3.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.4.3 Choice of research paradigm for this study
It is clear that the paradigms explained have different beliefs regarding reality and ways to explore them based on the discussion of paradigms in the previous sections in this chapter, and
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the choice of paradigm in different studies may be different and may serve numerous and varied aims.
These aims rely mainly on the paradigm which the study follows (Creswell, 2014). An interpretivist seeks to comprehend and interpret social life as viewed by the individuals themselves, while a critical realist tends to go further than that. More so, explaining and changing the social world tends to be the main aim of a research study from the perspective of a critical realist (Asif, 2014).
The choice of paradigm for this study is positivism. For a Positivist, the main purpose of carrying out a quantitative study is to describe and to predict (Asif, 2014). The Positivist paradigm is typically regarded as an approach to quantitative research (Creswell, 2014). Since various paradigms exist simultaneously, this makes it obtainable for a researcher to employ more than just one paradigm, which is subject on the nature of study being conducted (Blanche et al., 2006) but for this study, the researcher chose positivist paradigm and this is because the theoretical foundations of quantitative research are those of positivism, which tallies with their ontological and the epistemological beliefs (Asif, 2014).
Positivist researchers lean towards objectivity (Asif, 2014), and the matching positivist paradigm seeks to explore, explain, evaluate, predict, and develop or test theories (Sarantakos, 2005). The outcome of the aim of this study is expected to be more objective, which according to (Sarantakos, 2005), reality and truth exist objectively and can be revealed and sufficiently measured. Positivist paradigm which is the chosen paradigm for this study will be further discussed in the next section.
3.4.3.1 Positivism
Ontologically, positivist information systems researchers adhere to an objective stance (Orlikowski, 1991) and believe that reality is made up of separate and distinct happenings which the human senses can observe (Blaikie, 2010). “Positivism is based on the works of French philosopher Auguste comte (1798-1857)” (Bhattacherjee, 2012). The prevailing epistemological paradigm in social science dating from the year 1930s to the 1960s was Positivism, and its main debate was that the social world to a researcher exists externally, and secondly, that directly through observation its properties can be measured (Gray, 2013).
The Positivist also have the notion that that human beings are rational individuals who are guided by social laws, and human behaviour is known through observation and guided by external causes which gives the same outcomes (Sarantakos, 2012). This further means that the
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main belief of positivism is that all knowledge emanates from experience which means that knowledge is gotten from what is being observed. The observation in this context does not just mean visual observations, instead in a wider perspective, it also means what can be identified with the whole of our senses or through the instruments available to lengthen and improve them (Perri & Bellamy, 2011). Positivism is most of the time seen to be identical to quantitative research since it comprises of the ontological and epistemological recommendations that outlines how a study can be carried out with the quantitative approach (Sarantakos, 2012).
3.4.3.2 Characteristics of positivism
Positivism emphasizes the significance of accuracy, exactness, and measurement (Sarantakos, 2005). Positivists try to learn about how social world works to enable people to exercise control over it and make accurate predictions about it (Neuman, 2011). This means that the world is deterministic, following strict causal laws, which can be predicted and controlled if the laws happen to be discovered social life (Sarantakos, 2005). We can use that knowledge to alter or improve social conditions (Neuman, 2011).
Positivism claims that knowledge comes through sense experience (Sarantakos, 2005).
Positivists make effort to learn about how the social world functions to help people have absolute control over it and make correct presumptions concerning it. Social conditions thereof can be changed or improved with the knowledge. Positivists views research outcomes as tools or instruments that can be used by humans to fulfil their wishes and control the environment (Neuman, 2011).
It also follows the belief of objective reality and complete truth (Sarantakos, 2005). In following the positivist paradigm, the researcher remains unattached, unbiased, and objective as he or she measures facets of social life, examines evidence, and imitates the existing research of other people (Neuman, 2011). It stresses the importance of not adhering to subjectivity in research process particularly in social research (Sarantakos, 2005).
Positivism follows a design which is centred on deduction and provides inductive generalizations (Sarantakos, 2005). This entails integrating deductive reasoning with defined empirical observations of individual behaviour so as to ascertain and confirm a set probabilistic causal laws that can be instrumental for accurate prediction of general patterns of human activity (Neuman, 2011). In order to find out generally applying regularities, positivism combines primarily deductive reasoning with empirical and mainly quantitative approach (Payne & Payne, 2004).
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A researcher who is focused on the observation and prediction of results can be regarded as a laboratory scientist who is after generalizations of cause and effect; depicting the philosophical stance of a Positivist (Saunders & Tosey, 2013). “Positivism assumes that the world is objective” (Swanson & Holton, 2005). Hence, researchers who favour positivism commonly look for truths in terms of associations between variables. The main effort is put into measuring all required variables to verify that a correlation or association is significant or constant in similar circumstances (Swanson & Holton, 2005).
Observation and measurement of the human and social world can be achieved through the use of related scientific methods and approaches to the ones employed to the studying of the natural world. The consistent patterns can be identified in the human social world or behaviour, together with relationships of cause and effects, and that the consistent patterns have general validity. This typically consists of huge number of quantitative data samples and statistical hypothesis testing. In a situation where the outcome of the study does not confirm a theory, it would be necessary to have the theory revised (Saunders & Tosey, 2013).
With no effect or influence on these consistent patterns, they can be observed or measured, and they remain there notwithstanding if they are being acknowledged or observed by people or researchers. Therefore, only when ideas undergo assessment of empirical experience can it be worth integration into knowledge (Gray, 2004).