International Communication in Saudi Arabia

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Introduction

Communication is among the most important factor that is considered while building business or personal relationships. Throughout the world, people have dedicated much effort in establishing and improving their communication skills. Similarly, Greene and Burleson state that a lot of research has been conducted in order to provide people with the information needed to facilitate effective communication.

In Saudi Arabia, international communication has for a long time been hampered by language barriers and cultural beliefs, which limits peoples’ ability to communicate with foreigners.

However, due to globalization, technological advancement, education and economic aspirations, there has been a notable improvement in this regard. As such, majority of the Saudi citizens acknowledge the importance of communicating to foreigners and others desire to communicate to the visitors in order to advance their own interests.

This can be evidenced from the increase in international relations between Saudi and other foreign nations, the significant increase in the number of foreign tourists visiting Saudi and the fact that most Saudi citizen can speak at least one or more foreign languages. This section shall set out to detail the methodology used to gather information regarding Saudi’s citizens desire to communicate to visitors.

To this end, a brief overview of the research method selected shall be provided and an explanation as to why the research method is the most appropriate for this kind of research shall also be provided.

The processes used to gather the information shall also be detailed and the ethical and legal considerations that have to be made highlighted. All this shall be done to ensure that the data collected is credible and acquired in a manner that is ethically and legally acceptable.

Research methodology

Catherine (2002) defines research methodology as the structured process used by researchers in order to collect data on the issue being studied. Depending on the type of data being collected, research often fall under two main categories: qualitative and quantitative research.

Quantitative research method refers to the processes used to gather scientific and statistical data, while qualitative research methods are applied in social sciences studies. Considering that the topic under discussion relates to social sciences, this research shall adopt qualitative method of data collection.

Research design

Ranjit (2005) states that application studies can be classified into two broad categories. These categories are: pure research and applied research. The author further states that applied research is done when the researcher seeks to solve a specific and practical question or to understand a given phenomenon.

This research fits this description and it shall be descriptive in nature. According to Liamputtong (2009), descriptive research sets out to systematically describe a given situation by evaluating the attitudes the participants have towards the issue or phenomenon being studied.

Considering these facts, this study shall be a descriptive research since it seeks to describe, explain and understand Saudi citizens desire to communicate to their visitors.

Sample population

A stratified random sample shall be used to select participants for this research. Stratified random sample refers to the process through which the population is divided into mutually exclusive groups such as age, gender, educational level and financial status among others. After dividing the population into such groups, random sample are drawn from the selected groups.

The sample population will consist of 100 randomly selected participants. 25% of the selected subjects shall be aged between 25 and 30 years, 50% shall be aged between 30 and 50 years and the remaining percentage shall consist of participants above the age of 50 years.

The rationale behind this selection is that people aged between 30 and 50 years constitute the largest percentage of the working class in Saudi.

As such, they are better placed to give valuable information as to why the Saudi citizens desire to communicate to visitors and the importance of such communications from an economic and socio-cultural perspective. The main channel of contact shall be through interview schedules and random face to face meetings at different avenues.

Primary data collection

Primary data regarding this topic shall be collected through interviews, surveys and questionnaires. These tools of data collection are the most appropriate since they enable the researcher to collect accurate and reliable data from the selected subjects. Khanzode (2004) asserts that an unstructured approach is most convenient when conducting a qualitative research.

He bases this assertion on the fact that the unstructured approach “allows flexibility in all aspects of the research process (Khanzode, 2004, p. 19).” Unstructured approach to inquiry is appropriate in this research since it enables the researcher to explore the nature of the phenomenon being studied and to evaluate the variations in that situation.

The questions designed for the interviews, surveys and questionnaires shall focus on answering the research questions. In this research, intercept interviews shall be conducted.

Kothari (2008) asserts that intercept interviews are convenient because they enable the interviewer to reach known period within a short time, they are the only method that can be used to reach people with unknown addresses and they involve talking to people in their homes, offices or on the streets. The surveys and questionnaires enable researchers to gather large amount of data quickly and conveniently.

Seeking consent

There are ethical issues that must be considered before collecting data for a research. Mainly, they involve the researchers conduct throughout the research and the concerns raised by the selected participants. To ensure that this research is conducted in an ethical manner, all participants shall be required to sign an informed consent form.

According to Catherine (2002), an informed consent form is a document signed by a research participant showing that he/she understands all aspects of the research including why the research is being conducted, how the research shall benefit the participants or society, the risks of the research and how the findings of the research shall be used.

Ensuring that all participants of this research have signed an informed consent shall guarantee that the process of data collection was done in an ethical manner.

Processing data

According to Konthari (2008), processing and analyzing collected data is a process that consists of various closely related operations. The purpose of this process is mainly to organize and summarize collected data in a manner that it answers the research questions designed for the given study. The operations used in this research shall include:

Editing

This is a process through which the researcher examines the collected data with an aim of identifying and correcting errors where possible. Editing is important since it enables the researcher to detect errors and omissions that may influence the results of the research.

Classification

Classification is a process through which edited data is arranged in groups depending on common characteristics that are important to the phenomenon being studied. In this case, data collected shall be classified in different themes such as economical benefits, social benefits and cultural benefits.

Tabulation

This is a process through which collected data is summarized and displayed in a compact form pending further analysis. In most cases, it involves arrangement of data into rows and columns for purposes of comparison, space conservation and statistical computations.

Data analysis

Data collected in this research shall be subjected to content analysis. Content analysis is the process through which a researcher examines the content of the responses given by participants in order to identify main themes that appear and are related to the topic being studied.

Reporting the findings

This section shall serve as a summarized version of the methodology section. In this section, I shall summarize what has been done, what was discovered and the conclusions that I have made from the findings regarding the topic.

Limitations

Like any other research, there are some foreseeable challenges that I may face as a result of my research methodology. Firstly, there is always the risk that the subjects may not give me accurate data during the interviews, the survey and the questionnaires.

Secondly, there is a room for error and bias if I ask the wrong questions and during the sample selection process. Despite these challenges, I believe that this quantitative method is the most appropriate for this specific research.

Conclusively, this paper has explained the methodology of conducting a research, various factors that should be considered when coming up with a research methodology have been highlighted, and their relevance to research discussed.

References

Catherine, D. (2002). Practical Research Methods. New Delhi: UBS Publishers’ Distributors.

Khanzode, V. (2004). Research Methodology. New York: APH Publishing.

Kothari, C. (2008). Research methodology: methods and techniques. New Jersey: New Age International

Liamputtong, P. (2009). Qualitative research methods. London: Oxford University Press.

Ranjit, K. (2005). Research Methodology-A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners, (2nd.ed). Singapore: Pearson Education.

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