Research method

In order to find out as much as possible about the subject of my investigation, and to provide the necessary depth and richness of information, qualitative data seemed to be the best source for several reasons. First and foremost, by interviewing HR managers I ventured into an unfamiliar domain and explored a new, unchartered area, which lent the study an exploratory nature, and as a result, necessitated a qualitative design. In Morse and Richards’

(2002) words, “If you don’t know what you are likely to find, your project requires methods that will allow you to learn what the question is from the data” (p. 33). All of the justifications listed in Section 5.1 that underpin the use of qualitative data (Dörnyei, 2007; Duff, 2007;

Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Patton, 2002; Punch, 2005; Schumann, 2015) called for a qualitative design.

6.1.1.1 Participants

I set out to build a purposive sample using the principle of maximum variation, so I sought out the HR managers of such organisations that represented the greatest differences in every possible sense. All of the 18 participants were HR managers of organisations employing more than 250 employees representing a wide range of industries including the automotive; baby, feminine, and family care; banking; construction; electricity; FMCG (fast moving consumer goods); gas; information technology; insurance; nuclear; pharmaceutical;

telecommunications; tobacco; and trading industries; as well as public administration. Six of the organisations were Hungarian state-owned, 12 were public limited companies including two American, two German and one Austrian multinationals. 14 of them are based in Budapest, four in the country. 14 of the participating HR managers were female, the other six male, all of them were aged between 30 and 65 with at least five years’ experience in human resources. To retain their anonymity HR1-HR18 pseudonyms will be used throughout my study representing the order in which they were interviewed. As I stated in Section 5.6, five of the participant had me sign a non-disclosure agreement that stipulated that neither their names, nor their organisations should be named in any stage of my research,

42 I decided to refrain from presenting the participants in a table in order to prevent deducing their identities from the field they work in.

6.1.1.2 The instrument

For the design of the research instrument, Glaser and Strauss’ (1967) explicit requirement of adapting a ‘tabula rasa’ approach, according to which results emerge naturally in a qualitative inquiry without any biased interference of the researcher seemed difficult and unnatural to identify with. In spite of the fact that the participants of my current study represented an unfamiliar domain, I have been teaching adult learners of English in a corporate environment for over two decades constantly mulling over how to motivate them better and better, consequently I found Tashakkori and Teddlie’s (2003) flexible approach more lifelike and plausible, as they claim that, “the tabula rasa assumption is simply naive”

(p. 66), as no researcher starts a study without having at least some ideas on the questions investigated. Miles and Huberman (1994) go a step further and claim that it is the researcher’s background knowledge that helps them to see and decipher details, complexities and subtleties, as well as to decide what kind of questions to ask. This perspective seemed appropriate in my case.

Therefore, based on the above considerations, I concluded that I would devise a semi-structured interview guide through 7 steps. I opted for the semi-semi-structured format as Wallace (1998) maintains it combines, “a certain degree of control with a certain amount of freedom to develop the interview” (p. 147). The seven steps of the validation process based on Prescott’s (2011) model were as follows:

1. Review of the literature

2. Self-reflection and brainstorming 3. Formulating the research questions 4. First draft of the interview guide 5. Expert reviewed draft

6. Pilot interviews 7. Final version

43 Because of the subject of my investigation, it was important to review how current, Hungarian corporate language education systems had evolved, what had motivated companies to launch on-site language training, what kind of milestones this evolution had had, and finally, what kind of social and public educational phenomena necessitated corporate language learning today (see Chapter 4). Based on points 1 and 3 of the validation process, the following two research questions were formulated:

RQ1: What characterises the language training practices of organisations employing over 250 employees in Hungary in 2015?

RQ2: What expectations do HR managers of 250+ organisations in Hungary have of language schools and language teachers offering on-site language training?

As a fourth step of the validation process, a semi-structured interview guide was devised in Hungarian. It consisted of two broader areas corresponding to the research questions: (1) a general description of on-site language training practices (number and level of language learners, types of languages available, types of Englishes taught in the organisation, the costs of language training compared to other kinds of training, the employees’ contribution to the costs, the time of the lessons, the requirements the participating employees have to meet, and finally the consequences if they do not meet the requirements specified in their educational contracts), (2) the selection of language schools, language teachers (how companies choose language teachers and language schools, and what expectations they have of teachers and language schools working on their premises).

