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Title: Business Research Methods Adopted From Fourth Edition Uma Sekaran


1
Business Research MethodsAdopted From Fourth
Edition Uma Sekaran
  • Instructor Ahmad Sohail Lodhi
  • MBE, LLB

2
Chapter 2
  • SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION

3
After completing this chapter you would be able
to understand
  • The Hallmarks of Scientific Research
  • Some obstacles to conducting scientific research
    in the management area
  • The building blocks of science in research
  • The hypothetico deductive method
  • Other types of research

4
Definition of Scientific Research
  • Scientific Research focusing on solving problems
    and pursues a step by step logical, organized and
    rigorous method to identify the problems, gather
    data, analyze them and draw valid conclusions
    there from.

5
Why Scientific Research?
  • This research is not based on hunches, experience
    and intuition.
  • It is purposive and rigorous.
  • Enables all those who are interested in
    researching and knowing about the same or similar
    issues to come up with comparable findings when
    data are analyzed.
  • Findings are accurate and confident.
  • Apply solutions to similar problems.
  • It is more objective.

6
Cont.
  • Highlights the most critical factors at the work
    place that need specific attention to solve or
    minimize problems.
  • Scientific Investigation and Managerial Decision
    Making are integral part of effective problem
    solving.
  • It can be applied to both basic and applied
    research.

7
The Hallmarks of Scientific Research
The hallmarks or main distinguishing
characteristics of scientific research may be
listed as follows
  • Purposiveness
  • Rigor
  • Testability
  • Replicability
  • Precision and Confidence
  • Objectivity
  • Generalizability
  • Parsimony

8
Hallmarks of Scientific Research
  • Purposiveness
  • It has to start with a definite aim or purpose.
  • The focus is on increasing employee commitment.
  • Increase employee commitment will translate into
    less turnover, less absenteeism and increased
    performance levels.
  • Thus it has a purposive focus.

9
2. Rigor
  • A good theoretical base and sound methodological
    design would add rigor to the purposive study.
  • Rigor adds carefulness, scrupulousness and the
    degree of exactitude in research.
  • Example
  • A manager asks 10-12 employees how to
    increase the level of commitment. If solely on
    the basis of their responses the manager reaches
    several conclusions on how employee commitment
    can be increases, the whole approach to the
    investigation would be unscientific. It would
    lack rigor for the following reasons

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  • Based on few employees
  • Bias and incorrectness
  • There might be other influences on commitment
    which are ignored and are important for a
    researcher to know
  • Thus, Rigorous involves good theoretical base and
    thought out methodology.
  • These factors enable the researcher to collect
    the right kind of information from an appropriate
    sample with the minimum degree of bias and
    facilitate suitable analysis of the data
    gathered.
  • This supports the other six too.

11
3. Testability
After random selection manager and researcher
develops certain hypothesis on how manager
employee commitment can be enhanced, then these
can be tested by applying certain statistical
tests to the data collected for the purpose.
  • The researcher might hypothesize that those
    employees who perceive greater opportunities for
    participation in decision making would have a
    higher level of commitment.

12
4. Replicability
  • It means that it can be used again if similar
    circumstances prevails.
  • Example
  • The study concludes that participation in
    decision making is one of the most important
    factors that influences the commitment, we will
    place more faith and credence in these finding
    and apply in similar situations. To the extent
    that this does happen, we will gain confidence in
    the scientific nature of our research.

13
5. Precision and Confidence
  • Precision
  • Precision refers to the closeness of the findings
    to reality based on a sample.
  • It reflects the degree of accuracy and exactitude
    of the results of the sample.
  • Example If a supervisor estimated the number of
    production days lost during the year due to
    absenteeism at between 30 and 40, as against the
    actual of 35, the precision of my estimation more
    favorably than if he has indicated that the loss
    of production days was somewhere between 20 and
    50.

14
Confidence
  • Confidence refers to the probability that our
    estimations are correct.
  • That is, it is not merely enough to be precise,
    but it is also important that we can confidently
    claim that 95 of the time our results would be
    true and there is only a 5 chance of our being
    wrong.
  • This is also known as confidence level.

15
6. Objectivity
  • The conclusions drawn through the interpretation
    of the results of data analysis should be
    objective that is, they should be based on the
    facts of the findings derived from actual data,
    and not on our subjective or emotional values.
  • Example If we had a hypothesis that stated that
    greater participation in decision making will
    increase organizational commitment and this was
    not supported by the results, it makes no sense
    if the researcher continues to argue that
    increased opportunities for employee
    participation would still help!

