Business Continuity Management in Saudi Arabian Oil and Gas Branch - Research Proposal Example

Embedding business continuity management in Oil and Gas industry- A case study of Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia

Table of Contents

Chapter 3: Methodology4

3.1 Introduction4

3.2 Research Philosophy4

3.3 Research Approach5

3.4 Research Method6

3.5 Research Strategy7

3.6 Data Collection8

3.7 Sampling8

3.8 Questionnaire Design9

3.9 Data Analysis10

3.10 Reliability and Validity10

3.11 Ethical Consideration11

3.12 Time Horizon12

3.13 Research Limitation13

3.14 Conclusion14

Reference List16

• Chapter 3: Methodology
  • 3.1 Introduction

Research methodology is the guideline that helps the researcher to conduct a study by determining the approaches (Given, 2008). The aim of this chapter is to highlight the steps required for conducting the research. This chapter will discuss the suitable philosophy, approach, strategies, methods questionnaire design, sampling style and the technique of data analysis. In order to determine the way through which oil and gas company operating in Saudi Arabia, is implementing Business Continuity Management (BCM), the researcher will design the methodology. The aims of the research is to determine the awareness of managers and staff members of BCM in oil and gas companies in Saudi Arabia, it is evident that primary research is suitable. This will include questioning the staff members along with the employees for deriving their opinion on conduct of training sessions.

• • 3.2 Research Philosophy

Research philosophies are mainly of four types and these refer to positivism, realism, interpretivism and pragmatism (Alkın and Yelken, 2014). Interpretivism is used when there is a need to provide justification and reasoning for a problem. In such a kind of philosophy, the assistance of figures and general facts are required (Machtmes, et al., 2009). On the other hand, realism philosophy is used in a study when there is a requirement of taking the help of existing beliefs that are present in reality for conducting the research. On the contrary, the pragmatic approach refers to a mixed approach, which includes both qualitative and quantitative research (Alzheimer Europe, 2013).

In order to conduct the research and determine the system of BCM implemented by Saudi Aramco, the researcher will adopt positivism philosophy. Under this kind of research philosophy, the researcher will conduct descriptive statistics for quantifying the research outcomes (Sawalha, 2011; Punch, 2013).

• • 3.3 Research Approach

Research approaches help a researcher to determine the way in which the study will progress. It is mainly of two kinds and these refer to inductive and deductive (Creswell, 2013; Flach and Hadjiantonis, 2013). In deductive approach, the researcher examines the existing theories and forms a hypothesis. After conducting the same, the researcher observes the patterns and confirms the hypothesis.

On the other hand, in case of an inductive approach, available information is gathered and the patterns in the main variables are observed (Gray, 2013; Flach and Hadjiantonis, 2013). This action is generally followed by the formulation of a tentative hypothesis, which is tested for confirmation. The result of the activities is generally the formulation of a theory.

In case of oil and gas companies, the researcher will choose deductive approach for determining the existence of BCM in their organisational system. In order to form the hypothesis, the researcher will find out the relation between BCM and leadership along with information technology by conducting descriptive statistics. Moreover, by taking the assistance of interviews, the researcher will deduct the extent to which managers and employees accept BCM in their operations (Wilson, 2014). This means that along with quantitative approach, which refers to use of questionnaire survey, the researcher will also use qualitative research and involve the managers to answer the interview questions (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2015).

• • 3.4 Research Method

All the practical tools that help a researcher to collect data fall under the category of research methods (Bryman and Bell, 2015; Bryman, 2015). There are two kinds of methods namely qualitative and quantitative (Alvesson and Sköldberg, 2009). However, there is another category where the mentioned research methods are combined. This approach is termed as mixed method where the help of numerical data and opinion of respondents both are considered (Creswell, 2013). In case of BCM, in order to determine the extent to which it is used in oil and gas companies and the opinion of employees on the same practice, a mixed method will be applied. This will encourage the researcher to improve the credibility of the procedure of data collection as well as the analysis (Gliner, Morgan and Leech, 2011).

The researcher will send the survey questionnaires to 70 employees of Business Continuity Management department. Along with it, the researcher will interview two of the managers of the same department. This will serve the purpose of knowing about the extent to which periodic training sessions are held in the company. The interview with managers will help the reseaercher to determine the degree to which Saudi Aramco undertakes continuous testing of its plans. The interview and survey questionnaires are important for this study because it will assist the researcher to know about the existing BCM practices in the organisation.

