brand and its users
populate an entire universe; they then describe the features of
this new world.
• Visitor from another planet Participants are asked to assume that they are aliens and are con-
fronting the product for the first time; they then describe their
reactions, questions, and attitudes about purchase or retrial.
• Personification Participants are asked to imagine inanimate objects with the traits,
characteristics and features, and personalities of humans. “If
brand X were a person, what type of person would brand X be?”
• Authority figure Participants are asked to imagine that the brand or product is
an authority figure and to describe the attributes of the figure.
• Ambiguities and paradoxes Participants are asked to imagine a brand as something else
(e.g., a Tide dog food or Marlboro cereal), describing its at-
tributes and position.

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 156 >part II The Design of Business Research

• Semantic mapping Participants are presented with a four-quadrant map where

different variables anchor the two axes; they then spatially or-
ganize health insurance options, product components, or orga-
nizations within the four quadrants.
• Brand mapping Participants are presented with different brands and asked to
talk about their perceptions, usually in relation to several crite-
ria. They may also be asked to spatially place each brand on one
or more semantic maps.
• Metaphor elicitation technique Participants are pretasked to collect images that reveal how they
feel about a research topic; during an IDI, participants discuss
each image and create a collage of their images, with emotions,
thoughts, or perceptions noted near each image.

Paper-based exercises often draw out less verbal members of a group. Projective techniques can
dissipate tension caused by sensitive topics or can be useful when a change of focus in the interview
is imminent. A well-trained interviewer is required if the research demands that one or more of these
techniques be included within an individual depth interview or group interview. These techniques are
also time-consuming to apply, lengthening the time frame of the individual or group interview. They
also lengthen the data analysis time.

Individual Depth Interviews

An individual depth interview (IDI) is an interaction between an individual interviewer and a single
participant. Individual depth interviews generally take between 20 minutes (telephone interviews) and
2 hours (prescheduled, face-to-face interviews) to complete, depending on the issues or topics of inter-
est and the contact method used. Some techniques such as life histories may take as long as five hours.
Participants are usually paid to share their insights and ideas; $1 per minute is the budgeting rule of
thumb for general consumers, but much higher rates are demanded by participants representing highly
skilled professionals.13
Interviewees are often provided with advance materials via mail, fax, or the Internet. Recently, ad-
vances in technology have encouraged the use of detailed visual and auditory aids during interviews,
creating the methodology known as computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPIs). CAPIs often
use a structured or semistructured individual depth interview.
Several unstructured individual depth interviews are common in business research, including oral
histories, cultural interviews, life histories, critical incident technique, and sequential (or chronologic)
interviewing. Exhibit 7-8 describes these techniques and provides examples.

Managing the Individual Depth Interview

Participants for individual depth interviews are usually chosen not because their opinions are rep-
resentative of the dominant opinion but because their experiences and attitudes will reflect the full
scope of the issue under study. Participants for individual depth interviews also need to be verbally
articulate, in order to provide the interviewer with the richness of desired detail. Primary Insights Inc.
developed its CUE methodology to help marketers understand the performance cues that consum-
ers use to judge a product. It uses purposive sampling to recruit individuals “with a specific interest
in and aptitude for analytical thinking and discovering how things work.” CUE combines in-home
product use with a diary preexercise, followed by individual depth interviews that extract what the
participant saw, felt, heard, smelled, and sensed when interacting with the product. What evolves
is a hierarchy of sensory cues that clients may use when modifying products to improve customer
satisfaction.14

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 >chapter 7 Qualitative Research 157

>snapshot
IBM’s High-Touch Strategy Is Research-Driven

When Samuel Palmisano became chairman and chief executive figure out how IBM might help customers solve their pesky prob-
of IBM, industry analysts didn’t expect this 30-year IBM loyal- lems. And what resulted from all those customer interviews? A
ist to rock the boat. But he started a research program that re- reorganization of the $89 billion company into 12 industry groups
sulted in a very aggressive reorganization. The IBM strategy isn’t (e.g., banking, insurance, automobiles, utilities, consumer pack-
quite so novel—create a strong connection between IBM and aged goods, telecommunications, life sciences, etc.) rather than
its customer—as is the extensive research behind it. Palmisano its previous three divisions (software, services, and research).
wanted his employees to talk to customers about their most trou- The shift is under way to make IBM an executive-level consulting
bling business problems. Rather than send the sales force to do firm rather than a technology services company. The reorganiza-
that job, IBM formed teams: the sales executive in charge of the tion has IBM’s labs, which used to focus on making machines
corporate account, a representative from the services division, calculate faster and more efficiently, refocusing on modeling pat-
a person from the software unit, and someone from the IBM re- terns of human behavior to help solve business problems.
search labs. These teams became known as “four in a box.” But [Link]
what each team was asked to do was think outside the box:

Individual depth interviews are usually recorded (audio and/or video) and transcribed to provide
the researcher with the rich detail that the methodology is used for. Interviewers are also them-
selves debriefed to get their personal reactions to participant attitudes, insights, and the quality
of the interview. Individual depth interviews use extensive amounts of interviewer time, in both
conducting interviews and evaluating them, as well as facility time when premises are occupied
for interviews. And while some respondents feel more comfortable discussing sensitive topics or
sharing their own observations, behaviors, and attitudes with a single person, others are more forth-
coming in group situations.

Group Interviews
A group interview is a data collection method using a single interviewer with more than one research
participant. Group interviews can be described by the group’s size or its composition.
Group interviews vary widely in size: dyads (two people), triads (three people), minigroups (two to
six people), small groups (focus groups—6 to 10 people—unarguably the most well known of group
interview techniques), or supergroups (up to 20 people). The smaller groups are usually used when
the overall population from which the participants are drawn is small, when the topic or concept list
is extensive or technical, or when the research calls for greater intimacy. Dyads also are used when
the special nature of a friendship or other relationship (e.g., spouses, superior–subordinate, siblings)
is needed to stimulate frank discussion on a sensitive topic. Dyads and triads are also used frequently
with young children who have lower levels of articulation or more limited attention spans and are thus
more difficult to control in large groups. A supergroup is used when a wide range of ideas is needed in
a short period of time and when the researcher is willing to sacrifice a significant amount of participant
interaction for speed.
In terms of composition, groups can be heterogeneous (consisting of different individuals; variety
of opinions, backgrounds, actions) or homogeneous (consisting of similar individuals; commonal-
ity of opinions, backgrounds, actions). Groups also can comprise experts (individuals exceptionally
knowledgeable about the issues to be discussed) or nonexperts (those who have at least some desired
information but at an unknown level).
Driven by the belief that the data extracted will be richer because of the interaction, group inter-
views are one of the few research techniques in which the participants are encouraged to interact.

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 158 >part II The Design of Business Research

>Exhibit 7-8 Types of Research Using IDIs

Types How Research Is Conducted How Research Is Used

Oral History (narrative ) Ask participants to relate their personal ex- To develop products, for example, books.
periences and feelings related to historical [September 11, 2001: Stories from 55 Broad Street
events or past behavior. by Eddie T. Deerfield and Thomas T. Noland
Jr. (editors); An Album of Memories: Personal Histo-
ries from the Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw.]

Cultural Interviews Ask a participant to relate his or her experi- To determine product positioning or advertising
ences with a culture or subculture, including creation.
the knowledge passed on by prior genera- (E.g., how people use baking soda leads to
tions and the knowledge participants have positioning the product as not just a baking
or plan to pass on to future generations. ingredient but also a deodorizer, toothpaste
substitute, etc.)

Life Histories Extract from a single participant memories and To determine positioning for company prior to
experiences from childhood to the present an I.D. or name change.
day regarding a product or service category, (E.g., Frosted Flakes and Tony the Tiger—ad
brand, or firm. Participants are encouraged spots where adults feel they must appear in
to share how the significant people in their disguise because they eat a “child’s cereal.”)
lives talked about or were involved with the
organization, how their attitudes or prefer-
ences have changed over their lives with
respect to the organization, and how their
perceptions and preferences have been
altered by their various life experiences.

Critical Incident Technique The participant describes: To evaluate manufacturing processes, personal
sales and telemarketing sales programs,
• What led up to the incident.
compensation or incentive programs, or
• Exactly what he or she did or did not do that other management-related incidents.
was especially effective or ineffective.
• The outcome or result of this action and
why this action was effective or what more
effective action might have been expected.

Convergent Interviewing Experts serve as participants in a sequential To develop appropriate questions for all types
(convergent and series of IDIs; researcher refines the ques- of research (in exploratory research).
divergent interviewing ) tions with each interview in order to con-
verge on the central issues or themes in a
topic area.

Sequential Interviewing Approach the participant with questions To determine store design, advertising devel-
(chronologic interviewing ) formed around an anticipated series of opment, and product design; it is used to
activities that did or might have happened, extract details related to shopping behavior,
in order to have the participant recall the advertising consumption behavior, and
detail of his or her own experience. product use behavior.

Ethnography Interviewer and participant collaborate in a To determine product redesign, advertising

field-setting participant observation and development, positioning, distribution selec-
unstructured interview. tion; to discover reactions and attitudes of
striking employees.

Grounded Theory Using a structured interview, each subsequent To determine product design or redesign and
interview is adjusted based on the findings advertising and promotion development.
and interpretations from each previous
interview, with the purpose to develop general
concepts or theories with which to analyze
the data.

Source: This exhibit was developed from Hy Mariampolski, Qualitative Market Research: A Comprehensive Guide (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications, 2001), p. 53; David Carson, Audrey Gilmore, Chad Perry, and Kjell Gronhaug, Qualitative Marketing Research (Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage Publications, 2001), pp. 84–89 and 152–157; Anselm Strauss and Julia Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedure for
Producing Grounded Theory (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998); and Norman K. Denzin and Ynonna S. Lincoln, editors, The SAGE
Handbook of Qualitative Research, 4th ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, April 27, 2011).

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 >chapter 7 Qualitative Research 159

However, given time constraints, group interviews permit spending only limited time extracting detail
from each participant.15 This problem is magnified when a group interview is structured to cover nu-
merous questions or topics.
Another drawback of the group interview is the increased difficulty recruiting, arranging, and
coordinating group discussions. But this aggravation—which can be subcontracted to a specialist
research supplier—is deemed a small price to pay for the insights that often are revealed by group
interaction.
Interviewers are tested by the challenge of managing the group’s conversation while avoiding
interjecting themselves into the group’s process. It is also the moderator’s job to control the extrovert
or dominant personality and ensure meaningful contributions from all others, including the most intro-
verted or private thinkers. When control is not maintained, some members’ opinions may be suppressed
and valuable insights lost. Sometimes an individual will be more honest with a neutral interviewer than
with a group of peers. One example is a group of small-business owners being unwilling to divulge
competitive strengths and weaknesses. A skilled researcher can anticipate which topics are more likely
to obtain good results with an individual or a group interview.
A group interview’s structure and process include moderator interaction with the group and probing
of the group to clarify responses. As a result, the moderator may create bias in the results by sending
verbal and nonverbal signals that some responses are more favorable than others. The moderator might
also direct discussion down paths that are least likely to help the client. Only training, and subsequent
experience, can overcome these potential weaknesses of group interviews.
The skilled researcher helps the sponsor determine an appropriate number of group interviews to
conduct. The number of groups is determined by

• The scope of the issue(s) being studied: The broader the issue(s), the more groups needed.
• The number of distinct market segments of interest: The larger the number and the greater the
distinctions, the more groups needed.
• The number of new ideas or insights desired: The larger the number, the more groups needed.
• The level of detail of information: The greater the level of detail, the more groups needed.
• The level of geographic or ethnic distinctions in attitudes or behavior: The greater these influ-
ences, the more groups needed.
• The homogeneity of the groups: The less homogeneity, the more groups needed.

The general rule is: Keep conducting group interviews until no new insights are gained. Often a limited
number of groups will suffice, or sometimes the number might grow to 8 or even 12.
It is often preferable, depending on the topic, to run separate group interviews for different subsets
of the target population. For example, a study on nutritional advice may begin with separate consumer
and physician groups to determine the best ways to provide the advice. This type of homogeneous
grouping tends to promote more intense discussion and freer interaction.16
Researchers caution against forming groups solely on demographic descriptors, favoring “natu-
ral”’ groups (like families, co-workers, church members, etc.) where the participants share an affin-
ity base.17 For customer groups, however, consideration should be given to such factors as gender,
ethnicity, employment status, and education, because culture is a primary determinant of perception.
In a recent exploratory study of discount shoppers, the attitudes about the economy and personal
finances expressed by East Coast respondents and West Coast respondents diverged widely. The re-
search sponsor was able to use information from group interviews to build a strategy tailored to each
geographic area.18
Regardless of group composition, it is the moderator who sets the tone of the group. Homoge-
nous groups often discover their similarities early and get along well. But with heterogeneous groups,
the moderator must provide the ice-breaker activities that get the participants interacting with each
other. As with individual depth interviews, the moderator is responsible for developing the recruitment
screener and the group discussion guide. Exhibit 7-9 summarizes the facilitators and inhibitors of indi-
vidual participation in group interviews.
A closer look at one of the best known of group interviews, the focus group, may clarify these
distinctions.

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 160 >part II The Design of Business Research

>snapshot
Problems within Focus Groups

Founder and principal re-

searcher Robert W. Kahle
of Kahle Research Solu-
tions Inc., in his book
Dominators, Cynics, and
Wallflowers, dissects typi-
cal focus group partici-
pants to illuminate ways
to modify their problem
behaviors. DOMINATORS
are all-knowing, quick to
answer, and choose a
seat location in order to
challenge the moderator
for control. CYNICS dis-
play negative behaviors
and deride the ideas of
others. HOSTILES have an
agenda of their own and
seek corrective action;
they are often angry and
combative. INTOXICATEDS are under the influence of something, and verbally. Finally, CO-MODERATORS often engage participants
fidgety and incoherent. PROSELYTIZERS cannot accept that others before a discussion starts, ask questions of their own, and seek
hold opposing opinions and try to persuade others to their opin- to befriend or support other participants.
ion. BLATHERERS offer long, off-topic answers and ignore mod- Why is each of these behaviors a problem and how would
erator cues. JOKERS find every comment source material for a you handle each of these problem participants?
new joke, story, or comical facial expression. FOLLOWERS tend to [Link]; [Link]
repeat others’ opinions. WALLFLOWERS withdraw both physically

Focus Groups
The term focus group was first coined by R. K. Merton in his 1956 book, The Focused Interview. The
focus group is a panel of people (typically made up of 6 to 10 participants), led by a trained moderator,
who meet for 90 minutes to two hours. The facilitator or moderator uses group dynamics principles to
focus or guide the group in an exchange of ideas, feelings, and experiences on a specific topic. You’ll
find a sample focus group discussion guide in Appendix B.
Focus groups are often unique in research due to the research sponsor’s involvement in the process.
Most facilities permit the sponsor to observe the group and its dynamics in real time, drawing his or
her own insights from the conversations and nonverbal signals he or she observes. Many facilities also
allow the client to supply the moderator with new topics or questions that are generated by those ob-
serving in real time. This option is generally not available in an individual depth interview, other group
interviews, or survey research.
Focus groups typically last about two hours but may run from one to three hours. Facilities usu-
ally provide for the group to be isolated from distractions. Thus, the famous, or infamous, mirrored
window allows those who are interested to observe the group while they avoid interfering with the
group dynamics. Some facilities allow for product preparation and testing, as well as other creative
exercises.

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 >chapter 7 Qualitative Research 161

>Exhibit 7-9 Factors Influencing Participant Contributions in Group Interviews

Positive/Facilitators

Recognition/Ego Enhancement Moderator’s expressed appreciation for participant contributions that contribute to
issue understanding; participant’s open agreement with other participant comments.

Personal Contribution Participant’s desire to be, and perception that his or her contributions are, helpful.

Validation Participant’s need to have his or her feelings, attitudes, or ideas validated.

Catharsis/Load-sharing Participant’s need to share something negative or bothersome with others.

Personal Growth Participant’s desire to increase knowledge or understanding through new perspectives;
participant’s desire for new experiences.

Socialization Participant’s desire to meet new people and make new friends in a “safe” environment.

Expectations Participant’s accurate understanding of the purpose of the group discussion.

Extrinsic Rewards Participant’s value perception of fee for participation.

