Codeína

It is important that the strategy of combining qualitative and quantitative methods is clarified in mixed methods research. The ordering of methods used must be specified, that is, whether they are used concurrently, or used sequentially to build upon each other’s findings. The priority given to each form of data collection and when the approaches will be integrated must also be considered (Creswell, 2009; Morse, 2003; Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2003). Table 3.3 provides a summary of the studies and research methods used in this thesis.

Table 3.3 Overview of Research Studies

Study One Study Two Study Three

Focus of the Study To examine differences in how minority- and majority- ethnic managers attribute the causes of key career events

To explore the key experiences that are perceived to enhance and impede minority- and majority-ethnic managers’ career success

To explore the role of political skill on the career success outcomes of minority- and majority-ethnic employees Participants 20 Minority-Ethnic, 20 Majority-Ethnic Managers 114 Minority-Ethnic 197 Majority-Ethnic Employees Methodology Qualitative and

Quantitative Qualitative Quantitative Data

Collection Semi-Structured Interviews Questionnaire

Analysis Attributional Coding and MANCOVA Template Analysis Mediated Regression

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Overall, the research in this thesis adopts a sequential exploratory design. Using Creswell’s (2009) typology, this type of design uses qualitative data collection first to explore a phenomenon and then uses quantitative data to generalise or expand on findings or develop and test emergent theory or concepts from the preliminary qualitative stage (Creswell, 2009; Morgan, 1998). This approach is particularly relevant to fields where there has been a lack of advancement, such as ethnicity, because it lends itself to theory development and allows qualitative findings to be expanded and generalised in later quantitative work.

Figure 3.1 shows the sequential exploratory design of the research in this thesis. The figure shows that study one was a mixed methods design, because it used quantitative analysis on qualitative data. Building on study one, study two was then used to explore the content of that data and therefore qualitative analysis was adopted to gain a richer understanding of the interviews. Study three was a quantitative design which tested some of the findings from study two. As each study builds on the last, Figure 3.1 demonstrates the emergent nature of the design.

Figure 3.2 Mixed Methods Research Design

The reasoning behind the choice of methodology for each study is discussed next. It should be noted that the discussion below is in relation to the use of mixed methods and how the methods fall within the pragmatic approach used in this thesis. More

Interviews (qualitative) Study One Analysis (quantitative) Study Two Analysis (qualitative) Study Three: Questionnaire (quantitative)

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information on the specific use of these methods is provided in chapters four, five and six.

The Pragmatic Approach in Study One

Study one explores the causal attributions made by minority- and majority-ethnic managers for their career experiences using the Leeds Attributional Coding System (LACS). This technique involves the coding of qualitative interview statements, followed by a quantitative, statistical analysis.

Existing Methods for Studying Causal Attributions

Research that has examined causal attributions from a post-positivist perspective has traditionally considered causal attributions as internal, private cognitions that are quantifiable. Therefore, many studies have used questionnaires to measure attributions, examples include the Attributional Style Questionnaire (Peterson et al., 1982), the Occupational Attributional Style Questionnaire (Furnham, Sadka, & Brewin, 1992) and the Assessment of Attributions for Career Decision Making questionnaire (AACDM: Luzzo & Jenkins-Smith, 1998). Questionnaires typically ask respondents to consider and identify the causes for hypothetical events. Whilst they are relatively easy to administer and provide consistent information across potentially larger participant groups, they are limited to the topics the researcher deems important. Moreover, because they are often guided by the post-positivist paradigm, emphasising measurement and reliability of data, they often fail to provide contextual information to facilitate participants’ process of sensemaking (Silvester, 2004).

An example of this is the AACDM, which was developed to examine attributions for career decision making and has been used in studies with students who are planning future careers (Creed, Patton, & Bartrum, 2004; Luzzo, James, & Luna, 1996). Its items include ‘I have control over the decisions I make about my career’ and ‘If my career decisions lead to success, it will be because of my skills and abilities’. The generalised nature of these items means that they are less able to unearth the attributional patterns for specific or contextualised events.

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The research on diversity and attributions has often used questionnaires or given participants a range of causal options to choose from. For example, in a study on gender, attributions and prejudice Major, Quinton and Schmader (2003) asked participants whether the performance evaluation they received was due to factors such as ‘sex discrimination’, ‘unfair treatment’, ‘prejudiced evaluator’ and ‘creative ability’. This type of research not only limits the types of attributions individuals can make, it also potentially primes participants to agree with the responses presented to them. Therefore, this purely quantitative methodology was not deemed suitable for study one, because a greater understanding of individuals’ attributions can be gained from studying those that are made spontaneously.

Leeds Attributional Coding System

Instead of a purely quantitative methodology, study one uses the Leeds Attributional Coding System (LACS: Munton et al., 1999) an alternative method to questionnaires. As well as considering attributions as private cognitions, this method allows the analysis of spontaneously produced, spoken attributions. The LACS was designed as an ecologically valid methodology for analysing naturally occurring attributions from interviews and other forms of discourse. It is therefore a less intrusive method of analysing attributions than questionnaires and allows participants to control the content and type of attributions they produce (Bugental, Johnston, New, & Silvester, 1998). It has been used to investigate spoken attributions in a range of contexts including culture change (Silvester, Anderson, & Patterson, 1999; Silvester, Ferguson, Patterson, & Ferguson, 1997) and selection interviews (Silvester, 1997; Silvester et al., 2002), but to the authors’ knowledge this is the first use of the method to analyse career experiences.

