What Case Study Research Is - Essay Example

INTRODUCTION TO CASE STUDY RESEARCH By Introduction This is an analysis essay that is meant to appraise what case study research is and the type of research questions for which it is well suited. To do this, two research studies, ‘How to Do Case Study Research’ by Donna M. Zucker and ‘Assessing Staff Turnover: A View from the English Riviera’ by Andreas Walmsley, are selected and compared (Walmsley 2004; Zucker 2009). This part of the study involves comparing and explaining the selected articles. This is the appraisal part of the articles that involve critical assessment of the articles. Critical appraisal refers to the process of systematically evaluating the two case studies evidence to measure their validity, results and significance before using it to update a decision. Instruments created to maintain quality appraisal normally share some basic strategies for the appraisal of qualitative study (Hill & Spittlehouse, 2003). The evaluation will also involve assessment of each article strengths and weaknesses. The second part of this paper involves critical evaluation of use of case study research in terms of validity, reliability and generalizability. A case study is a precise, holistic, frequently unique case that is often designed to demonstrate a more general standard; the study of an instance in practice; and the study of a developing circumstance (Hill & Spittlehouse, 2003). In addition, case studies demonstrate ‘what it is like’ to be in a given situation. Research is the systematic process of gathering and analysing data (information) in order to augment people’s understanding of the occurrence about which people are concerned or interested (Swanborn 2010). Evaluation of case studies This section involves comparison and explanation of these two studies ‘How to Do Case Study Research’ by Donna M. Zucker and ‘Assessing Staff Turnover: A View from the English Riviera’ by Andreas Walmsley (Walmsley 2004; Zucker 2009). The first case study is an interpretive research that involves exploration of a research theme or theory. In this study, researcher interprets data to make sense of it and that is what is considered the fact or truth. Therefore in this study theories are reconstructions of realities, and the strategy of a good presumption is a comprehension of meaning of the study (George and Bennett 2005). The author needed to discover how case study is effectively done. This led to questions such as how data have been interpreted it in order to create or confirm theory and ideas. Meanings in natural science are disconnected from reality, while in social discipline meanings are what comprise facts (Elwood 2007). Data comprises files, social rules, behaviour (action), culture, and these are indivisible from their meanings participants. The sense of interpretation is irreducibly recurrence: parts of the study cannot be understood without the entire data and ideas cannot be comprehended without hypothesis, for instance, and the procedure is incessant (Walmsley 2004; Zucker 2009). This is a qualitative case study. The qualitative technique answers the why and how of judgment making, not merely what, when, where. Therefore, smaller but factual samples are more frequently applicable for this study than large samples (Alasuutari et al 2008). Qualitative data is collected from observations of a subjects conduct and emotional transformation in reaction to changes in their surroundings. How did they respond to these reports? How do subjects feel about that episode? The research question that is applicable for this study involves how and why (George and Bennett 2005). The research methodologies applicable in this case study involves Interviews, focus groups, observations, ethnographies. Open-ended questions that permit space for respondents to give their opinion without prior limitations are used to answer how question of the case study (Trochim and Donnelly 2008). The second case study, Assessing Staff Turnover: A View from the English Riviera’ by Andreas Walmsley is a quantitative (Walmsley 2004; Zucker 2009). A quantitative strategy aims to ascribe a quantity to something. It is based on positivism to test a hypothesis and describe data such as facts concerning the world. Knowledge is available to be gathered. It is oriented on the meanings attained from statistics that are gathered and demonstrated in standardised and arithmetical statistics. Analysis is executed through tables, figures and statistics (Alasuutari et al 2008). Quantitative statistics contains information that is experimental, possibly through surveys that are interpreted using arithmetical tests to establish if the results occurred by chance. Two categories of statistical analyses are applicable: inferential and descriptive (Johnson and Onwuegbuze, 2004). Descriptive statistics are applicable to illustrate the fundamental features of the research data and offer simple conclusions about the measures and