RESEARCH METHODS

LECTURE 4

SOURCES OF DATA & DATA COLLECTION

1 – (CONCEPTS AND VARIABLES)
 THE NATURE OF DATA
Data are the lifeblood of research
-UK Data Service
 Unorganised facts, numbers

 Raw or unarranged pieces of facts such as

alphabets, numbers, or symbols that identify or
represent conditions, ideas, or objects, etc.
 EXPLANATION OF TERMS
 A concept describes an idea that can be stated as a
symbol
 A variable can be observed or measured
 Consider the following Examples for a concept and
a variable

SCENARIO 1 (THE CULTURE OF AN ORGANISATION)

The organizational culture of a firm is a many-sided concept,
and providing a clear description can be quite tricky. When
identifying an organizational culture, some people may describe
it as a ‘feeling’ when entering the organization; others may
allude to the stories told about the organization or to the rituals
followed within the organization; yet other people may mention
the organizational hierarchy. All these factors have some
bearing on the concept ‘organizational culture’.
 EXAMPLE 2 ( MOTIVATION)
The levels of motivation to learn among members in a work team may take
on varying values ranging from ‘very low’ to ‘very high’. An individual’s
motivation to learn in different work teams may also take on differing
values. But how one measures the level of motivation is an entirely different
matter. The factor called motivation has to be removed from its level of
abstraction and operationalized in such a way that it becomes measurable.

EXAMPLE 3 (EXAM MARK)

A student’s score in exams one, two and three for a particular subject may
be different (take on differing values). Equally, the scores of different
students for the same exam may differ. In both cases the exam score takes
on differing values and hence is a variable.
 THE NATURE OF VARIABLES IN
RESEARCH
 The dependent variable (also known as the criterion
variable)
 The independent variable ( also known as the predictor
variable
 The moderating variable

 The intervening variable

 Variables can be discrete (e.g. male or female) or

continuous (e.g. the age of an individual.
 THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE
 The dependent variable is the variable of primary interest to
the researcher.
 The goal of the researcher is to understand and describe the
dependent variable or to explain its variability or predict it.
 Through analysis of the dependent variables, it is possible to
find solution to the problem
 For this reason, the researcher will be interested in
quantifying and measuring the dependent variable, as well
as other variable that influence this variable.
EXAMPLE 1
A marketing manager is concerned that the sales of a new product
introduced after test marketing is not as high as he had expected.
The dependent variable in this situation is sales. Because the sales
of the product can vary – can be low, medium or high, - it is
considered a variable; since sales is the main factor of interest to the
manager, it is the dependent variable.

EXAMPLE 2
A basic researcher is interested in finding out the debt –to-equity
ratio of manufacturing companies in Kumasi. The dependent
variable is the debt-to-equity ratio.
 EXAMPLE 3

A human resource manager is concerned that the employees

are not loyal to the organization and, in fact, shift their
loyalties to other institutions. The dependent variable in this
case is organizational loyalty.
 INDEPENDENT VARIABLE

 An independent variable is one that influences the dependent

variable in either a negative or positive way.
 This means that when the independent variable is present,
the dependent variable is also present.
 Also, with each unit of increase in the independent variable,
there is an increase or decrease in the dependent variable
too.
 In other words, the variance in the dependent variable is
accounted for by the independent variable.
 EXAMPLE 1
Studies suggest that successful new product development has an
influence on the share market price of the company. Here, the
development of a successful new product influences the share market
price and explains the variance in it; that is the more successful the
new product turn to be, the higher the share market price of the firm.
As a result, the success of the new product is the independent
variable, and share market price is the dependent variable. The
degree of perceived success of the new product will explain the
variance in the share market price of the company.
The relationship between and labelling of the variables is shown in
the next figure.
 New product
Success Share Market Price

Independent variable Dependent variable

The relationship between the independent variable (new

product success) and the dependent variable (share market
price).
 MODERATING VARIABLE
Refers to a variable that has a strong contingent effect on the independent variable –
dependent variable relationship.
Independent variable Dependent variable
Case 1: The relationship
between “number of Number of Reading
books” and “reading books abilities
abilities”

Independent variable Dependent variable

Number of Reading
Case 2: The relationship books abilities
between “number of books”
and “reading abilities”, as
moderated by parents’ literacy Parents’ literacy
Moderating variable
 MODERATING VARIABLE…
Scenario 2:
Considering the effects of workforce diversity on
organisational effectives

Independent variable Dependent variable

Workforce Organisational
diversity effectiveness
Case 3: The relationship
among three variables:
workforce diversity,
organisational effectiveness, Managerial
and managerial expertise expertise
Moderating variable
 MODERATING VARIABLE…

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE vs. MODERATING

VARIABLE

At times, deciding when a variable should be treated as an

independent variable and when it is a moderating variable
can be confusing.

