Justification for the use of Inductive and Qualitative Methods

In the first instance, the decision to proceed with an inductive qualitative approach was made on the premise that the nature of “social media is a very active and fast

moving domain” (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010, p.64). Davison et al (2011) further

argued the use of social media for the purposes of recruitment has yet to be

explored by researchers. Social media within HRM is a relatively unexplored area in management research and arguably would benefit from an exploration from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective, however given the nature of the research questions and requirement within the aim of this research to richly explore these issues and present the findings. This qualitative exploration will aid in the

contribution to the theoretical understanding of the use of social media for recruitment within organisations. Currently, much of the published research has largely followed an inductive qualitative approach (Cavico et al, 2013; Davison et al,

2011; James, 2011; Madia, 2011; Ollington et al, 2013; Solvensky and Ross, 2013),

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quantitative empirical evidence relating to the use of social media, which specifically focused on identifying personality traits in job applicants. There is no attempt here to dismiss the usefulness and the need for researchers to adopt a positivist quantitative approach, in fact there is certainly a requirement for more quantitative research. However, following the review of the literature it was considered a qualitative study is justified in answering the research questions. Consequently, it is anticipated the outputs from this exploratory inquiry will raise further questions to be investigated.

There is considerable debate about the use of scientific approaches in the social sciences area and in particular, Blaikie (2007) commented on a controversy in relation to whether the use of scientific methods is at all appropriate in the social sciences. The disparity between the approaches can lead to confusion particularly where a mixture of methods (quantitative and qualitative) are adopted. Some (Easterby-Smith et al, 1991) argued that very often the nature of the inquiry will serve to inform the ontological position of the researcher and while the adoption of the interpretivist approach in this particular research is not intended to negate the validity of alternatives, rather it permits the researcher to explore the use of social media for recruitment purposes in a way which might genuinely inform future quantitative studies.

During the review of the literature there was an emphasis on exploring management research and its purpose when examining the processes and procedures relating to the administration of the HRM. The literature review has revealed a significant gap in relation to the use of social media as a tool for

recruitment (Davison et al, 2011) and therefore, it is considered an important area

where new research can build on what is known in terms of organisations’

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studies in management often are considered interdisciplinary because academics frequently draw from other areas such as sociology, economics and psychology (and others) as a means to explain phenomena within organisations. Predominantly, management research serves to provide possible answers to management problems and to provide practical solutions for organisations to apply to those problems and as a means to provide a better understanding of management processes (Easterby- Smith et al, 1991; Remenyi et al, 1998).

Welbourne (2012, p.1) discussed the complexity of research in the field of HRM and argued answers which were considered “right yesterday may not work in the future”. Therefore, the revealing nature of the literature review supported an

exploratory approach to this inquiry and in order to understand this practice in more detail, it is necessary to make observations and to try and capture the experiences of those individuals involved with the use of social media for recruitment in the first instance. Although in their review, Breaugh and Starke (2000) suggested research relating to recruitment has increased dramatically in the last 30 years, they argued there continues to be a significant gap in knowledge which satisfies the practical needs of employers and HRM practitioners and while this inquiry does not intend to solve a business problem, it could be considered the first steps in establishing the answers connected to the use of social media HRM practice.

There is a genuine concern among academics that it is almost impossible for interpretivist researchers to remain wholly objective as they collect their data and Miles and Huberman (1994, p.8) argued the nature of a qualitative inquiry presents an analytic problem, because “if the researchers use little pre-established

instruments, it will be difficult to separate out “external” information from what they themselves contributed…”. There are varying perspectives as to whether this is a

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concern and for the purposes of this research it is immaterial, because it is accepted this issue might be a problem and as such the research design was intended to mitigate the issue. To reiterate, the basis for pursuing an inductive qualitative approach in this research stems from the lack of explicit theory in the field of social media and HRM and more specifically recruitment. The research now turns to

examine the research philosophies and provide justification for pursuing a qualitative approach for this research.