Positivism and social constructionism
Positivism and social constructionism
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The objective of research design and methodology is to help us organize our research in a way so that it can achieve our research goals. The selection of an appropriate research methodology will greatly depend on our epistemological perspective (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson, 2012). Both positivism and social constructionism has a number of methodologies that we can choose from depending on our research problem and the broader context in which we are going to carry out our research. For positivism, researchers can choose from experimental and quasi-experimental methods. And as we know, social constructionism approach is more concerned about several possible truths and outcomes in a research. Constructionism does not believe that there is one absolute truth and as such it has a larger group of methodologies that researchers can choose from, such as action research, cooperative inquiry, archival research, ethnography and narrative methods.
After reviewing the different available methodologies, I initially seem to prefer the narrative method more than others. This method states that stories are an important part of an organization and should be given due consideration in a research. The argument is that there are information and insights about organizations that can only be obtained through learning the organizational stories rather than conventional methods (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson, 2012). These stories can be gathered either through participant observation or through conversations and interviews with relevant people in the organization. The advantage of this method is that it provides researchers with a broad view of the research problem and the situation in the target organization(s). They are also helpful in understanding the relationship between employees and the organization and so I expect it to be relevant to my proposed research problem i.e. cultural implications of 360 degree performance appraisal in Kabul based non-profit organizations. My previous employer, FAO decided to adopt the 360 degree performance feedback approach back in 2011 but faced a lot of problems in the process. I was with FAO at the time and could identify some of the problems why this initiative was not success. And recalling those issues, I feel a narrative method can give me greater flexibility to carry out an in depth research by talking to FAO employees and listening to their stories about why the 360 degree initiative was not successful.
Case method seems another approach which can be relevant and appropriate for my research problem. In this method, the researcher focuses on one or small number of organizations and studies them in depth. Advocates of positivism approach support multiple case studies while those in favour of social constructionism prefer one case study (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson, 2012) and so it might be prudent for me to also consider focusing on one particular organization. I think it would be a particularly appropriate approach considering that most non-profit organizations in Kabul have similar structures and systems. My only concern with case method is that it seems the collection of data will require a reasonable amount of time. Given that we have around nine months for our dissertation, I will hope that this amount of time will suffice for case method approach.
Using case method, Swain et al (2004) carried out their research on the City of Milwaukee Health Department (MHD). MHD was using the conventional method i.e. supervisor to employee approach of performance appraisal in the past. The authors tried to investigate whether employee performance will improve if the MHD decided to use the multi-rater 360 degree performance appraisal system. They conducted interviews with senior managers and other employees in the organization. The use of 360 degree performance appraisal has been successful in private sector organizations but the question was whether a public sector organization MHD can also benefit from adopting such a system. This reminds me about the challenges we faced with my previous employer FAO (which is also non-profit UN organization) while trying to adopt the 360 degree performance appraisal. Initially there was a lot of optimism about the initiative but the end result was not as satisfying as we expected. However MHD’s story is different as they were successful in implementing the 360 degree performance feedback approach. Unlike FAO, MHD decided to involve employees at all levels in the development and implementation of the program. This can be a relevant area for my research as in the case of FAO, our senior management were not able to consider training or involvement of employees in the process of deploying the 360 degree performance appraisal. At the time I felt FAO employees did not take ownership of the new system and simply accepted it as an administrative requirement imposed on them by senior management.
On the other hand, Lee and Akhtar (1996) have used mixed method of research to investigate about the determinants of employee willingness to accept feedback for improving their performance. They conducted their research in two phases. In the first phase they used a questionnaire and distributed it to 100 employees in both public and private sector organizations. In the second phase, they conducted focus group interviews with employees. Based on results, they were able to identify objectives of appraisal, performance planning, fairness and accuracy of performance appraisal as vital determinants for employees to have a positive impression and attitude towards performance feedback. In this case, the use of mixed method seems a suitable approach as the research problem is not very complex or broad. The authors were trying to inquire about determinants of employees’ willingness to accept performance feedback for which a questionnaire approach combined with interviews could work well. However, the same approach may not be appropriate for my research about 360 degree performance appraisal and its cultural implications as a questionnaire may not be able to capture the different perspectives, ideas and outcomes in the context of a complex phenomena like societal or organizational culture.
