Items Description of Module

Subject Name Management

Paper Name Research Methodology
Module Title Qualitative research
Module ID Module 21
Pre-Requisites Understanding the nature of qualitative research
Objectives To study the nature of qualitative research
Keywords Reflexivity, Chicago School, Narrative interview, Naturalistic sociology
Role Name Affiliation
Prof.Ipshita Bansal Department of Management
Principal Investigator Studies, BPSMV, Khanpur
Kalan, Sonipat

Co-Principal Investigator

Prof. S.P.Singh Department of Management

Paper Coordinator Studies, GKV, Haridwar

Prof. S.P.Singh Department of Management

Content Writer (CW) Studies, GKV, Haridwar

Content Reviewer (CR)

Language Editor (LE)

QUADRANT –I

1. Module 21 : Qualitative research

2. Learning Outcome
3. Introduction
4. Essential features of qualitative research
5. Starting point of qualitative research
6. Brief History of qualitative research
7. Qualitative research in modern times
8. Pros and cons of qualitative research

1. Module 21: Qualitative research

2. Learning outcome
After reading this module, you should be able to
 Understand the nature of qualitative research
 Comprehend the starting point o qualitative research
 Know the brief history of qualitative research
 Understand the qualitative research in modern times
 Understand the pros and cons of qualitative research
3. Introduction
The qualitative research has drawn increasing attention in the last few decades.
The study of social relations holds particular relevance to the qualitative research. This is relevant
due to the facts of expressing of life worlds in more than one form including new state of being
unknown, individual ways of living and patterns relating to biography, the act of formally ending
old social inequalities into the new diversity of a person’s social environment, sub-cultures
lifestyles, and ways of living.
The expression of life worlds in more than one form needs a new condit ion of being sensitive to
the empirical study of issues. The time of big stories and theories has finished. In respect of the
expression of lifestyles in more than one form and regular form of interpretation in modern and
post modern society, the initial position of the social scientist is almost ever without knowledge
of actual occurrence in the area of life selected for study.
Social researchers in new social contexts and with new viewpoints come more and more face in
face with fast social change and the occurrence more diverse of life worlds.
These are so new for them that the traditional deductive methods applied for developing research
questions and hypotheses from models involving theory and testing them against empirical
research are losing their significance because the objects are distinguished.
Thus, research is more and more making use of inductive strategies. In place of beginning from
existing theories and testing them against hypothesis sensitive concepts are needed for accessing
the social contexts to be studied. However, previous theoretical knowledge influenced these
concepts. But theories are developed from empirical studies. Knowledge and practice are studied
as local knowledge and practice. Psychological research in particular lacks relevance for
everyday life. This is because it is not adequately dedicated to accurately describing the minutes
of a case in its real circumstances. The study of subjective meanings, daily experience and
practice is as indispensable as the contemplation of narratives and discourses.
 Figure 1Qualitative Research

4. Essential Features of Qualitative Research

The key ideas directing qualitative research are different from those in quantitative research. The
suitability of methods and theories, opinions of the participants and their differences, thinking
process of the researcher and the research and the diversified approaches and methods are the
essential feature of qualitative research.

Features of Qualitative Research

1. Suitability of methods and theories
2. Perspectives of the participants and their diversity
3. Reflexivity of the researcher and the research
4. Variety of approaches and methods in qualitative research
 Suitability of methods
and theories

Perspectives of the
participants and
their diversity

Variety of
Reflexivity of the
approaches and
researcher and the
methods in
research
qualitative research

