Business Research



Business Research

The term bias is a historically unfriendly pejorative frequently directed at action research. As much as possible, the absence of bias constitutes conditions in which reliability and validity can increase. Most vulnerable to charges of bias are action research inquiries with a low saturation point (i.e., a small N), limited interrater reliability, and unclear data triangulation. Positivist studies make attempts to control external variables that may bias data; interpretivist studies contend that it is erroneous to assume that it is possible to do any research—particularly human science research— that is uncontaminated by personal and political sympathies and that bias can occur in the laboratory as well as in the classroom.

Some qualitative researchers use computer software programs to aid them in their work; others do not. There are a number of different software packages available, such as HyperResearch, NVivo, Atlas.ti, QDA Miner, and AnSWR, among others. They can be useful in helping the researcher manage, organize, and retrieve large amounts of text, videos, images, and other forms of qualitative evidence. However, unlike statistical software, it is important to recognize that qualitative programs are not designed to “analyze” data itself. Virtually every aspect of qualitative analysis process relies heavily on the interpretative and analytic procedures carried out by the researcher.

In general, qualitative researchers are interested in studying social processes, how people make sense and create meaning, and what their lived experiences are like. They are interested in understanding how knowledge is historically, politically, and culturally situated. They concern themselves with notions of power, privilege, positionality, and social justice. They are likely to acknowledge research as a value-laden activity and embrace the idea that the researcher himself or herself is an instrument in the process. Often, they try to recreate experiences, understanding, and meanings from the point of view of those being studied rather than positioning themselves as the final interpretative authority or expert.

Most qualitative research starts from a constructivist epistemological position and from one of a variety of theoretical perspectives, such as inter-pretivist, feminist, or critical inquiry. Constructivists believe in the socially constructed nature of reality. This idea that reality is generated through social interaction and iterative processes has dramatic implications for addressing the basic epistemological questions raised above and thus for the methodologies and methods employed. Constructivists reject the basic premise that an objective researcher discovers truths from preexisting data. Instead, they believe in what Norman Denzin and Yvonna Lincoln have called an “intimate relationship” between the researchers and the phenomenon under investigation. Marianne Phillips and Louise Jorgensen argue, based on the work of Vivien Burr and Kenneth Gergen, that constructivist approaches share four basic premises: a critical approach to taken-for-granted knowledge that is often overlooked or ignored, an interest in historical and cultural specificity, a link between knowledge development and processes, and a link between knowledge development and social action.

While value-free inquiry may not exist in any research, the critical issue may not be one of credibility but, rather, one of recognizing divergent ways of answering questions associated with purpose and intent...