CHAPTER THREE
B. F. Skinner’s Reinforcement Theory
4.1 RESEARCH PARADIGMS
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CHAPTER FOUR
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses the methodology that was adopted for this research. It describes the research design which in this case is quasi-experimental since the research reflects both quantitative and qualitative components of research in the social sciences. It gives an insight into the area and population of study including the formula and sampling techniques adopted for deriving the sample size. The data collection methods and instruments were designed based on the characteristics inherent in the key variables of the research (Nigeria’s public administrative ecology and employee motivation) as gleaned from the literature reviewed for the purpose in the preceding chapter. It also includes a specific guideline on the procedures and processes which the actual field research and pattern of data analyses will take. Furthermore, it describes the tests of validity and reliability that are relevant to the determination of the authenticity and generalizability of the research findings. The ethical issues taken into consideration with regard to the research were highlighted and a section that evaluates the research methodology was included to give a general overview of the actual research process including the high points and challenges encountered in the course of the research. The chapter concludes with a summary.
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epistemological and methodological. Basically, they encompass a set of philosophical assumptions that guide the approach to inquiry (Polit and Beck, 2008). Creswell (2003) described paradigms as including the positivist (scientific), the socially constructed (interpretivist), the participatory (reform/action-oriented) and the pragmatic which posits that knowledge is a function of actions, situations and consequences and not antecedent conditions.
Pragmatism is concerned with ‘what works’ and solving problems rather than the methods and procedures adopted. Saunders et al (2012) posited that the pragmatic paradigm reflects the different ways of interpreting the world and the fact that in research, perspectives are usually multidirectional rather than unidirectional as there may be multiple realities in the evaluation of phenomena. In the same vein, this research though employing both the quantitative and qualitative approaches leans towards the pragmatic paradigm. This is so because it attempts to assess the applicability of the content and process motivation theories to societies undergoing social transformation processes, like Nigeria, whose characteristics are not likely to be the same as the antecedent conditions upon which the theories were initially constructed. Based on the position of the pragmatist paradigm, the postulation of the contingency theory presupposing that there is ‘no-one-best-way’ of administration is upheld.
The research also combined both the positivist and interpretivist perspectives in an attempt to establish a nexus between the ecology of Nigeria’s public administration and employee motivation in the Plateau State Civil Service.From a general perspective, positivism emphasizes rationalism and nomothetics. Nomothetics uses a probabilistic approach of causality;
i.e., under optimal circumstances, when certain factors are present, a certain type of phenomena will occur with significant probability. The criteria of causal relationships for nomothetic explanations as proposed by Lazarsfeld quoted in Matyusz, (2012) include that the cause must
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precede the consequence. As such, between two variables there should be an empirical relationship; and the observed empirical relationship between the two variables should not be explained by the influence of a third variable. This research in exhibiting nomothetic characteristics focuses on the relationship between two main variables- the ecology of Nigeria’s public administration and employee motivation in the Plateau State Civil Service which is one of the thirty-six (36) state civil services in the Nigerian federation.
Positivism is value free and focuses on the existence of external and universal laws that attempt to explain facts about, causes and effects of, and make predictions about phenomena.
Basically, it adopts the research methods of the natural and physical sciences and assumes a nomological regularity in quantifying experiences and reproducing findings through the repetition of research (Sarantakos, 1993). The positivist perspective allows the determination of this causal effect through the collation of data for experimental analysis and hypotheses testing whereby the researcher is detached from the influence of the variables and objects (respondents) of the research to as much as possible, eliminate bias.
The positivist perspective is largely adopted since it possesses techniques for handling research at this level that entails a large number of respondents. It is unlike the interpretivist perspective which allows for a smaller, more manageable size of respondents since many times, the researcher is involved in the research process as a participant observer. However, the positivist methods are usually unsuitable for social research which has people with their attendant wishes, perceptions, attitudes and interests, as subjects. This critical characteristic is that which to the interpretivists, makes objectivity impossible despite the positivists’ postulations of standardization of laws guiding research and distance from the research objects. This arises from the inevitability of the penetration of the perceptions, meanings and values of the researcher
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into the research processes (Brieschke, 1992; Sarantakos, 1993). In the instant research, the positivist methods are relevant to the extent that they are utilized in the computation and analysis of the data derived from the administration of questionnaires to the three hundred and ninety (390) respondents drawn from the Plateau State Civil Service.
Interpretivism on the other hand, is subjective and inductive. It entails interpreting and understanding reasons for and the meanings of social actions in order to explain social life and the world in general. As such, it is not value-free and does not rely on existing laws but on observations. It focuses on the ways in which phenomena become real as a result of an increase in consciousness that arises from everyday communication, experiences and knowledge (Sarantakos, 1993). To this end, its principlesenabled a determination of a cause and effect relationship that highlights the ways in which the characteristics of Nigeria’s public administrative ecology affect the motivation of its employees. Since as stated above, the interpretivist perspective allows for the handling of data derived from smaller more manageable sizes of respondents, it was handy in the descriptive analyses of the data derived from interviews with twenty-one (21) respondents.