Overview of the Research Design

1.3.1 Research Philosophy

The research is based on a phenomenological approach. Informed by the interpretive philosophy, I take the realist position where common subjectivities of some respondents become objective realities. In other words, the research design data collection during the course of this study is from the perspective that reality is not objective and exterior, but is socially constructed and given meaning by people. Respondents express their views freely in their subjective context because reality is the product of individual cognition. Data, obtained from the respondents’ every day concept and meaning, are then processed with the realist approach in order to discover logical relationships within the data. Concepts should incorporate stakeholders’ perspective, generalisation through theoretical abstraction; sampling requires small numbers of cases chosen for specific reasons (Easterby-Smith et al., 2002; Burrell and Morgan, 1979).

Researchers have an underlying anxiety as to how the research will stand up to outside scrutiny. The technical language for withstanding external scrutiny includes terms such as validity, reliability and generalisability. For the phenomenological research approach, the validity of the research can be examined from the answer to the question “Does the study clearly gain access to the experiences of those in the research setting?”; its reliability can be examined from the answer to the question “Is there transparency in how sense was made from the raw data?”; and its generalisability can be examined from the answer to the question “Do the concepts and constructs derived from this study have any relevance to other settings?” (Easterby-Smith et al., 2002). The discussion in Chapters Three, Four, Five and Six addresses these questions. The summary can be tabulated in Table 1-1.

1.3.2 The choice of Research Methods

This research adopted an Abductive research strategy (Blaikie, 2000). The idea of abduction refers to the process used to generate social scientific accounts from social actors’ accounts; for deriving technical concepts and theories from lay concepts and interpretations of social life. As I intended to explore the field in order to build a theoretical organisational readiness assessment instrument, this strategy provides the greatest scope for exploring a phenomenon from the first hand account of people who have experienced the phenomenon to be investigated. It has the added advantage of providing researchers with a framework for collecting and analysing data from which to build conceptual instrument (Blaikie, 2000). It is flexible enough to be used with other data analysis techniques; in this study it is the laddering technique. The drawback of the Abductive strategy is the possible biased interpretation of the lay concepts projected by the respondents. This drawback can be overcome by using a technique referred to as “mirroring or reflecting” (Easterby-Smith et al., 2002; Easterby-Smith and Malina, 1999). This technique involves expressing in the researchers’ own words what the respondent has just said. This prompts the respondent to rethink his/her answer and reconstruct another reply that amplifies the previous answer. In practice, I use questions such as: “What you seem to be saying is ….”

The aim of the research is to construct an organisational readiness instrument based on an empirical study that may illuminate the attributes required for effective KMS implementation. A case study approach (Yin, 1994) was adopted for the research. Easterby-Smith et al. (2002) and Yin (1994) suggest that the definition of the unit of analysis is related to the way the initial research questions have been defined. Referring to the above-stated research questions the unit of analysis is where the creation, mobilisation and diffusion of knowledge take place. The unit of analysis of my research is an organisation’s business process. In the case of Schlumberger, it was the technical service delivery process; in the case of Power International, it was the customer service delivery process; in the case of Friends Provident, it was the customer service process; in the case of Schlumberger LMS, it was the competency development process.

I used a Means-End Chain model with its laddering technique to uncover the attributes that ultimately bring beneficial results. A Means-End Chain is a structure containing inter-connected meanings through which certain action attributes are seen as the means to an end (Baker, 2002). The model embodies the concept of levels of abstraction: 1) lower level attributes link with 2) higher level consequences which, in turn, link with 3) still higher level values. The laddering technique refers to the approach in data collection that forces respondents up a “ladder of abstraction”. Open- end questions are recommended to encourage interviewees to give answers specific to their particular thoughts in their own way to ladder up the abstraction. Following Gutman (1997; 1982) I used the Means-End model to conceptualise the hierarchy of organisational goals in managing knowledge. My research uses the Means-End Chain model, integral to the laddering method, to focus attention on the linkages between: 1) activities 2) the consequences or outcome goals from certain activities and 3) benefits resulting from the outcome goals or consequences. Section 3.1.5 further explains the Means-End Chain model with its laddering technique.

Sample and Data Collection

A theoretical, rather than a statistical, sampling method (Eisenhardt, 1989) was used to choose the research subject. The criteria used to choose the research site were as follows: First, that the site manages the knowledge life-cycle at the level of business processes; Second, that knowledge is managed within communities; Third, that the system is operational and widely used, proved by some detailed facts or measures; Fourth, that knowledge management brings beneficial results to the organisation; Fifth, that the organisation has obtained recognition from practitioners and academics. Looking into three different processes in Schlumberger, detailed in Chapter Four, Schlumberger’s technical service delivery process fulfilled these criteria. This process addresses knowledge-intensive activities across all stages of the creation, mobilisation, and diffusion life-cycle.

The data gathering technique used was laddering – an in-depth interview technique. Each interview was guided by probing questions exemplified by the list of questions in Appendix 2. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. For Project One, a total of 19 interviewees included Schlumberger’s InTouch users, middle and top managers, the programme manager and team members of InTouch support. The data from the interviews were further used for Project Two. For Project Three, a total

of 7 respondents from Power International, 4 respondents from Friends Provident and 5 respondents from Schlumberger LMS were interviewed.

Scrutiny Questions Answers for this research Validity Does the the study clearly

gain access to the

experiences of those in the research setting?

19 interviewees were all actively involved in the research subject from different levels and different geographical locations. The researcher had extensive access to the required information (Research Project One and Project Two).

Respondents from Power International, Friends Provident and Schlumberger LMS were all actively involved in their knowledge management initiatives. Access was granted to the KM project teams by the KM project leaders (Research Project Three). Reliability Is there transparency in how

sense was made from the raw data?

In all three research projects an Abductive research strategy was adopted. The Means-End Chain approach with its laddering technique and the Hierarchical Value Map give transparency as to how the collected data were analysed (Project One). The categorisation of the one-to-one relationship between the Factors and the STS dimensions to construct KIAT was discussed in detail (Project Two).

In depth discussion for the individual case and multiple case analysis is presented (Project Three). Generalisability Do the concepts and

constructs derived from this study have any relevance to other setting?

The objective of the research’s Project Three is to address this specific question for generalisability.

Table 1-1: Answers of the research to external scrutiny

Data analysis

Emergent conceptual constructs were identified using an Abductive strategy (Blaikie, 2000). These conceptual constructs – referred to as second-order constructs – were derived from first-order constructs – which constitute participants’ social reality captured in the interview transcripts. Using content analysis, the structural relationships between specific attributes, consequences, and beneficial results – seen as a hierarchy of goals – are aggregated across interviewees in an asymmetric implication matrix (Reynolds and Gutman, 1988). Implication matrix is constructed through the laddering analysis of the interview data by counting the number of relationships. The implication matrix is then used to draw a hierarchical value map (HVM) as a means to illustrate the relationships among constructs. The results are presented in subsection 1.4.1, and the detailed explanation of the implication matrix and the HVM is presented in Chapter Four subsection 4.4.3.

Data analysis for Project Two and Three remains within the Abductive strategy with the first-order and second-order constructs. They are individually explained in Chapter Five and Chapter Six.