Research Methodology Into The Risks Of RTA

Managing Uncertainty Part 3

There are mainly two types of research which we can follow i.e. Qualitative and Quantitative, but in this project we are using qualitative analysis as our source of research. The research will include the following methodology in order to assess the level of managing uncertainty in RTA:

Interview Methods

There are various types of interview methods which can be performed as a qualitative research in order to collect the specified data. Some of the popular interview methods are focused interview, semi standardized interview, problem centric interview, the expert interview or the ethnographic interview. Among the specified interview methods, I have taken The Expert Interview method as my source of research from which I will collect the data for the final analysis.

Managing uncertainty in RTA department is particularly a complex problem. It is obvious credible to reach an experts or number of experts to report the complex issues correctly. In such complex issues, there may be probability that if the interview is done in any other way or if the experts are not used for answer the questions, assessment may not be done in a proper way. Expert interview will give me the opportunity to focus on the correct area or point on which focus is to be made or because of which uncertainty in the department occurring.

Designing Qualitative Research

In case of designing the qualitative research, first step is to choose the interview questions. Interview questions should depend on several factors. These factors are as follows:

Interview questions should be related with the main objective of the research i.e. How can project owners strategize under high conditions of uncertainty and feel capable of achieving their goals? Questions will be asked to the experts in connection with the main goal specified (Maxwell, 2005)

There are some additional resources like the decision making strategies of the department, on which the questions would be raised. It could be surveyed that how with a strong decision making strategies of the department, Uncertainty pertains (Creswell, 2003)

Process Chosen for Methodology

A Grounded Theory will be chosen as the process or methodology in this research. This is a circular type of process in which after induction the data hypothesis is set and then by further deduction, the research moves back to the substantive data. This process is chosen in our research because in our research, we are using non probabilistic approach. There is no probability associated with the samples or any result. Everything has to be done according to the mental analysis. We can see in the theoretical model as well that hypothesis is designed afterwards unlike the traditional model in which the research starts with the hypothesis setting.

Purposive Sampling is used for the sampling process in case of data analysis part of the research. Purposive sampling is done by taking a sub set of population which represents the entire population. In this there is no probability associated with any criterion. It depends on one’s knowledge about the issue. The sampling criteria used in this research would be based on the experts’ knowledge about the failure which has happened in the past in RTA department.

Studies Used for the Research

Retrospective Studies

This will be used in RTA Department in order to mitigate the risk. This will include having a clear watch on the older studies which have been done and the older risks which have fallen on the department. This study will require a perfect literature review of past risks which affected the growth of the company

Longitudinal Studies

Longitudinal studies will also be used in order to see the risks involved in RTA. In this scenario of each department will be compared to itself only looking at its performance as the time passes. This will tell whether the department is going down or is it growing well.

Comparative Studies

In this comparison is done on very close objects. Hence in case of RTA, the departments which are close to each other or which are closely related to each other are taken as cases for the research.

Role of departments

Role of strategy and corporate governance is played by various departments like Strategy Planning department, Development and Corporate Finance department, Investment and Commercial Affairs departments, Legal Affairs departments, Planning and Safety regulation department, etc. Corporate social services are played by some departments like Customer Service Centre’s department, Building and Facilities department, Automatic Fare collection department, Finance department, Procurement department, Information technology department, etc. There are various other strategies which must be adopted. It is necessary to identify various strategies for minimizing the uncertainty in Execution.

Developing Theoretical Framework

Theoretical Framework will be divided into two main steps:

Main Selection Principle: Gradual Selection Method will be applied in case of main selection principle for the research. In this main aim would be to select the cases or the experts according to some concrete criteria. The sampling would be done according to the representativeness of these samples. In this process Data Triangulation is done which means various sources of data will be integrated in which same phenomenon will be studied with different samples at different times.

Grounded theory will be used as a theoretical model in this case. This is a method in which the research is done in a reverse way as compared to traditional methods of research. In our research, instead of first setting the hypothesis, we will do the process of data collection i.e. our first aim would be to take up interview with several experts whom we will target. Series of codes will be market with this data collection and then these codes will be grouped into similar concepts which lead to the formation of categories on the basis of theory.

Sampling Method: Purposive Sampling will be used in which various steps will be taken:

Integration of different cases is done. In this we will select various projects which have been failures in various different departments of RTA and we will analyze them. Another way in which we can proceed is that we can choose some typical projects and analyze them from their centers (Flick, 2009)

Generalization of all the samples is done after the analysis of all integrated projects. There may be a problem of access which may exist.

After the data has been selected, it is induced to codes (Gibbs, 2007) or set of concepts. These set of concepts or codes will be induced further to make the set of the hypotheses for the research.