sample. Whereas inferential statistics, investigators are attempting to get conclusions that expand past the immediate data alone. Consequently, they employ inferential statistics to make conclusions from the data to more broad conditions. The case study has employed inferential statistics to draw conclusion of the research data (Elwood 2007). The Strengths and Weaknesses of case studies In first case study, critical appraisal comprises filtering against least criteria, concerning sufficiency of reporting statistics on the data sampling concerning collection and analysis. Secondly, technical rigour of the case studies elements indicated methodological soundness (Mariano 2000). Thirdly, paradigmatic adequacy referring to researchers’ receptiveness to data and hypothetical consistency is present in the study. Due to its strengths, case study is a mainly appealing plan for applied discipline of study like business, social work, health, administration, and education. An applied fields procedures, study problems, and strategies can be analyzed to bring about comprehension that in turn can influence and possibly even improve action. The case study has proven mainly useful for researching instructive innovations, evaluating business procedures, and notifies policy (Walmsley 2004; Zucker 2009). The first case study has basically been faulted for its lack of accountability and its lack of severity in the compilation, construction, and examination of the empirical resources that give augment to this research. This lack of rigor is associated with the predicament of biasness introduced by the partisanship of the researcher and others concerned in the case (Elwood 2007). The second case study draws its strength from its category. Quantitative studies’ huge strength is giving data that is expressive, for instance, permitting researchers to capture a snapshot of a client sample population; however, there is a weakness of difficulties when it comes to their elucidation (Mariano 2000). Throughout careful understanding of the analysis, outcomes, and conclusion sections, what major questions that come in mind in order to decisively appraise the strengths and weaknesses of the case study are as follows. Is a study design recognized and suitably applied? Study designs denote the methodology applicable to study the research problem (Trochim and Donnelly 2008). Becoming acquainted with the different study designs assisted the author to prepare critical assessment whether its collection was applied sufficiently to respond to the research questions or problem. Another question, Is the study participants representative of the cluster from which study is drawn? The research sample represented the targeted group from which study is drawn. The research sample must consequently be characteristic of the wider target viewers to whom the study might be relevant (Auerbach and Silverstein 2003). Another relevant question, is research studies employing a control cluster, is this cluster adequate for the principle of the study? To assess this question, source of control of the study is analyzed. In case-control and case studies, the source of controls must be so that the allocation of characteristics not under study is comparable to those in the study cohort or cases (Mariano 2000). In case-control researches both controls and cases are frequently matched on certain distinctiveness like working hours, job nature, separation rate and etc. The criteria applied for excluding and including study respondents must be sufficiently described and analyzed carefully. Exclusion and inclusion criteria included age of diagnosis, length of employment tenure, time living with a health state, geographic place, and presence or absence of impediments (Elwood 2007). The study critically evaluate whether matching across these distinctiveness actually happened. The other question involves, to what extent is an ordinary source of bias known as blindness taken into account? Throughout data collection, a general source of bias is that problem and/or those gathering the statistics are not blind to the reason of the study. This can possibly be the outcome of researchers doing extra mile to ensure those in the investigational group help from the involvement (Fowkes and Fulton, 1991). Insufficient blindness can be a predicament in studies utilizes all kinds of research designs. To what degree is the study regarded complete with concern to missing data and drop outs? Drop outs: despite of the study plan instituted, one must evaluate not only the quantity of drop outs in each sample, but also the reason they dropped out (Srinivasan and Srinivasan, 2009). This may indicate potential bias, as well as establish what efforts were used to retain samples in the study. Both case studies have observed Research Ethics Committees (REC) objectives to maintain moral principles of practice in study to guard subjects of study and research employees from harm or misuse to preserve the