Research Design by Researcher

3.1  Introduction

The different research techniques and tools which have been used by the researcher to conduct systematic research have been discussed. The methodologies used for the research could provide a comprehensive understanding of the topic being studied. The chapter discusses the research philosophy, research design, and the method for data collection and would also state the data analysis methods, along with the justification for their use, in the research. The ethics of the research which have been duly followed by the researcher would be stated and the limitations faced in the completion of the research would also be provided.

3.2  Research Onion

Figure 4: Research Onion

(Source: Melnikovas, 2018).

The research onion has been demonstrated which is a useful tool and enables the researcher to consider the research methodologies holistically. It helps the researcher with the decisions that must be taken in terms of the research design that would suit the research purpose. The research onion is comprised of six main layers which pertain to the research philosophy to be chosen,

secondly, the research approach which highlights two basic categories, inductive and deductive approach, thirdly, choosing the methodology for the research, that is, whether the researcher would choose qualitative or quantitative methods (Melnikovas, 2018). The fourth aspect pertains to deciding and designing a strategy for data collection, the fifth is underlining and determining the timeframe for the research, and lastly, designing and determining the methods and techniques which could be used for data collection and its analysis. The research onion is important because it equips the researcher with the ability to go from the outer to inner layers of the research (Sahay, 2016). The research onion is of crucial importance for the researcher because it provides a clear idea of the processes and methodologies that must be followed by the researchers to reach the depth of the subject and gain an in-depth understanding of the topic.

3.3  Research philosophy

philosophy in research refers to the belief which helps the researcher in the collection of information about the phenomenon which is being studied and can also be used to analyze it. The four types of research philosophies which are used to conduct research are interpretivism, positivism, realism, and post-positivism. Interpretivism has been chosen as the preferred research philosophy by the researcher. Interpretivism refers to the ontological assumptions that are subjective. Interpretivism was developed as a contradiction to positivism and is of the view that reality is a social construction and is evolving constantly, making the facts and knowledge subjective as well as relative (Melnikovas, 2018). Interpretivism is the claim that the social world cannot exist in isolation from human thought and perception.

Justification

Interpretivism has been chosen as the preferred research philosophy because it concerns the in-depth factors and variables which are related to the context and considers humans to be different from the physical phenomenon. After all, they create meanings since the process of studying is different for humans and that of physical phenomena (Alharahsheh and Pius, 2020). Interpretivism would be able to provide in-depth analysis and equip the researcher to study the role that flexibility plays in sustaining employee engagement within a rapidly changing industry such as the retail sector of the UK. Interpretivism would allow the researcher to perceive the issue from an unbiased point of view and analyze the role of sustaining flexibility within the retail sector of the UK.

3.4  Research design

Research design helps provide a clarification for the overall strategies which have been chosen for the logical integration of the different components into the research. There are three types of research designs which are exploratory, explanatory, and descriptive. The researcher has chosen a descriptive research design. The descriptive research design refers to obtaining information for systematically describing a population, phenomenon, or situation. The descriptive design answers questions about how what, and when which informs the research questions rather than answering the why (Atmowardoyo, 2018).

Justification

The descriptive design would enable the researcher to understand and elucidate on the different factors of employee engagement and how implementing work flexibility would benefit the employees and would be able to contribute to long-term employee wellbeing and employee engagement. Through the design, the researcher would be able to understand and comprehend why sustaining flexibility would lead to better employee engagement, within the retail sector of the UK.

3.5  Research approach

The research approach is an important part of the research since it helps the researcher in formulating a research plan. Using a research approach efficiently would be able to provide insight into different theories and concepts which underpins the research subject. The two research approaches are deductive and inductive. The deductive approach is applied when the researcher applies the existing theories to current phenomena to gain insight and the inductive approach allows the formulation of a new theory based on the existing knowledge on the topic. The researcher has chosen an inductive approach for the research study. The inductive research approach begins by collecting the data that is relevant to the study and after the collection of enough data for the subject, the researcher analyzes the data to gain a comprehensive insight.

Justification

The inductive research approach has been used to provide a systematic insight into the aspect of work flexibility and its impact on employee engagement in the retail sector of the UK. It has been used since it provides unmediated knowledge and information on the subject using

observation and analysis, including an insight into the future research outcomes that the researcher might encounter, in course of the research.

3.6  Data collection method

There are two types of methods for data collection which are the primary and secondary techniques for data collection. For primary research, the researcher refers to only first-hand data collected from sources through interviews, surveys, or questionnaires among others. Secondary collection data, on the other hand, refers to the collection of data from secondary sources which are relevant to the subject being studied. Secondary data usually involves data that has been previously gathered and is under consideration for being used to address new research questions (Martins et al. 2018). The research has used a secondary data collection method which would make use of only the existing literature and relevant information from news articles, websites, scholarly articles, and industry reports.

Justification

The researcher has used a secondary data collection method which includes sourcing relevant information from journal articles, newspaper reports, industry reports, magazines, and relevant government policy documents. The database chosen for sourcing the relevant scholarly articles is Google scholar. The secondary journals would be sourced from Google scholar while the industry records and others relevant industry reports would be sourced from consultancy firms such as McKinsey, Forbes, Deloitte among others. The researcher would be able to gain relevant information from the insights of the scholars who have worked on the subject in the past and analyze the current changes in the trends and arrive at a more comprehensive inference.

3.7  Inclusion and exclusion criteria

The inclusion and exclusion criteria state which articles and data would be taken to take the research ahead and which won’t along with its justification. The researcher has wanted to analyze current trends in employee engagement and the importance of work flexibility so, articles no older than five years have been chosen. The researcher has excluded data that are ambiguous, outdated, pirated, or don’t have credibility and don’t add to the clarity of the analysis. Data that are current and relevant have been chosen which could significantly contribute to the study and insight into the subject of study.

3.8  Data analysis method

There are three available research methods to analyze the data collected which pertain to qualitative quantitative and mixed methods research. The researcher has used a qualitative approach to the analysis of the data collected. The data analysis method chosen is a systematic literature review to go on to thematic analysis.

Justification

The researcher has chosen thematic analysis. It allows the researcher to identify themes within the qualitative data (Braun and Clarke, 2019). The researcher has applied thematic analysis to a set of texts and identified the common themes, including ideas, themes, and patterns that come up repeatedly in the course of the research. The technique is flexible, including the fact that the interpretations are supported by data, ensuring the validity and reliability of the interpretations.

3.9  Ethical considerations

The researcher would adhere to and abide by the research ethics strictly. The researcher would not include data that is pirated or plagiarized. The work presented by the researcher would be completely non-plagiarized and would include authentic citations and due credit to the research scholars, whose work has been referred to.

3.10  Limitations of the research

The researcher due to paucity of time and budget couldn’t conduct mixed methods research. However, the budget has been a limitation since the researcher couldn’t obtain certain information from sites that needed a subscription.

3.11  Research timeline

[Refer to the appendix].

3.12  Summary

The research has been conducted using interpretivism as the preferred research philosophy. The researcher has used the descriptive research design as the chosen research design and the inductive approach as the chosen research approach. The chosen data collection method is the

secondary data analysis method which would be using google scholar as its primary database for sourcing scholarly journals. The preferred data analysis method is a thematic analysis and a systematic literature review. The ethical considerations and the research limitations have also been stated including the provision of the research timeline in the form of a Gantt chart.