3.1 The Research Design
3.1.1 Research Philosophy
The term research philosophy considers the development of knowledge and its nature.
Understanding research philosophy is of great importance; research can only be meaningful if it is clear to others what decisions were taken that affected the research results since a philosophical point of view might have influenced those decisions. Generally, research philosophy forms a foundation of the research by "delineation of ontology – nature of reality,
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epistemology – nature, sources of knowledge or facts and axiology – values, beliefs and ethics of the research" (Melnikovas, 2018).
Ontology is the study of being; it concerns what exists in the surrounding world.
Additionally, it focuses on the existence of a single reality independent from human existence. Ontology emphasises the nature of reality (Saunders, et al., 2009). Questions in this paradigm address the nature of social objects. The question will be whether social entities have a reality external to social actors or are built up from perceptions and actions (Bryman, 2017). The ontological point of view has two aspects: objectivism and subjectivism (Saunders, et al., 2009). Objectivism depicts that "social entities exist in reality external to social actors concerned with their existence" (Saunders, et al., 2009, p. 109). An example of objectivism is management in an organisation; in this point of view, it is assumed that management is the same in all organisations since, for instance, they all have similar job descriptions and duties and report in the same hierarchy to top managers. On the other hand, subjectivism "holds that social phenomena are created from the perceptions and consequent actions of those social actors concerned with their existence" (Saunders, et al., 2009, p. 109).
an example of subjectivism in the real world is customer service; there is no definite reality about customer service since a customer can be considered a social actor that defines the situations depending on their view of the world.
Epistemology studies the nature of knowledge and methods of knowing and learning about social reality; it is about how the researchers know what is known (Creswell, et al., 2007).
Epistemology answers many concerns, such as what frame a knowledge claims and how knowledge can be acquired or created. The importance of epistemology arises from the fact that it helps researchers frame their research to explore knowledge. Epistemology relates to
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what establishes satisfactory knowledge in an area of research. Two main perspectives for knowing are positivism and interpretivism (Saunders, et al., 2009).
Axiology is about the researcher's enclosure of their values (Creswell, et al., 2007). It answers the question, "what roles do our values play in our research choice?" (Saunders, et al., 2009, p. 115). In order to have credible research results, what role the researchers' value plays in all the research stages is of great importance. For instance, a researcher who chooses interviews as a research method can be considered someone who values social interaction to get to the truth.
This statement led to the discussion about the research philosophies mentioned by (Saunders
& Thornhill, 2019) in their research onion model; positivism, realism, interpretivism, postmodernism and pragmatism.
Positivism is "an epistemological position that advocates the application of the methods of the natural sciences to the study of social reality and beyond" (Bryman, 2012, p. 28).
Essentially, positivism is a type of research philosophy that involves observable social reality. Usually, positivism involves using an existing theory to develop a hypothesis (Saunders, et al., 2007). In positivism, any known phenomena through one's senses are considered sources of knowledge (Cooper & Schindler, 2014). The researcher in the positivist approach is regarded as external to the research process since the data is already there and the researcher's only duty is to collect the data; the researcher can do nothing to change it (Saunders, et al., 2007). Accordingly, positivism is about being objective rather than subjective (Cooper & Schindler, 2014). Based on Bryman (2012), positivism entails five principles; the first is the principle of phenomenalism, which means that in order to consider phenomena and acknowledge them, they should be confirmed by the senses. The second is the principle of deductivism, which entails that theories should produce hypotheses
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that can be tested. The third is the principle of inductivism, which states that gathering facts that form the foundations of laws will result in reaching knowledge. Since it can be conducted value-free, the fourth principle is referred to as objective. Finally, there is a clear difference between scientific and normative statements; scientific statements are believed to be true science, while normative statements are implied by scientific statements.
