Chapter 4 – Research philosophies and approaches

4.1 Why is philosophy important

The way one chooses to collect data belongs in the center of the research ‘onion’, as
displayed below. The research onion depicts the aspects underlying the choice of
data collection techniques. (See Figure 4.1 on page 124).

The research onion suggests that strategies can include action research,
experimental research, interviews, surveys, case study research or a systematic
literature review. The strategy is chosen based on the data required for the research
and the purpose of the study.

The research onion details the many interrelated choices you’ll need to make when
you’re crafting your research methodology. These include:

Research philosophy – the set of beliefs your research is based on (positivism,

interpretivism, pragmatism)

Research approaches – the broader method you’ll use (inductive, deductive,

qualitative and quantitative)

Research strategies – how you’ll conduct the research (e.g., experimental, action,
case study, etc.)

Choices – how many methods you’ll use (mono method, mixed-method or multi-
method)

Time horizons – the number of points in time at which you’ll collect your data
(cross-sectional or longitudinal)

Techniques and procedures (data collection methods, data analysis techniques,

sampling strategies, etc.)

4.2 Why research philosophy is important

Research philosophy is a term that describes the development of knowledge and the
nature of that knowledge. Understanding research philosophy is important because
the very purpose of research is also to develop new knowledge. It is not true that one
philosophy is better than another, but they might be suited to achieve different
things. Two major ways of thinking in p hilosophy are: ontology and ep istemology
(See table 4.1 on p age 139).

A p ragmatist is someone who thinks that concepts are only relevant where
they support action. He believes that one philosophical p osition could be more likely
lead to the answer to his research question than another. In addition, a p ragmatist
also believes that it is p ossible to work with multip le p hilosophical p ositions.
According to a p ragmatist there is not one way of thinking.

Ontology
Ontology is a p hilosophical p osition that refers to the nature of reality. One aspect
of ontology is objectivism. This means that things exist with a p urpose indep endent
of those social actors concerned with their existence.

Another asp ect is subjectivism, which holds that social occurrences are created
through the p erceptions and consequent actions of the involved social actors. People
who adopt a subjectivist way of thinking find it is necessary to explore the details of
a situation to be able to understand what is going on. This is termed social
constructionism.

Objectivists think that the culture of an organization is something that an

organization ‘has’ while subjectivist tend to view the culture as something an
organization ‘is’. Management theory is leaning towards the objectivist way of
thinking.

Epistemology
Epistemology regards what constitutes acceptable knowledge in an area of study. It
addresses the questions: ‘What is knowledge?’, ‘How is knowledge acquired?’ and
‘What do people know?’.

Positivism
The philosophy of positivism refers to the philosophical stance of a natural scientist.
This philosophy holds that collecting data about an observable reality and searching
for regularities and causal relationships will lead to the creation of a new theory or
new generalisations. Other characterizations of positivism are:

• The researcher is independent of the subject of the research, he is value-

neutral (his feelings are included in the research)
• Cyclical relationship between hypothesis testing and theoretical development
 • Quantifiable observations that lend themselves to statistical analysis

Realism
Realism claims that whatever we sense is reality: objects exist without concern of
the human mind. Therefore realism contradicts idealism, which states that only the
mind and its contents exist. Just like p ositivism, realism also assumes a scientific
ap proach to the develop ment of knowledge. There exist two kinds of realism:

• Direct realism – what you see is what you get, what we p erceive and
exp erience with our senses displays the world in an accurate way.
• Critical realism – what we exp erience are sensations, images of existing
things in the real world, not the existing things themselves. What we
exp erience are mere illusions.

There is a difference between these two kinds of realism regarding the cap acity of
research to change the world. A direct realist would state that the world is relatively
unchangeable whereas a critical realist would claim that the researcher’s
understanding to that which is being studied could be changed. Many researchers
claim that what we explore is just p art of the bigger p icture. Thus researchers usually
adopt a critical realism p oint of view.

Interpretivism
Interp retivism claims that it is necessary for researchers to understand the
differences between humans in our role as social actors. We interpret our daily social
roles in accordance with the meaning we give to these roles. Interpretiv ism stems
from two intellectual heritages

• Phenomenology considers the way in which we as humans mak``e sense of

the
world around us
• Symbolic interactionism: we are all in a continual process of interpreting the
social world we live in and we interpret the actions of the p eop le that interact
with us. These interp retations lead to adjustments of our own meaning and
actions.

It is imp ortant for a researcher to understand the world of his research subjects and
to understand the world from their p oint of view.
Axiology
Axiology is a strand of philosophy that studies judgments about value. This
includes values in the fields of ethics and aesthetics. One’s own values play a crucial
role in all stages of the research process. Our values are the guiding line for all our
actions (Heron 1996).

