Integrated-flexible research methodology: An alternative approach

Abstract

The research process is not a smooth process that moves from one stage to another, or a sequential process growingfrom the roots of ontology and epistemology towards the data collection and analytical techniques and interpretations. The existentialist position of the interpretive / reformist paradigm is that reality is subjective and multiple, that it does not exist independently in the human mind. Their epistemological stance is that the available knowledge depends on the researcher's thoughts and desires. That is, "knowledge" is created by the seeker and deploying a specific methodology which is not necessarily a sequential set of "stages", a "step-by-step" course or a "layer-by-layer" peeling activity like peeling-off an onion.