‘. . . Just one goat’: the importance of interpretation in qualitative data analysis

Abstract

Events can be interpreted many ways, and sometimes we don’t always like the ways things are interpreted. This chapter tells of an attempt to design a longitudinal research project with qualitative data when the authors experimented in the quantifying of qualitative data – specifically, the use of key words, in an attempt to find a baseline for measuring differences in employee experiences at a multi-site organisation.