The study of the thesis is focused on the empirical research of HRIS and on developing HRIS for the activities of leadership, not only for those of HRM, to support and serve the activities of good leadership in which tacit knowledge and EI play a significant role. In general, HRIS are designed to support the activities of HRM and therefore the features of HRM have strong effects on HRIS and their development. HRM is regarded as an activity to manage the human resources of an organization. It is more an administrative function to take care of HR as a whole than a direct managerial function between a manager and an employee (Townley 1994, Ball 2001, Targowski & Deshpande 2001, Bratton & Gold 2003). When comparing the definitions of HRM and HRIS, they have several interests in
common. HRM is defined by its job descriptions as well as by emphasizing employees’ capabilities as competitive advantages. Hence the definitions of HRIS underline storing and maintaining the needed data of employees to manage HR (Broderick & Boudreau 1992, Kossek et al. 1994, Haines & Petit 1997, Kovach & Cathcart Jr. 1999, Ball 2001). Nevertheless, based on the empirical study of the thesis, some activities of HRM are considered to be part of the activities of leadership, such as recruiting, motivation and career development. Thus the focus of the thesis is to see how HRIS design could be developed in the leadership context. HRIS already contain information which is important in leadership work but they lack relevant information which supports the human activities (tacit knowing and EI) concerning the relationship between the leaders and the employees.
Due to the human-oriented research approach, the concept of leadership is used rather than the term management. According to Rost (1991), Northouse (2004) and Yukl (2006), management includes business economics, strategies, processes and other tasks that focus on operating issues in an organization whereas leadership is seen as activities which cover the human actions besides managerial ones. The activities of leadership include the leader and the employee as well as all their dealings in various events. Rost (1991) underlines the relationship and the mutual purposes of leaders and followers. The relationship is multidirectional and both leaders and followers are active actors in the relationship. Leaders and followers intend real changes, which means that they purposefully desire certain substantive and transforming changes. In addition, they develop mutual common purposes. (Rost 1991.) Northouse (2004) discusses processes of influences between individuals and groups and those between common goals. The process does not mean certain characteristics or linear events but transactions and interactions between leaders and followers. Influences mean two-way effects of leaders and followers in a group. Common goals direct them both to achieve something together. (Northouse 2004.) Rost (1991) as well as Northouse (2004) underline that leadership is not only something that one person does but it also includes both the people and the activities which occur between them.
As stated earlier, in this thesis HRM is regarded as a managerial part of leadership whereas tacit knowledge and EI are considered human characteristics of the activities of good leadership. Polanyi (1966) and Nonaka & Takeuchi (1995) emphasize both knowledge creation and emotions in tacit knowledge. In this thesis tacit knowledge refers to the experiences and learning the interviewees
have had in the course of their working life. It also includes the leaders’ subconscious attitudes, beliefs and values as well as the influence of tacit knowledge on the leaders’ behavior, reactions, actions, abilities, knowledge and skills. When executing leadership for a long time, leaders seem to practice it in a natural way. In addition, leaders have experienced innumerable events and thus enhanced their knowledge, which has become tacit in the course of time. They know which activities work well and which activities should not be executed. EI, for its part, is regarded as people’s skills, abilities and capacities to perceive, assess and to manage one’s own, others’ and groups’ emotions (Mayer & Salovey 1997, Goleman et al. 2002). When increasing the knowledge of the effect of people’s behavior on their emotions, leaders learn to know themselves as well as other people and to use their EI in interactions and relationships with employees. In other words, knowledge is regarded to increase intelligence and knowing one’s own emotions enhances abilities to communicate with other people. Because tacit knowledge and EI influence people invisibly, it is not easy to identify the manifestations of tacit knowledge and EI in people’s behavior, actions, reactions, abilities, knowledge, skills, beliefs and values. However, when tacit knowledge and EI are recognized, they will open new insights and possibilities to develop the target at issue. They will altogether broaden the way how people think and act in their lives.