Consider the following situations…

Situation 2 MODERATING VARIABLE…
 Another research study indicates that the willingness of employees to learn new
ways of doing things is not influenced by the quality of the training programs
offered by the organisation for all people.
 Only those who have high growth needs seem to be willing to learn to do new
things through specialized training.
Independent variable Dependent variable

Quality of Employee
Case 5: ‘Growth needs training willingness to
strength’ is considered a program learn
moderating variable

Growth needs
strength
Moderating variable
 INTERVENING VARIABLE

 An intervening variable is one that emerges between the

time the independent variables operate to influence the
dependent variable and its impact on the dependent variable.
 An intervening variable is both a product of the
independent variable and a cause of the dependent
variable.
 INTERVENING VARIABLE…

 Example 1
In the previous example, where the independent variable “workforce diversity”
influenced the dependent variable “organisational effectiveness”, an
intervening variable that surfaces as a function of the diversity in the workforce
is creative synergy
t1 t2 t3
Case 5: the
relationship
among the
Workforce Creative Organisationa
independent, diversity synergy l effectiveness
intervening and
depend variables
Independent variable Intervening variable Dependent variable
 DATA COLLECTION
 The fundamental means of collecting data
for a business research thesis are:
 By analysing secondary data
 By means of observation
 Through the use of interviews
 By means of questionnaires
 By the use of emerging organisational data
 SECONDARY DATA

Secondary data comes in different kinds

 Data from the outside the organisation provides an
indication of the industry or sector or even the market
conditions
 Data from within the organisation describes the way
things are done in the organisation as well as the
broader cultural situation
 OBSERVATION
“You can observe a lot by watching” Yogi Berra
When might it be used?

Observation is a skill we lose as we get older

Explicit awareness is a skill that needs to be developed

A suitable chapter on observational studies can be seen in Bell (2005:185)
Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-Time Researchers in Education, Health
and Social Science
 INTERVIEWS
When are they appropriate?
Interviews come in three forms:
Structured – standard questions (usually a questionnaire), suitable
for large samples
Semi-structured – similar questions, normally meant for relatively
small samples
Unstructured – for a very small sample
These can be conducted on a 1:1 basis or in groups -
one variant of the latter being the focus group.

The most commonly used in masters dissertations is

the semi-structured interview. Why?
 Interviewing
Issues to be addressed

 Interviewing  Face to face or over the

competence telephone
 Access  Piloting
 Number of  Method of recording
interviewees  Method of analysis
 Length of interview
What is a reasonable number of
respondents for interviews?
For interviews
6 to 10 (for 40 minute interviews)
5 minutes per question
More people for shorter interviews
Less respondents for longer interviews
 Questionnaires
 Questionnaires are used for asking several
people the same question - valuable for
obtaining large amounts of data that can be
quantitatively analysed.

 But beware – it is no mean skill to design

an effective questionnaire.
 Questionnaire Issues

 Access  Order and flow of

 Number sent out questions
 Response rate  Piloting
 Length of  Coding
questionnaire  Method of analysis
 Paper or internet
LENGTH OF QUESTIONNAIRE

 10 minutes

 A lot of thought and deep thinking have to

go into the structure of the questionnaire to
make them easy to understand and answer
The Sensible Number of Respondents for
Questionnaires?
For questionnaires….
it depends on the number of variables
but 50 is a good number
(however you may need to send out 150 to get 50 back),

4 to 5 closed questions per minute

2 open questions per minute
Maximum of 15 minutes
 When to use?

Interview – for an in depth understanding

Questionnaire – to seek the views of

several people with different attributes

Consider the pros and cons of the different data collection

methods?