Positivism Approach In Research

4 Research Methodology

4.1 Research objectives/goals/questions

Research comprises of defining and redefining problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions; collecting, organising and evaluating data; making deductions and reaching conclusions; and at last carefully testing the conclusions to determine whether they fit the formulating hypothesis (Clifford Woody cited in Kothari, 2004)

Kothari (2004) defines methodology as ‘a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically’ while Somekh and Lewin (2005) define methodology as both ‘the collection of methods or rules by which a particular piece of research is undertaken’ and the ‘principles, theories

Remenyi et al, (1998) informs us that those who take a positivism approach like ‘working with an observable social reality and that the end product of such research can be law-like generalisations similar to those produced by the physical and natural scientists’ and the assumption is that ‘the researcher is independent of and neither affects nor is affected by the subject of the research’ (Remenyi et al., 1998:33 cited in Saunders et al., 2009, p 114). Therefore the research will be undertaken in a value free way and objective.

Interpretivism maintains that the view of the world that we see around us is the creation of the mind, that we can only experience it personally through our perceptions which are influenced by our preconceptions, beliefs and values (Walliman, 2011). Interpretivist researchers are critics of positivism and believe that by reducing research to a series of law like generalisations the complexity and rich insights into our world are lost. Crucial to the interpretivist philosophy is that the researcher has to adopt an empathetic stance (Saunders et al., 2009,

Quantitative Research

(ODD Consulting Company, n.d.)

4.4 Description of each instrument used to collect data

Exploratory research is the collection of data which is open to interpretation and which may not be validated statistically, therefore is defined as a qualitative in nature. The most common forms of data collection that fall into this category are focus groups, in-depth interviews and projective techniques. An in-depth interview is a personal interview exploring the needs, desires and feeling of the respondents both consciously and unconsciously.

Descriptive research encompassed the utilisation of surveys, observation and panels. Surveys are concerned with describing, recording, analysing and can be carried out in a number of ways, in person, by telephone, by post or by using technology.

4.5 Rational for each data collection instrument used

4.5.1