After the hypotheses are set, all this function will come back to the data or the sample for the final analysis. Final analysis will be done accordingly. Some selected project failures or uncertainty in the projects will give an indication of failures or uncertainty level of the department (Wengraft, 2001).

The following frame work model will help to determine the sequence in the flow of research methodology:

Set of Concepts (Codes)

Induction

Substantive Data Verify Induction

Modify

Provisional Hypothesis

Deduction

Frame Work Model

Research Case Study

The case study about the RTA or Road and Transport Department of Abu Dhabi is about the hub which is going to be prepared by this department for the transportation of the people. This will be the transportation hub for the entire gulf region. This is a big step which RTA is taking. It will help a lot in managing uncertainty as well. When RTA will become the transportation hub for the entire gulf region then there will not be any problem for the transportation for the people but a problem with this enlargement or the diversification is that in such a broader face, it might be possible that there will be an increase in the uncertainty among various policies which are formulated by RTA. It might be possible that people might get confuse about several decisions that are needed to be taken by each and every department. But there are several positive impacts of such policies according to five year strategic plans by Abu Dhabi Department of Transport, and there are various massive improving by which the city is passing. There will a great improvement in the infrastructure of the city which would lead to its technological advancement. This everything has been specified in the strategic plan which made by the government for 2008-12. There will be an effective transportation system for the country. This transport system includes each and every mode of transport system and by aligning the future on road or land transport. This will surely make the transportation process smoother and it will surely add value to country. (Gul10)

The above case study reveal that what ever has been said in the strategic plan for 2008-12 is really helpful in the growth and development of the country but along with such an advancement and growth of RTA, worries for RTA has also been increased because with the increasing network of transportation in the country, there will be increase in the mental worries for each and every department of RTA. There will be increase in the uncertainties for the departments. With such an increase in uncertainties, it will be necessary for RTA to develop certain strategies in order to improve the situation of RTA and in order to manage the uncertainties lying in each and every department of RTA and at each and every level.

Research Process

The research which I am going to perform is absolutely straight forward and involves same procedure as there in the other types of research. Our research starts with some hypothesis which I will make. There will be two parts of hypothesis, first is the null hypothesis and second is the alternate hypothesis. In the research one of the hypotheses will be proved wrong, either the null hypothesis or the alternate hypothesis. When one hypothesis is proved wrong then other one is accepted by researcher. The statements of hypotheses are:

H1: Uncertainty about strategic plan is developed due to lack of leadership, execution culture and positioning wrong people in the right place and setting unrealistic strategic plan.

H2:Leaders behavior include realism, understanding of the business environment and tactics relevant to the field tactics, avoid over-commitment, strategic planners, realize owns capability, motivate team and reward, follow up execution and Training or Coaching.

H3: Appointing people in organization according to predefined competencies criteria that qualify them to hold positions within the organization .

H4: An essential factor in creating execution culture is to change people’s behavior to be more adaptable and encourage greater willingness to accept change and monitor organizational performance.

H5: Execution success requires an effective communication between two parties. Developing a written communication plan will take a significant amount of effort. Once in place, the written plan will smooth activities all year long, help set work priorities, protect last-minute demands, and bring a semblance of order to what at times may seem to be a chaotic job.

The above are the null hypothesis and the alternate hypothesis will be opposite to these null hypothesis.

In order to prove these hypotheses, I am going to perform quantitative research which will include the questionnaire and interview with the senior management of RTA.

Interview questions

There are some questions which are asked to the senior management in order to know about the uncertainties and strategies to solve these uncertainties. These questions are as follows:

What types of projects in RTA have high level of uncertainty? Which departments are highly uncertain in nature?

How the issues of uncertainty are classified in each and every department? Is it a matter of worry for RTA?

How uncertainty is managed in each and every department of RTA? How these kinds of issues are encountered in respective departments?

How the issues are classified accordingly whether Decision Uncertainty, Model Uncertainty, Analytical Uncertainty, Sampling Uncertainty or Relational Uncertainty?

How many resources allocated to the project and what percentage of the project is outsourced to be completed by external entity?

Justification of the Design

There are many reasons because of which his proposed design for the methodology may be helpful for growth and development of the RTA Department. These reasons are:

This design would give an exposure of the perception of the team leaders in the company which is very much important for the analysis

Retrospective view will keep a track of the past risks taken by the department and their impact on it

This design would be beneficial in the view that it needs not a much effort

Limitation of the design

The main limitation of the design is that it is based on the primary research whose analysis will be further based on the hypothesis. There will be a 95 percent confidence interval and still 5 percent non confidence interval. Hence, it may give wrong results in some but very few cases