Chapter 3: Research Methodology

Introduction

The goal of the research is to put a clear understanding of how project management can facilitate and enable positive legacy from the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar. In the attempt of accomplishing this primary goal, the study aims to assess the appropriate project management methodology to use in ensuring that the event leaves a positive legacy. On the same, the study aims at exploring the views of key stakeholders in the various approaches that the project manager can use to ensure that the event leaves a positive legacy. Moreover, the implementation of these project measures is to ensure that the event leaves an outstanding impact on the economy, infrastructural, social, and cultural aspect of Qatar. In this case, the study will evaluate the experiences that project managers has on managing similar projects and what can be done to increase the probability of success in the upcoming event.

Methodological Underpinnings

            Ontological Position of the Study

Ontology relates to the philosophical study of the nature of existence becoming, or reality together with the categories of being and all these factors relate (Jacquette, 2014). Through ontological, questions that deal with why entities exist and how they can be grouped regarding the differences and similarities are identified is carried in the study.

1. Research Philosophy

The study is based on the fact that hosting a mega sport event is known to have various impacts on the hosting city as well as the country as a whole. The impact of this event falls under both negative and positive impact, a phenomenon that has been witnessed in the countries that have hosted the event. As such, there exist studies that explain the impact that this event left to these countries. The numerous studies exhibit an already existed experience of this event. As a result, it becomes simple for research to carry a similar result by evaluating the condition that was before the event and the status during and after the event. This, therefore, makes the study adopt the phenomenological approach of the study, as credible information will be acquired through qualitative analysis of this event (Creswell, 2014).

Reasons for this Approach

The effectiveness of the qualitative phenomenological approach is thus appropriate for this study as it evaluates a lived experience of an occurrence. The methodology suits this study as its emphasis is in the interpretation of the subjective experiences to a certain phenomenon. In this case, the mode of collecting data is different from the commonly known quantitative approaches as data can be analyzed from narratives. Moreover, this approach is suitable for the study following the fact that other countries have experienced this instance and its impacts have been felt, which is in line with the study’s objectives (Creswell, 2014). This makes it easy for the researcher to project the results of the carried study by comparing the various impacts that similar occurrence left to the involved subjects. Besides, this method is efficient compared to the quantitative method that requires the research to collect numerical data from the field, which is expensive, time-consuming, and exhaustive for the researcher (Donley, 2012).

Epistemology of the study

Due to the phenomenological nature of the research, this study would use inductive approach. Inductive approach is efficient as it first starts with observations that later lead to the development of theories upon the completion of the study (Donley, 2012). The researcher, in this case, develops theories after making observations while developing explanations of these theories. The development of these theories also depends on the patterns that the observation reveals, which will be used to disclose these theories. As such, the researcher in this study will observe the impact that FIFA World Cup event has left to the host countries. The data recorded and the made observations from the impacts of this event on other countries will be used to generate meaning and provide an insightful understanding. This, in turn, will be an effective way of identifying patterns as well as the relationships between patterns; thus assisting in developing theories. Through inductive approach, the researcher will not formulate any hypothesis at the beginning of the study since the researcher is not aware of what the study will reveal once it is completed. However, the researcher will develop empirical generalizations while identifying the patterns and relations from the study findings as they are interpreted subjectively.

The Methods and Design of the Study

The focus of this study is to assess how project managers can enhance the FIFA World Cup event and ensure that it leaves a positive legacy in Qatar after the event. In order to meet these goals, the study evaluates the effective project management methodologies that the project manager should use in preparation for this event. The study evaluates the various strategies that the project manager can facilitate the participation of the teamwork by identifying a suitable methodology. Moreover, the study aims at evaluating the significance impact associated with this event on both the economic, social, and infrastructural aspect of the host country.

The qualitative phenomenological methodology is exploited in the collection of relevant data and information that will help in meeting the objectives of the study. With the study having a variety of themes, the participants of the study will vary to ensure that a variety of responses are obtained during the study for the purposes of standardizing the study results. In this case, the researcher will capture the experience and perception of study participants concerning the effective project management methodologies as well as the influence of World Cup to the host country.

