Research Methodology: Qualitative - Dissertation Writer's Retreat

Case study research is the collection and presentation of detailed information about a “case,” which can be an issue, group of participants, event, or phenomenon. The researcher focuses the inquiry on one or more cases within a “bounded system,” which means the parameters of the case. The case is treated as an integrated unit to be studied as a holistic system. The researcher may choose to study one case comprehensively or to study specific aspects of multiple cases for the sake of comparison.

Why choose case study?

Case studies are used “when there is no opportunity to control or manipulate variables, but when there is an interest in explanations and analysis of situations or events” (Gray, 2009, p. 275). Use a case study when you have access to different sources of data that will allow you to create a multi-faceted, comprehensive picture of the topic of inquiry.

What type of question can be answered using this approach?

Case studies can be used to answer “how” and “why” questions.

How might the choice of case study influence selection of methods for data collection and analysis?

In selection of the case itself, and participants within its bounds, researchers use some type of purposive sampling, enabling them to select homogenous or heterogeneous participants who meet a set of criteria aligned to the research purpose and questions.

Case studies rely on diverse sources of evidence, allowing researchers to use a variety of data collection approaches. Yin (2009) points to six types: documentation, archival records, interviews, direct observations, participant observations, and/or physical artifacts. Case methods can be used in all-qualitative or in mixed methods studies, where researchers also collect and analyze quantitative data.

Case study research does not rely on one way of data analysis. Yin (2009) identifies five techniques: pattern-matching, explanation building, time-series analysis, logic models and cross-case synthesis. Stake (1995) and Creswell (2007) discuss the importance of “making sense of” and “giving meaning to” the understandings gained from interpreting first impressions and observations as well as the more systematically analyzed compilationsof data.

Tips for case study researchers

• It is essential to clearly define the case and intended units of analysis for the study.
• Create boundaries for the case(s) that are realistic given the time and resources available for your dissertation research.
• Identify the theoretical frameworks and principles in the early stage of the design process.

Culture is central to ethnographic studies. Ethnographic researchers study cultures of individuals, groups, tribes or communities. With roots in anthropology, this methodology has been used to study customs, patterns of behavior, beliefs and creative expressions. These methods are used to study people in social or organizational settings.

Why choose ethnography?

Choose ethnography to study culture, to explore how a cultural group works, or to examine cultural concepts and issues such as power, resistance, roles or dominance in the group. (Creswell, 2007).

What type of question can be answered using this approach?

What is the culture of this group of people? (Patton, 2002)

How might the choice of ethnography influence selection of data collection and analysis methods?

In selection of the culture itself, and individuals or groups to study, researchers use some type of purposive sampling, enabling them to select homogenous or heterogeneous participants who meet a set of criteria aligned to the research purpose and questions.

Immersion in the site—or group—as a participant observer is the primary form of data collection ethnographic researchers traditionally use. Additionally, they collect data in the field through naturalistic observation, field notes or journals, interviews, review of documents, artistic expressions or artifacts. Content or thematic analysis is frequently used in ethnographic research to synthesize the data into a cultural portrait (Creswell, 2007), taxonomy, cognitive map (Merriam, 2009) or story.

Emerging forms include “critical” and “postmodern” (O’Byrne, 2007) and “visual” ethnography (Pink, 2007). As well, Researchers are also using “netnography”, virtual or cyber ethnography to study onlinecultures (Hine, 2000; Kozinets, 2010; Robinson and Schulz, 2009).

Tips for ethnographic researchers

• Make sure you understand the meaning and significance of culture in the context of your study and the significance to the individuals, social or organizational groups you plan to study. Your cultural competence and sensitivity will be crucial to success of the study.
• Make sure you have access to the cultural group of interest.

The researcher intends to generate new theory “grounded” in the actual words, behaviors, and other data obtained from those who have first-hand knowledge of the phenomenon. Several schools of thought exist: some look at social process from systematic (Strauss and Corbin, 1998) or constructivist (Charmaz, 2006) perspectives, while others look at the social situation using situational analysis (Clarke, 2005).

Why choose grounded theory?

