Epistemology Of Research Methodology

In the light of the research methodology framework adopted for this study, the research philosophy and research approach are the first decisions that should be undertaken to develop an effective and efficient overall research strategy. Drawing upon Saunders et al (2011), the epistemological underpinnings of any investigation have their implications on the appropriateness of the diversity of research methods. It is noted that the extreme can be seen between the natural science and social science perspectives. The natural science perspective has been highlighted as objective in nature, which pursues high degree of logic in developing relationships between different variables. On the other hand, the social science perspective has been pointed out as subjective in nature, which pursues high degree of human behaviour based relationship between different variables. According to Dillman (2011), the former is referred to as

Cooper & Schindler (2006) have pointed out that the use of positivism research philosophy has its implications on the decision making in other areas of the research strategy development. According to Saunders et al (2011), it should be noted that there are two key research approaches that are available to contemporary investigators. These include: (a) induction; and (b) deduction. The induction is a theory building typology of research approach, while deduction is the theory testing typology of research approach. The review of the research literature has pointed out that there are number of areas that have been explored and agreed by the investigators as having the short, medium and long term implications on the national labour force market dynamics. Therefore, it is important to develop a research strategy that uses the approach to test these predetermined