Transcript Chapter One - GEOCITIES.ws

Department of Information
Systems
INF 799
Research Methodologies and
Proposal
Mr N. Mavetera
Adapted From Prof Dewald Roode
Agenda for today
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A closer look at the field of Information Systems
Epistemology and Ontology of the field of Information Systems
The four paradigms of Burrell and Morgan
Research paradigms
 Positivist
 Interpretivist
 Critical
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The theoretical underpinnings of interpretivist and critical
research
Research Methodologies
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
The field of Information Systems
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Is it a scientific discipline?
What is a ‘discipline’?
The term ‘discipline’ is often loosely applied to indicate the organized
‘body of knowledge’ or ‘domains of discourse’ within which (mainly)
academic activities concerning a specific topic or a number of related
topics, are conducted
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
The field of Information Systems
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Banville and Landry’s* classification of scientific disciplines
according to three dimensions
 Degree
of strategic dependence
 Degree of strategic task uncertainty
 Degree of functional dependence
*Communications of the ACM, Vol
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
32, No. 1 (1989) pp 48-60
Prof Dewald Roode
The field of Information Systems
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Strategic dependence
Refers to the extent to which researchers have to persuade
colleagues of the significance and importance of their problem
and approach in order to obtain a high reputation from them
(high, low)
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
The field of Information Systems
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Strategic task uncertainty
Defined in relation to the fact that the stability of problem
formulation and the hierarchy of problems according their
importance and significance vary across fields. It is low when
members of a field agree on a hierarchy of research problems
and high in the presence of loosely coupled ‘schools of thought’
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
The field of Information Systems
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Functional dependence
Denotes the extent to which researchers have to use the specific
ideas of fellow specialists in order to construct knowledge claims
which are regarded as useful contributions (high, low)
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Degree of functional dependence
The field of Information Systems
High
Degree of strategic task
uncertainty
Low
Low
High
Fragmented
adhocracy
Professional
adhocracy
Technologically
integrated
bureaucracy
Low
Degree of
strategic
dependence
High
High
Polycentric
oligarchy
Polycentric
profession
Low
Partitioned
bureaucracy
Conceptually
integrated
bureaucracy
Degree of strategic task
uncertainty
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
The field of Information Systems
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Research in IS is rather personal and weakly co-ordinated in the field as a
whole
A researcher can gain a reputation by contributing in a way that is largely
specific to a group of colleagues or a research site
The field is largely open to an educated public and amateurs can effect the
field’s standards
Barriers to entry in the field are weak and going from one fragment to
another is quite easy
Reputations are fairly fluid, control of resources is unstable, coalitions are
likely to be ephemeral and leadership is often of a charismatic nature
Common-sense languages dominate the communication system
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Epistemology and Ontology of the field of IS
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Epistemology
Refers to the type of (valid) knowledge that can be obtained about a
phenomenon under study
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Ontology
Refers to the underlying assumptions made about phenomena under study
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Epistemological assumptions
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Objectivist position
 Models
and methods from the natural sciences can be applied to the
study of human affairs, treating the social world as if it were the natural
world
 Institutional aspects of social systems are seen to be independent of
human action, hence portraying social reality as objective
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Epistemological assumptions
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Subjectivist position
 Denies
the appropriateness of the natural science paradigm for
studying the social world, stating that the social researcher cannot
separate him/herself from the phenomena being studied, and therefore
can at best be relative and never completely objective
 Subjectivists attempt to understand social phenomena by explaining
how individuals create and recreate their social world through deliberate
action
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Ontological assumptions
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Order view: an orderly society, functionally stable and coordinated
Conflict view: society is in a state of change, conflict and
disintegration
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
The four paradigms
Order
Interpretivism
Functionalism
Objectivism
Subjectivism
Radical structuralism
Neo-humanism
Conflict
Burrell and Morgan: Sociological Paradigms and Organisational Analysis, Heinemann, London, 1979
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
The four paradigms
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The functionalist paradigm
It is assumed that the social world is ordered and composed of
relatively concrete empirical artefacts and relationships that can
be identified, studied and measured through approaches derived
from the natural sciences.
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
The four paradigms
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The interpretive paradigm
Is characterized by a need to understand the world as it is, to
understand the fundamental nature of the social world at the
level of subjective experience. It seeks explanation within the
frame of reference of participant in, rather than objective
observer of, the action. It assumes an orderly world.
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
The four paradigms
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The radical structuralist paradigm
Shares an objective departure point with the functionalist
paradigm, but assumes that radical change is built into the very
nature and structure of contemporary society. It focuses
primarily on the structure and analysis of economic power
relationships
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
The four paradigms
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The neo-humanist paradigm
Differs from the interpretivist paradigm only in the sense that it is
committed to overthrowing or transcending the limitations of the
existing social world. It assumes a social world that is in flux and
conflict.
