The familiarization study in qualitative research: from theory to practice

Abstract

This paper seeks to bridge a perceived gap in the literature on the methodology of qualitative research. The audience in mind are business and management students who are required to carry out field research as a part of their masters or doctoral degrees. After submitting a research proposal or candidacy, which sets out the research strategy in broad terms, students are characteristically faced with field work involving the collection of data from participants or respondents. Whatever thought and planning has been given to interviewing and questionnaires in theory, it is a necessity in qualitative research to adapt to the situation on the ground which is unique for every research.The paper argues that this situation is not specifically addressed in the qualitative research literature. This activity is termed a 'Familiarization Study'. The elements of a familiarization study -procedures, content and theories -are discussed. The paper concludes with two cases of a familiarization study as a part of doctoral research. In the first case familiarisation focussed on the necessity for the research to interview in an unfamiliar and potentially hostile environment. The second case the researcher was faced with the task of developing practical procedures for the collection of data according to the exacting protocols of the discourse research method known as conversation analysis.3

Flexibility in community pharmacy: a qualitative study of business models and cognitive services

“…Semi-structured interviews were used [34] and conducted over a 4-month period in mid-2008, continuing until no new content to identified themes or additional themes emerged indicating data saturation [35]. Two researchers were present in 24 of the 30 interviews to reduce interviewer bias [29]. Only community pharmacists are permitted to hold pecuniary interests in a community pharmacy [43] The ratio of sales for prescription to non-prescription items in community pharmacies is 70:30 [44] Some oversight of the operation of community pharmacy is executed through legal instruments (for example the state-based Pharmacy Acts [45]) and some is a consequence of Community Pharmacy Agreements negotiated between The Pharmacy Guild of Australia and the Commonwealth Government [46] Community pharmacies are considered small to medium businesses -having less than 250 employees [5,44] Remuneration in Australian Community Pharmacies Changes to remuneration model from the government have put the viability of the dispensary under pressure as a result of the decreasing margin on dispensing medications listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme [37] The Fourth Community Pharmacy Agreement between the Commonwealth Government and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia has allocated funding for the provision of professional services and programs under the broad scope of creating 'Better Community Health'.…”

“…Pharmacy owners, managers and senior staff members (non-pharmacists) from 30 community pharmacies across Australia were contacted, and interviews requested with two individuals at each site to enable data triangulation [29]. This occurred in 27 of the 30 sites.…”

“…A separate interview guide for the senior staff member was adapted to incorporate their role in the pharmacy. The interview guide was pre-tested with two pharmacy owners and one senior staff member to establish face validity [29].…”

Bonding by doing : the dynamics of self-organizing groups of citizens taking charge of their living environment

“…Then I sought additional theory so as to understand and address what I was observing better. This is what is called an iterative process (Whiteley and Whiteley, 2006). The process stopped when a convincing and empirically grounded logic of arguments could be constructed which was intelligible not only to us, but also to others (e.g.…”

“…In this thesis an interpretive research approach was chosen, based on case studies and the principles of openness and heterogeneity (Whiteley and Whiteley, 2006;Bevir, 2010a;Lincoln and Canella, 2004). The interpretive research approach made it possible to start with a general interest in the development of groups of people taking charge of their living environment and from there to go deeper into the aspects that seemed relevant.…”