Benefits and Weakness of Using Focus Groups - Essay Example

Running Head: BENEFITS AND WEAKNESS OF USING FOCUS GROUPS Benefits and weakness of using Focus Groups of the of the Benefits and weakness of using Focus Groups Introduction The focus groups method seems increasingly popular in adult education research. For instance, three out of 11 research projects within the UK research programme ‘The Learning Society: knowledge and skills for employment’ used focus groups along with other methods. (Coffield, 2000, 53) Benefits of Using Focus groups Why are focus groups so popular as a research method these days? And why are they particularly significant in adult education? Vaughn et al. (2003) suggest some general utilities of focus groups; people are valuable sources of information because they are both capable of reporting factual data and interpreting these data, and they are articulate enough to discuss opinions, feelings and perceptions. Assuming these to be correct, structured group discussion is a relevant procedure to obtain people’s opinions, feelings and perceptions, although the interactions between group members have to be borne in mind. (Blankenship, Breen, G.E. and Dutka, A., 1999, 61) The information obtained can be about what each person feels and thinks, but it can also be influenced by a phenomenon such as ‘groupthink’, through which people conform to what others believe. In judging the popularity and the effectiveness of focus groups, it is important to assess the advantages of the method as well as its limitations. In adult education, focus groups perhaps offer a more concrete opportunity for participants and researchers to learn from the process (Field, 2000, 330), being a powerful way of engaging with professionals, policy makers and end-users. The benefits of using such an iterative process in which ‘people’s views and understandings are shared, debated, challenged and changed’ (Field 2000, 325) are more important than the potential disadvantages. Morgan (1999, 142) notes that the majority of the published articles about focus groups refers to the use of this method along with other methods, such as individual in-depth interviews or with surveys. In the research process, focus groups can be used at different points: at the preliminary or exploratory stage of a study; a preparation for decisions about the precise objectives and design of the study; for the collection of the main data; in the closing period of a study to interpret findings, or to generate further perspectives for research. Use of focus groups can be seen in applied research as a strategy for collecting data, especially when doing qualitative research to tap peoples subjective experiences (Sullivan, 2001, 23) Focus groups do not invade peoples privacy in order to come to the conclusion. Most people would not like to be watched while taking a shower or doing anything in their home. Observational research does not let one person take charge because everyone has the information. There may be one or two people that try to be the head of the group, but cannot make the decision themselves. These head people may try to suede the group their way, but they are not likely to get everyone to agree with them. Focus groups have one person that observes and then reports back to the group with the story. They also have one person that has the fate of their decision in their hands. That person has more decision making power than the rest of the group because they saw it happen and the story is theirs. . Focus groups would have to almost be an observation group to correct their drawbacks. They may get more than one person to observe and tell the story. If you have 4 people they are more likely to have two stories that are similar so that you have more than one perspective. Making sure everyone gets involved in the decision is also important. This would help the group in making the right decision. Focus groups are normally used to investigate complex behavior in the same time discover how different groups think and feel about a topic and what opinions do they have (Evalued: Focus Groups 2005). There are many advantages of using focus groups. It allows the companies or researchers to evaluate products and services based on real life information on the spot without any excessive costs. But the one thing they have to take into account is that the focus group that is involved represents the majority of the public who use the products and services so the outcome also represents the voice of the public. Focus groups are one of the most well-liked techniques which are being used by marketers in actual world of marketing, research and management. Studies reveal the focus group as one form of qualitative research in which particular group of people is asked about their opinion towards a concept, product, advertisement, packaging or idea. Usually there are from 8 to 10 members of this group. A focus group is usually headed by a moderator who keeps track of the discussion and makes it sure that every member of the group should take part in a given commitment. Focus groups are not only intended to help researchers develop hypotheses and questionnaire components as a first step in the research process, but it is also used in applied research as a strategy for collecting data, especially when doing qualitative research to get subjective experiences from people.