Negative/Inhibitors

Use of Abstract Terminology Moderator or participant’s use of terminology or unfamiliar jargon.

Ego Threats Participant’s challenging another participant’s knowledge of the subject.

Political Correctness Participant’s withholding comments for fear that his or her contributions might be
perceived as disrespectful of another’s knowledge or opinions.

Ego Defense Participant’s withholding a comment for fear that it will make him or her appear
unintelligent or that the opinion will be unpopular with the group.

Memory Decay Participant’s failure to remember incidents or details of incidents.

Embellishment Participant’s creative additions to memories of behaviors in order to participate fully or

inflate status.

Inarticulation/Rambling Accounts Participant’s inability to express ideas quickly or concisely.

Confusion Participant’s lack of understanding of the issue under discussion.

Reticence Participant’s need to be invited to participate (rather than actively volunteering

comments).

Time Participant’s concern about other obligations.

Dominating/Monopolizing Participant’s attempting to take leadership or the spotlight, thus blocking contributions
of others.

Fewer and lengthier focus groups are becoming common. As sessions become longer, activities are
needed to bring out deeper feelings, knowledge, and motivations. Besides the creativity sessions that
employ projective techniques or involve the participants in writing or drawing sessions, or creating
visual compilations, other common activities within focus groups include:19
• Free association. “What words or phrases come to mind when you think of X?”
• Picture sort. Participants sort brand labels or carefully selected images related to brand personal-
ity on participant-selected criteria.
• Photo sort. Photographs of people are given to the group members, who are then asked: “Which
of these people would . . . ?” or “Which of these people would not . . . ?”
• Role play. Two or more members of the group are asked to respond to questions from the van-
tage point of their personal or assigned role.

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 162 >part II The Design of Business Research

>picprofile
Where do great new product ideas come from? If you’re Hallmark, they come from a very consumer-focused research effort.
Monica Alderson, product management director for consumer solutions shares that Hallmark is always looking for new ways
to fulfill its brand promise: helping people remain emotionally connected. Qualitative and quantitative research is designed to
reveal connection dilemmas. One such dilemma was grandparents indicating “help me be there even when I can’t be there.” As
part of its new consumer-insights organization structure, each month 50 Hallmark senior managers listen to research insights
and product proposals that are based on these insights. This was the starting point for recordable storybooks, a collection of
books not only read for grandchildren, but books read by parents for children, and even books read by children to their military
parents serving abroad. [Link]

Focus groups are often used as an exploratory technique but may be a primary methodology. In two
such cases, a small college used focus groups to develop a plan to attract more freshmen applications,
and a blood center used a focus group to improve blood donations.20 Focus groups are especially valu-
able in the following scenarios:21

• Obtaining general background about a topic or issue.

• Generating research questions to be explored via quantitative methodologies.
• Interpreting previously obtained quantitative results.
• Stimulating new ideas for products and programs.
• Highlighting areas of opportunity for specific managers to pursue.
• Diagnosing problems that managers need to address.
• Generating impressions and perceptions of brands and product ideas.
• Generating a level of understanding about influences in the participant’s world.

Groups best enable the exploration of surprise information and new ideas. Agendas can be modified
as the research team moves on to the next focus group. Even within an existing focus group, an adept
facilitator can build on the ideas and insights of previous groups, getting to a greater depth of under-
standing. However, because they are qualitative devices, with limited sampling accuracy, results from
focus groups should not be considered a replacement for quantitative analyses.

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 >chapter 7 Qualitative Research 163

>snapshot
FocusVision’s VideoMarker

Extracting insights from data, conveying those insights

to decision makers, and implementing strategies and
tactics based on those insights is a constant challenge
for most researchers. “The power to convince decision
makers is often locked in the footage of such interviews,”
shares Peter Houlahan, president and COO of Focus-
Vision. FocusVision, a company that provides more than
280 facilities worldwide with services for videoconference
focus groups and individual depth interviews (IDIs), devel-
oped new technology for this purpose: VideoMarker. Clients
plug in their laptop (in a viewing room or their office via
videostreaming technology). While watching the event,
when they see footage they want to mark, they click on
the “VideoMark” button above the video area on their
PC. A pop-up textbox allows the client to enter a note.
The note is automatically coded with a time mark and the
name of its creator. When the event is complete, video of the offers Houlahan. One pharmaceutical company arranged to
entire project and all notes are archived for immediate access (by interview patients in more than seven hours of focus groups.
password) and recorded on a CD-ROM that is sent to the client. With VideoMarker, researchers captured the highlights, which were
Researchers can then create video clips to share with colleagues then—with the patients’ consent—incorporated into IDI research
via e-mail, embed in documents or PowerPoint presentations, or with physicians. “These research highlights were the key motiva-
group together into highlight reels. “The capability to show actual tional tool used to persuade doctors to change how they pre-
footage when presenting research results is especially relevant scribed the company’s product.”
when clients aren’t present to watch behind a one-way mirror or [Link]
when they participate via videoconferencing or videostreaming,”

In the opening vignette, Sara Arens was involved in conducting and analyzing focus groups for
a frozen-food manufacturer. Sara’s partner Jason is involved with assessing the CompleteCare ser-
vice program for MindWriter. For the latter project Jason and Sara could use focus groups involving
employees (of the call center and service departments) to determine suggestions for improvements and
provide an analysis of proposed improvements. MindWriter may want focus groups with CompleteCare
customers (both dissatisfied and satisfied customers but restricted to separate groups) to reveal the
scope of attitudes and experiences not documented within complaints.

Other Venues for Focus Group Interviews

Although the following venues are most frequently used with focus groups, they can be used with other
sizes and types of group interviews.

Telephone Focus Groups In traditional focus groups, participants meet face-to-face, usually in
specialized facilities that enable respondents to interact in a comfortable setting while being observed
by a sponsoring client. However, often there is a need to reach people that face-to-face groups cannot
attract. With modern telephone conferencing facilities, telephone focus groups can be particularly
effective in the following situations:
• When it is difficult to recruit desired participants—members of elite groups and hard-to-find respon-
dents such as experts, professionals, physician specialists, high-level executives, and store owners.

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 164 >part II The Design of Business Research

• When target group members are rare, “low incidence,” or widely dispersed geographically—
directors of a medical clinic, celebrities, early adopters, and rural practitioners.
• When issues are so sensitive that anonymity is needed but respondents must be from a wide
geographic area—people suffering from a contagious disease, people using nonmainstream
products, high-income individuals, competitors.
• When you want to conduct only a couple of focus groups but want nationwide representation.
Telephone focus groups are usually shorter than traditional groups, averaging about one hour. Par-
ticipants could be in their own offices or homes or be brought to a central location with the necessary
equipment. Telephone focus groups are usually less expensive than face-to-face focus groups—by up
to 40 percent.
In contrast to face-to-face groups, heterogeneous telephone groups can be productive. People in tra-
ditional superior-subordinate roles can be mixed as long as they are not from the same city. A telephone
focus group is less likely to be effective under the following conditions:
• When participants need to handle a product.
• When an object of discussion cannot be sent through the mail in advance.
• When sessions will run long.
• When the participants are groups of young children.

Online Focus Groups An emerging technique for exploratory research is to approximate

group dynamics using e-mail, websites, blogs, online communities, or an Internet chat room. It is
possible to do “live” voice chats online, reducing or eliminating the cost associated with telephone
focus groups. Posting questions to a newsgroup with an interest in the research problem can generate
considerable discussion. However, online discussions are not confidential unless they take place on
an intranet. Although online forum discussions are unlikely to reflect the average participants, they
can be a good way of getting in touch with populations that have special interests (e.g., BMW club
members, little league coaches, or “power computer users”). Online focus groups have also proved
to be effective with teens and young adults, as well as technically employed segments of the market,
those essentially comfortable with computer use. They are especially valuable when a computer-
based application, such as software or a game, is the topic of group discussion. The technology per-
mits use of visual images of materials (e.g., ads or product concepts) but retains the barrier between
the group and the moderator. Online focus groups are a trade-off. What you gain in speed and access,
you give up in insights extracted from group dynamics, the flexibility to use nonverbal language as a
source of data, and the moderator’s ability to use physical presence to influence openness and depth
of response.

Videoconferencing Focus Groups Videoconferencing is another technology used with

group interviews. Many researchers anticipate growth for this methodology. Like telephone focus
groups, videoconferencing enables significant savings. By reducing the travel time for the moderator
and the client, coordinating such groups can be accomplished in a shorter time. However, videoconfer-
encing retains the barrier between the moderator and participants, although less so than the telephone
focus group. Since large corporations and universities are more likely to have their own internal video-
conferencing facilities, most videoconferencing focus groups will tend to occur within this setting, thus
reducing the breadth of participants to those who can access these specialized facilities. The advent of
video technology on phones, tablets, and laptops, in combination with conferencing services like Skype
and WebEx, have extended this methodology to smaller organizations as well.

Recording, Analyzing, and Reporting Group Interviews

In face-to-face settings, some moderators use large sheets of paper on the wall of the group room to
record trends; others use a personal notepad. Facility managers produce both video- and audiotapes to
enable a full analysis of the interview. The verbal portion of the group interview is transcribed along
with moderator debriefing sessions and added to moderator notes. These are analyzed across several

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 >chapter 7 Qualitative Research 165

>snapshot
Mystery Shopping at Office Depot

You can’t use research to improve your company if you are reenacting the same scenario with a twist—he followed cus-
asking the wrong questions. That’s the lesson learned by CEO tomers out to the parking lot and asked them why they hadn’t
Kevin Peters when he was comparing declining sales to stellar made a purchase if their hands were empty. “Our mystery-
mystery shopping reports on customer service. shopping scores were correct. You know what was flawed?
Mystery shopping is a qualitative technique that uses ethnog- Our scoring system,” discovered Peters. “We were asking: Are
raphy to evaluate the in-store customer experience. The shop- the floors clean? Are the shelves full of inventory? Are the store
ping experience is guided by a checklist that can contain a list windows clean? Have the bathrooms been cleaned recently?
of questions to answer or shopping scenarios to enact, or both. It turns out that customers don’t really care about any of that.
Once the mystery shopper has completed the task, he or she Those factors don’t drive purchases, and that’s why our sales
writes up a report. The technique has been used for decades by were declining.”
bricks-and-mortar retailers. Peters discoveries lead to numerous changes to Office Depot—
But it wasn’t working as it should have for Office Depot, not store size, layout, service mix, and employee training. And we are
because the technique is flawed but because the questions/ positive he also changed the tasking of the mystery shopper.
scenarios were flawed. [Link]fi[Link]
Peters set out find out what was wrong by becoming a mys-
tery shopper himself in more than 70 stores, covering 15 states,

focus group sessions using content analysis. This analytical process provides the research sponsor
with a qualitative picture of the respondents’ concerns, ideas, attitudes, and feelings. The preliminary
profile of the content of a group interview is often done with computer software in content analysis (for
example, N6, mentioned in the opening vignette). Such software searches for common phrasing and
words, context, and patterns of expression on digitized transcripts.

> Combining Qualitative Methodologies

Case Study22
The case study, also referred to as the case history, is a powerful research methodology that combines
individual and (sometimes) group interviews with record analysis and observation. Researchers extract in-
formation from company brochures, annual reports, sales receipts, and newspaper and magazine articles,
along with direct observation (usually done in the participant’s “natural” setting), and combine it with
interview data from participants. The objective is to obtain multiple perspectives of a single organization,
situation, event, or process at a point in time or over a period of time. Case study methodology—or the
written report from such a research project, often called a case analysis or case write-up—can be used
to understand particular processes. For example, one study might evaluate new product development
processes for similarities, especially the use of outside consultants, ideational techniques, and computer
simulation. Another study might examine in detail the purchaser’s response to a stimulus like a display.
The results of the research could be used to experiment with modifications of the new product develop-
ment process or with display selection and placement processes to generate higher-value transactions.
The research problem is usually a how and why problem, resulting in a descriptive or explanatory study.
Researchers select the specific organizations or situations to profile because these examples or sub-
jects offer critical, extreme, or unusual cases. Researchers most often choose multiple subjects, rather
than a single subject, to study because of the opportunity for cross-case analysis. In studying multiple
subjects, a deeper understanding of the subject emerges. When multiple units are chosen, it is because

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 166 >part II The Design of Business Research

they offer similar results for predictable reasons (literal replication) or contrary results for predict-
able reasons (theoretical replication). While theoretical sampling seems to be common, a minimum of
4 cases with a maximum of 15 seems to be favored.
In the case study, interview participants are invited to tell the story of their experience, with those
chosen representing different levels within the same organization or different perspectives of the same
situation or process to permit depth of perspective. The flexibility of the case study approach and the
emphasis on understanding the context of the subject being studied allow for a richness of understand-
ing sometimes labeled thick description.
During analysis, a single case analysis is always performed before any cross-case analysis is con-
ducted. The emphasis is on what differences occur, why, and with what effect. Prescriptive inferences
about best practices are concluded after completing case studies on several organizations or situations
and are speculative in nature.
Students are quite familiar with studying cases as a means of learning business principles. In Search
of Excellence, a book by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, was developed using case study methodol-
ogy.23 Other similar studies profiled in books written on Procter & Gamble and Disney have also used
this methodology. In the business arena, such case studies have examined changes in new product
development, sales processes, hiring practices, and training programs.

Action Research
Managers conduct research in order to gain insights to make decisions in specific scenarios. Action
research is designed to address complex, practical problems about which little is known—thus no
known heuristics exist. So the scenario is studied; a corrective action is determined, planned, and
implemented; the results of the action are observed and recorded; and the action is assessed as ef-
fective or not. The process is repeated until a desired outcome is reached, but along the way much
is learned about the processes and about the prescriptive actions being studied. Action researchers
investigate the effects of applied solutions. Whatever theories are developed are validated through
practical application.24
Suppose a restaurant that had never received a customer complaint earns its first challenge by a
disgruntled diner. If no general rule existed about how to treat unhappy patrons, the organization could
study the situation and come up with alternative actions. It might:
• Ignore the problem. (Its lack of experience would prevent it from knowing that negative word of
mouth—negative buzz—would be the likely result.)
• Do whatever is necessary to replace the unsatisfactory meal within the shortest period of time.
• Accept the current circumstance as uncorrectable, apologize to the customer, and remedy the situ-
ation by picking up the table’s full dining tab and offering the customer a free meal to get him or
her back in the restaurant another day.
In action research, one of those alternatives would be chosen and implemented, and then the results
recorded. Was the customer happy when he or she left? Did the customer return to dine another evening
or never return again? Over the next three months, what was the customer’s full revenue value? If the
customer didn’t return, the next time a disgruntled customer voiced dissatisfaction, a different action
would be chosen, implemented, and then assessed in comparison to the first option’s results.

> Merging Qualitative and Quantitative

Methodologies
Triangulation is the term used to describe the combining of several qualitative methods or combining
qualitative with quantitative methods. Because of the controversy described earlier, qualitative studies
may be combined with quantitative ones to increase the perceived quality of the research, especially

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 >chapter 7 Qualitative Research 167

when a quantitative study follows a qualitative one and provides validation for the qualitative findings.
Four strategies for combining methodologies are common in business research:25
1. Qualitative and quantitative studies can be conducted simultaneously.
2. A qualitative study can be ongoing while multiple waves of quantitative studies are done, mea-
suring changes in behavior and attitudes over time.
3. A qualitative study can precede a quantitative study, and a second qualitative study then might
follow the quantitative study, seeking more clarification.
4. A quantitative study can precede a qualitative study.
An example of the first strategy would be the combination of a public opinion poll at the time focus
groups are being held to discover ways to sway a particular public’s opinion. For the second strategy,
we might collect life histories while multiple waves of questionnaires are measuring the response to
differing promotional tactics. For the third, we could perform a qualitative study to identify peoples’
behaviors and perceptions with respect to furniture shopping processes and interior decorating; then we
could use that information to develop a quantitative study to measure the actual frequency of behaviors
and attitudes. And, fourth, we might survey people’s behavior and attitudes toward a brand and find we
need some IDIs to explain findings that are unclear.
Many researchers recognize that qualitative research compensates for the weaknesses of quantita-
tive research and vice versa. These forward thinkers believe that the methodologies complement rather
than rival each other.

