Research Laws and Methodologies

Today David Snowdon posted a great review of KM research methodologies and their ability to overcome cognitive bias on the part of the researcher. Read it on his blog here.

Dave offered a definition of bias in the context of research as something like:

Bias is the inevitable filtering process by which the human brain processes stimulation. It can be created by past experience, cultural or other determinants and expectations.

In another post on ActKM he mentioned Goodhart's Law:

"When a measure becomes a target it ceases to be a measure"

Thought provoking stuff at this juncture of my research!

David and the Cynefin team have done some exciting work on the use of narrative in organisational research and I am interested in doing a Cynefin course once my degree is finished. However at this point I need to take care that I don't try to apply too many quantitative objectives to what is definitely qualitative research, which in many ways actually embraces the involvement of the researcher and the components of the study become clearer as the subjects are explored.

Another site mentioned by Joe Firestone. The Web Center for Social Research Methods has a very nice knowledge-base for research methods. A nice adendum to the two books that are guiding me at the moment:

• Social Research Methods - Neuman
• Qualitative communication research methods - Lindloff