Research Onion
The orderly method for collecting data following certain research techniques is known as a research methodology. Research methodologies are basically arranged, logical and esteem impartial (Mackey and Gass 2015). Research methodology incorporates hypothetical issues, trial techniques, numerical and measurable methodologies so as to pick up the correct result of the research. This section expresses the technique by portraying, clarifying and anticipating the data that have been taken after all through the examination. For doing this specific research, the researcher has utilised different instruments that have helped him to deduct analysis in a reasonable frame. The researcher has selected positivism as the research philosophy and deductive approach as a research approach. The researcher has used descriptive research design in order to conduct the research.
With the assistance of the research onion outline, the researcher has inspired help to plan the research paper in a type of a layer. Every single layer of this onion has furnished the researcher with exact information and data identified with the examination. The researcher has utilised different instruments that have helped the researcher to pick up an inside and out learning about the research topic. The research onion manages three major layers of the research, epistemology, ontology and axiology (Saunders et al. 2015). This conventional plan of the investigation meets the research objective in a superior way. Usefulness of the research onion is that it can adapt almost all types of research methodology and this can be used in a variety of contexts.
Figure 3.1: Research Onion
(Source: Saunders et al. 2015)
Research philosophy is a concept about which data is gathered, used and analysed. The gathered data must be a phenomenon and the research philosophy encompasses two types of beliefs, epistemology and doxology (Taylor et al. 2015). Research philosophy is mainly of three types, Positivism, realism and interpretivism. Positivism philosophy is concerned about knowledge in objective perspective and positivism philosophy collects the data in a scientific way. On the other side, Interpretivism philosophy deals with social science approach that is opposed mainly to natural science. Realism philosophy mainly deals with the independence of human mind with a scientific approach. In this research, the researcher has selected positivism philosophy to conduct the research.
Figure 3.2: Research Philosophy
(Source: Silverman 2016)
In this research, the researcher has taken positivism philosophy as positivism involves using of existing that can help to develop the hypothesis of the research. Moreover, positivism philosophy helps to collect data in quantitative and qualitative with a scientific approach. In addition, positivism relies mainly on science to collect the data. In this research, the subject of analysis is project scope management and project objectives, henceforth, the researcher has analysed existing theories and concepts about the topic. Positivism paradigm in research helps the researcher in investigating the research topic through surveys where quantitative data is the main concerned. Positivism philosophy is highly structured that has provided help for the researcher to collect the data. Most importantly, positivism philosophy depends on mostly quantifiable data that lead to doing statistical analysis (Flick 2015).
Research Philosophy
The research approach is procedure or plan that comprises steps to collect the data with broad assumptions. Research approach helps about the detailed method that assists in data collection, interpretation and analysis. As stated by Smith (2015), research approach based on mainly the nature of research problem. However, the approach of the research is divided majorly into two categories, data collection approach and data analysis reasoning. There are two types of research approach, inductive approach and deductive approach. The main concept of the inductive and deductive approach lies in that deductive approach tests the theories of research topics and inductive approach mainly concerned with collecting of new theory from the data. Moreover, deductive approach moves from a more general level to a more specific level and it is related to the scientific investigation (Pannerselvam 2014). In this research, the researcher has taken help of deductive approach.
Figure 3.3: Research Approach
(Source: Knobe and Nichols 2013)
In this research, the researcher has adopted the deductive approach with a specific end goal to lead the investigation. Deductive approach is useful in doing a quantitative investigation. The conduct of the respondents of the investigation is unsurprising and consistent. Moreover, a deductive approach is useful in doing the research in limit edge focal point with particular inquiries. In this research of project management, the idea of the project scope change management and project objectives have been followed the highly structural presentation that assists to create optimal research scope through deductive approach. The researcher has enough information about project objectives in its relation to the project scope change that helps the researcher compelling the implication of the data with a practical approach. The deductive approach starts from the introduction of the principles and follows by the applications of theories. On the other side, inductive approach is just the opposite of the deductive approach and it starts from theory, hypothesis and then the researcher goes for observation and confirm the concept.
