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Introduction
The paper explains the rationale for applying the qualitative approach using interviews and documents as the main sources of data in a naturalistic underexplored Ghanaian context to gain a better insight and appreciation of how western multinational enterprises (MNEs) transfer their human resource management (HRM) practices to their subsidiaries in Ghana. This is a country and a context that has been underrepresented in academic research in international HRM. It is often argued that qualitative data analysis is complex, laborious and time consuming with limited theoretical attention (De Casterle et al., 2012). The process can be frustrating particularly to novice researchers in the absence of clear-cut guidelines on how to analyse qualitative data using particular methods. This paper proposes and discusses in a systematic manner how to analyse qualitative data using both deductive and inductive approaches. The author developed a model to explain how interview and documentary data are analysed using deductive and inductive methods.
The qualitative approach highlights “contextual understanding” with an emphasis that researchers usually seek to understand the “behaviour, values, beliefs, and so on in terms of the context in which the research is conducted” (Bryman and Bell, 2011, p. 411). Using a qualitative approach of inquiry, the paper seeks to combine context sensitivity and rigorous explanations into how and why western MNEs standardise or localise their HRM practices within the cultural and institutional contexts of Ghana. In fact, quantitative approaches have dominated the International Business (IB) field with qualitative methods in a supporting role. Some scholars interpret this as a loss to the field of IB, because qualitative methods can shed light on the complex cultural and institutional settings of MNEs (Birkinshaw et al., 2011; Doz, 2011; Gephart, 2004; Piekkari and Welch, 2006; Welch et al., 2011). Due to the nascent state of literature on HRM practices in Africa (Mellahi and Mol, 2015), I argue that qualitative research, in particular, is useful to explore in greater detail how HRM practices are transferred to subsidiaries located in Ghana. It is argued that qualitative research may be more suitable for carrying out research in emerging markets, since some instruments designed and applied in the developed markets may possibly not be appropriate in emerging market contexts (Hoskisson et al., 2000)....