DBA 8100 Module 4 Qualitative Analysis Paper: Coding and Reflexive Thematic Analysis Example

Caught Between the Floor and the Office: Coding Six Interviews Into a First Theme

Student Name

Doctor of Business Administration, Thomas Edison State University

DBA-8100: Qualitative Research Methods and Applications

Mentor Name

Month Day, Year

Caught Between the Floor and the Office: Coding Six Interviews Into a First Theme

Introduction

After six interviews, I had about seven hours of recordings and 160 pages of transcripts. This paper explains how I am analyzing them and shows the analysis at work on one emerging theme. Making the path from data to findings visible is what allows readers to trust qualitative results.

Choosing Thematic Analysis

Braun and Clarke (2006) described thematic analysis as a method for identifying, analyzing and reporting patterns of meaning across a data set. Unlike grounded theory or interpretative phenomenological analysis, it is not tied to a particular theory, which makes it flexible for applied studies like a capstone. Their six phases begin with familiarization and initial coding, move through building and checking candidate themes, then defining and naming them, and end with the written report. They warned against common problems, including presenting interview questions as themes, paraphrasing data without analysis and themes that overlap or lack coherence.

Reflexive Thematic Analysis

Braun and Clarke (2019) later clarified that their approach is reflexive thematic analysis. Themes do not emerge from the data on their own; the researcher actively generates them through engagement with the data, shaped by the researcher's position and theoretical assumptions. They described a theme as a pattern of shared meaning organized around a central concept, not a summary of everything participants said about a topic. They argued that measures of coding reliability between coders do not fit this approach, because the aim is depth of interpretation rather than agreement, and they treated the researcher's subjectivity as a resource to be reflected on rather than a bias to be removed.

This fits the study's constructivist paradigm and my insider position, which I will examine through the reflexive journal rather than try to erase.

Coding Cycles

Saldaña (2021) described coding as a cyclical act. First-cycle methods assign initial codes to segments of data; options include descriptive codes that name a topic, in vivo codes that use a participant's own words and process codes that use gerunds to capture action. Second-cycle methods, such as pattern coding, group first-cycle codes into fewer, more meaningful categories. He encouraged analytic memos throughout, in which the researcher writes about what codes mean and how they relate.

The Process So Far

I read each transcript twice while listening to the recording and wrote a short familiarization memo. I then coded each transcript line by line, mainly using in vivo and process codes, generating 214 codes across six interviews. After grouping similar codes, I had 31 code clusters. I wrote memos on the clusters that appeared in most interviews and that seemed to speak to the research question.

From Quotations to a Theme

One cluster gathered codes about the supervisor's position. Participants described being "stuck in the middle," "not one of them anymore and not one of the office either" and "getting it from both sides." Process codes included defending crew to managers, enforcing rules on friends and eating lunch alone. Two participants who left described this as the main reason; two who stayed described learning to manage it.

I developed a candidate theme with a central organizing concept: the new supervisor occupies a position between two groups and belongs to neither, which participants experience as isolation and strain unless someone above them visibly holds the middle with them. I named it Caught Between the Floor and the Office. This is not a topic summary of relationships, but an interpretation of what the position means to participants and how it connects to their decisions.

A Memo in Progress

An early memo shows how the theme took shape: "Five of six talk about lunch, of all things. Eating alone, eating in the truck, eating at the desk. Lunch is where they lose the crew first. But the two who stayed both mention a manager standing next to them at a huddle. Is the turning point being seen with power, not just having it?" The memo moved my thinking from a topic, relationships, toward the central concept that later organized the theme.

Reviewing the Theme

In phase four, I checked the theme against all coded extracts and then against the full data set. Two participants described the middle position less strongly; one had been promoted at a different warehouse from where he had worked as an hourly employee, which suggests that moving sites may soften the loss of place. I recorded this as a variation within the theme rather than discarding it, and noted it as a possible recommendation.

Tools and Records

I am using qualitative data analysis software to store transcripts, codes and memos, which keeps an audit trail of when codes were created and merged. The software organizes data but does not analyze it; every code and theme reflects my decisions.

Limits

Six interviews are an early stage, and the theme may change as data grow. My HR role may make me especially attentive to management's side of the middle, which I am tracking in the reflexive journal.

Conclusion

Braun and Clarke's six phases and their later account of reflexive thematic analysis, together with Saldaña's coding cycles, guide an analysis in which themes are built and interpreted rather than found. From 214 codes in six interviews, a first theme has taken shape with a central concept and a variation, and the table of excerpts shows readers how it was reached.

References

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589-597. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2019.1628806

Saldaña, J. (2021). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.