Case study methods - Essay Example

Introduction to Case Study Research The use of case study in teaching and research is not something that started the other day. It is essential to fully understand the different case study methods that are used in the field of learning (Obermeyer and Pinto, 2008). There are two types of case study, which are teaching case study and case study research. Teaching case study has been written to aid in the process of training students in varied business careers (Farquhar, 2012). On the other hand, case study research is a practical inquiry that seeks to understand a particular phenomenon in its natural context (Yin 2009: 18). It is suitable in situations where the line between a particular phenomenon and its context is hazy (Yin, 2012). This paper seeks to evaluate all the critical aspects of case study research and its strategies. Researchers form part of the primary audience for any kind of case study research. Normally, case study research is formulated to respond to a particular question (Yin, 2012). It involves collection of relevant data, which is followed by analysis to validate any findings. In business, a case study research might involve studying a particular phenomenon in a given place like a company, country or industry. One of the most important aspects of case study research is that it emphasizes that a phenomenon must be studied in its natural setting. A researcher takes time to visit the natural setting of phenomenon and study the different actors as they go about their normal duties. Case study research can be exploratory or explanatory depending on what the researcher seeks to understand. Exploratory research cases aim to discover a given phenomenon or concept. On the other hand, explanatory case study research explains, tests or compares different occurrences. Clarity is essential in all types of case research studies. In most questions, case study research answers questions that start with words like why, how and who. It investigates an event as it occurs in its natural setting. For example, a researcher can decide to undertake a research that answers the question: How does Unilever treat its employees? This means that the researcher will have to visit Unilever and study the treatment of employees in its contemporary setting. In business, case study research makes use of empirical evidence to study a given subject matter. The evidence can be obtained from on organization or multiple organizations. A case study research can be termed as critical, interpretive or positivists (Woodside and Wilson, 2003; Thomas, 2010). A positivist case study research uses seeks for practical evidence to test theories. This kind of research is deductive in nature as opposed to inductive. Interpretive case study research uses the meaning that people assign to a given phenomenon to understand it. In interpretive study, quality is based on the plausibility of the overall argument that comes out from the study. It does not rely on validity and reliability. It looks at the way people perceive reality and why and how people gain some perceptions (Yin, 2012). Secondly, critical studies entail carrying out critical reflections on many issues like questions that have been assumed, societal practices and the status quo. Mostly, the criticism is carried out based on theories from different critical theorists (Farquhar, 2012). At this point, it is clear that validity and reliability are not components of neither interpretive case studies nor critical case studies. According to Yin (2009), there are four strategies of case study researcher, which are single, multiple, holistic and embedded. It is, also, important to note that these four strategies are based on two main dimensions, which groups them as single vs. multiple and holistic vs. embedded. A single case involves research on a single case at a time. It is suitable for some research situations. However, multiple case study is the most popular one. It involves studying multiple cases at a time by comparing and developing patterns to explain a phenomenon (Swanborn, 2010). A holistic approach to research means that one is using a single unit of analysis during the study. On the contrary, an embedded approach involves the use of many units of analysis during the study. The type of approach to be adopted by a researcher depends on the research questions, the phenomenon beings studied and availability of time (Yin, 2009). The type of strategy used in a case study is instrumental in determining the final results of the study. A good case stud research is defined by factors like the research questions, design, propositions, form of analysis, ability to link data to the propositions and the criteria employed to interpret findings from the research (Ellet, 2007). Despite the fact that case study research is among the most popular methods used in qualitative research; it has some disadvantages. One of the limitations of case research study, is that gaining access to study a particular company can be difficult and time consuming (Yin, 2009). The other disadvantage is that a researcher does not have control of the research situation. In addition, the issue of generalizability puts a question mark on the validity and reliability of information obtained from case study research (Woodside, 2003). Case study research is guided by a number of research ethics, which are meant to protect all stakeholders in the research business (Gomm, Hammersley and Foster, 2000). Ethics refers to an accepted code of conduct in a given situation. Research ethics are scattered under legal acts like the data protection act, human rights and so on. These values ensure that researchers produce valid data, treat their employees well and only carry research that does not harm anybody participating in the research (Yin, 2009). Research ethics advise against plagiarism and production of unreliable information. In order to give deeper insight on case study evaluation, I would take time to compare two studies that have used case study research design. The evaluation is based on the validity, generalizability and reliability of these two case studies. The first article that use case study research, investigates the kind of relationship that exists between factors like stressful events in life and sickness, absenteeism and presenteeism. Therefore, the main study question for the research is: What is the relationship between stressful events in life and sickness, absenteeism and presenteeism? The research carried out an organizational case study in a Canadian