The Non-Positivist Research Strategy - Phenomenology - Qualitative Evidence

Phenomenology and Non-Positivism - Introduction

To understand and develop theory of the problems of people and organisations, an alternative to positivist research strategy is non-positivist approach to research to evidence collection..  It is increasingly accepted among business and management scholars that phenomenology provides a suitable base for researching the central issues concerning people and their behavior.

Different Definitions

Cohen and Manion (1987) : ’Phenomenology is a theoretical point of view that advocates the study of direct experience taken at face value; and one which sees behaviour as determined by the phenomena of experience rather than by external, objective and physically described reality.’

In phenomenology, the perception of an individual about an external event or stimulus is the basic object of the enquiry. The meaning given by a person to the external event or stimulus can be expressed by that person only. Hence direct experience of the person is the basic evidence on input side and his response to the perceived meaning as expressed by him and his actual behavior can be the output.

Rudestein and Newton(1992) suggest that phenomenology ‘attempts to describe and elucidate the meanings of human experience’.

The above definition also indicates the attention to human experience or perception of external events.

According to Camus (O’ Brien,1965, ‘phenomenology declines to explain the world, it wants to be merely a description of actual experience’.

Phenomenology does not explain or describe external event as the important thing. Its focus is on the description of the experience or the  perceived external object.

Phenomenology- What? Why? And How?

The Context of the Research

In business and management studies it is essential to understand the context within which the research is being conducted by considering social or cultural factors that impinge on the research problem.

Some Philosophical Underpinnings

Philosophically the non-positivist position derives from phenomenology, which emphasises the primacy of  experience (perception). 

The term phenomenology essentially describes the philosophical approach that what is directly perceived and felt is considered more reliable than the explanations or interpretations of the external events by the researcher.   It is a search for understanding based on the interpretation of the person participating as informer rather than the interpretation of the external event made by the researcher. 

The phenomenological approach is now one of the qualitative evidence collection and research approached to research.

The primacy of Context

Phenomenology assumes that knowledge can be gained by concentrating on phenomena as experienced by people.

Within phenomenology also there are multiple approaches. One approach is based on  the relationship between self and society, as expressed in the work of Mead(1934), the originator of phenomenological psychology.  Mead accorded primacy to the process from which the ‘organism creates its environment’ ( Clegg and Dunkerley, 1980:267) which leads to the distinction between act and content, with the stress on the act and what that means to the actor (Yontef,1993).

In phemenological approach, the external variables being manipulated could not be treated as independent of the meaning ‘which individuals assigned to them’. This is a finding of Hawthorne study. Today this is one of the fundamental assumptions of phenomenological researchers (Collins and Young, 1988)

Phenomenology and Qualitative Methods

The evidence-gathering technique in the theoretical tradition of phenomenology uses a very specific method in which the researcher must first attempt to remove all traces of personal involvement in the phenomena being researched. It means researchers should not give undue importance to the external event that he is aware of. He has to focus on the meaning given to it by the interviewee or the research subject person.

Similarly the researcher has to limit any other influences from impinging on the evidence – collection exercise before finally gathering data around specific themes.

The interviewing process  followed  by  feminist and hermeneutic researchers is different. 

Non-positivist research assumes that objects of enquiry in the social sciences are social issues – a key concern is that research should acknowledge and treat people as essentially human rather than as mere objects.

Central to this argument is the fact that people have the ability to think, argue, and experience the world or events in idiosyncratic ways and that positivistic research strategies (which assume universally common ways) are unable to deliver an understanding of these human dimensions.

Control and the Research Process

These assumptions about the need and use of controls are seldom relevant in non-positivist research, due to the difficulty of controlling variables in social settings.

Evidence Collection in a Natural Setting

Non-positivist research essentially relies on collecting evidence in as natural and non-controlled a setting as possible, rejecting the formalism imposed on research activity by a positivist approach. Experiments that involve controlled variables are not part of qualitative approaches.

Using Non-Positivist Methods

Researchers are subject to prejudices, cultural beliefs and values that they bring into the research process with them and they influence choice of research strategy. Certain characteristics of the researcher, supervisor and the institution favor selection of qualitative research strategy.  These include socialisation, the nature of the object being investigated, the outcomes sought from research and who is funding the research.

Socialisation

The disciplines from which the researcher comes, as well as his or her work experiences, will have a strong influence upon the research strategy that is favoured.

