Sifting through piles of qualitative feedback can feel overwhelming, especially because there are no numerical trends or patterns. Sure, open-ended feedback provides more context, but that’s only easy to analyze when it’s a few responses. What happens when you have over 100, 1000, 300K, or more? 

Grounded theory allows you to gain actionable insights from qualitative data. It helps you spot trends without bias, build theories from the ground up relying on real insights, and use them to achieve your survey goal for your organization or research.

In this guide, we’ll explain in detail what grounded theory is, why it matters, how to use it in survey research, and beginner-friendly practical tools to get started.

Understanding Grounded Theory

Grounded Theory is a simple research method that helps you generate theories directly from data. It was originally developed by Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss in the 1960s when they discovered that stringent top-down theories frequently ignored the challenges of the real world. In other words, instead of starting first with a hypothesis, you are to let the data guide you toward a theory.

Here’s a feel of how it works:

• Collect data through survey responses or interviews
• Code the data line by line to identify the recurring themes or patterns. This includes carefully analyzing every sentence or segment of qualitative data (like survey answers or interview transcripts) to highlight recurring words or phrases
• Group codes into various categories
• Build a theory solely based on the data, not your assumptions

Why Use Grounded Theory in Survey Research?

Quantitative responses like check boxes, Likert scales,  and rating sliders do a fantastic job at summarising quantitative answers. But what about qualitative data? Particularly the open-text box where people pour their raw, unfiltered thoughts? That’s the goldmine that grounded theory helps you explore.

Here are some of the reasons why you should consider using Grounded Theory: 

• You need more than surface-level word clouds when sifting through open-ended responses: you want real insights and understanding of your respondents.
• When you want to explore social behaviours or emerging themes (e.g., customer habits, employee morale), but you have no pre-set hypothesis.
• When you’re working with a mixed-method survey design(e.g., “30% of employees at Company A quit before 6 months because of poor growth trajectory).
• You need to understand the “why” behind the “what,” like why customers churn, why employees are disengaged or why students feel overwhelmed, etc.

Designing Surveys for Grounded Theory

Grounded Theory doesn’t start when you analyze responses; it starts with how you design your survey. Your survey must have the following to uncover rich and meaningful insights you can leverage for grounded theory:

• Prioritize Qualitative Feedback. Avoid using yes or no questions; instead, create open-ended questions that allow detailed responses. For example, instead of asking, “Did you like our products?” with Yes or No options, ask, “Can you describe your experience using our products?”

• Avoid Predefining Categories:  Let respondents define their own realities and experiences with their own words. Don’t box them into assumptions by creating a pre-defined list of categories, such as “Which of these issues did you face?”
• Avoid Close-Minded Prompts: Ask tentatively broad questions such as “Can you describe your experience using the platform? What factors influenced your decision? What challenges do you face regularly?”

Analyzing Survey Data Using Grounded Theory

The analysis survey of data is not only where the real work begins, but also where the magic happens.

• Initial Coding or Open Coding

First, you will break each response down line by line and highlight key phrases or concepts that are repeated.

Let’s take a look at this example: If several users say, “I feel ignored by customer service,” you might code that as a lack of support or feeling undervalued.

• Focused Coding or Axial Coding

This involves grouping similar codes into themes or categories. For example, Lack of support, slow replies, and rude agents might all fall under customer dissatisfaction.

• Theoretical Coding

Here, you are mapping how categories are related to each other. You might ask questions such as: What causes what? What’s the process? What’s the outcome?

This is where you begin to form a theory, such as: Customers who report feeling ignored often churn within three months.

Pro Tip: Your goal during this process is not just to label data but to create meaning out of it to develop an evidence-based theory that is rooted deeply in what your audience says and feels.

Developing Theories from Grounded Data

Once you have been able to organize the codes into categories and see how they resonate with each other, it’s then that you can proceed to building your theory.

For example, think of this illustration where you carried out an employee engagement survey. With Grounded Theory, you were able to identify three recurring themes which are lack of recognition, micromanagement, and workload imbalance.

Then your derived theory from the data could be as follows: The employee disengagement is not caused by the lower salary but by the absence of psychological safety that resulted from poor management styles and little or no recognition.

If you observe closely, you will find out that this theory was not assumed before the survey but derived from the responses instead.

Benefits and Challenges of Applying Grounded Theory

Here are some common challenges with applying grounded theory in surveys:

Tools for Grounded Theory Analysis

It is not necessary to code everything manually unless you prefer to do so. Let’s take a look at some of these tools that can help make your Grounded Theory workflow seamless:

• NVivo: one of the most popular qualitative data analysis tools
• MAXQDA: a rich platform for coding and categorization.
• ATLAS.ti: It is perfect for larger projects and visual coding structures.
• Delve: A Comprehensive qualitative data analysis tool that allows you to create codes and uncover insights. It has solutions for students, researchers, educators, and principal investigators.
• Dovetail or Aurelius: It is used by UX researchers conducting qualitative research at scale.
• Google Sheets + Conditional Formatting: It is mostly used by novices to get the job done with color codes and tags.

Practical Examples of Grounded Theory in Survey Research

1. Higher Education: You can use grounded theory to analyze student satisfaction surveys to provide insights into how students really feel about the institution’s culture and learning methods. For example, academic pressure may not be their main concern; instead, it’s the unclear communication from lecturers and a lack of emotional support for their students.
2. HR & Workplace Culture: You can use grounded theory for employee surveys to investigate employee burnout. Grounded theory can point out that unclear job roles and overworking were the root causes of disengagement.
3. Public Health: Grounded theory can also help you uncover sentiments towards healthcare and medicine. For example, you can use grounded theory to uncover that vaccine hesitancy in a particular geographical location is mainly because of cultural beliefs and peer influence rather than the fear of the side effects.

Getting Started with Grounded Theory

Numbers only tell half of the story; unfiltered responses tell the other half.  The real insights that explain the motivation, frustration, or need behind the numbers are hiding in open-ended responses.

However, a successful grounded theory doesn’t start when you receive responses; it starts from your survey design. Create your surveys with Formplus allows you to easily combine multiple question and option types (scales, text boxes, audio, video, etc.).