Practice Research objective Methodological reflection on Case Study 7

11.5.3 Research strategy

Because the six companies requesting the development of a best practice also wanted the study to generate an evaluation of their own practices, and because each of these companies had given access to their prac- tices, it was an appropriate decision to include all six companies in this study. The design of this study, thus, became a comparative descriptive case study of the standardization procedures in the six companies that had requested it.

11.5.4 Candidate cases

Because the best practice that should be designed was explicitly meant to be a best practice for the process industry only, candidate cases for the description of elements of current practices from which a best practice could be built should be instances of standardization proced- ures in the process industry. The six companies were all part of the process industry.

11.5.5 Case selection

In a descriptive case study, case selection should be governed by con- venience, feasibility, and likely effectiveness. All six companies were included in the study.

11.5.6 Measurement

The researchers in this study needed to use a framework that helped them to decide which kinds of processes should be looked for in the six companies. Partially based on some initial exploratory measurement about the standardization processes in the six companies, and partially based on a model found in the literature, the researchers developed a process model of company standardization. This model defined four “core” and four “facilitating” processes that had to be “filled” with descriptions of how these processes were actually shaped in the six com- panies. Using a questionnaire that covered the eight processes of the model as an interview guide, semi-structured interviews with standardiza- tion managers and other informants were conducted in each of the six 250 companies to investigate how the processes in these companies were shaped.

11.5.7 Data presentation

The result of this first part of the measurement was a description of each of the six standardization practices in the format of the process model. Each of the elements in these descriptions was a candidate element of a best practice.

11.5.8 Data analysis

Criteria for choosing the best practices, from the description of the separate practices, were developed in a researchers’ brainstorming ses- sion. These criteria were applied and this resulted in a proposal for a best practice based on a reasoned choice of elements from the six described standardization practices. Next, this proposal was presented to the standardization managers in the six companies and each of them was asked to rate their own practice against the proposal. It appeared that, in this rating procedure, each of the six managers accepted the proposal as a description of the best practice. Finally, in five of the six companies, a focus group discussion was arranged in which the relative scores of the company, as compared with the best practice and with the other companies, were evaluated. It appeared that all elements of the proposal for a best practice were seen by each of the five focus groups as definitely representing the best practice. This best practice was described within the framework of Figure 11.2.

11.5.9 Implications for practice

The practice-oriented objective of this research was to contribute to the improvement of the company standardization procedures of six companies by designing a best practice that was acceptable to each of them. A proposal for a best practice was developed from elements of the current practices of these six companies and practitioners evalu- ated the result as an improvement upon their current practices. This meant that the objective of this study was achieved. Chapter 11