16
7. Generalizability
  • It refers to the scope of applicability of the
    research findings in one organization setting to
    other settings.
  • Example If a researchers findings that
    participation in decision making enhances
    organizational commitment are found to be true in
    a variety of manufacturing, industrial and
    service organizations, and not merely in the
    particular organization studied by the
    researcher, then the generalizability of the
    findings to other organizational settings in
    enhanced. The more generalizable the research,
    the greater its usefulness and value.

17
8. Parsimony
  • Simplicity in explaining the phenomenon or
    problems that occur, and in generating solutions
    for the problems, is always preferred to complex
    research frameworks that consider an unmanageable
    number of factors.
  • For instance, if 2-3 specific variables in the
    work situation are identified, which when changed
    would raise the organizational commitment of the
    employees by 45, that would be more useful be
    more useful and valuable to the manager than if
    it were recommended that he should change 10
    different variables to increase organizational
    commitment by 48.

18
The Building Blocks of Science in Research
  • Deduction and Inductions
  • Answers to issues can be found either by the
    process of induction or the process of induction,
    or by a combination of the two.

19
Deduction
  • Deduction is the process by which we arrive at a
    reasoned conclusion by logical generalization of
    a known fact.

Example we know that all high performers are
highly proficient in their jobs. If John is a
high performer, we then conclude that he is
highly proficient in his job
20
Induction
  • Induction is a process where we observe certain
    phenomena and on this basis arrive at conclusions.

In other words, in induction we logically
establish a general proposition based on observed
facts.
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  • To define or describe the figure.
  • Figure is a five-sided figure enclosing two dots.

29
The Hypothetico-Deductive Method

30
The Hypothetico-Deductive Method
  • The seven-step process in the Hypothetico-Deducti
    ve Method
  • Observation
  • Preliminary Information gathering
  • Theory Formulation
  • Hypothesizing
  • Further scientific data collection
  • Data analysis
  • Deduction

31
Observation
  • Observation is the first stage, in which one
    senses that certain changes are occurring or that
    some new behaviors, attitudes and feelings are
    surfacing in ones environment (i.e., the work
    place).
  • How does one observe phenomena and changes in the
    environment?

32
Preliminary Information Gathering
  • It involves the seeking of information in depth,
    of what is observed.
  • This could be done by talking informally to
    several people in the work setting or to clients
    or to other relevant sources, thereby gathering
    information on what is happening and why.
    (Unstructured interviews)
  • Then it is followed by structured interviews.
  • Additionally by doing library research or
    obtaining information through other sources, the
    investigator would identify how such issues have
    been tackled in other situations.

33
Theory Formulation
  • It is an attempt to integrate all the information
    in a logical manners, so that the factors
    responsible for the problem can be on
    conceptualized and tested.
  • The theoretical framework formulated is often
    guided by experience and intuition.
  • In this step the critical variables are
    identified and examined as to their contribution
    or influence in explaining why the problem occurs
    and how it can be solved.

34
Hypothesizing
  • It is the next logical step after theory
    formulation.
  • From the theorized network of associations among
    the variables, certain testable hypotheses or
    educated conjectures can be generated.
  • Hypothesis testing is called deductive research.
    Sometimes, hypotheses that were not originally
    formulated do get generated through the process
    of induction.

35
Further Specific Data Collection
  • After the development of the hypotheses, data
    with respect to each variable in the hypotheses
    need to be obtained.
  • Further data are collected to test the hypotheses
    that are generated in the study.

36
Data Analysis
  • Data gathered are statistically analyzed to see
    if the hypotheses that were generated have been
    supported.
  • Co relational method will be used to analyze and
    determine the relation ship of two or more
    factors in the hypotheses for example stock
    availability and customer satisfaction.

37
Deduction
  • Deduction is the process of arriving at
    conclusions by interpreting the meaning of
    results of the data analysis.

38
Other Types of Research
  • Case studies and action research are sometimes
    used to study certain types of issues.
  • Case Studies
  • Action Research

39
Case Studies
  • Case studies involve in depth, contextual
    analyses of similar situations in the other
    organizations, where the nature and definition of
    the problem happen to be the same as experienced
    in the current situation.
  • Case study, as a problem solving technique, is
    not often undertaken in organizations because
    such studies dealing with problems similar to the
    one experienced by a particular organization of a
    particular size and in a particular type of
    setting are difficult to come by.

40
Action Research
  • The researcher begins with a problem that is
    already identified and gathers relevant data to
    provide a tentative problem solution.
  • This solution is then implemented, with the
    knowledge that there may be unintended
    consequences following such implementation.
  • The effects are then evaluated, defined and
    diagnosed and the research continues on an
    ongoing basis until the problem is fully resolved.
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