Structuring the questionnaire

The questionnaire was structured to ensure that each part had a specific focus, whether it be connected to mapping the scope of the sector or answering a specific research objective. Questions focused on general aspects of the job, roles and responsibilities and particularly the support and training given. This covered both the initial support and training offered but also the support and training given whilst completing the job. Questions regarding this area were broken down to see whether the help focused on support for specific tasks or whether there was the broader, more generic, management training strand that is often found within other sectors. Courses such as the Certificate in Management Studies (CMS) and the Diploma in Management Studies (DMS) are used extensively to

provide a broad-based overview of the managerial paradigm for newcomers to middle management and the questionnaire investigated whether this is also the case within post-compulsory education. The questionnaires were also used to identify good practice within colleges in regards to support and training for transitions (a copy of the questionnaire can be found in Appendix 2).

When the questionnaires were completed, a number of statistical analysis techniques were used to analyse the answers given, including measures of location and dispersion. Information was coded and correlation was used to identify links between various answers. This helped to see whether there are any differences of experience that may be linked to demographic factors, geographical factors or experiential factors. In addition to this, graphing was used to visually represent results that were judged to be significant from the answers given. Measures of location and also measures of dispersion helped to identify how homogeneous the group surveyed were and also see whether there were any outliers within the answers that needed to be represented when presenting any findings (Newby, 2010).

The evidence collected by the questionnaire was particularly helpful when analysing the research objectives, which look at the role of the middle manager and also the support and training that they are offered, and lend themselves to a quantitative-based approach that fits in well with a questionnaire.

For the purpose of this research, the questionnaire was distributed to allow any level of manager in further education to respond. Although this research is primarily looking at middle managers, the views of others on the role of the middle managers remain valid and it was thought important to gain as wide a range of opinions as possible. Indeed, the views of senior managers on the role of the middle managers could provide an interesting confirmation (or otherwise) of the views expressed.

Questions were split into a number of categories that were chosen to align them to the initial objectives of the research, and they were also linked to the emerging findings from the literature review. This confirmed the relevance of the information and also made sure that the questionnaire was not overlong. The structuring was as follows.

The initial section of questions (coded 1 to 6) was linked to the scope of the sector and the respondent’s role within the sector. These questions helped to ensure that a bigger picture of the role of middle managers within the sector was captured. In addition, it was used to ensure the sample of respondents was as representative as possible of the sector as a whole. The next section of the questionnaire (questions 7 to 9) looked at the recruitment of managers. Jameson (2013) describes recruitment as being ad hoc and rather chaotic in nature, and these three questions looked at how managers were recruited to their current jobs. This helped to assess the findings of Jameson (2013) and linked to the first and fourth research objectives. The free text part was included so that any good practice could be identified which would help the transition that people make to being managers. This was a key theme identified in the initial study, with all bar one of the managers interviewed describing a process that was informal and relied on a ‘networking’ approach rather than a structured

recruitment process.

The final section (questions 10 to 19) was included in order to look at how the manager perceived their role, what they do on a day-to-day basis and the support and training that they are provided with. Returning to Busher and Harris (1999), this section was designed to see whether the four elements – ‘bridging and brokering’, ‘a transformational dimension’, ‘supervisory management’ and ‘representative leadership’ – are an adequate description of the manager within the sector, some years after

the original research was published. This also linked to the first, second and third objectives of this research.

A mixture of closed and open questions was used when designing this questionnaire. Closed questions were designed to mirror the categories used by the most recent ETF survey (ETF, 2016.

Open questions were reserved to capture information about specific issues managers wished to raise and also to illustrate answers given. This gave respondents the chance to answer questions ‘in their own voice’ (Newby, 2010:298), as well as providing an opportunity to highlight any specific incidents that had either a positive or negative effect on their development within the role.

The open, free writing questions required a different approach to analysis, a view endorsed by LeCompte and Preissle (1993:332) when they suggest that ‘the canons of reliability for quantitative research may simply be unworkable for qualitative research’. For these questions, a thematic approach was used to identify any commonalities between answers. This analysis was used to help support and check findings from the closed questions, as well as identifying particular areas of interest and also good practice.

4.3.5 Sampling

A purposive sampling approach was taken to the majority of the research. This approach, which is a non-probability-based approach that selects participants based on characteristics associated with the objectives of the research (Morris, 2000), was used to ensure that the sample matched the characteristics of the sector as a whole. The only deviation from purposive sampling was the initial selection of participants for the questionnaire. This was sent out to everyone and then purposive techniques were used to identify and address any underrepresented groups.

Whilst there are criticisms of purposive sampling, the advantages are that I was able to select participants who represented the disparate elements of further education. This ensured that one area did not dominate and the views of all parts were taken into account. Whilst it might be possible to

argue that there is an inbuilt bias to the use of this method (in effect, I am selecting respondents and it might be argued that this means that I am affecting the results), I would argue that the alternatives would also suffer from the same problems and by selecting people who had already

volunteered to be part of the survey, I was able to ensure that my participants were willing participants.

The alternatives, namely stratified and random sampling, each had problems associated with them. A random sample would be difficult to manage given the geographical spread of the sector, whilst a stratified sample might not necessarily produce participants who are keen to be interviewed, which would not help the research. In addition, it would not be possible as there is no complete list of middle managers within the sector.

The method of distribution helped the research be representative of the sector, as did the checks that I put in place to ensure that the proportions of people matched those of the sector as a whole. As this was an online survey, the literature suggests that the response rate was likely to be around 10-15% (Nulty, 2008) although some rates were reported to be as low as 2% (Petchenik and Watermolen, 2011). Taking into account the latest figures for employees in the sector (ETF, 2016), this equated to a return of around 350 responses; the final total (302), whilst slightly lower, was a representative sample for the sector once demographic and location statistics were checked, and a further sample took place to correct any imbalances.

Breaking down the 302 rather more, 208 respondents were female, 68% of the total sampled. This is slightly higher than the figures obtained by the ETF (2016). To match the ETF figures, the total should have been 190. However, when taking into account statistical variations, this does fall into acceptable confidence limits and so can be viewed as representative. A similar pattern was repeated when ethnic origin was investigated, with 280 people answering ‘white’ when asked about their ethnic origin.

National figures are difficult to find, with almost 1 in 5 employees failing to answer this question (ETF, 2014); however, when looking at the available information, this does seem to be broadly representative of the sector. All parts of the sector were represented, with general FE colleges being the

most popular answer regarding the place of work (181 responses); this was followed by sixth form colleges (57 responses) and agricultural colleges (27 people). This breakdown is very close to the proportions identified by the ETF.