References:
Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. & Jackson, P. (2012) Management research. 4th ed.
London: SAGE Publications.
Lee, J. & Akhtar, S. (1996), “Determinants of employee willingness to use feedback for performance improvement: cultural and organizational interpretation”, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 7 (4), pp. 878-890 [Online]. Available from: https://liverpool.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=5819396&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 09 June 2016).
Swain, G. et al. (2004), “Three hundred sixty degree feedback: Program implementation in a local health department”, Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 10 (3), pp. 266-271 [Online]. Available from: http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com.liverpool.idm.oclc.org/ (Accessed: 09 June 2016).
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Introduction
Positivism and social construction ism stem from philosophies of knowledge and disciplines that literally have shaped various practices and research in the last centuries. Positivism theories are based on assumptions that conclusive decisions on world view can be made through examination of evidence, our senses and empirical research. Social construction ism world view argues that a set of social interactions that exist between certain people can be fully understood through examination of various factors that contribute, shape or influence circumstances. Positivism draws its foundation on quantitative and empirical data that most positivists’ researcher s believe are reliable (Fletcher and Baldry 2000).
Three hundred Sixty Degree Feedback organizations systems are very popular in some businesses but have limited application in public health entities (Swain 2004). This feedback system is very effective in boosting employee morale, performance, organizational culture and the other organizational target outcomes. The City of Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) has succeeded in implementing the system for several years. MHD succeeded in perfecting the 360 degrees performance and feedback appraisal systems by involving its entire staff at all levels during the introduction and subsequent development and implementation of the system. Unlike other organizations like FAO that failed to implement the system successfully in the first instance due to lack of goodwill from its employees, MHD realized that the contribution of its employees was crucial to the success of the exercise (Swain 2004).
The linkage between performance and feedback can be related to the differences in the behaviors of the leaders against their subordinates especially in an environment where the leaders practice authoritarian leadership style. The differences affect the effectiveness of the feedback systems.
The factors determining employee willingness to embrace feedback systems are many and varied. Utilizing mixed methods of research various factors were identified such as positive management impression of the whole concept of the feedback system, employees’ involvement, fairness and accuracy in performance appraisal systems (Fletcher and Baldry 2000). Case method of re-searching on a limited number of companies and thoroughly studying them in depth provides a deeper insight as advocated by the proponents of positivism. Social construction ism favors a single case study that focuses on specific organization. The major misgiving is that, case method requires more time to gather additional data collection that may take a longer time (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson 2012). But according to Ellinger et al (2003) job performance and successful appraisal systems augur well with managerial coaching. Employees develop self-awareness and gain clear understanding of their expectations and responsibilities through systematic feedback from their managers. The objective of the feedback systems besides assessing training needs provides a systematic method of uniform communication (Lee and Akhtar 1996).
To conclude, various research methods can be applied when evaluating the effectiveness of feedback systems. Feedback from customers can be utilized to identify the problem areas or strengths to generate ideas in order to improve the services. MHD succeeded in perfecting the 360 degrees performance and feedback appraisal systems by involving its employees at all levels during the development and implementation of the 360 degrees feedback system while FAO failed to implement a successful feedback system due to non inclusion of its employees in its introductory stages (Lee and Akhtar 1996). Employees develop self-awareness and gain clear understanding of their expectations and responsibilities through systematic participation in the entire process.
References
Ellinger, A. D., Ellinger, A. E., & Keller, S. B., 2003, Supervisory coaching behavior, employee satisfaction, and warehouse employee performance: A dyadic perspective in the distribution industry. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 14(4), 435-458.
Fletcher, C. and Baldry, C., 2000, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Volume 73, Issue3 pgs 303 – 319, September.
Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. & Jackson, P., 2012, Management research. 4th ed.
London: SAGE Publications.
Lee, J. & Akhtar, S., 1996, Determinants of employee willingness to use feedback for performance improvement: cultural and organizational interpretational, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 7 (4), pp. 878-890 [Online]. Available from: https://liverpool.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=5819396&site=eds-live&scope=site (Accessed: 09 June 2016).
Swain, G. et al., 2004, Three hundred sixty degree feedback: Program implementation in a local health departmental, Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 10 (3), pp. 266-271 [Online]. Available from: http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com.liverpool.idm.oclc.org/ (Accessed: 09 June 2016)
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