Advance Research Methods

Welcome
• Shall walk through the complete research process.
• Revisit many research techniques.
• Opportunity to design a time-based real research
proposal.
• An active hands-on learning course.
• Write a research proposal as a student, researcher,
or a consultant. Proposal to be evaluated.
• Choose an appropriate quantitative or qualitative
method or follow triangulation.
 Focus
• The detailed coverage of survey technique and
case study as part of the research design.
• Students to extend their mastery by practicing
their ability to apply the concepts to the
preparation of the research proposal inclusive of
developing the instruments of data collection, and
laying down the detailed research design.
• Aim at collecting primary data.
• Number of assignments to be given.
 Course objectives
• To sharpen the students’ analytical skills based on
objective and pragmatic investigation of a situation;
• Develop their own understanding of the research
problems being faced by their clients;
• Develop the ability to convert their
managerial/administrative concerns into research
problem in a clear, objective, and pragmatic manner;
and
• Prepare a research proposal, making an appropriate
use of survey research and/or case study design and
tools learnt in this course.
 Recommended books
• There is no ‘catch-all’ book. Let us locate:
• Zikmund, W. G. (2003). Business research methods.
Mason, Ohio: South Western. Get latest edition
available.
• Sekaran, U. (2004). Research methods for business.
New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• Neuman, W. L. (2006). Social research methods.
Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Get latest edition available.
• Silverman, D. (2005). Doing qualitative research.
London: Sage Publications.
• Guest, G., Namey, E. E., & Mitchell, M. L. (2013).
Collecting qualitative data. Los Angeles: Sage
Topic Selection
Selecting the topic
• Research problem has to have some title (topic).
• No formula for the selection of topic. Freedom of
interest.
• Interest emerges from a variety of sources:
• - Personal experiences.
• - Mass media.
• - Developments in knowledge.
• - Solving problems (Org., family).
• - Hot issues of daily life.
 Start with a broad area of interest

• Don’t try to solve all the problems in one project.

