1. Q-Methodology and Human Subjectivity: The Potential for Business and Management Research
Chris Phelan
School of Sport, Tourism & The Outdoors
University of Central Lancashire

2. Workshop Agenda Introductions About Q-Methodology (QM)
Brief history of QM
How to design / implement a QM study
The five stages from literature to analysis
Make the case for utilising QM in Business and Management research
Review some QM studies
Participate in a QM study

3. About QM
Q methodology is used to study human perceptions, interpersonal relationships, unique viewpoints, and commonly shared views L N J

4. About QM Developed in 1935 by William Stephenson (letter to Nature)
PhD Physicis, PhD Psychology
Student of Spearman
Most often used in fields of psychology, health, communication / advertising, political science…
Mixes quantitative & qualitative aspects of research

5. About QM
QM attempts to analyse ‘subjectivity’ in a structured and statistically interpretable form
Unlike standard survey analysis:
Interested in establishing patterns within and across individuals
As opposed to patterns across individual traits (i.e. gender, age, etc.)

6. About QM The correlation and factor analysis of traits
R methodology
Q methodology
The correlation and factor analysis of traits
i.e. items as variables, persons as cases
Aim: psychometrics – the objective measurement of traits
The correlation and factor analysis of persons
i.e. persons as variables, items as cases
Aim: the scientific study of subjectivity

7. About QM
QM allows the researcher to see any shared patterns across individuals and understand the diversity of accounts
“It is not however the ‘constructors’ – the participants – who are the focus of the approach but the ‘constructions’ themselves”
(Stainton-Rogers, 1995)

8. About QM
Q’s strength: allows individual responses to be collated and correlated
Extracts ‘idealised forms of discourse’ latent within the data provided by individuals
“Particularly suited to studying social
phenomena around which there is
much debate, conflict and contestation”
(Barry & Proops, 1999)

9. About QM
The focus can be on the subjective dimension of any issue towards which different points-of-view can be expressed
Can consist of words / statements, pictures, sounds, smells…
See: Fairweather, Swaffield & Simmons (1998)

10. QM: The Process Definition of the ‘Concourse’
Development of the ‘Q set’
Selection of the ‘P set’
The ‘Q sort’
Analysis and Interpretation
4a) Post- sort interviews

11. The ‘Concourse’
Technical term for QM researchers (not to be confused with discourse)
Relates to all the possible statements that could be made about subject at hand
Concourse should (ideally) contain all the relevant aspects of all of the discourses

12. The ‘Concourse’ The concourse can be gathered from:
Gathered material represents all existing opinion and argument on a topic
The concourse is the raw material for a QM study
the literature
media reports
focus groups
newspapers /
Interviews
magazines

13. Development of the ‘Q set’
Likely to have generated 100’s of statement
Refine to more manageable set (i.e )
Criticism: more ‘art than science’ to this process
Should be balanced / representative – ideally a structure emerges to guide this
Duplicates / wording / editing – similar conventions to questionnaire design

14. Development of the ‘Q set’
Large debate in QM circles on how to move form concourse to Q set
Naturalistic?
Theoretical framework?
Sampling grid?
QM purists respond:
it is not the Q-set itself that is important but what the respondents do with it
The subject gives meaning to the statements by sorting them

15. Development of the ‘Q set’
Dryzek & Berejikan (1993) offer best example of sampling grid
4x4 matrix, 16 cell
Widely adopted in QM research as an approach
Discourse element
Ontology
Agency
Motivation
Relationships
Type of claim
Definitive
Designative
Evaluative
Advocative

16. Development of the ‘Q set’
See: Donner (2005)
Other QM researchers opt for thematic headings
Then required to justify the balance
Majority of QM papers do not acknowledge these design stages
No. of Statements
Concept
Connectivity 6
Information 2
Intrinsic 7
Productivity
Security
Other 9

17. Development of the Q set: Example Statements (Entrepreneurial Competencies)
Able to easily describe the problems in your business (1)
Have a large measure of creativity (2)
Effectively put your ideas across to an audience (3)
Have sound financial management skills (4)
Continuously aware of new possibilities (5)
Have the ability to identify unmet customer needs (6)
The ability to communicate effectively and make requirements clearly understood (7)
Have the ability to plan the daily operations of the business (8)
Able to generate new and innovative ideas (9)
Allocate the resources to allow the business to run smoothly (10)
Able to identify products and services that provide real benefits (11)
The ability to evaluate your own actions as much as possible (12)
Willing to look for new information all time (13)
Be open to criticism from others (colleagues, employees, etc.) (14)
Possess the emotional ability to cope with a problem (15)
Be able to enlist the support of key people (16)
Able to look at problems in new ways (17)
The ability to make the venture work no matter what (18)
Be an effective leader (19)
Be able to delegate effectively (20)
Able to recognise a gap in the marketplace (21)

