Qualitative Analysis Resource

Data Imports, Inc. is a company located in San Antonio, Texas. Organizational leaders recently decided to consider a sweeping change initiative that will significantly change daily operations at the company.

In order to determine whether the time is right for this change, the company’s CEO, David Long, decided to collect some data. A sample of 12 people were identified as a focus group and asked to answer online interview questions (based on a survey from Cinte, 2006). Eight people responded.

Assignment Directions:

You work at Data Imports, Inc., and the CEO knows you are pursuing your doctorate degree. He has asked you to perform a qualitative analysis on the data collected from the eight participants.

Perform the following tasks to complete the analysis.

Code the data: To analyze the data, you must first identify categories or themes that appear in the data. To accomplish this, do the following:

a) Familiarize yourself with the Online Focus Group Interview Questions that were posed to the participants. (Page 2)

b) Read the transcript of each participant’s responses and identify words that strike you as important. Mark the words in some fashion (highlight, circle, bold, underline).

c) When you recognize words or phrases that appear frequently, make note of them.

d) After reading all participants’ responses, review the words/phrases you marked or wrote down and identify a short list of useful codes.

e) Collapse these codes into four or five categories or themes and name them.

f) List the categories or themes and substantiate them with quotations from the online focus group participant transcripts.

Present your results in a table formatted according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
Write an essay (500 words) that describes the process you used to code and develop themes from the participant transcripts. List your themes and define them for your reader.
Submit the table and the written essay as one document to the instructor by the end of Module 5.

Online Focus Group Interview Questions

When you experienced a change initiative at work that you felt committed to, what did you do to demonstrate your commitment?

When you experienced a change initiative at work that you were indifferent to, what did you do to demonstrate your indifference?

When you experienced a change initiative at work that you were resistant to, what did you do to demonstrate your lack of support for the change?

In general, what do you think organizations that are capable of implementing successful change do? (specific examples of actions would be great here)

What kinds of things do organizations do that would lead you to think they are not ready or capable of implementing successful change? (specific examples of actions would be great here).

Think of an organizational change that you have experienced. What advice would you give to organizations with regard to successful change management and unsuccessful change management?

Participant Transcripts

The number listed before each response corresponds to the number of the interview question.

Participant 1:

Gender: male

Age: 62

Education: college degree

Management experience: senior manager

I emphasized the change and supported it to my full ability.
I voiced my indifference if asked and supported it.
Any change I was resistant to received my full verbal opposition to with reason if asked or not and then supported it. If too onerous would have resigned except while in the military.
They have leaders with established creditability that get all the facts, listen, and make changes. A major expensive shift in power plant fuel from natural gas to coal and oil. Today it should be just the opposite.
Organizations with poor leadership who lack experience and credibility. Bexar Met in San Antonio, a provider of water, compared to SAWS is with the same conditions, rates are 50% higher than SAWS.
Again, good leaders with established credibility, who get all the facts and “sell” their changes to subordinates.

Participant 2:

Gender: female

Age: 55

Education: college degree

Management experience: project manager

Jumped right in. Learned what I needed to do to help make the initiative a success. Cooperated. Positive Attitude. Did whatever needed to be done. Encouraged others to get on board and prove what we could do.
My answer here is pretty much the same as an initiative that I’m committed to. Positive attitude, Cooperate, do what needs to be done to be successful.
Asked questions, voiced concern, had less of a positive attitude. However, once decision was made and answers received, continued to do what needed to be done to meet the timelines and to make the project a success.
Educate the workers about the change and explain why the change is needed, how they anticipate the change to help, and where they see the company headed. Answer questions from workers, being as truthful and honest as allowed at that time. Encourage and respond to questions. Let the workers know “what’s in it for them.” Companies have feedback boxes where suggestions actually are considered and/or implemented. Management appears to be ‘in sync’ with each other.
They don’t share a vision for the company. They don’t encourage workers to ask questions or give the reasons/importance of the need for change. No requests for feedback are asked for. Upper management doesn’t seem to get along with each other.
For successful changes - Meet with all levels of workers to explain the change and the reasons for the change. Let the workers know how they can contribute and why the change needs to be successful. Answer questions. Communication and openness are the key. For Unsuccessful changes – Management stays ‘tight-lipped’, doesn’t explain why the changes are needed. The change is just pushed down the line, with little communication.