>summary
1 Qualitative research includes an array of interpretive tech- testing; sales analysis; sales development; package design;
niques that seek to describe, decode, translate, and other- brand development and assessment, especially understand-
wise come to terms with the meaning, not the frequency, ing brand value; positioning; retail design; and understanding
of certain more or less naturally occurring phenomena in various processes, including consumers’ decision-making
the social world. Qualitative research methodologies differ processes. In data analysis, qualitative research uses content
from quantitative methodologies based on the focus of the analysis of written or recorded materials drawn from personal
research; its purpose; researcher involvement; sampling expressions by participants, behavioral observations, and
design; sample size; research design, including participant debriefing of observers, as well as the study of artifacts and
pretasking; data source, type, and preparation; methods trace evidence from the physical environment.
of data analysis; level of insights and meaning extracted; 4 Qualitative methodologies used in decision making evolved
research sponsor involvement; speed of the research; and from techniques used in anthropology, sociology, psychology,
data security. A qualitative methodology may be used alone linguistics, communication, economics, and semiotics. Com-
to address organizational problems or in combination with mon among these strategies are the individual depth interview
other qualitative or quantitative methodologies. (IDI) and the group interview, as well as observation, ethnogra-
2 While qualitative research is being used increasingly be- phy, action research, and grounded theory. Within group inter-
cause of the methodologies’ ability to generate deeper views, the focus group is the most widely used methodology.
understanding, it still is perceived by many senior-level ex- Qualitative research often uses projective techniques,
ecutives as a stepchild of quantitative data collection. This is designed to encourage the participant to reveal in detail
primarily due to qualitative research’s use of nonprobability deeply suppressed attitudes, opinions, feelings, and experi-
sampling, the smaller sample sizes involved, and the non- ences. Among these techniques are word or picture asso-
projectability of the results to a broader, target population. ciation, sentence completion, cartoons or empty balloons,
3 Qualitative research is designed to tell the researcher how the Thematic Apperception Test, imagination exercises, and
(process) and why (meaning) things happen as they do. In sorting exercises. Participant preparation and the actual
business planning and decision making, qualitative method- qualitative sessions themselves often include various cre-
ologies are used in market segmentation; advertising creative ativity sessions and exercises.
development; new product development, especially concept

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 168 >part II The Design of Business Research

>keyterms
action research 166 interview 152 qualitative research 144

case study (case history) 165 semistructured 153 quantitative research 146

computer-assisted personal interview structured 153 recruitment screener 153

(CAPI) 156 unstructured 153 triangulation 166
content analysis 165 interview guide (discussion guide) 153
focus groups 160 moderator 152
online 164 nonprobability sampling 152
telephone 163 pretasking 148
videoconferencing 164 projective techniques 155
group interview 157 ambiguities and paradoxes 155

expert group 157 authority figure 155

heterogeneous group 157 cartoons or empty balloons 155

homogeneous group 157 component sorts 155

nonexpert group 157 imagination exercises 155

individual depth interview imaginary universe 155

(IDI) 156 personification 155
convergent interviewing 158 visitor from another planet 155
critical incident technique 158 laddering or benefit chain 155
cultural interviews 158 metaphor elicitation technique 156

ethnography 158 semantic mapping 156

grounded theory 158 brand mapping 156

life histories 158 sensory sorts 155

oral history (narrative) 158 sentence completion 155

sequential interviewing Thematic Apperception Test 155

(chronologic interviewing) 158 word or picture association 155

>discussionquestions
Terms in Review Making Research Decisions
1 How does qualitative research differ from quantitative 5 Assume you are a manufacturer of small kitchen electrics,
research? like Hamilton Beach/Proctor Silex, and you want to de-
2 How do data from qualitative research differ from data in termine if some innovative designs with unusual shapes
quantitative research? and colors developed for the European market could be
successfully marketed in the U.S. market. What qualitative
3 Why do senior executives feel more comfortable relying on
research would you recommend, and why?
quantitative data than qualitative data? How might a quali-
tative research company lessen the senior-level executive’s 6 NCR Corporation, known as a world leader in ATMs,
skepticism? point-of-sale (POS) retail checkout scanners, and check-
in kiosks at airports, announced in June 2009 that it
4 Distinguish between structured, semistructured, and un-
would move its world headquarters from Dayton (OH)
structured interviews.

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 >chapter 7 Qualitative Research 169

to Duluth (GA), a suburb of Atlanta, after more than 125 From Concept to Practice
years. An employer of 1,200 mostly high-salaried, profes- 8 Use Exhibit 7-7 to develop the recruitment screener for the
sional workers in Dayton, NCR was enticed to move by research you described in your answer to question 5.
Georgia’s offer of more than $56.9 million in tax credits; 9 Conduct a focus group among students in your class on
its fast-growing, educated 25- to 34-year-old population one of the following topics:
cohort; international offices for 10 European state govern-
a Our department’s problems offering requirements
ments; and the busiest international airport (Atlanta) in the
and electives essential for meeting your graduation
world.
expectations.
a What qualitative research might NCR have done to
b Entertainment sponsored by your university to bring the
reach this decision?
community on campus.
b NCR will use its move to Georgia to downsize its world
headquarters workforce. What qualitative research From the Headlines
could help NCR determine which of its 1,200 employees 10 Pepsi launched a new global branding campaign based
will be offered positions in Duluth? on the concept of live in the moment called “Live For
Bringing Research to Life Now.” It did extensive research prior to the campaign’s
7 What dilemma does HealthPlus face, and why has the launch. What research should be done to determine if the
company turned to focus groups for insights? campaign is resonating with worldwide audiences?

>cases*

Akron Children’s Hospital Open Doors: Extending Hospitality to Travelers

with Disabilities

Covering Kids with Health Care

Ramada Demonstrates Its Personal Best™

Lexus SC 430
Starbucks, Bank One, and Visa Launch Starbucks
Card Duetto Visa
NCRCC: Teeing Up a New Strategic
Direction
USTA: Come Out Swinging

Ohio Lottery: Innovative Research

Design Drives Winning

* You will find a description of each case in the Case Index section of this textbook. Check the Case Index to determine
whether a case provides data, the research instrument, video, or other supplementary material. Written cases are
downloadable from the text website ([Link]/cooper12e). All video material and video cases are available
from the Online Learning Center. The film reel icon indicates a video case or video material relevant to the case.

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 CHAPTER

17
THE NATURE OF
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Introduction 356 The critique of qualitative research 374
Qualitative research is too subjective 374
The main steps in qualitative research 357
Qualitative research is difficult to replicate 374
Theory and research 360 Problems of generalization 374

Concepts in qualitative research 361 Lack of transparency 375

Is it always like this? 376

Reliability and validity in qualitative research 362
Adapting reliability and validity for qualitative Contrasts between quantitative and qualitative
research362 research 376
Alternative criteria for evaluating qualitative
Similarities between quantitative and qualitative
research363
research 378
Overview of the issue of criteria 365
Researcher–participant relationships 379
The main preoccupations of qualitative researchers 366
Action research 379
Seeing through the eyes of people being studied 366
Feminism and qualitative research 381
Description and emphasis on context 367
Postcolonial and indigenous research 384
Emphasis on process 368
Flexibility and limited structure 369 Key points 385
Concepts and theory grounded in data 369 Questions for review 386
Not just words 369

CHAPTER OUTLINE

Qualitative research is a research strategy that usually emphasizes words rather than numbers in the
collection and analysis of data. As a research strategy it is in general inductive, constructionist, and
interpretive, though qualitative researchers do not always subscribe to all of these intellectual positions.
This chapter is concerned with outlining the main features of qualitative business research. The chapter
explores:

• the main steps in qualitative research—which are more complex than in quantitative research;

• the relationship between theory and research;

• the nature of concepts in qualitative research and their differences from concepts in quantitative
research;
356 17 The nature of qualitative research

• how far reliability and validity are appropriate criteria – flexibility and lack of structure
for qualitative researchers and whether alternative – concepts and theory as outcomes of the research
criteria that are more tailored to the research strategy process;
are needed;
• some common criticisms of qualitative research;
• the main preoccupations of qualitative researchers—
five areas are identified:
• the main contrasts between qualitative and
quantitative research;
– seeing through the eyes of research participants
• the stance of feminist researchers on qualitative
– description and context research.
– process

Introduction
We began Chapter 8 by noting that quantitative research research since the 1970s, stipulating what it is and
had been outlined in Chapter 2 as a distinctive research is not as a distinct research strategy is by no means
strategy. Much the same kind of general point can be straightforward. They propose that one of the reasons
made in relation to qualitative research. In Chapter 2 for this uncertainty is because as a term, ‘qualitative
it was suggested that qualitative research differs from research’ is sometimes taken to imply an approach to
quantitative research in several ways. Most obviously, study in which quantitative data are not collected or
qualitative research tends to be concerned with words generated. Consequently, qualitative research ends up
rather than numbers, but four further features are par- being addressed in terms of what quantitative research
ticularly noteworthy: is not. Many writers on qualitative research are critical
of such a view, because the distinctiveness of qualitative
• an inductive view of the relationship between theory
research does not reside solely in the absence of num-
and research, whereby the former is generated out of
bers. It is also important to note that when we describe
the latter;
qualitative research in this chapter, we are making gen-
• an epistemological position described as interpretivist, eralizations just as we did when describing quantative
meaning that, in contrast to the adoption of a natural research. There are, of course, always divergences from
scientific model in quantitative research, the stress is such generalizations, a point which we return to later
on the understanding of the social world through an in this chapter.
examination of the interpretation of that world by its Silverman (1993) is critical of accounts of qualitative
participants (see Chapter 2); research that do not acknowledge the variety of forms
• an ontological position described as constructionist, that the research strategy can take. Other writers, such
which implies that social properties are outcomes of as Denzin and Lincoln (2005), have argued that qualita-
the interactions between individuals, rather than phe- tive research has evolved over time into a series of dis-
nomena ‘out there’ and separate from those involved tinct phases or ‘moments’. In other words, these writers
in their construction (see Chapter 2); are critical of attempts to specify the nature of qualita-
tive research as a general approach. In writing about
• an emphasis on naturalism, as the practice of seeking to
the characteristics of qualitative research we therefore
understand social reality in its own terms by providing
need to be sensitive to the different orientations of
rich descriptions of people and interactions in settings
qualitative researchers. Yet it is also clear that the label
that arise without the researcher attempting to influ-
‘qualitative research’ is commonly used in business and
ence them for the purposes of data collection. Natural-
management studies. This can be seen from the popu-
ism is taken to imply that people attribute meaning to
larity of specialist journals, such as Qualitative Research
behaviour and are active creators of their social world,
in Organizations and Management, and the number of
rather than passive subjects.
texts and handbooks, such as the SAGE Handbook of
As Bryman and Burgess (1999) observe, although Qualitative Business and Management Research Methods
there has been a proliferation of writings on qualitative (Cassell et al. 2018).
 The main steps in qualitative research 357
Several reasons might be proposed for the unease between these approaches. Researchers employing eth-
among some writers about specifying the nature of quali- nography or participant observation frequently conduct
tative research. First, qualitative research subsumes sev- qualitative interviews; they also often collect and anal-
eral diverse research methods that differ from each other yse texts and documents as well. Thus, there is consider-
considerably. The following are the main research meth- able variability in the collection of data among studies
ods associated with qualitative research. that are deemed to be qualitative. Of course, quantita-
tive research also subsumes several different methods
• Ethnography/participant observation. While some cau-
of data collection (these were covered in Part Two), but
tion is advisable in treating ethnography and partici-
the methods associated with qualitative research imply
pant observation as synonyms, they refer to similar
somewhat greater variability.
approaches to data collection in which the researcher
A second reason why there is resistance to specifying
is immersed in a social setting for some time in order to
the nature of qualitative research is that the connection
observe and listen with a view to gaining an apprecia-
between theory and research is more ambiguous than in
tion of the culture of a social group. These methods,
quantitative research. With the latter research strategy,
discussed in Chapter 19, were used in Dalton’s (1959)
theoretical issues typically drive the formulation of a
study of managerial work in the USA and by Alcadipani
research question, which in turn drives the collection and
and Tonelli in their exploration of life on the shopfloor
analysis of data. Findings then feed back into the rele-
of a newspaper printing factory in the north of Eng-
vant theory. In qualitative research, theory is supposed
land (Alcadipani and Tonelli 2014) (see Chapter 19).
to be an outcome of an investigation rather than some-
• Qualitative interviewing, covered in Chapter 20. This thing that precedes it. However, some writers, includ-
broad term encompasses a wide range of interviewing ing Silverman (1993: 24), argue that such a depiction
styles (see Key concept 10.2 for an introduction). of qualitative research is ‘out of tune with the greater
• Focus groups, discussed in Chapter 21 (see Key concept sophistication of contemporary field research design,
10.2 for an introduction). born out of accumulated knowledge of interaction and
greater concern with issues of reliability and valid-
• Language-based approaches to the collection of qualita-
tive data, such as discourse and conversation analysis ity’. Nonetheless, qualitative research is more usually
(covered in Chapter 22). regarded as denoting an approach in which theory and
categorization emerge out of the collection and analysis
• The collection and qualitative analysis of texts and docu-
of data. The more general point being made is that such
ments (covered in Chapter 23).
a difference within qualitative research may account for
Each of these approaches to data collection will be exam- the unease about depicting research strategy in terms of
ined in Part Three. As will be seen, there are overlaps a set of stages.

The main steps in qualitative research

The sequence outlined in Figure 17.1 illustrates the pro- They therefore chose to focus on professional women
cess of qualitative research. In order to illustrate these in the early stages of their first pregnancy, asserting
steps, a study by Ladge et al. (2012) of identity transi- that these women start to explore and enact the iden-
tions among women professionals in early pregnancy tity of motherhood long before the child is born.
will be used. Through this, Ladge et al. (2012) make a theoretical
contribution to understanding how work and nonwork
• Step 1. General research questions (see Thinking deeply identities coevolve in ‘liminal periods’, when identity is
17.1). Ladge et al.’s (2012) study focused on how pro- in flux. Drawing on the identity literature, they assume
fessional women in pregnancy experience identity that this liminal period will be characterised by ‘feel-
changes. Their theoretical interest, as they explain, ‘is ings of ambiguity, openness, disorientation, self-ques-
in understanding how a life-altering change in an indi- tioning and indeterminacy’ (Ladge et al. 2012: 1451),
vidual’s nonwork self often instigates a need to reori- as women are no longer fully connected to their old
ent his/her work identity’ (Ladge et al. 2012: 1450). professional identity and are anticipating a new iden-
358 17 The nature of qualitative research

FIGURE 17.1
An outline of the main steps of qualitative research

1. General research questions

2. Selecting relevant site(s) and subjects

3. Collection of relevant data

4. Interpretation of data 5b. Collection of further data

5. Conceptual and theoretical work

5a. Tighter specification of

the research question(s)
6. Writing up findings/conclusions

tity where they will be mothers and professionals. This pants, their choice of semi-structured interview
led the researchers towards the development of their methods enabling the exploration of women’s work
research goal which was to ‘study women’s experi- experience while pregnant. Interviews were between
ences of the liminal period of pregnancy as they 60 and 90 minutes’ duration and were taped and tran-
develop their new maternal identity and begin recon- scribed verbatim.
structing their professional identity in light of impend-
• Step 4. Interpretation of data. Ladge et al. describe their
ing motherhood’ (Ladge et al. 2012: 1453). A set of study as based on a grounded theory approach. The
general questions including ‘How do women manage process of analysis began by developing a set of codes
their work identity while pregnant?’ guided the that emerged inductively from the interviews. The
research, ‘but as we moved through the data, we were three researchers worked together to develop shared
open to making adjustments to these questions … agreement on these codes, each coding a subset of the
based on our own interpretations of the data and the transcripts independently and then meeting up to
interpretations of respondents’ (Ladge et al. 2012: compare and consolidate, returning to the literature
1455). and then recoding. Following techniques developed by
• Step 2. Selecting relevant site(s) and subjects. The first Strauss and Corbin (1990), they went through several
stage of the project involved a pilot study of ten inter- cycles of this process. Eventually, ‘after coding 29
views with women who were either pregnant with interviews, we felt we had reached the point of theo-
their first child or within six months of having given retical saturation because no new codes were being
birth to their first child. Interviewees had a minimum generated’ (Ladge et al. 2012: 1456).
of three years’ professional experience and were
• Step 5. Conceptual and theoretical work. Consistent
planning on returning to work after their maternity with their grounded theory approach, Ladge et al.
leave. describe their goal as to expand knowledge about lim-
• Step 3. Collection of relevant data. The researchers jus- inal periods and to build new theory about identity
tify their choice of qualitative research methods as a transitions. The researchers therefore develop a theo-
response to calls from work–life scholars for more retical model (in the form of a detailed flow diagram)
research that explores the lived experience of partici- to illustrate the experiences of identity transitions in
 The main steps in qualitative research 359

17.1 THINKING DEEPLY

Research questions in qualitative research
The research questions posed in qualitative research are stated with varying degrees of explicitness. Sometimes,
the question is embedded within a general statement about the orientation of an article. Other studies are more
explicit in stating research questions. Ashforth et al. (2007) were interested in the phenomenon of ‘dirty work’, a
term that refers to work that is tainted ‘physically, socially or morally’ (E. C. Hughes 1958: 122, quoted in Ashforth
et al. 2007: 149). They conducted semi-structured interviews with managers in 18 such occupations in order to
explore how this work is ‘normalized’—that is, how managers develop ways of dealing with or reducing the
significance of the taint of dirty work. After a discussion of the literature and their view of its implications for their
own work, they write:

In summary, our research questions were:

Research Question 1. What normalization challenges do managers in dirty work occupations face?
Research Question 2. What tactics do managers report using to normalize dirty work?