Research Paradigms

The term paradigm is frequently used in the social sciences, but it often leads to
confusion because of its many meanings. Here we define paradigm as a way of
examining social occurrences from which particular understandings of these
phenomena can be gained and explanations attempted. In Figure 4.3 on page 133
there is an image of how the four paradigms can be arranged:

• Functionalist paradigm – this paradigm is frequently used in business

management. Functionalists assume that an organisation are rational entities,
in which rational explanations will provide solutions to rational problems.
• Radical structuralist paradigm – this paradigm is concerned with
understanding structural patterns within organisations (hierarchies for
example) and reporting relationships and the extent to which these
relationships may produce dysfunctionalities.
• Interpretive paradigm – when adopting this paradigm one is concerned with
understanding the fundamental meanings attached to organisational life.
Instead of rationalities this one wishes to discover irrationalities. In this
paradigm being involved in the everyday activities of the organisation in order
to understand and explain what is happening is more important that to try to
change things.
• Radical humanist paradigm – this dimension adopts a critical perspective
of organisational life. It emphasises the consequences of one’s words and
deeds on others. Working with this paradigm one wishes to change things.

4.3 Research approaches

Deduction
Two main research approaches can be adopted when conducting research: deductive
and inductive approach. Deduction is the development of theory and hypotheses
which are tested by using a research strategy. Deductive reasoning is done when a
conclusion is logically derived from a set of premises (stellingen). The conclusion
will be true when all these premises are proven to be true. There are 5 stages in an
inductive research:

1. Forming a hypothesis to form a theory

2. Deduce testable premises
3. Examine these premises and the logic of the argument that produced them,
relate it to existing theories
4. Testing the premises by collecting data to measure variables or concepts
5. Analyze the results, If they are not consistent with the premises the theory is
false and should be rejected, or modified. If the results are consistent that a
new theory I s formed.

There exist four general characterizations for deduction

• Reliability. Every research should use a highly structured methodology, so

that it is easy to replicate. If this is the case the research is reliable.
• Concepts need to be operationalized in such a way that enables facts to be
measured.
• Generalisation.

Induction
With inductive reasoning it is not true that when a set of premises are true that a clear
conclusion can be formed. This is because the conclusion is based on observations
made by humans, and humans make mistakes. A conclusion is therefore never
guaranteed.

Abduction
A third approach, called abduction, starts with a conclusion: a surprise fact. With a
set of premises one subsequently tries to prove the conclusion. An abductive
approach does not move from theory to data (deduction) or from data to theory
(induction), but rather moves back and forth between the two, combining deduction
and induction.

Back to top

Chapter 5 – How to formulate a research design

5.1 Introduction
A researcher must be able to explain why he chooses a particular research design.
This justification should be based upon the research questions and objectives and
should also be consistent with his research philosophies.

5.2 Choosing a research design

A research design is a general plan of how one will answer research questions. It
includes clear objectives derived from the research question, it displays the sources
from which data will be collected and it will explain how these data will be collected.
This chapter will describe the different aspects of the formulation of a research
design:

• The research strategy: qualitative, quantitative or multiple methods

• The nature of the project: explanatory, descriptive or exploratory
• Methodological choice and related strategies
• Determining the time horizon of the research
• Ethical issues regarding the project

5.3 The research strategy : qualitative, quantattive or multiple methods

Quantitative research design
Often, the term ‘quantative’, is used to refer to a way to collect data or a procedure
to analyse data that generates or uses numerical data. Some characteristics:

• This research method is often associated with positivism. But may also be
associated with interpretivism when data is drawn from qualitative numbers.
• Quantative research is generally associated with a deductive approach, which
means that the focus is on using data to test a certain theory or certain theories.
However, it could be associated with an inductive approach in some cases.
• This method explores the relationships between variables after which they are
measured numerically and analysed using statistical techniques.

Qualitative research design

‘Qualitative’, is a term frequently used as a synonym for a way to a data collection
technique or a procedure to analyse data tat generates or uses non-numerical data.
Some characteristics:

• This research method is often associated with an interpretive philosophy,

because researchers need to make sense of the phenomenon being studied.
Qualitative research is often referred to naturalistic research since it needs to
be conducted in a natural setting, in order to gain trust, participation and
access to meanings and in-depth understanding
• Qualitative research can either be started with an inductive or a deductive
approach. But in practice, an abductive approach is frequently used.
 • When conducting qualitative research, participants’ meanings and the
relationships between them are studied using data collection techniques and
analytical procedures, to develop a conceptual framework.
• It is usually associated with action research, case study research and
ethnography.

