Qualitative Research

            This week’s topic is going to be focused on  the general topic of qualitative research.  The main question people usually have when talking about qualitative research is; What are the main differences between qualitative and quantitative research?  Well, I was personally one of these people until we spent many classes distinguishing between the two. Qualitative research represents a research method that is targeted more toward interpreting individual’s experiences rather than predicting it before hand.  For example, while conducting a observation the researcher is not trying to predict what is going to happen, they are actually watching it happen and analyzing it after wards.  Along the same lines, during a focus group, the researcher can’t predict what the participants emotions and attitudes are going to be until the actual focus group is conducted.  This research aims toward understanding human behavior and the reasons why they perform such behavior.  On the contrary, quantitative research focuses more on measurement and numbers.  With this type of research, the researcher is able to test a certain hypothesis and analysis statistic measurements after wards. 
        There are many different types of  qualitative research methods that include observation, ethnographic research and focus groups as well as some others.  As I was researching yet another way to link research methods to the fast food industry I came across a website that is dedicated in analyzing the industry.  One way that the fast food company performs qualitative research is by asking consumers to compare one of their new food products to a competitive item in terms of quality and even price.  This sort of thing could be conducted through a focus group where participants are asked their views about a certain product, idea or service.  For example, a focus group could be conducted that asks consumers to express their feelings about the French fries at McDonald’s and the French fries at Wendy’s.  This way researchers get results immediately through the participants reactions and emotions towards the two products.  Another form of qualitative research is ethnographic research.  This is rarely used in the business field because it usually is very time consuming. However, one way a ethnographic research could be set up among the fast food industry would be to have a researcher actually work inside a fast food restaurant.  For example, if a researcher wanted to know how employees of  McDonald’s were treated he may actually become a employee himself.  Here, he can research the attitudes among the other employees by acting like he’s one of their own.  This is a good way to become familiar with a certain subculture of a group of people. 
        Many people feel that qualitative research is not as effective as quantitative research because it usually is time consuming and the results are difficult to actually generalize into measurable results.  Qualitative data is in the form of words and objects while quantitative data is in the form of numbers and statistics.  This is shown to be more efficient.  However, I feel that qualitative research is still a important aspect of public relations.  In the fast food industry or even any industry, human behavior is one of the most essential things to be aware of in order to maintain your company.  Qualitative research helps show what and why people behave the way they do and I think this is essential to the communications world.