This document discusses qualitative research methodology. It begins by introducing the speaker, Dr. Siti Uzairiah Mohd Tobi, and her background and areas of research interest. It then discusses various aspects of qualitative methodology, including definitions of research, methodology, and methods. It outlines some key decisions in the methodology process and contrasts qualitative and quantitative approaches. Some models of qualitative methodology are presented, including the nested model and research onion model. The document emphasizes that methodology is the core part of research and discusses various philosophical assumptions regarding research.

1. KAJIAN KUALITATIF
MUDAH ATAU SUSAH?
Sr. Dr. Siti Uzairiah Mohd Tobi
UTM Razak School of Engineering &
Advanced Technology
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, K.Lumpur.

2. 2
Surah Al-Fatihah
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the
Merciful (1)
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, (2)
The Beneficent, the Merciful. (3)
Owner of the Day of Judgment, (4)
Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone)
we ask for help . (5)
Show us the straight path, (6)
The path of those whom Thou hast favoured.
Not (the path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go
astray. (7)

3. My Profile…
 Dr. Siti Uzairiah Mohd Tobi is a senior lecturer at UTM Razak
School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia. She has a Ph.D in Facilities Management
from Salford University, UK.
 8 years’ experience in Property & Asset, and Facilities
management field.
 Currently teaches and also supervised postgraduate students.
Her research interests are facilities management, property
management, social enterprise and qualitative study.
 Has conducted many workshops and trainings related to
qualitative research and the Nvivo applications in Malaysia.
Research Area
o Facilities Management
o Social enterprise
o Asset & Property Management
o Qualitative Study

4. My FB Page

5. PhD?? Thesis??
 Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) - a doctorate awarded for
original contributions to knowledge
 PhD Journey = The process is an exercise that trains a
person in the art and science needed in the academic
world, as well as gives the person key skills necessary
for success even in non-academic fields.
(Lorraine C. Salazar)
 THESIS is just part of the PhD (submitted in “partial
fulfillment” of the requirements of the University for the
degree of Doctor of philosophy)
 THESIS = A dissertation is the ultimate test a Ph.D.
candidate must pass
(Prof. Jose R. Lacson Jr.)

6. Why Research?
 To gain knowledge
 To understand why something is happening
 To explain what is likely to happen next
 To drive other (research) initiatives

7. Multiple, simultaneous realities??!!
The beauty of research…

8. What is Research?
and How to do it?
Things that you should addressed:
 What is the problem? (problem statement)
 What you have to offer?
(solution/improvement/benefits>>>the knowledge
contribution, this will be part of your 'Research
Aim')
 What you need to do? (Research Objectives)
 How you going to do it? (Research
Questions>>>guide your Research Methodolgy)

9. What is METHODOLOGY,
& Why is it so damn important?
O Methodology is not an ‘esoteric, irrelevant’
part of a PhD – it is the CORE!
(Prof. Martin Sexton, Salford Uni)

10. Methods and Methodology
• Methodology is different from methods
• Research methods can be seen as the techniques or procedures used to
collect and analyse data. The research method(s) chosen for a research project
are linked to the research questions posed and to the source of data collection
• Methodology is driven by certain ontological and epistemological assumptions
and consists of research questions or hypothesis, a conceptual approach to a
topic, the methods to be used in the study (and their justification), and
consequently the data source. All of these components are linked to one another
in a logical manner
• Methodology takes the most time in research as the researcher attempts to
“place” his/her works among the existing works on the topic, drawing on insights
from wide-range literature reviews, and developing an “innovative” angle on the
topic.

11. Decisions! Decisions!! and it can be messy!
Experiments
Statistics
Interviews
Validity
Samples and Population
Surveys
Probability
Content analysis
Case studies
Qualitative & Quantitative
Data collection and analysis

12. O In discussing the qualitative paradigm I am
referring to this 2 model:
1) The Nested Model (Kagioglou et. al, 1998 &
2000)
2) Research Onion Model (Saunders et. al, 2007)
O Both draw a clear line between 3 major part for
research methodology, especially for social
science/qualitative researcher.

13. Nested model Research Onion Modified model Remarks
Research Philosophy Research Philosophy Research Philosophy e.g. Positivism / Interpretivism
Research Approach Used as an umbrella term to include:
Research Strategies, Time Horizons,
Research Choices and Research modes
Research Approach Research Strategies Research Strategies e.g. Case studies / Experiments
Time Horizons Time Horizons e.g. Cross sectional / Longitudinal
Research Choices Research Choices e.g. Quantitative / Qualitative
Multi-method, Mono-method
Research Approaches Research modes e.g. Inductive / Deductive
Research Techniques Techniques and
Procedures
Research Techniques e.g. Interviews, Questionnaire Surveys
(Kaushal Keraminiyage, 2010)

14. Researcher stand/viewpoint towards
something. His/her beliefs
Quantitative?
Or Qualitative?

15. Three underlying assumptions
relevant to Research
Philosophies
•Ontological assumptions
•Epistemological assumptions
•Axiological assumptions
(Miles and Huberman, 1994)
There are about 5 perspectives to
knowledge according to Creswell (2002).
 What count to be reality as type of
knowledge – ontology assumption,
 How may the knowledge of that reality
being establish – epistemology
undertaking,
 What values go into that knowledge –
axiology purpose,
 How we report it – rhetoric, and finally,
 The process for studying it –
methodology.

