Qualitative

Qualitative research is associated with the quality of an attribute or question. Usually means a property that cannot be measured with a stick. Such as “How happy are you?” or “What is the meaning of family?” These questions are important for understanding people and society. Though I might not be able to measure the intensity of the happy neuron firings in the brain, there should still be a way to study it and to construct measures of it.

One of the most prevalent social structures is the business enterprise. A company, corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship is a social organization based around exchange of goods and services. These exchanges and the support functions throughout the organization are teaming with social interactions and human emotions. The manager, especially the first line manager, often finds herself awash in a sea of human and group issues that stem from these interactions. Therefore, applying qualitative research to business problems is essential. There are probably more issues and dynamics involving humans than there are involving machinery, materials, or money. None of these have feelings, aspirations, or health issues. They either function well, poorly, or not at all. They do not function well, but with a bad mood. Nor do they operate flawlessly for an operator they like and stubbornly resist an operator that has offended them.

Qualitative research may still be struggling for the respect it hopes for, or maybe it is still earning the respect that will eventually be due to it. Perhaps it is emerging from the quantitative base of science in the same way that science emerged from the positivist base of society. Just as positivists opposed the scientific method and quantitative questioning, the quantitativists may be resisting the ideas of the qualitativists. New ideas always threaten the established society. Without those ideas, the society had to construct a pattern and norms that worked. Once a new idea is added, there are new ingredients that can construct new patterns and norms that will work as well. However, if you do not understand the new idea, then all of this restructuring seems only to be an attempt to break the current patterns and move to patterns that have “already been shown to fail”. It really requires an understanding of the new idea to be able to understand why new patterns that include it will work.

I do not think that societies operate as a unified giant brain in making decisions to protect the status quo or opposing new patterns. Instead, each reacts to the new idea and shares its beliefs through a social network. Many reactions attempt to influence their own networks. All of these networks overlap and create complex combinations of reaction. Therefore, it is always difficult to impossible to address issues that are raised because they come from all directions and interact to generate new and different issues.

The qualitativist must be able to function in an environment that is slightly hostile. Perhaps this time has passed and there are solid communities in which qualitative methods are integrated and accepted. Certainly, the business research field should be one of these communities. Business seems to be a place where mixed methods should be very useful.