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Hello there,

First of all, let me apologize for cross-posting.

I have a couple of questions regarding content analysis, and was hoping somebody would be able to guide me.

First question:

I am content analyzing interview responses to an open ended question: When a major organizational change is announced in your organization, what initial thoughts come to your mind?

I have completed the initial coding and have obtained a frequency count of the major issues that are mentioned. However, what I would really like to do is to examine the sequence in which the major issues have been mentioned. The logic being that the first issue that comes to mind is more important (salience effect). So, instead of simply saying Issue A was mentioned N1 times compared to Issue B that was mentioned N2 times, I want to be able to be able to say Issue A was mentioned n1 times first in the sequence compared to B which was mentioned  only n2 times first, and therefore Issue A is more critical.

I was wondering if you have come across studies/papers that used a similar method. If yes, could you please share the cite?

Next question:

Here is a situation. Issue A is mentioned a total of N1 times of which it appears n1 times first in the sequence. Issue B is mentioned N2 times of which it appears n2 times first in the sequence. However, N2>N1 and n1>n2, i.e. Issue B is mentioned more times overall, but Issue A is mentioned first (in order) more times than Issue B. In such a case, which issue should be considered more critical?

I will summarize and post all the responses.

Thanks in advance,

Viraj Varma

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