Actividad Laboral

There were various limitations in the methodology employed in data collection. First, the lack of face-to-face interaction with respondents meant that useful non-verbal gestures and expressions were not observed. These are often useful in qualitative research in interpreting the verbal responses.

Second, the interview guide was semi-structured, to allow for probing and following through valuable lines of inquiry from a respondent’s comments. This was particularly useful, as the study was an exploratory one. However, it also implied some loss in standardisation of the instrument. Some respondents were very enthusiastic to keep the interview going and it was not always possible to terminate the interview after an hour (which had been designated as the maximum time for each interview). Such variability, while invaluable and greatly appreciated, could be a threat to reliability.

Third, while a request was made to interview senior staff in an organisation, the researcher had no control over the selection of the respondent. On the one hand, restricting responses to senior staff meant that lower level staff with a good understanding and perception of the issues under study could have been excluded. On the other hand, in cases where senior staff were not available and their subordinates responded, the effect of having responses from different cadre of staff could have introduced biased views. A chief executive officer, for example, is likely to have a different perception and possibly bias on an issue compared to a project officer in the field, and part of that bias could be attributed to their frame of reference that is associated with their positions in the organisational hierarchy.

Fourth, the data was collected from the organisations only. This meant that an external stakeholder perspective was not obtained to identify their involvement in designing organisational processes or their level of satisfaction from the services provided by the organisations. However, through probing, the researcher was able to obtain relevant and useful information on the external stakeholders that are important to organisations, their expectations, prioritisation, and level of satisfaction as reported in Section 9.2. Identifying the influence exerted by external stakeholders on organisations was an important part of the study and the organisations were able to provide that data.

Fifth, the promise of confidentiality to respondents meant that findings and discussions were made generally, and sometimes this resulted in some ambiguity as too much description of data could lead to divulging the identity of a respondent. However, the researcher has attempted to provide the reader with as much detail as possible to make sense of the data and discussions, while preserving the confidentiality of respondents.

Fifth, in terms of data analysis, the selection of segments of qualitative data to be included in the discussions tends to be subjective (Marshall & Rossman 1999). A lot of information was gathered during the interviews, and in choosing words to summarise and reflect on the complexity of the data, and to produce the raw data matrix (Appendix X), some details may have been omitted. However, the researcher has attempted to conduct a comprehensive data analysis, as well as include quotes and stories from respondents in order to capture all the important aspects of the findings.

Sixth, the consequences of non-response from Western Australia and the Northern Territory are unclear. It is difficult to determine with certainty the reasons for non-response. It is evident though, that these two jurisdictions represent a small proportion of the total target population (with 1 organisation each – that is 1% of the total population), which Czaja & Blair (1996) suggest may be too small to have a significant effect on the results. For these and other non-respondents, it could have been that they perceived their organisations to be small and young hence not having much to contribute to the study, or

possibly that the staff best equipped to respond to the survey were unavailable at the time of the study. It could also be that those who responded felt strongly about the questions being asked or held a particular view relative to those who did not respond. This view may then be over-represented (Clarke & Cooke 1983). Does this have an effect on the generalisability of results?

According to Miles and Huberman (1994:279) a study whose emphasis is on qualitative data, the issue to consider more critically is the generalisability of the theory developed and the concepts discussed. Offering “thick description” and drawing linkages between emerging theory and prior theory provides the reader with sufficient data to assess the potential generalisability and appropriateness of findings to other settings. The current study has attempted to address both of these areas thereby increasing the generalisability of results.

In spite of the limitations therefore, it is hoped that the study has provided valuable information and made a significant contribution to the management and organisational issues facing NGDOs, an as initial step towards identifying good development management practices.

6.6 Conclusion

This chapter has provided the reader with the research method used in the study. Detailed explanations of the research procedure followed, the methods used in data collection, how and why particular pieces of data were collected, and the methods of analyses used have been presented. Issues of validity, reliability and objectivity have been addressed. The limitations of the research methodology have also been discussed.

As noted by Robson (1993), a reader cannot be satisfied about other concerns of a study unless the researcher provides sufficient information on the research methods used and the justification for their use. There is a strong case for qualitative research calling for a greater emphasis on the methods used and warrant for the conclusions reached, especially because of the lack of codification of the methods of data collection or of approaches to analysis.

Through the methodology discussed, the researcher hopes to be able to engage the reader in discussions on organisational processes as they apply to development organisations, factors that influence these processes, and the significance of a process-based view to these types of organisations.

Having discussed the methodology, the research project proceeds to describe and analyse the findings of the study. This is followed by discussions and conclusions.

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE PROCESS OF SERVICE DELIVERY