Quality of the Qualitative Research

In quantitative research, validity and reliability are the main criteria for assessing the research outcomes. Validity refers to the level to which a research measured what it was intended to measure and reliability concerns the repeatability of measurement.

These two terms are widely used in quantitative research. Some researchers believe that validity and reliability can be also applied in qualitative research in a similar way (Bryman & Bell, 2003). However, there are other researchers who believe validity and reliability come from the positivist paradigm. These researchers argue that the positivist paradigm considers reality as a single absolute account and this is not always true in qualitative research (Bryman & Bell, 2003; Golafshani, 2003).

Hence, validity and reliability cannot be utilised as tools for measuring the quality of qualitative research. Charmaz (2005) explained that if you judge qualitative research by the criteria you have learned to use for hypothesis testing research, you will likely misjudge it. Thus, four alternative criteria f or judging the quality of qualitative research were offered (Guba & Lincoln, 1994) as: credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. The associations between the alternative criteria and traditional quantitatively-oriented criteria are tabulated in Table 7 by Trochim (2006).

Table 7: Quantitative measures vs. qualitative criteria (Trochim, 2006)

Traditional Criteria for Judging

126 This research intended to use the alternative criteria to reflect on the quality of the research and, thus, they will be explained in the following section. Credibility involves establishing that the outcomes of the qualitative inquiry are acceptable from the participants‘ point of view (Bryman & Bell, 2003). In other words, to be credible, the results should be submitted to interviewees to confirm if the researcher has correctly understood the construction logistics system. To comply with this, the respondent validation technique was adopted, which is ―a process whereby a researcher provides the people on whom he or she has conducted research with an account of his or her findings. The aim of the exercise is to seek corroboration or otherwise of the account that the researcher has arrived at‖ (Bryman & Bell, 2003, p.

290). To use this technique, the outcome of the research was summarised in a diagram to be presented to interviewees. As there was a two-year gap between the interviews and the model formation, ten participants were accessible, and among them, only three were willing to comment on the diagram. The general attitude of the reviewers was positive and they offered feedback and suggestions on the final model.

The credibility of the model will be explained in more detail in Chapter eleven.

Transferability concernes if the results can be transferred to other settings. Since in qualitative inquiry the focus is on a small sample, the outcomes tend to be context dependent in terms of both location and time (Bryman & Bell, 2003). Hence, using the results in a wider or new context may be problematic. To solve this problem, qualitative researchers should produce a thick description of the context of the study (Bryman & Bell, 2003). The description will help the person who wants to transfer the outcome to a different context to make judgements about the level of transferability of findings. In this research, one chapter (Chapter four) is fully assigned to describing the context of the study, which is Iran. In that chapter, rich information is provided about the Iranian construction industry, building sectors, economic conditions, geographical position, regulations and cultural matters.

Moreover, in Appendix two, some information about each interviewee is given that includes education, field of study, role, job, and years of experience. This will help the reader to understand from which perspective and based on what background the interviewee is developing his argument and explanation.

Dependability, which is parallel to reliability, is mainly about developing a report of the research process that allows peers to audit the work (Bryman & Bell, 2003). In

Chapter 6

METHODOLOGY

127 order to address dependability in this research, the process of conducting the investigation was reported in detail in previous sections of the current chapter. The report clarified the research design, methods implemented, sampling criteria, data collection procedures, data preparation, and QDA. Moreover, reflective appraisal of the research was provided by explaining the advantages and disadvantages of the qualitative strategy in the research. Meanwhile, all audio files, interview transcripts, fieldwork notes, photos and documents are kept accessible as the records of the study. All of these will help peers to assess the dependability of the research.

Confirmability recognises that complete objectivity is impossible in qualitative research, but it explains that subjectivity should be minimised. In fact, the researcher should show that ―he or she has not overtly allowed personal values or theoretical inclinations manifestly to sway the conduct of the research and findings deriving from it‖ (Bryman & Bell, 2003). To enhance the confirmability of the research, during the interviews, the researcher took a neutral stand and did not confirm or reject interviewees‘ responses. Furthermore, the researcher did not transfer any knowledge about construction logistics management to respondents except a general logistics definition that was explained for all interviewees in the interview guide (Appendix one). Meanwhile, the researcher attempted to avoid directing the discussion in the interview sessions. Hence, it was tried not to interrupt respondents‘

conversation as much as possible, to allow the concepts to emerge naturally. In the transcribing stage, what was heard was directly converted to text without any edits.

Beside these, for the first interview transcript, the list of codes was extracted and shown to a colleague to be reviewed. A similar method was recommended by Northey (1997). The colleague was asked to rate each code by giving one if the code is weakly supported by text and five if it is strongly supported by the text. Among the 18 codes, 11 were rated at five, five at four and two at three which shows acceptable confirmability of the research. In addition to these techniques, the process of the research was explained clearly in the previous sections which can be used for confirmability auditing.

6. 6. Quantitative Inquiry

The second approach to the construction logistics investigation has a quantitative nature. Generally, the quantitative approach involves making measurements by

128 collecting factual data. It pursues objective scientific methods and reflects the positivist epistemology. A quantitative strategy is described as ―entailing the collection of numerical data and as exhibiting a view of the relationship between theory and research as deductive, a predilection for a natural science approach (and of positivism in particular), and as having an objectivist conception of social reality‖

(Bryman & Bell, 2003). The aim of quantitative inquiry in this study is to utilise the power of quantitative methods to complement the results of the qualitative research described in the previous sections. The advantage of using a quantitative strategy in this research can be expressed as:

 It provides a broader perspective by gathering the ideas of greater numbers of people about construction logistics management. Researching a large sample gives an indication of the experts‘ view on construction logistics in the Iranian building sector.

 It determines if the interviewees‘ opinions about a subject are supported or rejected by other practitioners involved in the industry.

 It minimises the level of subjectivity in the research. The researcher‘s bias is reduced by keeping a distance between the researcher and the participants.

 It has a structured and standardised process and procedures which ensures validity and reliability of the results.

 It enhances the quality of presentation of results in the thesis by using descriptive statistical methods, such as frequency distribution and bar charts.

Numerical data allows the researcher to summarise and finalise data in a clear and understandable way.

The questionnaire survey was chosen as the method of the quantitative inquiry in this research. It is a standard and cost-effective way to gather data from a large number of respondents. The questionnaire is more objective than other methods, such as interviewing, and the speed of gathering data is relatively quick. In the following section, the main steps of the quantitative inquiry, including the questionnaire design and distribution, will be covered.