Researchers choose grounded theory when they believe existing theories do not adequately explain the topic of interest.

What type of question can be answered using this approach?

What theoretical constructs explain this phenomenon?

How might the choice of grounded theory influence selection of methods for data collection and analysis?

Each school of thought in grounded theory has its own set of steps and protocols for collecting and analyzing data. In grounded theory studies, sampling, data collection and analysis are interwoven—unlike other studies where these are discrete, sequential steps. Due to the iterative nature of this kind of study, more time may be needed for data collection than is required for studies where the researcher asks all participants the same interview questions.

Researchers typically collect data using interviews that occur in several rounds, interspersed with analysis of the data. Researchers may begin with interviews of a general nature, then analyze the data to draw out initial themes and categories. The researcher then re-interviews participants or locates new interviewees who can elaborate on those themes. A theoretical sampling approach is used so participants are selected based on the extent to which their experience exemplifies principles emerging from the data and their ability to contribute to the development and testing of theoretical constructs (Miles and Huberman, 1994; Ritchie and Lewis, 2003). In addition to interviews, researchers may conduct observations or review records to gain additional perspectives on the categories or constructs emerging from the data (Jaccard and Jacoby, 2010).

Tips for grounded theory researchers

• Choose this approach if you are very comfortable working with abstract principles.
• Choose this approach if you are familiar enough with existing theories in your field of study to be able to identify areas where they are incomplete or inadequate.

Heuristic research emphasizes knowing through the self, by knowing the phenomenon of interest directly and understanding how others experience it. Heuristic research “seeks, through open-ended inquiry, self-directed search and immersion in active experience, to ‘get inside’ the question by becoming one with it” (Gray, 2009, p. 31).

Heuristic research is similar to phenomenological inquiry; the differentiating factor being the dual role as both researcher and participant. Heuristic research can be conducted as a case study, when the researcher’s experiences with the phenomenon fall within the boundaries of the case (Merriam, 2009).

What type of question can be answered using this approach?

As a researcher, what is my experience of the phenomenon I have chosen to study, and what is the essential experience of others who have direct knowledge of the phenomenon? (Patton, 2002)

Why choose heuristic research?

Choose heuristic research when you have personal experience with the phenomenon under study, and are willing to share self-reflections with other participants and readers of the study.

How might the choice of this methodology influence selection of data collection and analysis methods?

As with grounded theory, sampling, data collection and analysis are inter-woven, not sequential steps. Researchers use some type of purposive sampling, enabling them to select participants who meet a set of criteria aligned to the research purpose and questions (Douglass and Moustakas, 1985; Moustakas, 1990).

The researcher may choose to use creative or artistic expressions, journal writing or narrative methods for auto-biographical aspects of the study. The next stage is acquisition of data from others using participant observation, interviews, group interviews and/or focus groups with other research participants. The third stage is realization, when the researcher synthesizes all data. Analysis for heuristic research requires “a subjective process of reflecting, exploring, sifting and elucidating the nature of the phenomenon” (Douglass and Moustakas, 1985, p. 40).

Tips for heuristic researchers

• Make sure you understand the commitment involved in this approach. “When heuristic research is initiated to fulfill dissertation requirements for graduation instead of growing out of the very being of the researcher, it is possible that the researcher may not be intimately and autobiographically connected to the question. Immersion requires the whole self to be engaged in the focus of the research by surrendering to it in such a way that the research unfolds, rather than an observing self attempting to control and direct the process to ensure that it moves in the right direction” (Sela- Smith, 2002, p. 66).
• Be prepared for a deep, potentially selfrevealing exchange with research participants, usually over multiple interviews.

Narrative research emphasizes knowing through stories. Researchers using narrative inquiry see narrative as both “phenomenon under study and method of study” (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000, p. 4). Narrative inquiry “attempts to collaboratively access participants’ life experiences and engage in a process of storying and restorying in order to reveal multidimensional meanings and present an authentic and compelling rendering of the data” (Leavy, 2009, p. 27). Narrative research approaches include life story or life history, interpretive biography or autobiography (Denzin, 1989).