Funding the Research

The agency or organisation that is funding the research often determines the nature of the object to be investigated and the methods that are to be used in undertaking that task.

Developing the Qualitative  Research Strategy

By research strategy is meant consideration by students as to which research community they feel they belong to, and that the researchers know the epistemological, ethical and ontological assumptions of their research. 

Easter by-Smith et al.  (1994:27) proposed philosophical positions that generate a useful classification of the key features of positivist and phenomenological paradigms.  They can be visualized as a continuum and  can be used to explore the orientation of the researcher in order that strategies and tactics can be consciously selected.

Qualitative research strategy or paradigm is selected when certain positions on ontology, epistemology, human behavior and sample size are specified.


Epistemology is based on non-positivist criteria.
Actions of human beings are voluntary subject to their awareness of alternatives and choice.
Ideographic methods (small sample sizes) are preferred by qualitative paradigm. 

Beginning the Research

Howard and Sharp (1983) outline a process model that is useful in identifying the phases that form part of the qualitative research process.  They distinguish between the ‘planning’ and effectuation’ stages and these in turn can be broken down into the activities set out below :

Planning :

Identify a broad area of study
Select the research topic
Decide the approach
Formulate a plan of action

Effectuation:

Collect the evidence
Analyse or interpret the evidence
Present the findings.

As Marshall and Rossman (1995) argue, the planning stage is fundamental to the consideration of issues such as developing an argument that is convincing, showing how the particular case being investigated fits with the bigger picture, and that the design of the research is sound.  It is through this planning that the competence of the researcher is demonstrated.

Area of study and Topic
In this respect, creativity and immersion in a topic area are  important ingredients

Induction

Within a non-positivist paradigm, there is more emphasis on theory development and it is acceptable for the generation of a research topic or question to come from experience rather than reflection on existing theory and concepts. More research studies in positivist research are of theory testing nature  Thus, an inductive process to generate the research question is entirely acceptable in qualitative research.  Intuitive notions about phenomena often from part of the practice of researchers.  The most creative theories are often imaginative visions which spring from the observed or recorded facts.

Deduction

In the qualitative research, alternatively the student might well start from a deductive position and then seek to use the methods suggested by Howard and Sharp (1983) to generate research topics. These range from looking for ideas in text (theses, journal articles, books and reviews, the media) to communication with others (experts in the field, colleagues, potential users of the research outputs.)

In this approach, the researcher understands the existing theory, and selects his topics and subjects with a view to  see how the specific instance selected by him fits into the wider whole theory.

Importance of the Literature

Non-positivist researchers will use real-life problems that emerge from experience as the inspiration for research (Marshall and Rossman,1995:17).  It is important that this is done in tandem with at least an emerging understanding of the literature.

Formulating the research problem is the next important step in which intuitive notions should be more fully investigated and narrowed down into a researchable, informal hypothesis or statement

Feasibility of the Research

Once the research problem has been formulated, it is important to think about the feasibility of the research and to be satisfied that there is sufficient material (published literature, secondary and primary evidence) to work with.

Plan the Research

The main challenge in planning the research is for the student to consider, and explicitly state, the overall design of the study.  The research methodology and the specific research methods have to be explicitly stated at the beginning of the research study. Qualitative studies may have inbuilt flexibility to change the method as the study progresses. This feature is also mentioned in the research design stage.

There are differences in methods employed by different qualitative research approaches. A feminist researcher will specifically set out to exploit personal involvement, whereas phenomenological interviewing might stress the removal of ‘all traces of personal involvement in the phenomena being studied’, such that all preconceptions are removed and do not interface with the research process (Marshall and Rossman,1995:82).  On the other hand, a researcher wishing to undertake hermeneutical research will attempt to generate high–quality textual material for examination.

Marshall and Rossman (1995:41) have developed a table matching research questions with tactics. strategies. The purpose of the study and the research question is the starting point for determining specific research strategy and evidence-collection techniques.

Research Proposal - Qualitative Research Strategy

The final outcome of the above process will be a research proposal covering the following:

What :    outline of research problem, tracing historical roots and  linking specific to general; conceptual framework and   literature review; purpose of study and specific research              questions.

How :     description of research strategy and design which will yield specific evidence required to answer questions;  methods justified and linked back to research question and research site.

