Review of Qualitative Research Design
Aim:To identify and explore the human resource strategies that influence employee engagement within
organisations in Qatar and to develop recommendations on how these human resource strategies can be
changed in order to improve employee engagement.
Research Questions:
RQ 1: Which human resource strategies influence employee engagement within organisations in Qatar?
RQ 2: How do these human resource strategies influence employee engagement within organisations in
Qatar?
RQ 3: How can these human resource strategies be changed in order to improve employee engagement
within organisations in Qatar?
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 2
Introduction
This project will focus on identifying and exploring the human resource strategies that
influence employee engagement within organisations in Qatar. In addition, the project will
develop recommendations on how these human resource strategies can be changed in order to
improve employee engagement. The project will embrace qualitative techniques due to their
uniqueness and depend on texts as well as image information (Creswell, 2014). Besides, the
qualitative methodology can present flexibility based on its structure that is largely anchored on
the interpretive approach (Collis & Hussey, 2013). In other words, findings strongly reflect the
subject being explored. In general, qualitative methodology is a collection of interpretive
methods that not only seek to describe but also decode, translate and find the meaning of natural
occurrences. (Van Maanen (1979). Therefore, the objectives of this study will be guided by a
number of research questions.
Research Questions
- Which human resource strategies influence employee engagement within organisations in
Qatar? - How do these human resource strategies influence employee engagement within
organisations in Qatar?
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 3
- How can these human resource strategies be changed in order to improve employee
engagement within organisations in Qatar?
Objective
To develop recommendations on how human resource strategies can be changed in order
to improve employee engagement within organisations in Qatar.
Qualitative Research Methods
This study will use focus group discussion and structured interviews. Structured
interviews are appropriate for this study because questions are standardized, hence participants
views can be compared while allowing the researcher to observe trends. In addition, structured
interviews can provide detailed views about the human resource strategies that influence
employee engagement within organisations in Qatar (Cassell et al., 2009). However, the
personality of the interviewer can affect the responses making the results unreliable.
On the other hand, focus group discussions will be important in collecting detailed
information on human resource strategies. Compared to interviews, focus group discussions are
cheap and time efficient. Nevertheless, focus groups can be complex to analyse. Again, they can
lead to disagreements and irrelevant views, thus distract the major objective of a research project.
Analysis Strategy
In a qualitative study, the main analytical strategies include computer software such as
SPSS and Excel, data reduction, data representation and arriving at conclusions based on the data
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 4
(Collis & Hussey, 2013). For this project, the appropriate analysis strategy is the use of computer
software to code and reduce data while eliminating engaging tasks related to data collection
(Collis & Hussey, 2013). In qualitative research, this strategy is useful when it comes to
organising and managing the collected information and representing patterns within the
information. However, a researcher should learn how to use this strategy before trying to
implement it.
Validity Strategies
Validity refers to the degree by which sound measures help the researcher draw the
conclusion. In qualitative research, validity is an important component because of its major
strength in evaluating the accuracy of the findings from the researcher’s standpoint (Creswell,
2014). Various strategies will be used to determine the validity of the study. This will include the
use of interviews and focus group discussions on measuring human resource strategies that
influence employee engagement in various organisations in Qatar.
Conclusions
Qualitative research that is anchored on structured interviews is essential when it comes
to interrogating a certain issue. In this case, the study set out to investigate the significance of
human resource strategies in altering employee engagement within an organisation. This is
largely because with the qualitative approach the researcher will be able to decode, translate and
establish the essence of natural occurrences. However, certain factors may impact the outcome of
any study.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 5
References
Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015. Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.
Buchanan, D.A. and Bryman, A., 2007. Contextualizing methods choice in organizational
research. Organizational Research Methods, 10(3), pp.483-501.
Cassell, C., Bishop, V., Symon, G., Johnson, P. and Buehring, A., 2009. Learning to be a
qualitative management researcher. Management Learning, 40(5), pp.513-533.
Collis, J. and Hussey, R., 2013. Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and
postgraduate students. Palgrave Macmillan.
Creswell, J.W., 2013. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach.
Sage publications.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P and Thornhill, A. 2012. Research Methods for Business Students, 6th ed.
Pearson Learning Solutions.
Van Maanen, J. (1979) ‘Reclaiming Qualitative Methods for Organizational Research: A
Preface’. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24(4), pp.520-26.