Multiple methods research design

Many management and business research designs are likely to combine qualitative
and quantitative elements. This is because some data derived from qualitative
research may be analysed quantitavely, or may be used to inform the design of
another questionnarie. Quantative and qualitative research may be seen as two ends
of a continuum. Characteristics:

• Often associated with critical realism, since this philosophy advocates that
while there is an objective reality to the world we live in, the way in which
each of us understand and interpret it will be affected by our own social
conditioning. It could also be associated with pragmatism .
• This method may use either an inductive or a deductive approach. Frequently
both approaches are used.

Figure 5.2 on page 165 shows an image of the different methodolocial choices one
could make:

• Mono method: choosing either a quantitative or qualitative study

• Multiple methods: choosing both qualitative and qualitative study
o Multi method: more than one data collection technique is used but this
is restricted to either qualitative or quantitative design
o Mixed methods: both qualitative and quantitative design are mixed in a
research design

5.4 Recognising the nature of a research design

There exist three research designs one could adopt when conducting research:
1. Exploratory study
This kind of study is a valuable way to ask open questions to discover what is going
on and gain new insights about a subject of interest. Conducting exploratory research
is useful when one wishes to understand something or wants to assess phenomena
in a bright light. A view ways to conduct exploratory research are:
 1. To search literature
2. To interview experts
3. Conducting focus group interviews or individual interviews

2. Descriptive study
The purpose of a descriptive research is to acquire an accurate profile of happenings,
people or situations. It is possible for descriptive, explanatory and exploratory
studies to coexist in one research project, where they might extend one another.
When conducing descriptive research one should be cautious, because descriptive
study may become too descriptive and may therefore lead to worthless outcomes.
This is also the reason why most descriptive studies are often combined with
explanatory studies: after describing something the research will provide a valuable
explanation. This is referred to as descripto-explanatory study.

3. Explanatory study

When performing this kind of study one wishes to determine causal relationships
between certain variables.

5.5 Research strategies

Generally, a strategy is a plan of approach to achieve a certain goal. A research

strategy could therefore be defined as the various steps a researcher has to take to
answer his research question. The choice of a research question should be guided by
one’s research question(s) and objective(s), the cohesiveness with which these link
to the research philosophy, research approach and purpose, and to more pragmatic
concerns such as the extent to existing knowledge and access to participants and
other sources of data. The following strategies will be discussed in this chapter
(along with the research design that is linked to them):

Experiment

Quantitative research design only Survey

Archival Research
Qualitative research design only
 Case study

Ethnography

Action Research
Quantative, qualitative or both
Grounded Theory

Narrative Inquiry

Experiment
The experiment is a type of research that has been used frequently by natural
scientist. The goal of an experiment is to examine the probability of a change in an
independent variable causing a change in another, dependent variable (Hakim
2000). See table 5.2 on page 174 for the different variables and their meanings.
Instead of research questions, an experiment uses hypothesis (predictions). There are
two kinds of hypothesis in an experiment:

• Null hypothesis - which predicts that a significant difference or relationship

between the variables does not exist
• The alternative hypothesis - which predicts there is a relationship or difference

When performing an experiment, the null hypothesis is tested statistically. The null
hypothesis will be accepted when the probability that there is no statistical difference
is greater than a prescribed value (most of the times 0.05). In this case the alternative
hypothesis will be rejected.

There are various experimental designs:

• Classical experiment – a group of participating people is selected and

randomly assigned to either a control or an experimental group. The
experimental group will test a manipulation or intervention (storing) and in
the control group no such intervention is made. Because the control group is
influenced by the same external influences as the experimental group any
changes to the dependent variable will have to be caused by the intervention.
 • Quasi experiment – also uses an experimental and control group, but the
participants will not be randomly assigned to a group. Matched pair analysis
is when a participant in a control group will be compared to a participant in
the experimental group based on matching factors such as gender, age,
occupation etc. this is to create an even greater possibility that the intervention
is the cause of change to the variable.
• Within subject design/repeated measures design – this design uses only one
single group to determine change in a variable. Every participant will be
subject to an intervention of the independent variable. Before the intervention,
all participants will be observed, a pre-intervention, to establish a baseline (or
control), after which a planned intervention of the independent variable and
observation and measurement of the dependent variable will follow. This
research design requires much less participants than others, but the side effects
may be that the participants become tired or familiar with the experiment.

