How can one overcome the difficulties of gaining access to organizations for research when gatekeepers have got a low perceived value of research?

Sorry for the awkward situation you are in.  If possible this situation should be considered / addressed during initial stage of research i.e data collection availability.  Suggesting the following approach:

How can one overcome the difficulties of gaining access to organizations for research when gatekeepers have got a low perceived value of research?

Sorry for the awkward situation you are in.  If possible this situation should be considered / addressed during initial stage of research i.e data collection availability.  Suggesting the following approach:

Build a relationship on trust through effective communication and buy-in that stems from effective networking and collaborations

Sir,

You can search the web site and contact some of the officials or HR in the same regard as they would understand the importance of research . You can also share any benefits which that organisation would get out of your research , if any.

Dear,

you may overcome the difficulties you mention through innovative ways of collaboration between the researcher (person or institution) and the different entities that you are interested in.

For instance, start a forum that shares opinions, views, experiences, etc, getting the attention you need and later the data you seek.

Most often there is nothing in it for the customer (Organization you are wanting to do research with). In my 30 year career i never bothered to write grants, or seek monies elsewhere for my research. i always did somthing for the organization that they wanted and gleaned valuable research as an aside. For example i told a company that wanted to gather data from their employees that i would hbe more than happy to develop a survey for them and administer and provide them with the results for a reasonable sum of money (much less than the going rate) if i would be allowed to add survey items related to research i wanted to do. I had to promise that in the research publications i would not identify the organization but that asa supplement to the research i published i would also write a tech report for them on the topic that would be useful to them i would explain to them how this extra data would allow me to give them extra useful information on how i could help them better understand employee motivation.

in other instances i would approach the HR head of a company and ask what particular issues they had regarding employee motivation or employee absenteeism or commitment etc and how i might be able to help them understand the issues more clearly and also provide some help in alleviating these concerns.

the point is you need to approach organizations with the idea that you would like to help them solve their particular problems, not do your own research. Then in some cases i have actually only charged them for expenses and hired students to help me and did the work for them and at the same time gathered research data.

dont go in asking to do research go in asking to help them solve their problems and as an aside get your data. this approach was very effective for me and rewarding for both me and the organizations i did work for

Hi Lysias, Very practical question. Researchers often has to face this situation. This is the age of networking. A researcher must foresee this situation as a part of his research design. He or she must develop relationship in and around such gatekeepers and try to penetrate honorably. In my country where research culture does not exist. access to organizations is mostly denied. I've always developed networking well before time to gain access to desired sample. I think this would be good food for thought.

Dear Lysias,

1) First, please distinguish action research (consulting) descibed in James' answer and pure academic research. In my experience, after a really valuable consulting assignent you can publish nothing as you know the business (not a particular organization) too well to be allowed to publish anything.

2) Second, use a tactics "to crawl under the gate". With a letter from your dean or from a respected person in industry association (regional administration) try to administer a survey on a number of companies with relatively neutral questions. Do address middle managers of different functions. Ask them to indicate their willigness to continue the communication in face-to-face interviews. Use a fraction of "Yes" answer to build deeper contacts.

3) Third, try the way to circumbent gatekeepers and to meet real decsion-makers (top executives nd/or owners). Be present at occasional industry conferences with participation of such top executives, put to them direct and interesting questions, approach them in coffree-breaks with your business card and achieve a preliminary semi-agreement (mmm-maybe...) on further contacts with the company. 

Using the three described approaches I contacted over the past four years 70 companies with global annual sales of US$950 billion, talking with all kind of persons, from plant superintendents to global CEOs and Vice-Chairmen of the Board of Directors.

Success!

Igor Gurkov