The core of realism is that there is an independent reality in mind; some consider realism similar to idealism (i.e., only the mind and its content exist). Realism has two types, direct and critical (Saunders, et al., 2007). The direct realist viewpoint would propose that the world is relatively unchanging; in other meaning, in a business context, realism presumes that the business functions at one level (Saunders, et al., 2007). Direct realism can also be called naïve realism to reflect that realists can assume a close match between reality and the construct being studied. Moreover, they assume that by implying appropriate methods, reality can be understood (Bryman, 2012). On the other hand, critical realism adopts multi- level approaches (Saunders, et al., 2007). Critical realism designated that "we will only be able to understand—and so change—the social world if we identify the structures at work that generate those events and discourses" (Bryman, 2012, p. 28). Critical realism implies two principles; first, as the positivist researchers assume that their conceptualisation of reality reflects that reality, critical realist sees that researchers' conceptualisation reflect a method for knowing reality and not the reality itself. Second, realists admit that their clarifications of theoretical terms are not responsive to observation (Bryman, 2012).
The advocates of interpretivism argue that the world is too complex to assume that it follows a specific law or that the findings' generalisation is possible. Some might argue that in business research and management research, business situations are complex and unique and subjected to various conditions, especially in organisational behaviour. This complexity and uniqueness raise a question regarding the research's generalizability (Saunders, et al., 2007).
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Interpretivism is much more common in social science than business research since it sees the facts through people's eyes and does not accept them as one reality (Cooper & Schindler, 2014).
Pragmatism arises from actions, situations, and consequences rather than predecessor conditions. In this approach, the research focuses on the research problem rather than the method, and usually, this research philosophy is a philosophical foundation for mixed method studies (Creswell, et al., 2007). Pragmatism holds that the research question is the most crucial determinant of adopting epistemology, ontology, and axiology (Saunders, et al., 2007).
The following Table (6) provides a comparison between the four most used research philosophies in business research.
Table 6:comparison between the four most used research philosophies ( (Saunders & Thornhill, 2019, p. 119)
Research Philosophy
Positivism Realism Interpretivism Pragmatism Ontology: the
researcher’s view of the nature of reality or being
External, objective and
independent of social actors
Is objective.
Exists
independently of human thoughts and
beliefs or knowledge of their existence (realist), but is interpreted through social conditioning (Critical realist)
Socially constructed, subjective, may change,
multiple
External, multiple views were chosen to best enable answering of research question
Epistemology:
the
researcher’s view
regarding what constitutes acceptable knowledge
Only observable phenomena can provide
credibly Data, facts.
Focus on causality and law
Observable phenomena provide credible data and facts.
Insufficient data means
inaccuracies in sensations (direct
Subjective meanings and social Phenomena.
Focus upon the details of situation, a reality behind
Either or both observable phenomena and
subjective meanings can provide acceptable
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generalisations, reducing phenomena to simplest elements
Realism).
Alternatively, phenomena create sensations which
Are open to misinterpretation (critical
realism).
Focus on explaining within a context or contexts
these details, subjective meanings motivating actions
knowledge dependent upon the research Question.
Focus on practical applied research, integrating different perspectives to help interpret the data
Axiology: the researcher’s view of the role of values in research
Research is undertaken in a value-free way, the researcher is
independent of the
data and maintains an objective stance
Research is value laden; the researcher is biased by the world
views, cultural experiences and Upbringing.
These
will impact on the
research
Research is value bound, the researcher is part
of what is being researched, cannot be separated, and so will be subjective
Values play a large role in interpreting results, the researcher adopting both objective and subjective points of view Data
collection techniques most often used
Highly structured, large samples, measurement, quantitative, but
can use qualitative
Methods chosen must fit the subject matter, quantitative or qualitative
Small samples, in-depth investigations, qualitative
Mixed or multiple method designs, quantitative and
qualitative
The philosophical research position in the current research is derived from the research aim and the previous discussion about the research philosophy. The current study aims to investigate the impact of employee strategic alignment impact on both employee engagement and employee performance.
Given the previous discussion, the researcher is adopting a positivism research philosophy for several reasons. First, the research investigates strategic employee alignment by creating strategic awareness, defining goals and linking incentives to performance and how it impacts
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employee engagement and employee performance. This can be considered a reality that is independent of external actors, and it concerns predefined procedures in the organisation.
Accordingly, the nature of the research as it investigates a social science field. Second, a highly structured methodology was followed to conduct this research. Moreover, the research relies on gathering data that is collected objectively using a structured research instrument, and the respondents answer the questions without any interaction with the researcher.