Quantifying Narrative Data in Qualitative Analysis: An Abductive Approach and Interactive Process

The analysis of narrative data frequently raises methodological concerns oscillating between, on the one hand, the necessity to structure and highly heterogeneous and descriptive data for operationalizing analysis and, on the other hand, the interest to preserve the subtlety and context of narration for enhancing analysis. Based on existing research that evidences the inherent coherence of qualitative analysis for narrative data and the operational advantage of quantifying narrative data via textual analysis, this paper presents a methodological exploration combining textual analysis and qualitative content analysis to analyze narrative data. Positioning this methodological process within an abductive approach, this research assesses an analysis conducted on 75 narrative texts written by employees and managers about their work and shows that 1) the textual analysis, with its quantifying techniques, helps peruse and structure narrative data, particularly heterogeneous and massive data; 2) the interaction between quantifying techniques supported by textual analysis and qualitative content analysis based on interpretation favors the interaction between deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning during the analytical process and therefore reinforces the interpretative robustness of qualitative content analysis; 3) if qualitative content analysis cannot intrinsically dissociate from the subjective interpretation, textual analysis might provide relative objectifying adjustments to the subjectivity of interpretation. The paper ends by presenting propositions and recommendations with regard to the utilization of quantifying techniques in the qualitative analysis of narrative data.