The reason behind the application of mixed research method in this paper is evident from the research aims. It clearly demonstrates that it is significant to determine the awareness level of managers and workers regarding the BCM practice in the organisation. Apart from this aspect, for gaining knowledge on the occurrence of periodic training sessions, it is important to conduct both survey and interview (Dillman, Smyth and Christian, 2014; Saunders, 2011). From this approach, it is evident that mixed method is suitable for the research.

• • 3.5 Research Strategy

The selection of an appropriate research strategy requires the researcher to take into consideration the questions and objectives of the paper. There are various kinds of available strategies, which a researcher can use and these include case studies, experiments, surveys, action research as well as fieldwork (Dillman, Smyth and Christian, 2014). However, the most suitable one for conducting the study on oil and gas companies is survey questionnaires. Since deductive and positivism philosophy has been applied in the paper, therefore, the questionnaire survey is appropriate for proceeding with the research (Fricker, 2008). The selected research strategy helps the researcher to collect large data at a minimal cost. In addition to information collection, the use of statistics also simplifies the process (R.P., Burns and R., Burns, 2008).

The researcher finds it easy to survey the employees and interview managers of the corporations. This in turn helps them to observe their views on BCM and for determining the degree of training sessions conducted in the corporation. The strategy also helped the researcher to determine the presence of periodic testing in oil and gas companies for reviewing its BCM plans (Gill and Johnson, 2010).

• • 3.6 Data Collection

The researcher collected primary and secondary data for studying about the BCM practices in oil and gas companies. In order to carry out the literature review section, secondary data was required. Hence, the researcher gathered such information from annual report of the company and collected facts about BCM in oil and gas companies from other research works of scholars. The academic journals were also used by the researcher for explaining the theories of business continuity along with risk management in the same corporation (Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2009).

Additionally, for collecting primary data, the researcher prepared survey questionnaire for 70 employees, which it distributed them through emails (Jones, 2005). For instance, the information on presence of business continuity in the organisation, its investment on IT (Information Technology) and importance of upstream data delivery has been gained through survey questionnaire. On the contrary, primary data is also collected through conduct of interviews and the researcher interviewed 2 managers of Saudi Aramco (Jones, 2005). Therefore, the researcher designed interview questions for deriving information on the employees’ contribution in BCM and measures undertaken for effectiveness.

• • 3.7 Sampling

There are different kinds of sampling procedures in probability sampling such as stratified, cluster, simple random and similar such techniques (Gy, 2012; Levy and Lemeshow, 2013). However, for conducting the study, the researcher selected stratified random sampling in an attempt to fulfil the objectives of the study. The researcher prepared interview questions for two of the managers of Saudi Aramco, who administer the operations of BCM department. Since the managers of the oil corporation are quite busy with their schedules; therefore, Skype will be used for taking interviews of them. This use of technique clearly demonstrates the benefits of advanced technology which lowers the time and cost of the overall procedure to the researcher (Maxwell, 2012).

On the other hand, for collecting the responses of the participants of the survey, the researcher will send the questionnaires through emails (Dillman, Smyth and Christian, 2014; Fricker, 2008). The researcher will allot a month long time for the respondents who are the employees for responding to the questions. The discussion clearly highlights that the utilisation of close and open-ended questions will be made and for proceeding with the technique, the researcher has finalised 50 as the sample size.

• • 3.8 Questionnaire Design

The questionnaires have been divided into four categories and one of it is designed to know about the employee background (Gillham, 2008). This part of the questionnaire lists down the gender, age group, work experience, educational level and job designation of the participants. Another section of the questionnaire determines the information for quantitative purpose. These are usually the close-ended questions that ask the participants to answer in either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in relation to the asked questions (Gillham, 2008). Apart from such questions, the researcher has framed open-ended ones, which allow the managers and the employees to express their opinion in details (Naoum, 2012). The researcher will ask for further documents from the managers in times of the interview process. Some of the questions have been formatted in a way that allows the participants in answering with ‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘undecided’, ‘disagree’ and ‘strongly disagree’. Each category within the questionnaire will answer one objective of the study.

• • 3.9 Data Analysis

Data analysis is required in order to interpret the collected data for measuring the trends in the variables (Muijs, 2010). The interviews conducted will be analysed without the use of software but the information collected through questionnaires can possibly be interpreted through descriptive statistics. This will help the researcher to know about periodic trainings conducted by the company and the implementation of BCM.

Before analysing the collected information, the researcher examines the raw data for finding out the errors and thereby omits it. Moreover, the researcher performed content analysis of the questionnaires for deriving quantitative outcomes, which will be used further for dealing with SPSS (Creswell, 2013; Muijs, 2010). Therefore, from the discussion it is evident that the researcher divided the quantitative and qualitative answers into two categories. The numerical answers have been interpreted through descriptive statistics (Muijs, 2010). On the contrary, the qualitative data has been examined through content analysis (Denzin and Lincoln, 2011).

