methodolgy

Question 1

what is a mixed method study?

Answer 1

A research approach whereby researchers collect and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data within the same study.

Question 2

What is a case study?

Answer 2

An in-depth, detailed examination of a particular case within a real-world context. Often includes organisational boundaries

Question 3

Explain what a complementary mixed method study is, and why we have use it

Answer 3

we argue that we use different ways to assess one phenomena. In the article they use this example: “The complementarity intent can be illustrated by the use of a qualitative interview to measure the nature and level of program participants’ educational aspirations, as well as influences on these aspirations, combined with a quantitative questionnaire to measure the nature, level, and perceived ranking within peer group of participants’ educational aspirations”. Here, we can draw parallels to our study, since we use an interview to assess how performance and rewards are handled in WAG, and thereafter use questionnaires to assess their effect and relation.

Question 4

What is a developmental purpose in mixed method, and how applicable is it to our research?

Answer 4

It could be developmental since we use the results from the interviews to find about the KPIs to know what secondary data to gather. But we do not use it to inform our questionnaire. All involve the sequential use of qualitative and quantitative methods, where the first method is used to help inform the development of the second

Question 5

What is an expansion purpose in mixed method, and how applicable is it to our research?

Answer 5

It states: “In evaluation contexts, this mixed-method expansion purpose is commonly illustrated by the use of qualitative methods to assess program processes and by quantitative methods to assess program outcomes”. This can also be related to our research, because we use a qualitative interview to assess WAG performance and reward “processes”, and thereafter use a quantitative method to analyze the outcome of these processes, hence their relation to each other.

Question 6

Explain how we have weighted the qual/quant, and argue for why

Answer 6

Quant is the main part since it directly answers the RQ, and it is what determines the final conclusion (no relationship) even though the qual part suggests a relationship. The qual part takes a lot of space due to the nature of qualitative analysis.
If it was meant to give more weight into qual, the research question should be re-done (asking more why/how question) and as well as the research design.

Question 7

What is triangulation

Answer 7

Triangulation: use of multiple methods or data sources to develop a comprehensive understanding of phenomena

Question 8

Explain what a exploratory purpose is, and why we follow it in qual

Answer 8

Exploratory: a research used to investigate a problem which is not clearly defined. It is conducted to have a better understanding of the existing problem, but will not provide conclusive results. → help answer “what”, “how” and most importantly “why” questions

Question 9

What is an expert interview, and what is the aim of it?

Answer 9

Expert interview: Aiming at gaining information about or exploring a specific field of action. It refers to the expert being the interviewee and having expertise in a certain area of study.

Question 10

What is a group interview, and what is it good for?

Answer 10

Group interview refers to a type of interview where more than two people are involved. This allows the possibility to comment (and complement/contradict) on each other’s answer. The aim is to obtain knowledge of the participant’s considerations and ideas on a specific topic.

Question 11

What is a respondent interview?

Answer 11

More controlled by the interviewer with the aim of gathering responses to a certain topic. This data then serves as input to the research.

Question 12

What is purposive sampling

Answer 12

Purposive sampling: also known as judgmental, selective, or subjective sampling, is a form of non-probability sampling in which researchers rely on their own judgment when choosing members of the population to participate in their survey.

Question 13

explain what a explanatory purpose is

Answer 13

Explanatory purpose: The purpose is to increase the understanding of a researcher on a certain subject. Studies that establish causal relationships between variables may be termed explanatory research. The emphasis in explanatory research is to study a situation or a problem in order to explain the relationships between variables.

Question 14

What is documentary data?

Answer 14

documentary data: are documents from organization’s databases. Can be written and unwritten data.

Question 15

What is a questionnaire?

Answer 15

Questionnaire is a data collection technique where individuals are asked to respond to an identical set of questions

Question 16

What are list questions? Bonus: why did we not use these answers in the research?

Answer 16

list questions: Closed question, in which the respondent is offered a list of items and instructed to select those that are appropriate.

Why did we not use this? used the names. And better have the data and not use it, than the reverse. Moreover, it would have been more relevant to look at if significance was found, and it inditacted difference based on any of these parameters.

Question 17

What are rating questions? and what are the likert scale?

Answer 17

Rating questions: closed question in which a scaling device is used to record the respondent’s response

Likert scale: the respondent is asked how strongly she or he agrees or disagrees with a statement or series of statements

Question 18

Mention some arguments for why we chose the JSS questionnaire

Answer 18

Arguments for the questionnaire:

• high construct validity
• In the (qual) model we argue the most important extrinsic reward is pay, and intrinsic reward is autonomy and recognition
• Operating procedures → indicate the level of autonomy and nature of the job
• Contingent reward → cover recognition
• Pay -> cover salary w commission
• we lacked the knowledge and experiment to develop our own questionnaire when we started - could not ensure good enough construct validity

Question 19

What is common method bias?

