Research paradigms

ON PARADIGM INCOMMENSURABILITY

•          Human beings, in their actions, operate within certain (explicit or implicit) paradigms.

•          Gareth Morgan and Gibson Burrell have offered us 4 paradigms that they have identified for organisational analysis.

•          You could come up with your own paradigms.

•          There is an on-going debate as to whether or not actors (including researchers) can operate within more than one paradigm at the same time. This is the question of paradigm incommensurability.

One argument goes like this: any way of perceiving reality is at the same time a way of not seeing alternative or opposing ways of perceiving reality. Therefore operating within one paradigm excludes others. That is, that opposing paradigms are incommensurable

•          The alternative argument offers the possibility of actors operating within multiple paradigms at the same time.

What do you think?

SURVEYS

•          Note that surveys form an aspect of research strategy or methodology and are not methods. Various methods are used, however, in survey research.

Some advantages of surveys:

•          They involve wide and inclusive coverage

•          They are conducted at a specific point in time

They involve empirical research

Some disadvantages of surveys

•          Tendency to empiricism - researcher risks being obsessed with the data generated

•          Detail and depth of the data -a broad picture of a situation may not be an adequate substitute for in-depth information leading to understanding

•          Accuracy and honesty of responses-       the advantage of covering a wide scope of the subject matter or a wide range of respondents may be offset by the usual difficulty in checking the accuracy of data obtained.

Some Methods used in social surveys

•          Postal questionnaires

•          Low response rates

•          Face-to-face questionnaire administration:

•          Higher rate of response

•          Greater researcher effect

•          More expensive than postal questionnaires

•          Face-to-face interviews (usually structured)

•          More expensive than postal questionnaires

•          Preferred quota of respondents can be selected

•          Greater efficiency i.e. less non-responses

•          Telephone interviews

•          used to be thought of as being prone to bias (social group concentration, etc)

•          quicker and cheaper than face-to-face interviews

•          now easier to contact a random sample of respondents than in the past – e.g. via random computer-generated digit dialling

•          Survey of document: Statistical data and literature reviews are examples of documentary surveys

•          Observations: Not a common type of survey research nowadays, but still a valid research approach. Observations need to be systematic, though.