Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches Essay

Qualitative Research DesignIntroduction Qualitative search protrude is an salute employ in research by detectives and scientists to instruction the behaviour and habits of human beings in the society. consort to Flick, (2009 p. 17) the research design is utilized in various handle such(prenominal) as health, social sciences, business and other social sciences to study different behaviours. In health, soft research whitethorn be pulmonary tuberculosisd to study issues on health aw atomic proceeds 18ness, availability of health facility, and access to primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcargon services. The selective knowledge nurseed is then used as the basis for health improvement recommendations. Consequently, the qualitative research design can be applied in business to study the problems affecting business and how solutions can be modelled to improve performance of the industry. According to Saunders et al., (2012 p. 6) business research is a systematic research aimed at studying problems and solutions to business. From the fact that business is a wide field, the design is also adapted in specific disciplines of business such as product design, marketing, advertisement, human resource, and studying new business opportunities. For example, in product design, the designers may want to obtain entropy about the existing products based on consumers feedback and use the reading to improve or design new product using questions, concentre throngs or ethnographic studies. Similarly, the same approach can be used in market research to establish the demand of indisputable products and the product penetration in the market. The tec prepares questions to be used in either interviews or focus group. The study obtained from the interviews is then analysed to understand the demand of a go alongn product in the market. compositors case of qualitative research for product designer may include product designers may want to study the gap in the marke t for a certain product for them to introduce new product that meet consumers tastes and preference. The designer may opt to interview several people in the targeted area and ask questions that may give information about the gap in the existing products. For example, they may obtain information about a detergent that does not work effectively to remove stains and indeed design a new product that would meet consumers taste and preferences. Hence, qualitative research design forms the most efficient tool to obtain the data required to make the decision. The design is also used as a lead for quantitative design. The viability of hypothesis is tested through the qualitative design and then proved using the quantitative design through mathematical analysis. Hence, the design is very primary(prenominal) for preliminary studies where the research worker may want to fall in information about the paper before embarking on detailed quantitative research. According to Siegel & Olshansk y, (2012 p. 53) there are several approaches used to obtain the data in qualitative design, which includeInterviewsFocus groupsEthnographic research The interviews and the focus groups will be studied in details in the rest of the composing through critical evaluation and analysis to understand the application and how their cons can be improved in order to improve qualitative research design.Interviews Interviews involve questions and tell session in the midst of the researcher and the participants (DiCiccoBloom, & Crabtree, 2006 p. 317). The researcher or the interviewer asks the questions while the participant responds to them based on his experience or the knowledge about the questions. The interviewer guides the respond passim the interview until all the questions are serveed comprehensively. The interview may involve individuals or groups. According to Seidman, (2013 p. 113) interviews can be carried out through various regularitys such as opposite interactions, tele squa ll or electronic devices such as internet-enabled computer. There are different types of interviews depending on how they are carried or how the interview questions are structured. The paper will elaborate, evaluate and analysed four forms of interviews namelyStructured interviewSemi-structured interviewsUnstructured interviews andIinformal interviewsTypes of interviews The types of interviews are discussed based on Creswell, (2014 p. 189) explanations.Structured interviews They are the main tool of research when the researcher has well understanding of the research topic. This is because the researcher is able to formulate all the possible research questions and get as much information from the participants as possible. The researcher may be interested in proving a theory or previous studies. Hence, interview is based on the literature reviewed or observations cerebrate to the topic during less structured interviews. The interview is developed using topic specific and close-ended questions. This is from the fact that the researcher has well understanding of the topic and scope and hence limits the information that he or she should obtain from the participants. Although the researcher is able to obtain information that is specific to his or her study, it may be hard for the respondent to answer all the questions well since he may be limited to answers. In growth, lack of knowledge about a certain question may go in incomplete interviews.Semi-Structured interviews The interview is used when the researcher has limited cadence, respondent availability is not guaranteed, and thus different people conduct the interview in the field at the same time. The interview has well explained instructions to guide the interviewers in order to provide entire and qualitative data in addition to trainings meant for understanding the topic. The interviews are preceded by informal interviews and observations in order to help the researcher to understand the topic in order t o develop the semi-structured interview. The interview questions