Qualitative research approach in production engineering - an assessment of a research project and a sample of master of science dissertations

This paper aims at demonstrating applications of qualitative research approaches in the subject of operations management (OM), more specifically in industrial engineering. It firstly presents a brief review of research methods when using qualitative research approaches. This provides the backdrop for a content analysis of qualitative research in a research project in which a case study approach was employed. In addition, it analyses a sample of dissertations of a post graduate program in industrial engineering with regard to the qualitative research approaches used. These two cases highlighted are then used as the basis for a discussion of qualitative research approach in OM. The paper concludes that critical appraisal of qualitative research approach is needed and offers some recommendations for future work in this direction.