Case study approach

I have use case studies because:

• a case study approach "allows the investigator to take advantage of emergent themes and unique case features"{Eisenhardt, 1989 }
• a case helps understand the different views of people working on the same project, their "claims, concerns and issues" {Guba, 1989 : p184}. The context is the constant and the participants are the variables.
• a case study allows organisation of data around the themes of IT and the public sector

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EISENHARDT, K. M. (1989) Building Theories from Case Study Research. Academy of Management Review, 14, 532-550.
GUBA, E. G. & LINCOLN, Y. S. (1989) Fourth Generation Evaluation, Newbury Park, CA; London, Sage.

Methodology chapter

Walsham (p166) refers to Guba and Lincoln's fourth generation evaluation. It's worth using this evaluation idea in the methodology chapter. Their proposed approach is "characterized as measurement oriented, description oriented and judgment oriented." Then Walsham says the key to this approach "the key dynamic" - what's a dynamic? - " is negotiation". He states that the approach is interpretive. What's the difference between an interpretive approach and the constructionist perspective that Guba and Lincoln think it to be?

"they take a position that evaluation outcomes are not description what things are or really work, but instead represent meaningful construction that aid an individual to make sense of situations."

Walsham also states that actors value shaping sense making and that power relationships are also important.

These ideas all feed into a practical methodology.

See Guba and Lincoln's twelve steps (p185) for how to use them to rationalise or justify an approach.

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GUBA, E. G. & LINCOLN, Y. S. (1989) Fourth Generation Evaluation, Sage.
WALSHAM, G. (1995) Interpretive case studies in IS research: nature and method. European Journal of Information Systems, 4, 74-81.

Theoretical framework

Choosing a methodology for a research project involves choosing appropriate methods, depending on what access is possible and how the researcher is thinking. The research process is informed by the researcher’s theoretical perspective, which is a philosophical stance. The theoretical perspective is itself informed by the epistemology and ontology. So the research process has four elements that inform one another: epistemology, theoretical perspective, methodology and methods (Crotty, 1998).

What the constructionist approach is
Constructionism is the idea that there is no objective truth but that we all construct our own reality, meaning is constructed and different people construct meaning in different ways. People need to have mechanisms for understanding what each of them is doing and need rich forms of conversations that are adequate to dealing with the complexity of social relationships so it’s sense making.

(Guba & Lincoln refer to the constructivist paradigm (Guba and Lincoln, 1989))

Why use the constructionist approach here
Clients and consultants can construct each others roles and clients are actors or agents who shape each others standing of what they do. Schein categorises those roles and so does Bovens.

Disadvantages of the constructionist approach
Czarniawska warns of the difficulties of employing the constructionist stance because the logic of representation is conventionally used between researchers but the medium of everyday organisational life is the logic of practice so there can be difficulties of communication between researchers and managers (Czarniawska, 2001).

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Crotty, M. (1998) 'Introduction: the research process'. The foundations of social research: meaning and perspective in the research process, Sage, London.
Czarniawska, B. (2001) 'Is it Possible to Be a Constructionist Consultant?' Management Learning, 32 (2), pp. 253.
Guba, E. G. and Lincoln, Y. S. (1989) Fourth Generation Evaluation, Sage.