In the
previous chapter
, you saw the types of situation where it is more
appropriate to conduct quantitative research in the form of surveys and
questionnaires. This is the most appropriate approach when you are trying
to prove or disprove a hypothesis and when you have large numbers of data
to collect. Hotels, for example, collect information about guest satisfaction
using surveys which are often placed in the room or, more recently, sent out
via the internet to the guest’s email address after checkout. When your
research is about ideas or feelings, it is often more appropriate to use
qualitative techniques such as interviews or focus groups.
There are many advantages of a qualitative approach which include the
opportunity to investigate an issue in depth and to amend your questions
during the research as a result of feedback from the respondent. The
negative aspects of this type of research are that it is often more difficult to
conduct and you need to have particular skills if you are to do the research
successfully. It always takes more time to conduct the research and, because
of this, when time is limited, it is difficult to statistically analyse your
results, so the research often just gives you an indication of the situation
rather than proving it one way or the other.
Qualitative research also has other issues associated with it, such as the
possibility of researcher bias and often a much higher possibility that you
might upset or disturb respondents. This is why you must have a well-
thought-out ethical framework when you are using a qualitative approach,
and you often have to get the organisation’s permission before you may
start the research.
Illustration 6.1
is an example of when the use of qualitative research is most
appropriate. This student wanted to find out how managers in the Bulgarian
hotel industry used emotional intelligence in their normal working
environment to help them achieve their goals. It would have been nearly
impossible to design a survey to investigate this issue and he thought that
by doing in-depth interviews he would get a much ‘richer picture’. It would
also allow him to explain to the respondents what was meant by emotional
intelligence before he started the interview. He did, of course, have to get
the organisation’s permission to conduct the research with their staff and he
also had to explain issues of confidentiality and his approach to the
individual respondents. By doing the research in this way, he was able to
obtain some detailed information from a small group of respondents over a
six-month period. If time had permitted, it would have been good to
interview the respondents again at a later date to see if their attitude had
changed, but, as with most student research, this was not possible because it
was time-limited to one year of study.
Illustration 6.1 An example of a rationale for using a qualitative
approach to research
Emotional intelligence theories have psychological
underpinnings and they belong to the social sciences as they aim
to explain human behaviour and actions (Brackett et al., 2011).
In order to achieve a thorough understanding of such a complex
phenomenon, the research approach used was of a qualitative
nature, allowing the researcher to gain a deep insight into the
topic by collecting rich data that captured the totality of the
issue (Lugosi, 2009). It was also interpretive in nature so that an
understanding of the participants was developed (Creswell,
2007).
This study used a purposive sampling technique and did not aim
for statistical significance. The researcher selected the
participants based on a specific set of criteria, which is often
employed in qualitative hospitality research (Altinay and
Paraskevas, 2008). The English-speaking participants in this
study were departmental heads, division heads and general
managers in full-time employment in four- or five-star
properties located in Bulgaria, due to the high probability of
exposure to emotionally intense situations in these hotels
(Barrows et al., 2009), and with minimum managerial
experience of 12 months. The sample was derived from hotel
school alumni associations and national labour organisations.
The goal of this research was to achieve a response rate of 12
participants who met the profile outlined above (Kwortnik,
2003).
The interview questions were, first, developed from a thorough
literature review, then pre-tested and pilot-tested to enhance
clarity, reliability and validity. Interpretative phenomenological
analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the interview transcriptions,
since it is favoured in social psychology studies (Eatough and
Smith, 2006) and fits very well with the research topic of
emotional intelligence (Brackett et al., 2011). This method is
also recommended as a good match for qualitative studies using
in-depth interviews because the objective is to explore the
participant’s views, experiences and understandings of a
phenomenon (Smith et al., 2009). Direct quotations from the
respondents’ answers were also noted (Chapman and Smith,
2002).
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