Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Data in Organisational and Management Research

Combining qualitative and quantitative data in research is generally seen to offer the opportunity to construct designs that optimise the advantages of both types of data. However, empirical instances of research designs that successfully integrate qualitative and quantitative data are rare. In fact, this is often seen as a choice between radically different alternatives. This paper describes a methodological approach to the integration of quantitative and qualitative data that builds on a biological analogy. Within this analogy, research problems are proposed as having two components: a quantitative component based on survey research and concerned primarily with macro-structural relationships; and a qualitative component, based on naturalistic research, focusing on micro-level processes. The approach is illustrated with a variety of examples from organisational and management research. In each case, the first component produces an analytic description of the ecological relationships between objects and situations or conditions (in biological research, analogous to the relationship between species and environmental niches). This involves the construction of maps of the prevalence of various types of object in differing contexts or conditions - organisational and management examples might include different rates of absenteeism in different work settings; or different types of organisation in different types of markets. In terms of the biological analogy, this is comparable to ecological research where sites are sampled and measured with respect to the incidence of species and environmental attributes, such as sunlight, temperatures, moisture levels, soil types etc. The aim here is to map the relationship of species to environmental niches. Correspondence analysis is widely used in biological research for this mapping task, and the paper will demonstrate how it can be used for organisational and management research. The second aspect is the processes that give rise to variations in events. The key issue is what causes the prevalence of different objects or events across different conditions or contexts. Causality is raised at two levels: the ecological level, in the extent to which fit between characteristics of the object and conditions fosters adaptation; and the level of action, concerned with identifying the content of the motives, beliefs, norms, decisions and choices that actualise processes. Potential ways of studying causality at the ecological level in organisational and management research is through the use of techniques such as event listing, critical incident analysis and decision modelling. Complementarily, research at the action level can be undertaken through unstructured interviews to probe for motives. Of particular importance in the relationship between these two research components is an appropriate sample design to link the quantitative and qualitative data. The paper illustrates the role of purposive samples, that incorporate information obtained from data maps, to achieve appropriate designs for organisational and management research.