are mainly open ended and thus the respondent has the freedom to answer the questions in his own understanding and experience. The interview becomes interesting when the respondent understands the topic and thus he or she may give as much information as possible. The supererogatory information can be noted in a notebook to support the data during presentation.Unstructured interviews They are carried out when the researchers lack enough understanding on the topic and hence have allowance for additional information from the respondent. The researcher tries to gets as much information from the respondent as possible in order for him or her to body-build on the existing information. The questions are open ended and the researcher has no influence on the respondents answers. However, the researcher has a clear understanding of the research setting.Informal interviews The method is comm but used for social research and or during the early set up of the study. In this type of interview, the researcher aim is to obtain as much information from participants as possible. This is because the topic is poorly understood and there is little literature on the topic and thus information can only be obtained from primary sources to build on the existing information. Most informative interview approach are carried out for studies that are based on experience, interests, or a given finish that is not researched and so the researcher uses observations to develop to a greater extent understand of the inquiry and develop a rapport. Like the structured, the interview questions are open ended as the respondents information is crucial towards development of the study.Pros of the interviewsAccurate data According to Seidman, (2013 p. 1oo) interviews give more accurate data than other data collecting methods. The researcher explains to the respondents some questions that might be difficult of him or her and thus end up getting the required information. In addition, the researcher explore the topic or questions using probe that enables him or her to get more information and details, which results in more accurate data. That is, the researcher has a chance to clarify and explain some questions that the interviewee my lack the knowledge and understanding thus getting the intended information. The interview provides a rich data with details and insights about the topic. The respondent describes his or her own understanding on the topic with the help of the researcher. In addition, the researcher can create a favourable environment for the interview thus resulting in general and sensitive information that is important to the study compared to other methods of data collection such as questionnaires and focus group. For example, in focus group, the interactions of a number of respondents at the same time may hinder discussion of sensitive information due to lack of confidentiality. However, interview a mong the researcher and respondent only creates a favourable environment to give all types of information.Feedback There is direct response from the interviewee and the feedback. This ensures that the information sought is obtained and in case of disparity. In addition, the researcher ensures that the information is obtained from the intended person. In other types of methods such as questionnaires, information may be obtained from unintended person.Observations Interviews can be carried out at the same time with observations to gain more understanding and information on the topic. Unlike other methods used in research, interviews allow researcher to make observations that may be important source of information. In addition, the research may compare the information from the respondents and what he or she observes and inquire for clarity when disparity is noticed.Building Rapport Close interactions between the researcher and interviewee creates a more relaxed environment, which resul ts to the respondent answering questions based on his or her experience rather than giving direct answers to the topic. The researcher then use the information obtained from the researcher to build a rapport with topic. The researcher may explore additional information from the respondent that may help to develop more understanding on the topicFlexibility Interviews are conducted at any time, locations, or based on the circumstances of the individual,. Thus, they are the most convenient method of data collection. For example, the researcher can conduct interviews in residential areas, trading areas, farming locations and any other place that may be convenient to the respondent.Cons of interviews long the process of scheduling, conducting, and analysing the interviews consumes a lot of time (Zikmund, 2013 p. 150). The process of visiting the respondents and carrying the interview face-to-face can be impractical and time consuming. Since huge data is obtained from interview, it beco mes tedious to enter the data and a lot of time is consumed. Therefore, it is important to have a data entry and analysis plan before data collection. dearly-won The interviews are costly because they require the interviewers to be trained, the schedules to visit respondents to be prepared and the actual interview process. They require physical participation of respondent and the researcher.Biasness The physical coming into court of the interviewee may affect the attitude of the respondent and thus giving bleached information that may affect the accuracy of the data. Other factors that may results in biased information include the respondents voice t iodin and opinion, gender and race, inadequate note taking. Biasness affects the main purpose of the study, which may produce contradicting data from the existing one. This can deceive future studies that may rely on the data.Inconsistencies The flexibility of the interviews may result in inconsistence data during interactions due to variation in interview setting such as changing environment. For example- interruption of interviews by passersby or other factors such as rain can make the respondent to lose