1.

7 Primary Data collection

Questionnaire is a form of data collection in which
all the respondents are asked the same set of
questions in a pre-set order (deVaus, 2002).
Robson (2002) suggested that questionnaires are
not effective in a descriptive research as it is
requires many open ended questions to be
answered. All the participants should interpret the
questionnaire in the same manner; the data
collected can be reliable. If the questionnaire is
worded correctly, less effort is required to
administer the questionnaire (Jankowicz, 2000).
Questionnaire can be classified as shown in the
Figure below. The differentiation is based on the
level of interaction between the researcher and the
respondents.
The research has an international orientation to it.
The respondents are based in 5 countries and it
was not feasible for the researcher to meet each
respondent. So a self-administered questionnaire
was the most appropriate option. Time and
monetary constraint further helped to narrow down
the survey to an online questionnaire where the
questionnaire was forwarded to the emails. Email
offers a better reliability as the respondents would
access their own emails and respond to the
questionnaire (Witmer et al., 1999). In this case the
questionnaire was sent to the managers who
further forwarded the emails to their colleagues. In
this scenario online questionnaire was a more
feasible option because it is easy to forward
emails, unauthorised access to emails would be
difficult and the responses would go directly to the
researcher without them being disclosed or
discussed with.

The questionnaire has been divided into two parts.

The first part consists of information regarding
demographics such as organisation location, age,
tenure in the organisation and job role. The second
part consists of questions related to organizations
knowledge management practices, knowledge
behaviour and use of the knowledge. The data
required for the research required responses from
managerial and non-managerial employees
working in a knowledge intensive environment. It
was required to create an accurate cause effect
relationship of the KM practices with respect the
organisational environment and behaviour of
employees. This required honest responses about
the KM practices.
Appendix shows the questions that were asked to
define the relationship amongst the construct
defined in the literature review. Likert scale has
been used to score each question and score will be
given from strongly disagree(1) to strongly
agree(5) to. In the questionnaire 1 question has
been framed using negation and in a reverse order.
Podsakoff et al. (2003) suggest that this should be
done to ensure that respondent pay attention while
reading the question. All questionnaires were
returned within 72 hours. Considering the
incentives and time constraints for the respondents
the questionnaire was designed so that it does not
take more than 8-10 minutes to be answered.

1.8 Dota Analysis methods

Qualitative and quantitative data has been used in
this research. Qualitative data has been used to
study the literature about knowledge
manangement and define the constructs that for

the basis of the research question. Quantitiative

data was collected primarily with the help of
questionnaire.

1.9 Methodological Review

Saunders et al. (2003) emphasis on two aspects of
data collection: validity and reliability. The validity
and reliability of secondary data has been
explained in SECTION. Saunders et al. (2007)
suggest that in case of a questionnaire pilot testing
should be done to ensure the validity of the
question and the reliability of the data
subsequently collected. The questionnaire used for
the survey has been tested on a group, to test the
comprehensibility of the content and the logic of
the questions. Bell (1999) suggests that a trail run
should never be compromised even if time is a
constraint. While testing the questionnaire the
respondent were asked regarding the time taken to
complete, ambiguity of the questions, if any
questions caused a uncomfortable feeling or
awkward state of mind and the last was the
structure. Validating the questionnaire ensures that
the response for each question and the motive for
the question are the relevant (Saunders et al.
2000).
Reliability of the questionnaire depends on the
consistency of the response to the same questions.
To ensure this the questionnaire must be answered
twice by the respondent at differing time
(Easterby-Smith, et al. 2002). This may be difficult
due time constraints but should be done. Mitchell
(1996) suggests that the responses of the
questions should be checked for consistency within
the subgroup. In this research the questionnaire

has been divided in to 4 sections. During the pilot

testing the responses where checked for
consistency with in each section to ensure the
reliability. The results can be generalised to an
extent due to the sample size and inferences are
gathered based on the statistical analysis. Steps
have been taken to ensure the anonymous nature
of the questionnaire so that the responses are
honest and unbiased.