1. What is mixed method research?
2. What are the debates that occur when researchers wonder if you can combine different methods?
3. In the case study performed by Kantar (Page 654, in the textbook) do you agree or disagree with the use of mix methods? Could using a single method yield the same results? Explain your answer. Kantar (1977) describes her research at Indsco as a case study of a single organization. Kantar describes how, over a five-year period, she spent time as a consultant, participant-observer, and researcher at Indsco Supply Corporation. Her sources of data included: a postal questionnaire survey, taking 23 hours to complete, of 205 sales workers and managers out of a population of 350; semi-structured interviews with the first 20 women to enter the sales force; access to a survey of employees on attitudes towards promotion; content analysis of 100 performance appraisal forms; group discussions with employeesfrom managers to secretaries, recorded verbatim; participation in meetings; participant observation in training programs; internal reports, memoranda, and public documents relating to personnel policies; conversations in offices, at social gatherings, or in peoples homes. Overall, Kanter suggests that she spent over 120 personal contact days on-site, and the number of people with whom she held conversations was well over 120. A further 500 people participated in written surveysthe primary source of quantitative data used in the study. Kanter draws attention to the potential for generalizability from a single case, by suggesting that the case provided material out of which to generate the concepts and flesh for giving meaning to the abstract propositions I was developing (1977: 332). Although Kanter does not claim statistical generalizability for her data, she does draw attention to the way that she used the data from the case to generate concepts that could be transferred to other organizational contexts. Hence she states that, after having formulated her initial impressions about Indsco, she had conversations with informants in three other large corporations in order to satisfy myself that Indsco . . . was not particularly unique in the relationships I observed. I learned that Indsco, indeed, was typical, and its story could be that of many large corporations (1977: 332).