3 5 Research Design
3.6 Justification for Research Type Method
The major Human Resource Management (HRM) studies are backed-up by quantitative analyses and are thus safe enough to presume valid and reliable. The nature of problems faced in construction management may be responsible for the predominance of the quantitative approach to empirical research in built environment disciplines. Due to the nature of this study, the quantitative approach, which is a scientific method, is adopted because the need for rigour and objectivity is believed crucial to the research outcome. The literature has demonstrated that construction engineering companies face skills and knowledge problems and a lack of proper training programmes (Bryman and Cramer, 2009; (MTEN, 2006). Therefore, an investigation was launched to look at the true picture of the Iraqi construction companies’ situation. As for the ontological issue of what is real, the quantitative researcher views reality as “objective”. Here in this study, the researcher attempts to know how things really are and how things really work in the studied population (Guba & Lincoln, 1994 Amaratunga et al., 2002); to study something that can be measured objectively by using a questionnaire as an instrument.
In this study quantitative data are evaluated using descriptive and inferential statistics. A quantitative approach, using a survey, had been identified as appropriate for this study in totality (Tobi & Amaratunga, 2010). It was found that a quantitative approach was suitable and preferable due to the nature of the inquiry. Quantitative researcher tend to rely more heavily on deductive reasoning, beginning with certain premises (e.g., hypotheses, theories) and then drawing logical conclusions from them (Abdullah, 2003) . Quantitative methods can provide a wide coverage of a range of situations and they can be fast and economical with statistics aggregated from large samples; they may be of considerable relevance to policy decisions (Easterby-Smith 1991; Saunders et al., 2007). Quantitative methodologist is only done by statistics and statistical methods. Therefore, quantitative research is seen as more 1
representative and reliable to researcher than qualitative. Its emphasis on systematic statistical analysis helps the researcher in this study to ensure that findings and interpretations are robust (Devine, 2002). It is a research method that is deeply rooted in positivism and their epistemological orientation. Having expounded the reasons for selecting a quantitative approach in this research in general, a quantitative technique is also adopted for the second phase, so that familiarity with concepts or problems is achieved. Some data obtained from the data collection phase of the research will be converted into numerical form, which helps in the process of extracting information related to facts and causes of behaviour, and therefore, the selection of a quantitative technique. This made the data collection phase a hybrid, combining both qualitative and quantitative features.
This research began by collecting people’s thoughts and opinions on TNA and skills assessment in their construction organizations. TNA was perceived differently by different employees, as is the case with social phenomena. It was decided that this study would attempt to understand the working of construction companies, as perceived and conceived by those participants who may have constructed some of the meanings and contexts making up their products and/or organizations. TNA, being a social construction, was presumed to have some social values as premises that are necessarily affected by a multiplicity of factors within a given context. The argument just presented splits the data-related collection and analytical stages of the research into two phases. In the first phase, issues that deal with opinions, perceptions and conceptions are contextualised, precisely defined and weighed-up for their suitability; and the required data is identified. This last argument points to a qualitative exercise being used, which was thought to be suitable for the outlined purposes; this concludes the first phase. Now the second phase kicks-in. The second phase is concerned with how to facilitate the collection of the required data. During this study, a quantitative approach was used for investigative purposes, since this can be used in descriptive research as pointed out above. In carrying out a quantitative technique, some of the data obtained is be converted into numerical form, which assists in the process of extracting information. This makes the data collection stage a hybrid type, combining both qualitative and quantitative features. It is for all the reasons above that this study adopts a quantitative research strategy as the most appropriate for understanding how construction firms in Iraq are responding to the TNA and skills needs, as related to the construction industry. By employing survey methods to conduct this study, the aim is to capture, quantitatively, as much of the real position as possible of the response of Iraqi construction firms. This research investigates at 1 1 8
all the relevant related aspects of training needs and skills needs. The data obtained from chosen construction companies are transformed using deduction techniques into a sizeable, workable and useful database. Statistical analysis of the data makes the data presentable in the form of figures and tables. The research begins with a theoretical position (assumptions) and moved towards concrete empirical evidence, through the process of rigorously testing the hypotheses