Participant 3:

Gender: male

Age: 56

Education: unknown

Management experience: yes

First, I communicated to the management chain that I believed in the new direction and offered whatever services I could provide to the cause. Second, I emphasized to my subordinates the importance of the change. Third, I tried to communicate progress toward the goal both to my subordinates as well as to management.

Many times decisions are made for which I do not have all the relevant information, therefore when a change is made that I do not understand (and therefore am indifferent to) I do not try to visibly express that indifference. I will however seek to question the wisdom of the decision with my management and try to gain clarification. Occasionally changes are made that management cannot control. For example, if your company is merged with another then some changes are inevitable and those changes may not be optimal for one's specific situation. However, one should pick battles where one has a chance to make a difference and rebelling against change for the simple reason of inconvenience is not wise.

3. I discuss the matter with my manager, in private. The goal would be to understand the motivation, explain my concerns, and determine if the initiative might be modified in some way to be more accommodating. If my manager cannot convince me that the change is in the best interest of our common goals, I discuss it with his manager, using the same goal. If I cannot change the initiative or modify it to make it more palatable after two or more escalations in management, I either accept the change or find a new job.

4. a) They explain to their people why change is necessary and listen to their concerns about it. b) They provide public and private forums for receiving feedback, providing some time for people to fully formulate their questions. c) They address concerns expressed in the forums with explanations of why the change is necessary and if or how it can be modified to address the more serious concerns expressed. d) They identify the most troublesome resistors and either convert them or eliminate them.

5. Signals that a company is not ready or capable of implementing successful change:

Has the company considered how the change will affect day-to-day operations of their employees?
How will the change affect loosely related processes or operations?
If the change involves a supply line, how will the change affect vendors? Is it compatible with their systems?
Who are the key people affected by the change? Have they been consulted to determine compatibility with other operations?
Can the change be rolled out incrementally or is it necessary for multiple departments to implement the change simultaneously?

6. My experience of this is most vivid in the occasions where my company was purchased and merged into a larger company. In some cases the purchaser may have a corporate climate that is vastly different from the purchased company. If the purchaser determines to force the purchased company into a new "mold" then the results may be devastating resulting in key employees leaving and generally poor moral. Another example is when the purchaser starts integrating the purchased company's IT and business systems into the purchaser's systems. This will always lead to procedural changes that disrupt the purchased company's operations, and if this activity is not well planned and well advertised it can lead to large losses in productivity. My advice is:

Change for its own sake is usually bad.
Always consider the impact of the change on the people you depend on to execute it.
Sometimes change is difficult for some people. Consider what you will do with these people if they have difficulty with the change - and firing them is not the answer.
Consider carefully the entire cost of the change, including equipment required to carry it out. For example, moving to a new CRM system may be enticing for the flexibility it provides, but it might also cost you dearly in IT support costs and staff sizes. Look at the whole picture.

Participant 4:

Gender: female

Age: 25

Education: unknown

Management experience: none

When I am committed to a change initiative at work, I get started with it right away. Usually it is something that I am excited about and have been wanting and waiting for. I immediately sit down with my team or by myself (depending on the situation) and start making a plan in which to implement the change successfully. As we're implementing the change I'm studying its effects on all the people involved and am continually adapting my plan to the needs I see.

In these situations, I would probably wait until some sort of accountability or plan to make the change were put into place for me. I might try the change initiative but I probably wouldn't put too much of my time into trying to make it work.

Usually, I don't do anything. I might implement a piece of the change but because I don't have much belief in it, it doesn't work. Then I will sometimes take that data back to the people trying to make the change and share my frustration about the change with them through that outlet.

