Evidence-Based Project, Part 1: Identifying Research Methodologies

This chapter presents the research methodologies adopted for the research. A combination of both qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches was adopted by the researcher in order to attain a realistic result from the research. Specifically, the chapter discusses the range of methods used by the researcher for the research, research philosophy, research strategy and research methods used to gain data and data analysis.
RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY

Research philosophy is about the system in which the research problem should be fundamentally approached, and this includes: positivism, realism and interpretivism. (Davies, 2007)

Positivism: The roots of positivism lie particularly with empiricism, which works with observable facts. The basic philosophy behind positivism is that, all factual knowledge is based on the positive information gathered from observable experience, and that any idea beyond this realm of demonstrable fact is metaphysical. Only analytic statements are allowed to be known as true, through reason alone. (Davies, 2007)
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Interpretivism is a view that believes that the world and reality are not objective and external, but are socially constructed and given meaning by people. This view is usually referred to as the qualitative approach and is based on an inductive procedure (Rea and Parker, 2006).(why appropriate to use)

Saunders et al (2003) defines realism that is based on the belief that a reality exists that is autonomous of human thoughts and beliefs, and that can influence their perceptions either consciously or unconsciously. Management and Business research is often a mixture between positivist and interpretivist, perhaps reflecting the stance of realism. (Scheurich, 2007)

The research issues will try to find out, the extent of employee involvement in the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) in PZ Industries (NIG.) PLC as a case study. What they do well or not in this regard. Thus, the research philosophy is interpretivism rather than positivism.

Deciding which research method will be adopted depending on what research philosophy is adopted is relevant in a research, Rea and Parker, (2006). For positivism, a deductive process involves the development of a conceptual and theoretical standpoint prior to its testing through empirical observation while for interpretivism, it involves an inductive procedure which is the reverse of deductive process. Interpretivism involves reflecting on recent and past experiences (Davies, 2007). Realism accommodates the use of both deductive and inductive processes (Scheurich, 2007). The research philosophy for this research is interpretivism; therefore, an inductive procedure is adopted.(why is it appropriate)
RESEARCH STRATEGY

A research strategy is the plan for the researcher to carry out his research. The main research strategies include experiment, survey and case study etc. The chosen research strategy for this research is the case study.

According to Davies, (2007), case study is the development of detailed, intensive knowledge about a single case, or a small number of related cases. The advantages of using case study include: the detailed observations surrounding the case study method, allow us to study many different parts, scrutinize them in relation to each other, view the process with its total environment and also utilize the researcher’s capacity for versatility. As a result, case study provides us with a greater prospect than other available methods to obtain a holistic view of a specific research; this is not to say that researches based on case study have no shortcomings.

A common criticism of case study is that it provides a limited basis for the traditional “scientific generalisation”. (Gomm, 2009)(explain what it means and introduce your company briefly and of what benefit will it be to the organisation)
DATA COLLECTION

Data collection is the most crucial process in a research or study and it comprises of two types: the primary data and the secondary data (Scheurich, 2007)
SECONDARY DATA

(Cancell this section entirely, it is not necessary) instead put multi-method approach i.e, why have you choosen questionnaire and interview methods) expantiate with reasons in your own words

According to Scheurich, (2007), secondary data is that which the author has not been responsible for gathering ‘first-hand’. It therefore includes all the data gathered by someone else and presented in a variety of forms, such as journal articles, reports, archive materials, companies annual reports, newspapers and magazines, conference papers, internet and books etc.

For this research, the secondary data collection related to TQM and employee involvement in the implementation and the objectives of this research mainly come from books, journal articles and internet search.
PRIMARY DATA

According to Scheurich, (2007), primary data is any data which the author has obtained ‘first-hand’ from its original source as part of the ‘applied’ aspect of his research. It therefore, does not include any data previously gathered by anyone else. Hence, primary data sources include: individual enquiry in the form of observation, conversations, questionnaires, interviews etc.

For this study, telephone interview and questionnaire will be used for collecting the primary data.(why is it useful and possible barriers to it in your own words & opinion)
QUESTIONNAIRES

Questionnaires are one of the most widely used data collection strategy. It provides an efficient way of collecting responses from a large sample prior to quantitative analysis, because each respondent is asked to respond to the same set of questions. (Saunders et al, 2003). Questionnaires can be associated with both positivism and interpretivism approaches of research. The response rate, the reliability and validity of data collected are two key criteria to a good questionnaire. (Scheurich, 2007)

According to Davies, (2007), three main techniques exist in exploring peoples’ opinion and attitudes. These include:

Closed questions: the respondent is required to select between a limited numbers of answers.

Open-ended question: the participant is allowed to use his discretion in providing any answer to the questions and it’s either written down, verbatim or the researcher is armed with a list of probable pre-determined responses.

Scales: limited choice of answers has been chosen to measure an attitude, an intention or some aspect of the participant’s behaviour. The key to designing scalar questions is to decide on what should be measured and then to select the relevant attributes by which they can be rated.

In this study, closed questions and scalar questionnaire will be used.(explain why you used it properly in your words & opinion)

Questionnaire design is important to quantitative data collection. Most of the style of the quantitative method is attitude scaling. There is an example question ‘Reward system’ below

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

I am satisfied with –

the organisation’s reward system 1 2 3 4 5

The advantages of choosing questionnaire method are time saving for participants and guarantee the accuracy of questionnaires, because the pattern of questions are the same .The next stage is to identify the number of sample(say how you encouraged them to do so). The questionnaire will be designed with 25 questions in four A4 papers(because……………….). There are about 400 people in PZ Industries (NIG.) PLC head office in Lagos, comprising of 5 departments and the questionnaire will be distributed to 100 people who are working in different departments and holding different job positions (managers and employees). Based on the number of people working in each department, the questionnaire will be distributed in the following order:

HRM department = 30

Purchasing department = 20

Product department = 15

Finance department = 10

Marketing department = 25

Before this explain the rationale behind your choosing this departments and how they were encouraged to participate)

Because of the long distance, the distribution and collection of questionnaires will be e-mailed to the researcher’s friend who is equally a manager in one of the branches of PZ Industries (NIG.) PLC at IIupeju, in Lagos state. He will print 100 questionnaire copies and help the researcher to distribute and collect these questionnaires, then post to the researcher.( more on question design like objectives and questions that answers them)
INTERVIEWS

According to Scheurich, (2007), interviews are associated with positivist and interpretivist philosophies. This is an approach where the selected respondents are asked questions about what they do, think or feel. A positivist method suggests ‘closed questions’ which have been designed prior to distribution. An interpretivist method suggests ‘unstructured questions’, where the questions have not been designed in advance. There are five different interview styles: structured interview, semi-structured interview, focus group interview and telephone interview.(which did you choose and reason because , reason problemstec)

Although the questionnaire has provided the researcher with the main data about what PZ Industries (NIG.)PLC does well or not in the involvement of employees in the implementation of TQM from the participants, the reasons and thoughts of their opinion cannot be ascertained. Thus, four telephone interviews will be utilized in this research (the CEO who is very familiar with the organization, HR manager who knows the employees needs and wants and their level of motivation in doing their job, the marketing manager who well know marketing and front- line employees, Product manager who well knows about quality of their products and back-line employees). The purpose of the interview is to find out what is, in the mind of the interviewee that cannot be known directly (Scheurich, 2007). The interview method is a very good complement to the questionnaire.

Telephone interview allows interviews sometimes with individuals otherwise not accessible because of one reason or the other. It therefore involves speed, access and lower cost. There are also disadvantages with interview method for qualitative data. This particularly relates to the complexity in establishing the needed trust, usually so important for obtaining this type of data (Davies, 2007). However, in this research, the researcher is quite familiar with these interviewees, so this eliminates the problem associated with trust when interviewing people over the phone.

The findings from above analysis will be linked to theories and opinions with the intention of drawing a conclusion and making adequate recommendation.

data requirement table with how each objective each objective is been meant ie.like the one you did befor but put obj I : question so and so 1 ,7 ,8,23)

(what questions dis you ask and why ,link to objectives)

and refer to interview schedule appendix that you have prepared and refer to them)
SAMPLING

Whatever your research questions and objectives, you will need to collect data to answer them. If you collect and analyse data from every possible case or group, it is referred to as census, but for many research questions and objectives, it will be impossible for the researcher ,either to collect or analyse all the available data, owing to restrictions of time, money and often access (Saunders et al, 2003).

According to Saunders et al,( 2003), sampling technique provide a wide range of methods that enable the researcher to minimize amount of data the researcher need to collect, by considering only data from a subgroup, rather than all possible cases or elements, and which can be categorised into two broad groups of probability sampling and non-probability sampling. Probability samples, are notable by the fact that each population element has a known, non zero chance of being selected in the sample, but with non-probability samples, the reverse is the case, where there is no way of estimating the probability that any population element will be included in the sample, and thus, there is no way of ensuring that the sample is representative of the population.

This study will be based on non- probability sampling because the sample size is not critical. The size of the interview is 4 persons, and for the questionnaire, it is 100. The choice of interviews within the sample will be based on managers holding different job positions in the organisation and whose ability to contribute meaningfully to the topic under research is not in doubt.
DATA ANALYSIS

Quantitative data analysis can be categorized into two types: descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics deals with quantitative data that are summarised or displayed in the form of charts, tables, percentages and averages. This type of statistical method is commonly used in management research for analysing data obtained from investigations of a limited nature (Davies, 2007)

Inferential statistics may involve the application of descriptive statistics, but have the main aim of drawing results from the data with regard to a theory, model or body of knowledge. Also, this frequently involves reaching a conclusion from a ‘sample’ to generalize to the ‘total population’. This type of statistical method is therefore important to those whose research undertaking is based on positivism (Davies, 2007)

The research philosophy for this research is interpretivism, thus, an inductive process is adopted. Therefore, the descriptive statistics is adopted in this study, because the questionnaires are to be collected from limited respondents and using SPSS (Statistical package for social sciences) or Excel to analyse the data. A percentage table will clearly show the results of the same sort of questions. Take sample question as an example

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Reward system

n=100

1

1%

3

3%

7

7%

64

64%

25

25%

From the above table, it can be seen that most of the employees at PZ Industries (NIG.)PLC are not satisfied with the reward system in place in the organisation, thus, the organisation is not doing well in this aspect to motivate employees to put in their best, in the implementation of TQM strategy.(how did you you analyse the qualitative data like…giving iterpterations to what was said duing the interview session……. and quantitative data Ms excel (reason and why talk more please)