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Introduction to Research Methods: A Practical Guide for Anyone Undertaking a Research Project, Dawson, How To Books Ltd; 4th

Revised edition edition (29 May 2009) Research Methods for Business Students, Saunder et al, Financial Times/ Prentice Hall; 6th edition (2012) Business Research Methods, Bryman and Bell, OUP Oxford; 3 edition (2011)

http://researchproposalguide.com/ http://web.pdx.edu/~bertini/pdf/literature_review.pdf The Harvard styles can be downloaded from here http://bibword.codeplex.com/releases/view/15852 This video explains how add it in Word 2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FCtvyAN1_4

Validity, reliability and generalizability: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/relandval.php Reflections: Fully appraises the resources needed (including an audit of the researchers knowledge and skills) and ethical implications associated with the proposal" What it asks you to do is actually three things. The first relates to resources. Usually you won't need anything in particular as regards equipment but one resource is access. So if you want to look at a particular business will they talk to you? if not how will you do it? Secondly, you. Are you personally equipped to do this work? What skills/experience do you have? what development needs do you have? Using something like Kolb's Learning cycle or one of the other theories on reflection is worth considering. It asks you to consider how best you work and whether what you have planned fits that style. The links below take you to a couple of the most widely used theories: https://journals.gre.ac.uk/index.php/compass/article/view/12/28 http://www.bradford.ac.uk/wimba-files/skill-space/Reflective_Writing_HTML/page_04.htm Reflection is an attempt to get you to learn from past actions and then positively take steps to incorporate these lessons in your working life. The link below has a simple account of some of the key models. : http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/reflecti.htm

Unit 1: Research Overview A basic framework for management research method categorizes the various tasks under six headings:

Administration and time management. Managing relationships with other people. Managing places and spaces. Using libraries (including sources of information). Literature searching. Research equipment.

Planning: the key questions:


Why are you undertaking the research? Who are you going to report your findings to? What are you hoping to find out or establish? How are you going to find it out? Where are you going to be doing your research? When will you be doing your research?

'Hypothesis' as a 'supposition made as the basis for reasoning without reference to its truth, or as a starting point for investigation'. A hypothesis is really an intelligent guess or prediction, often about the outcome of a proposed sequence of events. The guess or prediction is stated at the beginning of a report and then a discussion takes place about how you propose to prove whether it is correct or not. A hypothesis usually takes the form of relating two variables. Planning for the research; The idea can be obtained using Area Field Aspect approach

Area is the board field of study that might relate to a business discipline i.e. marketing, HR Field is a component element of the area of study i.e. employee relations, social marketing Aspect is one section of a field i.e. disciplinary and grievance policy

General success factors

Jankowicz (1991) describes a number of factors that are likely to lead to success in a research project:

The acquisition of concepts and techniques. The effective practice and manipulation of the concepts and techniques in a manner directed towards the attainment of specific goals.

Addressing the issues in the context of the particular business environment.

Using mind map. Formulating and clarifying research questions and objectives Your research questions should aim to collect information on facts and opinions from a sufficiently large range of people to be able to address the key objectives of your project. You will need to have satisfied yourself that you can provide confident answers to three key questions.

What do you want to find out about your investigation How much details does your audience need What is your research actually measuring

Unit 2: Data gathering techniques The principal methods of data collection can be summarised as follows: Primary data collection

Questionnaires. Structured interviews. Unstructured interviews. Focus groups. Observation. Participant observation.

Secondary data analysis

Literary analysis. Public records. Content analysis. Conversation analysis.

Interaction analysis. Video analysis.

As we descend the list of primary collection methods, the level of personal involvement on the part of the researcher increases, and the respondent group size decreases.

With secondary analysis the level of subjective or interpretive flexibility decreases as we go down this list.

Quantitative research seeks to quantify data, typically through applying some form of statistical analysis. Qualitative research is a primarily exploratory approach, intended to provide insight and understanding.

Again the boundaries and definitions can become blurred. The results of qualitative research will often be presented as numerical, quantitative outcomes; and may be used for many other purposes in addition to purely exploratory research. Secondary data sources

Most of the date which you can collect over the Internet, in books or in journals will be secondary.