Figure 2 Features of Qualitative Research

4.1 Suitability of methods and theories

Standards involving methods used to define a discipline were applied by scientific disciplines to
make themselves distinct from disciplines of non-scientific nature. For example, the application
of experiments or survey research as the major methods used in psychology and other social
sciences.
In the process of achieving recognition as a scientific discipline, the method gets the reference
point for scrutinizing ideas and issues for investigation verifiable by observation or experience.
Sometimes suggestions are given to keep away from examining those facts observed to exist for
which research methods as experiment or survey cannot be used. Sometimes, the variables of the
study cannot be identified and separated with clarity as an experiment. At other times suggestions
are given to refrain from phenomena for which data is available in small number. It needs more
effort to examine such fact or issue on a large sample to make the findings of the study
representative and generalized. It is wise to consider whether a research question can be studied
empirically or not. Most phenomena are difficult to be explained in isolation. It is an outcome of
their being intricate in real situation. If all empirical studies were exclusively defined in
accordance with the cause-and-effect relations, all intricate issues would have to be refrained
 from. One must also not choose such issues as it become difficult to determine how to treat such
intricate and rare phenomena in research of social nature.

Another alternative is to consider conditions involving context in complex quantitative research

designs and to know complex models statistically and empirically. The necessary treatment of
ideas involving methods needs more effort to generalize findings in the daily situations being
studied. Thus, the fundamental issue is not resolved.

Finally, designing methods liable to experience the complexity of a subject of the study is also a
method to study complex issues with qualitative research. The object being studied is the
selection criteria of a method. Objects are not made smaller to one variable, but represented as a
whole in their daily context. Therefore, the disciplines of study are the real practices and
interactions of the people in common life. Often exceptional situations and persons are studied. In
order to justify the diversity of everyday life, methods are open to their object, which is ensured
in different ways.
The state of being identified, evolution of the new and the act of bringing into being of
empirically grounded theories are the objectives of qualitative research. The validity of the study
is assessed by making reference to the object being studied. It does not observe abstract academic
science criteria as applicable to quantitative research. Rather the key criteria of qualitative
research depend on whether findings are rounded in empirical material. Also if selection and
application of the methods is appropriate, the findings are pertinent and the proceedings reflexive.

4.2 Diverse Perspectives

Qualitative research focuses on different questions in the study of a particular topic. It shows the
diverse viewpoints of various persons on the objects. It beings with the personal and social
explanations attached to it.
Participants’ knowledge and practices and analysis of mutual influences and the ways of dealing
with issues in a particular field of study are the subject matters of qualitative researchers. The
relations of one person to other in the given circumstance of the case are dealt with. Qualitative
research thinks that in the field there is diversity of opinions and practices because of various
personal opinions and social and social working order connected to them.
Qualitative researchers examine participants’ knowledge and practices. They analyze mutual
influence and ways of handling the issues in a particular field of study. It involves the description
of the relations of one person to other in the context of the case.. Qualitative research takes into
account diverse field opinions and practices due to different personal opinions and social context
connected to them.

4.3 Reflexivity
Distinguished from quantitative research, methods of qualitative research get the researcher’s
information shared with the field and the participants as a clearly expressed portion of knowledge
in place of careful thinking it as an object of interview. The researcher being influenced by
personal feelings or opinions and of participants of the study obtains the position in the research
process. Researchers’ careful thought about the actions and observations of the participants, their
ideas, feelings and opinions, impatience, and so on, become a part of data, a portion of the
interpretation, and documents in research diaries or a system of rules in the given context.
 Figure 3 Reflexivity (Adapted from acid.uct.ac.za)

4.4 Approaches and methods

The basis of a qualitative research is a uniform theoretical concept involving methods. The
discussions and the research practices are the main components of various theoretical ways and
their methods. Personal opinions, a common thread passing through the research studies,
rebuilding the arrangement of social field and the existing but not yet developed explanation of
research practices are the chief characteristics of these methods. These different approaches are
the outcome of the development of different approaches in the process of evolution of qualitative
research.

