Ansietat estat i ansietat tret (STAI)

The first step which should be taken into account when designing the research method is the research philosophy or paradigm. Saunders et al, (2003) stated that the research philosophy reflects the way the researchers think about the development of knowledge which will affect the way they go about doing research. There are a number of reasons why an understanding of philosophical issues is very useful (Easterby-Smith et al., (2002). First, such an understanding can help clarifying research designs. Secondly knowledge of research philosophy can help the researcher to recognise which design will work and which will not, and should enable a research to avoid going up too many blind alleys and should indicate the limitations of particular approaches. Finally knowledge of philosophy can help the research identify, and even create designs that may be outside his or her past experience and it may also suggest how to adopt research designs according to the constraints of different subjects of knowledge structures. In the same vein, Creswell (2003 p. 100) also stated that,

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“… there is a strong link between the design of the study that refers to the overall approach followed to solve the particular research questions and the overall paradigm of scientific inquiry, which set the philosophical basis for the research”.

The concept of research philosophy refers to the progress of scientific practice based on people’s views and assumptions regarding the nature of knowledge. Research philosophy contains important assumptions about the way in which you view the world (Saunders et al., 2009). Research philosophy consisting of ontology and epistemology can be considered as the foundation upon which research is built (Grix, 2010). Furthermore, Grix (2010) indicated that philosophical assumption, particularly ontology and epistemology, is the driving substance of research methodology, which then influences the choice of the strategic and practical approach to the research.

From various philosophical elements, there are two of the most prevalent branches; the ontology and epistemology; ontology logically precedes epistemology whilst epistemology precedes methodology. Many researchers discuss the ontology and epistemology only within the specific context of their research (Sutrisna, 2009). However, ontology and epistemology are actually portraying a bigger picture, i.e. how the researcher perceives reality in his/her live that will certainly influence the way he/she is doing the research rather than how reality is perceived in one particular research (Sutrisna, 2009).

Ontology, logically precedes epistemology, it is about “what we may know” (Grix, 2010), ‘the nature of the reality” (Sanders, et al, 2009). It concerns with believe of what construct reality (Grix, 2010). Ontology discusses the ‘claims’ and assumptions that are made about the nature of reality, claims about what exist, what it looks like, what units make it up, and how those units interact with each other (Guba and Lincoln,1994). Ontological positions has two most popular examples: objectivism and constructivism. Objectivism is an ontological position that believes a particular phenomena and its meaning independently exist apart from human interventions. On the other hand, constructivism is an ontological position that asserts that phenomena and their meanings are continually being accomplished by the actors. Thus, an objectivist believes that there is one objective reality experienced the same way by each and every one of us whilst a constructivist believes that reality is ‘constructed’ by each and every one of us differently.

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Epistemology is mainly concerns about “how come to know what we know” (Grix, 2010). It is the knowledge to understand the reality. “Epistemology is a branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge” (Grix, 2010) .It focuses on the process of constructing knowledge, the way to understand knowledge, the development of knowledge (Grix,2010) and what represent the knowledge (Saunders et al., 2009). Epistemology concerns with the claims of what is assumed to exist can be known by the knower or to-be-knower (Guba and Lincoln, 1994). The most commonly used example of epistemological position is: positivism and interpretivism.

Positivism is an epistemological position that applies ‘scientific’ methods to see the reality. A research with an extreme positivism position might rely on the representative of the whole reality in order to predict the result. Interpretivism, on the other hand, is an epistemological position that separate the objects of natural science from the actors, an extreme interpretivist would then see the reality by the story, informal, and unstructured interview. On a research, it is often related to the interaction between the researcher and objects being research (Creswell, 1994). It’s about the involvement of feeling of the researcher to the objects (Sanders et al., 2009). Thus, a positivist believes that the reality can be observed, studied and even ‘modelled’ whilst an interpretivist believes that the reality can only be interpreted.

Ontology and epistemology are not the same but closely interwined. It should be a logical basis prior to epistemology. Ontology influence what epistemological stance would be and both will influence the research methodology (Grix, 2010). From the above discussion we can see that the link between ontology and epistemology is inevitable. In this case, positivism and constructivism are presented alongside to be able to understand the difference and the interrelationship. Positivism mainly takes objectivism as basis of understanding the reality that there is only one objective reality experienced by us all, therefore the job of the researchers is to discover that one objective reality and model it. Interpretivism, on the other hand, mainly takes Constructivism as the basis of understanding the reality that constructed individually and interpreted differently.

