Describe specific qualitative methods and tools that could be used within your discipline to gather data. Include your rationale.
Qualitative research is often used in the fields of sociology, psychology, and education to explain human behavior and experiences. Quantitative researchers are interested in finding how people construct meaning and make sense of their worlds (Bansal et al., 2018). Qualitative research can also be used in business to seek consumer/ public opinion about the company. Marketers use qualitative research to explore customer opinions, values, beliefs and trends that affect their purchasing decisions. According to Bansal et al. (2018) the five major types of qualitative research are phenomenology, ethnography, case study research, grounded theory, and historical research.
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The five types of qualitative research are not all applicable to business as they are used in social sciences. However, the common qualitative tools that can be used in business include surveys, structured interviews, focus groups, and case studies (Walle, 2015). The primary tool for qualitative research is in-depth interviews either on individual participants or in focus groups. Interviews are used to gather information from customers about the product, their experiences and whether they will be using the product in the future. Businesses also use a survey to seek information from customers. Common surveys are customer satisfaction, new product survey, customer complaints among others. Lastly, the case study method uses a real-world example to address a business problem.
2. Evaluate their effectiveness with respect to certain areas within your discipline.
The different qualitative tools have their advantages and disadvantages. According to Mack et al. (2005) surveys enable researchers to reach out to many participants at the same time. In the age of technology, it is easy to use online questionnaires as the participants will fill and submit the questionnaires within a few minutes. Questionnaires are preferred by businesses because they are cost-efficient, easy to use, and practical and they make it possible to cover many questions. The main disadvantage of surveys they give room for dishonesty. Respondents may not be entirely truthful because the researcher is not there to confirm their answers. Researchers can give incorrect answers due to many reasons including social desirability bias and the need to protect their privacy. Surveys also lack honest responses, and the researchers cannot tell whether the respondents took time to answer the question carefully. Dishonesty and lack of conscientious affects the credibility of the data and the results.
Interviews are effective because the researchers can obtain detailed information about the participants’ opinions, perceptions, and feelings. Interviews tend to be more detailed than surveys, and the participants record the respondents own words. It is easy to clarify ambiguities and to clarify what the participants are saying. Interviews are useful, but they are time-consuming and costly (Walle, 2015). Interviewing many participants is impossible. For example, when researchers use interviews to seek customer opinion about a product, the researchers have to determine the purpose of the research first. The researchers also have to find participants and plan for the interview. The interview process takes time, and this is what differentiates interviews from surveys (Mack et al., 2005). In most cases, the researchers have to provide rewards to encourage participants to take part in the interview process.
A case study is another qualitative tool used to collect information. Case studies tend to be more detailed, and they give background information about an event or the organization. The main advantage of case studies is that they allow for a lot of details to be collected that would not be obtained using other qualitative methods. Researches have access to in-depth and rich information. Case studies also make it possible to connect variables and identify the real cause of a problem/ event. Case studies help researchers to experiment with new ideas and come up with new hypotheses. The problem with case studies is that they produce a lot of information that might not be necessarily relevant or useful in future. Case studies are often criticized because they are not scientific. Case studies are also not specific, and they tend to provide general information making it hard to identify the definite cause/ effect relationship in the study.
The future of qualitative research in business and in general
Qualitative research will continue to be useful in business and in general. Qualitative research is used to access critical information about customers that drive brands and products forward. Qualitative research has to adopt new techniques and take advantage of modern technology. Businesses are now dealing with a lot of information (big data), and qualitative research methods cannot handle qualitative techniques cannot handle the data and deliver the right outcome.
In the future, researchers have to use multi-focused qualitative approach to meet the challenges of handling big data. Each qualitative technique has some disadvantages, and researchers should not rely on one method/ technique. Qualitative tools such as survey, interviews, and focus groups are practical, and researchers will continue using them. Qualitative research tools were developed and tested many years ago, and they should be adjusted to meet modern challenges. If qualitative methods remain adaptable and innovative, they will be in use for a very long time.
References
Mack, N., Woodsong, C., MacQueen, K. M., Guest, G., & Namey, E. (2005). Qualitative research methods: a data collectors field guide.
Bansal, P., Smith, W. K., & Vaara, E. (2018). New Ways of Seeing through Qualitative Research. Academy of Management Journal, 61( 4), 1189-1196.
Walle, A. H. (2015). Qualitative research in business: A practical overview . Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
