Business Continuity Management for Blue Lights in the UK - Research Proposal Example

BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT FOR BLUE LIGHTS IN THE UK AND HOW IT APPLIES TO UNITED ARAB EMIRATES RESILIENCE RESEARCH PROPOSAL/ RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: 1. INTRODUCTION 1. 2 The Research Question: The main research question of this discussion is with regards to business continuity management for the blue lights services in the UK and how it applies to United Arab Emirates resilience. 1.3. Choosing the Topic 1. 4 Background to the Research: In the modern world, the Middle East is widely considered to be of strategic importance given the fast pace in economic growth (Sidani and Gardner 2000). In particular, the United Arab Emirates is considered to be one of the fastest growing economies in the Middle East. Thirty years ago the UAE was one of the least developed countries of the world. Today, the country has attained an income level similar to that of the developed countries. With huge oil revenues, the UAE has managed to short-cut to economic development as opposed to the usual lengthy and difficult process of capital accumulation and saving. The nation has an abundance of natural resources such as gas and oil. Further to that, as a strategy for development the U A E has embraced resource-based industries (RBI) as a development Strategy founded on the use of natural resources. These among other strategies have made the U A E an economic force to reckon with (Shihab, 2000). Yet, despite these leaps in economic development, the blue lights or emergency services have failed to keep up with this pace of progress and lag behind the more developed economies. According to Just Landed (2009), the blue lights services in the UAE are far from efficient whereby ambulance services are smaller in scale than developed countries like the UK and to make matters worse, they are controlled by the police. As such, one better off using private means than relying on the blue lights. Further to that, business continuity management is a new concept in the UAE, especially in relation to the blue lights services. 1.5 Reasons for the Choice of the Research’s Topic: This topic was chosen by the researcher for several reasons. In line with the recommendations of Lewis at al. (2007), the researcher aimed at choosing a research topic that triggered his interest and fuelled his motivation. Thus, the researcher’s main motive to undertake such a research was rooted in an interest in the topic at hand that affects him directly as a consumer of blue lights services. Furthermore, the researcher realized the difficulty in accessing such information in the UAE, particularly about business continuity management in such a field. The researcher was able to identify problems in the business continuity management efforts in the country. As a U A E citizen who is looking forward to the evolution of the blue lights services in his country, this state of inadequate business continuity management was an additional motive for the researcher to undertake this research. Indeed, despite the significance of the U A E as an important economy, there are very few, if any, studies that address the impact of business continuity management on the efficiency of blue lights services in the country. In general, existing studies provide no sense of the broad picture of business continuity management in the area with a majority of the research studies focus on the business continuity management efforts in the blue lights services in developed countries such as the UK. 2. Research Aims and Objectives 2.1. Research Aims Due to the scarcity of research into business continuity management efforts in the U A E, the main aim of this research is to find out whether the blue lights services use business continuity management at all, and if so, to what extent; for how long; and to what benefit. Likewise, this research aims at discovering whether the general public are aware of business continuity management; if they feel it is being used in the blue lights services; and generally whether the blue lights services are effective. 2.2. Research Objectives The following is list of the research objectives: a. To investigate whether managers of blue lights services have any knowledge of business continuity management and whether they make use of them at all. b. To identify the impact of business continuity management on the efficiency of blue lights services in the case they are used at all in the U A E. c. To discover the challenges faced by blue lights services. d. To discover whether the consumers/ public have any awareness about business continuity management in light of blue lights services and whether they feel they are being used in the U A E. e. To generate recommendations for local blue lights services on the benefits of BCM to enhance the effectiveness of their services. 2.3 Benefits of the Research: The research will greatly help in the field of Blue Lights services. In the UAE, emergency services are not effectively coordinated like they are in the West and thus need an injection of management practices such as business continuity management. The research will thus benefit the blue lights field as a whole to improve their services. The research will also be highly crucial for all citizens of the UAE who are in dire need of effective services. 