A Brief Literature Review of Qualitative Research

The application of soft explore to social lore studies has current mixed reviews. Some social scientists signal wholeheartedly to the use of soft inquiry as a proportion to the traditional quantitative look for methodological analysis, which has been the vogue in social science inquiry. Other social scientists however question the application of soft look into to social science studies. Some reviewers, for example, question the appropriateness in backward evaluation of programs of programs in organizational change (Blackler and dark-brown, 1983, p.349).Other reviewers of the same look repugn that good qualitative evaluation entails close and continuous involvement with the edge of change. Blacker and dark-brown sedulous qualitative interrogation methodological analysis in their consider of retrospective evaluation of programs of organizational change. They concluded that un same(p) some rude(a) science paradigms, competing paradigms should non be thought o f as mutually sole(prenominal) in application of qualitative query in social science. (Blacker and chocolate-brown, ibid)Crawford cor aceted his make-up Putting money in investigate pays How companies large and minor benefit from research plans. In it he discussed the advantages nameed by business enterprises in the join States of America through both quantitative and qualitative research. (Crawford 2006). Dale in his study Partnering with focussing to implement ergonomics in the industrial study, concluded that for implementation of any research to be effective in changing workers attitude, there must be effective collaboration in the midst of the researcher and the management of the industrial establishment.(Dale, 2004). Harris in his article en call backing to Business comes of age in qualitative research, highlights the use of innovative information applied science in advancing the frontier of qualitative research in business and industry. It is Harriss opinion t hat use of such technology as teleconferencing volition not only ensure objectivity in data collection, but fanny allow the researcher to parcel out his protocol to large respondents at the same time. (Harris, 1995)The role of qualitative methodology in ergonomics is discussed by Hig discharget in his paper Theoretical Issues to ergonomics Science Here, a four stage sampling method of qualitative research was used in the audience of academics and management practitioners to gain their views on all aras of ergonomics. (Hignett and Wilson, 2004). Karami, Rowley and Analoni studied some research methodologies used in generating friendship for management through research. They concluded that whereas anterior research was skewed in favor of quantitative methodology, present day studies tend to favor qualitative research methods.(Karami et al 2006). McPhee employed a qualitative research snuggle to his study of the organizational behavior of business practice in Europe. He concluded that although until recently, the pyramidical hierarchy structure was the norm in organizational framework of European companies, globalization of the world economy has forced many an(prenominal) European firms to employ qualitative research in their transition to a more(prenominal) democratic organizational arrangement (McPhee, 2002). Russell in his paper titled Dangerous Intersections x-rays the use of qualitative research as a mechanism in the campaign sponsored by an insurance company.The thrust of the campaign was on awareness, education and safety promotion in spite of appearance the United States. (Russell, F. 2002). Yates in his paper drew attention to the opportunities which practitioners in business communications now pass to shift emphasis away from quantitative methods to qualitative methodology in their research. (Yates, J. 1993). This brief literature review leads us to the analysis of the qualitative research methodology employed by Maximillian dark-brown in hi s dissertation titled Trust, Power and Work present democracy preventive and Health whole kit and boodle Councils in operating theater. Description of methodological analysisIn analyzing the qualitative research methodologies used in The Brown address salient aspects of individually methodology willing be highlighted. The sum total of the evaluation of the Brown Dissertation will reflect the contributions of all the different paradigms to the overall results of the qualitative research. The side by side(p) are the research methods employed by Brown for his strip studies. antecedent contacts with employees and management in of target firms withdrawed for his studies in the summer of 2002. Actual interviews took place in Fall 2002. Designing of research run across. Gaining access to the worksites Process of effective interviews. Preparation for Field Work In outrank to become known with the environment of his research, Brown became an insider of the work stations. Br own used his portionship of the sentry duty Committee in his university, and participated actively in its programs in order to gain first deliberate information on the philosophy chthonianlying the Safety Committee operations. Moreover, in order to have a comprehensive fellowship of the safety operations in his university, he sought and obtained permission to be meetings of those safety sub committals in which he was not a member.Furthermore, brown received training organizeed by the State of operating theatre in safety military commission operations. By his own admission, Browns roll in the hays as a member and active participant in safety commission meetings strongly influenced his research design and the process of conducting interviews with his subjects. The oral questions mould to his subjects were structured along the lines of his experience as a participant rather than an outsider. Being an insider conferred on him sealed advantages which he utilized in preparat ion of his research protocols.Brown was open to pick up questions which were directed at specific areas of operation of the safety councils which an outsider exponent not be privy to. Brown also gained leverage on his subjects by being knowledgeable about their schedule of duties. More so, Browns membership of a university committee whose functions