Make it doable. Manageable. So narrow it.
• At the end, you have something specific
(definitive) to say. Not broadly based things.
• For example: within the broad area identify
variables of interest (brainstorming, review of
literature).
 Possible variables:
• Power relations, organizational citizenship
behavior, motivation, customer satisfaction,
customer loyalty, aggressive behavior,
modernism, religiosity, leadership, women
empowerment, women harassment, self concept,
job enrichment, emotional intelligence, emotional
labor, occupational aspirations, conflict
management, stress, organizational commitment,
corporate social responsibility, marketing social
responsibility, corporate voluntarism, super
market loyalty schemes and customer retention,
mobile hand-held devices, work-life balance.
 Some guidelines
• Freedom to select a topic may be frustrating.
• Interest. Limit it to the field of study. Gender
studies. Locate a specialized index related to field.
• Review the literature:
• - Skim the headings till the one catches your
interest.
• - Focus on current research in your field. Any
controversies. What more you would like to
know? Brainstorm.
• From broad area of interest to a narrow topic.
 Narrow it to:
• Focal question you want to answer. Where to
go? If you know where to go then you can ask
for its direction.
• Not a question for interview protocol.
• Research questions determine what is to be
included and what is to be excluded.
• Therefore:
 From a narrowed topic to question (s)
• Find in the topic the question (s) to be answered.
Something which you do not know but feel you
must.
• Why these questions are important? I am studying
X because I want to find out who/ what/ when/
where/ why/ how _______
• Motivating question  transform the question of
your interest that makes others interested in it.
Question with a rationale.
 From questions to problems
• Topic: I am studying harassment of women. Call it
an educational problem. (you may convert it into a
research problem)
• Research Questions: What is the profile of women
experiencing harassment? What could be the
determinants of harassment? What could be its
consequences? How could we overcome it?
• Rationale: could be different for each question.
Usefulness of what we do not know.
 From problem to research problem:
• Practical problem. For solution pose research
question (s). Incomplete knowledge or flawed
understanding will need research. Will result in
research problem.
• Research problem: Involves what we don’t know.
Non availability of answer (s) to the research
question (s) can be a problem for research. Learn
more, create knowledge.
• Solving research problem per se does not solve
the practical problem. Have to apply the research
findings.
 Epistemological considerations
• Research to create knowledge.
• Knowledge that is acceptable in a discipline.
• Acceptability based on grounds and nature of the
knowledge itself. Epistemology.
• Nature of knowledge: natural science, social
science.
• How to acquire that knowledge? Basis  means
for acquiring knowledge. Strategies of research.
 Natural science epistemology
• Positivism: scientific strategy to study the
phenomenon based on five principles:
• 1. Sensory experiences: Knowledge confirmed by the
senses (principle of phenomenalism).
• 2. Theory to generate hypotheses to be tested thereby
provide explanations of laws (principle of
deductivism).
• 3. Knowledge arrived at through gathering of facts
that provide the basis for laws (inductivism).
• 4. Scientific strategy has to be value free (objectivity).
• 5. Scientific findings (statements) can be verified.
Normative statements or beliefs cannot be confirmed
by the senses.
 Positivism in social sciences
• Application of natural science model to social
reality.
• Reality out there. External to the observer.
• Positivism equated with science. Tangled.
• Debate. Opposing positivism or scientific approach
• Subject matter of the natural sciences different
from the social sciences.
• Difficulty to apply the natural science model to SS.
 Interpretivism
• Explanation of human behavior (positivism) vs.
understanding of human behavior (interpretivism).
• Understanding (Weber’s use of Verstehen).
• Emphathic understanding. Interpretive
understanding of social action.
• Subjective meaning of social action.
• Such approach is also called phenomenology.
• Alferd Schutz associated with it.
• How individuals make sense of the world around
them? Based on subjective interpretation.
 Interpretivism (cont.)
• Three main features:
• 1. Reality (social + physical) has meaning for humans.
Common sense thinking. Act. Meaning to own and
others acts. Interactions. All based on interpretation.
• 2. Social scientist has to gain access to people’s
‘common sense thinking’ and hence to interpret their
actions and their social world from their point of
view.
• 3. Researcher’s interpretation of the humans
interpretation + Interpreted in terms of concepts,
theories, and literature of the discipline. Use social
scientific frame. (double interpretation)
 Epistomologically
• Can natural science approach (positivism) be
applied to social science world? Quantitative +
Deductive approach. Theory and research.
• Can the interpretivist approach be a substitute?
Qualitative + inductive approach. Research and
theory.
• Theory and research compliment each other.
 Ontological considerations
• Concerned with the nature of social entities.
• Can social entities be considered as objective
entities?
• Can these social entities be realities external to
social actors?
• Who constructed these realities? Actors?
Researchers?
• Two ontological positions: Objectivism and
constructionism.
• Are these poles apart? Ideal types.
 Objectivism
• Social phenomena and their meaning have an
existence external (independent) of actors.
• Organization as tangible object: rules and
regulations, TQM, meritocracy, bureaucracy,
culture. A reality external to workers. Employees
perform in line with some set pattern.
Organization components outside the employees.
Putting constraints on workers.
• Ideally it is assumed that workers in the
organization have no role in the creation of
organization and its culture.
 Constructionism
• Also called constructivism.
• Social phenomena and its meaning created and
continuously being created by the people.
• Researchers’ own accounts of the social world are
also constructions. Specific version of reality. One
version of knowledge.
• Organization and its culture created. Negotiation.
• Culture persists and antedates the participation of
particular people. Shapes their perspectives.
• Categories of the reality are created. Masculinity.
Research strategy: General orientation 
quantitative vs. qualitative research
• Quantitative researches employ measurement.

Fundamental difference
Quantitative Qualitative
Role of theory to Deductive: theory Inductive: theory
research testing generation
Epistomological Natural science model: Interpretivism
orientation positivism
Ontological Objectivism Constructionism
orientation
 No wedge between the two
• Overtones of one over the other. Examples:
• Qualitative research used for testing theories
rather than generating theories. (Adler and Adler
1985 study of relationship between participation
in athletics and academic achievement. Used
existing literature as proxy for theory.)
• Quantitative: Westergaard et.al. 1989 feeling of
redundancy and job search. Interpretivist tone.
• Use mixed methods.
 Influences on social research
• Epistomology
• Ontology
• Practical considerations
• Values – research not value free. Can intrude any /all steps.
• -- Choice of research area
• -- Formulation of research question
• -- Choice of method
• -- Formulation of research design
• -- Data collection
• -- Analysis of data
• -- Interpretation of data
• -- Conclusions