Justifications for the Selections Made in this Research study and the Philosophy

3.3.1. Research justification for the study

The development of skills and knowledge plays an imperative role in the qualitative improvement of the Iraqi construction industry. The contemporary Iraqi construction engineering workforce must gain a variety of managerial and technical skills to perform new and much more complex roles in construction. The acquisition of these skills and knowledge can be more effectively accomplished after receiving proper training needs assessment. Therefore, it is important to assess the engineering workforce of the Iraqi construction industry so that, based on empirical evidence, a training needs model can be designed for

their professional development. In this study it is hypothesised that a construction company that adopts the three levels of TNA would be conducting a more effective assessment of training outcomes than if relying solely on purely analytical techniques. Based on this, this study was carried out to understand: the role of existing training needs, the analytical processes of Iraqi construction firms, the factors that affect the process of identifying these needs and the impact these have on organizational performance. It is hypothesised that it is most likely that across Iraq there is insufficient emphasis given to training the workforce to meet new challenges and technological changes in the construction industry.

This study adopts descriptive research and a non-experimental quantitative approach. According to White (2004, p. 62), ‘descriptive research is a non-experimental quantitative method, with the implication of it being a way to describe a current situation as accurately as possible.’ It was decided to use a descriptive research study and also to use a cross-sectional study method and this study is considered relatively inexpensive and takes up little time to conduct. A cross-sectional, survey based approach, is taken in the primary data collection phase of the study. This belongs to the relativist or positivist position at that point in time. Descriptive research is an in-depth description of a specific individual or group; in this study all levels of management in the Iraq construction industry companies are included (White, 2004:63). It is also a description of the frequency of occurrence of a certain characteristic in a sample. In the study of the Iraqi construction industry, the sample includes different types of construction engineers. The decision to select descriptive research and not experimental research was influenced by the fact that descriptive research is about things that have already happened or are ongoing, which, in this case, is the continued performance of TNA in the Iraqi construction industry, as well its inability to determine the training needs for skills and knowledge of the current construction engineers (White, 2004:63). Three main purposes of this research are to describe, explain, and validate findings. Description emerges following creative exploration, and serves to organize the findings in order to fit them with explanations, and then test or validate those explanations (Krathwohl, 1993).

3.3.2. Justification for the philosophy

The philosophical assumptions of the researcher will strongly influence the reasoning behind this research and will influence both the data required and the analysis of the data. In conducting doctoral research, particularly for a PhD study, there is a need to justify the 1 0 2

philosophical stance of the researcher; after all, the degree to be awarded is ‘Doctor of Philosophy’ (Tobi & Amaratunga, 2010). As Saunders et al. (2007) argued, research philosophy comprises vital assumptions that will support the research strategy and the chosen research methods as part of that strategy. Research approachability is affected by the research phenomenon under consideration, and when one tries to tackle the research problem(s), questions emerge, influencing the type of paradigm to be used (Remenyi et al, 1998; Pollack, 2007). Moreover, when deciding which paradigm to follow, it must be noted how it influences the conceptual model of the study (Miles and Huberman, 1994) and also drives the researcher to create rational and systematic constructs and processes from which variables can be extracted and included in the research. Having expounded the pros and cons of each paradigm, they now need to be applied. However, due to limited time and money, the established methodology for the present research will be the ‘hard’ paradigm alone, as it satisfies the research background. This paradigm paves the way for a convergent and discriminating validity, compared to other relevant literature. Moreover, the basis of the ‘hard’ paradigm makes it suitable for replication purposes. This particular research project adopts an objective orientation, which focuses on uncovering factual findings in the subject area by emphasising causality and generalisation (Ahadzie, 2007; Pollack, 2007). The research is based on modern epistemological and ontological assumptions. The research method used is quantitative in nature, and therefore it is appropriately in-line with the positivist tradition. It is confirmed by Dainty, (2008: 10) that the construction management field emerges to be firmly rooted within the positivist tradition, a tradition that facilitates the application of either pure / or applied research in the built environment. Collins (2010: 38) ‘suggests that as a philosophy, positivism is in accordance with the empiricist view that knowledge stems from human experience, which portrays the ontological view of the world as comprising discrete, observable elements and events that interact in an observable, determined, and regular manner’. As a result, positivism is concerned with all phenomena that should be understood via the employment of a scientific method and aims to create a theoretically neutral language of observation by stripping hypotheses and theories of subjective content. It is deterministic; de-emphasising free will, emotion, chance, choice and morality; and it posits a conceptual division between ‘fact’ and ‘value’, in which only empirically provable ideas count as ‘knowledge’ (Tobi & Amaratunga, 2010; Gephart, 1999, Crotty 2003; Strudwick 2009; Collins, 2010: 38).

Figure 3-4 Applied Epistemological, Ontological and Axiological Stances

Research position

Positivism Interpretism

Realism Idealism

Value free Value laden

The positivists usually adopt this methodology in their investigations. This approach has the following strengths according to Castrol et al., (2010: 343)

 Generation of comprehensive account of human experiences is possible;

 The accounts are within the context of the observations; and

1 0 4 Epistemology Ontology Axiology

 An in-depth analysis is possible in a way that cannot be captured by measurement scales.

The limitation of this approach as put forward by Castrol et al (2010: 343) is that the ability to make strong conclusion is limited. In summary, this research is based on modern epistemological and ontological assumptions, using quantitative data collection in line with positivism. As mentioned earlier, construction management appears to be of a positivistic root (Dainty, 2008). To define the approach even further, the research has an inclination towards positivism.