(Sullivan, 2001, 15) Focus groups are in particular used to investigate complex behavior in the same time discover how different groups think ,what opinions they have and how they feel.(Evalued: Focus Groups 2005). As mentioned above, there are many advantages of using focus groups. One biggest advantage is that it is possible that companies and researchers evaluate their products and services by information from focus groups in real life. It is no doubt that focus groups are regarded as the majority of the public so that companies and researchers use the information as the voice of the public.(Zikmund & William 2003, 120) The focus group method has been going around for ages in the world of marketing. There is no question about this method has evolved itself and now has different strategies and techniques. Focus group through video conferencing is the one of these methods. It is just same as the traditional method that is to group a bunch of people with a moderator to discuss about a subject. (Zikmund & William G, 2003, 115)The only main difference is none of them are grouped together in one room. Video conference of focus groups simply broadcasts the meetings to a remote place where people observe the proceedings live over a monitor in their receiving sites. They communicate with the moderator in the discussion through telephone or headphone-microphone device to the local receiving facility and in the same time broadcasting it to the other participating members. (Greenbaum, 2001) This method of conducting focus groups has evolved due to the fact that the technology has been advanced incredibly and it becomes important for researchers to solve the problem of reaching out to people across the globe. The discussion through video conference is able to be successful without the members having to fly to a specific location. With video conferencing, the whole time process of the focus group method can be cut down by 50% or more. This evolution of video conferencing has grown rapidly throughout the years. Today, more than 50 facilities have video conferencing capabilities and more are opening each month. Further, in 1995, there were approximately 3,000 discussions conducted by video conferencing (Greenbaum, 2001). Another evolution of focus groups is online focus groups. This method gathers members of the focus groups with the help of the World Wide Web or the Internet. The general way of online focus groups is by officially logging in the moderator and the members using a username and password. The moderator then controls the chat area and to keep everyone on track. Display Medias such as whiteboards is to display any kind of materials to be shown to everyone so that they are able to give their own feedbacks. (Morgan, D. L., 1999, 140)Online focus groups reduce both project time and cost when research requires the opinions of participants over a wide geographic area. Internet technology is also efficient for including hard reaching participants (Blankenship et al. 1999, 55). Although there are disadvantages such as impersonal, fraud and security issues owing to internet characteristics, there are many advantages in addition. One of them is, people tend to be more confident in front of the computer than to talk face-to-face. The members hesitate less to say what they feel. Therefore members are more honesty and response effectively. (Zikmund & William 2003, 111) Of course there is a risk of fraud because you will never know whether the person at the other side of the line is really the person or is it just a fake. But it could be lessen by the introduction web cameras so that they could see each other. With respect to practical problems, our focus group of researchers stressed the social-psychological problems, such as motivating experts to participate and moderating an open discussion, more than technical problems with respect to recording and coding. (Coffield, 2000, 31) They do so probably because these social-psychological problems are much harder to solve, if at all resolvable. Weaknesses of Using Focus groups Even though there are many advantages in using focus group but there are actually a few disadvantages that the method of focus groups has, compared to other marketing research methods. First of all, irrelevant and disagreements in discussion can be a disadvantage. It is because of distraction from the main point. (Evalued: Focus Groups 2005). Everyone thinks differently. This simple fact causes people think differently and have own different ideas and opinions. This brings to the matter of attitude towards disagreements. (Field, J., 2000, 330) The discussion could go out of topic and it will stay for nothing if the moderator does not keep track of the main point. The group members and the moderator should be more careful if focus groups deal with sensitive issues such as religion and race. One of the main disadvantages is the risk of probability that the members of the focus groups do not represent the majority of the public or the users of the product. When this happens, all the information gathered in the focus group will only represent part of the community and not the whole. (Greenbaum, 2001) Members of the focus groups must have the general taste and response of the public and must not judge the product or service according to their own personal preferences. Another disadvantage is there can be disagreements and irrelevant discussion which distract from the main focus (Evalued: Focus