16. OBJECTIVISM CONSTRUCTIVISM
POSITIVISM INTERPRETIVISM
DEDUCTIVE INDUCTIVE
QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE
Research Continuum

17. Modes, Time Horizons, Choices and strategies
Research Modes
Inductive vs Deductive
Inductive – Theory building
Deductive - Theory testing
Time Horizons
Cross sectional vs
longitudinal
Does the phenomenon
change over the period of
time ?
Research Choices
Quantitative vs Qualitative
Mono, Multi, Mixed choices
•One data collection and a corresponding analysis method – Mono
•Mixed quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis
methods – Mixed
•Multiple data collection and analysis methods - Multi

18. Research techniques/methods
Research techniques can be divided into two sections
•Data collection techniques
(e.g. Questionnaires, Interviews, Document reviews, etc)
•Data analysis techniques
(e.g. Statistical analysis, Content analysis, etc)
Further Issues
•Issues related to research quality
(Reliability and validity)
•Research ethics

19. Qual vs Quan
O It is not easy to convince somebody who does not believe in
ghost/mystic things to change their perception when their
believe towards something must be based on fact & figure.
O Same goes with positivist/quantitative researcher background,
and vice versa. However! a good researcher is who kind of
accept both perspectives; positivist/quantitative and
interpretivism/qualitative/social constructivism in a general
view at least, no matter what is his/her background.
O Well, everybody knows the sky is blue (that is the fact) but it's
not always be, different season (autumn, winter, spring,
summer) have their own reality of the sky at that point of time."

20. Quantitative Methods
• Also known as the scientific method, positioning the researchers as neutral
observers of the phenomena (necessary to maintain distance or objectivity from
the subject of the research)
• Quantitative methods are based on positivistic ideal coined by the 17th century
philospohers (Descartes and Compte).
• For Descartes, mathematics reflected the divine perfection of God’s worldly
creation
• Compte was the first to adopt the term positivism to describe his methodological
procedures for attaining ‘positive’ knowledge of theory-neutral empirical facts. For
Compte, mathematics constitute a supra-human language of description and by
using mathematics as the only method for attaining facts; the realm of scientific
knowledge would be purged of culturally bound assumption to belief
• Quantitative approaches assumed to be repeatable, and capable of isolation from
reality without compromising the cause and effect being researched

21. Qualitative Methods
• Qualitative methods are based on the assumption that there is no singular
objective reality and hence the observed reality will be related to the researchers’
interaction with the phenomenon
• According to qualitative researchers, real-world phenomena need to be
assessed from within the context of that reality (taking into account the subjective
realities)
• As the consequences, qualitative research tend to yield rich but complex data
(which does not render itself to isolation of singular realities or generalisable and
quantified causes and effects)
• The findings of qualitative research are focused to illuminating the qualities of
phenomena rather than their numeric measurement
• Qualitative research are inductive by nature and will normally resulted in
unanticipated findings based on the evidence gathered along with the causal
explanations of its dynamic

22. To summarise…
O Quantitative atau Qualitative?
O It just a matter how you view things and how you want those phenomena to be
viewed and captured.
O Contoh 1 area 2 view (quali & quanti):
O Anda di beri grant untuk menilai peningkatan prestasi sebuah syarikat pengeluaran.
Anda diminta melihat dari semua aspek; antara lain ialah aspek fizikal iaitu mesin2
yang digunakan, proses SOP mesin/production dan juga aspek intangible (soft) iaitu
adakah behaviour of the worker/manager, or even what is their motivation, in order
to understand the increasing of production itself.
O So sebagai seorang researcher yg melihat kepada faktor fizikal (external) yang
tangible the research is more looking at the quantitative part (theory
testing/deductive), the knowledge is value free and objective.
O While sebagai seorang reseacher yg melihat kepada intangible factors the view is
internal, it needs the researcher to interpret the rich amount of data or construct
the idea from the data (theory building/inductive). The knowledge is value laden
and subjective.
O Which one is easy for you to carry on the view and also easy to undertake the whole
process (methodology) so go for it, make a choice, both are valid, both should
achieved the validity, reliability and of course both can be generalised accordingly.
O Both qualitative and quantitative should be treated fairly. Both play equal role to
understand the research in context.

23. To conclude…
O 1st -Research Philosophy (is holding the research paradigm, what is your view of the
phenomena & how you capture the knowledge (which govern by 3 assumptions
'ontology, epistemology & axiology', Being able to explain & discuss these 3
assumptions could help the researcher in identifying his/her philosophical stance, either
it is towards positivism or interpretivism.
O 2nd - Research Approach
O The decision to choose the research approach will be based on the researcher
paradigm, which suit his/her phenomena being studied. There are various approaches
either from quantitative/qualitative viewpoint. e.g: Phenomenology, Ethnography, Survey,
Case Study, Grounded Theory, Action Research etc.
O 3rd - Research Technique/Method
O This is simply a method for collecting and analysing the data.
O Regardless of whatever viewpoint you are, either it is quantitative or qualitative,
nevertheless you can have both methods/techniques for your data collection (which call
mixed method or multi method).
O In other situation, survey can be a method or an approach. Because if you decided to
identify the survey as an approach, therefore you can have both techniques/methods
under survey approach, which are; survey questionnaire (close-ended) & survey
interview (open-ended).
O Or in other research situation you may want to have interview as a technique under any
approach which not under survey, it can be under case study, ethnography etc

24. Acknowledgement
O Professor Martin Sexton
O Dr. Monty Sutrisna
O Dr. Kaushal Keraminiyage

25. - THANK YOU -