Transcript Qualitative Research

Qualitative Research
Dr. Constance Knapp
Information Systems
DCS 891A Research Seminar
December 15, 2006
What is qualitative research?
 An approach
 Usually field research
 Usually complex
Why would you use a
qualitative method?
 To develop a theory
 To understand a phenomena
 To describe the nature of a phenomena
 To verify something in a real world setting
 To evaluate a practice or approach
Apply this to yourself
 What kinds of questions do you have that
might fit the above criteria?
 Qualitative research usually begins with a
very general question-what’s your general
question?
 We describe or interpret phenomena-what are
you describing or interpreting?
How is this different from
quantitative research?
 No null hypothesis
 No causal relationship
 No confidence intervals
Qualitative vs. quantitative
 Some challenges
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Replication
Rigor
Researcher as instrument
Methods
 Case Study
 Ethnography
 Action Research Study
 Grounded Theory Study
 Content Analysis
 (See Table 7.1 page 144, Leedy)
An example
 My dissertation
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Topic: organizational and technological factors
affecting CASE tool success
Methodology used
Grounded Theory
 Developed by Glaser and Strauss, 1967
 Refined by Strauss and Corbin, 1990
Grounded Theory
 Literature review
 Data collection
 Coding
 Theoretical sampling
Literature Review
 Pure grounded theory: literature after
collecting data
 I completed my literature review before
 Questions that I asked in the interviews came
from those suggested by the literature
Data Collection
 What is the data?
 Interview data
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Taped
Transcribed
 Field notes
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The setting
The “body language”
Data Collection and Analysis
 Iterative process
 Collect data
 Analyze
 Collect more data
 Analyze
Coding
 Each transcribed interview was coded
 All comments were grouped
 Open coding: learn underlying themes
 Axial coding: look for interconnections
 Selective coding: form a story line
 Goal: develop a theory
Theoretical Sampling
 When you are no longer learning new
information, you stop collecting data
 At that point you have reached saturation
 You can STOP collecting data
An example
 Checklists from Leedy
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Planning a qualitative study
Evaluating a qualitative study
 “A Grounded Theory Study of Successful Organizational
Integrated CASE Technology Implementation” Knapp, C.
Proceedings of the Proceedings of the Second Annual
Association of Information Systems Conference, Phoenix,
AZ,1996.
Some observations about
qualitative methods
 Takes time
 Requires a field setting
 Requires insight on the part of the researcher
 Provides richness
 Can be very satisfying work
References
 Glaser BG, Strauss A. Discovery of
Grounded Theory. Strategies for Qualitative
Research. Sociology Press
 Strauss A, Corbin J. Basics of Qualitative
Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and
Techniques. Sage, 1990
Web Sources
 IS World Page on Qualitative Research/
 Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis
 Leedy Companion Website
So what’s so special about
qualitative research?
 What you ask
 How you design your study
 What data you collect
 How you interpret your data
 How you use the literature review
 How you write up your results
 In short, EVERYTHING!