subject privileges, and to give assurance to the public that this is being completed (Eckstein 2003; Beyleveld et al 2005). The case studies have references and in text citations to acknowledge the authors of borrowed ideas (prevent plagiarism and copyright infringement). The case in validity, reliability and generalizability This design outlines a number of the core fundamentals considered in an appraisal of the quality of qualitative and quantitative studies that are identified in this research. However, the idea of confirmability could not be appropriate to strategies inspired by critical paradigms or phenomenology in which the authors of the studies experience becomes component of the statistics (Auerbach and Silverstein 2003). The option of critical appraisal tools should if possible be inspired by those providing a multi-dimensional idea of quality in study. Apart from procedural rigour, that includes quality of coverage and conceptual deepness and extensiveness (Auerbach and Silverstein 2003). The table below provides the summary of the studies assessment criteria. Aspect Qualitative Term Quantitative Term Applicability Transferability External Validity or generalisibility Truth value Credibility Internal Validity Neutrality Confirmability Objectivity constancy Dependability Reliability Table 1 Validity is the degree to which an assessment captures what it seems to quantify (Auerbach and Silverstein 2003). This could take the structure of questions enclosed on a questionnaire, survey or instrument. Researchers must address one or more of the subsequent kind of validity: face, content, criterion-related, and construct (Last, 2001). Reliability: this regards the replicability of the study and the accurateness of the procedures and research methodologies. The identified cases have research strategies that conform to reliability concept. Generalizability: concerns questions whether the findings are applicable in other study settings. The first case study does not fit in generalizability. However, the second case study fits better into the generalization since the data and findings can be used in other studies. Conclusion The two research studies, ‘How to Do Case Study Research’ by Donna M. Zucker and ‘Assessing Staff Turnover: A View from the English Riviera’ by Andreas Walmsley, are quantitative and qualitative respectively (Walmsley 2004; Zucker 2009). The qualitative technique answers the why and how of judgment making, not merely what, when, where. Therefore, smaller but factual samples are more frequently applicable for this study than large samples. Qualitative data is collected from observations of a subjects conduct and emotional transformation in reaction to changes in their surroundings. Quantitative statistics contains information that is experimental, possibly through surveys that are interpreted using arithmetical tests to establish if the results occurred by chance. References Alasuutari, P, Bickman, L & Brannen, J (2008). The SAGE handbook of social research methods. London, SAGE. Auerbach, CF & Silverstein, LB (2003). Qualitative data: an introduction to coding and analysis. New York, New York University Press. Beyleveld, D, Townend, D, & Wright, J (2005). Research ethics committees, data protection, and medical research in European countries. Aldershot, Ashgate. Eckstein, S. (2003). Manual for research ethics committees. Cambridge [u.a.], Cambridge Univ. Press. Elwood, JM (2007), Critical appraisal of epidemiological studies and clinical trials. Oxford, Oxford Univ. Press. George, AL & Bennett, A (2005), Case studies and theory development in the social sciences. Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.], MIT Press. Hill A & Spittlehouse C (2003), What is critical appraisal? Evidence-Based Medicine; 3 (2): 1-8. Johnson RB & Onwuegbuze AJ (2004), Mixed methods research: A research paradigm whose time has come. Educational Researcher. 33:14–26. Last JM (2001). A dictionary of epidemiology. 4. Oxford University Press, Inc; New York, New York. Mariano, C. (2000). Case study: the method. Chapter 10. In P. Munhall & C. Oiler Boyd, Eds. Nursing Research. A Qualitative Perspective (2nd ed.) (pp. 311-337). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Srinivasan, R & Srinivasan, R 2009). Case studies in Marketing: the indian context. New Delhi, India, PHI Learning Private Ltd. Swanborn, P (2010). Case Study Research What, Why and How? London, Sage Publications. http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=743726. Trochim WM & Donnelly J (2008), Research methods knowledge base. 3. Atomic Dog; Mason, Ohio: pp. 6–8. Walmsley, A, (2004), ‘Assessing Staff Turnover: A View from the English Riviera’ International Journal of Tourism Research Int. J. Tourism Res. 6, 275–287 Zucker, MD (2009) ‘How to Do Case Study Research’ School of Nursing Faculty Publication Series: School of Nursing. University of Massachusetts – Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Read More