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
The four paradigms
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Burrell and Morgan view these paradigms as mutually exclusive
In practice, problems rarely allow us to study them within a
single paradigm, and a multi-paradigmatic approach is often
indicated or even required
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Use of the four paradigms
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Four paradigms of IS development*
Helps to identify an appropriate research paradigm
Helps to generate research questions (more about this later
when we discuss the structure of the Project Proposal)
*Hirschheim and Klein: CACM, Vol 32, (1989) pp1199 - 1216
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Research paradigms
Positivist
 Interpretivist
 Critical
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INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Research paradigms
Positivist
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Positivist research falls within the functionalist paradigm
It assumes a physical and social world, independent of humans, which can be
characterized and measured
The researcher is assumed to be objective and impartial, and aims at uncovering
reality through defining constructs and precise quantitative measures
It is the preferred research approach in the natural sciences, and its use in the social
sciences is based on the belief that social sciences can be investigated in the same
way
Fundamentally, the positivist approach involves the manipulation of theoretical
propositions using the rules of formal logic and the rules of ‘hypothetico-deductive’ logic
Rationality underlies the major claims of positivists, and strongly developed formalized
method (mathematical, statistical) are used for checking the validity of their findings,
thus displaying the rigour of the approach
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Research paradigms
Interpretivist
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Differs from positivist research approach in that the epistemological stance
is that our knowledge of reality is a social construction by human actors
Value-free data cannot be obtained, since the researcher uses his/her
preconceptions to guide the research process
During the research process, the researcher interacts with human subjects,
thereby changing the perceptions of both parties
The main aim of interpretive research is to understand, rather than to
predict
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Research paradigms
Critical realism
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Ontologically,CR assumes the existence of a domain of structures and mechanisms,
events, and experiences (the Real). These structures have causal powers or tendencies
the interplay of which leads to the occurrence (or absence) of particular events (the
Actual). These structures may be physical, social, or conceptual, and may well be
unobservable except through their effects. Some, but not all, of the events will be
observed or experienced by people and thus become Empirical.
Epistemologically, CR recognizes that our knowledge is always provisional and historically
and culturally relative – we do not have observer-independent access to the world – but
this does not make all theories or beliefs equally valid.
Methodologically, the CR view is that science is not essentially about discovering universal
laws, purely predictive ability, or the simple description of meanings and beliefs. Rather, it
is centrally concerned with explanation, understanding, and interpretation. It moves from
some phenomenon (or its absence) that has been observed or experienced, to the
postulation of some underlying mechanism(s) or structure(s) which, if they existed, would
causally generate the phenomenon. Efforts are then made to confirm or refute the
proposed mechanisms. (Mingers, paper 10)
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
The theoretical underpinnings of interpretivist and critical
research (an incomplete list)
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Hermeneutics
Structuration Theory (Giddens)
Giddens’ “Consequences of Modernity”
Actor-Network Theory
Theories about the social context of Information Systems (e.g.,
the Human Environment Model)
Critical Social Theory (Habermas)
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
The theoretical underpinnings of interpretivist and critical
research
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How is it used in research?
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As a way of thinking and speaking about the phenomena being studied
As a “lens” through which the data is viewed and interpreted
We will come back to the theoretical bases after acquiring a
“feel” for research methodology
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Research Methodologies
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Field studies (survey research)
Case study research
Ethnography
Action research
Discourse analysis
Grounded theory research
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Field Studies (survey research)
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Common in the positivist tradition
 Collecting
data through questionnaires or interviews
 Analyzing the collected data to draw conclusions about relationships
between particular sets of data
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Could also be exploratory and in the interpretivist tradition, as
long as the data they yield are not regarded as ‘objective facts’
but rather as products of the respondents’ interpretation of their
situation
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Case Study Research
Can involve only quantitative data, only qualitative data,
or both
 Within the idiographic* rather than the nomothetic†
research style, trying to understand a phenomenon in its
contexts rather than seeking general laws about the
phenomenon
 Uses multiple methods of data collection
 After data collection, the researcher deductively or
inductively arrives at explanations or causal links
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continued …
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Case Study Research (continued)
Lee has developed a scientific methodology (MISQ
13(1): 33-50) with which to conduct case study research
in the IS field
 Walsham: ‘the validity of an extrapolation from an
individual case or cases depends not on the
representativeness of such cases in the statistical
sense, but on the plausibility and cogency of the logical
reasoning used in describing the results from the cases,
and in drawing conclusions from them’ (Interpreting
Information Systems in Organizations, Wiley 1993)
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INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Ethnography
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A form of research in which the researcher (the ethnographer)
participates overtly or covertly in people’s daily lives for an
extended time
Data are collected by questioning, observing, listening, etc
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Action Research
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Requires experimentation, in which participants in real-life
situations collaborate with the action researcher to identify and
solve problems of social practice
Usually continues over an extended period of time
Usually has as its objective the testing of some theory or
hypothesis
The action researcher is not an independent observer but an
active participant, and the process of change becomes the
subject of research
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Discourse analysis
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Discourse
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Critical discourse analysis
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Linguists understand discourse as language use; psychologists as cognition, and
sociologists as social interaction
An interrelated set of texts, and the practices of their production, dissemination, and
reception, that brings an object into being
Focuses on discursive activity in constituting and sustaining traditional power relations
Sensitive to wider issues, but does not consider the individual as an active agent and
therefore does not treat text as a human action and a mediator of context
Social constructivist discourse analysis
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Discursive patterns in language are viewed as regularities in text through which
phenomena are constructed, reconstructed and ignored
Example: analysis of email exchanges between members of a virtual team to analyse
the phenomenon of “presence” within a virtual team (Panteli, paper 7)
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Grounded Theory Research
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Theory that is systematically and inductively arrived at through
ongoing collection and analysis of data
Does not begin with preconceived ideas or theory and then force
the data to fit them for the purpose of verification or testing – it is
grounded systematically in the data
The researcher would then typically have no research problem,
merely an interest in a particular area
The research problem emerges during data collection
The yield of grounded theory research is conceptual hypotheses,
not verified theory
A grounded theory is modifiable as new data or properties
emerge
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode
Useful references
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Choosing Information Systems Research Approaches, Chapter 8
in Galliers, RD (ed) (1992) Information Systems Research:
Issues, Methods and Practical Guidelines. Oxford: Blackwell
The Use and Misuse of Statistical Methods in Information
Systems Research, Chapter 11 in Galliers
Qualitative research in Information Systems
http://www.auckland.ac.nz/msis/isworld/index.html
INF 830 Research Methodologies and Project Proposal
Prof Dewald Roode