In this thesis, tacit knowledge and EI are included in leadership also for the reason that they have an effect on behavior, attitudes and emotions when IS are used in human activities. However, the information of tacit knowledge and EI is not available in IS because of their non-explicit nature of data. Therefore, they are highlighted as invisible ‘variables’ in leadership. The word ‘variable’ means that depending on the situation, the leaders apply and vary their tacit knowledge and EI in different and various ways in their leadership activities. ‘Invisible’ means that tacit knowledge and EI are not visible or concrete ‘variables’ in the leaders’ activities but the leaders use tacit knowledge and EI in their daily activities unbeknown. It depends on IS professionals’ skills and abilities how they can find out and use those ‘variables’ and the information of the ‘variables’ in a way that the ‘variables’ develop the human-oriented information systems.
As a summary, the concepts of the thesis and their interconnectedness are depicted in table 8. In the first column all the concepts are listed. The second column includes a short description of each concept from the viewpoint of the study of the thesis. The third column indicates how the concepts are linked to each other: HRIS are linked to HRM and leadership, leadership is linked to HRIS,
HRM, tacit knowledge and EI, HRM is linked to HRM and leadership, and both tacit knowledge and EI are linked to leadership.
Table 8. Summary of the concepts of the thesis.
Concept Description Linkages
HRIS Is the IS whose role is studied in the research context. HRM
Leadership
Leadership The empirical context of the study.
Involves activities and interactions between a leader and an employee.
HRIS HRM
Tacit knowledge EI
HRM Involves managerial activities concerning human resources of the
company.
HRIS Leadership
Tacit knowledge Unconsciously influences one’s actions, reactions, emotions and
attitudes.
Leadership
EI Influences one’s skills, abilities and capacities to perceive, assess,
and manage one’s own, others’ and the group’s emotions.
Leadership
The purpose has been to find out in which activities the good leaders use HRIS and how the systems can be developed to support the good leaders’ activities in the best possible way. Here the empirical data plays a significant role. HRM is used to clarify the current state of HRIS and the managerial part of leadership activities. Tacit knowledge and EI have been utilized to highlight the interviewees’ human activities in leadership which form the development area of HRIS. Hence, before examining the role of HRIS, the leadership activities have been described in the way the interviewees depict them. Leadership, together with tacit knowledge and EI, consists of multidimensional activities, which challenge the development work of HRIS and the development work of IS in general. All the research concepts are used when generating the research results.
3 Research approach, method and techniques
In this chapter the research approach (section 3.1), research method (section 3.2) and the research techniques (section 3.3) are introduced. The qualitative and interpretative research approach of the thesis has its philosophical base on hermeneutics for the purpose of creating understanding for the research work and the research phenomenon. Hermeneutic phenomenography (Marton 1981, 1986, Uljens 1989, 1991, 1993, 1996, Webb 1997) as a research method is used to examine and describe the research phenomenon. A construct of hermeneutic phenomenography is developed to depict the parts of the research phenomenon and to combine the research results for the contribution. NLP (Grinder & Bandler 1976) is presented as a qualitative interview method, and Mind MapTM-technique
(Buzan & Buzan 1993) has been utilized in describing the empirical research results of the thesis. The research method and techniques used in this thesis are seldom utilized in the IS research. Thus, the qualitative and interpretative research approach is introduced to give basis for the chosen research method and techniques that are appropriate to the study of the thesis. Also their relations to IS science are depicted. In section 3.4 the research approach, method and techniques are summarized using the stages of discussion created by Chole & Avison (2007). The conclusion is presented in section 3.5.
