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Research As A Creative and Strategic Thinking Process: How Do Creativity and Strategy Fit Into Analytic Research?

The document discusses how research requires both creative and logical thinking. It explains that research engages both the left brain, which is logical and analytical, and the right brain, which is intuitive and creative. The document also outlines how the construct of research has evolved from a purely positivist view that assumed a knowable world to a post-positivist view that acknowledges ambiguity and subjectivity. It notes research involves laying groundwork, defining questions, researching reflexively, exploring literature and methods, and communicating findings.

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Mikey Schoonderwoerd
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128 views

Research As A Creative and Strategic Thinking Process: How Do Creativity and Strategy Fit Into Analytic Research?

The document discusses how research requires both creative and logical thinking. It explains that research engages both the left brain, which is logical and analytical, and the right brain, which is intuitive and creative. The document also outlines how the construct of research has evolved from a purely positivist view that assumed a knowable world to a post-positivist view that acknowledges ambiguity and subjectivity. It notes research involves laying groundwork, defining questions, researching reflexively, exploring literature and methods, and communicating findings.

Uploaded by

Mikey Schoonderwoerd
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Research as a Creative and Strategic Thinking Process

How do creativity and strategy fit into analytic research?

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter One

Exploring Research
Research is a thinking persons game and a whole brain endeavour that uses both the

Creative Right Brain


and the

Logical Left
2

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter One

Left and Right Brain Attributes

The Logical Left

The Creative Right

Analytic Logical Temporal Sequential Orderly Systematic Formal Linear Verbal Factual Concrete

Intuitive Spontaneous A temporal Random Diffuse Causal Informal Holistic Non-verbal Imaginative Metaphoric
3

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter One

The thinking processes of the creative often involve:


Fluency and flexibility Originality Remote associations

Redefinitions
Sensitivity to problems Acceptance of ambiguity

Divergence
O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter One 4

The Construct of Research

Scientific research was born of positivism adopted the assumptions of that paradigm including:

a knowable and predictable world empirical and reductionist research objective and expert researcher hypothesis driven methods and statistically significant, quantitative findings

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter One

The Construct of Research

Over the past decades, the assumptions of positivism have been brought into question. Post-positivists researchers acknowledge:

a world that is ambiguous and variable research that can be intuitive and holistic researchers that can be subjective and collaborative methods that can be inductive and exploratory and findings that can be idiographic and qualitative
O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter One 6

The Assumptions

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter One

Putting it all together

Getting your head around the pieces of the research jigsaw can be confusing The major pieces of the puzzle include

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter One

Laying the Groundwork

Understanding the need for creative and strategic thinking in research Appreciating research as a construct

Being able to wade through complexity


Developing strategies for staying on top of the process

(see Chs 1 and 2)


O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter One 9

Defining the Question

The art and science of knowing what you want to know

Developing researchable questions that can direct methods

(see Ch 3)

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter One

10

Researching Reflexively

Negotiating power, politics and ethical responsibilities (Ch 4)

Getting a handle on the criteria and indicators of good research (Ch 5)

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter One

11

Exploring the literature


Knowing what to read How to find it How to put boundaries on it How to organize it How to annotate it How to construct arguments with it How to write a literature review
O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter One 12

(See Ch 6)

Exploring design, methodologies, and methods

Being able to think your way through the logistics and practicalities of methodological design (Ch 7) Being able to:

explore populations (Ch 8) delve deeper (Ch 9) facilitate change (Ch 10)

Working through the nitty gritty of data collection (Ch 11)


O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter One 13

Communicating through research

Crafting a compelling and credible storyline through reflexive analysis (Ch 12) Writing up and disseminating your work (Ch 13)

O'Leary, Z. (2004) The Essential Guide to Doing Research. London: Sage Chapter One

14

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