18. Development of the Q set: Example Statements (Entrepreneurial Competencies)
Be prepared to negotiate with suppliers or buyers regarding prices (22)
Actively look for products or services that provide real benefits to customers (23)
Have the ability to name your business goals straightaway (24)
The ability to incorporate feedback from customers into your products / services (25)
Be a good decision maker (26)
An awareness of changes in the industry and how they may impact your business (27)
Aware of your own strengths and weaknesses (28)
Prepared to lay down your goals in written plans (29)
Possess a clear idea of where your business will be in five years (30)
The ability to prioritise your work in alignment with your business goals (31)
Perceptive as to what others mean by their words and actions (32)
Be able to motivate others (33)
Be the first to try out new things (34)
Be able to picture the consequences of a decision over the coming months / years (35)
Maintain a network of professional contacts (36)
Be prepared to take risks (37)
Be able to see things from various points of view (38)
Not be easily diverted from the goals that you set yourself (39)
Prepared to make large personal sacrifices when necessary (40)
Be able to weigh the costs and benefits of the business decisions you make (41)
Have the ability to organise and coordinate people (42)

19. Selection of the ‘P set’
P set (participant group) = respondents
Limited numbers required
P set generally smaller than the Q set
Q differs widely from R here:
Statements are the sample not the respondents
No claims to extrapolate to wider population
Aim is to gain access to range of viewpoints
Not to claim viewpoints exist in % population

20. Q sorting
Q set given to respondents as pack of randomly numbered cards
Respondent sort cards according to some specific rule / condition of instruction
i.e. Point of view regarding issue x
Respondent asked to rank statements in a forced distribution
Usually from ‘most agree’ to ‘most disagree’

21. Q sorting
A Q classic!!!!

22. Q sorting Shape of Q sort depends on kurtosis and number of statements-4 -3 -2 -1 +1 +2 +3 +4
(2)
(3)
(5)
(7)
(8)
Shape of Q sort depends on kurtosis and number of statements

23. Lets Q sort...
Travel Decision Making (van Exel, de Graaf & Rietveld, 2004)
Venture Capital Decision-Making and Risk (Babcock-Lumish, 2005)
Evaluating a Leadership development program (Militello & Benham, 2010)
Entrepreneurial competencies for diversification to farm tourism (own work – PhD in progress)

24. The post Q sort interview
Most disagree
Neutral
Most agree
(2)
(3)
(5)
(7)
(8)
Completed Q sort is recorded
Q sort can be annotated to aid later analysis

25. The post Q sort interview
Increasingly, post sort interview being utilised to add complimentary follow-up qualitative study
Why have they sorted the way they have?
Any dominant statements?
Why have statements been sorted at the extremes?
What was missing from the Q set?
What would the participant add?

26. Analysis and Interpretation
Dedicated analysis packages for Q analysis (PCQ, PQ Method)
Analysis considered technical and objective –purists argue this is the scientific base of Q
Software performs a factor analysis – people with similar views on the topic will share the same factor

27. Analysis and Interpretation
PQ Method
Free software
DOS based (simple but incredibly effective!)
Designed for handling Q sort entry and analysis
Choices
Centroid versus Principle Components factor extraction
Graphical hand rotation versus Varimax

28. Analysis and Interpretation
The PQ Method software generates print out(s) with:
These outputs provide the basis for the write-up of the interpretation
Analysis of interview transcripts supports this
The new Watts & Stenner (2012) text provides best advice (to date) on these stages
Factor loadings
Distinguishing statements
Factor correlations
Consensus statements

29. Analysis and Interpretation
Venture Capital Decision-Making and Risk (Babcock-Lumish, 2005)
American-style managers
Junior venture professionals
Experienced angel investor
Committed business builder

30. - Analysis and Interpretation - Own work: preliminary PhD findings

31. In Summary Hopefully: QM for hire:
Raised awareness of a misunderstood method
Made accessible by breaking down the stages
Provided impetus to consider relevance of QM in your discipline / research area
QM for hire:
Always happy to talk about QM
Discuss potential of QM for your project