Quantitative and Qualitative Data in Decision Making

I got my first mobile phone in the year 2006, it was a Nokia 3200, since then and until recently, the Nokia brand has stolen my heart, with their unique designs and battery strength. I followed them when they merged with Microsoft to birth the Lumia line of phones. The windows operating system was more convenient and easy to use since I could easily sync stuff between my laptop and mobile phone. I was super excited to hear that my favorite brand had a new line of android phones, so I quickly tried my hands on a few of them.

 As time waxed on, the android experience became quite glitchy, it took an extra month to get software updates, so I went in for a Google Pixel 2XL. A Google Pixel because I would get software updates immediately when they are released, and I had just rediscovered my passion for nature photography, and the pixel phone was going to kill two birds with one stone.

After close to six months using Google Pixel, I started considering thoughts of going in for any of Apple's Xmax or Pro series of iPhones. This decision took me into some curious depths of research. I began to compare the specifications of my google pixel phone and the iPhone I had plans on buying to see which works for me.

Intuitively, I strongly assert that just skimming through the basic specifications of the two phones and looking at statistics on legit tech sites on the number of people that have used the phone among other numerical and absolute indicators was me assessing quantitative information. Gathering qualitative information was going beyond the basic specifications to understand how they all translate into unique tailored user experience and how much value for money I would make if I should go in for it.

The quest to gather qualitative information got me brainstorming around questions like; how adaptable would the new phone be to my current line of work, would it meet my communication needs, and how do all these needs dovetail into the specific dimensions, resolution, and central processing unit. At the end of the day, if I'm able to gather enough information on both qualitative and quantitative divide, I would be better placed to make a decision.

 According to the World Alliance for Citizen Participation (2002), quantitative measurements answer the why’s and how’s, "how much or how many", how many people passed an exam, how many people were at work, how much a product cost and so on. Quantitative measurements are mostly expressed in absolute numbers or as percentages or as ratios.

Qualitative measurement tells you how people feel about a situation, how things are done, or how people behave, or how people respond to a system. So I might want to get an iPhone 11 pro with all the quantitative data I have gathered on its specifications and even how much it cost. But I get qualitative information when I do a self-assessment, by checking how that cost would sit with my finances, the competitive urge that gadget would give me over the one that I currently have among others.

In my line of work, I have observed that in some instances, we find quantitative information very comforting, solid, reliable, and more objective. We most often than not find qualitative information unconvincing and "subjective. I assert that making decisions solely based on just quantitative information or just qualitative information is skewed. Quantitative data requires interpretation to make it more meaningful as does qualitative data.

So in particular research, I embarked on a few years ago, the quantitative information we got indicated that there was a higher enrollment of girls in basic schools than boys, it looked good on paper because that was one of our key deliverables as the project.

But examining the quantitative data and going a step beyond to gather qualitative data, we observed a very interesting trend, parents in that community had concluded that school was a luxury and would prefer their girls to go and come back before noon to continue with their house chores just to make us happy. And get the boys to go to the farm and take care of livestock and other duties. The information we got based on our qualitative research brought us to new findings that were quickly used to amend the scope and indicators of the research.

The choice of indicators is very detrimental to the final output of every research. It is very important that as researchers we always subscribe to the best possible means of conceptualizing research to meet the demands and emerging trends of our specific sample size. Indicators that would work in faraway Cambodia would not necessarily work in urban  Luanda, because it's two different societies with unique cultures and values.

Policies and decisions made on every level can be as effective and relevant to the magnitude of quantitative and qualitative data that is gathered to form the very core of influence. The challenges that we are currently facing as global citizens keep mutating, a step to changing the world is ensuring we are investing in the right foundations with the right decisions.