(Ashforth et al. 2007: 151; emphasis in original)

One factor that may affect the degree of explicitness with which research questions are stated is the outlet in
which the research is published. Ashforth et al. (2007) published this article in the Academy of Management
Journal, which publishes mainly empirical articles deriving from quantitative research. It may be that Ashforth et
al. chose this format for presenting their research questions so that it would exhibit some of the characteristics of
research questions or hypotheses in quantitative research that tend to be stated explicitly. Another article in the
same issue of that journal also states its research questions very explicitly, though not in the same way.

Thus two research questions guided this article: (1) What conditions trigger organizational stakeholders and
leaders to engage in sensemaking activities? and (2) What conditions enable sensegiving on the part of
stakeholders and leaders motivated to engage in sensemaking activities?
(Maitlis and Lawrence 2007: 59)

The researchers investigated these two research questions by collecting qualitative data from semi-structured
interviews, observation, and examination of documents related to three British symphony orchestras. Since the
early 2010s there has been increasing expectation upon qualitative business researchers to articulate a research
question in this way when presenting their findings.

liminal periods. In this model, pregnancy is labelled as on a precise segment of working women … Thus, we
a ‘triggering event’ that evokes identity uncertainty. decided to focus our attention on women who had at
The emphasis in this model is on explaining the pro- least three years’ professional experience’. The women
cess of identity transition as it unfolds in the liminal in this second sample held a variety of professional
period. occupations, including manager, lawyer, and college
professor. Through analysis of the interview tran-
• Step 5a. Tighter specification of the research question(s).
Having done the pilot study, Ladge et al. refined their scripts from the pilot study, the researchers returned
definition of the population being studied, their theo- to the literature on identity transitions ‘and recog-
retical frame, and the questions that comprised the nized that pregnancy represents a liminal space. Thus,
interview protocol. The extent of these changes illus- we modified our full study to focus exclusively on preg-
trates the extent to which qualitative researchers are nant women, excluding those who had given birth’
flexible in their approach to study, changing direction (Ladge et al. 2012: 1453–4). They then interviewed a
in the course of the investigation, a point which we will further 25 women (Step 5b) based on these refined
return to later in this chapter. They explain: ‘we sampling criteria. Such a research strategy is fre-
learned from the pilot study that we needed to focus quently referred to as iterative: the stages of data col-
360 17 The nature of qualitative research

lection and analysis take place in parallel, as initial

• Step 6. Writing up findings/conclusions. There is no real
stages of data collection and analysis are used to refine difference between the significance of writing up in
subsequent phases of data collection and analysis. quantitative research and qualitative research, so that
• Step 5b. Collection of further data. A snowball sampling the same points made in relation to Step 11 in Figure
technique (discussed in Chapter 18) was used to iden- 8.1 apply here. An audience must be convinced about
tify participants for the main study. Initially this the credibility and significance of the interpretations
involved publicizing the study via university alumni offered. The salience of what researchers have seen
and professional networks. Although the authors do and heard has to be impressed on the audience. Ladge
not make this explicit, all of the interviews appear to et al. do this by making clear the theoretical and practi-
have been conducted in the USA, where the three cal implications of their study. They suggest that the
researchers are based. Ladge et al. give much more findings from this study may be generalizable to other
detail about the interview questions they asked in the situations where a future nonwork role has an impact
main study than they do for the pilot. Questions on one’s work role, such as when a manager finds him-
covered three main themes. The first set asked partici- self with responsibilities to care for an aging parent.
pants to share thoughts and ideals related to work and Practical implications arising from the study relate to
pregnancy in light of their backgrounds—an example the role of organizations in more proactively support-
would be ‘What aspects of your youth and history have ing women during pregnancy, ‘as they wrestle with
formulated your views of motherhood?’ A second set conceptualizing possible selves’ (Ladge et al. 2012:
probed women’s experiences of pregnancy and work, 1467), but do not relate to providing work–life support
e.g. ‘Tell the story about when you first found out that for working mothers when they return to work after
you were pregnant.’ A third group of questions the baby is born.
explored women’s specific experiences in the work-
Two distinctive aspects of the sequence of steps in quali-
place related to their pregnancy and the ways they
tative research are the related issues of theory and con-
managed pregnancy in the workplace.
cepts, issues to which we now turn.

Theory and research

Most qualitative researchers when writing about their a person and putting them under different categories
craft emphasize a preference for treating theory as some- and headings, and try to appreciate the wholeness of
thing that emerges inductively (see Chapter 2) out of each person as well’ (1981: 396). Marshall’s final stage
the collection and analysis of data. For example, Mar- involves attention and ‘mental space in order to allow
shall (1984) describes her approach to the analysis of insights to emerge from an unconscious level so that
research data on women managers’ career histories as connections can be made at lots of different levels’. Only
‘immersion’. This involves trying to appreciate inherent towards the end does it ‘become more solid and under-
patterns rather than to impose preconceived ideas on the standable. That feeling gives me confidence that I can put
data. As she explains, in the early stages of data analysis it together’ (1981: 398). As will be seen in Chapter 24,
impressions seem to dominate; although there is a sense practitioners of grounded theory stress the importance
that something is coming out of the data, it is not clear of allowing theoretical ideas to emerge out of one’s data.
what. At the same time, she articulates a common fear One key point implied by Figure 17.1 is that the typical
among qualitative researchers that ‘nothing is going to sequence of steps in qualitative research entails generating
come out of the research and that I’m going to be left theories inductively rather than testing theories that are
with a pile of tapes and nothing to say at the end’ (1981: specified at the outset. But some qualitative researchers
396). Structuring the data involves Marshall picking cer- argue that qualitative data can be used to test theories as
tain things out and putting them under some headings, well. Silverman (1993) argues that qualitative researchers
but again she states: ‘I’m a bit unsure about this, because have become increasingly interested in the testing of theo-
this seems to rob the individual case of its wholeness. ries and that this is a reflection of the growing maturity of
So I have to compensate for parcelling out little bits of the strategy. Certainly, there is no reason why qualitative
 Concepts in qualitative research 361
research cannot be used to test theories that are specified This oscillation between testing emerging theories and col-
in advance of data collection. In any case, much qualita- lecting data is a common feature of qualitative research.
tive research involves testing theories in the course of the However, it is presented as a dashed line in Figure 17.1,
research process. So, in Figure 17.1, the loop back from because it is not as necessary a feature of the process of
Step 5a ‘Tighter specification of the research question(s)’ qualitative research as the other steps. Silverman (1993)
to Step 5b ‘Collection of further data’ implies that a theo- is undoubtedly correct that pre-specified theories can be
retical position may emerge in the course of research and and sometimes are tested with qualitative data, but the
may spur the collection of further data to test that theory. generation of theory tends to be the preferred approach.

Concepts in qualitative research

A central feature of Chapter 8 was the discussion of been developed for it. Fine nuances in the form that the
concepts and their measurement. For most qualitative concept can assume, or alternative ways of viewing the
researchers, developing measures of concepts will not be concept and its manifestations, are sidelined. In other
a significant consideration, but concepts are very much words, definitive concepts are excessively concerned with
part of the landscape in qualitative research. However, what is common to the phenomena that the concept is sup-
the way in which concepts are developed and used is often posed to subsume rather than with variety. Instead, Blumer
rather different from in quantitative research. Blumer’s recommended that social researchers should use sensitiz-
(1954) distinction between ‘definitive’ and ‘sensitizing’ ing concepts to provide ‘a general sense of reference and
concepts helps to explain some of these differences. guidance in approaching empirical instances’ (1954: 7).
Blumer (1954) argued against the use of definitive con- As the example in Research in focus 17.2 suggests,
cepts in social research. The idea of definitive concepts the researcher frequently starts out with a broad out-
is typified by the way in which, in quantitative research, line of a concept, which is revised and narrowed during
a concept, once developed, becomes fixed through the the course of data collection. Subsequent researchers
elaboration of indicators. For Blumer, such an approach is may take up and revise the concept and use it in differ-
overly restrictive, because the concept in question comes ent organizational contexts or in relation to different
to be seen exclusively in terms of the indicators that have research questions.

17.2 RESEARCH IN FOCUS

The emergence of a concept in qualitative research:
‘emotional labour’
Hochschild’s (1983) idea of emotional labour—labour that ‘requires one to induce or suppress feelings in order to
sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others’ (1983: 7)—has become an
influential concept in the sociology of work and emotions. Somewhat surprisingly for a qualitative study,
Hochschild’s initial conceptualization appears to have emerged from a questionnaire she distributed to 261
university students. The questionnaire posed two open-ended questions: ‘Describe a real situation that was
important to you in which you experienced a deep emotion’ and ‘Describe as fully and concretely as possible a real
situation that was important to you in which you either changed the situation to fit your feelings or changed your
feelings to fit the situation’ (1983: 13). Thus, although a self-completion questionnaire was employed, the
resulting data were qualitative. Hochschild’s data analysis drew on the idea of ‘emotion work’, which is the same
as emotional labour but occurs in a private context. Emotional labour is essentially emotion work performed as part
of one’s paid employment.

In order to develop the idea of emotional labour, Hochschild looked to the world of work. She chose to focus on
flight attendants, as an occupational group that was likely to engage in emotional labour. Several sources of data
362 17 The nature of qualitative research

on emotional labour among flight attendants were used. She gained access to Delta Airlines, a large American
airline. Data collection involved
• observing training sessions for attendants and having many conversations with trainees and experienced
attendants;
• interviewing other personnel, such as section managers and advertising agents;
• examining Delta advertisements spanning 30 years;
• observing the flight attendant recruitment process at Pan American Airways, since she had not been allowed to
do this at Delta;
• conducting ‘open-ended interviews lasting three to five hours each with thirty flight attendants in the San
Francisco Bay Area’ (1983: 15).

As a contrasting occupational group that is also involved in emotional labour, she also interviewed five
debt-collectors.

From this it can be seen that Hochschild’s concept of emotional labour began as a somewhat imprecise idea
which emerged out of a concern with emotion work and gradually developed. The concept has been picked up by
numerous other business and management researchers. For example, Leidner (1993) has explored, through
ethnographic studies of a McDonald’s restaurant and an insurance company, the ways in which organizations
seek to ‘routinize’ the display of emotional labour.

Reliability and validity in qualitative research

In Chapters 3 and 8 it was noted that reliability and (1996: 21). She sticks closely to the meaning that these
validity are important criteria in establishing and criteria have in quantitative research, where they have
assessing the quality of business research. However, been largely developed. Thus, validity refers to whether
there has been discussion among qualitative researchers ‘you are observing, identifying, or “measuring” what you
concerning the relevance of reliability and validity. Even say you are’ (1996: 24). LeCompte and Goetz (1982) and
writers who take the view that these criteria are rele- Kirk and Miller (1986) also write about reliability and
vant suggest that the meanings of these terms need to validity in relation to qualitative research but invest the
be altered. For example, the criterion of validity carries terms with a somewhat different meaning from Mason.
connotations of measurement. Since measurement is LeCompte and Goetz discuss the following aspects.
not a major preoccupation among qualitative research-
ers, the criterion of validity would seem to have limited • External reliability: the degree to which a study can be
replicated. This is a difficult criterion to meet in quali-
application in such studies.
tative research, since, as LeCompte and Goetz recog-
nize, it is impossible to ‘freeze’ a social setting and the
circumstances of an initial study to make it replicable
Adapting reliability and validity for in the sense in which the term is usually used (see
qualitative research Chapter 8). However, they suggest several strategies
One approach is to assimilate reliability and validity that enable the requirements of external reliability to
into qualitative research with little change of meaning be approached. For example, they suggest that a qual-
other than playing down the salience of measurement. itative researcher replicating ethnographic research
Mason (1996), for example, argues that reliability, valid- needs to adopt a similar social role to that adopted by
ity, and generalizability (which is the main component the original researcher. Otherwise, what a researcher
of external validity; see Chapter 3) ‘are different kinds of sees and hears when attempting to conduct a replica-
measures of the quality, rigour and wider potential of tion will not be comparable to the original research.
research, which are achieved according to certain meth- • Internal reliability: when there is more than one
odological and disciplinary conventions and principles’ observer, do members of the research team agree
 Reliability and validity in qualitative research 363
about what they see and hear? This is a similar notion Trustworthiness is made up of four criteria, each
to inter-observer consistency (see Key concept 13.4). of which has an equivalent criterion in quantitative
research:
• Internal validity: is there a good match between
researchers’ observations and the theoretical ideas
• credibility, which parallels internal validity;
they develop? LeCompte and Goetz argue that internal
validity tends to be a strength of qualitative research, • transferability, which parallels external validity;

particularly ethnographic research, because pro- • dependability, which parallels reliability;

longed participation in the social life of a group over a • confirmability, which parallels objectivity.
long period of time allows the researcher to ensure a
A major reason for Guba and Lincoln’s unease about the
high level of congruence between concepts and obser-
simple application of reliability and validity standards to
vations.
qualitative research is that the criteria presuppose that
• External validity, which refers to the degree to which a single absolute account of social reality is feasible. In
findings can be generalized across social settings. other words, they are critical of the view (described in
LeCompte and Goetz argue that, unlike internal valid- Chapter 2 as realist) that there are absolute truths about
ity, external validity represents a problem for qualita- the social world that it is the job of the social scientist to
tive researchers because of their tendency to use case reveal. Instead, they argue that there can be more than
studies and small samples. one and possibly several accounts.
As this suggests, some qualitative researchers tend to use
the terms reliability and validity in similar ways to quan- Credibility
titative researchers when seeking to develop criteria for The significance of this stress on multiple accounts of
assessing research. social reality is especially evident in the trustworthiness
criterion of credibility. After all, if there can be several pos-
Alternative criteria for evaluating sible accounts of an aspect of social reality, the plausibility
or credibility of the account that a researcher arrives at is
qualitative research going to determine its acceptability to others. The estab-
However, some writers have suggested that qualitative lishment of the credibility of findings entails both ensur-
studies should be evaluated according to quite differ- ing that research is carried out according to the canons
ent criteria from those used by quantitative researchers. of good practice and submitting research findings to the
Lincoln and Guba (1985) and Guba and Lincoln (1994) members of the social world who were studied, for con-
propose that it is necessary to specify ways of establish- firmation that the investigator has correctly understood
ing and assessing the quality of qualitative research that that social world. This latter technique is often referred
provide an alternative to reliability and validity. They to as respondent validation or member validation (see Key
propose two primary criteria for assessing a qualitative concept 17.3). Another technique Guba and Lincoln rec-
study: trustworthiness and authenticity. ommend is triangulation (see Key concept 17.4).

17.3 KEY CONCEPT

What is respondent validation?
Respondent validation, which is also sometimes called member validation, is a process whereby a researcher
provides research participants with an account of his or her findings. The purpose of this is to seek corroboration
of the account that the researcher has arrived at. Respondent validation is particularly popular among qualitative
researchers, because they frequently want to ensure that there is a good correspondence between their findings
and the perspectives and experiences of their research participants. There are several forms of respondent
validation.

