El acta circunstanciada, del 28 de febrero de 2005, elaborada por personal de este Organismo Nacional, en la que se hace constar la información

The research philosophy and approach should reflect the aims of the research and address its objectives, research questions and propositions. Although there is no ‘correct’ research approach, the methodology should be reflective of the relevant ontology (the nature of

68 reality), epistemology (what constitutes acceptable knowledge and how it is communicated) and axiology (how researcher values and ethics affect the research process) (Saunders and Lewis, 2018). The approach adopted here, however, follows that of Creswell and Creswell (2018: 5) who use the term “world view” in lieu of ontology and epistemology. According to Robertson (2016: np), the CA cannot be classified into being positivist or anti-positivist, interpretivist or objectivist and the researcher “must seek a philosophical approach that transcends these dichotomies”. Further, the research itself does not fall into any one category of approach, having elements of several ‘world views’.

In keeping with social constructionist theory (Burr, 2015), the focus is not to make judgements but to identify patterns of relationships within responses from which to draw conclusions. The constructionist ontological approach is principally concerned with explaining how individuals make sense of their world. It assumes “that gender meanings inform the personal practices of individuals” and thus influence how social systems operate (Bird and Rhoton, 2011: n.p.). In this context, the social constructionist approach enables consideration of the structural and cultural conditions within the construction industry that affect individual’s choices, as well as the women’s unique circumstances in terms of the social context, systems and processes affecting them (Blaikie, 2007).

However, other elements of the research have a transformative approach which has at its basis the belief that constructivism will not address how women can pursue their goals or how changes can be made to the institutions that impact their lives (Creswell and Creswell, 2018). This element of the research addresses issues such as inequality and

empowerment. As this is feminist research, it is based on the experiences of women whose voices need to be heard to ensure that their experiences are not overwhelmed by the organisational analysis.

Further, interpretivism may also seem an appropriate epistemological stance as it takes the view that social reality is subjective because it is shaped by our perceptions (Bryman and Bell, 2003), but this approach is not “in the spirit of Sen’s writings” (Robertson, 2016: np). Indeed, although Sen is a philosopher as well as an economist, debates on philosophical approaches feature little in his work.

Therefore, rather than choosing between competing perspectives, a pragmatist approach is adopted. Pragmatism allows the researcher to link research methods to the research questions and propositions and is concerned with applying whichever appropriate solutions work in addressing the research problem. It is not committed to any one system of

69 philosophy and reality and is particularly applicable to mixed methods research (Creswell and Creswell, 2018). It is also particularly appropriate when applying Sen, as it favours the practical over more overtly philosophical approaches (Hannan 2015). Its concern with action and change makes it a suitable basis for research approaches that seek to intervene in, rather than merely observe, reality (Goldkuhl, 2012). Like Sen, pragmatism not only observes what ‘is’ but also what else may be possible and, unlike interpretivism, is not restricted to merely understanding a situation (Goldkuhl, 2012).

It is possible to combine pragmatism with interpretivism in a kind of ‘pragmatic interpretivism’ where either one is the base paradigm, allowing elements of the other to be used in support (Goldkuhl, 2012). However, Robertson (2015: np) stresses that careers research “rejects a “strong” version of postmodern interpretivism, by taking a pragmatic approach” in which knowledge is sought to give guidelines, exhibit values and, significantly for the CA, suggest possibilities (Goldkuhl, 2012). Further, a pragmatic approach allows quantitative as well as qualitative methods, recognising that there are many different ways of interpreting the world (Saunders and Lewis, 2018).

Given its mixed methods approach, the research also adopts a pragmatist axiology. As stated in the preface, the researcher herself is a female QS and therefore complete

objectivity “is impossible [but] the researcher can be shown to have acted in good faith” and not allow personal values to impact on the way the research is carried out (Bryman and Bell, 2003: 398). Nevertheless, the researcher as a female QS adds to the credibility of the data as her experience can aid its interpretation. Although having experience in the field may introduce issues of bias, as stated above, in another sense it brings positivity to the analysis as intimate knowledge of the field will alert the researcher to any anomalies in the data.

To understand how aspirations and organisations impact female QSs’ career pathways, the research questions may be tested using a deductive research approach (Saunders and Lewis, 2018). However, the research also seeks to understand organisational context and to ascribe meaning to the accounts of the participants. This suggests an inductive research approach. Therefore, an abductive approach was adopted, combining deduction and induction. This is common in organisational research (Saunders and Lewis, 2018).

5.3.2 A mixed methods approach

A mixed methods approach extends beyond that which is purely observational to include exploratory research. It is not possible to achieve the aim of the research purely by means of a quantitative questionnaire survey as the researcher would be distant from the subjects

70 being researched and unlikely to uncover the depth of knowledge and understanding sought. A distant position removes context and the ability to interpret meaning from the answers given. Combining quantitative data with a qualitative approach based on personal

experiences, gives richer data that enables better interpretation (Saunders and Lewis, 2018). A criticism of the CA is that it is too individualistic but using a method that gives deeper understanding of the needs and motivations of individuals (Creswell, 2009; Saunders and Lewis, 2018) means a more generalised framework can be established. The mixed methods approach adopted centres on identifying experiences of individuals through qualitative data, which are then interpreted within the context of the wider profession and industry using quantitative data.