The research design is the overall strategy to collect the data through integrating different components of the research in a logical and coherent way (Palinks et al. 2015). Research design ensures that the research problem of the study must be addressed perfectly and it can constitute the map of a collection of the data and analysis of the gathered data. Research design in business research makes a blueprint of measurement of data through experimental or observational study. There are three types of research design, exploratory, explanatory and descriptive research designs. Exploratory research is mainly concerned with the issue of the research that has not been studied in a clear way. Explanatory research helps to connect concepts in understanding the cause and effect of two variables. Moreover, in descriptive research design, it helps as an observational study that finds out the characteristics of the population and their effects on variables. In this research, the researcher has selected descriptive research design in order to conduct the research. In this research, the researcher has used both primary and secondary data collection process. In order to collect the primary data, the researcher has conducted survey and interview.
Justification for taking Positivism Philosophy
Figure 3.4: Research Design
(Source: Mackey and Gass 2015)
The researcher has taken descriptive design as the unmistakable outline is ideal for this undertaking as spellbinding plan depicts individuals associated with the research. The researcher has investigated the task as an observational route through subjective examination and the numerical path through quantitative examination. The most important aspect of the descriptive design is that it can gather the in-depth data from both quantitative and qualitative in nature. In this research, the researcher has taken information from a sample population and descriptive research design provides a multifaceted approach to collecting and analysis of the data. In project management study, the data collection process is vast as the stakeholders are various and descriptive research design can provide exact result in rich data from a large amount of data. Descriptive design refers to the research questions and data analysis in the given topic, moreover, descriptive statistics can help the researcher to determine the events, organises describes and depicts the data (Knobe and Nichols 2013).
Data collection is the method of collecting and measuring data on variables of interest in a research topic. The data collection method is the systematic way to enable the researcher to collect data based on research questions in order to conduct the research. Data collection processes are mainly two, primary data collection and secondary data collection. Primary data are raw data that are collected from the respondents, whereas secondary data are second had data that are collected from books, journals, websites, articles and magazines. Primary data provide the advantages of controlling the data collection; specify the data are to be collected; it is more dynamic with collected data. Moreover, primary data interprets the analysis correctly with efficient spending of information. On the other side, primary data takes time to gather and the amount of data that are collected through primary data is smaller than secondary data (Mackey and Gass 2015). In case of secondary research, the main advantage is resource implication that is usually easier to gather than primary data. Secondary data is unobtrusive and it is based on a longitudinal study. The secondary data are quality and performance data. On the contrary, secondary data do not have suitability and costs-access issues are there. In case of internet sources, the validity of secondary data creates an issue.
In this research, the mixed method has been used by the researcher that means both primary and secondary data have been used. So, the researcher has collected primary data through survey and interview process. The survey has been done to the senior employees of Omantel Telecommunication who are part of the project management section of the organisation. In addition, interview sessions have been conducted to the project managers of Omantel Telecommunication organisation. Moreover, secondary data has been used in the literature review sections where scholarly papers have been reviewed.
Research Approach
In order to collect the primary data, the researcher has conducted both survey and interview sessions. Data collection instrument of the survey was set of close-ended multiple type questionnaires. The researcher has prepared 22 close-ended questions. The questionnaire for the survey was segregated into two parts, demography section and subjective section. This questionnaire was uploaded on intranet software of Omantel Telecommunication to provide the responses. On the other side, data collection instrument of the interview was the open-ended descriptive questions. The researcher has prepared 10 open-ended descriptive questions in order to conduct the interview. The interview sessions could not be possible to take on face-to-face, however, the researcher conducted the interviews on Skype.
The population of this research is the employees and project managers of Omantel Telecommunication organisation. Sample population of survey was 120 and sample population of interview was 15. Due to the time, cost and operational restriction, only senior-level employees and project managers who are working in the Oman are taken as a sample population. As opined by Clemence et al. (2014), a research population is known as the well-defined individuals who should have similar characteristics. In this research, the population was of two types, one for survey and another one was for an interview. The population of the survey was senior-level employees and a population of the interview was the project managers of the project of Omantel Telecommunication.
