Numbers and patterns in qualitative working life studies

Abstract

In this article we investigate potentials and problems related to online surveys with open distribution and open-ended questions in working-life studies. We are interested in the potentials and problems occurring when researchers obtain large amounts of answers written in the respondents’ own words. How are they properly analyzed and condensated? How do we in a methodologically credible way explore the potentials of gaining new insights in people’s working lives, based on large amounts of qualitative data? We argue that counting and looking for patterns can make sense and give access to insights in people’s working life otherwise unobtainable – but only when done with caution and when certain criteria are met in the research design and coding process. These criteria are stringent coding, clear and equivalent units of data. In such cases, coding beyond the “point of saturation” combined with background variables can give new insights in the working lives of the respondents. An online survey with 1684 respondents on job-satisfaction in the educational sector in Denmark constitutes the case for a discussion about when and how to count in qualitative research.