Capable organizations have tried the program out for themselves first. They aren't taking a program that they have never seen in action and tried to push it on you. My specific example would be of a classroom management program that was introduced to us this past year. The first thing the teacher presenting the program said was that she used the program in her classroom (while she was still in the classroom) and that she recently took time away from presenting to be a long term sub in a classroom to see if she could successfully still use the program and could use it in a different environment than what she had previously used it in. Every time she presented a new piece of the program, she gave specific and recent examples of how she used it. Because of her experiences, I was able to see how it might work in my classroom and I was excited to experiment with it myself.

These types of organizations, talk to you about what you should be doing. Sometimes they almost try to guilt you into seeing that what you're doing is not working. Then they'll give you random information that might sound great but in the back of your head, you're thinking, "This person has no idea what I'm working with. They don't know my students. They don't know the system my school follows. They don't even know what I'm supposed to be teaching." They usually come across as pretty harsh to me. They are like the used car sales man that doesn't really know what's under the hood of the car. They are just so ready to make a deal (probably because they are ready to taste some success and haven't had the opportunity to yet). They can't give you specific examples of how to make their program work and they don't take the time to hear your real life situations so that they can help you tailor their program to your reality.

Recently, our principal completely reorganized our grade level teams. She made sure that every team had a change implemented in their staffing. The successful part of her change was with the people that were actually being moved to new grade levels. They were all called into her office and she gave them her reasoning for the change. These people were comfortable and willing to be part of her team and help out by moving to a new grade. The rest of us were left without any explanation which led us to create our own explanations. We immediately started to think that the people who were being moved were being moved because they had had problems with their previous teams. We were very hesitant and unwelcoming to the new team member. Because of our attitudes, we couldn't function as a team for a long time because we weren't sure about this other person. We had a lot of trust issues, not only with the new team member but with the principal because we never heard her reasoning for making the change. Since then, we have had to overcome some major issues that probably wouldn't have even been existent had we had the same conversation that the people who did the moving had with the principal.

Participant 5:

Gender: female

Age: 52

Education: unknown

Management experience: none

I went to the leadership people and offered to help in any way I could.

I went about my business as usual and ignored any changes taking place around me. When management approached me, I told them I was too busy to help with anything, and asked if they needed me to do something.

I went about my business as usual and ignored any changes taking place around me. I told them I was busy and didn't have time to help them. Then I asked them about the changes, and they had a discussion with me as to why these changes were needed and basically had to sell me on the idea. I wanted them to hear my perspective as well.

As I learned from my HR Mgmt classes, organizations do not take into account the people who they expect to make those changes happen. Before change is even announced, management needs to sit with each department, and ask how things are going, and see if there are any ideas for changes that would help make their department more efficient. Good communicators can target areas they know are going to be affected, and sneak in some suggestions to get the employees talking and thinking of ways to improve their area. This way the employees feel valued and that they are a part of the change.

When some guy at decided our school needed to be co-located, they didn't realize until it was too late how much money they would have to write off in furniture that we owned. Because they were afraid the people would be upset that we had nicer furniture, we had to buy all new furniture, and then give away all of our solid wood furniture. Corporate didn't seem to realize how much we had spent and how much they would have to write off. The initial savings they thought they would have, ended up being much less than they had hoped. The guy who came up with the idea sold them on his idea, made a bunch of money based on the idea, and retired to an island somewhere. In the end, we ended up splitting up and having separate campuses like we should have always had.

Employees need to feel valued and respected. Don't just say you want our support and hold meetings and say you will tell the upper management, and then not tell the powers that be. They treat employees like children who don't have a clue, and are doing nothing but blowing smoke at us. They fail to realize how much of our lives are invested in our work, and how much those jobs mean to us. All the secrecy about upcoming change is toxic and causes nothing but bad feelings towards the company and the leadership team. Be up front with employees from the beginning.

Participant 6: