Qualitative Approaches to Researching Management and Organisation - Essay Example

The paper "Qualitative Approaches to Researching Management and Organization" is a worthy example of an essay on business. Positivism is a philosophical approach in research that considers reality to be stable and to be descriptive from an objective viewpoint only, without distracting or interfering with phenomena being studied (Blaxter, Hughes & Tight, 2006). In other words, the phenomena have to be isolated and the observations obtained have to be repeatable over time, which requires one to manipulate the data with a variation of a single independent variable to identify regularities and form relationships between concepts that constitute the social world. Such a research approach has a huge bearing on the methods and methodologies used in research.

 In positivism, a researcher has to be involved in collecting data and information regarding a phenomenon that can be adequately classified and observed. In social sciences, positivism requires that sociologists should not take much account of motives, feelings, emotions of individuals, or their meanings (Blaxter, Hughes & Tight, 2006). For example, when carrying out research regarding the “effects of nurse managers in healthcare facilities,” the researcher will be required to establish relationships between nurses and the nurse managers in healthcare facilities, and how their interactions affect healthcare settings. The researcher, in this case, is not interested in feelings or emotions that any of the parties have, but to develop a hypothesis regarding how the two parties relate and the effects of such a relationship. As explained above, observable data in such a case would be important as well to have an objective view of the entire relationship.

 In the case above, a researcher would be required to have a methodology that serves the requirements of a positivist approach in research. To allow the collection of observable data to form an objective hypothesis, a one to one interview with such nurses would be important to note the observable behaviors of the nurse as they answer direct open-ended questions. A questionnaire would be another ideal data collection method to use in ensuring objective data collection, which would be used to indicate observable facts and trends describing such relationships, but not deeply analyzing such data. The best method to use in such research would be the qualitative-descriptive approach, where social patterns have to be established and their relationships explained according to the observable pattern and not the meanings obtained through a quantitative approach method. As the positivist approach in social research dictates, multivariate analyses would result in causal connections that occur between several variables. Incase such trends are checked in a variety of tests the researcher would be sure of achieving the “law of human behavior,” or the ultimate goal of positivism.

 Positivism will require the use of qualitative analysis in this case because sociology is the true study of reality (Blaxter, Hughes & Tight, 2006). This implies that sociology has to be concerned with establishing social facts that present special characteristics in everyday life. These facts include acting, thinking, and having feelings external to the specific individual, and exercise control over them, though they are not biological or psychological factors. In the above case of studying the relationship between nurses and nurse managers in healthcare settings, through a questionnaire and interviews will enable the researcher to have a solid ground of describing the relationship between the two, and even suggest how their relationships would affect the working environment (the healthcare setting), The objectives of such a study is that the researcher will not be required to delve deep into meanings, but will present the findings as the nurses respond and then come up with a hypothesis that describes such trend of behavior in that relationship, which would adequately answer the question.

 Therefore, from the above case, the use of positivism as a research philosophy in social research will have a direct impact on methods and methodology used in such research. The philosophy guides on what has to be achieved in the research, which on the other hand will dictate the methods and methodology applied.