Ravalier PhD Theis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

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the use of an Action Research approach. However, upon a meeting with staff and management representatives it
was decided that this original design was far too complex, time consuming for potential participants, and the lack
of anonymity throughout the process meant that many individuals who were already fearful for their jobs were
unlikely to ‘rock the boat’ by participating in a study which looks at the problems inherent within the organisation
(see Appendix 14 for a summary of the responses toward the original AR process). Therefore, following a rethinking
of methodology and a meeting with senior management it was agreed that a positively-focused piece,
with the spotlight on what is working well in the organisation, would promote a feeling of positivity and hope within
the working population.
A second change from the original AR design concerned the participants that were to take part in the study,
and in particular the departments that would take part. It was originally agreed that two out of the six
departments which make up the borough council would take part, but following some requests for individuals to
take part it was discovered that for various operational reasons one department had to be removed from the study
while internal investigations were conducted. Therefore the one remaining department, consisting of 181
employees, was scheduled to take part alone. Indeed, the overall structure of the final study is presented in
Section 1b.6.4. Following the revision to the research design, the tools which were to make up the departmental
survey were chosen, and it was decided that a pilot (see Section 2b.2) of the survey would be conducted in order
to ascertain suitability for use.
As previously described all individuals in the participating department of the research proper, including
management, were invited to take part in each of the phases of the study. The two survey tools were re-written
verbatim onto the online questionnaire distribution tool SurveyMonkey for those with work-based email addresses.