Review of Qualitative Research Design

Question: Discuss about theReview of Qualitative Research Design. Answer: Introduction: Qualitative research can be defined as an unstructured exploratory research method. The techniques used by Qualitative research methods are by doing group interviews with focus group, one on one interviews where the respondent is further probed to give more details and asking the respondent to respond to the stimulus. The stimulus can be a word, a cue or an image (Collis and Hussey 2013). Body The process of data collection for Qualitative research involves either through observation or through interviews. Observation The process of observation can be participant observation and structured observation. While participant observation is a process of qualitative research design, structured observation is a process of quantitative research design. The purpose of participant observation is to observe a group, congregation from as close as possible. It also involves getting involved in their activities. The participation of the observation may be either overt or covert. During the process of overt observation, the interviewer reveals his / her identity and states the purpose of being involved in the community. The observers purpose of doing the research is also revealed. In the covert observation process the identity and purpose of the researcher is kept secret. The participant observer can be complete participant only if he is a covert participant. In his role as a covert person, he can be more completely involved with the group. When the researcher plays the role of complete observer then also it is better as the researcher hides his identity. The researcher as a complete observer may observe a focus group and then frame the research questions. When the researcher observes a focus group then it is a part of exploratory research. When the researcher works either as observer-as-participant and participant-as-observer the identity of the researcher is revealed. The researcher may be involved in an organization and play both the roles of an observer and participant. The process of collection of data includes accounts of eyewitness or contemporary reports. In this process the larger the sample size the better is the research (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2012). Interviews In this process, the researcher has to build a rapport with the people whose interview the researcher has to take. A good rapport should be built so that unambiguous questions can be asked and answers received. The researcher can conduct the interview by taking the help of semi-structured or in-depth or may use group interviews. In the semi-structured interview, the researcher has some themes and based on these themes he frames certain questions. Additional questions may be formed during the interview, which are based on the theme. The purpose of conducting an in-depth is to get a detailed information of the participant or focus group. The researcher in an in-depth interview is not bound by a theme. The themes may be added during the process of interview. In a focus group interview, a group of people are interviewed about their perception or attitudes towards the topic (Jacob and Furgerson 2012). In the observation process, the research process is very lengthy and time consuming. The role of the researcher is very demanding in that the researcher may be emotionally involved in the research process (Corbin and Strauss 2014). In this process all, the data collected in equally important. The limitations of qualitative research methodology are: The amount of data generated is very large and its interpretation is time consuming. The interpretation of the data is difficult to characterize. The quality of the research depends on the skill of the interviewer and can easily be biased by the personal opinion of the interviewer. The response of the interviewee can be influenced by the interviewers opinions (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault 2015). Conclusion The process of collecting data by the qualitative methods is more expensive as well as time consuming. Qualitative analysis provides data that can be related to the real world. The interviewer through the process of interview collects real situation data for analysis and interpretation. The researcher may overcome the limitations of interview process by gaining an in-depth knowledge about the subject / topic. The researcher should be adept at opening a topic and probing the topic to gain insights. The researcher should be an attentive listener. The behaviour of the researcher also influences the interview process. The researcher should also be able to deal with difficult interviewees. Last but not the least the interviewer should be able to draw conclusions about the interview and close the interview (Edwards and Holland 2013). References Collis, J. and Hussey, R. (2013). Business Research: A Practical Guide for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students 4th Ed. London: Palgrave-MacMillan Corbin, J. and Strauss, A. (2014).Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Sage publications. Edwards, R. and Holland, J. (2013). What is qualitative interviewing?. AC Black Jacob, S.A. and Furgerson, S.P., 2012. Writing interview protocols and conducting interviews: Tips for students new to the field of qualitative research. The Qualitative Report, 17(42), pp.1-10. Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2012). Research methods for business students. 6th Ed. Pearson Learning Solutions Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. and DeVault, M. (2015).Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley Sons.