Internal validity is the extent to which the findings of the experiment can be
attributed to the interventions instead of any flaws in the research design (such is the
case with a laboratory experiment. External validity is a lot more difficult to establish
(when conducting field-based research).

Survey
This research strategy is usually associated with the deductive research approach. It
is often used for exploratory and descriptive research. Because most surveys use
questionnaires it is easy for people to understand and to explain. This is the reason
why this kind of research design is so popular. Besides through questionnaires, data
for a survey strategy could also be collected through structured observation and
structured interviews. With a survey, quantative data is collected and be analyzed
quantatively using descriptive statistics. When using a sample one needs to be sure
that the sample is representative to the whole population.

Archival research

An archival research strategy uses administrative records and documents as the main
source of data. Not only historical but also recent data documents could be collected
and analysed when adopting this strategy. With use of an archival research strategy
(research) questions with focus upon the past could be answered. These questions
may be exploratory, descriptive or explanatory.

Case study
A case study allows one to explore a research topic or phenomenon , within its
context or within real-life contexts. With a case study there is no clear boundary
between that which is being studied (the phenomenon or topic) and the context
within which it is being studied (the real-life ‘case’). This approach is useful when
one wishes to gain a better understanding of the research and a certain phenomenon
, especially when one wishes to explore existing theory. Below are some
characteristics of case studies:

• It is most often used in exploratory and explanatory research.

• Case study research could combine qualitative and quantative methods such
as questionnaires and interviews. The use of different data collection
techniques within one study to be sure that the data are telling you what you
think they tell you is called triangulation.
• It is possible to use multiple cases within one case study, this is termed literal
replication. The cases will be chosen in such a way that similar results are
predicted to be produced from each one. Theoretical replication is when a
contextual factor is deliberately different in a certain set of cases. This
approach of case study is done deductively.
• Holistic case study – when research is focussed on the organisation as a whole
• Embedded case study – when research is focussed on sub units within an
organisation and the case will involve more than one unit of analysis.

Ethnography

This approach is used to study particular groups of people. When conducting

ethnographic research one wishes to explore and analyse people in groups who share
the same space (this could be the same street, work group, organisation or even
society) and who interact with each other. Cunliffe distinguishes three ethnographic
strategies:

• Realist Ethnography – this is an objective, factual strategy which wishes to

identify ‘true’ meanings. People are being observed through facts or data
about structures and processes, routines and norms, practices and customs,
artefacts and symbols (Cunliffe 2010). A realist ethnographer writes in third
person, which displays his role as impersonal reporter of facts.
• Impressionist/Interpretive Ethnography – this ethnographic strategy is in
contrast with realist ethnography since impressionist ethnography focusses on
subjectivity rather than on objectivity. Participants are treated like people
rather than just subjects, this is the reason why Tedlock (2005) calls the
interpretive ethnographic strategy ‘the observation of participation’. Since the
 Instead of one definite meaning, an interpretive ethnographic believes that it
is likely that multiple meanings exist. The interpretive ethnographer writes his
report in first person and uses method such as personalisation, dialogues,
quotations, dramatization etc.
• Critical Ethnography – this strategy is designed to analyse and explain the
impact of power, privilege and authority on the people who are subject to these
influences.

Action Research

This type of research strategy designed to develop answers to real organisational

problems by using a participative and collaborative approach which uses various
forms of knowledge. Action research will influence the participants and the
organisation beyond the research project. As Greenwood and Levin said: action
research is a social process in which a researcher works with members of an
organisation to enhance their situation and their organisation. This type of research
has 5 themes:

1. Purpose – the purpose of action research is to promote organisational learning

to produce practical outcomes through identifying issues, planning action,
taking action and evaluating action (Coghlan and Brannick).
2. Process – the process of action research starts with a particular context and
with a research question, but because it moves through several stages (See
figure 5.4 on page 183) the focus may change as the research develops. Each
stage of the process begins with diagnosing or constructing ideas, planning,
taking action and finally evaluating action. This cycle will be repeated several
times.
3. Participation – this component of action research is critical. For Greenwood
and Levin action and participation are essential parts of an Action Research
process. One of the reasons why this is the case is because the members of an
organisation need to cooperate with the researcher and enable him to study
their existing work. Moreover, the participants are required to participate in
the form of collaboration though the cycles to allow any improvement in the
organisation to occur. Without participation this type of research would not
be able to work. Action Research enables bottom up culture change, because
organisational members are more likely to implement change they have
helped to develop. Therefore, members of an organisation become more
engaged and more willing to make decision.
4. Knowledge – different forms of knowledge: theoretical, propositional, lived
experiences of participants and knowing-in-action knowledge. The last type
 of knowledge comes from practical application. All these kinds of knowledge
will be incorporated into each of the stages of the Action Research process.
5. Implications – One of the implications of Action Research is that participants
will raise their expectations about their future treatment (since they are so
involved with the organisation). Another implication is that the organisation
will develop and its culture will change. Also researchers could use the results
from this research and use it to develop theory to inform other contexts.

