Evolution through Research Methodologies: Exploring Interviews, Ethnography, Focus Groups, and Phenomenology

Assignment 3: Summary and Reflection

 Kimberley A. Ilott

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Athabasca University

MAIS602: Doing Interdisciplinary Research

Prof. Mickey Vallee

March 13, 2022

 

​

Unit 3 Summary and Reflection Response

 

Question

Taking into consideration the various methodologies covered in unit three, which methodology or methodologies would be most appropriate and productive for your research question? Did you decide that a method other than methodologies discussed in unit three would be better suited for your research question? Why or why not.

​

Response

My research question revolves around organizational change and the actions or behaviours of leadership.  Going into unit three, I had shifted my research focus to be centered around behavioural psychology, specifically the psychology that drives an individual to shift to a new normal during times of organizational change.  Immediately, in the first week of unit three, my behavioural psychology stance was challenged by the interview research method.  As unit three closed, my research scope shifted away from behavioural psychology and instead focused on the specific change management actions or behaviours of leadership that elicit a specific result (whether good or bad). The four research methods that were explored in unit three were:

• Interview

• Ethnography

• Focus Groups

• Phenomenology

 

During my exploration of the interview research method, I decided to use a mixture of the doxastic and conversational models. Brinkmann (2007) and Curato (2012) state that doxastic interviews focus on the interviewee’s experience, attitudes, and understanding of the interview context, whereas the conversational model is rooted in an interviewer providing unscripted information to respondents in an effort to clarify meaning (Lavrakas, 2008, para 1).  My interviewee, who was also a mentor, challenged my choice of research question, suggesting that focusing on psychology would not provide results that target a business-geared audience. This constructive criticism allowed me to further refine my research question and shift my research focus.

​

While the interview research method helped to further refine the ‘what’ of my research, the ethnography research method identified the ‘how’ for collecting quantitative and qualitative data to support my research question. The immersive research method enables a researcher to experience an environment that supports their research; during week five learning, it was clear that immersing myself as a ‘fly on the wall’ in an organization undergoing a large transformative organizational change would enable the collection of data through observation (eyes and ears).  Ethnography would be the foundational research method used for my research; the results/outcomes of this research method would act as the catalyst for targeted research collection using other methodologies (interview and phenomenology).

​

Focus groups followed ethnography learning. “Focus groups can be used to elicit realistic exchanges of opinions, show processes of persuasion, and reveal latent notions and ideas within processes of sense making” (Delli Carpini and Williams, 1994).  While focus groups are an excellent method for conducting research, the method was not favoured for my research surrounding organizational change due to the risk of self-censorship by focus group participants. Organizational change and a person’s willingness to shift is deeply personal and holding focus groups may cause those personal reactions that would be observed through ethnography to potentially be lost due to censorship or group think; this would especially be true if focus groups had a mix of organization players (leaders and doers) or strong/meek personalities.  

​

The final research method that was explored in unit three was phenomenology, the study of direct experiences and consciousness. Phenomenological research “must ‘pull’ [readers] into the question in such a way that the reader cannot help but wonder about the nature of the phenomenon in the way that the [researcher] does” (van Moren, 1984). With this research method in mind, my research question was refined once again; the fourth revision adjusted the question wording to better transport a reader into the lived experience portrayed through the collected quantitative and qualitative data obtained via the ethnographic and interview research methodologies.

​

Unit three learning was critical in the refinement of my research topic and question.  There is not one research method that could be applied universally to answer my research question as organizational change is complex and convoluted as it involves people. Given this understanding, preferred methodologies, in order of use, for my research would be:

• Ethnography

• Interviews

• Phenomenology

Using a ‘layer-cake’ approach to my research would enable fulsome data collection, resulting in a clearly identified research scope, and well-formed results.

 

Research Question Evolution

​

Original Research Question

How does a change management strategy, when deployed effectively during times of organizational transformation, enable leadership to nudge the individualized behaviours of many to become a singular norm of the masses?

​

Revision 1, Post Unit 1

When deployed during times of organizational transformation, how does a change management strategy enable leadership to nudge individualized behaviours into a singular norm reaction of the masses?

​

Revision 2, Post Unit 2

During times of organizational change, in what ways does behavioural psychology, in reference to both leader and follower actions, affect the probability of a successful outcome?

​

Revision 3, Mid Unit 3 (Interview/Ethnography/Focus Group Considerations)

During times of organizational change, which leadership, management, and employee actions or behaviours are most effective in eliciting a shift toward a desired outcome and why?

​

Revision 4, End Unit 3 (Phenomenology Consideration)

Which leadership actions or behaviours are most effective in times of organizational change, and how do these practices elicit a desired outcome?

 

​

References

Brinkmann, S. (2007). Could interviews be epistemic? An alternative to qualitative opinion polling. Qualitative Inquiry, 13, 1116-1138. doi:10.1177/1077800407308222

​

Curato, N. (2012). Respondents as interlocutors: Translating deliberative democratic principles to qualitative interviewing ethics. Qualitative Inquiry, 18, 571-582.

​

Delli Carpini, M., & Williams, B. (1994). The method is the message: Focus groups as a method of social psychological and political inquiry. Research in Micropolitics, 4, 57-85.

​

Lavrakas, P. J. (2008). Encyclopedia of survey research methods (Vols. 1-0). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. doi: 10.4135/9781412963947

​

van Moren, M. (1984). Practicing Phenomenological Writing. Journal of Phenomenology and Pedagogy, 2(1), 36–68.