3. RESEARCH APPROACH and DESIGN This research shall be exploratory in nature and the approach used will be a mixed design approach- a combined qualitative and quantitative approach (Creswell, 2003). In order to meet the research objectives, such an exploratory study is crucial in benefiting from the strengths of both approaches. Researchers can attain high levels of data validity, verifiability and generalizability by making use of this approach that provides justification and replication of data results across all methods. In addition, the combination of both research approaches within one research project releases tremendous opportunities for mutual advantage because the weaknesses of one strategy can be neutralized through the incorporation of other methods. This mixed/ combined approach functions differently for the different phases of the research. Quantitative data is collected from secondary information from a wide range of sources while the qualitative data will be collected from the managers and consumers. LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH The limitations that are predicted at this stage include: Time and Money constraints: Time management will be a critical task for the researcher in terms of conducting interviews, waiting for the questionnaire responses, planning the time taken for each chapter and so on. Money Constraints: Raising the money to print 2000 questionnaires, mail them to respondents, travel to the in depth interviews, and so on will be very challenging indeed. Difficulties in gaining access, in terms of convincing the managers for blue lights services to agree to the interviews. Difficulties in obtaining truthful answers from the managers who may not want to criticize the management of blue lights services for fear of reprisals. The absence of secondary data. 4. CHOICE OF DATA COLLECTION METHODS Choosing the right data collection method is very important since it can make the difference between obtaining accurate or inaccurate data. This step of the research should thus be accorded the seriousness and sensitivity it deserves to ensure that the most accurate results are obtained. The following research will employ a variety of data collection methods so as to obtain as much information as possible given the resources and time frame involved. The respondents in this research will be the managers of blue lights service on the one hand and the consumers of these services i. e the general public. With regards to the managers the data collection instrument that shall be in use are in depth interviews. This is because it is the method that is best suited for obtaining information from experts. In fact, according to the Centre for Strategy Research (1997) it is the most appropriate method when trying to unearth the expert thoughts of each respondent without the obstacles of hitches of group dynamics. In comparison to focus groups, for instance, it was more appropriate since in focus groups only a tiny percentage of respondents do most of the talking leaving the other group members silent. This group-think bias in focus groups is a major drawback since the discussions are mainly monopolized by a few people unlike during in depth interviews where the individual participant has the full attention of the interviewer. In addition, the justification of choosing in depth interviews above all other methods is that there is a greater amount of information obtained as opposed to other methods such as focus group discussions. Furthermore, there is more depth in the interviews plus more statistics are obtained (The Centre for Strategy Research, 1997). Basically, with in depth interviews, researchers collect twice the amount of data per participant in a 20-minute interview than in a 90-minute focus group discussion with 10 participants. Therefore, in depth interviews are more cost effective. In addition, in-depth interviews cover all the important research areas while in a focus group discussion; there is a tendency for the discussion to go off topic with each participant taking their own angle. Statistically, more statistics are obtained than in focus group discussions since these groups generate several pages of text causing there to be a greater tendency for inaccuracies. Further to that, focus groups do not obtain information from all the participants thus making it impossible to reliably and accurately measure the responses through the content analysis of individual responses. In fact, there has been a growing tendency in the modern world to utilize focus groups to merely provide statistically relevant as opposed to statistically accurate data (The Centre for Strategy Research, 1997). Therefore, since this particular study was interested in obtaining accurate data, in depth interviews were preferred as opposed to focus group discussion for their statistical accuracy. In terms of the data collection method for the consumers of blue lights services, the research will make use of questionnaires. This is because they are the most appropriate for collecting the views of several respondents. Since the potential number of respondents is limitless dealing with a general population, questionnaires allows the research to reach as many respondents as possible using the least amount of resources. Therefore it will allow the researcher to reach a wider number of people than with other methods thereby increasing the possibility of more accurate answers leading to enhanced validity and reliability of the research findings. In addition, questionnaires are also the most cost effective method of reaching as many members of the public as possible with the least impact on the budget of the research (Learning Technology Dissemination Initiative, 1999). In addition, questionnaires are the most appropriate method due to its privacy and anonymity since the U A E is still a conservative society. To obtain data from women, for instance, may be difficult and thus questionnaires shall be used to encourage more people to respond without the danger of their identities being exposed. In addition, a questionnaire is a simple and direct tool thus obtaining specific answers for specific questions is easier (Learning Technology Dissemination Initiative, 1999). Comparatively, using interviews or discussion to reach female consumers would be impossible; the use of email or web-based surveys would have been ineffective since not all people in the U A E have access to the internet; in fact, only 30 percent of these households having access to the Internet (Arab Internet, 2001, p. 1). It is for these reasons that this research narrowed in on in depth interviews and questionnaires as appropriate methods of finding out about the unexplored area of business continuity management for blue lights services in the U A E. 1. DATA ANALYSIS METHODS Thematic template analysis will be used to analyze the qualitative data while qualitative data analysis software such as QSR NUDIST will be used to execute content analysis. Content analysis associated with QSR NUDIST will help facilitate the process of quantifying the responses of the interviewees (Cassell and Symon, 2005). However, before launching the content analysis the researcher will attempt to code the responses under main themes and hence the transcribed interviews will analyzed in comparison with a code book which would have been already prepared as suggested by King (1994). As for the quantitative phase, it will be analyzed using the SPSS software package. The data will be initially analysed using univariate analysis including descriptive statistics and tabulations (Pallant, 2005) to obtain the simple frequencies of the responses (Field, 2005). Multivariate analysis will then be conducted using simple and multiple regressions (Tabachinick and Fidell, 1996; Pallant, 2005). 