1. Data collection Method

The phenomenological method is an effective methodology when it comes to the collection of data concerning the perception and the experience of a person concerning a certain phenomenon (Creswell, 2014). The researcher may as well integrate his personal experiences to understand the phenomenon under evaluation. This key aspect of this methodology raises an important question on how data is collected when using this methodology. Among the various approaches to data collection using this methodology, the interview method is one of the effective approach exploited by this methodology. At this instance, the researcher gathers the research participants together and requires them to describe their experiences and opinions concerning the issue under evaluation. During such interviews, the participants might as well describe their experience in a written format or express them orally in self-reports. Aesthetic expressions are also suitable descriptive methods in interviews. Using this method, the researcher conducts many interviews approximately 5 to 25 for the common themes being evaluated. Such a practice is efficient in ensuring that the researcher has created a rich dataset where he or she can easily identify the study themes and develop theories.

Survey questionnaires are yet another effective data collection method used in this methodology. In this instance, the researcher identifies a group of participants from whom he will issue the study questionnaires for them to fill. In this method, the researcher asks the participants to describe their experience without giving directions or suggestions of how the description should be like (Creswell, 2014). Nevertheless, it is advisable that researchers should encourage the participants to provide full details of the phenomenon by including the consciousness, memories, and sensations along with other descriptions of how the experience was. In return, the researcher gets a chance to get a wider picture of the issue at hand. Other data collection methods applicable in this methodology though rarely used include reading documents, observation, visiting places, and watching videos. The effectiveness of the phenomenological study relies on how the researcher integrates these methods to ensure that the data obtained from study participants is appropriate for the study (Waters, 2016). The researcher must use some of these methods such as visiting places and events to have a deeper understanding of the study participants as well as understanding the perspective that participants have on the topic being examined in the study.

As a result, the study uses the questionnaire as a data collection method. The researcher issued the survey questions to the study participants who were to fill the study questions with appropriate answers. The study questions comprised of both open and closed questions. Open questions required study participants to provide responses in agreement with their personal perception regarding the study questions (Creswell, 2014).  Some of the open questions require the participants to provide their answers in the form of a list while others require the participants to provide an in-depth explanation. Closed questions require the study participants to choose the provided options while others may prompt the participant to explain the preferred option (Donley, 2012).

The use of the questionnaire method in collecting the study data is more efficient compared to other data collection methods. Providing the participants with questions allows them to take the time to read and understand the study requirements (Creswell, 2014). The participants, in return, provide the appropriate response to each question; thus facilitating the collection of appropriate study data. The study uses the paper method instead of electronic; thus cutting down the overall cost of the study. Besides, the study covers a number of respondents, which are important to this study in capturing a variety of data (Donley, 2012). As a result, questionnaire method acts as an efficient approach to cover a wide geography of participants at a lower cost. Besides, the use of this method is effective in capturing a wide variety of information from the explanation provided by the participants (Creswell, 2012). Administration of the questionnaires is simple as well as the way the filled questionnaires are collected once the respondents have attended to the study questions. Moreover, most of the respondents are familiar with this method; thus, it is simple to attend to questions and provide relevant data. Most of the questionnaire questions are highly structured and standardized for ease of comparison of the different responses obtained from the study participants.

1. Sample size and structure

The sample size is of crucial interest for the quantitative studies. As such, the qualitative methodology should as well adopt an effective approach to data gathering and analyzing that is different from that of quantitative (Creswell, 2014). Sampling for most of the qualitative studies is smaller compared to the quantitative studies since there exist a point of diminishing return in qualitative samples. However, to ensure that the study provides a wide range of opinions and perceptions, the participants of the study should be many (Englander, 2012).  To ensure that the researcher meets both of these two requirements, i.e. large number of participants and smaller sample, he must adhere to the concept of saturation. The use of saturation is the fundamental determinant of the study design; thus the sample size (Englander, 2012). Small studies have a higher tendency of achieving saturation compared to a study that spans on various disciplines. However, other researchers oppose saturation claiming that the researcher should have a big sample size since the longer the researcher encounters, the easier it becomes for them to familiarize and deeply examine new data; thus emerging new concepts.

The phenomenological method when used in human science should use at least four participants since the number of participants does not directly reflect the statistical results (Englander, 2012). Moreover, the use of a large number of participants is difficult for the researcher to handle and contain them in terms of imagination. As such, studies recommend for a sample size comprising of five to twenty participants, which on the hand implies that the researcher has more work to do, the phenomenon keeps on varying, while becoming hard to generalize the study results. Other studies recommend for twenty to fifty participants for bigger and smaller projects respectively (Englander, 2012). The researcher should as well identify a suitable structure of the phenomenon for the participants to understand, which all depends on with the type of the study.

