Qualitative Data as an Attractive Nuisance: The Problem of Analysis

December 1979, volume 24 The legal doctrine of an attractive nuisance is simply illustrated by what happens if you abandon a car in your back yard: if neighboring children come eagerly to play in it, you are liable for their injuries. Qualitative data collected during the study of organizations fit this illustration well: there are many reasons why more and more researchers are currently seeking such data, and there are many ways they can get hurt or at least fail to achieve their purposes, and just as most children think that driving is easy, so many researchers somehow think that qualitative data present few problematic methodological issues.