• The researcher provides each research participant with an account of what they have said to the researcher in
an interview and conversations, or of what the researcher observed by watching that person in an observational
study. For example, Marshall (1995) wanted to tell the stories of a small group of women managers who had
left or were leaving senior organization positions, from these women’s points of view. To achieve this, she met
364 17 The nature of qualitative research

with each manager for one-and-a-half to two hours and asked the woman to tell her story. Marshall stated that
she would be happy to discuss her own views and experiences if relevant. Once the story had been
transcribed, she wrote an initial draft of the story and invited the manager to read it.
• The researcher feeds back to a group of people or an organization his or her impressions and findings in
relation to that group or organization. In Marshall’s (1995) research, after reading the story, each of the
managers met Marshall again, or exchanged letters and phone calls, in order to develop the story to their
mutual satisfaction. Most of the women were generally happy with the drafts but wanted minor amendments.
Marshall revised the stories, taking their comments into account. She states that, ultimately, the woman
manager had the right of veto over what appeared in ‘her’ chapter of the book that Marshall wrote.

Later, all participants were invited to a one-day collaborative enquiry workshop, in which they jointly reviewed their
experiences of employment and discussed issues of mutual interest.

In each case, the goal is to seek confirmation that the researcher’s findings and impressions are congruent with
the views of those on whom the research was conducted and to seek out areas where there is a lack of
correspondence and the reasons for it. However, the idea is not without practical difficulties.

• Respondent validation may provoke defensive reactions and even censorship on the part of research
participants. Marshall was prepared to accept this as a consequence of her collaborative approach. Hence one
participant decided that her story made her too identifiable and vulnerable. Her reasons for this centred on the
difficulties of establishing a positive, accepted identity as a manager because she self-identified as gay.
Marshall therefore agreed to write a brief account of ‘Ruth’s’ experience.
• Research participants cannot validate the scientific legitimacy of a researcher’s analysis. Even if participants
are prepared to corroborate the researcher’s account, the researcher still has to develop concepts and theories
that make a contribution to knowledge. Marshall was therefore careful to differentiate between data—over
which participants had a right of veto (i.e. the women’s stories)—and other material over which she wished to
retain control, to put her own views and pursue her ‘more academic concerns’ (1995: 336).

Respondent validation can provide a means of confirming the validity of individual accounts. It can also help to
redress power imbalances between researcher and researched by providing participants with a degree of
involvement in and authority over the research findings. However, it is important to distinguish between seeking
validation from individuals and seeking validation from organizations, or—as is more likely—powerful individuals
within organizations, such as senior managers. The latter option, by giving powerful groups within the organization
control over the research, can introduce problems of censorship.

17.4 KEY CONCEPT

What is triangulation?
Triangulation involves using more than one method or source of data in the study of social phenomena. The
triangulation metaphor is taken from navigation and military strategy, where it refers to the process whereby
multiple reference points are used to locate an object’s exact position. The term has been used more broadly by
Denzin (1970: 310) to refer to an approach that uses ‘multiple observers, theoretical perspectives, sources of
data, and methodologies’, but the emphasis has tended to be on methods of investigation and sources of data.
One of the reasons Webb et al. (1966) advocate greater use of unobtrusive methods is because of their potential
as a strategy of triangulation. Triangulation was originally conceptualized by Webb et al. (1966) as an approach to
the development of measures of concepts, whereby more than one method would be employed in the
development of measures, resulting in greater confidence in findings. As such, triangulation was strongly
associated with a quantitative research strategy. However, triangulation can also take place within a qualitative
research strategy. In fact, ethnographers often check out their observations with interview questions to determine
whether they might have misunderstood what they had seen. Increasingly, triangulation is used to refer to a
 Reliability and validity in qualitative research 365

process of cross-checking findings deriving from both quantitative and qualitative research (Deacon et al. 1998).
For example, Kanter (1977) draws attention to the triangulation of methods that characterized her approach,
stating, ‘I used each source of data, and each informant, as a check against the others’ (1977: 337). She suggests
that ‘a combination of methods . . . emerges as the most valid and reliable way to develop understanding of such a
complex social reality as the corporation’ (1977: 337).

In addition to allowing the cross-checking of qualitative data, the combined use of quantitative and qualitative
methods may allow access to different levels of reality. However, triangulation is just one way of thinking about the
integration of these two research strategies, as will be discussed in depth in Chapter 27.

Transferability Confirmability
As qualitative research typically entails the intensive Confirmability is concerned with ensuring that, while
study of a small group, or of individuals sharing certain recognizing that complete objectivity is impossible in
characteristics (that is, depth rather than the breadth business research, the researcher can be shown to have
that is a preoccupation in quantitative research), quali- acted in good faith; in other words, it should be appar-
tative findings tend to be orientated to the contextual ent that he or she has not overtly or manifestly allowed
uniqueness and significance of the aspect of the social personal values or theoretical inclinations to sway the
world being studied. As Guba and Lincoln put it, whether conduct of the research and findings deriving from it.
or not findings ‘hold in some other context, or even in Guba and Lincoln propose that establishing confirmabil-
the same context at some other time, is an empirical ity should be one of the objectives of auditors.
issue’ (Lincoln and Guba 1985: 316). Instead, qualita-
tive researchers are encouraged to produce what Geertz
Overview of the issue of criteria
(1973) calls thick description—that is, rich accounts of
the details of a culture. Guba and Lincoln argue that a Qualitative researchers who apply the criteria of reli-
thick description provides others with what they refer to ability and validity with little or no adaptation broadly
as a database for making judgements about the possible position themselves as realists—that is, as saying that
transferability of findings to other milieux. social reality exists independently of those who are
engaged with it. Johnson et al. (2006) refer to this kind
Dependability of business research as ‘positivist-qualitative’, because
As a parallel to reliability in quantitative research, and it involves the use of non-quantitative methods but is
in order to demonstrate that qualitative research is trust- informed by largely positivistic assumptions, including
worthy, Guba and Lincoln propose the idea of depend- the idea that ‘there is a world out there to be discovered
ability. This involves adoption of an ‘auditing’ approach and explored in an objective manner’ (Johnson et al.,
which ensures that complete records are kept of all 2006: 138). Lincoln and Guba reject this view, arguing
phases of the research process—problem formulation, instead that qualitative researchers’ concepts and theo-
selection of research participants, fieldwork notes, inter- ries are representations and that there may, therefore, be
view transcripts, data analysis decisions—in an acces- other equally credible representations of the same phe-
sible manner. Peers then act as auditors, possibly during nomena. In addition to the four criteria discussed above,
the course of the research and certainly at the end, to Lincoln and Guba propose a fifth criterion of authenticity,
establish how far proper procedures are being and have which raises issues concerning the wider social and polit-
been followed. This would include assessing the degree ical impact of research. Authenticity places responsibility
to which theoretical inferences can be justified. Audit- on the researcher to fairly represent different viewpoints
ing has not become a popular approach to enhancing within a social setting, so as to enable research partici-
the dependability of qualitative business research, partly pants to arrive at a better understanding of their situa-
because of problems associated with it. One is that it is tions and empower them to engage in action to change
very demanding for the auditors, bearing in mind that their circumstances. According to Johnson et al. (2006),
qualitative research frequently generates extremely this criteriology is consistent with critical theory and is
large datasets: this may be a major reason why it has not aligned with participatory action research, which aims to
become a pervasive approach to validation. engender emancipatory change.
366 17 The nature of qualitative research

Although qualitative researchers have sought to for- puts pressure on business researchers to try to conform
mulate quality criteria appropriate to their approach, to them, even if this is inconsistent with the principles
this has not had as much impact in business research as of qualitative research, introduced at the start of this
might be expected. Pratt (2008) has shown that qualita- chapter, that may guide their study. According to John-
tive business researchers believe their work continues to son et al. (2006), the most important thing for qualita-
be judged by criteria of validity and reliability that are tive researchers is to make sure that the quality criteria
more suited to quantitative research. Cornelissen et al. they use are logically consistent with their philosophical
(2012) argue that the dominance of criteria informed by assumptions.
a positivist epistemology, such as validity and reliability,

The main preoccupations of qualitative researchers

The preoccupations of qualitative researchers reflect epis- and reflections. The epistemology underlying quali-
temologically grounded beliefs about what constitutes tative research has been expressed by the authors of
acceptable knowledge. Whereas quantitative research is one widely read text as involving two central tenets:
profoundly influenced by a natural science approach to ‘(1) … face-to-face interaction is the fullest condition
producing knowledge, qualitative researchers are more of participating in the mind of another human being,
influenced by interpretivism (see Key concept 2.12). and (2) … you must participate in the mind of another
This position is the product of the confluence of three human being (in sociological terms, “take the role of
related stances: Weber’s notion of Verstehen; symbolic the other”) to acquire social knowledge’ (Lofland and
interactionism; and phenomenology. In this section, six Lofland 1995: 16). An example of this approach is given
distinctive preoccupations of qualitative researchers will in Research in focus 17.5.
be examined. It is not surprising, therefore, that many research-
ers make claims in their reports of their investigations
about having sought to take the views of the people they
Seeing through the eyes of people studied as the point of departure (see Research in focus
being studied 17.5). This tendency reveals itself in frequent references
An underlying premise of many qualitative researchers to getting close to research participants and seeing from
is that the subject matter of business (that is, people the perspective of those who are studied. Here are some
and their social world) differs from the subject mat- other examples.
ter of the natural sciences. A key difference is that the
• Jackall (1988), in his ethnographic study of bureau-
objects of analysis of the natural sciences (atoms, mol- cracy and morality in large corporations, seeks to
ecules, gases, chemicals, metals, and so on) cannot understand ‘how men and women in business actually
attribute meaning to events and to their environment. experience their work’ (1988: 5) in order to ascertain
However, people do. This argument is especially evident its moral salience for them.
in the work of Schutz (1962) and can particularly be
seen in the passage quoted in Chapter 2, where Schutz • Marshall (1984) describes herself as an ‘interpreter’
rather than a manipulator of data, ‘concerned with
draws attention to the fact that, unlike the objects of
capturing other people’s meanings rather than testing
the natural sciences, the objects of the social sciences—
hypotheses’ (1984: 116).
people—are capable of attributing meaning to their
environment. Consequently, many qualitative research- The preference for seeing from the perspective of the peo-
ers suggest that a methodology is required for studying ple studied in qualitative research is often accompanied
people that reflects these differences between people by the closely related goal of seeking to probe beneath
and the objects of the natural sciences. As a result, surface appearances. After all, if you take the position of
many qualitative researchers express a commitment to the people you are studying, the prospect is raised that
viewing events and the social world through the eyes of they might view things differently from the way an out-
the people that they study, rather than as though those sider with little direct contact might have expected. This
people were incapable of their own interpretations stance reveals itself in various studies.
 The main preoccupations of qualitative researchers 367

17.5 RESEARCH IN FOCUS

Seeing practice-based learning from the perspective
of train dispatchers
Willems’ (2018) study of Dutch train dispatchers in a railway control room illustrates the commitment that
qualitative researchers have to trying to appreciate events and the social world from the perspective of the people
who are being studied. In explaining his approach, he states: ‘I encouraged dispatchers to explain work from their
own understandings … rather than probing them to fit experience into pre-determined or theoretical categories’
(Willems 2018: 29). Willems was interested in understanding the role of embodied, sensory practices in
practice-based learning. His research focus was informed by a phenomenological approach which suggests that
the body is a primary means through which human beings experience and engage with the world. Willems’
analysis shows the importance of sensory knowledge in the work of train dispatchers—such as by touching the
tracks, seeing the switches, and recalling the experience of feeling a train enter a tunnel—that enable train
dispatchers to safely coordinate the movement of trains. The study thereby challenges the emphasis within
mainstream management learning scholarship on cognition, showing instead how the dispatchers learn by
experiencing the railways in bodily, material, and emotional ways.

in tune with interpretivism and demonstrates well the

• Dalton’s (1959) research study of the informal organi-
zation found that the boundaries between unofficial epistemological links with phenomenology, symbolic
reward obtained through expense accounting, and interactionism, and Verstehen. However, it is not without
organizational theft or pilfering, were defined quite practical problems. For example: the risk of ‘going native’
differently by individual managers, depending on and losing sight of what you are studying (see Key con-
their position within the hierarchy. cept 19.6); the problem of how far the researcher should
go, such as the potential question of participating in ille-
• Collinson (1992a) found that shopfloor workers at
gal or dangerous activities; and the possibility that the
‘Slavs’ dealt with their occupational status partly by
researcher will be able to see the social world from the
channelling their personal ambitions and energies
perspective of only some of the people who form part of
outside the workplace into the alternative domains of
a social scene but not others, such as only people of the
family and home, investing in ‘the self-sacrificing role
same gender.
of parental breadwinner’ (1992a: 185).

• Marshall’s (1984) study of women in management

showed that this issue could not be understood with- Description and emphasis on context
out taking into account the wider social context,
including society’s values about work, and the way of Qualitative researchers are more inclined than quanti-
life in large organizations, in order to make sense of tative researchers to provide a great deal of descriptive
the kinds of job roles that women in employment detail when reporting their research. This is not to say
adopt. that they are exclusively concerned with description.
They are concerned with explanation, and indeed the
• Ram’s (1994) study of management in small firms
extent to which qualitative researchers ask ‘Why?’ ques-
showed that workers were not just controlled through
tions is frequently understated. In addition, more criti-
direct supervision and intensive working methods, as
cal or radical qualitative researchers are often concerned
previous studies had suggested. Using ethnographic
with understanding the political and economic interests
methods, Ram was able to pick up on a variety of
that inform organizational actions, in order to enhance
largely informal negotiating processes, whereby
the possibilities for changing them. For example, in
employees negotiated a ‘fair’ rate for the job, taking
her ethnography of a multinational corporation, Casey
into account considerations such as the time of the
(1995) describes herself as concerned with understand-
year, the type of work, caste, and culture.
ing dominant social constructions about work, the self,
The empathetic stance of seeking to see things from the and society, in the hope that this might increase the like-
perspective of one’s research participants is very much lihood of societal transformation.
368 17 The nature of qualitative research

Many qualitative studies provide a detailed account of as a manifestation of the naturalism that pervades much
what goes on in the setting being investigated. Very often qualitative research.
qualitative studies seem to be full of apparently trivial
details. However, these details are frequently important
Emphasis on process
for the qualitative researcher because of their signifi-
cance for research participants and because they provide Qualitative research tends to view social life in terms of
an account of the context where the behaviour takes processes. This tendency reveals itself in a number of
place. It is with this point in mind that Geertz (1973) rec- ways. One of the main ways is that there is often a con-
ommends the thick description of social settings, events, cern to show how events and patterns unfold over time.
and often individuals. On the surface, some of this detail As a result, qualitative evidence often conveys a strong
may appear irrelevant, and, indeed, there is a risk of the sense of change and flux. As Pettigrew (1997: 338)
researcher becoming too embroiled in descriptive detail. explains, process is ‘a sequence of individual and collec-
Lofland and Lofland (1995: 164–5), for example, warn tive events, actions, and activities unfolding over time in
against what they call ‘descriptive excess’ in qualitative context’. This includes understanding how the history of
research, whereby the amount of detail inhibits the anal- an organization shapes the present reality and how the
ysis of data. ‘interchange between agents and contexts occurs over
One of the main reasons why qualitative researchers time and is cumulative’ (Pettigrew 1997: 339).
are keen to provide considerable descriptive detail is that Qualitative research based on ethnographic methods
they typically emphasize the importance of the contex- is particularly associated with this emphasis on process.
tual understanding of social behaviour. This means that It is the element of participant observation, a key feature
behaviour and values must be understood in the situa- of ethnography, that is especially instrumental in gener-
tions where they arise. This recommendation implies ating this feature. Ethnographers are typically immersed
that we cannot understand the behaviour of members of in a social setting for a long time—sometimes years, as in
a social group other than in terms of the specific envi- Michel’s (2011) study of Wall Street bankers (Research
ronment in which they operate. In this way, behaviour in focus 19.2). Consequently, ethnographers are able to
that may appear odd or irrational can make perfect observe the ways in which events develop over time or
sense when we understand the context within which the ways in which the different elements of a social sys-
that behaviour takes place. The emphasis on context tem (values, beliefs, behaviour, and so on) interconnect.
in qualitative research goes back to many of the clas- Such findings can inject a sense of process by seeing social
sic studies in social anthropology, which demonstrated life in terms of streams of interdependent events and ele-
how a particular practice, such as the magical ritual that ments (see Research in focus 17.6 for an example).
may accompany the sowing of seeds, made little sense This is not to say, however, that ethnographers are
unless we understand the belief systems of that society. the only qualitative researchers who inject a sense of
It is often precisely this detail that provides the mapping process into our understanding of social life. This can
of context in terms of which behaviour is understood. also be achieved through semi-structured and unstruc-
The propensity for description can also be interpreted tured interviewing, by asking participants to reflect on the

