QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS - Summary
LECTURE 1&2 - Defining qualitative research
How many; Numbers, Fixed variables (quantitative) vs what, how, why;words, subjective
meaning (qualitative)
How many passengers score their toilet visit as “excellent”
VS
what do passengers do at an airport, what are their needs for public toilets, and why do they
enjoy the environment or not
,Example: Age
• In a quantitative study examining the relationship between age and attitudes
(positive or negative) towards technology adoption, "age" would be the variable of
interest. Each participant's age would be a data point (numeric, e.g., 65 years old),
and the researcher would collect data on participants' ages to analyze if age
influences their pos/neg attitudes toward technology.
• In a qualitative study examining how people experience their age right after
retirement (e.g., do they feel “old” or ”younger than ever”, is ”aging” an issue at
all?), the experience of age is the phenomenon of interest. What people describe,
explain (words) would be the data (textual) collected by the researcher.
Quantitative methods → Distant researcher Qualitative methods → Proximity of researcher
,Example of quantitative study:
Title → O'Driscoll, M. P., Cooper-Thomas, H. D., Bentley, T., Catley, B. E., Gardner, D. H., &
Trenberth, L. (2011). Workplace bullying in New Zealand: A survey of employee
perceptions and attitudes. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 49(4), 390-408.
From abstract → “The present paper reports findings from a survey of over 1700 employees of
36 organisations in New Zealand. We describe the reported incidence of bullying at work, along
with relevant work attitudes and experiences, including psychological strain, ratings of
subjective well-being, and levels of commitment to the organisation. Personal experience of
bullying was reported by 17.8% of respondents, and was significantly correlated with higher
levels of strain, reduced well-being, reduced commitment to their organisation, and lower
self-rated performance.”
Example qualitative study:
Title → Van Rooyen, J., & McCormack, D. (2013). Employee perceptions of workplace bullying
and their implications. International journal of workplace health management.
From abstract → A qualitative methodology is adopted. In total, 30 semi-structured interviews
were conducted with frontline employees and management in an organisation comprising
several retail outlets. The interviews reveal that although participants experienced a variety of
behaviours associated with workplace bullying and harassment, these behaviours were
commonly ignored or neglected until they escalated into confrontation and threatened
productivity and profitability. Employees and supervisory staff had minimal appreciation,
practical skills, or training on how to deal effectively with negative workplace behaviours.
Qualitative research → a narrative way of knowing
Jerome Bruner (1986, 1990, 2002) => 2 distinct ways of knowing:
, The nature of qualitative research (Hennink e.a. 2020)
• “Qualitative research is a broad umbrella term that covers a wide range of techniques and
philosophies; thus it is not easy to define → large variation, diversity
• In broad terms, qualitative research is an approach that allows you to examine people’s
experiences in detail by using a specific set of research methods such as in-depth interviews,
focus group discussions, observation, content analysis, visual methods, and life histories or
biographies.
• “Qualitative research, however, is much more than just the application of qualitative
methods. Simply applying the methods does not automatically make you a qualitative
Researcher → not just about what you do, but how and why
• Perhaps one of the most distinctive features of qualitative research is that the approach
allows you to identify issues from the perspective of your study participants and understand the
meanings and interpretations that they give to behaviour, events or objects. For example, to
understand their experience of illness or disability, their experience of using a health service, or
to identify their social or cultural norms. This is referred to as the interpretive approach →
interpretative data-analysis (not statistical)
• To derive this information a qualitative researcher needs to be open-minded, curious
and empathic, flexible and able to listen to people telling their own story.
• Qualitative researchers also study people in their natural settings, to identify how their
experiences and behaviour are shaped by the context of their lives, such as the social,
economic, cultural or physical context in which they live. Therefore, qualitative research
also seeks to embrace and understand the contextual influences on the research issues.
• Denzin and Lincoln (2008b: 4, emphasis added) state that qualitative research ‘involves an
interpretive, naturalistic approach to the world. This means that qualitative researchers study
things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret phenomena in terms of
the meanings people bring to them’.“
Qualitative research as an independent research strategy:
• Conceptualization: Ill-defined/ not well understood
• Deeply rooted: beliefs, values, meaning
• Complex
• Specialist: e.g., critical case study
• Delicate or intangible
• Sensitive
