Research Approach

This study used the case study methodology to investigate the application of tacit knowledge of a knowledge management system for railway sector in South Africa.

Research approaches can be distinguished in many ways. One such feature used to distinguish research is by classifying it as either quantitative or qualitative (Myers, 2007). This study employed a qualitative research approach. The main reason why this study was based on a case study using interviews was the fact that the researcher wanted to interact with the participants and allow them to elaborate on their opinions, rather than using questionnaires. Interviews are useful as the researcher can ask detailed questions and can be rephrased if a person does not easily understand the question asked but also enabling follow-up questions in order to get more information on the topic with participants (Wohlin and Aurum, 2014). This study is based more on the signalling department because of its importance to the railway sector.

3.2.1 Case Study

The qualitative case study methodology provided tools like interview guide for the researcher to study the complex phenomena (within the railway context in South Africa) (Yin, 2003). After a case study approach is applied correctly in the KM context, it becomes a valuable method for any railway sector worldwide to be used for teaching cases, transfer and sharing, storing and reuse of knowledge. Since this study is to explain the phenomenon of KMS process within the railway sector in South Africa.

In December 2004 the government of South Africa decided to consolidate passenger rail entities, Metrorail and Shosholoza Meyl into a single entity reporting to the Minister of Transport (Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, p. 18-21, 2012). This new entity focused on providing reliable, safe, and efficient passenger services to the people of South African. This system transports more than 2.2 million people annually within the Western Cape. When dealing with issues of safety, reliability and efficiency in railway operations, it is clear that these issues are vital elements in the signalling system of any railway operating organisation, both locally, like the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, and internationally ( Liu, Mao, Wang, Du and Ding, 2011;

Quaglietta, 2013).

3.2.1.1 Advantages of a case study

In case study research, the advantages are to get the real information of what is happening in the organisation to assist the researcher to answer the research questions posed. The case study research approach is often able to provide suitable solutions for the relevant problem. It uses inductive approach and makes it easy for management to interpret information from the study. If the study is on two cases, it helps to identify problems through organisation operations and provide proper solutions. The other advantage is that case study research in any organisation like railway uses emphatically evidence in order to study the KM in the context. The case can be interpretive, as is aligned with the study the researcher is doing.

3.2.1.2 Disadvantages of a case study

The disadvantages of a case study are: General, theoretical (context-independent) knowledge is more valuable than concrete, practical (context-dependent) knowledge.

The analysis sometimes is relevant to the specific case study which is not relevant to other case. The researcher is not getting information that relevant to the study only, but about the issues in the organisation. Any one or researcher cannot generalize on the basis of an individual case; therefore the case study cannot contribute to scientific

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development. The method maintains a bias towards verification, understood as a tendency to confirm the researcher’s preconceived notions, so that the study therefore becomes of doubtful scientific value. Experience, however, shows that even in a single qualitative case study, the conscientious social scientist often finds no explanation that seems satisfactory and has to revise researcher’s hypotheses, preconceived views, assumptions or concepts (Flyvbjerg, 2006).

Flyvbjerg (2006) emphasis the misunderstanding is that, the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses; that is, in the first stage of a total research process, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building, he continued saying that, the case study contains a bias toward verification, that is, a tendency to confirm the researcher’s preconceived notions and, lastly it is often difficult to summarize and develop general propositions and theories on the basis of specific case studies.

3.2.2 Research Population

The research population for the study were employees of the Metrorail section of Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa and were selected from three departments (signalling, Information and communication technology, infrastructure as well as signalling, human resources and business development) in the Western Cape region.

The population consisted of a total of fifteen participants and twelve successfully participated in the scheduled interviews.

3.2.2.1 Characteristics of the research population

The research participants were selected on the basis of their roles in the sector. The participation in the study was voluntary. .

3.2.2.1.1 Senior Management

In the senior management category, the senior manager for infrastructure which consists of sub-departments like perway, signalling, electrical, telecoms and maintenance planning for railway tracks participated in the study. The senior manager heads the department and is also part of the Western Cape regional executive reporting to the regional manager. The senior manger’s role is to make sure all the maintenance of railway infrastructure like perway, signals and electrical components for the organisation are in place. The movement of trains depends mostly on this role without which the trains cannot move.

3.2.2.1.2 Middle Management

The role of middle management in signalling is to make sure the staff is available for fixing and maintaining signals. He middle manager position reports to the senior manager of infrastructure for the entire signal related this in the organisation. This level is accountable to all supervisory related roles in the signalling department at Western Cape region.

3.2.2.1.3 Signalling Staff

The signalling staff consists of senior engineering technicians, engineering technicians, and process workers (artisans). The senior engineering technicians are the ones in charge in the training centre to train all new staff members in the department and also work as tutors. These staff members have worth 130 experiences in the Railway organisation. Engineering technicians have a mixture of experience staff members and new engineers. These are members that make sure all the signals are running for trains to operate. They work in section as supervisors to process workers. Process workers reports to them and they are the ones in charge for managing their time.

The staff members were the most important participants in the study, and most of them have served the organization for twenty and more years. Also included in the category were new artisans with about two years’ experience.

3.2.3 Sampling procedures

Sampling is the process of choosing a group of people who can give a clear representation of the different levels within a population (Johnson and Christensen, 2004:197). The participants were selected in order to gain the information that was necessary to address the research objectives of the study. Fifteen participants were chosen, and 12 % participated in the interviews. The final list of the participants consisted of the following as illustrated in table 2.1:

Table 2.1: Interview Participants

Numbe r

Title of the Interviewee and the Designation 1 Senior manager infrastructure

2 Senior manager, human resources and business performance 3 Middle manager signalling

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4 Senior engineering technician (lecturer) Koeberg 5 Senior engineering technician (lecturer) Koeberg 6 Senior engineering technician (lecturer) Elsies 7 Engineering technician Salt River

8 Engineering technician Bellville 9 Engineering technician Langa 10 Engineering technician Wynberg 11 Process worker Salt River 12 Process worker signalling Langa

This study focussed on the signalling department in the railway sector of South Africa.

However, the human resources department and the ICT department were involved as part of the study, since they are the key supporting departments to this process.

The study excluded other regional signal engineers, process workers and top management as the responses from the Western Cape region would be adequate to cover the study.