Page 130 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

the research’s purpose, discussions to put organisations financial data at the disposal of the researcher, could lead to refusals to provide any response.
With a tendency to an extreme secrecy, the present lack of trust within the Russian society in general and especially towards governmental institutions, sharing of the organisations data with the outside world is rather atypical. Multiple financial report systems inside organisations are used to hide the real state of affairs from outsiders and for sure not with a foreign researcher.
Analysis of such variables, as growth of revenue or market share would not make it possible to make conclusions about the real effect of the consultancy services on the organisations. Such objective characteristics could have been changed (both positively and negatively) due to a number of other reasons. Russian market and economy are very non-stable and very much dependant on non-economic processes taking place in the country. Therefore, it would not have been possible to judge whether the changes were resulted by the provided support or not.
Provided consultancy services did not aim at having a short-term effect on the organisations. On the contrary, it was designed to bring a long-term, structural and strategic changes/developments, which sometimes could require time.
3.3 Research Design
Lee (1991) and Morgan and Morris (1999) argue that the qualitative and quantitative research methods are more complementary than opposing. A combination of both research methods supports and serves to mutual purposes. Favouring the combination of methods, the strengths and weaknesses of the implemented methods are taken into consideration. Their relatively balanced opposite axes enable the management and organisational research to address essential questions at mutual stages of the research process. “Filling the black holes” can be the result of a combination of techniques, which possibly enriches and enhances the current “body of knowledge”, not able to achieve with a singular approach. Therefore, the research with combined approaches, as suggested, will optimize the richer outcome of knowledge to be gained and will contribute to a wider array of developments in the field of management and organisation.
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