“When I Don’t Want to do Something,I Just Delete the Email”: How a Failed Survey Indicated a Philosophical Imperative for Qualitative Improvision and Rigid Flexibility

Abstract

This field report provides an example of how reflexivity during organizational fieldwork revealed the need to adapt research methods in the middle of an ongoing research study. At the conclusion of the first observation period with an aerial firefighting organization, an extremely low survey response rate was recorded despite strong organizational support during field work discussions and interviews. To continue to stay aligned with the axiology of a post-positivist approach, which dictates that research must be value neutral, a methodological pivot to a qualitative method was conducted. By incorporating research survey questions into an interview format through this research pivot, this study uncovered hidden data on the specific contexts by which the use of technology was accepted or rejected within aerial firefighting communities that would have otherwise been missed. This field report explains the post-positivistic philosophical requirement that necessitated the adoption of a research pivot after the failed survey and argues for adoption of rigid flexibility in social science research as a means of increasing research rigor. This report concludes with a discussion of how transparency in reporting research failures can improve collective learning and methodological practices for emerging communication scholars.