Where :  where the research will be conducted                                                                                                                                                      
When :   ideally a time line to spell out major phases of  research process

Gaining Access

Access to the interviewee (the ability to get close to the object of study, to really be able to find out what is happening) is the researcher’s biggest problem. The choice of site (interviewee) should be clearly justified and a good research site will have the following properties:

Entry should be possible;
The site will present the possibility of collecting pertinent evidence;
Trust can be established with respondents;
Evidence quality and credibility of the research can be assured.

The researcher can best ensure that conditions 1 and 3 are met by developing good relationships with gatekeepers and/or informants (Gummesson,1991).

Collecting Evidence

It is now well accepted that where a non- positivist approach is adopted, it is difficult to separate evidence collection from hypothesis construction and theory building.

Evidence collection can usefully be divided into three types: observation, interviews, textual analysis.

Observation

The main aim of observation in research is to gain an understanding of other cultures by sharing the space of the research site at least for some part of the duration of the research.   The argument for adopting observation as an evidence-collection strategy is that real understanding will come about through extended observation as this enables an understanding of both the context and process of behavior.

Interviews

This is a method commonly used in non-positivist research. Open-ended interviews and semi-structured interviews.

The schedule could for example be sent to academic and practitioner referees who can provide feedback on how they understood and responded to questions.

Advice that the key to getting on with evidence collection is that the researcher should really (and appear to) ‘have a sincere curiosity about the lives and experiences of others.  In our experience the best way to break the ice is to discuss informally an issue (mutual friends or interests, important recent news which relate to the company, etc.) unrelated to the research per se, which will allow both the researcher and the respondent too relax.

A second potential problem can arise from covering everything on the interview schedule or guide.  If there is an interview schedule to cover the researcher should be able to use questions as prompts to steer conversation in the desired direction or, indeed, to use  these to probe particular issues.

Researchers may supply informants with a copy of the interview transcripts.  This is done to ensure that the transcription is an accurate portrayal of the proceeding, which is an essential check on the validity of the evidence, but also to sustain the relationship with respondents.

Analysis of Texts (Transcript of the interview)

This is the most demanding aspect of non-positivist research.  In practice this means that the evidence has to be read, re-read, and such themes or concepts have to be catalogued.  It is vital that this process is based on the evidence itself and that these themes emerge from the bottom up, rather than being the result of selecting a theory by convenience and then dipping into fragments that support such a theory.

Evidence Analysis Software

Most qualitative researchers do not make use of computers in analysis, except for producing and keeping a record of interview transcripts.  Today, however, the situation is different and for those researchers who feel comfortable with using a computer-based approach to analysis there is a wide choice of software available -  from simple text retrievers through to conceptual network builders.

For instance, Silverman (1994) advocates the use of such analysis software to assist with analysis of field notes such that the researcher can more easily file and index text into several different categories. Alternatively, NUD.IST might be used to facilitate searching by indexes and to generate new categories and relationships.

Evaluation of Qualitative Research

Criteria used of positivist studies

Validity

In non positivist research validity concerns whether the researcher has gained full access to knowledge and meanings of respondents.  Hence the importance of good-quality access to enable such contact to be made within the research site.  There is also the need to feed research field notes or interview transcripts back to respondents for verification to ensure that it reflects their understanding of the phenomenon (Collins and Young,1988).  Access therefore becomes one of the criteria against which the research will be evaluated.

Collins and Young(1988) further contribute ideas regarding validity in hermeneutical research.   The authors argue that a positive response to the questions, together with an internally consistent argument, would place a particular research account in line to have validity conferred by readers and users of that research.

Reliability

The distinguishing characteristic here is that similar observations should be made by researchers on different occasions  (Easterby - smith et al.,1994) and the concern is therefore with how replicable the study is.   Marshall and Rossman (1995) advocate that, rather than pretend that research conditions can be replicable, it is much better to accept the particularist nature of the research and to follow good practice guidelines such as establishing an audit trail.

This can be achieved by keeping the evidence collected in an easily retrievable form to enable others to investigate it should doubts regarding the research ever be raised.  Second, the researcher should keep a log or journal cataloguing research design decisions and justifications for these.  In this way the methods used become transparent and the parameters regarding the research questions, setting, assumptions and theoretical frameworks are open to scrutiny.

