Second, Peters et al. (2012) suggest reciprocation as a technique for gaining access to organisations. Reciprocating is agreeing to share findings with the organisation and to make available copies of any papers that emerge from that research. While seeking access to the organisations, the researcher suggested an opportunity to share some findings with the organisations and discuss how the organisations could benefit from the research findings. This was a win-win agreement as it will, amongst other things, facilitate the dissemination of the research findings to the relevant audience, may help the organisations improve their practice and also test the recommendations for future research prospects.
Mention can also be made of the published article co-authored by the researcher (Kwayu et al., 2016b) with the focus on one of the telecom organisations in the country. The presence of the published article, which was also shared with the organisations, cemented the trustworthiness of the research.
Third, Gorman and Clayton (1997) suggest openness as a means of influencing access to an organisation. They suggest that the researcher is open about a range of issues that will address concerns that the representatives of the collaborating organisations may have. This includes issues such as choices of field work sites. Tanzania is a relatively big country with some areas still remote and far from the main towns and cities. Visiting some of these sites may need more resources, in terms of finance, time and coordination. Thus, being honest about such limitations during access negotiations enabled a practical schedule for valid research to be drawn up. For example, the fieldwork schedule at Mwiko was coordinated by the human resources manager of the company which may have been difficult for the researcher to do. Some of the sites which he intended to schedule had to be re-negotiated according to the details of the research clearance permit as well as the field dynamics. Thus, openness enabled access which was well coordinated and ensured the success of the project.
The fourth technique that was used to gain access to the telecom organisations was a demonstration of professional suitability (Shenton and Hayter, 2004). The researchers developed contact with professionals while making preliminary approaches to the organisation. This was done by demonstrating an awareness of wider professional
trends occurring in the telecom industry as well as local developments. For instance, the researcher was engaging in various discussions regarding the new Cyber Crime Act (2015) in Tanzania that is linked to the use of social media. The professional contacts facilitated the researcher’s contact with the authorities, which enabled the researcher to gain access at Mwiko and Kili.
Furthermore, other techniques such as exploiting past links with organisations as well as being receptive to suggestions contributed to gaining access to the organisations. Through links with professionals and practitioners, the researcher was advised on ways to gain access. The authorities of the organisations suggested things that could be done in order to get access to the organisations. For instance, being directed to the right people who dealt with research such as the human resources departments.
In addition to gaining access to the organisations, access to individuals who are the informants was also a crucial process to undertake. Individual consent to participate was a necessity. Furthermore, individual willingness and openness was essential for enriching this research with significant information. The following tactics were deployed to gain access to individual informants.
Glesne and Peshkin (1992) advise the researcher to place an emphasis on individual personal contribution. This can be done through showing gratitude and acknowledging informants’ time, cooperation and the importance of them contributing to the research. This technique was often used to encourage participants who felt that their contribution would not be valuable. The researcher explained how their experience will contribute to new knowledge. This steered informants’ passion and energy to contribute as well as to consent to the interviews.
In addition, since Tanzania is a power society, where much emphasis put on authority (Hofstede, 1985), this research often referred to the support of some ‘authority’ who (i.e. managers) / which (i.e. research clearance authority) had already backed this research in order to influence access to individuals (Shenton and Hayter, 2004). This, as explained earlier, provided assurance to participants that the research was legitimate and credible. In absence of this, participants would fear that their participation would be interpreted as spilling organisational secrets. Hence, participants had nothing to fear because it had the seal of approval of relevant authority. Also, important to note, is that
individuals were informed of their rights, so they were not forced to participate and hence this eliminated potential of biasness.
3.7 Data Collection
As indicated earlier (section 3.3.5), the data for this research was collected through documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews. In addition, section 3.3.5 explains how data was collected from documentary sources. Concerning semi-structured interviews, the interviews ranged from 45 minutes to one hour long and were done with managers and staff at Mwiko and Kili. The rationale for doing this was based on Golsorkhi et al. (2015) and Jarzabkowski (2005)’s suggestion that strategy is something that is done by an organisation and its multiple actors, which include managers and staff. The managers were selected for interview based on their decision-making role with regards to social media whereas the staff are the practitioners who implement the decisions and their actions have significant implications on the outcome of strategy. Often with semi-structured interviews, there are pre-determined questions to guide the interview (Longhurst, 2003). Apart from providing a guide to the interview, these pre- determined questions (which are in Appendix 2: Interview Schedule) played a significant role in gaining access to the organisation, as well as to the individuals, as they could look at the sort of questions that would be asked. It also gave them a chance to know, in brief, what the interview would be about. In general, the interview schedule had three parts. The first part was to discover the roles and duties of the informant. The second part was to ascertain the information technologies that the interviewee used in his/her roles and the third part was to learn how they used social media and how it has affected their roles. The nature of the interview guiding questions allowed for open discussion and probing as more questions arose from the explanations given by the interviewees. For cross-checking purposes, interviewees were questioned about some of the issues/responses that were raised in previous interviews. This helped the researcher to understand some of the issues in a deeper way and from different perspectives; it was also a means of exploring new things that the informant had to say. This echoes Orlikowski and Baroudi’s (1991) suggestion that on undertaking interpretivist research the researcher should not hold predetermined views on the phenomena, as it will destroy the process of gaining new knowledge.
