BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Business Management

Business Management

Task 1 (1)

Qualitative and quantitative research methods primarily differ on the basis of analytical objectives of the proposed research (Bogdan & Biklen, 2003, pp. 468) . Hence both of these research strategies also differ as per the types of questions they pose, the instruments that are used for the data collection purpose, the form of the final data that is produced and the degree to which flexibility is built into the study design. The Analytical objective for quantitative research is to primarily predict the casual relationship between different factors or to describe the general characteristics of a given population. The qualitative research approach looks to describe the variation rather than quantifying it (Chenitz & Sampson, 1986, pp. 272). It seeks to describe and explain the relationships and describe the individual or group experiences.

For the given task, I will choose to follow the qualitative research approaches to conduct the research. As this objective of the research is to appraise the current approaches of the customer satisfaction policies undertaken by the company and also make certain recommendations, I think that the qualitative research would be most apt to fulfill the research objective. Since the scale of the company is small, and the respective target market is also limited; a qualitative research strategy would enable the researcher to adequately gauge the customer perspective towards the company's efforts to increase the overall customer satisfaction levels. Also the subject of the research is regarding the generic concept of customer satisfaction, which is bound to be different among the customers. An open ended qualitative research would enable the researcher to delve into every possibility and help attain the relevant results. The Quantitative approach may prove to be limited in scope and the results may prove to be misleading as certain significant factors that lead to customer satisfaction might not be covered by the research. The closed end questions of the quantitative research would not adequately capture the customer perspective regarding the customer satisfaction initiatives undertaken by the company.

Qualitative Research Type: Phenomenology Approach

This approach basically deals with the description of the phenomenon that is shared among several individuals. The researchers following this perspective of the qualitative approach are to collect the data in reference to a particular phenomenon, form several individuals (Strauss & Corbin, 1990, pp.109). These individual responses are then critically studied by the researchers and then are amalgamated to form a big picture regarding the perspective of a group of people, rather than individuals. Hence the individual perspectives are combined to form a detailed description of the universal essence.

Once the phenomenon that is to be made the basis of the research is attained, the process of collection of the relevant data from a group of individuals that have experienced the given phenomenon is carried out. The responses from the individual cases are carefully studied and classified by the type of response given; hence by studying the responses of numerous individuals a general theme of the respondents'' perspective can be ...