track and give inconsistence informationFocus groups Focus group involves collection of data through semi-structured interview from a group of respondents who are identified based on diverse but related characteristics to form a diverse group that represent the actual population. The interview is moderated by a group leader and involves discussion of a specific topic. Fiske and Merton introduced the method during their studies that were based on audience participants (Sprenkle & Piercy, 2005 p. 87)Pros of focus groupDeveloping research topic Focus group give information to the researcher about a given subject, which help him or her to develop the topic and build rapport. The aim of the focus group is to obtain as much information as possible that is necessary for the study and thus it is a common method for p reliminary study.Time saving Large amount of data from a big population can be obtained within the shortest time possible (Hesse-Biber, & Leavy, 2011 p. 164). Data is collected from groups of respondents at the same time. This is in contrary to interviews where the questions are asked to a single respondent for a given time and it may take a lot of time to cover a given number of respondents as opposed to focus groups.Accurate data The discussion involves the consensus among the group members. In case of diverse information, members agree on given information that giving accurate and homogeneous data The data is also specific on the researchers topic.Economical Huge data can be summarized using group consensus and thus data entry and analysis is cheap and time saving as opposed to interviews where huge amount is obtained from very large number of respondentsObservations Just like interviews, the researcher can get additional data from the participants behaviour, feelings and thought about the topic. In addition, focus group helps to generate information for a study that could have unperceivable features.Cons of focus groupBiasness The moderator of the group or the researcher makes the closing judgment and interpretation of the discussion. Subjective judgment and poor interpretation has high risk of introducing individual(prenominal) businesses in the discussion and thus biased data. The participants may tend to follow the initial opinions thus resulting in biased resultsRisk of incomplete and inaccurate data The planning, scheduling and contacting participants may be costly and involving and thus poor management may result to incomplete study that may affect the quality of data collected.Sensitive information It is not a good method for addressing sensitive issues. This is because people may feel uneasy sharing sensitive information among their friends or enemies that might be in the group, which may have a negative contributory factor to the quality of dat a obtained.Addressing the interview consTime consuming The use of alternative means of communication such as telephone and computer can decrease the time spent in scheduling and visiting the respondents. Therefore, avoiding face-to-face interviews can help to save time and making the method more economical. Time that could be spent to travel to respondent and carry physical interview is minimised. Planning should also be done prior to the study in order to avoid time wasting during the actual study.Costly Activities such as data entry and analysis can be carried along with the interviews to ensure that no additional cost that is incurred during independent data entry. Minimised travelling through phone interviews would cut down on cost.Biasness Presentable physical appearance should be encouraged. The physical appearance of the interviewer that would not have influence on respondents should be emphasize during training. Interviewers should be discouraged from making subjective judg ments that would affect the interactions.Inconsistencies The interview should be conducted in a neutral environment that has no effect on information delivery. The researcher should spend a considerable good amount of time in looking for a natural setting for the interview conducive for the respondents (Merriam, & Merriam, 2009 p. 17). For example, interviews in closed rooms may have minimal interference, thus maintain consistence information delivery, and thus maintain high quality data.Addressing focus group consBiasness In order to avoid biasness, the moderator of the focus group should be well trained about making subjective judgment and interpretations. Good relationship between respondents and the researcher promotes mutual understanding that contributes to accurate interpretations of the information (Marshall, & Rossman, 2011 p. 101). The moderator should not be an active part of the study and should be limited to the information on the pass judgment result of the study.Risk of incomplete and inaccurate data Proper management should be done prior to the study so that all the scheduling and contacting of the participants is make in time. This will ensure that the participants are aware of the scope of the study and their roles and thus the study will be complete successfully. When participants are well-prepared psychologically, they become affected role and go through the whole process thus giving complete data.Sensitive information The moderator should inform the participants about the confidentiality of the information shared in the focus group and create a friendly environment. This will give the participants confidence and freedom to share all the information that they may have including the sensitive one and thus the quality of the data will not be compromised. Participants may feel that some issues belong to the community and that it should not be addressed to a stranger. The researcher may also involve people from the communities to help them mo derate the discussion and thus creating favourable environment for discussing sensitive information that is vital to the final data.ReferencesCreswell, J. W. (2014).Research design Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. 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