TYPES OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

What is a Paradigm?
The term paradigm refers to the progress of scientific
practice based on people’s philosophies and assumptions
about the world and the nature of the knowledge – in this
context, about how research should be conducted
Paradigms are universally recognised scientific
achievements that for a time provide model problems and
solutions to a community of practitioners (Kuhn, 1962).
They offer a framework comprising an accepted set of
theories, methods and ways of defining data.
There are two main research paradigms or
philosophies.
The two paradigms (approaches)can be labelled
POSITIVIST and PHENOMENOLOGICAL.
The most common terms used are quantitative and
qualitative
Alternative terms of the main research
paradigms
POSITIVISTIC PARADIGM Phenomenological Paradigm
Quantitative Qualitative
Objectivist Subjectivist
Scientific Humanistic
Experimentalist Interpretivist
traditionalist
 RESEARCH DESIGN
A detailed outline of how an investigation will take
place.
A research design will typically include how data is
to be collected, what instruments will be employed,
how the instruments will be used and the intended
means for analyzing data collected.
Research design is about how to select the people
(or things) that will give us valid (legitimate,
appropriate) and reliable (consistent and
dependable despite different times & researchers)
information or data.
 Research Design
A research design provides a framework for the collection
and analysis of data.
A research method is simply a tool or technique for
collecting data. This includes observations, interviews,
questionnaires, FGD, community meetings.
Research design is also about how to ask in such a manner that
the data will be representative
In short, the three criteria for evaluating business
research are:
 Reliability; Validity and Replicability
 Criteria for evaluating research
Validity of research has several dimensions (is concerned
with the integrity of conclusions generated from research.
 Measurement validity/ construct validity- that is whether or
not a measure that is devised of a concept reflects a concept
being measured,
 Internal validity-whether a conclusion that incorporates a
causal relationship between two or more variables is logical,
 External validity-whether or not the results of a study can be
generalised beyond the specific context.
 Ecological validity-whether or not the social scientific
findings are applicable to people’s daily lives, natural social
settings.
What are the Questions that
Research Design Answers?
How to conduct a study such that the
information gathered is as true a
representation of reality as possible?
How to conduct a study such that similar
results can be obtained if someone else
comes and conducts the same study at a
different time?
How to conduct a research project to
specifications, in time and within budget?
Types of Research Methods
Cross-sectional Action research
Experimental Case studies
Longitudinal Grounded theory
Surveys Participative enquiry
(Positivism/ Quantitative) Ethnography
Archival
(Phenomenological/
Qualitative)
Cross- Sectional
Is also called a social survey design designed to obtain
information on variables in different context (more
than one case) but at the same time (data on variables
of interest are collected more or less simultaneously).
Normally, different organizations or groups of people
are selected and a study is conducted to ascertain how
factors differ.
e.g if you want to investigate associations between
labor turnover and productivity you need to select
groups where labor and productivity is different
 Cross sectional research
More than one case is selected to identify variations and
make distinctions between cases.
In order to establish variation between cases it is necessary
to quantify the data.

