2.3 Limitations and Scope of Study
2.3.1 Research Methodology
Methodology refers to “a strategy of enquiry that guides a set of procedures” (Petty, Thomas and Strew 2012:278). Methodology therefore justifies the use of particular research techniques. Research methods can be defined as the kind of tools that are used to gather data for specific studies of this kind (Lapan et. al 2012). In other words, methods refer to
“techniques used in acquiring and analysing data to create knowledge” (Petty, Thomas and Stew 2012:278). This study is non-empirical in nature and therefore will not involve the use of primary data such as survey and interviews. In order to address the objectives of this study, a qualitative research method will be utilised and I have heavily relied on analysing secondary data obtained from library research in books, periodicals, theses, relevant publications, church
archival documents and internet research materials. On the basis that qualitative research seeks to answer questions through examining various social setting and the individuals who inhabit these settings. Nieuwenhuis (2016:53) points out that qualitative method of research
“relies on linguistic (words) rather than numerical data, and employs meaning-based rather than statistical forms of data-analysis.” While applying library and desk-top research, this study will answer the how it will use these secondary sources to analyse and interpret data to achieve the objectives set in chapter 1 in addressing the Roman Catholic centralised and the Igbo decentralised models of governance in this study.
Furthermore, on the basis that Qualitative research views “social life in terms of processes that occur rather than in static terms” (Nieuwenhuis 2016:53), this study is interested in how the Igbo social setting is organised and how they make sense by their Ohacracy model of governance by use of symbols, rituals, social structures, social roles and their established institutions. In other words, this study will describe the Igbo Ohacracy decentralised model as it interacts with the centralised model of the Roman Catholic Church’s governance.
According to Creswell (2013:43), qualitative research begins with a supposition and the utilization of interpretive or theoretical frameworks which inform the investigation of research problems, and while articulating the meaning persons or groups attribute to either a human or social problems (Eze 2012:32).
As situated in the qualitative research model, this study will seek to investigate how the Igbo Ohacracy and the Roman Catholic models of governance differ, relate and motivate each other in behaviours as informed by their cultural and religious practices, belief systems and traditions. The qualitative approach has supported this study to examine the meaning and interpret the practises of these two governing models thereby shaping the life stories and behaviours of the Igbo Ohacracy and Roman Catholic adherents. As distinguished by Collis and Hussey (2003), qualitative method is different from quantitative research method since it gives a full analysis and description of the subject under study and consideration. This remark adds to my option for utilizing this approach for this study which strives to examine the conceptions of religious practises and cultural beliefs around the centralized and the decentralized forms and models of governance.
There are five diverse approaches that are applicable to qualitative research. These include the narrative research, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography and Case Study (Creswell
and Petty 2013:379, Thomas and Stew 2012). With reference to the approach applied in this study, I have utilised the ethnographic approach.
As a comparative cultural anthropology approach, ethnography is used to interpret cultural groups or people. As an approach its focus is to examine the shared patterns of behaviour, belief systems, and language within a cultural group and to do this requires an extended period of time (Creswell and Petty 2012:380). A variety of data will be collected to help inform the description (Creswll 2007) of a cultural group. In this case both the Igbo and Roman Catholic Church cultures sharing communities will be analysed and interpreted to obtain meaning of behaviour, language and interaction between the two centralised and decentralised groups. The research will make use of already available and published ethnographic literature focussing on the Igbo and the Roman Catholic Church governing models experienced among the people of south-eastern Nigeria.
In its description, ethnography is derived from two Greek words, ethnos (people) and graphein (to write), and essentially meaning “writing about people” (Nieuwenhuis 2016:80).
It is designed to explore a cultural occurrence and in our case the decentralised Igbo Ohacracy model of social order and the centralised Roman Catholic Church governance culture will serve as focused communities. Within a particular cultural setting, information notes, textbooks, documentary materials (class notes, diaries and minutes), other artefacts such as stories, songs and poems of both cultures are explored and being the data that is documented and analysed to yield a planned result (Bless 2014:353).
In this case both the Igbo Ohacracy order and the Roman Catholic Church governance models (who shared values, beliefs, symbols and institution) are explored to yield a common good result to both models under consideration. As the study shall demonstrate, the Igbo Ohacracy and the Catholic Church as community or group, a social order and cultural heritage are investigated in both cultural contexts. From this consideration, an ethnographic study approach to qualitative research method finds justification for this study on the basis that the key research question would have been adequately addressed; and that is: How the centralised and the decentralised models of governance complement each other for the good of the Igbo society?
This study is a library-based (desktop) research on the Igbo Ohacracy decentralised and the Roman Catholic centralised models of governance. A Library research centres on the investigative studies carried out by others to develop knowledge (Britton, 1996). Library, Document and Desktop researches are all used interchangeably for the same term to describe secondary research. In Library research, previous studies and findings such as published periodicals and research projects are used to get to a conclusion (Ngwaru 2018:32). Hence the use of published articles, textbooks, journals and university academic projects have all been utilised in this thesis to denote secondary research approach.
With regards to library research, weakness with the data available maybe irrelevant to the objectives of the study become a serious concern (Surbhi 2016). In this kind of research therefore, the researcher examines various documents like textbooks, periodicals, reports and newspapers etc., which offers a ground to work with (Silverman 2000). Care must be taken to limit the materials to relevant potions of the materials available. Based on this notion, this study will limit itself to selected texts and documents relevant to the topic of governance in both Roman Catholic central and the Igbo Ohacracy decentralised models of governance. It is indeed within this methodological consideration, ‘research design’ becomes vital in enabling data collection and analysis methods to achieving the major objectives of this study. It is to this consideration that next sections will be devoted in this study.