5. Beginning point of Qualitative Research

The limitations of quantitative approaches are the starting point to justify the use of qualitative
research. In a tradition way, the natural sciences and their accuracy and precision have already
been treated as a model for psychology and social sciences. More attention has been devoted to
developing quantitative and standard methods. The directive principles of planning and
conducting research have been applied for isolating causes and effects, to put into operation
relations involving theory, the measurement and quantifying phenomena, the development of
research designs the generalization of findings of research, and to derive general laws.
For example, for the purposes of conducting a survey random representative samples are drawn
from population. The researcher makes generalized statements to the possible degree concerning
the real cases that have been studied. On the basis of the frequency and the distribution the
observed phenomena are categorized. For classifying casual relation and their validity are used.
The social facts and circumstance as well the relations occurring in the study are carefully
regulated to the possible degree
While designing studies, care should be taken that the researcher’s influence is removed from
consideration to the possible extent. The impartiality of the study is ensured, wherein the personal
viewpoints of the researcher and the participants are completely removed. Common standards
have been evolved which are compulsory for conducting and assessing empirical social research.
The procedures for framing a questionna ire, formulating an experiment and statistically analyzing
 data have been gradually improved. Experimental designs, in psychological research for a long
time were applied which produced huge volume of data and findings exhibiting and testing
relations of variables and the terms of their validity.

Therefore, for a long time, standard surveys have been the basis of empirical social research. The
documentation, frequency analysis and distribution of social facts in the population studies were
the main objectives. A while ago Weber (1919) announced that the task of the science is the
disillusionment of the world. Bonbetta and Hartmann (1985) observed the enhanced
disillusionment of the sciences is regarding their methods and research findings. In social
sciences, the low levels of generalization results and the issues of connecting them to theory and
social developments are indications the disillusionment.

The results of social sciences are seldom applied in daily life. In order to meet the requirements
of standards involving methods, their examination and findings are far removed from daily issues
and problems. On the other hand, analyses of research practice indicate that the standard of
impartiality methodologists formulate can only be met partially for carrying out real research.
Besides all controls of methodology, interest influences, socio-cultural backgrounds are difficult
to keep away in research and its findings. These factors exercise an influence on the designing of
research questions, formulating of research hypotheses, the analysis and interpretation and the
relations of variables.

6. Evolution of Qualitative Research

In general, Psychology and social sciences have long used qualitative method for research. Wundt
(1928) in psychology applied descriptive methods. Contemporarily, in German sociology,
induction, case studies, empirical and statistical methods were more emphasized. In American
sociology, for a long time methods involving biography, case studies and descriptive methods
were at the centre of research. The importance of Thomas in Europe and Znanecki’s study in
Europe in American and the influence of Chicago School in sociology are the evidence to it.

During the further evolution of two sciences, increasingly difficult ‘experimental, standards and
quantifying approaches established themselves against soft understanding, open, and qualitative
descriptive strategies. In 1960 in American sociology the criticism of standard, quantified social
research became relevant which again was taken up in the 1970s in German conversations.
Finally, this directed to the development of qualitative research in the social sciences particularly
in psychology. The development and discussions, in United States and in Germany, not only
occurred at different times but also in different phases.

7. Distinction between qualitative and quantitative research:

The qualitative and quantitative research researches differ in several respects. Some of the
important differences are described below.
1. The qualitative research tends to focus on how people or groups of people can have different
ways of looking at social or psychological reality. The quantitative research tends to focus on
ways of describing and understanding reality by the discovery of general “laws”.
2. The qualitative research takes account of complexity by incorporating the real-world context
– can take different perspectives on board. The quantitative research takes account of
complexity by precise definition of the focus of interest and techniques that mean that
external “noise” can be discounted
3. The qualitative research studies behavior in natural settings or uses people’s accounts as data;
usually no manipulation of variables. The quantitative research involves manipulation of
independent variables while other variables are held constant.
 4. The qualitative research concentrates on experience or on data which cannot be expressed
numerically in adequately. The quantitative research uses statistical techniques that allow us
to talk about how likely it is that something is “true” for a given population in an objective or
measurable sense.
5. The qualitative research focuses on description and interpretation and might lead to
development of new concepts or theory, or to an evaluation of an organizational process. The
quantitative research focuses on cause & effect - e.g. uses experiment to test (try to disprove)
a hypothesis.
6. The qualitative research employs a flexible, emergent but systematic research process. The
quantitative research needs the research process to be predefined.