are similar to those of the subjects of his interrogative influenced his tailoring his questions to more specific subject matters which an outsider will not be aware of. Browns research protocols were gleaned from Richard Freeman and Joel Rogers script with the title What Workers want which was published in 1999.Furthermore, Brown had gained prior and invaluable hands-on experience of the workings of the industries in which he was to later conduct his qualitative research. After choosing 2 very different industries in which he wanted to conduct his research, Brown set out to get a working knowledge of these industries. He relied he avily on supreme publications of the Oregon State Occupational Safety and Safety Administration for first hand information on the industries of his choice. These publications complemented his own practical experience in one of the industries while filling the gaps in his knowledge of the different.With these preparations, Brown was thus able to formulate intelligent questions for his target interviewees. Brown acknowledged the obvious feature that an outsider cannot know as much about a mill as those who work in the place. As an icing on his cake, the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) assisted Brown to select target factories relevant to his research. Visits to Target Factories Brown approached his target audience in three stages. He first made anterior visualizes to the factories in order to get himself familiar with the people and places where he was to conduct his research.His initial lambaste to each of the 2 factories afforded Brown the opportu nity to conduct background checks on the facilities available in the factories. Some of the background information he had earlier obtained from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration website came in handy during his precedent visits. From OSHA website he had obtain vital statistics about each factory. These included the add together of employees in each factory, products manufactured, and the mission statement of each organization on their safety and health programs. The next stage of his approach was to make a preparatory visit to each factory.He was able to obtain a hang-up of each factory. He also used the opportunity of the preparatory visit to collect in-house documents which came in handy to him while preparing his research protocols. These documents included proceeding of committee meetings, training materials, and other records germane to his investigations. Browns ensuant visits represented the third and last phase of his plan. This was the stage at which he conducted open-ended interviews to representatives of both management and labor in the premises of the devil factories earlier chosen. Equal numbers of representatives of labor and management were interviewed.The interviews were conducted in private. The identities of those interviewed were unbroken confidential as per university policies on such matters. After explaining the purpose of the research project to the subjects, their written consent was individually obtained before the interview started. Since his project was targeted at the safety policies and practices in the selected factories, only members of the safety committees were interviewed. The interviews which were conducted in a free and friendly manner, employed the active interview format intentional by Holstein and Gubrium.(Holstein and Gubrium, 1995). In this interview approach, subjects were asked questions which had been prepared in form of a protocol. At the onset, subjects were asked general questions pertaining to their working experiences at the factory. Subjects were also asked questions of personal beguile to the respondents with respect to the issue central to the research This phase formed the preliminary stage as formulated by Holstein and Gubrium. The next set of questions relate on the apprehension of the respondents regarding the effectiveness of the program of the committee in which they were members.The subjects were asked of the perception of their fellow workers on their election or selection into the committee. This formed the overview question stage of the interview. The next stage of the interview centered on training. The respondents were asked to prise the depth and relevance of the training which they received towards performance of their duties as committee members. Questions on the perceived quality of the content of their training, the methods of dissemination of information and the net change effect of the training on the participants, concluded the set of quest ions on training.The next set of questions for the subjects, centered on the meetings of the committee. Subjects were asked to analyze the interpersonal transaction among members of the committee, the atmosphere of the meetings the procedures adopted during the meetings and the dissemination of information to members before and after each meeting. The last set of specific questions put to the subjects was on the authority give the committee by management, and the influence of the committee on management.They were questioned on how they communicated the decisions arrived at their meetings to management, and the effect of their recommendations on management policies. Subjects were also asked to give their views on the industrial atmosphere of their work place, and specifically on the labor and management dealings whether they were cordial, or if there were unresolved issues dividing the two parties. Finally, subjects were asked whether they felt a whizz of power by their membershi p of the committee. Evaluation of Browns qualitative Research MethodologyThe methodologies applied by Brown in his dissertation are identifiable and well structured. They follow the pattern of a well nonionic qualitative research project. Preliminary work was done in two main areas. Relevant literature was searched and the context applied as and when necessary, as per specifications in the original publication. For example, the method of interview was patterned after the universally accepted standard procedure of Holstein and Gubrium termedActive Interviews (Holstein and Gubrium,1995).The use of Active Interviews by Brown was appropriate to the qualitative research design in his case