Chapter 4: Research Methodology
4.9. Data Analysis
After primary and secondary data was collected, the data was analysed to determine various themes and theories about communication and relationships on-site. The preparation and testing of the questions made the transformation of transcripts of data into relevant thematic analysis easier. The analysis phase is made up of several key stages which aim to build an understanding of the information requirement, the current practices and other associated issues which are essential to developing the strategy. Figure 4-7 presents the road map for the research stages.
Figure 4-7: The key steps in the research processes.
114 questionnaires into useful and reliable information in order to meet the research objectives and answer the research questions. As this research adopted mixed methods for data collection, different techniques were used in the data analysis. Table 4-7 displays the differences between quantitative and qualitative data.
Table 4-7: The Differences between Quantitative and Qualitative data (Hair et al., 2007)
Quantitative data Qualitative data
Based on meaning derived from members.
Collection results in numerical and standardised data.
Analysis conducted through the use of diagrams and statistics
Based on meanings expressed through words.
Collection results in non- standardised data requiring classification into categories. Analysis conducted through
the use of conceptualisation
Researchers should always use the methods of inquiry that best serve the conditions and the nature of the study. Mobile computing is an emerging and largely untried phenomenon particularly in the Saudi context. A qualitative and inductive approach was valid because, as has been seen, they are both suited to exploratory studies which concentrate on discovery and understanding of new phenomena. As highlighted in Section 4.5, the mixed method approach used in this study privileges qualitative methods, with the quantitative element playing a secondary auxiliary role, ensuring that “all relevant voices are heard” (Howe, 2004, p.54) to obtain “deeper, more genuine expressions of beliefs and values to foster a more accurate description of views held” (Hesse-Biber and Nagy, 2010, p.64).
The awareness that interviewing relies on subjectivity makes it possible to use a quantitative questionnaire to counter this subjectivity and balance notions of detachment
115 and involvement, of fact and opinion and objectivity and subjectivity (Brinkmann, 2013). Generalisability is about the extent to which findings in one context can be transferred to other contexts. However, the use of a questionnaire, observation at construction-sites and feedback from interviewees informed analytic probabilities, which could be, applied to Saudi construction sites in general.
This qualitative study uses an auxiliary quantitative questionnaire to enhance the generalisability of a qualitative study. A quantitative study provides an opportunity to confirm the reliability of qualitative findings by examining the extent to which research findings from similar questions yield similar responses. Where responses differ, a quantitative study provides the option for exploring contradictory results. Findings from a qualitative study can be tested using a quantitative questionnaire method to confirm that the qualitative findings are applicable to a larger quantitative sample, allowing the researcher to generalise qualitative results to a wider population (Hesse-Biber and Nagy, 2010, p.66).
In research studies, data analysis includes some steps such as preparing the data for analysis, analysing the data and interpreting the data. Preparing data includes checking and entering the data into a database and transforming the data. When preparing the qualitative data for this study, the researcher transcribed the responses given verbatim and then translated the data from audio-recorded interviews from Arabic to English. Following this, the findings from each case study and the organisational documents and observation notes pertaining to that study were analysed using content and thematic analysis.
Content analysis is a simple method of analysing interview data that turns textual data into content categories for open-ended questions, which helps to summarise the answers. Thematic analysis is a qualitative analysis method for “identifying, analysing and
116 reporting (themes) within data for open-ended questions. It minimally organises and describes your data set in (rich) detail” (Braun & Clarke, 2006: 79). It is a systematic approach that emphasises identifying patterns of meaning in a dataset. To analyse the quantitative data, the researcher prepared and entered the questionnaires into the computer software SPSS to code it, keeping in mind the; (Saunders et al, 2009)
type of data (scale of measurement);
format in which the data will be inputted into the analysis software; impact of data coding on subsequent analyses (for different data types); need to weigh cases; and
methods which will be used to check data for errors (Saunders et al., 2009).
4.10. Summary
The chapter gave a detailed description of the research process undertaken for this study and described the methodology used in Section 4.2, which provided details of the research design and the choice of research models. It outlined the philosophical assumptions underlying the research, justifying the interpretivist approach, which was underwritten by the use of mixed methods. A critical assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of each method was given and the method chosen was justified in Section 4.6. This study is qualitative and uses an auxiliary quantitative questionnaire to enhance the generalisability of the study. The use of a questionnaire, observation at construction- sites and feedback from interviewees informed analytic probabilities, which could be applied to Saudi construction sites in general. Also, the questionnaire provides an opportunity to confirm the reliability of qualitative findings by examining the extent to which research findings for similar questions yield similar responses. Section 4.8 explains the research methods and justifies the design, distribution techniques, sample strategy, pilot tests, and so on. Moreover, this chapter will discuss the analysis stage of the research methods in the latter section. Following on from that, Chapters 5 and 6 will present the data that was collected.
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