Business Research Methods

CHAPTER 10

Choosing a Research Method Student Questionnaire Answer sheet

Look at these only after you have completed the whole questionnaire.

Question 1 What are the four key contextual issues you need to think about before choosing a research method? And why is each important? Responses: The four issues which will frame what you can and cannot, should and should not, choose for your research method are:

your research the context the literature you.

It is important to think about the research because you need to have a clear sense of what it is that you are trying to achieve here. What is the central theme of your research? This will direct you to a literature and help you frame what you want to achieve. Where does the research take place? In which organisation(s)? What is the level of the research (for example, can you access data and people at the very top)? And is the organisation split over different geographic sites? What is the means of investigation? Are you trying to test something? This will propel you towards a very specific set of research methods. Alternatively, you may be trying to explain something. Again this will direct you towards methods which will help you to achieve the desired research outcomes. It is important to think about the context of your research because it is often at the methodology stage that you become most aware of the potential power of the stakeholders. By considering the context you should be thinking about the demands made by the different stakeholder groups and what you would need to do in order to meet those demands. In doing this, your attention should also be drawn to the resources needed and, indeed, how the stakeholders can help you to access those resources. The literature is your friend here! It will help to show you what other people have done, what the favoured methods are, and how well (or otherwise) they work. It will also give you a good idea of the skills, competencies and resources needed to use each of the methods. Lastly, you need to think about yourself. What skills have you really got? And how do these relate to the skills that you will need? What other pressures are there (for example, time-frames, organisational politics or conflicting stakeholder demands) that you need to deal with? It is worth thinking about the support networks that you have and how you can access them. Likewise, what are you trying to achieve what are your

motives? If you are aiming to get a distinction in your work, you may need to push yourself just that little bit harder. Question 2 Case study research is an approach in which the core theme of the research cannot be separated out from the context within which it exists. This inevitably means that multiple methods need to be used to help the researcher explore these connectivities. What are the strengths and the limitations of case study research? Responses: Strengths:

It allows you to understand a particular area in depth. This gives you a breadth of understanding and data which more accurately reflects what is actually happening. It helps you to explain how? or why? questions, giving people insights into the reasons why problems or opportunities exist. It allows you to synthesise the different elements of the problem or opportunity to produce a more holistic set of research findings. It is not particularly useful where all that is required is a simple positivistic answer to a single question. In these circumstances it takes up too much time unnecessarily. Because of the integrated nature of the themes, it is not always easy to see which is which to separate each out in order that they can be investigated. It is not always easy to know when to stop gathering data. The integrative nature means that the more data you gather, the more you become aware of the connections with other data. The process has to stop somewhere but where is not always clear.

Limitations:

Question 3 Grounded Theory is an approach to research which is often misunderstood in business research projects. It is a highly complex but highly structured way of undertaking a qualitative investigation. What are the strengths and the limitations of using a grounded theory approach? Responses: Strengths:

A Grounded Theory approach is a truly emergent approach to business research. It allows you to be guided by the respondents and thus enable the research to draw on the issues that are important to them, rather than the issues that you the researcher feel are important. A Grounded Theory approach helps you to generate a wealth of data which can offer detailed understandings of how and why things happen.

Limitations:

A Grounded Theory approach often fails to meet the demands of the stakeholders in business research projects. The lack of a clearly articulated research question and a specific sampling strategy makes it difficult for universities and organisations to assess any potential risks with the project.

A Grounded Theory approach is difficult to control. As the researcher, you are guided by what the respondents say. The data that you gather may well therefore drift quite a distance away from the theme that was your original intention. A Grounded Theory approach is difficult to time-manage. The idea that datagathering stops only when you have got everything you need makes it difficult to fit this neatly within a schedule.

Question 4 Action Research is an approach which sees the process of research as being a fundamental part of the changes that the research is trying to bring about. What are the strengths and what are the limitations of an Action Research approach? Responses: Strengths:

An Action Research approach can help you to produce practical solutions to real organisational problems. It allows you to appreciate the issues which are of importance to the people being researched rather than the issues that you think might be important. Action Research allows you, as the researcher, to think about your own role in the research and in the wider context within which the organisational problems exist. Action Research allows you to choose which methods of data-gathering and analysis are most appropriate. However, because of the nature of the reflective processes involved, it is highly likely that the choice will be between just qualitative data or qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data alone will seldom suffice in an Action Research approach. Action Research requires skill in ensuring that the research findings produced are trustworthy and have not been skewed by too much of an emphasis on reflection and insight. It can sometimes be difficult to decide on the balance between reflection and data gathered from external sources.

Limitations:

Question 5 Questionnaires, interviews and focus groups are all useful ways of gathering data. In what circumstances would you use each? Responses: Questionnaires would be really useful where you needed to gather large quantities of the same information. They allow you to do this relatively easily and cheaply, especially if they are sent electronically. They are also useful where the questions are quite straightforward and people are unlikely to need an explanation. Interviews are useful where you need to get the respondents to expand on or explore the themes from their own perspective. They are useful because they allow you the flexibility to re-word questions, to explain what you mean, or to follow up on some responses and not others. Focus groups are useful where you want to explore themes that are relevant to a group of people. They are good because they allow the groups themselves to direct the ways in which the dialogue develops. Although this might mean that you need to be an experienced interviewer to be able to spot where the discussion drifts off-track and then

direct it back, the rewards are that you can collect multiple perspectives in a relatively short time-frame.

Question 6 What is methodological triangulation? Response: Methodological triangulation is the use of multiple types of data-gathering within the frame of your business research project for example, the use of both interviews and questionnaires. Question 7 What is data triangulation? Response: Data triangulation is the use of data gathered from a range of different sources. This might be primary and secondary sources, different levels in the organisation, or data gathered from different sites. Question 8 What is interdisciplinary triangulation? Response: Interdisciplinary triangulation is where the same subject matter is researched at the same time by people looking at it through the lenses of different disciplines. Although in grand research terms this might mean taking an organisational psychology perspective as opposed to a social science view, for the purpose of business research projects this might mean that a business problem may be looked at from the perspective of the marketing department or from the viewpoint of the finance department. Question 9 What is investigator triangulation? Response: Investigator triangulation is a process by which data is gathered by more than one researcher. It is a really useful way of showing how different people interpret results in ways that are similar or different. Question 10 What are the advantages and the disadvantages of mixed methods research? Responses: Advantages:

Mixed methods research allows you to look at the issue that you are investigating through a range of different lenses. This means that rather than gather one unitary view and hope that it is appropriate or gives the answers that are needed, the researcher has access to a breadth and depth of data each of which illuminates a slightly different perspective. Mixed methods also help you to meet the demands of different stakeholder groups. This is of particular importance where some stakeholders demand verifiable facts and figures a circumstance in which quantitative data may be most appropriate

whereas others demand explanations and discussions of the how and why issues. Disadvantages:

Mixed methods require careful consideration. You need to make sure that you have the skills to operate in both domains, that the methods that you choose are appropriate to the nature of your research question, and that you are able to analyse and produce robust research findings from both forms of data. Lastly, you need to think about how you will synthesise the data gathered from the different methods or mechanisms used, such that what you produce is a set of coherent and cohesive research findings.