As part of the further methodological research approach, it is significant to consider fundamental assumptions and beliefs, which undergird research, because they influence the methods, data, and evidence used in the research process and the way in which they will be interpreted (Daymon & Holloway, 2011). The principles on which the research is founded constitute the philosophical orientation towards the research and the generated form of knowledge.
Research involves different steps, which belong to philosophical debates and result in different quantitative and qualitative research approaches:
First, philosophical debate about ontology: Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson (2012) define ontology as views about the nature of reality and existence. Further debates go in different directions and fuel other discussions. One of two extreme positions represents the realist point of view, emphasising that the world is concrete and external. Typically, this is a debate held by philosophers of natural science. The other position contains several varieties of relativism aspects. It suggests that there are not only scientific laws to be discovered, but that they are created by people.
Daymon & Holloway (2011) associate this philosophical debate with the study of being and involved ideas, related to human existence. It engages the nature of being and social reality.
In their early and fundamental research study, Burrel & Morgan (1979) use ontology, to address the question of whether reality has an objective nature and is a given, or whether it is the product of individual cognition.
Second, philosophical debate about epistemology:
Easterby-Smith, Thorpe and Jackson (2012) relate epistemology to a general set of assumptions, which describe ways of inquiring into the nature of the world. Two contrasting views have been pinpointed as fundamental philosophical positions: positivism and social constructivism. Strong positivist positions of realists will normally express data in a quantitative form. Constructivist positions of relativists assume no pre- existing reality and there are multiple qualitative and quantitative methods through which
Greener (2008) relates the approach of positivists to empirical testing and the approach of interpretivists to subjective thoughts and ideas. Therefore, positivism focuses on a single reality, while interpretivism adopts a multiple reality perspective, observing the world through the eyes of the people being studied.
Daymon & Holloway (2011) characterise ontology as a philosophical study or theory of knowledge. They consider that it investigates what amounts to valid knowledge, while examining the question: how does the researcher know the world?
Burrell & Morgan (1979) connect assumptions about the grounds of knowledge with the philosophical discussion about ontology. They claim that ontology is focused on the question of whether the researcher’s experience and personal nature affect the categorisation of knowledge as hard and real, or softer and more subjective.
Wayuni (2012) subscribes constructivism as a belief that reality is constructed by social actors and by people’s perceptions. Due to the subjective human perspectives, social reality may have multiple perspectives and can change. Therefore, based on constructivist approaches, researchers tend to interact and have a dialogue with the research participants, as they do not see a single truth in the way that positivists do.
Another often-mentioned paradigm located between the outer positions of positivism and constructivism is referred to in the literature as post-positivism.
According to Guba & Lincoln (1994), post-positivism stands for a reality, which is assumed to exist, but is imperfectly apprehensible due to human intellectual mechanisms and the intractable nature of phenomena. Wahyuni (2012) mentions post-positivist approaches and refers to generalisation as positivists do, but admits knowledge is a result of social conditioning. In order to understand social realities, they have to be framed in a context of relevant laws or social structures of the observed phenomena.
To summarise, the different research approaches are related to the following research questions and remarks (Daymon & Holloway, 2011; Greener, 2008; Burrel & Morgan, 1979):
Ontology: ‘What can be said to exist?’, ‘Is reality objective in nature or is it the product of one’s mind?’. It influences the epistemology and methodology of a research study.
questions are: to what extent can we know something is true? What is regarded as true or false and should it be regarded in a hard and real form, or in a more subjective way, respectively? This theory of knowledge determines for the researcher what counts as valid knowledge, such as knowledge of constructivists or positivists.
Guba & Lincoln (1994) talk about paradigms as basic belief systems, which are based on ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions. They represent a worldview and define the individual place in it.
These steps ultimately then lead to different methodology approaches:
Research methodology: this term is concerned with questions such as: ‘How do we know?’. It refers to the ways in which knowledge is acquired. Methodological issues are the concepts themselves, their measurement and the identification of underlying themes. In other words, it includes a range of methods that can be used in order to achieve research goals.
Methods: they consist of step-by-step techniques that researchers adopt as part of a systematic process; for example, quantitative or qualitative approaches. They include the procedures and tools required to realise the research. Questionnaires, observations or interviews can be mentioned as method-based techniques.