• • 3.10 Reliability and Validity

Validity of a study relies largely on the process used for answering the questions raised in the research. The utilisation of a correct process makes the study valid. On the other hand, reliability depends on the degree to which the outcomes of the research are consistent over an extended period (Collis and Hussey, 2013). In another sense, reliability is depicted through the accuracy of the collected data and its interpretation. For ensuring the fact that the secondary data collected by the researcher is reliable, it has utilised the information from dependable articles. Moreover, in the process of data collection, the researcher ensured that the employees and managers surveyed are from oil and gas industries associated with BCM. Moreover, for deriving detailed information, the researcher has conducted interviews for knowing the contribution level of leaders in BCM of the corporation. In order to ensure that outcomes are unbiased, the researcher prevented its own ideas to affect the study (Oliver, 2013). Therefore, every piece of information gained is either from literary articles or from the managers and workers of oil and gas corporations who are related to BCM.

• • 3.11 Ethical Consideration

There are certain ethical considerations which researchers have to follow while conducting a study. These refer to the moral standards set by the Government for the researchers to abide in the process of conducting the survey. In an attempt to abide by the ethical consideration, the researcher has to use the collected data only for academic purpose instead of external operations (Roberts, 2010). Apart from the mentioned facts, the researcher has to respect the survey participants and behave ethically. There are times when researchers promise respondents monetary rewards for answering biased questions. However, it has to be prevented in order to avoid biased answers and make it authentic. The primary research methods are authentic sources that provide the best results (Jones, 2005; Parajuli, 2008). However, proper attention is required to protect it from external sources. Moreover, the participants cannot be forced for answering the emails sent by the researcher (Herr and Anderson, 2014).

The researcher will take the permission of the company before conducting the survey. Moreover, the researcher will ensure that the name of the company is not revealed when the research results are presented. Furthermore, the staff members of Saudi Aramco will be given the option of putting anonymous names in the survey questionnaire. In this study, the researcher abided by all these considerations for conducting the research.

• • 3.12 Time Horizon

The research on BCM implementation in Saudi Aramco requires use of cross sectional time horizon (Roberts, 2010). In cross sectional researches, the most appropriate research type is descriptive. The observational characteristic of such kinds of cross sectional time horizons are suitable for this study since the aim of the paper is to analyse the case of BCM in an oil producing company. The continuing section clearly demonstrates the same in a table format.

(Author’s creation)

The time horizon clearly determines that the final paper will be completed by the end of August.

• • 3.13 Research Limitation

The researcher has encountered issues of time and cost while conducting the research (Novak, 2008). Moreover, the lack of time in the hands of the employees prevented the researcher from increasing its sample size (Roberts, 2010). This highlights the time constraint as a research limitation of the study. Another limitation of the study is that the survey questionnaires were distributed to more than 70 employees but only 70 of them responded to it. The researcher selected only 70 respondents that represent the entire team of workers in the oil and gas companies. The availability of time would have allowed the researcher to collect the opinion of a greater number of participants and this may have prevented the limitation linked to representation of all the staff members of an organisation. Another limitation that the researcher has faced was the inability to compare the results with that of other countries within the Middle East. The availability of time would have helped the researcher to conduct the same in order to extract an enriched result.

Nonetheless, compliance with validity and reliability omits almost all the limitations of the research. Therefore, the researcher has maintained the same in order to deal with the limitations of the study.

• • 3.14 Conclusion

The chapter on methodology clearly demonstrates that for determining the presence and practice of BCM, there is a requirement of adopting positivism philosophy. Usually, positivism philosophy is accompanied by deductive approach; therefore, the same needs to be incorporated for testing the hypothesis taking the help of existing theories. However, the researcher will adopt mixed approach because for determining the presence of BCM and the way it got affected by leadership and IT; both quantitative and qualitative research method is essential.

Additionally, the research strategy of survey questionnaire is the most appropriate because it allows the researcher to conduct the interview and collect data from workers quickly. However, secondary data has also been taken for supporting the reasons given by the participants. For proceeding with the research, stratified sampling technique has been chosen since it suits the research objectives. In order to analyse the data, the researcher will use SPSS for the quantitative part of the questionnaire. In this manner, the researcher will ultimately derive a better outcome by following the ethical consideration. The continuing chapter will focus on the findings and analyse it for reaching a conclusion.

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