The Analysis of the Methods of the Servey about the Role of Women in Qatar Healthcare - Research Paper Example

RESEARCH METHODS Methodology is the most important part of any dissertation since it gives a map of the how the research was accomplished. The purpose of this mixed research study is to determine the relationship between critical dimensions challenges the women in the society faces, and the employment rates of women in Qatar. It has been observed that women employment in Qatar is although increasing but is concentrated in certain work areas. The women are concentrated especially in the fields of teaching and healthcare. The problem statement is that why do women opt for these fields and not others. The research will focus on only one area: healthcare. The research will be accomplished by surveying 10 Qatari women in the healthcare sector based in Doha in the State of Qatar. This research will bring much needed awareness of the role played by women in the workforce, particularly in the field of healthcare. In addition, this research will help in determining the current trends of women participation in Qatar workforce as well as implications for the future trends. This chapter presents the analysis of the research methods and designs chosen to find the information needed to complete the research and answer the problem statement. In this chapter, data collection methods and procedures are discussed as well as the reliability and variability of data collected. The population and sampling determination will also be presented in the chapter. The process of data analysis will also be discussed in the chapter. The details of the research methods and analysis are presented henceforth. Research Method The research method is a plan undertaken to acquire information to complete research. This research can be experimental, exploratory, qualitative, and quantitative or cross sectional (Saunders et al., 2006). Identification of the research method is important because the collection of data gives a clear idea about the required information (Trochim & Donnelly, 2006). The role and impact of women in the health sector in Qatar can be analyzed by using qualitative research and quantitative research method. According to Sale, Lohfeld, and Brazil (2002), quantitative research can be used to collect primary data or firsthand knowledge of the research topic. Although it can take time to collect this information through qualitative research, it can also add more value to results. This research can provide a deeper understanding of the topic and can be used to analyze the ‘for and against arguments’. Many researchers would either use just one method or use both qualitative as well as quantitative research methods which is also known as mixed research. Mixed method research is appropriate for determining generalized findings while still providing an in-depth look at the data (Castro & Coe, 2007). Each method has its own strengths and to combine the strengths of the two methods can provide more research material than each method could individually (Morgan, 1998). Making recommendations from these results is one of the purposes of this research (Creswell, 2008). Using only one research method can give an in-depth analysis of the research topic (Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2005). Qualitative data can be used to gain insight in the minds of people and their perceptions (Creswell, 2003). Therefore, since the study aims to understand the perceptions of women, qualitative data methods will be utilized (Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2005). Quantitative method Quantitative studies are limited to specific, pre-determined variables (Creswell, 2005). A study should begin with clearly defined questions with the intent of generating statistically significant answers (Creswell, 2008). Edmunson and McManus (2007) have noted that quantitative research begins with testing one or more specific theoretical hypotheses with a random and representative selection of research participants. Quantitative research is appropriate for this research because it can be used to gain an insight into the attitudes, behaviors, and aspirations of the Qatari women toward their employment opportunities and particularly toward employment in the health sector. The methods of gathering data are difficult under this method (Creswell, 2008). This is best technique for gathering information as the responses of the respondents can be measured and provides useful insight in the research. A quantitative method of a mixed research assumes the usage of deductive scientific method while qualitative component assumes inductive scientific method. Moreover, a quantitative approach collects quantitative data based on exact measurement applying structured as well as validated information collection. For instance, rating scales, closed-ended items and responses. This approach produces statistical report with correlations. The survey method can help in analyzing relations that are common across organizations and can provide generalizable statements about the study questions and objects (Guy, 1994). But according to Guy (1994), the weakness of the survey questionnaire is that it only provides the information of the situation in one point in time. In addition, certain variables cannot always be measured by the survey questionnaire. For example, the variables such as reason for women participation in workforce and in health field cannot be completely measured by the survey. Qualitative method Qualitative method is more subjective in nature and examines the perceptions of people involved. This is a very important method in this research as it can help in analyzing the subjective interpretation of variables to arrive at a more concrete result. According to Yin (1994) qualitative method is also known as phenomenological paradigm in which the focus is on the subjective aspects of the human rather than the actual measurement. Since this research stresses on the measurable reasons and aspects of the women behavior in workforce, this method will not be appropriate. Qualitative method uses deductive approach which uses conceptual and theoretical structure combined with empirical observations to reach to a conclusion. A qualitative research uses qualitative information. For instance, interview, field notes, open-ended questions etc. The success of this method depends on the researcher’s ability to gather the information to best. At the end of a research this approach supposes a narrative report with context description, quotations taken from research material. Mixed Method Mixed methods are a design form of methodological triangulation (Creswell, 2008). An integrated research approach captures the descriptive richness of qualitative research and the precision of quantitative methods (Castro & Coe, 2007). Mixed methods may be used effectively in a wide range of studies in which trends need to be identified within the general population by using a large number of participants, while also incorporating their subjective views through numerical assessment of their subjective responses (Creswell, 2008). The mixed research design is a research that includes research data, techniques and methods of both quantitative and qualitative research. All these characteristics are mixed in one study and used mixed data such as numbers and text, and statistics and text analysis. Such a design will use deductive and inductive scientific method as it has multiple forms of data collecting techniques. Rationale for Qualitative Research Qualitative research method is also appropriate for this research since qualitative research will involve an account of different ideas about the employment rate of Qatari women in healthcare sector. Open-ended questionnaire survey would have to be conducted to provide current information. The research will be based on the perceptions and attitudes of the participants, and questionnaire is the best way to gain such insight (Sale, Lohfeld & Brazil, 2002). Given the restricted timeline, it will be easier to analyze the data gathered through the questionnaire to answer the research questions. Research Design Such a course of action has been taken for this research because of theoretical gatherings of publications in the area of Qatari women in workforce. The theoretical framework can help in gathering the information on the variables before the questions are set for the survey and interview. It is first important to identify the problem on which the hypothesis or research questions are built (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2003). The mixed research design can help in working with the strengths of two research methods used. Qualitative method can add the cultural dimension and can increase the scope and comprehensiveness of the research study (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2003). Open-ended questionnaire can help in collecting information the nature of which is already subjective (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2003). Rationale for Research Design The research objectives for this study can only be answered with an in-depth descriptive and analytical analysis. Descriptive research elaborates on the state of affairs as it exists right now (Kothari, 2008). Analytical research on the other hand, uses the information already available for critical evaluation (Kothari, 2008). Such a research design is appropriate for the underlying research because it can gather the required data for the results which can be specifically applied to the topic as well as generalized to other settings. The research design is meant to count representative samples and make inferences about the whole population. The method used in the study involves gathering data from selected participants using questionnaires. An analysis of this data is descriptive because it shows the subjective views of individuals who work in the healthcare industry in both the public and private sectors based in Doha, State of Qatar. This design would certainly reach the desired goals in that the participants would be women employees from various health organizations and hospitals. Population The target population of this study is the women working in the healthcare sectors in Qatar. The total number of women working in Qatar is 16.3% of the total labor force. Out of this, the number of women working in the health sector is above 500 persons. Sampling The sample will be taken from the above mentioned population of Qatari women in one of the public health organizations located in the Doha city of Qatar. In this scenario, the respondents who will be available and willing to provide their views and insight are the targeted respondents. Such sampling is known as random sampling. In random sampling each element of the population has an equal chance of being selected and therefore reduces the chances of bias (Foreman, 1991). The reason for choosing this method is because the departments of the healthcare sector are similar and so the chances of obtaining informed responses are high. Using this sampling technique, the questionnaire will be distributed to around 10 respondents. The sample number was determined based on the availability of the women at the executive level as well as the research timeline. As the population size is small, a certain percentage of the population is sufficient to generalize the findings. The age of the women will be 18 years and older. Working women selected will be in the executive level, as the main idea behind conducting the research is to know the major changes in society acceptance to employed women. The respondents will receive a complete overview of the research endeavor so that they can be as objective as possible, though no certain method exists to control objectivity. The respondents are given full assurance of the confidentiality of their responses, and that information is not shared with anyone. A confidentiality paper and a consent paper will be signed between the questionnaire respondents so that the respondents are assured that the responses given by them will be only available to the researcher. In addition to this, the signing of the papers also answers the ethical questions that the respondents might have towards the research. Data Collection Method The data will be collected in various forms. The data will be obtained through two sources: Primary Data Primary data is the information that is collected first hand. For the purpose of this research, primary data will come from open-ended questionnaires. The benefit of this type of data is that there is always the possibility of finding new data or variable that has not been observed. Secondary Data Secondary data comes from the information already available in different forms such as books, statistics, articles and reports. Almost all the study work reviewed in this research has been drawn from the secondary sources. Existing literature on Qatari women employment was complemented with the information gathered from press articles such as newspapers and internet periodicals published by national and international media. The advantage of using the secondary data is that it can supplement the primary data. Rationale for Data Collection Method There are usually five data collection methods: surveys, semi-structured/unstructured interviews, observations, focus groups and historical research (Axinn & Pearce, 2006). This research uses two of the five aforementioned methods. The reason for not using the other techniques is that the focus groups and observations can take a longer period of time to gather the required data (Axinn & Pearce, 2006). In addition, the focus groups would not always answer the questions directly as the participants may not want to disclose their views in front of others (Axinn & Pearce, 2006). The unstructured surveys will be conducted in private and no participant would know about the identity of the other participant, therefore it is likely that the answers would be objective. Open-ended questionnaire offer flexibility and opportunity for respondents to bring to light the other factors that are not mentioned in the surveys (Axinn & Pearce, 2006). Closed ended questionnaire can provide restricted answers which can be combined with the interview answers to provide strong findings. The historical research can provide with the background information in order to construct the interviews and questionnaires. Kind of Data to be collected The data to be collected under the mixed research design will be statistical as well as descriptive. Qualitative data will be mostly descriptive and would require the interpretation of the comments without any statistical support. In such cases, biasness is involved to reach the conclusion of the research objectives. On the other hand, quantitative data can provide the statistical information necessary to validate as well as complement the data collected through other method. Instruments Different researchers use different data collection instruments. The most common are interviews and survey questionnaire. Interviews can be conducted in person or over the telephone while surveys can be administrated in person, through mail or over the internet (Yang & Miller, 2007). The aim of the instruments is to get answers to the research question. The interview and survey questionnaire are the most useful one in terms of serving the purpose of this dissertation because it allows the collection of subjective participant attitudes Open-ended Questionnaires Survey questionnaires are seen as a more popular research method since each respondent gives similar answers to the same questions, likely resulting in a reliable set of responses (Fink, 2008). “The questionnaire is a favored tool of many of those engaged in research, and it can often provide a cheap and effective way of collecting data in a structured and manageable form” Wilkinson & Birmingham, (2003, p. 23). The questionnaire is selected for the following reasons (Behling & Law, 2006): a) Relative low cost. b) No need for formal arrangements c) Minimizes embarrassment of the respondent. d) Respondent can consider responses. e) Possible anonymity of the respondent. This methodology as aforementioned is the most attributable methods of study for this research. The purpose of the survey questionnaire that will be used is to collect data measuring the dependent variable of women’s employment, and the independent variables include job empowerment, job security, society attitudes, and career choices (Behling & Law, 2006). Statistical samples will be taken from the women who share a common factor of being employed by the government of Qatar. The purpose of the questionnaire is to evaluate the point of view of the sample in question with respect to the sources and factors that promote or prevent their participation in other fields of workforce. Open-ended questions enable to understand the point of view of other people that can help in better understanding of the topic (Patton, 2002). The main task is to form the open-ended in such a way that people can respond accurately and thoroughly their point of views. Validity Validity establishes whether the research measured what it planned to measure. The research might not truly measure due to poor samples and faulty research procedures and so on. For the research to be valid as possible, appropriate samples have been sought but dependency is on the representative of the population. The empirical data collected from interview and questionnaire will be approved by the professor to increase the reliability. Another method used to increase the validity is through triangulation. Triangulation is the method to use multiple research approaches and methods. Such a technique can help in overcoming the bias and unproductiveness of a single method. It can be applied to both quantitative validation and qualitative validation. It is a good method because combination of multiple theories and methods can overcome the weakness and bias that can come from single method. Internal validity Validity and reliability concerns checking the status of the data collected to determine if it is valid and reliable (Struwig & Stead, 2004). The employed research methodology is checked for validity and appropriateness. Internal validity basically calculates the extent to which the responses from the respondents reflect the same attributes (Fink, 2008). The notion that the respondents ought to complete the test within a given time frame forms the basis of internal validity. External validity The use of the triangulation technique