Generalisability

Here the researcher is essentially concerned with the applicability of theories that were generated in one setting to other settings.   Gummesson (1991:79) argues that qualitative research is less concerned with making statements about the commonality of particular findings than with the fact that good qualitative research should enable one to attain an understanding of organisational processes.  He argues that generalisation can be understood in two ways:

Quantitative studies based on a large number of observations are required in order to determine how much, how often and how many.  The other… involves the use of in-depth studies based on exhaustive investigations and analyses to identify certain phenomena, for example the effects of change in corporate strategy, and lay bare mechanisms that one suspects will also exist in other companies.

Quality of Qualitative Research 

A list was constructed by drawing on the work of Lincoln and Guba (1995).

Credibility

The issue of credibility refers to being able to demonstrate that the research was designed in a manner that accurately identified and described the phenomenon to be investigated.  Here the credibility (rather than internal validity) will derive from an in-depth description of the complexities of the research setting, drawing on empirical evidence.  Such a representation of the phenomenon will therefore be valid for that particular study.  This does mean that the research should explicitly state the parameters of the study in terms of the population, setting and theoretical framework used.

Transferability

This refers to external validity and is dependent upon the researcher stating the theoretical parameters of the research explicitly.  Here it would be important to specify how the specific phenomenon or research setting being investigated ties into a broader case, making clear the specific organisational processes about which generalisations will be made.

Dependability

The positivist construct of reliability assumes unchanging conditions that enable replication of the study.  This assumption does not hold for non-positivist research and it is more appropriate for the researcher to account for changes in the conditions of the phenomenon being investigated, as well as research design changes which are made because of a better understanding of the research setting.

Confirmability

With phenomenological research the concept of confirmability is used instead of objectivity.  The question to pose is: does the research confirm general findings or not?  The test is whether the findings of the research can be confirmed by another similar study.

Additional Resources

An Introduction to Phenomenological Research
http://www.sld.demon.co.uk/resmethy.pdf
(A good reference to read - This article may be focusing on using phenomenology in educational research)

Nomothetic Approach to Science - Idiographic Approach to Science by KVSSNRao

Five Qualitative Approaches to Enquiry (Cresswell Book?)
Narrative Research, Phenomenological Research, Grounded Theory Research, Ethnographic Research, Case Study Research  (Interesting descriptions of each approach is given in this chapter)
http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/13421_Chapter4.pdf

Research Methods for Managers

John Gill, Phil Johnson
SAGE, 21-Jan-2010 - Business & Economics - 288 pages


The  text  succeeds in providing a step-by-step guide to implementing particular methodologies, while simultaneously encouraging a strong awareness of philosophical assumptions.

NEW to the Fourth Edition:

- Expanded coverage to accommodate recent developments in management research methodology. New topics include: doing a literature review, case study research, action research, mixed methods, and writing-up.

- Packed with practical research examples and exercises that encourage students to reflect upon the issues raised and relate them to their own experience.

- Additional learning features including critical reflection boxes, case studies and chapter summaries.

- A companion website with a full Instructors' Manual and PowerPoint slides. Students have free access to downloadable journal articles and author podcasts.

Visit the companion website at www.sagepub.co.uk/gillandjohnson

Using a practical approach, but with explicit attention to the role of theory in management research, the new edition of Research Methods for Managers is a stimulating guide for students in management, organization and organization research.

Preview the book: https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Research_Methods_for_Managers.html?id=R4Q3u54hWEoC


Naturalistic Inquiry
Yvonna S. Lincoln, Egon G. Guba
SAGE, 1985 - Social Science - 416 pages

Showing how science is limited by its dominant mode of investigation, Lincoln and Guba propose an alternative paradigm--a "naturalistic" rather than "rationalistic" method of inquiry--in which the investigator avoids manipulating research outcomes. A "paradigm shift" is under way in many fields, they contend, and go on to describe the different assumptions of the two approaches regarding the nature of reality, subject-object interaction, the possibility of generalization, the concept of causality, and the role of values. The authors also offer guidance for research in the field (where, they say, naturalistic inquiry always takes place). Useful tips are given, for example, on "designing" a study as it unfolds, establishing "trustworthiness," and writing a case report. This book helps researchers "both to understand and to do naturalistic inquiry." Of particular interest to educational researchers, it is valuable for all social scientists involved with questions of qualitative and quantitative methodology.
https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Naturalistic_Inquiry.html?id=2oA9aWlNeooC


Relativism
Egon G. Guba
Curriculum Inquiry
Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring, 1992), pp. 17-23 (7 pages)
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1180091?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents