Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to explain in detail the research methods and the
methodology implemented for this study. The chapter will explain first of all the
choice of research approach, then the research design, as well as the advantages and
disadvantages of the research tools chosen. This will be followed by a discussion on
their ability to produce valid results, meeting the aims and objectives set by this
dissertation. The chapter then goes on to discuss the sample size and the sampling
strategy applied by the author, and the data analysis methods which have been
used. It concludes with a brief discussion on the ethical considerations and
limitations posed by the research methodology, as well as problems encountered
during the research.

Research Approach
This dissertation makes use of qualitative research strategy, where the research
approach implemented has been that of interpretivism. Willis (2007) defines
interpretivism as an approach which is implemented by the researcher in order to
synthesize facts which are derived mainly from secondary sources, and which are
qualitative in nature. He also observes that one characteristics of interpretivism is
that these facts are abstract in nature, and governed by a variety of factors which
are non-tangible and difficult to measure. These can be economic, social, or cultural
factors. Therefore for the purposes of this research, the author chose the
interpretivist approach, rather than the positivist and the pragmatist approaches,
because abstract, non-quantifiable variables such as “”, “finding the arts in business
and working with them to create a memorable experience”, comparing “traditional
management” with “performing art management” and analysing whether
performing techniques and their application into business can have positive
influence on business practice were part of the objectives of the dissertation. These
are all elements, which are not easily quantifiable (measureable), and between
which different and complex connections were found to exist, therefore
interpretivism was found to be most applicable.

Research Design
This research makes use of a qualitative research strategy in the sense that there will
be no numeric data or quantitative data was produced (Bell, 2005; Sarantakos, 2013;
Silverman, 2004). A qualitative research strategy is particularly applicable for the
purposes of this research, where the connection between several different variables
had to be established through interpretation. Also, the research makes use of
triangulation because triangulation gives the opportunity to approach the research
objectives from different viewpoints (Cohen and Manion, 2002; Altrichter et. al,
2008), obtaining a more nuanced view of the connections between the different
variables. For this study, triangulation was very useful because the researcher aimed
to find the intersection between two very different variables belonging to very
distinct industries – the arts (performing arts in particular) and business. This
necessitated questionnaires and interviews with the employees who have been
recipients of the management with performing art model and with their managers as
well.

The validity and the advantages and disadvantages of the tools used to implement
the research strategy will be discussed next.

Research Methods
For the purposes of this research, the writer has decided to use a combination of
two of the classic social sciences research tools – questionnaires and interviews
(Winchester, 1999; Sarantakos, 2013; Silverman, 2004; Greenfield, 2002). The
questionnaires will be distributed among managers from several companies which
have used art elements as part of their management techniques, as well as among
carefully selected employees of the same companies, who form part of the team of
the same managers. As a complementary method, the writer conducted interviews
with an equal number of representatives of each group. The advantages and
disadvantages of each method are discussed below.

Questionnaires

Questionnaires were chosen for this research because they are a reliable and quick
method to collect information from multiple respondents in an efficient and timely
manner. This is especially important when it comes to large projects, with several
complex objectives, where time is one of the major constraints (Greenfield, 2002;
Silverman, 2004; Bell, 2005). This study was no exception and questionnaires were a
quick and effective way for the researcher to reach multiple respondents within
several weeks. A general disadvantage of the questionnaires however is their fixed
and strict format, which eliminates the possibility for more in-depth or abstract
observation (Bell, 2005; Sarantakos, 2013). Again, this study was not an exception
from this rule, as the questionnaires provided linear and clear results, but many
elements from the research were left uncovered.

Interviews

In order to cover more abstract aspects of the research, the author chose as a
complementary method structured interviews consisting of several questions, which
were distributed among representatives of each participant group. Interviews are
often used as complementary research method in the social sciences, because they
give the opportunity for a more in-depth, open discussion, and more informal, free
interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee (Potter, 2002; Winchester,
1999; Sarantakos, 2013). Despite being considered a disadvantage because it
produces subjective results, the flexible format of the interviews was a major
advantage for this study, as some nuances of the research such as exploring
“emotions”, and “creating memorable experience” could not be properly captured
with the questionnaire design. Of course the results from the interviews are not
generalizable, because of the subjectivity of data obtained. On the other hand, their
flexible format contributed for a deeper explanation and understanding of the
connection between performing art and business performance, and if the researcher
could have done the dissertation again, this would probably be chosen as the
primary, not the secondary research method.

Other methods

Upon embarking on this research, the author initially considered focus groups and
participant observation as possible research methods, due to the behavioural
elements contained in this research.. However, because of time constraints and cost,
these research methods were not opted for.

Initially the researcher also considered researching two groups of employees by

comparison – one coming from an organisation where the performance
management model is used, and another one, where this model is not used. They
would be both given the same questionnaire. This approach was overruled however,
because it does not reflect the interactive nature of the model being studied in
which managers and business leaders play crucial role.

Sampling Strategy
For the purposes of this study, the writer had to examine two separate groups of
participants. A method of stratified sampling has been used, as the relationships
between different sub-groups had to be observed (Kirby et. al, 2000: 339).
Furthermore, a particular group of the total population was invited to the interviews,
forming a sub-group of the original population. Also, the participants were selected
on the basis of specific criteria, such as company (organisation), where a particular
type of model has been implemented.

The first group of participants consisted of managers from companies where the
performance arts approached has been used. A total of 10 managers were involved
in the study, and over 50 different managers from five different companies across
the UK were contacted in order to reach the target group. The author tried to create
as diverse a sample as possible, making sure there was an equal number of men and
women represented, and more importantly thatthere were representatives of
various industries: advertisingretail, finance, fashion and digital marketing. The other
group of participants consisted of 30 employees, who were part of the teams of each
one of the 10 managers. Not every team had the exact same number of people, as
some teams were smaller and others larger. . However, the size of the teams was
irrelevant to the purposes of this study as the participants had to complete individual
questionnaires. All of the participants were approached via email, and the
questionnaires were distributed via email, then completed by the participant and
returned via email again. This took place in the course of four weeks. Five of the
managers and five of the employees were invited for an interview, they were
randomly selected from the questionnaire sample and the interviews took place took
place over the phone/Skype and recorded then transcribed by the researcher. The
interviews took place in the course of one month. The full transcripts of the
interviews as well as the questionnaires are attached in the appendices.

Instrument Design
Questionnaires

For the purposes of this research the writer designed two separate questionnaire
scripts and two brief interview scripts.

The questionnaire for the managers from the companies consisted of twenty open
questions, related to the business performance of their employees. The first part of
the questionnaire consisted of demographic questions, related to age, gender, and
questions related to the professional role of the participants, such as length of their
experience in the company, exact position and responsibilities. The core questions
were divided into groups for clarity, addressing the main objectives of the research,
through the perspective of the managers. More importantly, these questions were
designed to address the core competencies, established in the previous chapter to
assess business performance by art performance – leadership, communication,
team-building, emotion management, and creativity.

The questionnaire for the employees consists of the same number of questions, and
again combines open and closed questions. Apart from the demographic questions,
the rest of the questions are organised into groups, addressing the objectives
through the prism of the employees, and addressing individual narratives on
important concepts such as creativity, improvisation, and team-building within the
organisation.

Interviews

The interview scripts for both groups consist of six brief, but open questions.

The questions for the managers were designed to discuss in detail leadership as
performance, and “business as show business”.

The questions for the employees were designed to reflect their experience as
recipients of the performance bound management, and address specific components
such as playing, rehearsing, performing in the workplace, with the purpose of team
building and more effective task delivery/distribution.

The full scripts of the questionnaires and the interviews are available in the
Appendices.

Data Collection

Most of the communication with the participants took place via email. Before that
however, the author created a large database of companies, which met the research
criteria using a simple google search. The author purposefully targeted smaller
organisations, because the probability of being granted access to employees was
higher, and the process – less time-consuming, which turned out to be the case. At
first the writer contacted via the phone relevant people from each company, to
make them acquainted with the purposes of the research and to ask for permission
to conduct the research with representatives from their companies. For
confidentiality, the job titles of the initial contacts are not disclosed, especially
having in mind their job titles are not relevant to the research, as they are not direct
participants in it. In some cases, the managers distributed the questionnaires to their
employees, and in other cases the writer approached the employees directly via
email. The questionnaires were distributed and completed in the course of four
weeks. The interviews were conducted over the phone/Skype depending on the
preferences of the participant. They were then recorded and transcribed by the
researcher. The interviews were completed within four weeks.

Methods of Data Analysis

The analysis of the questionnaire results took place via thematic analysis. . Because
of the small number of respondents and the diverse design and answer sets of the
questions, and because of the qualitative research approach of the study, the author
did not use any of the statistical software available such as SPSS or STRATA.

The results of the interviews were also analysed manually, where the author aimed
to detect common words, phrases, and group or “cloud” them together, in order to
be able to determine trends and tendencies in the answers of the respondents.

The results from the questionnaires were presented in the format of tables and
charts. The major findings of this dissertation will be discussed in details in the next
chapter.

Ethical Considerations
There were several types of ethical issues, which the researcher had to take into
consideration for this project. The most important one was related with the
informed consent of the participants. All of the participants (both managers and
employees) were informed in advance about the purposes of this project, and gave
their informed consent to participate in writing. Their identity as well as the names
of the organisations they belong to has been kept in strict confidentiality, thus
meeting the requirements of the code of ethics of the University.

In addition, the privacy and confidentiality policy of all of the companies had to be
taken into consideration as well, as the companies have a very strict policy for access
to their employees for research purposes. Therefore the researcher had to sign
consent forms for confidentiality and privacy with the companies whose employees
and managers agreed to participate in the study.
Consent forms are attached in the Appendices.

Finally, all the information collected in the course of this dissertation has been used
only for the purposes of the study, and will be kept confidential.

Problems and Limitations

There were several problems and challenges which the researcher encountered
while conducting the research for this dissertation.

The first challenge was recruiting a sufficient number of participants. The creation of
the initial database of prospective companies took long time, and many times the
requests of the researcher were turned down, because most of the companies rarely
allow the opportunity for external research. Thus access to the participants and
obtaining permission for the research was a major challenge.

Secondly the researcher was restricted by time and cost, which determined the
choice of more efficient method, such as the questionnaire, instead of the more time
consuming focus groups or participant observation.

In terms of the methodology chosen, there are several limitations which need to be
mentioned. The first one is the fact that because of the small sample, the data
collected and the findings made cannot be extrapolated on a broader scale. In other
words, the generalizability of the results is questionable.

Another weakness of the methodology was related to the fact that the researcher
used interpetivist approach, which was determined by the nature and the objectives
of the research. In this sense the results and the achievements of this project can be
deemed as biased, because the connections between the different variables have
been determined not on the basis of empirical evidence, but on the basis of the
analytical and judgemental skills of the researcher, in the context of a particular
academic field.

Conclusion
This chapter has outlined and justified the research methodology implemented in
this dissertation and its validity. Because of the nature of the research, the author
opted for the qualitative strategy, bound by interpretivist approach. The key
research tools were questionnaire, supplemented by interviews with two groups of
participants – employees and managers. The participants were carefully targeted
and recruited through stratified sampling technique. The results were analysed
manually, due to the small sample of participants. The major results and findings of
this dissertation are discussed in the following chapter.