ensures the validity and the reliability of the data gathered through the questionnaire, which asks multiple questions to the target sample to determine the integrity of the answers (Fink, 2008). The sources for the historical qualitative research were taken from official company websites and peer reviewed journals to ensure that the information used in the literature review was accurate and valid (Creswell, 2003; Trochim & Donnelly, 2006). Reliability The research must be reliable so that the presented findings can be scrutinized and justified. Reliability is concerned with the findings of the research. The results have to consistent over time and give an accurate representation of the population. As this research is based on the perceptions of women in the working environment, and how these perceptions are effected, the reliability of the information cannot be guaranteed as certain variables under review might change from person to person. The sample might have different experiences which mean that they can interpret the variables in different ways depending on their situation. Data Analysis In analyzing the data collected, it is important to be aware of the type of data that has been collected. Data Analysis for Qualitative Data There are various qualitative data analysis techniques or methods. Each method depends on the research topic, personal preferences of the researcher, time, equipment and the availability of funds. Qualitative data analysis is also considered a personal process as it has very few rigid rules. The data collected through open-ended questionnaire does not allow for any statistical software as it is considered as subjective data. The challenge in analyzing qualitative data is that there is no apparent or accepted set of principles for analysis. For the purpose of the analyzing the interview data content analysis can be utilized. Content analysis is a method in which the data is analyzed mechanically after the collection has been done. The most common type of content analysis is code by content which is highly suitable for this research. As the questionnaire is open-ended and is mostly based on certain variables it can be easy to code the answers according to the variables. Using this technique, codes are assigned to each questionnaire systematically which are related to certain characteristics within the responses. The data can then be easily interpreted according to the research questions. Chapter Summary Quantitative study focuses on measuring amounts or how much, while qualitative study focuses on the meaning, character, or nature of something (Cooper & Schindler, 2002). Analysis of qualitative data is used to discover trends, patterns, and generalizations; this is why it focuses meaning to get better explanations especially when studying human behavior, and when there is a lack of concrete hypotheses, when variables are hard to define or quantify, when there exists little previous work, or when quantitative results are difficult to interpret. In this study, the researcher will be exploring certain phenomena and focusing on the characteristics that influence these phenomena. The use of qualitative research method in this study can produce valid results. The survey questionnaire is the primary research instrument. The questionnaire offers the most cost-effective way of collecting responses from a large number of participants. As this study aims to gather data from a large participant base, a primarily qualitative approach will be used to analyze the data collected from these questionnaires. Avoiding bias will ensure internal validity and selection of convenience sampling over random sampling because of time constraints and the inherent difficulties in obtaining a random sample from different branches. The data will be analyzed using content analysis. Tests will include code by content in which the subjective responses from the individuals will be analyzed in-depth. The next chapter looks at the analysis and discussion of the data gathered in this research. References Axinn, W. & Pearce, L. (2006). Mixed method data collection strategies. New York: Cambridge University Press. Diaz, C. (2002). Conversational Heuristic as a Reflexive Method for Feminist Research. International Review of Sociology, Vol. 12(2), 249-255. Fontana, A. and Frey, J. H. (2000). The interview: From structured questions to negotiated texts. In Denzin N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (eds.) Handbook of Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Foreman, E. (1991). Survey sampling tools. New York: Marcel Dekker. Frechtling, J. and Sharp, L. (1997). User-Friendly Handbook for Mixed Method Evaluations. National Science Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/EHR/REC/pubs?NSF97-153/START.HTM#TOC Gable, G.G. (1994) Integrating Case Study and Survey Research Methods: An Example in Information Systems. European Journal of Information Systems, Vol 3, No 2, pp.112-126. Harris J. and Roberts, K. (2003). Challenging Barriers to Participation in Qualitative Research: Involving Disabled Refugees. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, Vol. 2(2), pg 1-17. King, N. (1992). The Qualitative Research Interview. In Cassell, C., and Syman, G. (Eds), Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research – A Practical Guide. London: Sage Publications. Kothari, C. (2008). Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. New Age International. ISBN: 9788122415223 Long, J. and Dart, J. (2001). Opening-up: Engaging people in evaluation. Social Research Methodology, Vol. 4(1), pg 71-78. Morgan, D. (1998). Practical Strategies for combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Applications to Health Research. Qualitative Health Research Vol.8 (3) pg 362-376 Patton, M. (2002). Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Tashakkori, A. & Teddlie, C. (2003). Handbook of mixed methods in social & behavioral research. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications Yang, K. & Miller, G. (2007). Handbook of research methods in public administration. Florida: CRC Press Yin, R. (1994) Case Study Research: design and methods, Thousand Oaks: Sage publications, Read More