In this research, the researcher has selected 35 senior-level employees of Omantel for the survey as sample size. The researcher has selected simple random sampling technique for conducting the survey. According to Eisenhardt et al. (2016), simple random sampling is the subset of a statistical population through which each of the individuals of the subset has an equal probability of being selected. The sample size is small and it is easy to estimate the calculation. Simple random sampling is highly representative if all subjects participate. The sample frame is the source of materials through which a sample is drawn. Sample frame of the survey was consisted of the permanent senior employee’s email address and was included with company mobile numbers and geographical location.
|
Population |
Sample size |
% of population |
Sample technique |
Sample frame |
|
120 |
35 |
29% |
Simple random sampling |
E-mail and hard copy |
Table 3.1: Sampling for survey
(Source: Created by researcher)
On the other side, the researcher has chosen 5 project managers of Omantel for conducting structured interviews as the sample size for an interview. The researcher has selected non-probability sampling in conducting interviews as using this technique does not provide all the individuals in the population equal chances of being chosen. It can reduce the bias and it contains specific proportion desired for interviews. The project managers in Omantel Company are 15 and they are permanent in nature. The sampling frame has been collected through e-mail and each of the project managers’ mobile number has been collected.
Justification for taking Deductive Approach
|
Population |
Sample size |
% of population |
Sample technique |
Sample frame |
|
15 |
5 |
30% |
Non-probability sampling |
E-mail and hard copy |
Table 3.2: Sampling of interview
(Source: Created by researcher)
The aim of the sampling is to gather a representative sample of the population. As the inadequate, inappropriate and excessive sample sizes can influence the research process and it can impact on the accuracy of the result. Therefore, the researcher has selected the sample size and sampling carefully in both surveys and for an interview.
The researcher in this study has used both quantitative and qualitative data analysis method. Each of the methods has its own technique to analyse the data. Interviews and observations fall into the category of qualitative research, whereas, survey and numerical discussion fall into the category of the quantitative data analysis.
In this research, in order to analyse the data collected from the survey, the researcher has taken help of quantitative data analysis technique. In quantitative data analysis, the researcher analyses the data through numerical study and the analyses are done based on the research questions. The researcher has also used the statistical data analysis technique SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science) to quantify the results of data analysis. SPSS is the statistical package that can perform complex data manipulation. SPSS can be used for both non-interactive and interactive uses. Moreover, the quantitative data analysis should be done after conducting the literature review. In this research, the researcher has linked up the quantitative data findings with the literature review section. Quantitative data analysis technique tests the hypothesis and it helps to develop the prediction of the future. In case of analysis of the survey, the quantitative data analysis technique can analyse the larger and selected data randomly. However, the researcher and biases are not known in this data analysis technique (Neuman and Robson 2014). In quantitative research design, it provides research design in an excellent way that can finalise the results and that prove a hypothesis. Through statistical research, a comprehensive answer cab is reached. The data findings have been presented in Excel bar graph and pie-charts. The data findings have also been presented in tables and analysis has been done based on the findings.
Data collected from Interviews have been analysed using qualitative data analysis technique. Interview-based data are observational data and this can are descriptive data. Data of the qualitative research are images, words and objects. According to Clemence et al. (2014), qualitative data are collected into a form of understanding, explanation and interpretation. Qualitative data analysis is based on mainly the interpretative philosophy of the observers. In this research, the responses of the project managers have been presented in tables and analysis has been made through lining with the theoretical perspectives. Qualitative data analysis provides help in in-depth analysis and it uses mainly subjective information. The qualitative analysis examines complex questions that can provide help in dealing with value-laden questions (Neuman and Robson 2014). The characteristics of the qualitative data are that these are small and selected intentionally of the researcher. The benefit of the qualitative research is particular findings and these are less generalised.
Research Design
The validity of the research is concerned with test measure and specifically, validity applies to methods and design of the research. A combination of open and closed-ended questions has been used in this research and agreement and disagreement of certain statements have been observed. This combination is used to face validity as the topic of project management is subjectively viewed in order to measure. Face validity is measured to test the transparency. In addition, content validity has been measured through theme wise segregation of the survey and interview questions. Most importantly, the topic is not universal and has not intended to cover the all aspects of project management, however, it has narrowed down to certain themes of project scope change and objectives. Moreover, construct validity has been addressed by giving a number of options using Likert Scale in the survey questionnaire. The researcher has prepared a few questions based on Likert Scale for a series of the close-ended questionnaire. The degree of anonymity may help in assuring to have construct validity.