17.6 RESEARCH IN FOCUS

Studying process and change in the Carlsberg group
Hatch et al.’s (2015) study of organizational identity and culture was conducted in the Carlsberg group—the global
beer brand headquartered in Denmark—at a time when the organization was going through a period of
transformational change. The longitudinal study was carried out between 2009 and 2012 and combined
ethnographic methods of data collection, using semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and
documentary data including annual reports and press coverage relating to the company. Data analysis involved the
use of grounded theory methods to identify themes ‘as they emerged during data collection’ (2015: 63). The
researchers describe their study as ‘engaged scholarship’ because it involved studying a problem ‘up close’ (Van
de Ven, 2007), in a way which was relevant to organizational members, including senior managers who were
closely involved in the study (see also Chapter 19).
 The main preoccupations of qualitative researchers 369
processes leading up to or following on from an event, or to people’s world views) is that it offers the prospect of
through the life history method of qualitative interviewing flexibility. The researcher can change direction during
(see Chapter 20). their investigation much more easily than in quantitative
research, which tends to have a built-in momentum once
the data collection is under way.
Flexibility and limited structure
Many qualitative researchers are disdainful of approaches
Concepts and theory grounded in data
to research that entail the imposition of predetermined
formats on the social world. This position is largely to do For qualitative researchers, concepts and theories are
with the preference for seeing things from the perspec- usually inductively arrived at from the data that are col-
tive of people being studied. After all, if a structured lected through a process of development (see Research
method of data collection is used, certain decisions must in focus 17.2). In recent years, attempts have been made
have been made about what the researcher expects to to enhance the transparency surrounding this process
find. Therefore, the researcher is limited in the degree to and to introduce greater rigour into this aspect of quali-
which they can genuinely adopt the world view of people tative research (see Chapter 24).
being studied. Consequently, most qualitative research-
ers prefer a research orientation that entails as little
Not just words
prior contamination of the social world as possible. To
do otherwise risks imposing an inappropriate frame of Qualitative business researchers, like other researchers
reference on people. Keeping structure to a minimum is across the social sciences (Banks 2001; Pink 2001; Rose
intended to enhance the opportunity of genuinely reveal- 2001), have become increasingly interested in the analysis
ing the perspectives of the people you are studying. Also, of visual data. Writers such as Meyer (1991) and Holliday
in the process, aspects of people’s social world that are (2001) have argued that there has been an undue empha-
particularly important to them, but that might not even sis on the importance of language in constituting meaning
have crossed the mind of a researcher unfamiliar with it, and this has led to a tendency to overlook the importance
are more likely to be forthcoming. Because of this, quali- of the visual (Bell and Davison 2013, Meyer et al. 2013).
tative research tends to be a strategy that tries not to They highlight the unique aspects of the visual, includ-
delimit areas of enquiry too much, asking general rather ing aesthetic attributes and mimetic potential to induce
than specific research questions (see Figure 17.1). immediate, memorable effects on audiences. Photographs
Owing to the preference for a loosely structured may be used in qualitative organizational research in a
approach to the collection of data, qualitative research- number of ways.
ers adopt methods that do not require the investigator
to develop highly specific research questions in advance. • Photographs may be as an aide-mémoire in fieldwork—
the images essentially become components of the eth-
Ethnography, with its emphasis on participant obser-
nographer’s field notes.
vation, is particularly well suited to this orientation. It
allows researchers to submerge themselves in a social • Photographs may be a source of data in their own right
setting with a general research interest in mind and and not simply adjuncts to the ethnographer’s field
gradually to narrow their focus by making as many notes, as in Bell’s research focusing on visual messages
observations of that setting as possible. They can then of death and loss following the closure of a car factory
formulate more specific research questions out of their (Research in focus 17.7).
collected data. Similarly, interviewing is an extremely • Photographs may serve prompts for discussion by
prominent method in the qualitative researcher’s reper- research participants. This includes the use of photo-
toire, but, as we will see in Chapter 20, it is less struc- graphs taken by the ethnographer or by research par-
tured than the kind of interviewing encountered in ticipants, such as in the study of aesthetics by S.
Chapter 10. Blumer’s (1954) argument for sensitizing Warren (2002, 2005; Research in focus 17.7). In the
rather than definitive concepts (definitive being the kind case of photographs taken by research participants,
employed by quantitative researchers) is symptomatic Pink (2004: 399) writes: ‘By working with informants
of the preference for a more open-ended, and hence less to produce images that are meaningful for them we
structured, approach. can gain insights into their visual cultures and into
An advantage of the unstructured nature of most what is important for them as individuals living in par-
qualitative research (that is, in addition to gaining access ticular localities.’
370 17 The nature of qualitative research

17.7 RESEARCH IN FOCUS

An example of dialogical visual research
Dialogical visual research (Meyer et al. 2013) involves using visual artefacts as a means of communication
between the researcher and research participants. S. Warren (2002) used photographs in her study of aesthetics
and organization in the website design department of a global IT company. She was prompted to use visual
methods ‘to explore the relationship between the feel, sights, smells, and even the tastes of the organizational
setting’ (2002: 230) which could not be spoken about or written down. Warren gave a camera to employees and
asked them to take photographs that would ‘show’ how it ‘felt’ to work there. She claims that ‘the photographs
make an interesting data set in their own right regarding the ways in which the respondents chose to define their
work environments, what they felt to be worthy (and not worthy) of photographing, and the individual and
sometimes innovative ways they framed their subjects’ (2002: 232).

Plates 17.1–17.3 show three photographs taken by respondents. Plate 17.1 is a photograph of a cup of tea from a
vending machine. When the respondent was asked why he had taken this particular picture, he raised issues
concerning his dissatisfaction with the amount of money that had been spent on the office at the expense of other
things that were more important to employees. Plate 17.2 shows a meeting room that was photographed by a
respondent who found it to be an escape and a contrast from the normal work environment. However, Warren
argues that in her study the use of photographs did not primarily entail analysis of their content. Instead the
photographs formed part of a data-generating triangle involving the image, respondent, and researcher, focusing
on the reasons why they were taken. Plate 17.3 provides a good illustration of this, since the blurred nature of this
photograph of the office space means it would be difficult to distinguish the content at all without the account
provided by the respondent, who explains that they were trying to capture the ‘busyness’ and ‘colour’ that defined
the atmosphere of the workplace. Warren also notes that photographs such as this one show how intangible
emotional concepts that are hard to communicate through language can be conveyed through images.

PLATE 17.1
‘Cup of tea from vending machine’

Copyright Samantha Warren. Reproduced with thanks.

The photographs were then discussed in the context of an interview conversation with the respondent in a form of
qualitative photo-elicitation. Warren suggests the photographs added to the richness of data collected and were
used by respondents to give an emotional sense of the work environment.
 The main preoccupations of qualitative researchers 371

PLATE 17.2
‘Thinktank: aestheticized meeting room’

Copyright Samantha Warren. Reproduced with thanks.

PLATE 17.3
‘Blurred view of office space’

Copyright Samantha Warren. Reproduced with thanks.

Pink (2001) draws attention to two different ways in which visual images have been conceptualized in social research.
She calls these realist and reflexive approaches. The latter approach to the visual is frequently collaborative, in the
sense that research participants may be involved in decisions about what photographs should be taken and then how
they should be interpreted. Further, there is recognition of the fluidity of the meaning of images, implying that they can
never be fixed and will always be viewed by different people in different ways. For example, in Bell’s (2012) study of
the closure of a Jaguar car manufacturing plant (Research in focus 17.8), she analysed the positionality of the person
who took the photograph or produced the image, as well as the content of the photograph itself.
372 17 The nature of qualitative research

Meyer et al. (2013) provide an overview of how visuals have been integrated into qualitative organizational
research and identify five ideal-typical approaches:
• Archaeological: based on analysis of visual artefacts in which socially constructed meaning is embodied;
Davison’s (2009) study of iconography in a UK bank (Research in focus 23.6) provides an example.
• Practice: involving the study of visual artefacts in situ, including how they are used by social actors in various
processes of organizing; an example is Bell’s (2012) study of visual expression of change and loss surrounding
the closure of a car manufacturing plant (Research in focus 17.8).
• Strategic: this builds on psychological, linguistic, or semiotic theory and involves the use of visual methods to
elicit desired responses from audiences; an example is Bell and Clarke’s (2014) study of undergraduate
student perceptions of management researchers (see Chapter 6).
• Dialogical: this type of research uses visuals as a form of communication between the researcher and the field,
such as through the use of projective techniques, pictorial, and photo-elicitation (Key concept 10.8).
• Documenting: this involves the use of visual artifacts as a form of field notes to document the research process;
examples include Buchanan’s (1998) study of the hospital patient trail discussed below.

17.8 RESEARCH IN FOCUS

An example of practice visual research
Practice-oriented visual research involves studying how visual artefacts are used by social actors in processes of
organizing. Bell (2012) was interested in processes of loss and mourning in response to organizational change
involving the closure of a Jaguar car manufacturing plant in the UK city of Coventry (Bell 2012). She became
aware of the role of visual images in communicating messages about the closure when an image was published in
the local newspaper featuring a Jaguar E-Type vehicle with the letters ‘RIP JAG’ written across the front of the
vehicle, accompanied by a story about the decision of the Ford Motor Company to close the factory. In addition to
studying historical photographs and artefacts held in the Jaguar company archives, she analysed images
produced by employees and managers in response to the intended closure. She also analysed more than 600
photographs of the manufacturing plant that were taken by the organization’s picture archivist in the last days
before car production ceased (Plates 17.4 and 17.5). Through this she developed an analysis of the significance
of the visual in constructing organizational memory and narrating stories about the organization’s history and
identity. The findings from the case led her to conclude that the visual are an important resource in enabling
managerial narratives to be contested and alternatives to be constructed.

However, Meyer et al. (2013) suggest there is still some argues that using photographs in conjunction with other
way to go before the inclusion of visual data in empirical methods of data collection helps the organizational
analyses becomes the norm rather than the exception. The researcher to:
Researcher Development pages on the website of the Inter-
national Network for Visual Studies in Organizations, in • develop a richer understanding of organizational pro-
Visio ([Link] contain information cesses;
about visual methods and the theory that informs them.
• capture data not disclosed in interview;
Photographs produced as part of fieldwork may be
analysed by the researcher alongside other types of • reveal to staff aspects of work in other sections of the
organization with which they have little or no regular
documents containing written words, such as interview
contact;
transcripts, as in the study of business process re-engi-
neering in a UK hospital by Buchanan (2001). Buchanan • offer a novel channel for respondent validation of data;
used photographs taken by himself as a way of gaining • involve staff in debate concerning the implications of
insight into the ‘patient trail’, the temporal and spatial research findings for organization process redesign
process experienced by patients. Buchanan (2001: 151) and improvement.
 The main preoccupations of qualitative researchers 373
PLATE 17.4
‘An empty staff break area on the last day of production’

Copyright Karam Ram and Jaguar Heritage. Reproduced with thanks.

PLATE 17.5
‘After the last car has left the track’

Copyright Karam Ram and Jaguar Heritage. Reproduced with thanks.

374 17 The nature of qualitative research

Visual organizational research has great potential. visual is almost always accompanied by the non-visual—
However, Pink (2004) reminds us that visual research words—which is the medium of expression for both the
methods are never purely visual. There are two aspects research participants and the researchers themselves.
to this point. First, visual research methods are usually Further consideration of the use of visual methods in
accompanied by other (often traditional) research meth- ethnographic research and in the qualitative analysis of
ods such as interviewing and observation. Second, the documents will be provided in Chapters 19 and 23.

The critique of qualitative research

In a similar way to the criticisms that have been levelled the main instrument of data collection, so that what is
at quantitative research, mainly by qualitative research- observed and heard and also what the researcher decides
ers, a parallel critique has been built up of qualitative to concentrate upon is very much a product of his or her
research. These are some of the more common issues preferences. There are several possible components of
raised. this criticism: what qualitative researchers (especially
perhaps in ethnography) choose to focus upon while
in the field is a product of what strikes them as signifi-
Qualitative research is too subjective cant, whereas other researchers are likely to empathize
Quantitative researchers sometimes criticize qualitative with other issues; the responses of participants (people
research as being too impressionistic and subjective. By being observed or interviewed) to qualitative research-
these criticisms they usually mean that qualitative find- ers are likely to be affected by the characteristics of the
ings rely too much on the researcher’s often unsystematic researcher (personality, age, gender, and so on); and,
views about what is significant and important, and also because of the unstructured nature of qualitative data,
upon the close personal relationships that the researcher interpretation will be profoundly influenced by the sub-
frequently strikes up with the people studied. Precisely jective leanings of a researcher. Because of such factors it
because qualitative research often begins in a relatively is difficult to replicate qualitative findings. The difficul-
open-ended way and entails a gradual narrowing-down ties ethnographers experience when they revisit grounds
of research questions or problems, the consumer of the previously trodden by another researcher (often referred
writings deriving from the research may be given few to as a ‘restudy’) do not inspire confidence in the replica-
clues as to why one area was the chosen area upon which bility of qualitative research (Bryman 1994).
attention was focused rather than another. By contrast,
quantitative researchers point to the tendency for the
problem formulation stage in their work to be more
Problems of generalization
explicitly stated in terms of such matters as the existing It is often suggested that the scope of the findings of
literature on that topic and key theoretical ideas. qualitative investigations is restricted. When participant
observation is used or when unstructured interviews are
Qualitative research is difficult conducted with a small number of individuals in a cer-
tain organization or locality, they argue that it is impossi-
to replicate ble to know how the findings can be generalized to other
Quantitative researchers also often argue that these settings. How can just one or two cases be representative
tendencies are made more problematic because of the of all cases? In other words, can we really treat Perlow’s
difficulty of replicating a qualitative study, although rep- (1997) research, discussed in Chapter 27, on the time
lication is by no means a straightforward matter regard- and the work–life balance of software engineers in a
less of this particular issue (see Chapter 8). Precisely high-tech corporation in the USA as representative of all
because qualitative research is relatively unstructured software engineers? Can we treat Ladge et al.’s (2012)
and reliant upon the qualitative researcher’s ingenuity, it research on pregnant women professionals as represen-
is almost impossible to conduct a true replication, since tative of the identity transition experiences of women
there are hardly any standard procedures to be followed. working in non-professional occupations? In the case of
In qualitative research, the investigator him or herself is research based on interviews rather than participation,
 The critique of qualitative research 375
can we treat interviewees who have not been selected reports of qualitative research frequently lack transpar-
through a probability procedure or even quota sampling ency in terms of how the research was conducted.
as representative? Are Watson’s (1994a) managers typi-
cal of all managers working within the telecommunica-
Lack of transparency
tions industry, or are Ram’s (1994; see Research in focus
19.4) small-firm case studies in the West Midlands typi- It is sometimes difficult to establish from qualitative
cal of small firms elsewhere? research what the researcher actually did and how they
The answer in all these cases is that, although we can- arrived at the study’s conclusions. For example, qualita-
not make empirical generalizations about entire popu- tive research reports are sometimes unclear about such
lations from a single case study, this is not the purpose matters as how people were chosen for observation or
of qualitative case study research (Flyvbjerg 2006). interview. This deficiency contrasts sharply with the—
Similarly, the people who are interviewed in qualitative sometimes laborious—accounts of sampling procedures
research are not meant to be representative of a popu- in reports of quantitative research. However, it does not
lation in any precise manner. Instead, the findings of seem plausible to suggest that outlining in some detail
qualitative research are used to make theoretical gener- the ways in which research participants are selected con-
alizations. It is ‘the cogency of the theoretical reasoning’ stitutes the application of quantitative research criteria.
(J. C. Mitchell 1983: 207), rather than statistical crite- Readers have a right to know to what extent research
ria, that is decisive in considering the generalizability of participants were selected to correspond to a wide range
the findings of qualitative research. In other words, it is of people. Also, the process of qualitative data analysis is
the quality of the theoretical inferences that are derived frequently unclear (see Bryman and Burgess 1994a). It
from qualitative data that is crucial to the assessment of is often not obvious how the analysis was conducted—
generalization. in other words, what the researcher was actually doing
These three criticisms reflect many of the preoccu- when the data were analysed and therefore how the
pations of quantitative research that were discussed study’s conclusions were arrived at. These issues of
in Chapter 8. A further criticism that is often made of lack of transparency are being addressed (see Thinking
qualitative research, but that is perhaps less influenced deeply 17.9), but not always in ways that are consistent
by quantitative research criteria, is the suggestion that with the principles of qualitative research.

