Chapter 3: Research Methodology

3.1 Introduction

This chapter includes the research methodology of the research on virtual management
and face-to-face communication management as it outlines the research strategy, research
method, research instruments, research tools and the data gathering techniques to be used
in the study.

3.2 Research Strategy

Descriptive qualitative analysis is said to be the least theoretical of all research design
and are more natural in approach. It is seen as categorical, less interpretative and doesnt
make the researcher move further from what was into the date itself (Sadelowski, 2000)

Descriptive qualitative analysis is proven to be a more reliable method According to

Merriam (2002) a basic interpretive and descriptive qualitative study exemplifies all the
characteristics of qualitative research, that is the researcher is interested in understanding
how participants make meaning of a situation or phenomenon, this meaning is mediate
through the researcher as instrument, the strategy is inductive, and the outcome is
descriptive.

3.3 Research Method

Researchers chose qualitative method to determine communication between virtually

mediated conversation versus the personal managerial meeting in workforces in the
companies Philippines Long Distance (PLDT), YWA Human Resource and a business
process outsourcing company- Iqor Dasmarias.
This study is conducted in order to determine the communication management
specifically virtual communication and face-to-face communication differences,
advantages, disadvantages, benefits and way in which management plays a major role in
the field of workforces in companies and institutions. In order to gather the essential data,
the researchers applied conversational analysis and focus groups using descriptive
qualitative approach.

Conversational Analysis or commonly abbreviated as CA was inspired by the

ethnomethodology of Harold Garfinkel and was later on developed by Harvey Sacs in
1970. It is to used to ascertain the allocated conversation to the purpose of study by
which verbal and non-verbal interaction are to be discovered. The onset of the analysis is
to form the research problem and collect data using recorded video and audio
conversation whether it may be personal or computer-mediated. The researchers will do a
transcription and perform inductive data-driven analysis to explain the patterns in the
talk-in-interaction.The ways through which different types of social actions ('preferred'
vs. 'dispreferred') are carried out sequentially. (Pomerantz 1978, Pomerantz 1984)

Focus groups on the other hand are typically used in marketing research wherein a
discussion or group interview is conducted by the researchers. According to Krueger &
Casey (2000), the analysis is cutting, pasting, sorting, arranging and rearranging data
through comparing and contrasting the relevant information so the researchers must be
selective with the participants of the focus group interview and see to it that the members
will give worthy and effective responses. The interviewees are ask with questions yet are
free to talk with the other members as well, while the researchers must record or take
notes during the process.

Researchers chose descriptive qualitative analysis to describe the behavior and outcome
of the virtual communication management from the classic personal meeting. The
ultimate purpose of this method is to entail the subject of study by which variables are
expected to be collected and the approach will prove its validity.
3.4 Research instrument

The most common sources of data collection in qualitative research are

interviews, observations, and review of documents (Creswell, 2009b; Locke, Silverman,
& Spirduso, 2010; Marshall & Rossman, 1999). The main instruments are the
researchers.

According to ABS-CBN news report ported on January 25, 2017, the most used
application in the Philippines is Facebook followed by its Facebook Messenger for over
one billion are active users stated from the study of Digital Global Overview by We Are
Social and Hootsuite. The research concerning virtual management will used Facebook
messenger as the research instrument and the representation of computer-mediated
communication used by the participants.

A leader from each of the three companies: Philippine Long Distance, YWA
Human Resource and the business process outsourcing company- Iqor Dasmarias as
well as one to three employees will be interviewed by person-to-person with the used of
constructed question format and the open-ended format in focus group. The whole
interview would be recorded in a video to get all the necessary information not only the
verbal but also the non-verbal response of the interviewees. As such, observation will
also be applied by drawing notes to preserve the clarity of the discussion in case of any
disturbance in the audio quality of the video format (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007; Pitney &
Parker, 2009).

The use of observation method will be advantageous to secure that the data gathering will
not be wasted by failure of equipment and the researchers is able to manifest the worth of
the interview on hand and with full comprehension once reviewed in the recorded file.

There will also be a review of the documents in which computer-mediated conversation

of the leaders with their employees will be examined. The virtual communication
messages in Facebook messenger will be the physical proof basis of the study.

By using conversational analysis, researchers can evaluate and further understand the
response of the interviewees on the differences and the effective way of communication
between the leader and their employees in terms of management in their work fields.
3.5 Research Tools

Participants

The variables that will be used in conversational analysis will be the leaders
coming from the companies of Philippines Long Distance (PLDT), YWA Human
Resource and a business process outsourcing company- Iqor Dasmarias. A person-to-
person format interview with a well-constructed question guide will be conducted

The focus group interview will include the variable of the leaders and the
employees of the aforementioned companies. Both person-to-person and open-ended
conversational format will be administered with the use of a range of well-constructed
question format as well and additional questions if the respondents lack some ethical
rejoinder.

Pre-Interview Questions:

1. On what circumstances or task you apply virtual communication management

(used of facebook messenger) and face-to-face communication?
2. Do you use both of the communication managements on a single task or one at a
time?
3. Who decides which communication management will be used? It is the leader or
the teams decision?
4. How can you tell which communication management would fit a certain task?
5. What are the advantage and disadvantages of virtual communication management
in the team?
a. Psychologically
b. Emotionally
c. In the task itself
d. Relationship in the team
6. What are the advantage and disadvantages of face-to-face communication
management in the team?
a. Psychologically
b. Emotionally
c. In the task itself
d. Relationship with the team
 7. Do the two communication management fields (virtual and face-to-face) affects
the work ethic and skills of the team and its members? How?
8. Are the executions of managerial techniques different from virtual communication
management and face-to-face meeting? What are these techniques?
9. What are the guidelines in choosing the right communication management field in
tasks given to the team?
10. Does the teams presence affect what kind of communication management should
be imposed?

3.6 Data Gathering Techniques

The researchers will select two team leaders from Philippines Long Distance (PLDT) and
business outsourcing company- Iqor Dasmaras and a manager in the YWA Human
Resource together with one to three of their employees.

The leaders and employees will be interviewed by person-to-person and discussion

format wherein a focus group interview will preside over.

In these companies, workforces often conduct meeting to communicate with the people
on the field and the innovation of technology is part of the tools in order to reach each
other. Although classic in person meetings are still applied, business firms especially
those with large number of employees make used of the computer- mediated system of
communication. Managers, supervisors and team leaders mostly maneuver a number of
employees with the use of virtual management.

Before the actual data gathering, the final output for questions will be constructed by the
researchers with the basis of a pre-interview with the respondents. Documents of
conversation virtually from the facebook messenger will be analyzed as an outline for a
ten- question pre-interview form.

The study will not only focus on the virtual communication management of the business
work field but as well at the face-to-face meeting advantage and disadvantages to find out
the appropriate managerial communication by which the participants may find effective
and beneficial in their work.
3.7 Research Limitation

Limitations are present in the study as per every research, this includes:

The participating companies with only represent one leader of a certain team and
his or her members of the staff and not a leader of every department in the
specified company.
The study will be using qualitative research and measurement may not be applied
or implied in the conclusion.
Some participants may not provide reliable and qualitative response to satisfy the
interview despite the guidance from the pre-interview question sample.