3.1 Qualitative and interpretative research approach of the thesis
Qualitative research as a research approach enables research methods which support other than pure numeric and statistical studies. It analyzes rather than measures empirical data. Interpretative research as a category of qualitative research studies different research results underlining diversity of life, which is more than generalizing actions and meanings. Denzin & Lincoln (2003b: 9) note that “as a site of discussion, or discourse, qualitative research is difficult to
define clearly”. Nonetheless, they offer an initial, generic definition to qualitative
research: “Qualitative research is a situated activity that locates the observer in
the world.” Denzin & Lincoln (2003b: 4). Qualitative research has a great deal of
different methods but does not possess them entirely. Qualitative researchers use narrative, content, discourse and other analyses when carrying out studies. They also practice phenomenology, feminism, hermeneutics, ethnographies and other approaches, methods and techniques in their studies. In addition, qualitative research consists of different interpretative practices. So, qualitative and
interpretive researches are often done simultaneously. (Denzin & Lincoln 2003b: 9–10.) Next, features of the qualitative and interpretative research are introduced separately.
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research has a long history in several disciplines such as social sciences, pedagogics and nursing science. In every discipline it studies material which can be audiovisual, textual, photos, videotaped et cetera. In addition, qualitative research includes several research methods, for example ethnography, phenomenology, narrative research, grounded theory, discourse analysis, case study and phenomenography. In general, a human being as a thinking and acting research target is the common issue to all qualitative research methods. (Denzin & Lincoln 2000, 2003a, Myers 2004.) After the generic definition of qualitative research, Denzin & Lincoln (2005) have defined qualitative research as follows:
“Qualitative research is a situated activity that locates the observer in the world. It consists of a set of interpretive, material practices that make the world visible. These practices transform the world. They turn the world into a series of representations, including field notes, interviews, conversations, photographs, recordings, and memos to the self. At this level, qualitative research involves an interpretive, naturalistic approach to the world. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings they bring to them.” Denzin & Lincoln (2005: 3)
Hence, it can be stated that it is characteristic of qualitative research that theories, methods and information do not have clear logical or linear continuum. There is seeking, studying and pondering, which could be called scientific learning. Research and growth of scientific competence intertwine with each other as distinct and different processes creating a scientific and theoretical weft with experience and empirical data. Theoretical frameworks can change and research propositions or tasks will be solved during the research process. Therefore, qualitative research can be characterized as a continuous series of decision making and problem solving. A research problem is not necessarily precisely expressed at the beginning of the research but it will be specified during the whole study. Decisions and solutions are made leaning on different basic principles or clues which may change partly or even totally along with practical
experiences of the research process. Trauth (2001b) describes experiences of doing qualitative research similarly in the introduction of her edited book of qualitative methods in IS research.
In addition, qualitative research can be done based on the material or theory inspired. It is not purely and simply testing but creating propositions. It analyzes, not measures, the empirical data. It emphasizes the relationship between understanding and generalizing. Motivation of doing qualitative research has its base on the possibility to study human and cultural behavior and relationships of human beings. Common research questions in the qualitative research can be classified by interrogatives why, how and what kind of. Qualitative research also has extensive characteristics. For example, the strength of the qualitative research leans on many different research approaches and methods which can be executed separately or together to study research phenomena. Thus, diversity is richness in qualitative research. However, the great variety of combinations of methods may pose a potential pitfall of focusing the research work on combining methods rather than on the research itself. Nevertheless, a controlled use of several methods diversifies descriptions and deepens understanding of phenomena. (Denzin & Lincoln 2000, 2003a.) For example, phenomenology focuses on learning from phenomena by studying them as they are. Phenomenography, for its part, describes different conceptions of phenomena. Still, both of them can support the same research and can be used simultaneously if needed. Also the combinations of qualitative and quantitative research methods are used. With this methodological triangulation a researcher aims to validate analysis and result. (Denzin 1970, Knafl & Breitmyer 1989, Massey 1999.)
