Page 133 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

Based on the comparison and weighting of the all directions available in MMR, as well as the three strategies proposed by Creswell (2003) for the underlying study the Two-Phase Sequential Exploratory Design with a “quantitative first” approach, i.e. conduction of online survey followed by the focus group discussions and in-depth interviews will be applied as the approved research instrument for studying a trans- boundary KT processes and SVC. However, as a slight deviation to the concept presented, pilot-interviews with open questions (qualitative) are conducted to design, edit, control and adjust the questionnaires (quantitative) of the online survey (Bradburn, Sudman &Wansink, 2004).
3.3.2 Data collection instruments
Two slightly different online questionnaires for Participants of the President’s Programme and for organisations participated in transboundary KT with completely structured and close-ended questions were developed to question the sample population of senior and mid-level managers, requesting their reports on the experiences with the offered advice and/or consultancy and the perceived added value/benefits, available for implementation inside their organisation (Fink, 2002).
Questionnaires are designed for reproducing sufficient and qualified answers to the research questions and sub-questions. Questions are distinctive for both groups of participants. The questionnaires are distributed digitally followed by reminders through email and phone calls. In the majority of questions the answers are presented in a five- point scale, with variation ranging from i.e. 1) “strongly disagree” and 5) “strongly agree”. With the remaining questions, answers are presented in a variety of optional remarks, based on the successfully used scales, adapted from Denison and Neale (1996), Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (2011) and Hofstede (1994a).
Shedding light upon the variances in managerial-led OC caused by the differences of NC’s through the implementation of the Trompenaars and Hampden- Turner framework has its positive and negative outcomes. The basic advantage is that the average of personal responses is expected to present the best average mean of the population in focus. The connected disadvantage is that a country mean is not sufficiently reliable to evaluate the orientation and/or values of each person within a certain NC. A precise estimation of characteristics, in average, depends on a variety of factors e.g. culture’s homogeneity, the size and breadth of the sample(s), the relevance of questioning, and so on. Despite critics, some elements of the Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner framework are included in this study’s questionnaires.
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