Research Design and Method

The methodology chapter, written in the early stage of the research project, provides descriptions of planned research design and method. The contents of this chapter have been updated at the end of the research project. However, to provide a reference point, most of the content of this “Research Design and Method”-section has been left unmodified. This section, originally intended as a plan for carrying out the research, therefore, contains sentences in present and future tense, rather than past tense as the rest of this chapter.

Following the literature review and pilot studies, this research is based upon the framework of HR as a communication process (Figure 18). The field work includes two stages: case selection and case-study. Incorporated in the case study is the stage of data-analysis (Table 10).

Table 10 - Research Phases

The initialisation phase is covered in the literature review chapter. This section provides an overview of the Case Selection and Data Collection, and Data Analysis Phases.

Data Collection and Data Analysis are intertwined and the phases overlap to a large extent. For clarity, the two phases are described separately, it is, however, emphasised that both take place in parallel with results from each phase informing and influencing the other (Silverman, 2010).

3.6.5.1 Case Selection Phase

The researcher has access to a database of about two hundred companies which participated in re-employment activities of London Organising Committee for Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) employees after the Olympic Games in September 2012. The case-study candidate selection will be initially limited to these companies. This limitation is guided by several considerations. First, due to professional contacts within these organisations, the access by the researcher to these organisations is readily available. Second, all participating organisations are large enough to have dedicated in-house HR departments. Third, the organisations are UK- based and UK-lead. Fourth, the outplacement of LOCOG employees was done over several social media channels so that all companies in the database have some exposure to social media.

1 Initialisation phase

1.1 Literature Review 1.2 Pilot Studies

2 Case Selection phase

2.1 Candidate selection 2.2 Candidate assessment

3 Data Collection phase

3.1 Case Study Interviews

3.2 Case Study Social Media Analysis

4 Data Analysis

4.1 Interview Analysis

4.2 Social Media Content analysis 4.3 Theme Comparision (by source) 4.4 Cross-Case comparison Pr e pa ra ti o n Fi e ldw o rk A na ly si s

All companies willing to participate will be assessed based on the assessment framework (Figure 24) and the most suitable candidates

will be selected.

Chapter 4 provides a detailed description of the assessment and the selection process. The suitability is primarily dictated by the quality of “fit” of the firm within the assessment framework criteria. The selection is guided by the logic of theoretical or purposive sampling (Silverman, 2010; Yin, 2009). Up to four most extreme cases are selected first (Rouse & Daellenbach, 1999), followed by one or two cases “in the middle” where a clear-cut assignment is not possible or difficult. Permission to conduct an in-depth case study within the firm will them be sought from a suitable representative of the firm.

The research questions:

Q1. Who are the actors (rhetors and audiences)?

Q2. How is social media used for management/employee communication (practices, directions of communication)?

Q3. Is social media use for employee communication strategic?

Q4. When does social media use lead to the development of new capabilities? Are to be answered by comparing the findings from each of the cases. It is hoped that comparison of extreme and “normal” cases will highlight firm-specific factors which influence social media use (research question 4), differentiate effects of social media activity on HRM process (research question 3), and finally contribute to the identification of different practices (research question 2).

3.6.5.2 Data Collection Phase

Each case will be treated as a separate single-case study and data will be collected and analysed on the case-by-case basis initially (Eisenhardt, 1989; Gioia & Pitre, 1990). The initial interviews and data collected during the Case Selection Phase form part of the Case-Data. Further Semi-Structured Interviews with representatives of HR and other departments at various levels (top- and middle-managers, executives) will be conducted.

This will enable the researcher to identify (1) actors of the HR communication process, their (2) individual or collective practices,

their perception of (3) HR system strength as well as (4) existing policies and practices that influence social media use.

Where possible, access to artefacts such as documents containing IT – use policy, social media policy, Standard Operating Procedures, internal memos, internal blog posts etc. will be sought to corroborate and enrich the data available (King et al., 1994). Where hard or electronic copies are available, content (text) and presentation (look and feel) copies will be collected and added to the case database. Publicly available social media platforms will be accessed to identify (1) actors of the communication process and available channels (e.g. can external members comment in groups?), (2) the resultant available and utilised communication practices, (3) the content of HR communication available on public social media platforms, and (4) how the firm internal policies are implemented and enforced on these platforms. These data will provide an alternative source for addressing the research questions. In addition to the direct contribution to research theme, the interviews and public electronic resources will identify other firm external actors whom the researcher will attempt to contact and conduct an interview to provide an outside point of view of the firm’s HR process. The pilot studies indicated two potential groups of actors to be contacted: alumni (former employees) and candidates (potential employees).

3.6.5.3 Data Analysis

During interviews and online data collection the researcher will be forming an opinion on constructs, expressions used, and emergent relationships. These observations, opinions, and the initial framework will guide the data analysis and help in identification of theoretical constructs and themes.

The themes regarding actors are addressed from the viewpoint of research questions one and two: who are the actors and how do they manifest their actions. Themes regarding the HR process are viewed with research questions three and four in mind: how do these themes and construct relate to consistency, consensus and distinctiveness of

the HR process?

The theory is formulated and refined in a continuous process and interlinked with data analysis and data collection. The findings are compared within each case by data source and within data source; cross-case comparison happens on data source and

case-basis (Figure 26). The arrows and directions are illustrative, and not all comparison paths are included in the diagram to avoid cluttering.

Figure 26 - Data Analysis: cross-evaluation

The analysis will be guided by three main theoretical underpinnings: Grounded Theory (Atkinson & Delamont, 2008; Charmaz, 2006, 2011; Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Glaser, 2002), Comparative Case Study (Eisenhardt, 1989; Silverman, 2013; Yin, 2009), and Duality of Structure – introduced in the Structuration Theory and further developed in Sociomaterial View (Giddens, 1984; Jones & Karsten, 2008; Orlikowski, 1992, 1993; Orlikowski & Scott, 2008). For the inductive analysis of the data – the coding of qualitative data, meta-analysis of the first-order constructs and the development of higher-order constructs Grounded Theory will be used as data analysis method for discovering the concepts (Charmaz, 2006; Glaser, 2002). The cross-case comparison and evaluation will use the methods and steps abducted from Case Study designs (Eisenhardt, 1989; Silverman, 2013). Finally, the analysis will depart from Grounded Theory call for becoming abstract from time, people and place (Glaser, 2002). Instead, the analysis will focus on embedding the constructs back into the situated practices and idiosyncratic settings linking the settings (structures) and the practices (processes) together (Gioia & Pitre, 1990; Klein & Myers, 1999; Myers & Avison, 1997; Orlikowski, 2000). The grounding of theoretical constructs will link the research findings back to extant knowledge and practice.