government institution. On the other hand, the second article seeks to effectively describe a qualitative research method that was adopted by the author in his doctoral research. First, it is essential to point out that the article on absenteeism and presenteeism is exploratory in nature. This is because it investigates the relationship between stressful events and sickness, absenteeism and presenteeism. The literature covers all the necessary concepts that are related to the main question of the case study research. This means that the researcher is very clear on the main purpose of the whole research. According to the literature review the issue of substituting of sickness absence with sickness presence is real. The author refers to other articles that have handled issues related to the main aim of the whole research. The validity is real because the article seeks to produce additional information to support a relationship that exists. Previous studies have proven that stress events in life are directly related to absenteeism and health problems. On the contrary, the second article is critical nature because it seeks to effectively describe a given qualitative research method, which is known as ‘insider account’. The second tries to show the effectiveness of the research method used, which is equivalent to criticising the research. It looks at the scope and impact of the qualitative research method. The research done on the description is ‘‘insider accounts’’ is valid because the method is relatively new. Therefore, the description informs other researches on the usage and effectiveness of the qualitative method (‘insider accounts’). The case study research employees exploratory research methods in its interviews. This technique seeks to answer questions that start with why and how. On the basis of generalizability, the results from the first research are more general than the research that describes ‘insider accounts’. ‘Insider accounts’ is qualitative method that applies to research within the field of accounting and finance. This limits the application of these method to research in the general business field. On the other hand, the research on the relationship between stressful events and sickness, absenteeism and presenteeism applies in many fields. It deals with factors influencing employee performance in the work place. Employees are found in all businesses, which implies results from this research are general and applicable in many situations. It is important to note that both case study research methods are reliable. Both articles use methods that try to minimize bias on part of the researcher. As a result, they are able to collect data from a contemporary setting without interfering or influencing the different participants in the research study. The article on absenteeism and presenteeism takes positivist approach and provides open questions to enable respondents to give their own opinion. The research uses a secure government website to ensure that each questionnaire is private and inaccessible to non-participants. Consequently, many employees gave their personal opinions without influence from fellow employees. In effect, the research ensures that information collected is based on personal opinion and experience. The research analysed data from the organization, open ended and dichotomous questions. The study analysed both quantitative data and qualitative to obtained final results of the research. All these factors to increase the reliability of information obtained through this research. The research on ‘‘insider accounts’ uses multiple case studies research approach (Ekanem, 2007). The research covers eight firms in which the owner-managers are interviewed. The research runs for a period of one year and the owner-managers were interviewed at three different stages. The use of a longitudinal help in developing a reliable pattern. This is because the researcher was able to create a successful relationship with the different interviewees. As a result, they were able to open in successive interviews, which gave much deeper insights into the study. However, longitudinal technique may be poor in showing immediate effects that are short lived. The scope of the study is very wide, which makes it difficult to narrow down to specific issues. In this case, the researcher used the longitudinal technique to gain deep insight, which is commendable (Ekanem, 2007). The researcher on the case study about absenteeism has no direct contact with subjects as opposed to the one in the research about ‘insider accounts’. The researcher doing research is able to interact and observe the employees in their actual work place. Therefore, this study provides a more reliable information than the case study research on sickness, absenteeism, presenteeism and stressful live events. It can be argued that the researcher on the ‘insider accounts’ might have influenced the interviewees in some way (Ramanathan, 2009). However, this nothing compared to the fact that some of the respondents in the web survey might have discussed while filling the forms. This is likely to happen in the case of close friends. Therefore, the presence of the researcher would help increase reliability because the researcher can ensure no discussion occurs (Yin, 2002). In conclusion, it is true that case study research method is one of the famous research methods in the field of business (Farquhar, 2012). Both of the article display reliability, validity and generalizability to some extent. The article on absenteeism is more general than the research on ‘insider accounts’, which applies directly to investment and management (McGregor, Cunningham and Caverley, 2008). Case study research on ‘insider accounts’ gives more reliable information because it used a data collection method that is relatively more effective. Both article look into valid issues that affect in the business world in varied ways. The evaluation of these articles confirms that the effectiveness of case study research method depends on scope, application and importance of data that has been collected. Case study research should focus on increasing validity, reliability and generalizability in their studies. References Durepos, G., & Mills, A. J. (2013). Case study methods in business research. Los Angeles, Calif.; London, SAGE. Ekanem, I. (2007). “Insider accounts”: a qualitative research method for small firms. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 14(1), pp 105-117 Ellett, W.C. (2007). 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