The case-study interviews and questionnaire survey are based on a sample of women only, focusing exclusively on their own career experiences. Gender is unimportant in the macro- level interviews in the wider industry, albeit that most respondents are female. By analysing the collective accounts of individual women’s experiences, the research seeks to understand how their career aspirations are achievable within their environment as well as the more descriptive (or what) questions and explanatory (why) questions.

Using a case study of NR as the main focus of the research gives insight regarding the career experiences of female QSs within an organisational setting. The policies, practices and culture of NR are examined within the study, providing context to the experiences

described. The results from the case study are then triangulated with the data obtained from the questionnaire survey of female QSs across the wider construction industry as well as the organisational factors from macro interviews. This converging evidence thus validates the findings (i.e. the resulting capability set and conversion factors) as applicable to female QSs across the UK construction industry (Yin, 2018). While the case study shares the same research questions as the other methods, it has been conducted and analysed separately as is common in mixed-methods research (Yin, 2018).

The research strategy should ensure that the data collected address the what, why and how research questions (Yin, 2014). A single method study is unlikely to garner the “richer and stronger array of evidence” (Yin, 2014: 66) required to address the breadth and depth of the broad range of research questions. By undertaking a case-study of female QSs in a single organisation, and a questionnaire survey of respondents from the whole industry, the experiences of female QSs throughout the occupation are addressed. Macro-level

interviews with representatives from a range of construction organisations complete the data collection and give insight into the structural factors that influence female QS’s career

71 pathways. Details of the data collection techniques used in the research are given in

sections 5.3.2 - 5.3.4 below.

5.3.3 How the CA is applied in the research

Elements of the CA form both the questioning and analysis frameworks for the research. Criticism that it is difficult to operationalise (Gasper, 2007), means that there is ongoing debate over whether the CA is suited more to quantitative or to qualitative approaches. While there are arguments that the CA is not suitable for quantitative research (Nussbaum, 2003; Agarwal, Humphries and Robeyns, 2005), Sen (1992) has successfully employed quantitative methods to assess wellbeing. Even so, it would be inappropriate to use purely quantitative methods in understanding the experiences of female QSs. The need to assess “opportunities, resources, rights (entitlements) and the achievements (functionings: beings and doings) they allow” (Zimmerman, 2006: 478) means that the CA is particularly suited to qualitative methods.

Contrary to research that assumes what it is that people value from their careers, the CA enables an exploratory qualitative methodology to determine what female QSs actually value. It enables discovery and exposition of women’s agency, as well as an investigation of the structural and cultural factors in organisations and other social settings in which their careers develop. These are then examined to understand their application across the wider construction industry by means of the quantitative study.

5.3.4 Feminist stance

Traditional feminist research has been rooted in qualitative research, valuing meaning making through the experiences of women (Maynard, 1994; Letherby, 2003). Subsequently, quantitative methods have experienced a resurgence, and multiple, or mixed, methods even more so (Reinharz and Davidman, 1992; Maynard and Purvis, 1994; Letherby, 2003).

This research is classified as feminist because it conforms to Ollivier and Tremblay’s (2000) three principles of feminist research. These are: that it is characterised by the construction of new knowledge and the production of social change, it is grounded in feminist values and beliefs and it is diverse. It questions existing arrangements and their implications for women (Watts, 2003) and the questioning framework is guided by the need to analyse female QSs’ career experiences in depth. As there is a gap between reality and the idealist goals of feminist research, the research may not totally conform to its principles, but it does include

72 some of the basic epistemological principles of feminist methodology as identified by Cook and Fonow (1986):

• it takes women and gender as the focus of analysis; • it acknowledges the importance of consciousness raising;

• it acknowledges the subject as having expert knowledge, reflecting a social and historical standpoint.

Feminist research should have the aim of empowering women to challenge subordinate relationships and inequalities (Cook and Fonow, 1986) although it cannot claim to speak for all women. However, by ascertaining female QSs’ career aspirations and capability sets, it can provide new knowledge grounded in the realities of women’s experiences, providing a different way of looking at the construction industry (Letherby, 2003), and recommend structural and cultural changes to it.

The focus on changing and challenging the “gendered structures and systems in place that affect all women in an organisation” (Mavin, 2006: 361) denotes this research as having a more radical feminist approach than a liberal one. Brayton, Ollivier and Robins (n.d.) advise that there is a wide range of methods available within feminist research and that it is better to allow the context of the research to guide the choice of methodology.

5.3.5 Ethics

The research data have been collected with the informed consent of the participants and ethical decisions about appropriate content were made before data were collected. Analysing the resulting data does not further impact any of the respondents. The

questionnaire survey was anonymous which, together with the size of the dataset, means that it is impossible to identify a particular respondent. At micro and macro level, the

respondents were anonymised and any identifying information (for example, a respondent’s unique job role) has been omitted. Further, no respondent is linked to any geographical location or region of NR.

Rigorous and transparent analysis of the data is important, and the researcher should ensure that data are not manipulated to suit her agenda. A copy of the ethics approval is given in Appendix D.

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