QN: Identify typical business case examples of research where

cross-sectional research is appropriate. What are the major
challenges associated with cross sectional research? Suggest
possible strategies to counter those challenges.
Cross-sectional
Cross-sectional studies are conducted when there are
constraints of time resources.
Data is collected once over a short period of time b4 it
is analyzed and reported.
Often used to investigate characteristics of large
numbers of people or organization.
However, it does not explain why a correlation exists.
Are inexpensive and are conducted simultaneously.
Experimental Studies
Experiments are conducted either in a laboratory or in
a natural setting in a systematic way
Permit casual relationship to be identified
The aim is to manipulate the independent variable(for
e.g. the intensity of education on productivity) in
order to observe the effect on the dependent variable
(for e.g. output levels of workers)
Experiments engenders confidence in the robustness
and trustworthiness of causal findings
Field and Laboratory experiments
 Laboratory experiments take place in a laboratory
where the setting is contrived
 Field experiment occur in real-life settings, such as
organisations, communities, or as a result of the
implementation of a new policy.
 Field experiments are common in business than
laboratory experiments which are purely scientific.
 However, a field study does not imply a field
experiment since no manipulation of variables is done
in field studies.
Field experiments offer the advantage that they are
conducted in a real situation and thus avoid many of
the draw backs of laboratory,
True field experiments are rare in business research
because of the problems of achieving the requisite
level of control when dealing with organizational
behavior.
Qn: What is the role of manipulation in experiments?
Experimental studies may be further subdivided into
the following:
 Classic experimental design
Two groups are established and form the basis for
experimental manipulation of the independent variable.
The experimental/treatment group receives the treatment
and is compared against the control group.
Group members are randomly assigned to groups so that
variation in some behaviour is only attributed to
manipulation of the independent variable.
The two groups are pre-tested at the beginning before being
subjected to manipulation.
 Which challenges threaten the validity, reliability and
replicability of experimental research?
 LONGITUDINAL STUDIES
It is a study overtime of a variable or group of subjects.
The aim is to research the dynamics of the problem by
investigating the same situation or people several times or
continuously over the period in which the problem runs.
Longitudinal research projects can extend over years or
even decades and clearly explains how changes are created
in a real context.
However, it is costly and time-consuming
 Panel study and cohort study in
longitudinal design
Panel study: a sample is often randomly selected at national
scale (ie from organisations, individuals etc),
A cohort selects an entire cohort of people eg those
unemployed, newly married, born on the same day, year or
month
QUESTION:
What are the challenges arising from a longitudinal study?
 Sample attrition where the subjects change, challenges as to
when to conduct another study, panel conditioning effect
(modifying behavior)
Stebbins(1992) refer the longitudinal study based on
primarily qualitative approach as concatenated
exploration.
A distinctive feature of this approach is that there is a
chain of studies.
Each link in the chain is an examination or re-
examination of a related group or social process or an
aspect of a broader category of groups or social
process.
 SURVEYS
It is where a sample of subjects is drawn from a population
and studied to make inferences about the population.
If a sample is representative, it is possible to use statistical
techniques to demonstrate the likelihood that the
characteristics of the sample will also be found in the
population.
Survey research comprises a cross sectional design in
relation to which data (qualitative and quantitative) are
collected predominantly by questionnaires or interviews at
a single point in time.
Surveys cont’d
The 1st and most critical stage of the survey is to select
the sample.
It is important to ensure that your sample is not biased
and is representative of the population from which it is
drawn.
Having decided on a sample, it is necessary to decide
how to ask the survey questions.
The alternatives are face to face or telephone interview
or questionnaires.
 Types of Surveys
The are major two types of surveys:
a. Descriptive survey- is concerned with identifying and
counting the frequency of a specific population, either at one
point in time or at various times for comparison.
Such surveys are associated with political elections, but are
frequently used in business research in the form of attitude
surveys.
b. Analytical survey- is where the intention is to determine
whether there is any relationship between different variables.
If you wish top carry out this type of survey, you will need to
be familiar with the theoretical context so that you can
identify the independent, dependent and extraneous
variables
 Ethnography
Ethnographic research is a qualitative method
where researchers observe and/or interact with a study’s
participants in their real-life environment.
Within the field of usability, user-centred design and
service design, ethnography is used to support a designer’s
deeper understanding of the design problem – including
the relevant domain, audience(s), processes, goals and
context(s) of use.
The aim of an ethnographic study within a usability project
is to get deep understanding of a problem (and all its
associated issues).
 this enables the design of a solution specifically for that
problem under given circumstances
 Ethnography cont’d
ethnographic methods are used for very complex
and/or critical design problems (in terms of their
domain, audience(s), processes, goals and/or context(s) of
use).
highly critical systems (where failure or error can lead to
disaster)
Individual methods which are available within an
ethnographic study include:
participant observation,
 interviews and
Surveys.
Ethnography can help identify and analyse
unexpected issues
It has the ability to deliver a detailed and faithful
representation of users’ behaviours and attitudes
Drawbacks of Ethnography
Time constraints
Detail and completeness of observations
Potential bias and mistakes in data collection and
analysis
TRIANGULATION
 Note that, ideally, the researcher uses a combination of
methods, for example, a questionnaire to quickly collect.
 A great deal of information from a lot of people, and then
interviews to get more in-depth information from certain
respondents to the questionnaires.
 Perhaps case studies could then be used for more in-
depth analysis of unique
 And notable cases, e.g., those who benefited or not from
the program, those who quit the program, etc
Triangulation cont’d
NB “Triangulation involve the use of different
approaches, methods and techniques in the same
study.”
Can overcome the potential bias and sterling of a
single method approach.
Denzin(1970) defines triangulation as the
combination of methodologies in the study of the
same phenomenon.
He argues that the use of different methods by a number of
researchers studying the same phenomenon should, if their
conclusion are the same, lead to greater validity and
reliability than a single methodological approach.
Smith, Thorpe and Lowe(1991) identify four types of
triangulation:
 Data Triangulation- where data is collected at different times
or from different sources in the study of a situation.
 Investigation Triangulation- where different researchers
independently collect data on the same situation and
compare the results.
 Types of triangulation
 Methodological triangulation- where both quantitative
and qualitative methods of data collection are used.
 Triangulation for theories- where a theory is taken from
one discipline and used to explain a situation in another
discipline
 Action Research
It is an approach which assumes that the social world is
constantly changing and the research as well as the
researcher are part of the change.
(Lewin 1946) saw the process of enquiry as forming a cycle of
planning, observing and reflecting.
Action research is a type of applied research designed to find
an effective way of bringing about a conscious change in a
partly controlled environment eg a study aimed at improving
communication between management and staff in a
particular co..
The main aim of action research is to enter into a situation,
attempt to bring about change and to monitor results.
Action research may not be be very far removed from
a problem solving or consultancy.
From the beginning, the researcher and the client
must be agreed on the aims of the study
Case Studies
A case study is an extensive examination of a single
instance of a situation of interest
Eisenhardt(1989) refers the case study as a ‘ a research
study which focuses on understanding the dynamics
of the present within single setting’
Bonoma (1985) notes that it must be ‘constructed to
be sensitive to the context in which mgmt takes place’
A unit of analysis is the kind of case to which the
variables under study and the research problem refer
and which data is collected and analysed.
 Case studies cont’d
A case study approach implies a single unit of analysis such
as co/ or a group of workers, an event, a process or individual.
The cases may be:
 A critical case, a unique case, a revelatory case, a typical case
or a longitudinal case.
QN: To what extent can results from a case study be
generalised (external validity)?
It involves gathering detailed information about the unit of
analysis often over a long period of time with a view of
obtaining in-depth knowledge.
Case studies are often described as exploratory research used
in areas where there are a few theories or a definition of body
knowledge.
 Case studies cont’d
Scapens (1990) adds the following types:
a. descriptive- case studies where the objective is restricted
to describing current practice.
B. illustrative- case studies where the research attempts to
illustrate new and possibly innovative practice adopted by
particular companies.
C. experimental case- case studies a where the research
examines the difficulties in implementing new procedures
and techniques in an organisation and evaluating the
benefits.
D. Exploratory- case studies where existing theory is used to
understand and explain its happening.
 Stages in Case studies
1. Selecting your case
2. Preliminary investigation- referred to as drift (Bonoma
1985) and is the process of becoming familiar with the
context in which you are going to conduct your research.
3. The data stage- you will need to determine how, where
and when to collect data
4. The analysis stage- at this stage you have a choice btwn
within-case analysis or cross sectional analysis
5. Report stage
Uses of Case Studies
- depict holistic portrayal of the case, e.g. client's
experience regarding a brand/ product/ service/
program.
used to organize wide range of information about a
case and then analyze the contents by seeking
patterns and themes in the data, and by further
analysis through cross comparison with other
cases.
Grounded Theory
Is one of the interpretive methods that share the
common philosophy-ie methods that are used to
describe the world of the person or persons under
study (Stern 1994)
The methodology was conceived by Glaser and
Strauss(1976) in the medical field but has now been
dvped in many disciplines
 It is the systematic generation of theory from
systematic research. It is a set of rigorous research
procedures leading to the emergence of conceptual
categories.
Go and Research on:
Archival research
Participative enquiry
Multi-method approach
The approaches and strategies do not exist in isolation
and therefore can be mixed and matched.
It is common for a study to combine both quantitative
and qualitative methods and to use secondary and
primary data.
For example you can use a survey method for a broad
area to get general knowledge and use case study to get
in-depth understanding or information.
The credibility of Research
Findings
The credibility of research findings is neatly expressed
by Raimond (1993:55) when he subjects findings to
the:
How do I know?
Will the evidence and my conclusions stand up to the
closest scrutiny?
How do I reduce the biasness of my results?

