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Summary Project Qualitative Research Methods And Analysis Business Administration
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Project Qualitative Research Methods and analysisLECTURE 1:
− Scientific Research: creative and systematic work done to increase the stock of
knowledge, including knowledge of humans, culture, and society, and the use of this
to devise new applications
− Scientific Social Research: study of society and relationship of individual members
within society, including economics, history, political science, and psychology
− Qualitative Research Approaches: approach social phenomena through direct
observation and/or the analysis of artifacts, and emphasize contextual and subjective
accuracy over generalizability
You start by looking at something that you can9t make sense of
You don9t start with a hypothesis; you start by observing
How does the context affect the things I observe in people9s behaviour?
What is Qualitative Research?
− Its purpose is to describe and understand social phenomena in terms of the meaning
people bring to them
− Research questions are studied through flexible methods enabling contact with the
people involved to an extent that9s needed to grasp what9s occurring in the field
− The methods produce rich, descriptive data that are interpreted through the
identification and coding of themes and categories
− These lead to findings that contribute to the theoretical knowledge and practical use
− So basically, qualitative research focuses on:
1. Looking for meaning
2. Using flexible research methods enabling contact
3. Providing qualitative findings
− We try to understand a social phenomenon by understanding the meaning that
people (within the phenomenon) award to it
− We look for meaning, as this meaning is constructed by the people who are a part of
this phenomenon
− We try to get in contact with people who are part of the phenomenon, extracting
information and data from them
− These qualitative findings are used to create theories
Grounded Theory Approach:
− Grounded Theory: qualitative method enabling the study of a particular
phenomenon and discovering new theories based on the collection and analysis of
real−world data
− The theory tries to develop a theory from research that is grounded in data
− The first step when using the grounded theory approach is not creating a theory or a
hypothesis, it9s collecting and looking at data
− This means that new theories derive from the data
− From the data, researchers interpret it and try to come up with a theory (opposite of
quantitative research approach)
− Grounded Theory Methods:
It employs systematic, yet flexible guidelines for collecting and analyzing
qualitative data to create theories
Grounded theorists start with data, and this is done through observations,
interactions, and materials gathered about the topic
, They then study the data and begin to separate, sort, and synthesize through
coding (coding: attach labels to segments of data depicting what each
segment is about)
Deductive vs Inductive Research Approaches:
− Deductive Research Approach: theory is the starting point for making
hypothesis that are tested in research
− Inductive Research Approach: data is the starting point to explore a
social phenomenon and find empirical patterns that can create a
theory (grounded theory)
CONSTRUCTING GROUNDED THEORY CHAPTER 1- AN INVITATION TO
GROUNDED THEORY
− Grounded theory methods foster seeing your data in fresh ways and exploring your
ideas about the data through early analytic writing
− By adopting grounded theory methods, you can direct, manage, and streamline your
data collection and construct an original analysis of data
− Grounded theory methods consist of systematic, yet flexible guidelines for collecting
and analyzing qualitative data to construct theories 8grounded9 in data
− Data form the foundation of our theory, and our analysis of these data generates the
concepts we construct
− Grounded theorists collect data to develop theoretical analysis from the beginning of
a project
− Being open to what9s happening in the studied scenes and interview statements so
that we might learn about our research participant9s lives
− We study our early data and separate, sort, and synthesize the data through
qualitative coding
− Coding= attach labels to segments of data that depict what each segment is abut
− Coding distills data, sorts them, and gives us a handle for making comparisons with
other segments of data
− Grounded theorists emphasize what9s happening in the scene when they code data
− By making and coding numerous comparisons, our analytic grasp of data begins to
take form
− We write preliminary analytic notes (MEMOS) about our codes and comparisons and
any ideas about our data that occur to us
− Through studying data, comparing them, and writing memos, we define ideas that
best fit and interpret the data as tentative analytic categories
− Our categories not only coalesce as we interpret the collected data but also they
become more theoretical as we engage in successive levels of analysis
− Our analytical categories and the relationships we draw between them provide a
conceptual handle on the studied experience
− We build levels of abstraction from the data and, subsequently, gather additional
data to check and define our emerging categories
Emergence of Grounded Theory:
− Grounded theory methods emerged from sociologists Barney G Glaser and Ansel L
Strauss9s successful collaboration during their studies of dying in hospitals
,− Glaser and Strauss gave their data explicit analytic treatment and produced
theoretical analyses of the social organization and temporal order of dying
− They explored analytic ideas in long conversations and exchanged preliminary notes
