Research Process 95

The research process has been divided into two parts, firstly developing a developing a conceptual framework and, secondly, designing the actual research study that includes the area of study, location, sample, organization, data collection and analysis. In this process as part of the first steps taken the researcher has developed a phases of research which clearly illustrates how the research was carried out. This research process has been developed based on the adopted research method, approach, strategy, data collection and method of analysis. The research first started by clearly explaining the research aim objectives and research questions. The research was interested in studying the reasons for resistance to technology change and the major factors that provide an impact on resistance. From the literature review the researcher has identified many factors, such as management, behavioural and demographic factors etc., which lead to resistance to technology change in UAE public sector companies. The researcher conducted a pilot study before collecting the data. The research identified a list of factors that were seen as the reasons for resistance to technology change and using these factors the researcher developed a questionnaire which was distributed to some of the employees in the selected organizations so as to gain appropriate data. After receiving the information from the participants the researcher revised the list of factors and started designing further data collection stages. The research was designed in three data collection stages that helped in answering the research questions and achieved the research objectives. The three stages are discussed below.

3.9.1.1 Stage 1

This stage was planned to identify various factors in order to develop a framework that helps to measure the impact of each factor on the resistance to technology change. Two types of questionnaires were designed for this research. Firstly, the researcher developed a survey questionnaire which was distributed to employees in selected companies. The survey questionnaire was designed to measure the factors that affect employee resistance to technology change in UAE public sector companies. The survey responses were measured based on a five point scale (Likert scale) where the respondents had options

ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Analysis of the results was undertaken using SPSS software. Furthermore, to identify the actual (after the survey) factors affecting the resistance to technology change the researcher planned to interview the middle managers who were better able to understand the impact of such factors. The outputs from this stage helped the researcher to refine the framework.

3.9.1.2 Stage 2

In this stage the researcher aimed at further refining the framework. To do this the researcher developed a sample interview questionnaire for middle managers. At this stage the researcher designed an interview questionnaire that included a list of factors that were found to be some of the reasons for resistance to technology change such as management factors, demographic factors, behaviour factors, cultural factors, social factors and so on. The questionnaire was distributed to three middle managers in UAE public sector organizations. This helped the researcher to identify the errors in the previous framework and helped to develop a new framework with the newly collected data. Several modifications were made in this stage in order to refine the framework.

3.9.1.3 Stage 3

In the final stage the collected data was used to validate the refined framework. Thus the researcher validated the refined framework using semi-structured interviews which were conducted in an organization with middle managers. The final validated framework was developed with some modifications and that, then, was the end of the data collection process. Next, after collecting the data, the researcher analyzed the collected data and discussed the data analysis methods. Once the data were analyzed final findings and discussions were presented providing recommendations and conclusions.

3.10 Chapter Summary

This chapter discusses and justifies the research methods, approaches, strategy and validation of the techniques that were used that helped the researcher to answer the research questions and thus to achieve the research objectives. The research method is

characterized by three concepts: epistemology, methods and methodology. Epistemology helped the qualitative research which could be said to be the knowledge of the participants’ personal world. This research opted for both objectivism and subjectivism wherein objectivism asserts that social entities exist in a reality external to the social actors. On the other hand, the subjectivism ontological stance proposes that one should understand the details of a situation in order to understand reality. The two main research approaches used in the research were positivism and phenomenology. Positivism distinguishes between facts and values which are identified through five sequential steps, deducing a hypothesis, expressing the hypothesis, testing this operational hypothesis, examining the specific outcome and modifying the theory in the light of the findings. The phenomenological approach helped to understand phenomena from the point of view of participants directly involved with the phenomena under study. This stance, therefore, favoured the research forms that enable the distinctive character of such contexts to be studied.

The research strategy is applied through experiments including sampling, surveys (questionnaires, semi-interviews) and case studies in order to evaluate the framework. By following the phenomenological approach, this research applied the case study method for data collection and analysis. The case study method helped the researcher to accomplish the aims including the provisioning of description as well as testing and generating theory. The case study method was chosen as the research topic of employee resistance to technological change is poorly researched in the context of UAE. The intention of this research was to describe the nature, causes and level of resistance to technological change in the UAE which was accomplished through the case study approach. The researcher designed and used a quantitative data collection method that assisted in collecting information from different employees from different locations and positions who had had different experiences. This helped the researcher to develop an understanding as to the various reasons why employees resist technology change. Data collection and analysis was undertaken using SPSS software. In the initial stages a framework was developed using an extensive literature review and drawing on theoretical

aspects. Next, using semi-structured interviews, the initial framework was revised and these interview results helped the researcher to develop a refined framework.

CHAPTER 4