A constructive Approach to Managing Faculty Conflict: An Action Research Study

Study Design

There are four typical typologies of an MMAR study design. Of those four, the researcher selected a concurrent Quan + Qual MMAR design, which is commonly used in action research. The study design guides other methodological procedures to answer the research questions (Creswell, 2014, as cited by Ivankova, 2015). Therefore, selecting an appropriate study design does not only help researchers choose appropriate methods, but also helps “set the logic by which the researchers make interpretations at the end of their studies” (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011, as cited by Ivankova, 2015). A concurrent Quan

+ Qual design can be applied in both reconnaissance and evaluation phases, but is more frequently used to evaluate the effects of the action/intervention than the needs assessment (Ivankova, 2015). The conceptual model of a concurrent Quan + Qual MMAR study is presented in figure 1.4 (Ivankova, 2015).


Figure 1.4 Conceptual Model of a Concurrent Quan + Qual MMAR Study


To obtain complementary evidence +

In both the reconnaissance phase and evaluation phase, a concurrent Quan + Qual design was applied. The characteristics of a concurrent Quan + Qual MMAR design typically include two strands, during which the quantitative and qualitative data are collected and analyzed separately or independently of each other. The primary purpose of this design is to compare quantitative and qualitative results to obtain complementary evidence in different types of data and produce well-validated conclusions (Ivankova, 2015).
This design suited the purposes of this mixed methods action research because it allowed the researcher to collect and analyze data for the intervention in a short amount of time, which enabled the study to be both time and cost efficient. The design also

allowed the researcher to obtain different yet contemporary data on the same topic, which enhanced the quality of data collected for analysis, thereby obtaining optimum results. The applied concurrent Quan + Qual MMAR design to the reconnaissance phase explored situations of conflict between faculty and administrators and provided the information necessary to conduct a literary review of the problem that needed to be addressed to find a solution for an intervention. In contrast, in the evaluation phase, the effectiveness of the implemented conflict management strategies workshop was assessed. In figure 1.5, the researcher has outlined the strands of data collected and analyzed from MMAR study design used in this implemented study according to the conceptual framework demonstrated in figure 1.4.