Reliability of research is involved in the consistency of measurements of data. Reliability is a method that can be repeated in a range of situations or the persons can yield less or more same results. In order to ensure the reliability of a research, the identical questionnaire can be used. In this research, there are 25 questions in the survey and the researcher has prepared some of the questions that resulted to expose the same types of questions by each respondent. When the researcher measures a construct validity that the researcher assumes to be consistent across time, the scores obtained should also be consistent across time. In this process, test-retest reliability has been used in order to judge the reliability of data. Test-retest reliability leads to measure the responses at one time and again the researcher needs to measure the responses gain in the same group of people. This process helps to identify the correlation between two sets of groups. This process has been done by graphing two sets of data in a scatter plot.
According to Flick (2015), a pilot study is a small experiment in order to evaluate time, cost, feasibility and size of the sample group in an attempt to improve upon the study’s performance in full scale. In order to conduct the pilot test of the study, the researcher has chosen 10 senior employees. The researcher has made 5 subjective close-ended questionnaires in order to conduct the pilot test. Among the 5 questions in the survey, there was a question based on Likert Scale, one based on the perception of project management, one based on a recommendation. Moreover, a careful consideration was given to the framing of the questions’ languages, sensitivity and logic. The questionnaire was distributed through the e-mails of the employees. A time gap of 30 days was given to the senior employees to revert to the given questions. The senior-employees were asked to provide all answers to the questions. The pilot testing of the study provided a few changes to the questions:
- The instruction of the questions must be easy to follow
- The option sequences must be logical
- The wording of the question should be understandable
Justification for selecting Descriptive Design
Apart from these, the researcher understood that it would be accurate to do quantitative analysis based on SPSS technique. The answers missed the depth of the subjective perspective, hence, the researcher decided to do qualitative analysis based on interviews.
The researcher followed all the legal factors in conducting the research. As the research is involved with respondents and primary data collection technique, the researcher followed Article 30 of the Basic Law (Chapter III, Public Rights and Duties) that guarantees freedom of correspondence. This act leads to follow the researcher not to disclose the identity of the respondents in any circumstance. No coercion has been done and any kind of transaction of money has not been done while conducting the research. The researcher has tried to omit the biases while analysing the data and linking with objectives.
Most importantly, informed consent is done before collecting the data. Moreover, participants were aware of the nature of research and the researcher was concerned about freedom and autonomy of the respondents’ choices. The research topic has not provided any harm to the community and it encouraged the participants to provide their opinions. The researcher has used council and government database to conduct the research.
This research is involved with human participants and it raises complex and unique ethical and legal issues. In addition, the researcher has followed all the ethical norms while conducting the research. The researcher would destroy the data once the research process is done and the primary data have been collected only for research purposes. The researcher provided the informed choice to the respondents in order to collect the information and this research would not harm the anonymity and confidentiality of the respondents. The researcher has given the full respect to the privacy of the respondents.
Research methodology helps the researcher in collecting the samples and data for the research. Moreover, the data analysis technique has been provided that would be beneficial in the next chapter in providing findings of the research and analysis of the findings. Moreover, the sampling process has helped the researcher in gaining the knowledge about the research. Through survey and interview, the researcher has collected the data and these data have been analysed in the next chapter with graphs and tables.
Reference List
Clemence, A., Doise, W. and Lorenzi-Cioldi, F., 2014. The quantitative analysis of social representations. Routledge: Routledge.
Eisenhardt, K.M., Graebner, M.E. and Sonenshein, S., 2016. Grand challenges and inductive methods: Rigor without rigour mortis. Academy of Management Journal, 59(4), pp.1113-1123.
Flick, U., 2015. Introducing research methodology: A beginner’s guide to doing a research project. London: Sage.
Knobe, J. and Nichols, S. eds., 2013. Experimental philosophy (Vol. 2). Oxford University Press.
Mackey, A. and Gass, S.M., 2015. Second language research: Methodology and design. Abingdon: Routledge.
Neuman, W.L. and Robson, K., 2014. Basics of social research. Vancouver: Pearson Canada.
Palinkas, L.A., Horwitz, S.M., Green, C.A., Wisdom, J.P., Duan, N. and Hoagwood, K., 2015. Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42(5), pp.533-544.
Panneerselvam, R., 2014. Research methodology. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..
Saunders, M., Lewis, P., Thornhill, A. and Bristow, A., 2015. Understanding research philosophy and approaches to theory development. M. Saunders, P. Lewis, & A. Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, pp.122-161.
Silverman, D. ed., 2016. Qualitative research. London: Sage.
Smith, J.A. ed., 2015. Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. London: Sage.
Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. and DeVault, M., 2015. Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
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