17.9 THINKING DEEPLY

A quantitative review of qualitative research
in management and business
Bluhm et al. (2011) conducted a quantitative review of 198 articles based on qualitative research published in
leading US and European management journals over a ten-year period (1998–2008). They assert that support for
qualitative research grew in this period and that overall quality standards rose, a trend they attribute to greater
standardization and increased scientific and methodological rigour and validity. The authors identify the most
common theoretical purpose of these articles as theory elaboration and theory generation. In terms of research
design, most (59 per cent) used more than one method of data collection, with interviewing being by far the most
popular method used. One interesting finding to emerge from the review was that studies using novel or
innovative qualitative methods, such as focus groups or diaries, tend to be cited more often than those that use
conventional research designs. The authors therefore recommend greater use of innovative qualitative
techniques by drawing on methods used in other disciplines, such as sociology or linguistics. The authors used a
combination of quantitative content analysis (see Chapter 13) and citation analysis in their review, which, they
argue, enabled them to ‘draw precise conclusions and make more accurate comparisons’ (Bluhm et al. 2011:
1872). However, their application of positivist quality criteria, such as removal of researcher bias and replicability,
could be seen as a somewhat contradictory and inappropriate imposition of quantitative standards of evaluation
on qualitative research.
376 17 The nature of qualitative research

Is it always like this?

This heading was used in Chapter 8 in relation to quan- out (see Thinking deeply 17.9 for an illustration of this
titative research, but the question is less easy to answer type of standardizing approach).
in relation to qualitative research. To a large extent, However, if we look at some of the preoccupations of
this is because qualitative research is less codified than qualitative research that were described above, we can
quantitative research—that is, it is less influenced by see certain ways in which there are departures from the
strict guidelines and directions about how to go about practices that are implied by these preoccupations. One
data collection and analysis. For example, Dalton (1959, of the main departures is that qualitative research is
1964) (see Chapter 19) explains that no explicit hypoth- sometimes a lot more focused than is implied by the sug-
eses formed the basis for his participant-observational gestion that the researcher begins with general research
study of managerial work, for three reasons. First, he questions and narrows it down so that theory and con-
was not able to be sure what was relevant until he had cepts are arrived at during and after the data collection.
gained ‘some intimacy with the situation’; secondly, once There is no necessary reason why qualitative research
uttered, a hypothesis becomes somewhat ‘obligatory’; cannot be employed to investigate a specific research
and, thirdly, there is a danger that the hypothesis carries problem. A related way in which qualitative research dif-
a quasi-scientific status. Instead he worked on the basis of fers from the standard model is in connection with the
‘hunches’, which guided him through the research. notion of a lack of structure in approaches to collecting
As a result, accounts of qualitative research are often and analysing data. As will be seen in Chapter 22, such
less prescriptive than those encountered in relation to techniques as conversation analysis entail the appli-
quantitative research. Instead, they tend to have a more cation of a highly codified method for analysing talk.
descriptive tenor, outlining the different ways qualitative Moreover, the use of computer-assisted qualitative data
researchers have gone about research or suggesting pos- analysis software (CAQDAS), which will be the subject of
sible ways of doing research based on the writer’s own Chapter 25, has led to greater transparency in the proce-
experiences or those of others. To a large extent, this dures used for analysing qualitative data. This may lead
picture is changing, in that there is a growing number of to more codification in qualitative data analysis than has
books and articles that seek to make clear-cut recommen- previously been the case.
dations about how qualitative research should be carried

Contrasts between quantitative and

qualitative research
Several writers have explored the contrasts between the driving seat. The set of concerns that he or she
quantitative and qualitative research (e.g. Halfpenny brings to an investigation structures the investigation.
1979; Bryman 1988a; Hammersley 1992b). Table 17.1 In qualitative research, the perspective of those being
draws out the main contrasting features. studied—what they see as important and significant—
provides the point of orientation.
• Numbers versus Words. Quantitative researchers are
• Researcher is distant versus researcher is close. In quan-
often portrayed as preoccupied with applying meas- titative research, researchers are uninvolved with
urement procedures to social life, while qualitative their subjects and in some cases, as in research based
researchers are seen as using words in the presenta- on postal questionnaires or on interviews conducted by
tion of analyses of society, although, as we have hired assistants, may have no contact with them at all.
emphasized, qualitative researchers are also con- Sometimes, this lack of a relationship with the sub-
cerned with the analysis of visual data. jects of an investigation is regarded as desirable by
• Point of view of researcher versus points of view of par- quantitative researchers, because they feel that their
ticipants. In quantitative research, the investigator is in objectivity might be compromised if they become too
 Contrasts between quantitative and qualitative research 377
TABLE 17.1
Contrasting features of quantitative and qualitative research
Quantitative Qualitative

Numbers Words
Point of view of researcher Points of view of participants
Researcher is distant Researcher is close
Theory testing Theory emergent
Static Process
Structured Unstructured
Generalization Contextual understanding
Hard, reliable data Rich, deep data
Macro Micro
Behaviour Meaning
Artificial settings Natural settings

involved with the people they study. The qualitative to be generalizable to the relevant population, the
researcher seeks close involvement with the people qualitative researcher seeks an understanding of
being investigated, so that he or she can approach behaviour, values, beliefs, and so on in terms of the
genuine understanding of the world from their per- context in which the research is conducted.
spective.
• Hard, reliable data versus rich, deep data. Quantitative
• Theory and concepts tested in research versus theory and data are often depicted as ‘hard’ in the sense of being
concepts emergent from data. Quantitative researchers robust and unambiguous, owing to the precision
typically bring a set of concepts to bear on the research offered by measurement. Qualitative researchers
instruments being employed, so that theoretical work claim, by contrast, that their contextual approach and
precedes the collection of data, whereas in qualitative their—often prolonged—involvement in a setting
research concepts and theoretical elaboration tend to engender rich data.
emerge out of data collection.
• Macro versus micro. Quantitative researchers are
• Static versus process. Quantitative research is fre- often depicted as involved in uncovering large-scale
quently depicted as presenting a static image of social social trends and connections between variables,
reality with its emphasis on relationships between whereas qualitative researchers are seen as con-
variables. Change and connections between events cerned with small-scale aspects of social reality, such
over time tend not to surface, other than in a mecha- as interaction.
nistic fashion. Qualitative research is often depicted as
• Behaviour versus meaning. It is sometimes suggested
attuned to the unfolding of events over time and to the that the quantitative researcher is concerned with
interconnections between the actions of participants people’s behaviour and the qualitative researcher with
of social settings. the meaning of action.
• Structured versus unstructured. Quantitative research
• Artificial settings versus natural settings. Whereas
is typically highly structured, so that the investigator is quantitative researchers conduct research in a con-
able to examine the precise concepts and issues that trived context, qualitative researchers investigate
are the focus of the study; in qualitative research the people in natural environments.
approach is invariably unstructured, so that the pos-
sibility of getting at actors’ meanings and of concepts However, as we will see in Chapter 26, while these con-
emerging out of data collection is enhanced. trasts depict reasonably well the differences between
• Generalization versus contextual understanding. quantitative and qualitative research, they should not be
Whereas quantitative researchers want their findings viewed as constituting hard and fast distinctions.
378 17 The nature of qualitative research

Similarities between quantitative and

qualitative research
It is also worth bearing in mind the ways in which quan- issues of frequency arise in the fact that, in reports of
titative and qualitative research are similar rather than findings in publications, such terms as ‘often’ or ‘most’
different, as Hardy and Bryman (2004) have pointed out. are commonly employed. Also, when analysing quali-
They draw attention to the following points. tative data, the frequency with which certain themes
occur commonly informs which ones tend to be
• Both are concerned with data reduction. Both quantita- emphasized when writing up findings.
tive and qualitative researchers collect large amounts
• Both seek to ensure that deliberate distortion does not
of data. These large amounts of data represent a occur. Few business researchers nowadays subscribe
problem for researchers, because they then have to to the view that it is possible to be an entirely objective
distil the data. By reducing the amount of data, they and dispassionate student of organizational life. As
can then begin to make sense of it. In quantitative discussed in Chapter 2, personal values often play a
research, the process of data reduction takes the form significant role in the selection of research topics and
of statistical analysis—something like a mean or fre- the approach to study taken by business researchers.
quency table is a way of reducing the amount of data on However, that does not imply that ‘anything goes’. In
large numbers of people. In qualitative data analysis, particular, researchers seek to ensure that ‘wilful bias’
as will be seen in Chapter 24, qualitative researchers (Hammersley and Gomm 2000) or what Hardy and
develop concepts out of their often rich data. Bryman (2004: 7) call ‘consciously motivated misrep-
• Both are concerned with answering research questions. resentation’ does not occur.
Although the kinds of research questions asked in
• Both argue for the importance of transparency. Both
quantitative and qualitative research are typically dif- quantitative and qualitative researchers seek to be
ferent (more specific in quantitative research, more clear about their research procedures and how their
open-ended in qualitative research), both approaches findings were arrived at. This allows others to judge the
are fundamentally concerned with answering ques- quality and importance of their work. In the past, it has
tions about the nature of social reality. been suggested that some qualitative researchers were
• Both are concerned with relating data analysis to the opaque about how they went about their investiga-
research literature. Both quantitative and qualitative tions, but increasingly transparency is an expectation.
researchers are typically concerned to relate their find-
• Both must address the question of error. In Chapter 9, we
ings to points thrown up by the literature relating to introduced the significance of error for quantitative
the topics on which they work. In other words, the research (or, more specifically, survey research) and the
researcher’s findings take on significance in large part steps that can be taken to reduce its likelihood. For the
when they are related to the literature. quantitative researcher, error must be reduced as far as
• Both are concerned with variation. In different ways, both possible so that the investigator can be confident that
quantitative and qualitative researchers seek to uncover any variation uncovered is real, and not the product of
variation and then to represent the variation that they problems with how questions are asked or how research
uncover. This means that both groups of researchers are instruments are administered. In qualitative research,
keen to explore how organizations (or whatever the unit the investigator seeks to reduce error by ensuring that,
of analysis is) differ and to explore some of the factors for example, there is a good fit between his or her con-
connected to that variation, although, once again, the cepts and the evidence that has been amassed.
form that variation takes differs.
• Research methods should be appropriate to the research
• Both treat frequency as a springboard for analysis. In questions. This is not addressed by Hardy and Bryman
quantitative research, frequency is a core outcome of (2004), but a further issue is that both groups of
collecting data, as the investigator typically wants to researchers seek to ensure that, when they specify
reveal the relative frequency with which certain types research questions, they select research methods and
of behaviour occur or how many newspaper articles approaches to the analysis of data that are appropriate
emphasize a certain issue. In qualitative research, to those questions.
 Researcher–participant relationships 379
These tend to be rather general points of similarity, but are differences between quantitative and qualitative
they are an important corrective to any view that por- research, but that is not to say that there are no points
trays the two approaches as completely different. There of similarity.

Researcher–participant relationships
A further difference between quantitative and qualitative • It is intended to contribute both to academic theory
research arises from the way that qualitative research- and practical action.
ers relate to research participants. Qualitative research-
ers tend to take greater account of the power relations Eden and Huxham (1996) define the characteristics
that exist between the researcher himself or herself and of action research in terms of outcomes and processes.
the people who are the subject of study. This has led to Good and effective action research should have the fol-
the development of several qualitative approaches that lowing outcomes.
enable research participants to play a more active part
in designing the research and to influence the outcomes
of the process. Action research, feminist, collaborative,
• It should have implications that relate to situations
other than the one that is studied.
and participative forms of enquiry all fall into this cat-
egory. We will consider the main features of each of these • As well as being usable in everyday life, action research
approaches and explore the implications that they have should also be concerned with theory.
for researcher–participant relationships. • It should lead to the generation of emergent or
grounded theory, which emanates from the data in
gradual incremental steps.
Action research
There is no single type of action research, but business • Action researchers must recognize that their findings
researchers generally characterize it as an approach to will have practical implications and they should be
study in which there is an explicit commitment ‘towards clear about what they expect participants to take away
achieving social or organizational change at various from the project.
levels through intense contact between researcher and • The collection of data is likely to be involved in the
community members researched’ (Burns et al. 2014: formulation of the diagnosis of a problem and in the
133). A common theme concerns the need for research evaluation of a problem. Data collection methods
to be useful to research participants. Action research is can include keeping a diary of subjective impres-
therefore based on close ‘involvement with members sions, a collection of documents relating to a situa-
of an organization’ over a matter that is of ‘genuine tion, observation notes of meetings, questionnaire
concern to them’ (Eden and Huxham 1996: 75). The surveys, interviews, audio or video recordings of
action researcher works closely with the research com- meetings, and written descriptions of meetings or
munity to co-produce knowledge that is of mutual interviews (which may be given to participants for
benefit. Action research is defined by Argyris et al. them to validate or amend). In action research, the
(1985) as follows: investigator becomes part of the field of study, and,
as with participant observation, this has its own
• Experiments are on real problems within an organiza-
attendant problems. In their action research study of
tion and are designed to assist in their solution.
an outpatient health centre, Ramirez and Bartunek
• This involves an iterative process of problem identifi- (1989) found themselves caught up in a conflict
cation, planning, action, and evaluation. about organizational roles and loyalties. Some mem-
• Action research leads eventually to re-education, bers of the organization began to spread rumours
changing patterns of thinking, and action. This intended to discredit the action researcher (who was
depends on working closely with research participants an internal consultant), suggesting that she was
(sometimes referred to in action research as ‘clients’) using the project to further her career within the
in identifying new courses of action. organization.
380 17 The nature of qualitative research

17.10 RESEARCH IN FOCUS

Using visual methods in participatory action research
study of a Ghanaian cocoa value chain
McCarthy and Muthury (2016) suggest that business and society researchers have tended to overlook those with
less power, including women, non-literate people, and indigenous peoples, referring to them as ‘fringe
stakeholders’. They attribute this oversight in part to the dominance of quantitative methods within this field, which
are insensitive to issues of power in research relationships. Instead, business and society research has tended to
prioritize the collection of data from leaders of workers’ groups, including trades unions, NGOs, and managers.
McCarthy and Muthury argue that visual participatory methods provide a means of addressing this gap, by
enabling groups with less power to participate more effectively in research.

Their study was a case study of Ghanaian cocoa farmers, focusing on gender equality issues. The researchers ran
participant workshops with a translator, a cooperative supplier, and 48 cocoa farmers in four villages in Ghana.
The researchers used participant-produced drawings and group discussion as the main sources of data. One of
the benefits of this method was that it helped to overcome difficulties associated with studying groups that have
low levels of literacy. The image data and focus group discussions were analysed thematically in NVivo (the use of
NVivo will be covered in Chapter 25).

One of the drawing exercises involved asking participants to draw a ‘gender tree’ in the form of a simple image of a
tree with roots and branches (see Plate 17.6 for an example). On one side of the tree participants were asked to
represent women’s work/expenditure or ownership, using a series of pictorial symbols to indicate the type of
activity (Plate 17.7), and on the other men’s work/expenditure or ownership. In the middle they were asked to
indicate shared work/expenditure or ownership. In facilitated, same-sex focus groups (focus groups are covered in
Chapter 21), participants were subsequently asked questions about whether the tree was ‘balanced’. Crucially, the
participant-produced drawings provided a basis for discussion through which the farmers and suppliers were able
to explore the reasons for women’s marginalization from cocoa farming, as a consequence of unequal distribution
of domestic work, and to think about how these inequalities could be addressed in future.

