ESTRUCTURA DE ASEGURAMIENTO EN SALUD Y VIDA

The approach to Banks C and D were ‘cold calls’ while E Pic was approached via a contact

supplied by another faculty member at the Accounting and Finance department o f LUMS. Ttie

Chapter 4 Research Design & M ethodology 87

visit to a local branch of each bank, appointments were secured to' meet with the managers

from the customer service personnel at each branch. The reason for seeking the appointment

was explained in part to the customer service personnel. The primary aims for the meetings

were to get a feel for the possibility o f gaining access into' the banks for the study, and where

possible to obtain contact details o f the appropriate person(s) to address the access request to.

In mid April 2004, I met with the local branch manager o f Bank C and the meeting yielded a

name in Bank C ’s regional office, but the correspondence to this person was to be addressed

via the branch. A few days later, the introductory letter cum proposal was sent to this

manager. The main content o f the letter is similar to that shown in Appendix 1. Two weeks

after sending the letter, a follow' up telephone call was made to the manager. A second follow'

up call was again made two weeks later. In the end, a reply was received to the effect that the

organisation declined to participate for which no particular reason was offered.

On the other hand, the meeting with Bank D‘s local branch manager, held the same week as

that with Bank C ’s manager, did not yield any contact names or details. However, the

manager agreed for the introductory letter cum proposal to be written care o f her for onward

delivery to the appropriate person in the organisation. Again, the main content o f the letter is similar to that shown in Appendix 1. Interestingly, I observed on several visits' to the branch

both prior, during, and after the meeting that the branch seemed to be having staffing difficulties. There were long queues in the banking hall and the customer services person was

different every week within the period I visited. And an informal chat with one o f customer

service representatives confirmed this. Apparently some o f them had been called in from other

branches in the region to help out this branch. Two weeks after delivering the letter to the

branch manager, a follow' up telephone call was' made tO' learn of the response and the

manager asked to be called again a week or two later. Two weeks^ later, I called at the branch

in person and was then informed the authority(ies) had left it to' the branch to decide whether

Chapter 4 Research D esign & M ethodology 88

participate, presumably because of their staffing difficulties at that time. It could not be

ascertained whether the response from the authority(ies) meant other branches could be

approached individually or not. However, no further requests were made at this point.

The approach to E Pic, the oil company, differed slightly. As mentioned earlier, a faculty

member at LUMS offered a contact name with details. This contact was from his MBA

student days. Telephone calls were made to this person but with no replies. However, a

message was left on the answering machine on each occasion. After several o f these calls and

messages left on the answering machine with no response from this person, the request could

not be progressed any further.

4.2.4 C hange of A pproach Strategy

After exhausting the initial list of companies and contacts without successfully gaining access

to any organisation, another approach strategy was adopted. This was to extend the quest for

access by seeking indirect contact through professional organisations in addition to exploiting

any corporate relationship that units in LUMS might have. Thus in June 2004, the Director of

Research at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland (ICAS) was approached

through the Director of Doctoral Research at the Accounting and Finance department o f

LUMS. It was hoped that ICAS might have well-placed members who could help. The request

for help communicated to the ICAS research director also indicated a large bank as the ideal

organisation but that a large multi-divisional commercial organisation would suffice in place

o f a bank. In addition, the head of International Strategy' and Policy Co-ordination at the

Financial Services Authority' (FSA) was also contacted via another LUMS faculty’ in the

Economics department. Furthermore the Management Development Division (MDD) and the

External Relations & Corporate Communications at LUMS were approached as well as many

more faculty members in other academic departments of LUMS with the hope o f tapping into

their contacts with large businesses. Each of these sources for contacts was provided with a

Chapter 4 Research D esign & M ethodology 89

distribution to their potential contacts. Over the course of the next 4 months, constant follow

ups were made on these sources of contacts as well as the contacts they eventually provided.

4.2.5 3 M ore Banks, and the F PL C (June 2004 - August 2004)

The Director o f Research at ICAS informed us she had approached 3 banks, and in reply to a

follow up email in July 2004 said “these things take time Vm afraid as it is quite a big

com m ittem ent fro m the banks point o f view. Most o f them have said that they need to get

clearance fro m head office etc so it will take a w h ile” The eventual feedbacks from the banks

received in the 3rd week of August 2004 were unfavourable, all declined to participate. On the

other hand, the FSA contact, did not respond to our initial communication via email and no

other follow up was made. A faculty member at the Marketing department of LUMS provided

contact details o f the CEO of a large general retail company, which will be referred to as F

Pic. This contact was from his previous work for the group company some years back. In mid

September an introductory letter, with the main content similar to that shown in Appendix 1,

was sent to this CEO. However, no reply was received and the request could not be

progressed any further.

Nevertheless, there were positive developments in September 2004. The MDD at LUMS

provided warm links to another oil company which will be referred to as G Pic. The MDD

were currently running an executive training program for the company. In addition, another

faculty member at the Accounting and Finance department o f LUMS provided warm links to

a senior person in one of the big four accounting firms which will be referred to as Firm ABC

LLP. The contacts at both G Pic and ABC LLP expressed interest in the study to the MDD

and the faculty member respectively, before their details were passed on.