Narrative research is often combined with other approaches, such as ethnography, when the stories in question relate to cultural issues. Narrative research can combine with autoethnography or heuristics, when the researcher’s experiences with the phenomena of interest are included in narrative data. Narratives may also be used as one form of data in case study research.

Why choose narrative inquiry?

Choose narrative research when research participants’ personal experiences with the phenomenon under study, usually over a period of time, are central to the purpose of the study.

What type of questions can be answered using this approach?

“What does this narrative or story reveal about the person and world from which it came? How can this narrative be interpreted to understand and illuminate the life and culture that created it?” (Patton, 2002, p. 133).

How might the choice of this methodology influence selection of data collection and analysis methods?

Narrative researchers may collect stories from participants through interviews or letter/email exchanges. They may also use journals, oral histories (written or recorded) or archival documents as data sources.

Narrative analysis may use a variety of discourse analysis or content analysis techniques. Depending on the nature of the study, the research may be interested in the words or language used to describe phenomena, or attitudes, emotions, or historical trends or facts revealed (Rapley, 2007).

Tips for narrative researchers

• Determine a clear scope and purpose to provide focus to the study.
• Be prepared for a deep, potentially selfrevealing exchange with research participants, usually over multiple interviews or exchanges.

Phenomenological research methods provide a way to investigate human experience through the perceptions of research participants. The phenomenological approach was initiated by theorist Husserl, who distinguished between “noema,” that which is experienced and “noesis,” the act of experiencing in his 1931 book, Ideas (Husserl, 1994). Phenomenological methods allow the researcher to study the phenomenon of interest (or noema) through the lens of individuals with direct knowledge of it (or noesis).

Why choose phenomenology?

Researchers choose phenomenology when they want to understand the meaning of research participants’ individual or shared experiences, attitudes or understanding of the phenomenon.

What type of question can be answered using this approach?

What is the meaning, structure and essence of…? What is the experience of…? How do people perceive and describe…?

How might the choice of phenomenology influence selection of data collection and analysis methods?

Phenomenological researchers use some type of purposive sampling, enabling them to select homogenous or heterogeneous participants who meet a set of criteria aligned to the research purpose and questions.

In-depth interviews are the primary form of data collection for phenomenological studies. In the interview, researchers aim to bracket their own pre-conceived ideas and approach each interview with a clear and fresh perspective; this is what phenomenological researchers call “Epoche” (Moustakas, 1994).

From the phenomenological perspective, interviewees are co-researchers. Together the researcher and c o-researchers seek to understand meanings and significance. The phenomenological methodology assumes value for both informal and formal dialogue with research participants.

The phenomenological approach uses a particular form of content analysis. As described by Clark Moustakas (1994), it involves three steps: Phenomenological Reduction, Imaginative Variation and Synthesis. Analysis is inductive; researchers are concerned less with generalizations to other populations but with rich contextual descriptions (Gray, 2009).

Tips for phenomenological researchers

• Use a phenomenological approach to study affective, emotional or intense human experiences.
• Use a phenomenological approach when you are more interested in how people use, understand or know the phenomenon than in intrinsic characteristics of the phenomenon.
• Be prepared for a deep exchange with research participants, usually over multiple interviews.

Janet Salmons, PhD

Dr. Janet Salmons is a faculty member in Capella University’s School of Business and Technology. She develops and teaches courses in leadership, serves as a dissertation mentor, and is a member of the Dissertation Writer’s Retreat faculty.

Dr. Salmons is a frequent conference and webinar presenter. Her publications include Online Interviews in Real Time (2010) and Student Plagiarism in an Online World Problems and Solutions (2007); and she edited the Handbook of Research on Electronic Collaboration and Organizational Synergy with Lynn Wilson (2009). Salmons is the author of the forthcoming Cases in Online Interview Research. She is a scholar-practitioner and consultant with her company, Vision2Lead, Inc.

Dr. Salmons earned her PhD at the Union Institute and University with research in online collaboration in leadership education. She earned an MA in social policy studies from Empire State College, State University of New York, and a BS in adult education from Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology.

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