As such, the phenomenological method of the study used saturation method of sampling the study participants. The use of saturation method in sampling the study participants enhanced the revelation of new study theories and themes. As a result, ten participants were used to carry out the study. The number was suitable in meeting the sampling principles of qualitative studies. With such a number of the participants, the study was guaranteed of achieving saturation at any point. These participants were determined based on the study scope, time, study design, and quality data that the study aimed at collecting. Moreover, these participants reduced the researcher’s work since working with a smaller number enhanced the quality of data from each participant. Besides, the method ensured that it was easy to structure the phenomenon in a more understandable perspective to these participants. As a result, the researcher was able to handle the participants by understanding their perception by asking for clarification from them. In addition, the chosen number reduced the chances of the result variations since only a small sample was used (Creswell, 2014). Using a smaller study sample ensured that the researcher has interacted with the study participants, an instance that increased the knowledge that the researcher possess while familiarizing with study concepts; thus more chances of inventing new ideas and concepts.

• Data presentation method

It is the role of the researcher to organize the findings first before presenting them. Findings of the study are an effective way of responding to the study questions; thus the need for organizing them to make sense to the reader as well as to the researcher. As such, it is the role of the researcher to ensure that the presentation of the research findings is in accordance to the research questions as a way of responding to the goals of the study. This calls for effective strategies of presenting the study findings while ensuring that the evidence data used to support the findings is differentiated from the raw data.

A phenomenological study can take a variety of methods to present the findings of the study (Donley, 2012). The most effective approach to reporting phenomenological data is using a case study. In this approach, the researcher reports the findings made by quoting both direct and indirect speech of the participants from the filled questionnaires. When reporting an instance that has been repeated a number of the participants, the researcher combines such a finding into a single statement. For instance, many respondents claimed that they were positively affected by the FIFA world Cup in Brazil. Moreover, the researcher identifies the instances of similarities and differences among the participant’s responses. Upon a successful identification of these ideas, the researcher groups similar data and ideas to come up with a concept or a theme from the done study. Besides, the researcher can seek to identify new factors and insights from what the data reveals and use them to enrich the study.

Waters (2016) recommends for the standard APA style lab report as an appropriate way of presenting phenomenological study results. In this method, the researcher presents the results in the form of a lab report by giving a brief introduction of the past studies and researches concerning the topic question while citing any relevant sources used during the study through APA referencing style. The method section of this report comprises of the general description of the study participants. The procedure section restates that the study was a qualitative phenomenological study. The themes and descriptions of the participant’s experiences are presented in the result section of the report. The research may directly quote them from the discussed themes as a way of illustrating them. Lastly, the discussion section of the report presents the introduced theories in the introduction or develop themes in this section. More important, the researcher tends to explain the participant’s experiences in this section allowing him to expand on the study themes or relate them similar occurrences that he has incurred in life.

A phenomenological study can as well be presented using a report comprising of three sections (Walters, 2016). The first section of the report contains the summary of the findings. The researcher provides a summary of the findings depicted by the participants as a way of being honest and aware of biases that may come up when editing this data. At this instance, the researcher does not interpret the findings and may directly quote what the participants said. The researcher highly follows the ethical issues associated with the study by ensuring that data is not distorted, misrepresented, or deleted to avoid any instance that may compromise the confidentiality of the study. The following section of the report is discussion section enabling the researcher to encroach more into the study. The researcher at this instance relates and links the findings with other previous research or personal experiences. The final section of the report is of issues and recommendations. The researcher at this stage of the report introduces new arguments and ideas from the discussion section. The report takes a suppositional structure to its arguments as a way of indicating that the study does not stand on a firm conclusion, rather it points to implications as a way of showing the study’s interpretations make sense if they are accurate.

As such, the study used of the case study to represent its findings. This approach was efficient in facilitating the way the researcher interprets the information presented by the study participants. Case study presentation summarized the content of the questionnaires used in the study. The respondent’s responses were then reported using either direct or indirect quote. This was a major strength of this approach as it supported its arguments by quoting the response of the participants. Besides, the appropriateness of this approach came in when reporting a group finding as well as using representing the study findings to assess it against the conceptual framework. The analysis, in this case, looked into whether the study data support the framework or not and decided whether the framework was applicable or not. Consequentially, the approach values the response of the participants as the researcher carries a comparison of their responses. The findings in this instance were organized according to the topics and themes were drawn from the response of the participants. The organization of these ideas and data was appropriate in developing new concepts of themes.