Reducing the possibility of getting the answer wrong

means that attention has to be paid to two particular
emphases on research: reliability and validity
Reliability
Reliability can be assessed by posing the following two
question (Easterby-Smith et al., 1991:41):
Will the measure yield the same results on different
occasions?- (positivist approach)
Will similar observations be made by different
researchers on different occasions?-
(phenomenological approach)
Threats to reliability
Robson(1993) asserts that there may be four threats to
reliability.
1. Subject error- a questionnaire completed at different
times of the week may generate different results.
2. Subject bias- interviewees may have been saying
what they thought their bosses wanted them to say eg
authoritarian managed organisation.
3.Observer error-researchers may use different
approaches to elicit answers from respondents.
4. Observer bias- deals with the interpretation of
responses.
Validity
Is concerned with whether the findings are really
about what they appear to be about.
Robson (1993) has also charted the threats to validity
which provides a useful way of thinking about validity.
 Threats to validity
1.History-information you get after an event happening may
be misleading.
2.Testing-if respondents think that the results of the
outcome may disturb them in some way this is likely to
affect the outcome
3. Instrumentation- what instrument has been used to
collect the data.
4. Mortality-this refers to participants dropping out of
studies.
5. Maturation-other events happening during the year have
an effect on participants.
6. Ambiguity about casual direction
7. Generalisability- sometimes referred to as external
validity. A concern you may have in the design of your
research is the extent to which your results are
generalisable, i.e.. Your findings may be equally
applicable other research settings.