1. THE PROPOSED TIMELINE FOR THE RESEARCH DATE AIM Write research proposal Begin the literature evaluation Begin search for prospective sources/ respondents Begin the methods section Confirm sources respondents Carry out reliability measurements Continue writing the literature review Finish the methodology chapter Start the data collection process Start the data entry process Continue the data collection Finish data collection Finish data entry Begin the data analysis process Begin the data results chapter Submit dissertation Submit the Project Completion Form 1. THE PROJECT RISK ASSESSMENT The risk assessment will take into account the user requirements, the budget and the schedule. This is because other than conducting the research, the researcher will be busy with other academic requirements. As such, balancing act between times that shall be used during research against the time needed for other academic work together with the resources available will be a difficult one to juggle. RISK ASSESSMENT PROCESS Identification of Uncertainties: During the course of the research, there abound to be many areas of uncertainty. These include uncertainties about whether or not the questionnaires will be returned on time; how man questionnaires will be returned answered; whether the managers will accept the invitations for the in depth interviews; and so on. To cope with such uncertainties, the researcher will constantly be following up on the respondents with regards to the in depth interviewees and for the consumers, over 2000 questionnaires will be sent to increase the chances of more being answered. Risk Analysis: The areas of uncertainty will have a substantial effect on the performance of the project in terms of the time wasted and the cost of meeting the users' requirements such as transportation costs; printing costs mailing costs, and so on. To counter these risks, adequate budgeting and time management will be carried out. Risks Prioritisation The risks that are too costly should be eliminated completely, and these will include risks such as whether or not many questionnaires will be answered or not. Emergency Plan: During the times when the researcher is conducting the research i.e. data collection, he will always be in the company of at least one person for personal safety. In addition, the police shall be notified each time the in-depth interviews are being carried out. Finally, the researcher will constantly keep extra money with him and budget for it under miscellaneous to prepare for unforeseen emergencies. 8. CONCLUSION This research investigates the extent and place of business continuity management for blue lights services. The proposed research shall be based on a mixed approach of quantitative and quantitative research methods with in depth interviews and questionnaires being the data collection instruments of choice. It hopes to contribute to the field of civil protection/emergency management by showing how business continuity management can help the blue lights services of the U A E and also inspire other researchers make similar contributions in the future. REFERENCES Arab Internet. 2001. Internet in the UAE. Retrieved 22nd January, 2010 from http://www.itu.int/arabinternet2001/documents/pdf/document25.pdf Cassell C. and Symon G. 1994. Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research: A Practical Guide. London: Sage Publications Creswell, J.W. (2003). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. London: Sage Publications. Just Landed. 2009. Emergencies- What to do in case of an emergency. Retrieved 22nd January, 2010 from http://www.justlanded.com/english/Dubai/Dubai-Guide/Health/Emergencies Kealey D. J and Protheroe D. R. 1996. The effectiveness of cross-cultural training For Expatriates: an assessment of the literature on the issue. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Volume 20 (2): 141-165 Learning Technology Dissemination Initiative. (1999). Questionnaires: Advantages And Disadvantages. Retrieved 23rd January, 2010 from http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/ltdi/cookbook/info_questionnaires/index.html Lewis, P, Saunders, M. and Thornhill, A. (2007). Research Methods for Business Students. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Matveev, AV. (2002). The Advantages of Employing Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Intercultural Research: Practical Implications from the Study of the Perceptions of Intercultural Communication Competence by American and Russian Managers. Retrieved 6th of September, 2009 from http://www.russcomm.ru/eng/rca_biblio/m/matveev01_eng.shtml Myers, M. (2000). Qualitative research and the generalizability question: Standing Firm with Proteus. The Qualitative Report, 4(3/4). Retrieved 23rd January, 2010 from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR4-3/myers.html Shihab, Mohamed. 2000. Economic Development in the UAE. Retrieved 22nd January, 2010 from http://82.195.132.90/uaeint_misc/pdf/perspectives/12.pdf The Centre for Strategy Research. (1997). Advantages of In-depth Interviews (IDIs). Retrieved 22nd January, 2010 from http://www.csr-bos.com/approach/focusgroups.html Tuncalp, S. (1988). The marketing research scene in Saudi Arabia. European Journal of Marketing, 22 (5), 15-22. Read More