Page 141 - The Handbook for Quality Management a Complete Guide to Operational Excellence

128 I n t e g r a t e d P l a n n i n g

and often enjoyable for participants as they share their ideas and percep-
tions. Group members influence each other by responding to ideas and
comments in the discussion.
In quality management, focus groups are useful to:

• Gather insight useful in the strategic planning process.
• Generate ideas for survey questionnaires.
• Develop needs assessment, e.g., training needs.
• Test new program ideas.
• Determine customer decision criteria.
• Recruit new customers.

The focus group is a socially oriented research procedure. The advan-
tage of this approach is that members stimulate one another, which may
produce a greater number of comments than would individual inter-
views. If necessary, the researcher can probe for additional information or
clarification. Focus groups produce results that have high face validity,
that is, the results are in the participant’s own words rather than in statis-
tical jargon. The information is obtained at a relatively low cost, and they
can be obtained very quickly.
There is less control in a group setting than with individual interviews.
When group members interact, it is often difficult to analyze the resulting
dialogue. The quality of focus group research is highly dependent on the
qualifications of the interviewer. Trained and skilled interviewers are hard
to find. Group-to-group variation can be considerable, further complicat-
ing the analysis. Finally, focus groups are often difficult to schedule.

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