Secondary data analysis is "any further analysis of an existing data set which presents interpretations, conclusions or knowledge in addition to, or different from, those presented in the first report on the inquiry as a whole and its main results." (Hakim 1982)

Unit 3: Analyzing data

http://www.analytictech.com/mb870/Readings/ryan-bernard_techniques_to_identify_themes_in.htm

Unit 4: Writing up research

Report structure The structure consists of the following key headings:

Title page.

This will include a formal title (which needs to be concise, precise and sufficiently informative), the author's name and the date of publication. It is always a good idea to reconsider the title once the report has been completed to ensure that an appropriate one has been chosen. Indeed, in many written works, the title is only chosen after completion of the main material.

Abstract or summary.

This consists of a brief description of generally no more than 200 words of the objectives of the research, the methods used in investigations and a brief outline of the conclusions reached. This will enable the reader to decide what relevance the report has to their work, and also whether it is even worth reading!

Acknowledgements.

This section allows the author to recognise those who have offered help in both the research and the report. These may be the organisations which have collaborated with the project, as well as those individuals who have proofread scripts or typed material.

Contents page. Introduction.

This will provide an explanation of the study, i.e. what led to the study that has been undertaken. It will also discuss the aims and any hypotheses that have been propounded. The scope of the project and its limitations would also be included. Appropriate reference to supporting information which places the project in context is beneficial. At the end of this section, an outline of the rest of the report is usually provided.

Literature review.

Details of the literature review are supplied to show the relationship between new interpretations of written material and previous published work. The depth of the review will, of course, depend on the amount of available material with direct relevance. Nevertheless, it must be selective and deal only with material that has a direct contextual link with the research in question. It is advisable to structure this section so that material with more obvious association is referred to first. Similarly, material should be dealt with in chronological order where it has equal research importance.

Methodology.

This section should detail the methods adopted to carry out the research, stating how it has been decided to retain or discard sources of information. Indicate here how appropriate theories and models have been used and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. References should also be made to the range of the research, including such information as selection and size of questionnaire samples.

Results, analysis and discussion.

There are five key points that need to be covered in this section:

Restate the aims and hypotheses, and discuss how closely these have been met or proved. Critically evaluate the effectiveness of the methodology in order to identify any oversights. Describe ways in which improvements could be made. Describe the significance of the research findings. Show how they provide a basis for the existing body of knowledge on the subject by comparing them with the findings of other research studies that have been made. Carefully search for any results that were unexpected. Almost always there will be some surprise outcomes. These need to be explained as they will often provide the basis for suggestions for improvements. Graphs, tables and figures should be included where appropriate, but always with suitable titles and numbering system. Keys and explanations are essential.

Summary & Conclusions.

With all reports, there will always be some members of your anticipated audience who will read only the conclusions. For this reason, it is important that all the statements made within this section are directly related to the research questions, gathered from the available results and is kept closely in context. Avoid the temptation to read more into the available information than is in fact there! You might decide that there is scope for further research to develop certain aspects further. If this is the case then this should be pointed out here, explaining that the limitations placed on your research would have prevented you from going any further.

Recommendations.

This section deals with the proposals that you may be able to make in light of the findings from your research. These will be referred to later on in this unit, but should be kept brief. Remember that to be useful, any recommendations must appear to have a likelihood of success in the short term and also be achievable. Over-optimistic, ambitious recommendations are unlikely to be accepted.

This suggestion section indicates possible stepping stones for dealing with the findings of your research - expected or not! Any recommendations must be as clear and concise as possible. They should be SMART:

Specific. Measured. Achievable. Realistic. Time dependent.

References and bibliography.

Where specific written sources are used it is necessary that an accurate and detailed reference is made to them. The convention is to follow the Harvard System. This provides the following information:

Author's surname and initials. Year of publication. Title (usually in italics). Edition (if not the first). Place of publication. Publisher.

An example would be: Boddy D. (2002) Management: An Introduction. 2nd ed. Harlow. Pearson Education Ltd.

Appendices.

Any supporting literature or documentation should be included in this section along with any specific reference material which might be usefully reproduced. Those who wish to read about

the study in more detail should be able to find resources in this section. For example, blank copies of questionnaires might be of interest to some readers.

Justification for the research:

Efficiency and effectiveness Costs Benefits Innovation Creativity

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