A total of twenty-two semi-structured interviews were carried out with staff from both companies Mwiko and Kili. Twelve interviews were done at Mwiko and ten interviews at Kili. The interviews were conducted with different participants from different departments such as marketing, management, public relations, product development, finance and the IT department. In some instances, clarification was sought, meaning that the interviewer had to contact informants again to seek clarification on certain explanations (i.e. if there was contradictory information that was gathered in another interview). This happened twice and, in both cases, the interviewees were willing to clarify, and the explanations and meanings became clear. Table 7 has a profile of all the interviewees in this research.
Table 7 Interviewee profile
No Profile Organisation Place of
Interview (Region)
Date of Interview No Profile Organisation Place of
Interview (Region)
Date of Interview
1 CEO Mwiko Dar es Salaam 06/12/2016 1 Zonal Manager Kili Kilimanjaro 23/02/2017 2 Manager IT Operation Mwiko Dar es Salaam 16/11/2016 2 Zonal customer care manager Kili Kilimanjaro 23/02/2017 3 IT Staff Mwiko Dar es Salaam 17/11/2016 3 Branch manager (Branch A) Kili Kilimanjaro 25/01/2017 4 Marketing Manager Mwiko Dar es Salaam 18/11/2016 4 Branch manager (Branch B) Kili Kilimanjaro 29/01/2017 5 Marketing Staff Mwiko Dar es Salaam 18/11/2016 5 Sales person Kili Kilimanjaro 03/02/2017 6 Finance Manager Mwiko Dar es Salaam 21/11/2016 6 Team leader Kili Kilimanjaro 23/02/2017 7 Manager Network Development Mwiko Dar es Salaam 22/11/2016 7 Customer Service (Branch A) Kili Kilimanjaro 23/02/2017 8 Manager Product Development Mwiko Dar es Salaam 23/11/2016 8 Customer service (Branch B) Kili Kilimanjaro 29/01/2017 9 Human Resource Head Mwiko Dar es Salaam 24/11/2016 9 Marketing Manager Kili Kilimanjaro 03/02/2017 10 Human Resource Staff Mwiko Dar es Salaam 24/11/2016 10 IT staff Kili Kilimanjaro 03/02/2017 11 Regional Manager Mwiko Dar es Salaam 28/11/2016
77 One of the most important things in research is to decide upon an ideal sample size. Braun et al. (2019) suggest that there is no magic formula for determining the ideal sample size in fully qualitative research. This research adopted a purposive sampling technique which is recommended by Saunders et al. (2009) as a suitable technique for a case study, since it allows the selection of the sample based on the characteristics of the population and the objective of the study. The criterion that was used in this research was the selection of at least two representatives from every functional department, a manager and a member of staff. This selection criterion was informed by Jarzabkowski’s (2005) suggestion that strategy is not only done by the managers but by multiple actors. In addition, Bharati et al. (2014) suggest that social media is deployed by multiple departments. Unfortunately, in qualitative research, sample size cannot be wholly determined in advance of data collection as it is often informed by various contextual and pragmatic considerations (Braun et al., 2019). Although it was intended to select a manager and a member of staff from each department. It was impossible to meet this objective due to reasons such as the level of access given by the organisation or the nature of the department. This is an example of some of the limitations that the researcher encountered. Flexibility was key to ensure successful collection of data. Considering that this research is exploratory, these changes have no significant effect as the main aim is to gain insight.
On the other hand, Yin (2013) suggests the ‘construct validity test’ as a means of selecting an ideal sample size, recommending the use of multiple sources of evidence to establish a chain of evidence. The construct validity test happens at the data collection phase. This research collected data from different sources which included observations of activities and context within the case organisations, documentary analysis and interviews with staff and managers of Kili and Mwiko. Furthermore, following Saunders et al.’s (2009) argument that interview data collection should proceed until data saturation is attained, the researcher continued interviewing until it was deemed that the data was saturated. Guest et al. (2006) suggest that saturation is reached within the first twelve interviews while elements of meta-themes are present as early as the sixth interview. Despite the fact that saturation can be obtained with around twelve
78 interviews, Hennink et al. (2017) suggest that to obtain codes that go beyond the surface level, a large sample size of around 16-24 interviews is needed to achieve saturation or not at all. This research includes 22 interviews and saturation was evident from the fact that interviewees kept on re-emphasising information that the previous interviewees had said and there were no new or significant pieces of information from further interviewees. Nevertheless, as part of the contingency plan, this research agreed with the respective organisations to conduct further interviews if the researcher needed more information. Also, participants were willing and agreed to answer further questions via Skype or email correspondence if the researcher needed further clarification. Furthermore, another element of the construct validity suggested by Saunders et al. (2009) is to have key informants to review the draft case study report, which is done in the composition stage. Some of the findings from this research have been presented in published academic papers and a journal article, which had a review from experts and key informants. This was an appropriate litmus test of the collection of data and of the research, indicating that it has provided a valid and credible contribution to knowledge.
The interviews were conducted in both the Swahili and English languages. The researcher is Tanzanian and fluent in both languages. In Tanzania, people mix Swahili and English when they talk to other Tanzanians. It was, thus, rational to use both languages so that the informants could freely express themselves in their language of choice. Each interview lasted for a period of 45 minutes to an hour. These interviews were recorded with the consent of the interviewees. The recordings were done for accuracy to confirm the correct recollection of information. Therefore, records were made to aid the analysis process.
The interview schedule is attached in the Appendix 2: Interview Schedule