Application of Focus Group Interviews for Quality Management: An Action Research Project

Abstract

Focus groups have the potential to provide rapid and timely collation, integration and assembly of the views of a variety of different types of stakeholders into a plausible theory. This article reflects on a tertiary education institution's utilisation of focus group interviews (FGIs) as a qualitative evaluation instrument, using action research as the methodology. Our results suggest that employing focus groups is a valuable method of gaining more insight into and adding more depth to quantitative findings during quality management. Results from focus groups enable quality assurance practitioners to provide better remedial action plans. A set of guidelines is provided for the effective conducting of focus group interviews as part of an institutional quality assurance system.