Week 4 Report

Qualitative Research : Good Decision Making Through Understanding People, Cultures and Markets

This book is an attempt to weave together three elements: practical ‘how to’ advice for qualitative researchers who are new to the business, together with a preliminary grounding in the theory of qualitative research and – essentially – how these two aspects feed off one another. The third aspect is maverick, but unavoidable. It is my personal perspec- tive on qualitative research. It is impossible for me to write about this subject ‘objectively’, for reasons that will become clear throughout the book. It is my belief that qualitative research – or rather qualitative think- ing – is a way of seeing the world, and it is impossible for us, as researchers, to ‘stand outside’ our research. However, this does not excuse us from trying our best to be as aware as possible of potential biases. We need to develop our personal skills in awareness, questioning and reflecting on our thinking, and we need to aim for impartiality in the analysis and interpretation of our research.

This is an exciting time to be involved in qualitative research. There is a move towards thinking about research in more collaborative ways: clients and researchers working together on research issues, rather than the tradi- tional model of the researcher as expert, interviewing research participants and reporting back to the client. Technology is opening doors to new types of research, carried out in different ways amongst different groups of people for example online focus groups, groups on Second Life and blogs. Similarly, research in some areas has become an explicitly consultative process, such as deliberative research in which participants are educated in a specific area, which enables them to more effectively evaluate potential initiatives. Over the last 20 years, qualitative research has infiltrated parts of society we could never have imagined possible; it is now embedded in virtually all areas of commercial and public sector thinking.

However, my personal concern about some of these developments is that we may move towards a situation in which qualitative research

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Introduction

becomes more to do with performance than rigorous analysis. By this I mean, that simply doing or watching the research becomes the research. To get the most use out of qualitative research, and for it to really show its

2 ᔡ Qualitative Research

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