8. Modern Qualitative Research

In order to show the relevance of qualitative research changes to the potential objects were taken
note of. Recent developments in the process of determining by examination the nature and
circumstances in the sciences give more reasons to turn to qualitative research. Toulmin believed
that modern science is not performing normally. There are four tendencies for empirical social
research in philosophy and science as a way forward:
1. The studies guided by experience or experiment in social sciences including philosophy,
linguistics and literature, studied narratives, language, and communication made the
inclination towards spoken traditions.
2. The studies based on experience or experiment aim not only to focus on conceptual and
universal questions but also to deal with specific, concrete issues which do not arise generally
but take place in specific situations made the return to the particular.
3. The systems of knowledge, practices and experiences in the context of local traditions and
ways of living in which they are embedded, instead of assuming and attempting to test their
universal validity, studied the return to the local.
4. The return to the timely –placed problems to be studied and solutions to be developed in their
historical context and to describe them in such context and explain them from it.
Qualitative research is oriented to analysis of concrete cases in their worldly and local
particularity and beginning from people’s expressions and activities in their local contexts.
Therefore, qualitative research is able to design ways for social sciences, psychology, and other
fields to concretize the tendencies to change them into research programs, and to keep the
necessary flexibility for their objects and tasks.

9. The pros and cons of Qualitative Research

 Detailed Not restricted to Immediate
Examination specific questions revision possible

More power data Difficult to

generalize

Figure 4 Pros of Qualitative Research

8.1 Pros of Qualitative research

 The qualitative research can examine issues in detail and in more depth.
 The interviews are not restricted to specific questions. The researcher can redirect them
in real time.
 There can be immediate revision of framework and direction as fresh information is
received.
 The qualitative data obtained about human experience is comparatively more powerful
and arousing strong interest than quantitative data.
 Since usually data are obtained from a few individuals, it is difficult to generalize the
findings on a wider scale.
 Individual
skills

Time Not so well

consuming accepted
Figure 5Cons of Qualitative Research

8.2 Cons of Qualitative Research

 The individual skills of the researcher determines the research quality and
personal biases the researcher’s individual biases and the behavior peculiar to
persons more easily influence it.
 It is time consuming to analyze and interpret the large amount of data.
 The qualitative research is not so well accepted and understood as quantitative
research is.
 Often the researcher is present during the data collection. This is likely to affect
the responses of the subjects under study.
 At the time of presenting findings the issues of incognito and secrecy can come
up.
 The visual presentation of the findings can be more cumbersome and time
consuming.
Summary
The qualitative research has drawn increasing attention in the last few decades.The study of social
relations holds particular relevance to the qualitative research.
Social researchers in new social contexts and with new viewpoints come more and more face in
face with fast social change and the occurrence more diverse of life worlds.
Thus, research is more and more making use of inductive strategies. The key ideas directing
qualitative research are different from those in quantitative research. The suitability of methods
and theories, opinions of the participants and their differences, thinking process of the researcher
and the research and the diversified approaches and methods are the essential feature of
qualitative research.
The limitations of quantitative approaches are the starting point to justify the use of qualitative
research. In a tradition way, the natural sciences and their accuracy and precision have already
been treated as a model for psychology and social sciences. More attention has been devoted to
developing quantitative and standard methods.
In general, Psychology and social sciences have long used qualitative method for research. Wundt
(1928) in psychology applied descriptive methods. Contemporarily, in German sociology,
induction, case studies, empirical and statistical methods were more emphasized. In American
sociology, for a long time methods involving biography, case studies and descriptive methods
were at the centre of research. The importance of Thomas in Europe and Znanecki’s study in
Europe in American and the influence of Chicago School in sociology are the evidence to it.

The qualitative and quantitative research researches differ in several respects. In order to show
the relevance of qualitative research changes to the potential objects were taken note of. Recent
developments in the process of determining by examination the nature and circumstances in the
sciences give more reasons to turn to qualitative research.