Advantages And Disadvantages Of Case Studies Psychology Essay

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Case Studies Psychology Essay Qualitative approach Research methods are commonly divided into quantitative and qualitative research methods (Some researchers (Lee, 1991; Ragin, 1987) have suggested to combine these methods by triangulation). Qualitative research methods are designed to help researchers understand people and the social and cultural contexts within which they live. Kaplan and Maxwell (1994) argue that the goal of understanding a phenomenon from the point of view of the participants and its particular social and institutional context is largely lost when textual data are quantified. The strengths of qualitative research derive primarily from its inductive approach, its focus on specific situations or people, and its emphasis on words rather than numbers (Maxwell, 1996, p.17). A key difference between quantitative and qualitative research is that quantitative researchers work with a few (quantifiable) variables and many cases, whereas qualitative researchers rely on a few cases and many (primarily q ualitative) variables (Ragin, 1987). In this research a qualitative research approach is chosen for the following reasons. First, the nature of the research questions suggests a qualitative approach. They are as understanding of what are the factors that enable or inhibit people to share their knowledge. Second, the aim is to present a detailed understanding of the dynamics of sharing knowledge, requiring a focus on participants’ perspectives and their meaning. Third, knowledge-sharing individuals are studied in their natural setting. Knowledge sharing is a situated process, so removing participants from their organizational context would lead to findings that are out of context. And these contexts which determine the factors that enable o inhibit knowledge sharing process. The characteristics of qualitative methods are listed in Table 1 Characteristics 1, 2, 4 and 7 highlight the emphasis of qualitative data on providing richness of understanding of phenomenon in context (Du ncan, 1979; Yin, 1989). Quantitative methods â€Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦by themselves may ignore much of the process phenomenon associated with a particular research question so that a real understanding of what’s happened may not exist† (Duncan, 1979, p.424). The use of qualitative data collection and analysis methods increases the likelihood that the advantages of case study method can be obtained. Table 1 Characteristics of qualitative methods 1. Qualitative research is inductive. 2. Researchers look at settings and subjects holistically. 3. The researchers are sensitive to their effects on subjects. 4. Researchers try to understand subjects from their own perspective. 5. Researchers try to set aside their own beliefs, perspectives and predispositions. 6. Researchers try to see all different perspectives of subjects as valuable. 7. Qualitative methods are humanistic. 8. Researchers emphasis validity as prime research criteria 9. Researcher sees all settings and subjects a s worthy of study. 10. Qualitative research is a craft. Source: This characteristics adapted from Taylor and Bogdan (1984, p.5-8). Interpretive research All research is based on some assumptions with respect to methodology the most pertinent philosophical assumptions are those that relate to the underlying epistemology guiding this research. And it refers to the assumptions about knowledge and how it can be obtained. Different classifications of epistemological assumptions exist (Guba and Lincoln, 1994). For explaining the underlying paradigm of this research, the three epistemological stands distinguished by Myers are used: positivist, interpretive and critical. Positivism claims that social life should be understood and analysed in the same way that scientists study the ‘natural world’. Positivists generally assume that reality is objectively given and can be described by measurable properties independent of the observer and of one’s instruments. Positivist stu dies generally attempt to test theory, in an attempt to increase the predictive understanding of phenomena. On the other hand the interpretive stand base is hermeneutics and phenomenology. Interpretive researchers start out with the assumption that access to reality (given or socially constructed) is only through social constructions such as language, consciousness and shared meanings. They generally attempt to understand phenomena through the meanings that people assign to them. Interpretive research does not predefine dependent and independent variables, but focuses on the full complexity of human sense making as the situation emerges.