analyzing observations in the field
− They developed systematic methodological strategies that social scientists could
adopt for studying many other topics
− Every way of knowing rests on a theory of how people develop knowledge
− Beliefs in a unitary method of systematic observation, replicable experiments,
operational definitions of concepts, logically deduced hypotheses, and confirmed
evidence− often taken as the scientific method. Formed the assumptions upholding
quantitative methods
− These assumptions supported positivism, the dominant paradigm of inquiry in routine
natural science
− Their beliefs in scientific logic, a unitary method, objectivity, and truth legitimized
reducing qualities of human experience to quantifiable variables
− Positivist methods assumed an unbiased and passive observer who collected facts but
didn9t participate in creating them, the separation of facts form values, the
existence of an external world separate from scientific observers and their methods,
and the accumulation on generalizable knowledge
− Positivism led to a quest for valid instruments, technical procedures, replicable
research designs, and verifiable quantitative knowledge
− As positivism gained strength in mid−century 1900s, the division between theory and
research simultaneously grew
− Growing numbers of quantitative researchers concentrated on obtaining concrete
information
− Glaser and Strauss countered the ruling methodology assumptions of mid−century
− Theyir book made cutting−edge statements as it contested notions of
methodological consensus and offered systematic strategies for qualitative research
practice
− Glaser and Strauss joined the epistemological critique with practical guidelines for
action
− They proposed that systematic qualitative analysis had its own logic and could
generate theories
− The defining components of grounded theory practice included:
1. Simultaneous involvement in data collection and analysis
2. Constructing analytic codes and categories from data
3. Using the constant comparative method, which involves making comparisons
during each analytic stage
4. Advancing theory development during each step of data collection and analysis
5. Memo−writing to elaborate categories, specify their properties, define
relationships between categories, and identify gaps
6. Sampling aimed toward theory construction, not for population representation
7. Conducting literature review AFTER developing an independent analysis
− Glaser and Strauss built on earlier qualitative researchers9 implicit analytic procedures
and research strategies and made them explicit
− Grounded theory marries 2 contrasting and competing traditions in sociology:
1. Positivism and
2. Pragmatism and Field research
, − The epistemological assumptions, logic, and systematic approach of grounded theory
methods reflect Glaser9s quantitative training
− Glaser imbued grounded theory with dispassionate empiricism, rigorous codified
methods, emphasis on emergent discoveries, and its somewhat ambiguous
specialized language that echoes quantitative methods
− Strauss viewed human beings as active agents in their lives and in their world rather
than as passive recipients of larger social forced
− He assumed that process, not structures, was fundamental to human existence
− Subjective and social meaning relied on our use of language and emerged through
action
− The construction of action was the central problem to address
− Strauss brough notions of human agency, emergent processes, social and subjective
meanings, problem−solving practices, and the open−ended study of action to grounded
theory
− Glaser employed his analytic skills to codify qualitative analysis and thus constructed
specific guidelines for doing it
− A finished grounded theory explains the studied process in new theoretical terms,
explicated the properties of the theoretical categories, and often demonstrates the
causes and conditions under which the process emerge and varies, and delineates its
consequences
− Most grounded theories are substantive theories because they address delimited
problems in specific substantive areas
− The logic of grounded theory generates abstract concepts and specifies relationships
between them to understand problems in multiple substantive areas
− Each exploration within a new substantive area can help us refine the formal theory
− Glaser and Strauss9s logic led them to formal theorizing when they took the theoretical
categories that they had developed about status passage during their studies of
dying and examined it as a generic process that cut across varied substantive areas
− For years, Glaser remained consistent with the earlier exegesis of the method and
defined grounded theory as a method of discovery, treated categories as emergent
from the data, relied on direct and narrow empiricism, and analyzed a basic social
process
− Strauss moved the method toward verification
− Strauss and Corbin9s versions of grounded theory also favors their new technical
procedures rather than emphasizing the comparative methods that distinguished
earlier grounded theory strategies
− By 1990, grounded theory became known for its rigor and usefulness, but also for its
positivistic assumptions
− It has gained acceptance from quantitative researchers who adopt it in projects that
use mixed methods
− The flexibility and legitimacy of grounded theory methods continues to appeal to
qualitative researchers with varied theoretical and substantive interests
− Researchers can use basic grounded theory guidelines usch as coding, memo−writing,
and sampling for theory development, and comparative methods, in many ways,
neutral
− Grounded theory guidelines describe the steps of the research process and provide a
path through it
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