1. Limitations of Phenomenological study

Phenomenological methodology relied on the articulate skills of the participants who provided the study with sufficient information. For the study to be efficient, the participants should be interested and have expressive skills to overcome the difficulties that may arise while carrying the study. However, the study did not take into considerations the difficulties that participants went through for them to express themselves during the study. Moreover, the study used difficult and obtuse language and terms associated with the phenomenological philosophy making it hard for the readers to understand the content of the study. In addition, the conclusion of a phenomenological depended on the specific participants from the study who might have provided rich or shallow information. The method also was bound by particular period; thus, it could have missed important details concerning broader periods of experience.  More important, the method tends to miss out information concerning the causes of the experience as its focus is on describing the experience. Equally, the study failed to describe the consequences of the experience as well as the concomitants of the experience together with other factors associated with the experience while little interest was laid in conceptualizing the interest.

Along the same line, phenomenological study solely depended on the subjectivity of data, which makes it difficult to use reliability and validity in approaches of the obtained information. Despite the measures taken to ensure that the researcher was not biased, it was not easy to detect or prevent induced bias from the researcher. The method depended on a wide variety of participants who have a different perspective of the study topic due to their varying experiences. As a result, it became hard for the researcher to generalize the research data. In addition, the study used a small sample; thus making it difficult to conclude that the assessed experiences were typical. The representation of the study results are highly qualitative; thus, it is difficult for the researcher to present the findings in an appropriate manner, which is applicable to practitioners. The study also lacked an efficient bracketing strategy, an instance that increased the interference during data interpretation.

1. Ethical Consideration

The use of the phenomenological approach in carrying out this study requires special attention to some of the ethical considerations (Walker, 2007). The findings of this study depend on the participation and contribution of the study participants by enquiring about their personal life and going on to place them in the public arena; thus increasing numerous ethical concerns. The questionnaire developed by the researcher at some extent invades the private issue of the participant, which is a key concern of ethics (Walker, 2007). Moreover, some of the questionnaires developed for the study would invoke conflict or demean of the area under investigation. Such questions have a potential to emotionally harm the participants or portray a bad picture that the public has the evaluated areas (Walker, 2007). Besides, it is most likely that the researcher may provoke the participants to disclose more detailed and confidential information concerning their culture, religion, and even politics by the power than open questionnaires have.

In response to this privacy, harm, and exploitation capabilities of a study, the researcher should adhere to the ethical considerations when conducting research. The researcher first ensured that the study does not expose its participants by keeping them anonymous during the presentation of data. If the participants needed to provide their names to signify their participation, the researcher encouraged them to use their initials instead of full names. The researcher also informed the participants the conditions that may lead to breaching of their privacy during data presentation as a way of creating awareness to the participants. Moreover, the researcher explained to the participants the nature of the research and its scope as well to ensure that he had adhered to the ethical data collection methods. With rich information on the research, the participants of the study were to decide whether to take place in the study or not. Another ethical consideration made during the study was focusing on the security issues for both the researcher and the participants. In this case, the researcher pursued formal and informal support as well as training and education support in following the research policies. Consequentially, there was close supervision on the way the researcher conducted the study while the participants were guided on the appropriate actions to take when the study harmed them; for example, stressing them. Lastly, the researcher was to acknowledge the participation of all the participants of the study by appreciating them through a letter of thanks and use of any form of incentives to appreciate their participation in the study.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

Creswell, J. W. 2014. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

Donley, A. M. 2012. Research Methods. New York: Infobase Pub.

Englander, M. 2012. The Interview Data Collection in Descriptive Phenomenological Human Scientific Research. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 43, pp. 13-35.

Jacquette, D. 2014. Ontology. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

Walker, W., 2007. Ethical Considerations in Phenomenological Research. Nurse Researcher, 14(3), pp. 36-46

Waters, J., 2016. Phenomenological Research Guidelines. [Online] Available at https://www.capilanou.ca/psychology/student-resources/research-guidelines/Phenomenological-Research-Guidelines/ [Accessed 31 Aug. 2016]