The first draft of the interview guide was then expert reviewed and piloted (Steps 5 and 6).

Due to the thorough preparation, no further adjustments were needed after the pilots, the instrument was ready to be used (see Appendix A). The 30- to 45-minute interviews were conducted in Hungarian, recorded and transcribed. I believe that in order to conduct a fully-fledged qualitative investigation we need to have full transcripts of the recordings that we want to analyse; therefore, I transcribed the 18 interviews, and the verbatim transcripts yielded a very rich data base of approximately 60000 words / 100 pages.

44 6.1.1.3 Data analysis

In order to analyse the data, Crabtree and Miller’s (1999) Template Organising Style (TOS) was used. This data analysis method starts out with a template of codes, a code manual which is based on background information on the topic (brainstorming, historical and literature review in this case). First the transcribed texts are coded using this predetermined template and the process is made more qualitative by allowing the revision or fine-tuning of the template at any point in the analysis process as themes emerge. In addition, with the help of TOS a large volume of text can be analysed in a focused and time-efficient manner, creating links between extracts. As a first step of the data analysis process, the following code manual was made (see Table 6) along the two broad topics of the research instrument:

Table 6 The original code manual

A description of the language education system of the organisation (RQ1)

Companies’ expectations of language teachers and language schools (RQ2)

 Primarily English is taught,

 both managers and employees can learn languages,

 the lessons are held out of office hours,

 the participants contribute to the costs of the courses, and

 the participants have to take an exam or test at the end of the course.

 They win contracts through tendering,

 have good references,

 are reliable,

 flexible,

 experienced,

 professional, and

 affordable.

Having established the original code manual, the coding process was started with the initial coding, which meant highlighting relevant passages and adding a label to the passages.

As a second step, within second level coding, all the codes related to one of the 2 broad areas of the instrument were formulated and collected on an individual basis. As a third step, within the frame of third level coding, more abstract commonalities related to one of the 2 broad areas based on all of the interviewees’ accounts were established. Finally, all of the emerging data were collated with the ones of the original code manual and this comparison resulted in the following emerging themes printed in italics, which complement the themes of the original code manual (see Table 7):

45 Table 7 The original code manual and emerging themes and results

A general description of the language education system of organisations (RQ1)

Companies’ expectations of language teachers and language schools (RQ2)

 On average, 8,2% of employees are learning languages;

 HR managers consider corporate language training useful and necessary;

 there has been a shift from general English to ESP;

 the costs of language training are dwarfed by the costs of other training;

 primarily English is taught, apart from English, Spanish and Russian;

 both managers and employees can learn languages;

 the lessons are mostly out of office hours;

 the participants can learn for free, or they contribute to the costs.

This contribution ranges between 15 and 60%, and is refundable in the case of a successful language exam;

 since language learning schemes subsidised by the government or the EU are overly bureaucratic, companies rather avoid them;

 the participants have to take a language exam or write a test at the end of the course.

 Schools win a contract through tenders, and they are selected on the basis of recommendation, personal experience, and corporate social responsibility;

 the operation of the language school / enterprise is legal;

 the business / enterprise is a partnership or a limited business;

 the administrative issues are smooth;

 they have good references;

 the teachers teach in a tailor-made fashion;

 ESP is integrated into the material;

 they strive for a long-term relationship so that they / their teachers can acquire and teach ESP;

 they are reliable;

 they are flexible in accommodating to the time, place, syllabus, text book, pace of the course, as well as the learning style of the learner, and the changing needs of the organisation;

 they are experienced;

 they are punctual;

 they are well-prepared;

 they are cooperative;

 they are enthusiastic;

 they are motivating;

 they are hands-on;

 they are goal-orientated;

 they are result-orientated;

 they are professional, and qualified;

 they regularly and formally assess the participants of the course;

 they are rather non-native than native teachers.

46

In document Corporate language education in Hungary: the teacher (Pldal 53-58)