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Applied Qualitative Research Methods - MAN00066H

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  • Department: The York Management School
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Frank Worthington
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: H
  • Academic year of delivery: 2023-24
    • See module specification for other years: 2024-25

Related modules

Pre-requisite modules

Co-requisite modules

  • None

Prohibited combinations

  • None

Additional information

This module is research for Year in Industry Students only. Non-Year in Industry students wishing to sit this module may be admitted to the module on request, at the discretion of the module leader.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2023-24

Module aims

The aim of this module is to provide students with a comprehensive introduction to qualitative approaches to research in business and management. The methods of research examined include: participant and non-participant, overt and covert observation, ethnographic and historical inquiry, interviewing, case-study analysis and organisational storytelling. Theory, method and practice are brought together to demonstrate the skills students need in qualitative business and management research. Particular consideration is given to the practical challenges associated with managing qualitative fieldwork-relations and the question of research ethics and integrity.

The module is delivered using interactive learning and teaching methods (formal lectures and seminars, assessed and non-assessed student-led class discussion, debate and presentations on qualitative research methods in action). The primary aim of this module is to provide students with an understanding of how qualitative social science research methods are applied in practice, and contribute to theory building, within the context of mainstream and critical business and management studies.

Module learning outcomes

On completion of the module, students will be able to:

  • Analyse key theories and methods of enquiry associated with qualitative research.

  • Assess the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative research theories, methods, and practices.

  • Apply ethnographic participant and non-participant observational fieldwork in practice.

  • Evaluate and apply qualitative interviewing techniques, case study analysis, storytelling research and data gathering, and archival research methods, in business, management and market research.

  • Appraise the applied-relevance of qualitative methods of inquiry to organisation, business and management, and market research.

  • Understand and adopt ethical social and management science qualitative research protocols governing professional research conduct in the collection and use of research data.

Module content

  • The Evolution of Qualitative Research: key themes and perspectives.

  • The Value of Qualitative Research: understanding lived-xperience.

  • Qualitative Research in Context: research climates and cultures.

  • Qualitative Research for Public Good: key classical and contemporary studies.

  • Conducting Qualitative Research: applying theory to practice.

  • Symbolic Interaction: socially constructed realities

  • Goffmanesque Research: the organisational interaction order.

  • Entering the Field: being a qualitative researcher.

  • Managing the Field: interviews and interviewing strategies.

  • Field Relations: research conduct and the question of ethics.

  • Interpreting the Field: reading organisational climates and cultures.

  • Challenging the Field: doing equality, diversity and inclusivity research.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Group Presentation Project Report		 N/A 10
Essay/coursework
Summative Assignment		 N/A 50
Groupwork
Group Presentation		 N/A 40

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

None

Module feedback

Through VLE, in accordance with SBS assessments policy, within the 20-working days of the assignment submission date.

Indicative reading

Atkinson, p., Coffey, A., Delamont, S., Loftland, J. and Loftland, L. (2001) Handbook of Ethnography. Sage. Publications Ltd.

Benton, T and Craib, I. (2001). Philosophy of Social Science. Palgrave.

Berger, P and Luckmann, T. (1991). The social construction of Reality. A Treatise on the Sociology of Knowledge. Penguin books.

Denzin, N, K. (1997). Interpretive Ethnography: ethnographic practice for the 21st Century. Sage Publications.

Foote Whyte, W. (1993). Street Corner Society. The University of Chicago Press.

Goffman, E. (1957 / 1990). The Presentation of Self in Everyday life. Penguin Books.

Goffman, E. (1961) Asylums. Essays on the Social Situations of Mental Health Patients and Other Inmates. Penguin books.

Hobbs, D. (1988). Doing the Business. Entrepreneurship, the Working Class, and Detectives in the East End of London. Oxford University Press.

Hochschild, A. (2012). The Managed Heart. Commercialisation of Human Feeling. University of California Press.

Lemert, C. and Branaman, A. (1997). The Goffman Reader. Blackwell Publishing.

Prus, R. (1996). Symbolic Interaction and Ethnographic Research. State University of New York Presee. albany.

Trevino, A. J. (2003). Goffman’s Legacy. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. Inc.

Ransome, O. (2013). Ethics and Values in Social Research. Palgrave. Macmillan.

Van Maanen, J. 2010. Tales of The Field: On Writing Ethnography. University of Chicago Press.

Ybema, S., Yanow,D,. Wells, H. and Kamsteeg, F. (2009). Studying the Complexities of Everyday life. Sage. Los Angeles. London.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.