PhD Final Thesis April 2013.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

Thesis Keith Gale 2013that intimate use of thousands of examples of tacit skills was common to all experts.Conclusions reached by Flyvberg (Ibid) confirmed that investigation of a smallsociological class, such as construction professionals, could provide information thatis scalable to the population of that class as a whole. This conclusion arose through astructured learning and training process achieved by experts from gathering contextknowledge and experience. This research collates qualitative data, includingprofessional judgment, from a number of construction professionals and aims tocapture the ‘soft’ element described by Mintzberg (1979) as a vital component of thestudy.5.4 Structural components of the case study method used with this researchThe use of a case study approach for use within this research has significantadvantages with analysis of ‘in-depth’ data collection for both qualitative andquantitative methods due to availability of data and the capture of views not normallyaccessible through distanced collection methods. Views of participants are correlatedwith project outturn data from differing sources but within the ‘framework agreementcommunity’. Risk with introduction of bias from the researcher described by Kleinand Myers (1999) ‘requires sensitivity to possible biases and systematic distortionsin the narratives collected from the participants.’ In order to control use of the casestudy method to minimise these concerns, a structured approach is shown in Table5.1.105