Using Focus Groups to Conduct Business Communication Research‪.‬

Keywords: focus groups; qualitative research; communication; culture; protocol At the heart of most qualitative research is an effort to better understand peoples' interpretations of their experiences; in effect, to address the question What is going on here? One approach for gathering this kind of qualitative data is using focus group methodology. Focus group methodology is a qualitative data gathering approach that takes advantage of structured interviewing techniques performed in a group setting (Fontana & Frey, 1994). Unlike more traditional one-on-one interviewing, the focus group approach encourages discussion among group members, and this interaction tends to stimulate ideas that would not have been available otherwise (Morgan, 1988). The dynamic interplay generated among group members can provide rich, descriptive information offered from the respondents' viewpoints. As such, focus group methodology offers an excellent way for researchers to examine the underlying logic used by and the kind of evidence brought to bear by participants on a given situation or product (Lindlof, 1995).