105 organisation’s sustainability and the feedback relationships between them, for which it was not necessary to use systems thinking or SD-specific concepts.
106 Researcher is allowed control
of the questions asked and the manner in which they are asked.
Participants can reveal historical information and point the researcher in the direction of key informants and vital information as the interview proceeds.
researcher.
The researcher was able to gauge, as the interview process with each interviewee proceeded, what questions to ask and was able to adjust the manner in which they were asked, especially with regard to questions that interviewees were apprehensive to answer and ones that they needed more clarification on. This iterative nature of adjustments to the interview schedule was discussed earlier.
As the researcher engaged in interviewing the respondents, a relationship developed between them in which respondents would often suggest to the researcher other people or sources of information that they could consult to deepen their understanding,
thus contributing to the researcher’s understanding of the
107 Targeted: specific interview
questions are capable of eliciting data that can answer the overall research questions.
organisation’s sustainability issues.
Interview questions are amenable to being constructed so as to directly seek answers for the overall research objectives/questions. Thus, in this study, interview questions posited to the interviewees were effective in eliciting data that was able to answer the overall research questions stated earlier.
Limitations:
Researcher bias or subjectivity in the construction of questions/interview schedule.
Since the questions asked during the interviews were constructed by the researcher, such questions were influenced by the researcher’s perceptions, opinions and ideas regarding NPO sustainability. This influenced the nature of the data emanating from the interview process and thus the overall findings of the study. The presence of the researcher may have also influenced the interviewees’ responses to the questions, especially since the
108 Responses highly subjective
Articulation, comprehension and perception abilities of respondents’ can influence the quality of responses
researcher was an “outsider”.
Responses to the interview questions were highly
influenced by the
interviewees’ perceptions, opinions and feelings regarding their organisation’s sustainability. These feelings, perceptions and opinions tended to blur or distort the facts of the issue under study, contributing to data that was highly subjective in nature.
However, in an attempt to reduce the amount of question and questionnaire bias, questions were kept as neutral as possible and respondents were informed that they did not have to answer questions which they did not understand or which they did not want to answer.
The respondents in this study were sufficiently competent in answering the questions in the researcher’s language (i.e.
English). They were able to comprehend the questions,
109 properly articulate their responses and adequately put their perception of their organisation’s sustainability issues into words and sentences. Thus, this was not a limitation with regard to this study. However, the articulation, comprehension and perception levels differed from respondent to respondent, thus influencing and producing variations in the quality of responses, but not to the extent of not being able to utilise the interview data.
Documentation and Archival data
Strengths:
Can be accessed at a time and place convenient for the researcher
Reports, documentation and archival data were utilised in the study to acquire background information on the research site, namely: Oxfam . These sources of data were retrieved from the organisation’s official website and from the repositories of the organisation itself. An added benefit was that the documents could be taken and examined at the researcher’s place of convenience and in
110 Allows the researcher to
become immersed in the language and words of the respondents.
Contains exact names, historical details, contact information and other relevant information regarding the research site.
her own time. This source of data was also pivotal in increasing the researcher’s understanding of the research site as she was an outsider to the organisation.
Since these documents are constructed by the members of the research site, engaging with them enabled the researcher to become privy to the way in which such members perceived of,
“talked” about and understood the sustainability issues of their organisation.
From examination of the documents pertaining to Oxfam and Oxfam GB in SA and its operations, it was discovered that the documents provided rich, detailed data that was useful in adding depth to the study. This was undoubtedly due to the fact that much time, thought and effort was taken in compiling such documents.
111 Stable: it does not change and
can thus be reviewed repeatedly over time
The limitation with empirical work is that it elicits data about a phenomenon in present time or based on the recent past, especially in the case of interviews.
Respondents tended to speak about the sustainability issues that their organisation was encountering at the time of the interviews with a small focus on past and future perspectives. Documents and archival data were able to provide insight into the historical perspective regarding the organisation’s sustainability, as well as future considerations. In addition, valuable information such as the contact details of people and institutions that could be contacted to provide perspectives on the organisation’s sustainability was found in the examination of documents and archival data.
Reports, archival data and documentation relating to Oxfam remained relatively
112 stable in that they were not constantly adapted or revised too often. Thus, they provided a stable source of data to inform the research over the course of the research process.
Limitations:
Can be biased by author/s
Difficulty in retrieving documents and/or restrictions on access
Requires
printing, downloading and/or scanning to save and transport information
Documentation and archival data tends to also be influenced by the author/s.
This was considered when examining them as sources of data in this study.
In terms of this study, no problems were encountered in accessing documents and reports. Most of the reports were available online on the organisation’s website and intranet. In addition, the organisation allowed the researcher access to their repositories of information and to their intranet system
The documents and reports linked to the organisation’s sustainability were relatively ample, requiring the researcher to spend much time
113 attempting to save, download, print and scan documents for future reference.