Framework of the Study

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This part addresses the research methodology and the process of the study.

Framework of the Study

The framework of the research is developed according to the purpose of the study, and the literature review. In this research, the competencies listed by Robinson &

Robinson (1998) is used as the main tool to explore the roles and competencies of HR professionals for performance consulting See the graph presented in the figure 3.1.

The interview questionnaire is designed to get information about the skills and

knowledge a performance consultant needs. The interviewees are asked to describe with

their own words the different sort of talents that a performance consultant must possess to

be considered as knowledgeable in that skill and knowledge area.

39 Figure3.1: Framework of the study

Business Knowledge

Knowledge of Human Performance

Technology

Partnering Skills

Consulting Skill

FIND FIND FIND FIND

Practices of HR

Professionals

Practices of HR Professionals Practices of

HR Professionals Practices of

HR Professionals

COMPETENCIES FOR HR PROFESSIONALS

FOR PERFORMANCE CONSULTING

Methods and Processes of the Study

Research Method

Few studies have investigated the roles and competencies of HR/HRD professionals before; a reason to be careful about the way this research is going to be conducted. This situation is the key factor that determines the research methodology adopted in this research.

Since the study is an investigation, the research method that suite the most is a qualitative research method. The main approach is qualitative interviews with open-end questions. With this approach, the researcher hopes he will be able to obtain substantial information with the help of the research participants’ thoughts, beliefs, reasoning and feeling about the topic. The research is what we can consider as an exploratory study.

The researcher questionnaire is developed in reference of the theories generalized by the Robinson’s, Pike, Caudron, and Rummler. The researcher uses a more opened approach;

he gives also opportunities to he interviewees to express themselves according to their

own experience in the Taiwanese context.

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The Process of the Study

The interview framework is deeply rooted in the findings from the background of the study and the literature review, especially in Robinson and Robinson’s, (1996; and 1998) recommendations regarding performance consulting. After the researcher has identified the purposes and problems of the study, the next concern was finding the appropriate interview subject and developing accurate interview materials for the implementation phase of the research.

The interview content was sent to a panel of experts in the area of research design;

for approbation. Then finally a pilot test was conducted before the interview

questionnaire get approved, and used as the research instrument. The interview data was

processed (arranged, and, analyzed) and discussed after each interview before the final

conclusions were drown. The eight common steps in doing a qualitative research in the

figure 3.2 serve as the researcher’s guide.

1. Select research topic

3. Design the study

4. Collect Data

5. Analyze Data 6. Generate Findings

8. Write research report

7. Validate findings

2. Determine research

questions

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Subjects of the Study

The sample of the study consisted of HR/HRD professionals with 3 or more years of work experience. In an attempt to respect diversity, service industries, national and multinational business will be included in the research. The gender issue was also taken into account in this research (2 female and 2 male interviewees). For more detail see table 4.2.

The sample size is 4 human resources managers and dispatched as it follows: (2) HR professionals from local organizations, (2) HR professionals from multinational companies. They were chosen with the help of Taiwanese HR/HRD professionals. These people are because they work among the biggest and most successful organizations in Taiwan. Each company is among the best one in its business area and also because all the interviewees are deeply involved in HR management in their organization where they accomplish important role. All the interviewees are bilingual (Chinese-English), so this helps to avoid linguistic barrier during the interview.

Instrumentation of the study

The interview time and date depended on the interviewee’s work schedule. The

interview took place at workplace other places else. After the researcher get the

interviewee’s permission for the interview, the researcher send all relevant information to

the interviewee by e-mail in other to give him a hint about the topic and the content of the

interview. The researcher made sure that the interviewee had received all the necessary

information before fixing the interview day.

During the interview, the investigations were done according to the interview guideline. After having requesting the permission from the interviewee, the interview was recorded by a digital recorder.

After the interview, the content will be saved in computer, and transcribed. The transcript was sent to the interviewee for confirmation of the validity of the transcript.

Data analysis

Qualitative research data analysis typically involves the analysis of the text from the

interview (the transcript). The basic procedures for data analysis are transcribing data,

reading and rereading transcript, segmenting and coding the data, counting words and

coded categories, searching relationships and themes in the data and generating graphs to

help understanding the data. The main goal of this process was to be able to clearly

summarize the data and generate significant results. The data analysis process used by the

researcher is summarized in the figure 3.4.

45 Figure 3.4: The data analysis process

Source: Adapted from Johnson & Christensen “Educational Research” second Edition

1. Data Collection

2. Data Entry and Storage

3. Segmenting, Coding, and

Developing Category Systems

4. Identifying Relationships (e.g. Themes, Patterns,

Hierarchies, Semantic Relations) 5. Constructing

Diagrams, Tables Matrices and Graphs

6. Corroboring and Validating

Results

Interpretation

Reliability and Validity of the Study

The issue of reliability is to make sure that if the procedure of the study is exactly repeated by someone else he will get similar results. To ensure the reliability of the study, the researcher requested peers and professionals to get involved in the design of the research.

When qualitative researchers speak of research validity, they are usually referring to qualitative researches that are plausible, trustworthy, and therefore defensible. The researcher believes it is important to think about the issue of research validity so he decided to examine some strategies that have been developed to maximize validity. The strategies are listed below:

Reflexivity: In qualitative research, one potential threat to validity that researchers must be careful to watch out for is called ‘researcher biases. Researcher bias tends to result from selective observation and selective recording of information and also allowing one’s personal views and perspectives to affect how data are interpreted and how the research is conducted. To avoid such kind of biases, the researcher engages in reflexivity, that means, the researcher actively engages in critical self reflection about his potential biases and predispositions. This helps the researcher to be more self-aware of his biases and monitor and control them. Reflexivity is the research issue that kept the more, the attention of the researcher in this study. However there are other issues that just need to be mentioned.

Peer review: Discussion of the research’s interpretation and conclusions with other people knowledgeable in the research area.

Using Outside experts: Outside experts will be requested to assess the quality of

the study.