Shared Activity 1

Article Overview / Context

The article that I have chosen for this activity is a peer-reviewed academic journal on the subject of key management issues facing IT executives. The study was commissioned by the Society for Information Management (SIM) and undertaken by a group of academics from four universities in the United States (Kappelman, et al., 2016).

The study focussed on the following key areas:
- IT management key issues and concerns
- Technology investments and the most worrisome technologies
- The most important and most difficult to find IT skills
- IT organization, role, budget, sourcing and staffing trends
- Performance measurement trends
- CIO tenure, reporting relationships, background and time allocation
- The role of IT in strategy and innovation (Kappelman, et al., 2016, p. 55).

Primary Data Source / Approach

Easterby-Smith et al. (2012) define primary data as being data that has been collected directly by the researcher (Easterby-Smith, et al., 2012, p. 72). The research undertaken by Kappelman et al. (2016) fits the profile of a positivist paradigm and utilises a quantitative data collection methodology to obtain its primary data. The researchers used a questionnaire as their primary method for data collection, with contact being initiated with potential respondents via email which contained a link to an online questionnaire (Kappelman, et al., 2016, p. 55).

In total 4,938 potential respondents (sample size) was contacted with 1,218 responses received from 785 organisations, including 485 CIO's (Kappelman, et al., 2016, p. 55). Indeed Easterby-Smith et al. (2012) contend that ‘surveys can be a good way of collecting data about the opinions and behaviour of large numbers of people' (Easterby-Smith, et al., 2012, p. 230).

From a questionnaire-design perspective, participants were asked to select up to five IT management issues or concerns from a list of 41 items that they considered most important to their organisation, and up to five from the same list that they considered personally most important or worrisome (Kappelman, et al., 2016, p. 56).

Easterby-Smith et al. (2012) suggest that web-based surveys also possess an added advantage in that as forms are completed online, the responses are stored directly in an online database for convenient and efficient future statistical analysis. Further, they contend that tools provided by such companies as Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang have dramatically reduced the cost of conducting web-based surveys with processing large groups of participants (Easterby-Smith, et al., 2012, p. 230).

Finally, the primary data presented in the SIMS study included both contextual analysis as well as a comprehensive list of graphical aids including diagrams, tables and graphs.

Secondary Data Source

Easterby-Smith et al. (2012) state that ‘secondary data sources can consist of company or government reports, archival data, advertisements, newspaper articles and books. (Easterby-Smith, et al., 2012, p. 140).

Within the context of the journal article reviewed for this activity, while not explicitly mentioned, it is apparent that the SIMS study compared the newly acquired data from the web survey with archival data collected from the organisations' own databases from previous years in order to deduce their findings.

Alternative Research Methodologies

Given the very large number of potential respondents, I am of the view that the quantitative research methodologies employed by the researchers of this study were entirely appropriate for the type of information being sought.

However if one were to offer an alternative research methodology, I feel that a mixed method (handmaid) style of research could also be employed (Easterby-Smith, et al., 2012, p. 61). That is, both quantitative and qualitative methodologies could be applied.

If such a mixed method approach was to be utilised, Easterby-Smith et al. (2012) suggest that consideration be given to both the sequencing as well as dominance of the methodologies being used (Easterby-Smith, et al., 2012, p. 62).

Therefore, I would suggest that a logical mixed-method approach for the collection of primary data for the SIM study could include a qualitative pilot study based on interviews or direct observation, which could then be used to develop and test the items for the main quantitative study.

With such an approach, Easterby-Smith et al. (2012) contend that the ‘questionnaire survey is dominant, and the pilot study serves no function in the final result of the work, other than helping the researchers to design a questionnaire that is likely to yield accurate and reliable data' (Easterby-Smith, et al., 2012, p. 62).

Alternative Data Collection Strategies
Easterby-Smith et al. (2012) contend that the two ‘design principles of bias and precision are both important in achieving a credible sampling design for a quantitative research project' (Easterby-Smith, et al., 2012, p. 225).

As the questionnaire devised for the SIM study was sent to all of its 4938 members with the sole purpose of identifying IT management key issues and concerns (Kappelman, et al., 2016), one could suggest that the target group was a good representative of the IT industry as a whole in that all participants worked in the IT industry, thus representing characteristics of low bias and high precision.

Specifically, Easterby-Smith et al. (2012) state that ‘low bias means conclusions from a sample can safely be applied to the population, and high precision means that the margin of error in the claims that are made will be low - the researcher can expect to be precisely right' (Easterby-Smith, et al., 2012, p. 225).

Therefore I am of the view that the SIM study not only utilised an optimal method of data collection strategy for such a large group of potential respondents (email / web-survey), but also improved the studies credibility by focusing their research solely on a group of dedicated IT professionals who were representative of ICT management as a whole.

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