The Essence of Research Methodology

This publication is designed to provide Master and PhD students with a concise introduction to conducting research in organisations. The aim is to impart knowledge for making the appropriate methodological choices and to give readers a practical guide to designing and executing a research. Over fifty concrete examples, exercises, discussions and short case studies give a good illustration of the practice of research so to enhance the understanding of the application of methodology in specific research contexts. Another special feature of this book is the extensive comparative Glossary of key methodological terms, ideas and notions that has been incorporated. Also, various checklists are provided to help students structure their research activities and reflect on key issues and choices that need to be made. Finally, more fundamental theoretical, ontological and epistemological issues and debates are touched upon and discussed in the footnotes.

Dr. J. Jonker is an associate professor and research fellow at the Nijmegen School of Management of the Radboud University Nijmegen (Holland). His main research interest focuses on organisational change, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business strategy. He is a visiting professor at the University of Nottingham (UK), Versailles and Toulouse (France). He has written several books and numerous articles. He combines his academic work with business consulting, thus staying in touch with different discourses and realities.

Dr. B.J.W. Pennink is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Business Administration of the State University Groningen (Holland) where he mainly teaches courses in research methodology to undergraduates and graduates in different Master programs. In addition, he lectures at the Academy for Management (Enschede) and was a visiting lecturer at the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso between 1991 and 2005.

They both have been lecturers in Qualitative Methodology for the Dutch Organisation for Business Research (NOBEM) between 1989 and 2004. NOBEM is a network between universities across The Netherlands providing methodology courses for PhD students in the field of business studies. This book is based on precious and pleasurable experience gained teaching together for more then a decade. A concise edition of this book appeared in Dutch under the title 'De Kern van Methodologie' (2000 and 2004), published by Royal Van Gorcum Publishers (Assen).