1. Nature
   1. Research methods use and generate qualitative information
   2. Generally collect large amount of rich data about a relatively small number of people
   3. Enable researcher to explain in detail
   4. Focuses on people's understanding
   5. Allow a researcher to experience research issues from participant's perspective
   6. Useful in examining personal changes over time
   7. Tend to focus on human interest issues
2. Qualitative Research Process
   1. Recursive approach
   2. Sequential
   3. Empirical materials
   4. Searching key words from empirical materials
   5. Coding key words
   6. Making notes of emerging relationships
3. Range
   1. In Depth Interviews
      1. Purpose
         1. When subjects of research are relatively few in number
         2. When information obtained is likely to vary
         3. When topic is to be explored as a preliminary stage
      2. Checklist
         1. Level of Current training
         2. Why training
         3. Constraints like home, money
         4. Past education
         5. Personality
         6. Skills
         7. Career aspirations
      3. Interviewing
         1. Avoid conversational style
         2. Do not be afraid of silence
      4. Recording
         1. Tape recording
         2. Transcripts
   2. Group Interviews and Focus groups
      1. Form of qualitative research
      2. Interviewer becomes facilitator
      3. This technique is used
         1. When a particular group is small
         2. When interaction process itself is of interest
         3. As an alternative to In depth interviews
   3. Participant Observation
      1. Researcher becomes direct participant
      2. More interaction between researcher and people being researched
      3. Practical challenges
      4. Researcher may be known by subjects as a researcher
   4. Analysis of texts
      1. Includes print, audio-visual, artefacts
   5. Ethnography
      1. Draws on a variety of techniques
      2. Seeks to see world through eyes of those being researched
   6. Biographical Research
      1. Focuses on individual full or partial life histories
      2. May involve in-depth interviews
      3. Methods
         1. Biography
         2. Autobiography
         3. Oral history
         4. Memory work
         5. Personal domain histories
4. Grounded Theory And Qualitative Research
   1. Tests existing theory
   2. Theories and models grounded in real empirical observations
   3. Researcher approaches data with no preformed notions in mind
5. Management Contexts
   1. Widely used in research involving
      1. Corporate culture
      2. Consumer decision making
      3. Power relationships