LIST OF DEFINITIONS
CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
4.5 Research Design
This epistemology describes the researcher’s important role as a social actor to understand organizations, relations and differences.
This research study will focus on interpretive epistemology to investigate the existing evidence and identify possible theoretical trends in exploring the role of co-production and innovation in promoting happiness and well-being.
4.4.3 Axiology
Given (2008) described axiology as what establishes the value of matters such as freedom, justice, wisdom, knowledge, well-being, human life, and self-fulfillment. He also termed axiology as value theory that prompts a researcher to classify what an individual specifically values, the kind of values that would direct the research procedure, and the research's worth or outcome, which will be revealed over the course of the investigation.
This research study requires the researcher to be objective in implementing the research process.
As the researcher aims to look into the UAE governing body’s initiatives and policies in promoting happiness and well-being, impartiality is a prerequisite. This is to treat all information gathered as authentic and relevant to finding the role of co-production and innovation in UAE government programs.
wellbeing within the UAE community; these concepts cannot be readily quantifiable and can be evolved throughout the research process which requires a flexible research design with an open- end approach.
4.5.1 Research Strategy
This research study revolves around an expert interview method where both the researcher and the participants identify and investigate the undertakings within UAE governmental departments in advancing the happiness and wellbeing of the community or society. The researcher aims to explore the conceptual reflections and actual role of co-production in public administration’s policies for promoting happiness and well-being.
The experts in this interview method are described by Bogner and Menz (2002) as individuals who have technical process oriented and interpretive knowledge on their specific professional sphere of activity. Expert knowledge has the character of practical knowledge in big parts.
Bogner and Menz (2002) also discussed the aims of the expert interview method, one of which is for exploration, for orientation in a new field in order to give the field of study a thematic structure and to generate hypotheses.
Expert interviews is a method that can help researchers to reconstruct expert’s knowledge through their views, implicit knowledge, and their habits. In the expert interview method, the researcher will have the opportunity to dive into the subject matter, connect with professionals who are experts in the Happiness and wellbeing field, and address the deficit in high-quality research studies surrounding the research components. Audenhove (2011) listed three dimensions of expert knowledge – technical knowledge, process knowledge, and explanatory knowledge. The technical knowledge entails the very specific knowledge that experts have in a
certain field. Process knowledge entails information that experts have on the routines, processes, and specific interactions within an organization or a project. The expert is considered also as having a direct involvement in the process. Explanatory knowledge entails interpretations of the experts on rules, beliefs, and relevance.
4.5.2 Quality of research finding
In the process of carrying out research, quality plays an important part in everything from the research process and the collecting data to the examination and interpretation of data. The quality of a qualitative inquiry can be judged according to the criteria of validity, reliability, and generalizability. According to Flick (2006) validity is considered to gain more consideration than reliability in qualitative research.
4.5.2.1 Validity
The appropriateness of the tools, processes, and data in qualitative research dictates its validity.
This entails an in-depth consideration of the research questions visa-a-visa the expected outcomes, the appropriateness of the methodology to answer the research questions and the choice of research design, the sampling and data analysis, and the results and conclusions for the sample and context. There are many important types of validity that researchers will consider in this research. The first method to construct validity is by comparing the results of the research with the aim of the research. So, in the current research, the researcher will review the asked questions and he will be able to conduct any required changes.
The second type of validity is internal validity which reflects the work of the researcher such as; hand written notes and audio records. The researcher will regularly take notes during the semi-structured interviews and also he will record the interviews when participants agree. The
third type of validity is external validity which is concern about the generalizability of the results.
4.5.2.2 Reliability
Reliability in qualitative research refers to the exact reliability of the processes and results of a specific research. It has to be understood that in replicating the established processes and results of research that in most qualitative researchers, the methodology and epistemology may yield ontologically similar data but may vary in richness according to the sample and context of a study. Thus, it is recommended that the data be analyzed in a comprehensive manner with reference to qualitative aspects if possible.
4.5.2.3 Generalizability
Generally, qualitative research is conducted to explore a particular phenomenon or issue in a certain community or group of a focused locality in a specific context. Thus, the criteria of generalizability do not merit much attention as criteria. It is however recommended that researchers employed in qualitative research be adept in interpreting results in consideration of the extent of the similarity of all the entities of the research process such as the theory, model, time, place, people, and some other social contexts. Thus, the results can be generalizable in terms of the importance of co-production as a factor of happiness and well-being.