To contribute to existing knowledge about your topic, you will need to collect data. In the literature review, you have examined other researchers’ data and hopefully been inspired by it. You may even want to use some of it as a secondary source of data in your thesis. But when managing a research project, collecting and analysing original data is not only a valuable skill but also very exciting and rewarding.
There are three main approaches: quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods. The image below gives a simple comparison.
When choosing, there are three questions that you should ask yourself:
- Which method matches my research questions and aims?
- Which method matches my strengths as a researcher?
- Which method matches my environment?
Let’s take a look at an example research project. Company X in Japan employs 20% foreign national employees. Over the past 3 years, almost 50% have quit and returned back to their country. In their exit interviews, a common reason for quitting was ‘communication issues’ and ‘difficulty with settling in’. The company has asked you as a ‘communication consultant’ to examine what communication needs their foreign national employees have.
Quantitative approach
To get a general picture of the situation, you could conduct a large-scale multiple-choice questionnaire. This way, you could find out information from a large number of people and a variety of people: gender, age, position in the company, as well as nationality. You could also think about giving a questionnaire to ex-employees who have already returned home. This method would give you a large amount of data to analyse, allowing you to find patterns by comparing groups of people. You could also try to get secondary data from the company to find out how long this trend has been going on.
- Does a quantitative method match my research aims?
To examine this issue, if you think that getting a general picture of the situation with some possible points to follow-up in the future, then yes. If you think getting information from a large number of people is valuable, yes. But, if you feel that you need a deeper understanding of what is happening, this method alone probably won’t give you the knowledge you want.
- Does this method match my strengths as a researcher?
If you are good with numbers, enjoy maths, and are comfortable with analysing and discussing graphs, yes. If not, you might need to brush up on your maths or ask someone for help. Also, if you got 1000 responses, will you be able to handle this amount of data?!
- Does this method match my environment?
For this question, you need to consider whether you can access the people that you want to give the questionnaire to. In this case, will Company X give you permission to ask all their current and previous employees? Also, what will you do if not many people respond to your questionnaire? You might only get a 20-40% rate of response.
Qualitative approach
For a more in-depth examination of the issue, you could select a small sample of employees (ex-employees too if possible) and interview them. This would give you some detailed insights from a small number of people by looking at their individual experiences.
- Does a qualitative method match my research aims?
If you want an in-depth understanding of employees’ experiences at the company and living in Japan, and you want to hear more than general ideas, yes. If you believe that the quality of data is more important than quantity, yes. You will still collect a large amount of data. But your data will be words rather than numbers. Words can reveal more than a multiple-choice questionnaire which may only tell you something like ’60% of current employees feel quite satisfied living in Japan’.
- Does this method match my strengths as a researcher?
If you prefer working with words, such as interview data, then yes. If you like to listen to people and work with individuals, then yes. If you think you can find patterns in what different people say, yes. If, however, you are not that comfortable asking people about their experiences or happy spending time transcribing and reading the contents of an interview, maybe it isn’t for you. An hour-long interview can take a whole day to transcribe!
- Does this method match my environment?
The same considerations apply as the quantitative approach: can you get access to the people you want to interview? Will Company X give you permission to talk to their employees one-to-one? Do you have enough time to meet them?
Mixed-methods
If you’re finding it hard to choose because you can see the benefits of both approaches, a mixed-methods approach may be the best match for you. For a project such as this example, you could start by doing a large-scale questionnaire. After analysing the questionnaire results, you could then select a small number of people for follow-up interviews. This is a practical approach and allows you to get a variety of information.
One of the most important things to remember is that data collection should be an exciting part of your project. However, if you choose an approach that doesn’t suit your project or you as the researcher, you might start to struggle. So, remember to ask yourself the three key questions:
- Which method matches my research questions and aims?
- Which method matches my strengths as a researcher?
- Which method matches my environment?
Zemi Ready 