Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design, Essay Example

In this assignment, the five main approaches described by Creswell (2007) are elaborated upon. Each approach is analyzed and subsequently, a research problem, a research purpose, and research questions are developed and justified for each approach. Finally, an approach is selected for the research that is intended to be developed for the final project.

The first approach that is described is the biographical approach. In this approach, the focus of the research is on a specific individual and the relevance of the experiences and life story of that individual (Creswell, 2007). The purpose of such research is to gain an understanding of how the relevance of an individual to a larger context can be traced to the different details of his or her life. This approach is useful when there is a specific person that is the central focus of a study. The person may be a famous person whose works have clearly had an impact on society at large, in which case the probable purpose of the research would be to determine the relevance of different epiphanies that the person has had throughout his or her life on his or her actions that significantly impacted society. On the other hand, the biographical study is also useful when focusing on a particular person who is leading an ordinary life, as it provides an extensively complete account of the experiences of that person, some of which may be related to a particular matter of interest. An example of a research in which a biographical approach may be suitable is “A Study on the Life and Work-Experiences of a Well-Educated African American.” The research problem in this title would be to determine what the challenges were those which were faced by a particular, currently successful African American throughout his life, and what epiphanies did he have along the way that may have affected his rise to success. The purpose of this research is to understand the African American experience with the world of work particularly through the eyes of someone who was able to gain a good education. Research questions that would be needed to be answered for this research are 1.) What are the life experiences of Mr. X? 2.) Which of these experiences are relevant to his work experiences? And, 3.) What is the relevance of such experiences to his success? In this research, there is clearly a need for a biographical study as the focus is on a specific individual and on the entirety of that individual’s life. It is only through the understanding of the person’s life does the study intend to draw out relevant cognitions regarding the relevance of the individual’s racial qualities on his work experiences.

The second approach described is the phenomenological approach. In this approach, the focus is on a specific phenomenon and how people experience this phenomenon (Creswell, 2007). This is in clear contrast with the biographical approach, which focused on the entirety of the individual’s experiences. In case of a phenomenological qualitative study, what is important is to be able to gather relevant information about the phenomenon from those who experience it. This approach in qualitative research is useful when a particular phenomenon has been identified as the central focus of the study. For example, a research wherein the phenomenological approach may be useful is one that address the problem of how being reprimanded on the job affects workers? The phenomenon that is focused on in this case is getting reprimanded. That is, this is the particular experience that the research is interested in investigating. The purpose of the research is to understand how people experience and react towards getting reprimanded on the job. Research questions relevant to such a study would be 1.) What are the factual details of participants’ experiences with getting reprimanded? 2.) How do participants interpret these experiences? 3.) What are the common meanings associated by participants to getting reprimanded? 4.) What implications do these meanings have on participants’ subsequent actions after getting reprimanded? The research problem fits with the approach because the problem is centered on a phenomenon of getting reprimanded. There must be so many ways that a person can get reprimanded and arguably, an infinite number of ways that a person can react. However, this study seeks to determine precisely how some people interpret getting reprimanded in order to narrow down the possible reactions and understand the phenomenon better. The research questions are in line with the steps of horizonalization, meaning clustering, and textual synthesis described by Creswell (2007).

The next qualitative research approach described is the ethnographic approach. While a biographical approach is focused on an individual and a phenomenological approach is focused on a concept and how that concept is experienced, an ethnographic study is focused on groups (Creswell, 2007). That is, it expands upon both earlier approaches by considering more than just one individual and possibly, multiple concepts that are all inter-experienced and interrelated among the different members of a specific community or group. In order to conduct ethnographic studies, qualitative researchers often need to immerse themselves into the group. That is, experience the day-to-day lives of the people in the group by participating in their activities and sharing in their traditions and culture (Creswell, 2007). It may also be possible to conduct an ethnographic study by interviewing several members of a group and understanding the group from the perspective of those few members (Creswell, 2007). A research problem in which an ethnographic approach may be appropriate is in understanding the Chinese sweatshop worker communities. In this research problem, the purpose of the study is to find out how Chinese communities in which majorities participate in sweatshop work making a particular product see themselves and their community, and the relevance of the sweatshop industry to both. In this research problem, the research questions that should be answered are 1.) What are the practices and traditions of the community? 2.) What are the points of relevance of sweatshop work in these practices and traditions? 3.) How is sweatshop work viewed by the community? While part of the focus of this paper is on sweatshop work, the focus is incomplete without considering who those working in the sweatshops are. Indeed, the study is relevant because of the proliferation of sweatshops in China despite the low work environment safety and quality that such places of work provide. It may be conjectured that the nature of the community itself plays a role in the proliferation of the sweatshop industry. It is based on this that it may be said that an ethnographic study is most suitable for addressing the identified problem.

The fourth approach described is the case study approach. In the case study, the researchers zero in on a particular instance of a specific matter that they intend to more extensively explore. An explained by Creswell (2007), the case identified binds the study. That is, it presents the constraints within which the study would operate. For example, if a case study is on a specific company, then everything that the study does and all of the inferences that it would make would just pertain to that one case. This binding of the context of a study makes it more difficult to transfer findings in one case to other cases, as transferability would largely depend on how similar the two cases are. However, case studies are very useful when intending to draw inferences that may be of relevance to a specific group. For example, a company may commission a case study into its own work operations in order to identify existing problems and determine how best to solve them. Thus, a case study is most useful in qualitative research when seeking to solve a specific practical problem within a particular area. For example, a case study may be useful in the research problem of understanding barriers to creativity of employees in a certain multimedia marketing company say, Company X. In this problem, the purpose is to explain possible reasons why employees are finding it difficult to come up with creative ideas for the company. Research questions relevant to this purpose are 1.) What are problems claimed by employees of Company X that they have in generating creative ideas? 2.) What are the problems cited by managers and supervisors in Company X as to why employees are not generating creative ideas? And 3.) What are possible causes of problems in generating creative ideas based on the company’s policies and daily operations routines? As shown from this example, it is intended to qualify the problem of a specific company on the lack of creativity in generating ideas from various perspectives, thereby making the case study approach most applicable to the study.

Finally, the last approach discussed is the approach that is intended to be utilized for the final project of this course. This approach is the grounded theory approach. In this approach, the main purpose is to develop a theory (Creswell, 2007). That is, an explanation for how something comes to be or comes about. Among the different approaches, the grounded theory approach seems to be the most formal, and seems to be the approach that most closely resembles quantitative approaches in research. These are some of the reasons why this particular approach was used for the study. However, most importantly, the grounded theory approach is most applicable based on what the research problem is that is sought to be addressed. This research problem is the observed high employee turnover rates in sales workplaces. The purpose of the research is to develop a theory on what makes salespeople want to stay in a workplace, which is to be carried out by analysis of multiple perspectives, employees, employers, and managers in workplaces that have high retention rates.  The research questions developed for this research problem are to determine what the characteristics of sales employees who work in workplaces with high retention rates are, to determine what the opinions of these employees about their respective workplaces are, and to determine what the qualities of workplaces that seem to inspire the loyalty of sales employees are. The grounded theory is most applicable to this study because of its objective nature. What are preventing this study from being carried out using a quantitative methodology are the vast possibilities on the reasons that salespeople may have for wanting to stay in a particular workplace. Thus, a qualitative approach is required to develop some theory about workplace retention for this particular set of workers, which may be tested through quantitative means in a succeeding study.

Reference

Creswell, J. (2007). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Sage Publications, Inc.