During the last few decades the IS research has adopted qualitative approaches besides quantitative studies. The qualitative IS research was launched in the 1980s to study systems and information from alternative perspectives than exclusively quantitatively. New research methods were needed to clarify the diversity of information the organizational context offered. (Hirschheim & Klein 1989, Myers 1994b, 1997b, Myers & Avison 2002, Chen & Hirschheim 2004.) In the 1990’s qualitative research in the IS field increased because of an interest to study relationships between IT, IS, people and organization. Phenomena were influenced by behavioral, social and cultural issues. In several IS research communities Markus’ (1983) article is being underlined as one of the most significant and cited qualitative research article in IS field. In her article Markus (1983) studies the meaning and the position of IT in organizations. Also the article of Orlikowski & Baroudi (1991) has its importance of introducing
differences between three categories of qualitative research as well as surveys done in IS. Myers (1994a, 1994b, 1995, 1997a, 1997b, 2004), for his part, has done great deal of work and effort increasing knowledge of qualitative research in the IS field. In his opinion “qualitative research involves the use of qualitative
data, such as interviews, documents, and participant observation data, to understand and explain social phenomena. Qualitative researchers can be found in many disciplines and fields, using a variety of approaches, methods and techniques.” (Myers 1997b: 241). Myers’ work with other IS researchers (Klein
& Myers 1999, Myers & Avison 2002, Myers & Newman 2007) is also significant in studying and depicting qualitative IS research. In the 1990s Orlikowski & Baroudi (1991) and Myers (1994b) discuss elements which affect qualitative IS research. In Trauth’s (2001a) book several IS scholars introduce their experiences of different qualitative methods used in IS researches.
Orlikowski & Baroudi (1991) and Myers (1997b) follow Chua’s (1986) categorization of qualitative research in three parts: positivist, interpretative and critical (figure 6). Positivists test theories and observe objective and measurable reality outside. Interpretative researchers, for their part, assume that social constructions create the reality. They focus on understanding the meanings of phenomena people create and on the complexity of human sense making. The history and the continuous change in reality are significant for critical researchers. People make their reality in social, cultural and political context. Critical researchers study phenomena in a complex and diverse environment where a goal is to avoid alienation and domination. (Myers 1997b.)
Fig. 6. Categories of qualitative research.
The study of the thesis is not examining the research target from an outsider’s viewpoint as positivists do. The research idea of the thesis is, to certain extent, consistent with the critical researchers who present that the world and phenomena are complex and continuously changing and people make their reality in the
Qualitative
social, cultural and political contexts. Still, this thesis wants to describe phenomena which have not yet been studied to the extent that comparable actions can be done as done in critical research. Therefore, in this thesis the category of the interpretative research is chosen to execute qualitative research.
Interpretative Research
All three categories of qualitative research have activities which challenge researchers. However, interpretative research may be the one which is most easily subjected to criticism. Situations, where data has been collected and different methods of analysis have been used and where especially the researcher’s own prejudices and interpretations have emerged, affect results which are unique and unrepeatable and therefore also vulnerable. Critics and reviewers state that because results cannot be generalized they fail to produce rigorous data to a research community. (Denzin & Lincoln 2003b.) Interpretative researchers defence their studies arguing that different research results underline diversity of life, which is not a line of general actions.
Interpretative research is done in several teaching and research communities. For instance, the National Association of Interpretation (NAI) and the National Park Service (NPS) in the USA (United States of America) practice interpretative research and teaching interpretation. NAI has emphasized the importance of conceptions and ideas of interpretation. For example, how the meaning of interpretation is brought out and what issues the interpretation itself should make visible (Knapp & Benton 2004, Ham 2004, Zarki 2004). The focus of the activities of NAI is on nature and how to describe nature’s great features. Nevertheless, the conceptions of interpretation of NAI can also be applied in other research areas. Members of NAI have had long-term discussion of the definition of interpretation and interpretative research. Brochu & Merriman (2002) introduced three definitions by Mills (1920), Tilden (1957) and by Ham (1992).
Mills’ definition: “The aim is to illuminate and reveal the alluring world
outdoors by introducing determining influences and the respondent tendencies. A nature guide is an interpreter of geology, botany, zoology, and natural history.” Brochu & Merriman (2002: 13).
Tilden’s definition: “An educational activity which aims to reveal meanings
and by illustrative media, rather than simply to communicate factual information.” Brochu & Merriman (2002: 13).
Ham’s definition: “Interpretation is an approach to communication …
translating the technical language of a natural science or related field into terms and ideas that people who are not scientists can readily understand.”