Grounded theory

Grounded theory is a theory developed from a set of data (using an inductive

approach). It was developed as a way to analyse, interpret and explain the meanings
that social actors construct to make sense of their daily experiences in particular
situations. There are three stages:

1. Open coding – reorganising data into categories

2. Axial coding – determining relationships between categories
3. Selective coding – the integration of categories to produce theory

During all these stages of coding the researcher is constantly comparing each item
of data with others. Constantly coding involves moving between inductive (data to
theory) and deductive (theory to data) thinking: while discovering relationships
between codes and interpreting them the researcher is thinking inductively (he
develops his own theory from the relationships between codes). This interpretation
needs to be tested by collecting data from other cases, which means that the
researcher is thinking deductively because he tests his ‘theory’(interpretation) with
other data. This is known as the process of abduction.

With the Grounded Theory strategy, sampling is not meant to achieve

representativeness but rather to focus the research on a core theme, relat ionship or
process. This approach is known as theoretical sampling which ends when
theoretical saturation/conceptual destiny is reached. This happens when the data
collection does not continue to reveal any new properties relevant to a category,
where categories have become well developed and understood and relationships
between categories have been verified (Straus and Corbin 2008).

Narrative inquiry

The term narrative means story or a personal account which interprets an event or
sequence of events (Saunders 2012). Narrative inquiry refers to a research strategy
where a researcher believes that the experiences of his participants can best be
accessed by collecting and analysing these as stories. Narrative inquiry preserves
any chronological connection and sequence of events as told by the participant. In
this way the reader may find it more easy to understand the report and the researcher
is able to provide his interpretation of the events.
With Narrative Inquiry the participant is the narrator of a story about an event, work
project, managing or setting up a business, or organisational change. It may be used
in combination with other strategies as complementary approaches.

5.6 A Time Horizon

Cross Sectional studies
When a research is more like a ‘snapshot’ taken at a certain time then it’s called
cross-sectional. These kind of studies often use the survey strategy, where an
incidence of a phenomenon may be described or where may be explained how
different factors in different organisation are related.
Longitudinal studies
Is the research reported more like a ‘diary’ which represents the events over a
specific period than it’s called longitudinal. The advantage of this time horizon is
that it’s able to study change and development.

5.7 The ethics of Research

When choosing a subject for a research project one needs to consider the ethics.
Some topics have more ethical difficulties than others. One needs to be sure that
ethical issues will not be disadvantageous (harmful, embarrassing, painful) to
participants. Moreover, the participants need to be aware of that they are subject of
research.

5.8 Quality of Research

To ensure quality in any scientific research one needs to consider the ‘canons of
scientific inquiry’:

• Reliability – a reliable research is reproducible, meaning that the data

collection techniques and analytic procedures would produce the same
findings if they were repeated by some one else or another time. In order to
be reliable one has to work in a structured and methodological way.
• Construct validity – the extent to which the research measures actually
measured what the researcher intended them to assess.
• Internal validity – this is the case when the research displays a causal
relationship between two variables.
 • External validity – Concerned with questions such as: “Are the research
findings generalised?”, “Would a researcher find the same in other relevant
settings or groups?”.

Alternative criteria to asses quality of research

The ‘canons of scientific inquiry’ are most suitable with quantative, positivist
methods. Researchers who undertake a qualitative research may find it difficult
cover the four criteria listed above, because they may not be suitable to their kind of
research. As an answer to this problem, Lincoln and Guba, have formulated new
names for the ‘canons of scientific inquiry’: dependability instead of reliability,
credibility for internal validity and trasferability instead of external validity.
Moreover, Lincoln and Guba have also developed a new set of criteria named
‘authenticity criteria’.

5.9 The role of the researcher

Full-time students usually adopt the role of an external researcher. This is someone
who needs to identify an organisation within which he conducts his research. The
researcher is external to the organisation therefore he has to negotiate with its
members to be able to access the organisation and to collect its data.
An internal/practitioner researcher is one who works in an organisation. The
advantage of this is that the researcher has easy access to the organisatio n. Plus, he
is also likely to have knowledge of the organisation and therefore understands the
complexity of what is happening in that organisation. This may also be a
disadvantage since the external researcher’s assumptions and preconceptions may
be different from reality.