Discussion:
The qualitative research article I reviewed was the "Millennials' Perceptions About Diversity in Their PR Agencies." The purpose of the study was to explore the perceptions of Millennials in their organizations' commitment to diversity and to explore their identification of problems with diversity using online discussion groups. The study had two research questions. RQ1 was "Do Millennial employees think their public relations agencies value diversity and why or why not?" (Gallicano, 2013 ). RQ2 was "Do Millennial agency employees see any challenges at their public relations agencies based on gender, race/ethnicity, or something similar, and if so, what problems do they identify?"
The research design was thoroughly elaborated with one minor detail I will discuss later. Rubin and Rubin (2012) informed that research design is determining what you want to study, from whom or what to obtain the information, where to get the information, how to get it, and the selection of the necessary data-gathering tools. Gallicano's research design was articulated well because she included the rationale for the study, framed the key theories and the methods to study her topic, determined the purpose and research questions, and then assigned the appropriate data collection and analysis methods (Ravitch & Carl, 2016). The element that was missing was that she did not clearly describe the race/ethnicity that comprised each Millennial focus group.
The researcher did explain her positionality in her interaction in the focus groups (Ravitch & Carl, 2016). She mentioned that she was uncomfortable in that she was a Generation X, white female, college professor. Gallicano (2013) also expressed that she was an ally of the African American study participants and offered to help them find mentors since some of them expressed African American mentors were not available at their jobs. Gallicano admitted that these reflections of including herself in their struggles was natural in qualitative research (Rubin & Rubin, 2012).