Grounded Theory In Qualitative Studies

A qualitative research approach was used to carry out the study. Qualitative research can be defined as "any kind of research that produces findings not arrived at by means of statistical procedures or other means of quantification" (Strauss and Corbin, 1990, p. 17). Domegan and Fleming (2007) state that, “Qualitative research aims to explore and to discover issues about the problem on hand, because very little is known about the problem”. Qualitative data sources consist of observation, interviews and questionnaires, documents and texts, and the impressions and reactions of the researcher (Myers, 2009). The researcher is considered the primary instrument of data collection and analysis in qualitative studies.

3.2.2 Research strategy -

Grounded theory explores the realism and examines the data with no defined concepts or hypothesis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Thus, grounded theory advocates that theory materializes inductively from the data (Chesebro & Borisoff, 2007) that is it allows for the emergence of original findings that are closely tied to the data. According to Goulding (2002), a grounded theory approach is mainly helpful for research to forecast and explain behaviour by highlighting emergent and building theory. Grounded theory is a type of inductive thematic analysis. Researchers using grounded theory technique must develop the required theoretical sensitivity to find out “substantive, grounded categories” (Glaser, 1978). This is an essential requirement in the course of going beyond description to conceptual theory (Guthrie 2000). Grounded theory enables to analyse relationships and attitude within a phenomenon from an impartial comprehensive viewpoint. Thus, when a researcher starts a study with no structure or theory, they are desired to fit the data into the way which are open to determining justification that have to be expressed. More significantly, the explanations finally come from the participants being studied. When a grounded theory study is carried out correctly and rigorously, there is

12). It forms first categories of information about the topic being investigated. This is “the process of breaking down, examining, comparing, conceptualizing, and categorizing data” (Corbin and Strauss, 1990, p. 61). Axial coding on the other hand, attempts to answer the “when,” “where,” “why,” “who,” “how,” and “with what consequences” questions (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Open coding aims at separating the data into concepts while axial coding tries to link a category and its subcategories (Corbin & Strauss, 1990). Selective coding finally helps to form the core variable that includes all of the data. It consist the combination of the categories in the axial coding process. In this segment, conditional proposals (or hypotheses) are formed. It is “the process of selecting the core category, systematically relating it to other categories, validating those relationships, and filling in categories that need further refinement and development” (Corbin and Strauss , 1990, p.