Grounded Theory Dissertation

This section intends to highlight the major challenges a researcher is likely to face in the implementation of grounded theory and case study as a mode of inquiry.

Grounded theory and case study both have been utilized by the researchers using a qualitative approach to investigate about a phenomenon.

Despite the illustration of the usefulness of grounded theory and case study as a means of studying a phenomenon from a qualitative perspective, there are certain drawbacks that limit the effective incorporation of these tools as a part of the research.

Although within the context of the application of grounded theory as a means of investigation, the researcher is required to identify the sources which can induce biased perspective in the perception of the researcher during the theory development process (Jones & Alony, 2011).

However, such process of acknowledgement doesn’t guarantee that all possible biases involved in the exploration and construct development have been identified.

However, Parry (1998) argued that the inability of the future researchers to replicate the grounded theory in an exact manner also poses a challenge to the reliability of the findings generated during the research process.

For the quantitative approaches, the degree of reliability is easier to determine as compared to the qualitative methods.These scholars suggest that the application of validity in quantitative research doesn’t bear the same valence in qualitative approach.The concept of qualitative validity as proposed by Sandelowski, (2003) is based on the perception of the reader about the degree of trustworthiness and credibility that can be associated with the research, thus adding a great deal of subjectivity in the decision.However, the use of these components also poses challenge to the qualitative research as the proponents of quantitative approach argue for the effectiveness of the factors of credibility and transferability.Credibility may provide sound arguments pertaining to the validity of the findings of grounded theory from the perspective of the people who were involved in the sample of the study, however similar perspective may not be found among others (Sandelowski, 1993).Sandelowski (1993) indicated that critics have viewed the use of means such as dependability as a potential source of threat for the level of validity of a grounded theory research.At one hand the incorporation of feedback from other researchers in the form of member or peer checking has been deemed to add to the degree of dependability or reliability of the findings, as the peers or other scholars can provide an unbiased perspective towards the accuracy of sample and its related findings.On the other hand, Sandelowski (1993) argued that such an approach should be incorporated in the methodology with caution as it can have a negative impact on the reliability of the findings and inferences.The bias involved in the research process can also decrease the degree of trustworthiness and dependability of the inferences drawn from grounded theory.The ambiguity of the criterion for theoretical saturation encourages the use of great deal of subjectivity in determining the achievement of this objective.Such issues in sampling methodology may limit the scope of applicability of grounded theory.