Pragmatism and the Leeds Attributional Coding System

Adopting a pragmatic approach is particularly relevant when using the LACS because it allows the positivist perspective of attributions, as quantifiable reflections of internal cognitions, to be considered alongside the constructivist concept that attributions are dynamic and part of a creative process where individuals publicly

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share and negotiate meanings of events with others (Silvester, 2004). The pragmatic approach was particularly important for combining the different paradigmatic stances of the two stages involved in the LACS process for study one.

The first stage of the LACS in study one involved conducting semi-structured interviews with participants. Building on the constructivist paradigm, these interviews were used to provide a rich understanding of individuals’ careers. Rather than choosing from a list of predefined causal explanations, (e.g. questionnaire research: Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1993), the attributions were produced through a process of spontaneous, personal sensemaking. The causal attributions were therefore contextualised to participants’ own organisational and career experiences. This stage also utilised storytelling, which has been promoted as a useful method for understanding minority-ethnic individuals’ experiences in research guided by the advocacy paradigm.

The second stage in the LACS process in study one followed the post-positivist paradigm. It involved coding statements from the qualitative interview data and assigning them with numerical codes. These codes were then analysed statistically. This quantitative analysis allows broad patterns of attributional style to be determined, groups to be compared and generalisations to be made from the data. Because the LACS process used in study one combines constructivist and post- positivist paradigms and methodology, the pragmatic approach is particularly appropriate for this research.

The Pragmatic Approach in Study Two

Study two explores the experiences that are perceived to enhance or impede career success for minority- and majority-ethnic employees. Although study one examined important differences in causal attributions, study two used the exploratory sequential design of this thesis to build on this by exploring the content of individuals’ experiences. Using the qualitative interviews from study one, template analysis was used to analyse the data.

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Template analysis is typically used to analyse textual data, such as interview transcripts and is a method largely pioneered by Nigel King (2004, 2010). The technique is a form of thematic analysis which involves developing a ‘template’ where themes are organised into a hierarchical structure. Templates often have themes that can be defined in advance (a priori themes), and these can either be developed from examining a subset of interview transcripts or can be guided by the research literature. These broad themes are then used to analyse the transcripts and more specific codes are added to the template, which is then revised until a final template is established (King, 2004). Chapter five provides greater detail of how template analysis was used in this research; the next section discusses how it sits within a pragmatic approach.

Pragmatism and Template Analysis

A pragmatic approach was particularly suitable for the use of template analysis in this research, because the technique can draw on a range of epistemological positions (King, 2010). In this research, the use of template analysis was influenced by both post-positivist and constructivist perspectives.

Falling within the constructivist paradigm, semi-structured interviews and storytelling methodology were used to gain a rich, contextualised understanding of individuals’ career experiences. Using template analysis from a constructivist perspective means that interpretation can be shaped by the researcher’s own experiences and background, so researchers must remain reflexive throughout the research process. This was particularly important for the use of template analysis in this research, as the researcher was a white female. Interpretations were therefore questioned and scrutinised for any cultural biases that may have influenced the analysis. A core tenet of constructivism is that the researcher constructs understanding with the participants and involves them throughout the research process. Therefore, in this research, feedback and suggestions from participants were used to modify the final template.

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King (2004) does not advocate quantifying the codes from template analysis, because in doing so, researchers would be suggesting that the frequency of a code corresponds to its importance, which cannot be assumed. However, template analysis can also draw on the post-positivist paradigm. In this research, rather than constructing a priori codes from the interview transcripts (a more constructivist approach), they were guided by key areas of the research literature and were then changed and developed during the course of analysis. This is consistent with the post-positivist paradigm, which aims to use research to test and revise existing theory. Post-positivist research also emphasises calculating reliability between coders. However, as King (2004) rejects the quantification of themes and codes, statistical inter-rater reliability was not used in this research. Instead, discussion between coders about their different interpretations was used to determine the reliability of the template and coding.

The Pragmatic Approach in Study Three

Study three is a quantitative questionnaire study, which tests existing hypotheses from the political skill literature. In doing so it sits squarely in the post-positivist paradigm, which emphasises testing and revising existing theory. Using quantitative methodology also meant that political skill could be assessed across a wide sample and statistically associated with objective and subjective career success. Statistical inference also means that findings can be generalised beyond the study sample.

Although the methodology used within study three was guided by post-positivism, the study builds on findings from study two. By using post-positivist led, quantitative methodology in study three to build on the constructivist/qualitative findings from study two, this study also falls into the pragmatic approach used across the thesis. Because of the key advantages of each methodology for the study of ethnicity, qualitative and quantitative methods are given equal importance throughout the thesis.

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