Today in professor Linda Chen’s Research Methods course, we were honored to welcome our host speaker professor Konstantin Weicht, Eng. (FM), MRes, PhD.  Professor Weicht is an assistant professor of Human Resource Management at the Vienna University of Economics & Business in Vienna, Austria.  Presently, he is a visiting scholar in National Dong Hwa University in Hualian and conducting research in Taiwan. In the past he has studied in Austria, France and the United Kingdom. In addition to German and English, he can also speak Mandarin Chinese.

 

Professor Weicht was welcomed and introduced by Professor Jack Hsu.  After generous applause, the students prepared themselves for Weicht’s lecture entitled Qualitative Research Methods: Advanced Research Methods. The syllabus for Research Methodology is based primarily on learning to conduct quantitative research, but thanks to professor Weicht’s lecture the students were able to deepen their understanding of qualitative research.

 

The session was divided into two sections. The first section lasted for two hours and was solely dedicated to professor Weicht’s lecture.  For the second section, professor Weicht prepared an activity that allowed students to gain experience with and practice a qualitative research method.

 

At the outset of his lecture, professor Weicht briefly introduced the development of research methodology and encouraged anyone who is going to do research in international business to first ask themselves three questions: why, what, and how?  Afterward he helped us to answer these questions and gave us some useful examples. One student asked the professor as to why one should consider qualitative research. The answer the professor gave was quite clear.  He said we should consider qualitative research, “because it is about people, it enables you to conduct in-depth studies of a broad range of events.”

The second section was a workshop in which students were asked to create groups of three. Each group got a detailed scenario about traveling in Taiwan and having experiences staying in B&B’s. Each group had to conduct professional interviews using a prepared questionnaire. There were three roles to be played: researcher, interviewee, and observer. The students took turns trying out all three roles. The students then shared their experiences and results of the interviews they conducted.  

 

This special visit gave students a deeper look into qualitative research methods and provided a basic understanding of the differences between qualitative and quantitative research. Professor Weicht shared with the class a quotation from the famous physicist Albert Einstein: “Science is the attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our sense experience corresponds to a logically uniform system of thought. In this system single experiences must be correlated with the theoretical structure in such a way that the resulting co-ordination is unique and convincing.” Professor Weicht assured the class not to worry if they could not completely comprehend what Einstein was trying to convey.  “Just pay attention in the Research Methods course and listen to your supervisor!” he said.

 

The Research Methods class is very grateful to professor Weicht for his visit, and will surely use the insight and knowledge he shared to strengthen their future research.