MGT 7110 - Qualitative Research Methods

This course provides students with an overview of and experience with qualitative research methods. You are introduced to a wide variety of qualitative methods, including ethnography, observation, interviewing, grounded theory, discourse analysis, case method, narrative analysis, and action research. We will pay particular attention to grounded theory and case research, as those are the two qualitative approaches most typically found in leading management journals. The course is roughly divided into two major sections. The first half of the course introduces you to the epistemological foundations of qualitative research and emphasizes research design and data collection. The second half of the course introduces a variety of techniques for coding and analyzing qualitative data and provides exposure to many exemplars of published qualitative studies. We will examine conventions for ensuring that qualitative work is rigorous and tips for crafting qualitative research for publication. Throughout the course you will be given opportunities to try on various methods and gain some hands-on experience in several areas. You will also launch your own qualitative study and begin to collect and analyze data for it as part of the course requirements.