Answer 19

Common method bias is normally prevalent in studies where data for both independent and dependent variables are obtained from the same person.

Question 20

What does it mean that an article is peer-reviewed?

Answer 20

Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work. It is considered necessary to ensure academic scientific quality. It is designed to assess the validity, quality and often the originality of articles for publication. Its ultimate purpose is to maintain the integrity of science by filtering out invalid or poor quality articles.

Question 21

Explain the pragmatic approach

Answer 21

A pragmatic approach allows the research to be based on more than one philosophy and work within them at the same time to help collecting data and thereafter interpreting it. The aim is to find a practical solution. This leads to research inquiry, which seeks to better understand and ultimately solve the problem (explanation of why qual takes so much space)

Question 22

What is the criticism of the pragmatic approach?

Answer 22

It often leading to incremental changes, claims that it makes the researcher not needing to choose a paradigm (seen as an easy way out).

BUT: incremental changes are more acceptable by employees (not radical)

Question 23

What is a positivist philosophy?

Answer 23

positivist philosophy: It claims that the social world can be understood in an objective way, and there is only one truth.

Question 24

What is an interpretivist philosophy?

Answer 24

interpretivist philosophy: It is a philosophical stance that advocates that humans are different from physical phenomena because they create meanings. The research is based and depends on what the researcher’s interests are. Here reality is socially constructed.

Question 25

What is abduction?

Answer 25

Abduction is used when combining qualitative and quantitative methods sequentially in a pragmatic perspective.

Question 26

What is inductive theory?

Answer 26

Inductive: The purpose is to get a feel of what was going on, so as to better understand the nature of the problem. The result of this analysis would be the formulation of a theory, often expressed as a conceptual framework

Start with observation, and ends in theory

Question 27

What is deductive theory?

Answer 27

Deductive: The search to explain causal relationships between concepts and variables, and aims at testing an existing theory.

Start with a theory and use it to test observations

Question 28

Define validity, and mention 4 types of validity

Answer 28

Validity focusses on whether proper theoretical research decisions have been made, and if the findings can be generalized.

Internal, external, ecological, and construct validity

Question 29

Explain what internal validity is, and what the IV is in the research

Answer 29

internal validity: the extent to which you can be confident that a cause-and-effect relationship established in a study cannot be explained by other factors. Internal validity is also about evaluating if the findings of a specific study are true in the context by assessing if the right measures are used

IV of research: Moderate - no causation but proper methods applied

Question 30

Explain what external validity is, and what the EV is in the research

Answer 30

External validity: study’s research findings be generalized to other relevant settings or groups.

EV of Research: Low → case study so hard to generalize

BUT: An alternative to external validity is transferability

Question 31

What does the Proximal similarity model argue?

Answer 31

Proximal similarity model: assess what cases, settings and contexts are very similar to enable generalization.

Question 32

What is meant by transferability?

Answer 32

Transferability: The degree to which the results of research can be transferred to other contexts or settings with other respondents. Provides the reader with the opportunity to judge the transferability of the study to another setting in which the reader is interested to research through a thick description
Some level of transferability

Question 33

What is construct validity, and how is it in the research?

Answer 33

construct validity: Concerns the extent to which your test or measure accurately assesses what it’s supposed to.

Research: High → pre-tested questionnaire

Question 34

What is ecological validity, and what is the level of it in the research?

Answer 34

Ecological validity: the degree to which findings can be generalized to real-life situations.

Research: High → applicable in CSA

Question 35

What does reliability means?

Answer 35

Reliability focuses on the consistency of the research and whether it is replicable

Question 36

Explain internal reliability, and how it is in the research

Answer 36

Internal reliability refers to ensuring consistency during a research project, which can be strong if more than one researcher is involved in the process.

Researcher bias: the observer uses her or his own subjective view or disposition to interpret events in the setting being observed.

Researcher error: may lead you unintentionally to misinterpret what is happening, because you need to understand the setting better before you seek to interpret it. Interpretation arises from understanding and the insights that follow from understanding. For example, a researcher may be tired or not sufficiently prepared and misunderstand some of the more subtle meanings of his or her interviewees

Research: Considered strong.

Question 37

Explain external reliability, and how it is in the research

Answer 37

External reliability considers the data collection methods, the process of analyzing data, and whether it is replicable.

Research: Moderate: thorough explanation of methods, but subjective opinions from the data collection process may affect it - also because it is social science.

Question 38

What is a continuous variable?

Answer 38

Continuous variables can take on an unlimited number of values between the lowest and highest points of measurement. Continuous variables include such things as speed and distance. The values are obtained by measuring

Question 39

What is a nominal variable?

Answer 39

A nominal variable is one that has two or more categories, but the category cannot be numerically or are ranked