Soon after I joined MERAC Bahrain in 1992, I was in for a major shock when a huge pile of transcripts landed up on my table accompanied by a terse hand-written note (in red ink) asking me to “content analyse”. I had come from a hard core quant agency (MBA Pvt. Ltd.) whose owners prided on having nothing to do with qualitative research – so I went into a state of deep shock. I rushed to Stuart – and gasped out – in the impetuosity of youth - that I would not like to do this as I “did not understand qualitative research”.
Peering over his spectacles, Stuart said “Young man, in this place we do not have qualitative researchers and quantitative researchers. We only have researchers who solve the client’s problems regardless of the methodology”. Chastened I went back and started on the rather difficult task of figuring out this mysterious field of qualitative research. The only thought that came to my mind was that these qualitative respondents talked too much – I mean for a simple question like “why do you like this product” the respondents would talk for 2 or 3 pages. I mean why did they not answer in a simple short sentence as they do in quantitative research – that would have simplified my life, and the world will be a much less complex place to live in.
Handling the first few qualitative research projects were a night-mare for me – but over a period of time I actually started loving qualitative research – to such an extent that at one point, there was the distinct “danger” that I would be labeled as a Qual researcher. This exposure to qualitative research was to stand me in good stead when I returned to the highly compartmentalized research industry in India where few people have a perspective of both qualitative and quantitative research.
I guess specialization is an inevitable consequences of growth – one is forced to follow global trends : compartmentalize and specialize. But somewhere at the bottom of heart I believe that the individual loses out as it narrows down his perspective.
Peering over his spectacles, Stuart said “Young man, in this place we do not have qualitative researchers and quantitative researchers. We only have researchers who solve the client’s problems regardless of the methodology”. Chastened I went back and started on the rather difficult task of figuring out this mysterious field of qualitative research. The only thought that came to my mind was that these qualitative respondents talked too much – I mean for a simple question like “why do you like this product” the respondents would talk for 2 or 3 pages. I mean why did they not answer in a simple short sentence as they do in quantitative research – that would have simplified my life, and the world will be a much less complex place to live in.
Handling the first few qualitative research projects were a night-mare for me – but over a period of time I actually started loving qualitative research – to such an extent that at one point, there was the distinct “danger” that I would be labeled as a Qual researcher. This exposure to qualitative research was to stand me in good stead when I returned to the highly compartmentalized research industry in India where few people have a perspective of both qualitative and quantitative research.
I guess specialization is an inevitable consequences of growth – one is forced to follow global trends : compartmentalize and specialize. But somewhere at the bottom of heart I believe that the individual loses out as it narrows down his perspective.
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