Qualitative vs. Quantitative

This assignment gives you a unique perspective to be able to look at qualitative and quantitative data. And those are both data sets that you will see as a manager, a leader that will come across your desk, and as you see these different data sets, and these results, it’s important to understand what does this mean, how do I interpret this data? So this assignment allows you to be able to go out to find research that’s both been done, qualitative and quantitative that is of interest to you within the last five years, and really be able to dissect it, really be able to compare and contrast.

Statistics is used every day, but is often ignored due to intimidation. Nonetheless, the ability to understand and interpret data is needed to be an effective Manager/Leader in the workplace to make informed, effective decisions that set the foundation for the success of an organization. This assignment provides the opportunity for you to analyze quantitative and qualitative data, and discuss the pros and cons for both research methodologies.

Each student will be asked to find a recent article (no more than 5 years old) that is qualitative, and one that is quantitative (2 articles total). After reviewing these articles, compare and contrast the two different methodologies discussing how important it is for a Manager/Leader to understand qualitative and quantitative research, and interpreting the results from both studies.

Your paper should be at least 4 pages in length, excluding the Title page, Abstract page and References page. Also, your paper must follow APA guidelines and be supported by at least 3 academic sources.

What are the weaknesses, what are the strengths of doing a qualitative versus a quantitative study? What are the pros and cons of looking at these two different data sets? Cause there’s limitations with both forms of research. But this assignment allows you to be able to dig in to understand what those limitations are, or those weaknesses as well as the strengths, which is important.

And as a manger, if you get a data set that comes to your desk that’s qualitative, it allows you to understand where the quant can really come in to strengthen that data to inform your decision and vice versa. So I urge you to find two articles that are of interest to you, preferably something that relates back to your organization or your career, and make sure as you’re diving into these articles that you do find something or that you do find articles that articles qualitative and quantitative in nature, and typically you’ll be able to find is based upon, qualitative will have a survey and quantitative will have hard numbers that come from a data set.

So those are the kinda cues to look for as you start digging into the research and genre to figure out which is which.