Burns et al. (2014) use the term ‘participatory organi- interactions with researchers. Their particular study
zational research’ to refer to a specific type of action- focused on the treatment of older people living in care
oriented research that is concerned with enabling ‘less homes. Key to their use of this method was the organiza-
powerful members of organizations, those who may tion of panel group meetings where residents met with
normally go unheard, to gain a voice’ (2014: 134). P. other stakeholders to engage in open discussion. The
Park (1999) describes participatory research as focused creation of spaces for people to engage openly with one
on disempowered groups who can be helped through another enabled issues to be raised that might otherwise
research that addresses problems related to their wel- have gone unexplored. For an example of participatory
fare in an organized way. The researcher should ideally action research using visual methods, see Research in
be someone who is familiar with the community and focus 17.10.
committed to working towards improving their condi- Action research is criticized, in a similar way to
tions. This, he argues, is what differentiates participa- other qualitative methods, for its lack of repeatability
tory research from other types of action research which and consequent lack of rigour and for concentrating
is concerned only with solving problems of an organi- too much on organizational action at the expense of
zational, job-related nature. Burns et al. (2014) suggest research findings. In their defence, action researchers
that participatory organizational research is especially claim that involvement with practitioners concerning
important in studies that involve vulnerable groups who issues that are important to them provides a richness
might otherwise be at a power disadvantage in their of insight that cannot be gained in other ways. It is also
 Researcher–participant relationships 381
PLATE 17.6
Gender tree and summary explanations, drawn by female participant in Western Region, Ghana

Expenditure Expenditure
The woman makes Income is spent
desisions on and jointly on school fees,
buys medicine, funeral attendance,
fertilisers, and transport, housing,
pesticides, and land. But the man
clothing, has overall control of
hairdressing, and the finances and
accessories. purchases the food.

Ownership/
control Work
the woman is The man does most of
the cooperative the cocoa work,
member and owns including the selling
part of the land. of the selling of the
She has also cocoa beans
received a
loan, which she
spent on land and
school fees
(circled).

Work
The woman does all the household
chores, as well as rearing fowl and selling
cassava, pineapple, aubergine, and onions.
She is in charge of drying cocoa, and
fetching water for the farm.

Source: Copyright McCarthy and Muthury (2016). Reproduced with thanks.

claimed that theory generated from action research is Feminism and qualitative research
‘grounded in action’ (Eden and Huxham 1996), thereby
overcoming some of the difficulties of relying on talk as A further dimension to this discussion is that, in the view
a source of data, instead of action or overt behaviour. of some writers, qualitative research is aligned with
Action research should not be confused with evalu- feminist philosophical principles, whereas quantitative
ation research (see Key concept 3.9), which usually research is not. Feminist research has an important role
denotes the study of the impact of an intervention, to play in business research, which is often designed and
such as a new social policy or a new innovation in conducted from implicitly male or masculine perspec-
organizations. tives (see Thinking deeply 17.11).
382 17 The nature of qualitative research

PLATE 17.7
Example of symbols co-created between researchers and local staff

From top left- to right, symbols represent work including:

Source: Copyright McCarthy and Muthury (2016). Reproduced with thanks.
Note: from top left, symbols
Cocoa represent
Work: work including—
Planting cocoa seeds; weeding; clearing land; fermenting; drying; bagging;
Cocoa work: planting fertilising/spraying
cocoa seeds, weeding, clearing land, fermenting,
pesticides; cutting drying,
open bagging, fertilising/spraying
pods; carrying cocoa;pesticides,
selling; cutting open pods,
harvesting.
carrying cocoa, selling, harvesting.
Other paid work: growing cassava, bananas/plantain, tomatoes, aubergine; palm oil processing; tailoring; trading small goods; growing
Other Income: Growing cassava, bananas/plantain, tomatoes, aubergine; palm oil processing; tailoring;
maize, onions; batik making; soap making; gari proceessing; mechanic; taxi driving; carpentry.
trading small goods; growing maize, onions; batik making; soap making; gari processing; mechanic; taxi
Unpaid work: cooking; childcare; sweeping; cooperative membership; carrying water; carrying firewood; washing and drying clothes; coop-
driving; carpentry.
erative committee membership.

Unpaid Work: Cooking; childcare; sweeping; cooperative membership; carrying water; carrying
firewood; washing & drying clothes; cooperative committee membership position.
 Researcher–participant relationships 383

17.11 THINKING DEEPLY

Feminist research in business
Organizational research has typically been pursued from a male-orientated perspective, which, according to
Wilson (1995), regards men and women as alike and fails to consider gender as a significant variable within
organizational processes. To illustrate this, Wilson cites the example of the Hawthorne studies (see Research in
focus 3.7), which involved the observational study of a group of female employees in the ‘test room’ and a group of
male employees in the ‘bank wiring room’. ‘The men were observed under normal working conditions while the
female group was pressured, by male supervisors, into an experimental situation. Despite the fact that output was
increased by the women and restricted by the men, the overall findings were presented as an explanation of the
behaviour of employees per se’ (1995: 1–2). Other studies have tended to treat women as entirely peripheral to
organizational life. This bias is particularly evident in the study of management. As the majority of managers are
men, studies of management have mainly focused on observation of male managers. Therefore,
recommendations about what makes effective management often erroneously assume that better managers are
more masculine, reinforcing this masculine gender stereotype. Despite the growth of feminist research in various
disciplines, much of this has occurred outside the boundaries of business research. If, as Wilson suggests, we
need to ‘see reality differently’ and reformulate the way in which work organizations are understood, feminist
methods provide a means whereby male-orientated values can be exposed and challenged.

Quantitative research is frequently viewed as incom- By contrast, qualitative research is viewed by many femi-
patible with feminism for the following reasons: nists as either more compatible with feminism’s central
ideas or as more capable of being adapted to its purpose
because it allows:
• Mies (1993) argues that quantitative research sup-
presses the voices of women either by ignoring them or • women’s voices to be heard;
by researching women in a value-neutral way, when in • exploitation to be reduced by giving as well as by
fact the goal of feminist research should be to conduct receiving in the course of fieldwork (for an example of
research specifically for women. personal connections made during the course of field-
• The criterion of validity, which is commonly associated work, see Research in focus 17.12);
with quantitative research, turns women, when they • women to be researched without attempts being made
are the focus of research, into objects. This means that to control them through the researcher’s application of
women are subjected to exploitation, in that knowl- technical procedures; and consequently,
edge and experience are extracted from them with
• the emancipatory goals of feminism to be furthered.
nothing in return, even when the research is conducted
by women (Mies 1993). How qualitative research contributes towards these
goals will be addressed in Chapters 19, 20, and 21, by
• The emphasis on controlling variables adds to this, if
looking at feminist approaches to ethnography, qualita-
the idea of control is viewed as a masculine approach
tive interviewing, and focus groups. However, business
to study.
research has a tendency to ignore or marginalize gen-
• The use of predetermined categories in quantitative der in terms of the way that research topics are defined.
research emphasizes what is already known and con- Mirchandani (1999) observes that research on women’s
sequently perpetuates ‘the silencing of women’s own experiences of entrepreneurship focuses on identifying
voices’ (Maynard 1998: 128). similarities and differences between female and male
• The quest for universal laws may be inconsistent with business-owners, and on providing explanations of these
feminism’s emphasis on the situated nature of social differences. She argues that, although this is useful in
reality, which is seen as embedded in social identities compensating for the exclusion of women in earlier stud-
(based on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, ies, it does not explain why entrepreneurship is defined
etc.) that are unique to individuals (Miner-Rubino and understood only in terms of the behaviour of men.
et al. 2007). Mirchandani argues that the construction of the category
384 17 The nature of qualitative research

17.12 RESEARCH IN FOCUS

A feminist analysis of embodied identity at work
The subject of embodied identities at work has attracted interest from feminist researchers, who see feminist
theories as key to understanding how women’s bodies are treated in the workplace. Trethewey (1999), a
Foucauldian feminist, interviewed 19 professional women about their definitions and experiences of their
professional bodies using the friendship model of interviewing (Oakley 1981), explained in Chapter 20. Trethewey
explains: ‘I felt more comfortable approaching the participants as friends rather than as subjects or data. I have
since formed friendships with several of the participants, have joined the reading group of another participant, and
was invited to participate in a local women’s mentoring committee by yet another participant’ (1999: 427). This
shows how feminist researchers seek to break down the boundaries between the researcher and (female)
research participants as a means of trying to make the research relationship more equal.

of ‘the female entrepreneur’ prioritizes gender over other research practice rather than about feminist methods
important aspects of identity, such as social stratification, (Maynard 1998: 128).
business ownership, organizational structure, and indus-
try, that need to be explored in relation to female and
male business-owners. Postcolonial and indigenous research
However, some feminist researchers are positive
A further way in which researcher–participant relation-
towards quantitative research. Some of their arguments
ships have been challenged in recent years is through
follow:
postcolonialist critique of practices of social scientific
• The worst discrimination against women might not knowledge production, which are based on a conception
have been recognized so clearly if not for the collection of research which developed in the countries of Europe
and analysis of statistics revealing exclusion (Maynard and North America that was subsequently exported to
1994; Oakley 1998). Factual evidence of this kind the global South. This relies on the assertion that ‘social
allows the case for equal opportunities legislation to be science can have only one, universal, body of concepts
made much more clearly, for example. and methods, the one created in the global North’ (Con-
nell 2007: ix). Writers such as Connell challenge this by
• Miner-Rubino et al. (2007) suggest that knowledge
about the distribution of attitudes and behaviours in a exposing the hidden biases contained within theories
sample can be used to establish the most appropriate produced from within the global North which claim uni-
course of action for social change. versal relevance based on the assumption that ‘all soci-
eties are knowable, and they are knowable in the same
• As Jayaratne and Stewart (1991) and Maynard (1994,
way and from the same point of view’ (Connell 2007:
1998) note, research that combines quantitative and
44). Such an approach is suggested to be inherently
qualitative methods is not incompatible with the femi-
colonizing, involving the abandonment of local cultural
nist cause.
knowledge and the imposition of discourses of scientific
• There has also been a recognition of the fact that qual- research that are claimed to be neutral but that involve
itative research is not ipso facto feminist in orienta- the assertion of imperialist neocolonial power relations
tion. If, for example, ethnography (see Chapter 19) of oppression and domination. This can be seen from
required a feminist sensitivity, we would expect sub- the ways in which scientific research has been used as
jects such as social anthropology, which have been a tool of colonialist exploitation: for example, Prasad
virtually founded on the approach, to be almost inher- (2003) points out that ethnography (see Chapter 19)
ently feminist, which is definitely not the case (Rein- was used in the nineteenth century and the early twen-
harz 1992: 47–8). The answer to the question ‘What tieth by imperialist European powers of Britain, France,
are the best approaches to feminist research?’ seems and the Netherlands, to gather data about Asian and Afri-
to lie in the application of methods rather than in can cultures which enabled their subjugation and expla-
something that is inherent in them. Consequently, nation, ‘by carving out identities of the Western self and
some writers have preferred to write about feminist
 Key points 385

17.13 RESEARCH IN FOCUS

Indigenous ways of understanding leadership
Warner and Grint (2006) explore Native American traditions of leadership which they assert can displace the
imperialist foundations of the American approach to studying this subject and open up alternatives. One of the
challenges they faced in this project related to the dominance of the English language, and the difficulty of
translating meanings from indigenous cultural contexts: ‘when discussing leadership with American Indians whose
second language is English, the first author sought to have them give their own tribal word for “leader”’ (Warner
and Grint 2006: 231). This prompted discussion of numerous terms related to leadership, which the authors
found very difficult to translate in a way which preserved their cultural meaning. A key characteristic of their
research involved an obligation actively to work with research participants to question the methods and processes
of research, including the reliance on observation and the privileging of the written word, and to question what is
actually meant by ‘leadership’. They conclude ‘that we need more studies of [Native American] leadership by
insiders not simply of insiders if we are ever to get beyond a superficial comprehension of the “other”’ (Warner and
Grint 2006: 240).

the non-Western Other, and by delineating relationships them to find their own academic voice and identity; the
between them through a series of hierarchical opposi- focus is thus on the ethics of research and the implications
tional categories’ (Prasad 2003: 155). She argues that for communities of research. These ideas are potentially
the concept of the ethnographic imagination, based on highly significant in understanding globalization and its
discourses of primitivism, orientalism, and tropicaliza- effects in fields such as international and comparative
tion, which the colonial project entailed, can still be seen management and business. For example, Jack and West-
in many recent ethnographic accounts of fieldwork which wood (2006) use ideas from postcolonialism to argue
celebrate risky adventures in ‘foreign’ lands. that researchers in these fields, even those committed to
These critiques have opened up spaces for the con- qualitative methods, have been slow to acknowledge the
struction of alternative approaches to knowledge produc- political nature of research in reflecting the interests and
tion, in the form of indigenous research methodologies, a values of the researcher. They propose an alternative, in
term which invites exploration of methods that enable the form of a postcolonial epistemology which enables
the voices of colonized peoples to be heard, in addition the universalizing tendencies of Western knowledge sys-
to non-human interests related to ecosystems (Tuhi- tems, which construct and legitimate the dominance of
wai Smith 1999). Informed by feminist approaches to the West as a source of knowledge about international
research, indigenous methodologies seek to disrupt business, to be resisted. Research in focus 17.13 provides
established relationships between (mostly non-indige- an example of how these ideas have also been applied in
nous) researchers and indigenous peoples and enable the field of leadership.

!
KEY POINTS
● There is disagreement over what precisely qualitative research is.
● Qualitative research does not lend itself to the delineation of a clear set of linear steps.
● It tends to be a more open-ended research strategy than is typically the case with quantitative research.
● Theories and concepts are viewed as outcomes of the research process.
● Visual materials, such as photographs and video, have attracted considerable interest among
qualitative business researchers in recent years, not just as adjuncts to data collection but as objects
of interest in their own right.
386 17 The nature of qualitative research

● There is considerable unease about the simple application of the reliability and validity criteria
associated with quantitative research to qualitative research. Indeed, some writers prefer to use
alternative criteria that have parallels with reliability and validity.
● Most qualitative researchers reveal a preference for seeing the social world from the perspective of
research participants.
● Several writers have depicted qualitative research as having a far greater affinity with a feminist
standpoint than quantitative research.
● Action research, feminism, and indigenous methods of enquiry have changed the relationship
between researchers and research participants.

? QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW

● What are some of the difficulties with providing a general account of the nature of qualitative
research?
● Outline some of the traditions of qualitative research.
● What are some of the main research methods associated with qualitative research?

The main steps in qualitative research

● Does a research question in qualitative research have the same significance and characteristics as in
quantitative research?

Theory and research

● Is the approach to theory in qualitative research inductive or deductive?

Concepts in qualitative research

● What is the difference between definitive and sensitizing concepts?

Reliability and validity in qualitative research

● How have some writers adapted the notions of reliability and validity to qualitative research?
● Why have some writers sought alternative criteria for the evaluation of qualitative research?
● Evaluate Lincoln and Guba’s criteria.
● What is respondent validation?
● What is triangulation?

The main preoccupations of qualitative researchers

● Outline the main preoccupations of qualitative researchers.
● How do these preoccupations differ from those of quantitative researchers, which were considered in
Chapter 8?

The critique of qualitative research

● What are some of the main criticisms that are frequently levelled at qualitative research?
● To what extent do these criticisms reflect the preoccupations of quantitative research?
 Questions for review 387
Is it always like this?
● Can qualitative research be employed in relation to hypothesis testing?

Some contrasts and similarities between quantitative and qualitative research

● ‘The difference between quantitative and qualitative research revolves entirely around the concern
with numbers in the former and with words in the latter.’ How far do you agree with this statement?

Researcher–participant relationships
● What is action research?
● What is participatory organizational research and how has it been used by business researchers?
● What is the relationship between feminism and qualitative research and how might this be important
in the study of business and management?
● What are the distinguishing features of indigenous and postcolonial methodologies and how can they
be applied in business research?

ONLINE RESOURCES
[Link]/uk/brm5e/

Visit the Interactive Research Guide that accompanies this book to complete an exercise relating to
the nature of qualitative research.