According to (Saunders et al., 2007) research process can be represented by five layers as shown in figure 5.2. The first layer raises the question of the research philosophy. The second layer considers the subject of the research approach that flows from our

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research philosophy. Thirdly, the research study will be examined and the fourth layer is about time horizons which are applied to the research. In the fifth layer data collection will be identified, and then the validity and reliability of the research will be examined. There is no definite rule regarding which philosophy to select when doing research. It all depends on the nature and scope of the thesis, source of the data, research questions and hypotheses or proposal, constraints and scope of the research, and the overall research aim (Yin, 1994).

Figure 5.2: Research Process Onion

Source: Saunders et al. (2007, p.102)

According to positivist, knowledge in science can be only achieved from direct experience and observations, (Robson, 2002) it is believed that there is a truth or objective reality waiting to be discovered by social scientists, and that researchers discover this reality by staying detached, neutral and objective throughout the research. However there are a number of distinguishing aspects of positivist research: it is typically deductive, it typically includes gathering and analysing quantitative data, and it normally involves high structured methodologies to facilitate replication (Saunders et al, 2003). May (1997) points out that positivist do not concentrate to the detail of people’s inner mental states. Easter-Smith et al, (2002, p.28) described positivist

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research as: “The social world exists externally, and that its properties should be measured through objective methods, rather than being inferred subjectively through sensation, reflection or intuition”.

The positivistic approach seeks the facts or causes of social phenomena, with little regard to the subjective state of individual. Thus logical reasoning is applied to the research so that precision, objectivity and rigour replace hunches, experience and intuition as the means of investigating research problem. Positivism is founded on the belief that the study of human behaviour should be conducted in the same way as studies conducted in the natural sciences. It based on the assumption that social reality is independent of the actors and exists regardless of whether they are aware of it. The act of investigating reality has no effect on that reality (Collis and Hussey, 2003).

According to positivists, laws provide the basis of explanation, permit the anticipation of phenomena, predict their occurrence and therefore, allow them to be controlled. Explanation consists of establishing causal relationships between the variables by establishing causal laws and linking them to deductive or integrated theory. Thus, social and natural worlds are both regard as being bound by certain fixed laws in a sequence of causes and effect.

On the other hand, phenomenologists (constructivist) believe that “reality” is not objective and exterior but it is socially constructed and is given meaning by people (Hussey and Hussey, 1997; Collis and Hussey, 2003). The focus is on the meaning, rather than the measurement, and on the ways which people make sense of the world, especially through sharing their experiences with others via the medium of language (Easterby-Smith et al., 2004). Phenomenology (constructivism) approach tries to understand and explain a phenomenon rather than search for external causes or fundamental laws (Easterby-Smith, 1991). Moreover, Phenomenologist (constructivist) believes that in order to understand the reality it is essential to discover the details of the situation or may be a reality working behind them (Remeny et al, 1998; cited in Saunders et al 2003, p.84).

In addition, interpretations are likely shared between people; however there are significant social forces and processes that have an effect on people’s interpretation and

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behaviours without their necessarily being aware of the existence of such influences, and this fact is recognised by social Phenomenologist (constructivist) (Suanders et al, 2003). Phenomenologist (constructivist) focusing on understanding the phenomena in depth to answer questions such as: what, why and how. In this concept the researcher is not independent of what investigated, but is a part of it (Remeny et al, 1998). Within this perspective, all knowledge is socially-constructed, and gathering evidence in a social environment reflects socially-constructed images, or interpretations of reality, rather than scientific fact, so in order to understand human behaviour, the context in which it occurs should be appreciated (Welman and Kruger, 2001).

Easterby-Smith et al. (2004, p.30) summarise the distinction between positivist and phenomenological (constructivist) philosophies as shown in Table 5.2.

Table 5. 2: Contrasting Implications of Positivism and Constructivism

Theme Positivism Constructivism

The observer Must be independent Is a part of what is being observed Human interests Should be irrelevant Are the main drivers of science Explanations Must demonstrate

causality

Aim to increase general

understanding of the situation Research progress

through

Hypotheses and deduction

Gathering rich data from which ideas are induced

Concepts Need to be

operationalised so that they can be measured

Should incorporate stakeholder perspective

Units of analysis Should be reduced to simple terms

May include the complexity of “whole” situations

Generalisation through

Statistical probability Theoretical abstraction

Sampling requires Large numbers selected randomly

Small numbers of cases chosen for specific reason

Source: Adopted From Easterby-Smith et al. (2004)

Following the ongoing discussion, the social objectivism (Positivism) approach is the philosophical stance taken in this research to investigate the main factors that impact the

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implementation of management development programmes in the Libyan Upstream oil companies. This stance is in line with the aim and objectives of this research particularly in exploring the aspects of human activity and focusing on the measurement of socio phenomena rather the subjective state of the individual. Therefore, the research adopts the positivist philosophy. This philosophy allows logical reasoning to be applied to this research which is carried out with objectivity and rigour to investigate research problem.