Groups 2005). The human ability to think makes every persons mind different. Although focus groups are good to gather positive and negative information about something, there is also the chance that a person would disagree with another. This brings us to the matter of attitude towards disagreements. If the moderator does not do a good job to keep track of the main focus, the discussion could go out of topic and it would all be just a waste of time. The chances of this happening increases when the topic is more about a sensitive issue such as race, religion, nationality or even education status. Other than that, although there is a moderator to moderate everything, another disadvantage of a focus group is inability to control what information to be produced. Questions in questionnaires gives direct feedback to the researches on what kind of information they want, where as for focus groups, the flow of information is uncontrollable and unpredictable (Blankenship et al. 1999, 60). This sometimes can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the situation. Another general disadvantage of a focus group is that some members may find a focus group situation intimidating and may feel under pressure to agree with the dominant view of a subject. For example if 9 out of 10 of the members of the focus group agree that abortion is wrong, and only one in his or her mind think it is alright, the one person who has a different view might feel uncomfortable to say what he wants in fear of being criticized by the others. In this view, there is a chance that members in the focus groups are not really honest with each other. Originally, some group members may make afraid of being part of the group. (Vaughn, Schumm and Sinagub, 2003, 15)This is a huge potential problem that leads the focus group another direction. The discussion would not bring out a good result as though group members are soundless or overly dominating. Another disadvantage is the risk of probability that the members of the focus groups do not represent the majority of the public or the users of the product. Focus groups members must have the general response of the public and not judge the product or service because of their own personal preferences.(Zikmund & William 2003, 117) The last disadvantage of a focus group that would be discussed will be when respondents are overly introverted (shy) or are overly dominating (try to sway discussion). When any of this happens, the discussion would not produce a good result as if they are too quite, information would not flow properly in the room and if they are too dominating, the discussions would sway away and will result in a waste of time. Conclusion The focus group research is being used in such a way that it is a lot easier to access with less hassle of course for a price. Nobody said that online focus groups are a complete and safe method, but it is still an effective method, well not for everybody. Usually it is used for general purposes and not for professional or serious research purposes. Sometimes focus groups might be chosen in order to get any unofficial feedback from public. However, bigger industries or companies can use this method of research as a "side dish" as it provides low cost and fast results. Although not traditional focus groups, but online focus groups are capable of handling more people thus can have more feedbacks. Focus groups have evolved in this manner because of the perception of how people think. For instance, if a company wants feedback from youngsters and teenagers, they would think that the traditional way of doing focus groups can be a drag and not "cool". By making it online, it is easier for both parties and also, it can be accepted by the youth of today. Further research into focus group effectiveness is needed to unravel the importance and dynamics of all presented elements. A survey of researchers involved in focus group projects, as we did, is much too global and rough; it is just scratching at the surface. There is a need for in-depth interviews with invited lay people or experts about their motives to participate or not. There is also an urgent need for a closer observation of the group dynamics in focus groups. Finally, it would be helpful to make a close analysis of how the theoretical validity can be improved without harming descriptive and interpretative validity. References Blankenship A.B., Breen, G.E. & Dutka, A. (1999), State of the art marketing research 2nd Edition, NTC Business Books, USA. 50- 62 Coffield, F. (ed.) (2000) The Learning Society: knowledge and skills for employment, two vols (Bristol: The Policy Press). 20- 59 Evalued: Focus Groups (2005). Retrived: April 3, 2006, from http://www.evalued.uce.ac.uk/tutorial/4b.htm Field, J. (2000) Researching Lifelong Learning Through Focus Groups. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 24, 324–335. Greenbaum, T. (2001), A moderators view of focus group videoconferencing, Retrived August 27, 2006, from http://www.groupsplus.com/pages/videocon.htm Morgan, D. L. (1999) Focus groups. Annual Review of Sociology, 130–157. Sullivan, T.J. 2001, Methods of social research, Harcourt Earl Mc Peek, USA. 5-25 Vaughn, S., Schumm, J. S. and Sinagub, J. (2003) Focus group interviews in education and psychology (London, New Delhi: Sage). 5- 20 Zikmund & William G (2003), Exploring Marketing Research, Hercourt, Oklahoma State University: 100- 120 Read More