study. A lot of preliminary work was done by Brown, in order to identify firms at which to carry out his research study. minimise studies were first carried out on these companies. Where the researcher felt that he had wanting(p) experience and inadequate knowledge and information, necessary recourse was made to authoritative state government publications on the subject of his research. Initial visits to the premises of the firms under study, were made by Brown.He got himself familiarized with both the staff and the environment of the factories where he planned to administer his qualitative research protocol. Those initial visits afforded him the opportunity to act with representatives of both labor and management. The visits also afforded him the chance to obtain their consent and cooperation. Brown prepared his interview protocols in two similar sets, one for employees and the other for managements of the firms under study. The research protocols were well structured in such a way as to first put general questions to his subjects.From the responses elicited from the respondents, more specific questions relevant to the subject matter of the study were then put to the subjects. This pattern of questioning is in line with the Holstein and Gubium process of active interviews. Ma ximillian Browns success in putting his subjects at ease at this initial stage, helped him to take the interview to a less formal and friendlier colloquial atmosphere. Subsequent pieces of information obtained from the respondents were then given freely and honestly without pressure. Browns approach evidently made for more reliable and unfeigned answers to the interviewers questions.With the active cooperation of the subjects, Brown was able to plumb the depths of the activities of the safety committees under study, to arrive at a more reliable assessment of their functions, and the perceptions of members of the committee on the relevance and importance of their work on the committee. Limitations and Weaknesses of Browns qualitative Research Methodology By his own admission, Brown accepted that there are some obvious limitations and weaknesses in the methodology he employed in the qualitative research for his dissertation.Three of these weaknesses, Brown identified as follows Pro blems of trust, accuracy in record keeping, and validity of subjects responses. Unless the interviewer is able to scale the fence of distrust erected between him and his subject during the interview, the information gathered from the respondent will be suspect. According to McCracken, lack of trust between interviewer and respondent will restrict the interview to a mere formality. The intimacy required for the two parties to move from formal to informal conversational style will be inhibited.(McCracken,1988). Hence the first objective of an interviewer is to gain the trust of the interviewee. Right from the onset, the interviewer inescapably to establish a friendly rapport with his subjects even before the interview is scheduled. Brown admitted his lack of familiarity with his subjects, which made some of them to give curt and passing(prenominal) replies to his questions. Secondly, Browns inability to import a reliable kernel of recording his interviews made his transcripts of such interviews less than accurate.The third problem of validity of his subjects responses, Brown admits to be his most difficult. There is no easy resultant role to the issue of whether a respondent is truthful, except perhaps to administer a lie-detector test to each respondent before the interview, as a method of pre screening all participants. Applications of Browns Qualitative Research Methodology The research methodology of active interviews adopted by Brown in his dissertation generated valuable in formation on the social interactions in spite of appearance an industrial environment.In spite of its limitations and shortcomings, Browns qualitative research methodology provides a suitable and reliable template on which further research study can be undertaken to obtain knowledge of the interpersonal relationships within an industrial workplace. By using modern information technological innovations like teleconferencing and remote control recording devices, greater objectivity can be introduced into Browns qualitative research methodology. (Harris,1995).Overall, the methodology employed in Maximillian Browns dissertation can be validly adopted in qualitative research studies for dissertations and other quality academic publications. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Blackler, F. H. M. , Brown, C. A. (1983), Qualitative Research and Paradigms of Practice, diary of Management Studies, 20(3), 349-366. 2. Crawford, A. P. (2006). Putting money into research pays How companies &8212 large and small &8212 benefit from research plans, Public Relations Tactics, 13(8), 20-20 3. Dale, L. (2004). Partnering with management to implement ergonomics in the industrial, Work, 22(2), 117-124. 4. Freeman, Richard B., and Joel Rogers. 1999. What Workers Want. Ithaca, NY Cornell University Press. French, Carroll E. 1923. The Shop Committee in the United States. Johns HopkinsUniversity Studies in History and Political Science. 41 107-207. 5. Harris, L. M. , (1995), Business-to-business comes of age in qualitative research, Marketing News, 29(12), 17-17 6. Hignett, S. , Wilson, R. (2004), The role for qualitative methodology in ergonomics a case study to explore theoretical issues, Theoretical Issues in biotech Science, 5(6), 473-493 7. Holstein, James A. , and Jaber F. Gubrium. 1995. The Active Interview. Thousand Oaks, CA SAGE Publications8. Karami, A. , Rowley, J. , Analoui, F. (2006), Research and knowledge Building in Management Studies An Analysis of Methodological Preferences, International Journal of Management, 23(1), 436-52. 9. McCracken, Grant. 1988. The Long Interview. Newbury Park,CA SAGE Publications. 10. McPhee, N. (2002). Gaining insight on business and organisational behaviour the qualitative dimension, International Journal of Market Research, 44(1), 53-70. 11. Russell, F. (2000). Dangerous intersections, Marketing News, 34(5), 18-18. 12. Yates, J. (1993), The Opportunity of Qualitative Research, Journal of Business Communication, 30(2), 1999-200