Dealing with

practical issues
Lecture 2

1
Learning objectives

• After studying this topic, you should be able to

– Determine the knowledge, skills and personal qualities
researchers need
– Use techniques for generating research topics
– Negotiate access to data and consider ethical issues
– Plan the management of the research process
– Identify any funding constraints
• Independent study
– Study Chapter 2
– Other activities as set

2
Introduction

• Planning and good project management are essential to

the success of a research project
• You will need
– Knowledge, skills and other personal qualities
– A clear idea of what you are going to investigate and the
funding implications
– Access to the relevant data
– Awareness of ethical issues
– A realistic timetable
– An efficient system for managing the research

3
Skills and personal qualities

Perseverance

4
Exercise 1. Evaluate your personal qualities and
research skills
Weak Strong
Intellectual skills (eg ability to learn, analyse, synthesise) 1 2 3 4 5

Communication skills (written and verbal) 1 2 3 4 5

IT skills (eg Excel, statistics, database searching) 1 2 3 4 5

Organisational skills (eg administration, time mgt) 1 2 3 4 5

Independence (eg work alone with only guidance) 1 2 3 4 5

Motivation (reasons for doing the research) 1 2 3 4 5

Perseverance (eg overcome problems/complete) 1 2 3 4 5

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Attributes needed during the research process
Choose a topic and search the literature
(topic & research knowledge, administration skills,
motivation)
Review literature and define the research
question(s)
(topic and research knowledge, communication
skills, creativity)
Design the research
(research knowledge)
Collect the research data
(topic & research knowledge,
communication & IT skills,
Analyse and interpret
perseverance)
the research data
Write
(topic the
& research
dissertation
knowledge, or
IT skills,
thesis
motivation)
(topic & research
knowledge,
communication
skills, motivation,
perseverance)
6
Examples of topics, research problems and
related research questions

Example 1 Example 2
Topic Employee retention Finance

Research Effect of new career-break Access to finance for small

problem scheme in Firm A on the firms
recruitment and retention of
skilled staff

Research How has the new career- How do small firms meet
question break scheme contributed to their needs for finance (in a
employment in Firm A? particular industry,
geographical location, time
period, etc.)?

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Choosing a topic

• Choose a topic (subject) related to your degree

– Get inspiration from what interest you and how it might
enhance your employability
– Consider how you will get access to research data
• Read more by searching the literature for relevant
information (more about this later)
• Focus your ideas, decide the scope and set the
parameters
– Eg A study of a particular group of employees, size of
business, industry, geographical location, period of time

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Generating a topic – brainstorming and
analogy

• Brainstorming – creative thinking by pooling

spontaneous ideas
– You need at least one other interested person
– Jot down all ideas and review each one in more detail later

• Analogy – design a study in one subject by importing

ideas and procedures from another area where they are
similarities

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Generating a topic – morphological analysis

• Morphological analysis - the subject is analysed into its

key attributes and a ‘mix and match’ approach is adopted
– Draw up a table in which you analyse a general subject
area of interest into its key factors or dimensions (the
column headings)
– List the various attributes of each factor in the appropriate
columns
– Generate a topic by taking ‘mix and match’ approach ...

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Example of a morphological analysis
Subject: research
Type of research Methodology Unit of analysis
Exploratory Cross-sectional study An individual
Descriptive Experimental study An event
Analytical Longitudinal study An object
Predictive Survey A body of individuals
Quantitative Action research A relationship
Qualitative Case study An aggregate
Deductive Collaborative research
Inductive Ethnography
Applied Grounded theory

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Generating a topic using a mind map

• Mind map – an informal diagram of a person’s idea of the

key elements of subject that shows connections and
relationships
– Begin with a starting concept and jot down ideas
haphazardly, drawing connecting lines to indicate
relationships

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 Mind map for the topic: Academic research

Interpretivism Positivism
Paradigm

Methodology
Researcher RESEARCH Design

Experience Skills Methods

Purpose Data collection Data analysis

Logic Process
Exploratory Predictive
Inductive Deductive Descriptive Analytical

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Generating a topic – relevance trees

• Relevance tree – a diagram that can be used as a device

for generating research topics and develops clusters of
ideas from a fairly broad starting concept
– Begin with a starting concept and develop hierarchical
clusters of related ideas, drawing connecting lines

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Relevance tree for the topic: Business
communication

Communication
Oral Repor Written Visual
ts
Forma E- Body
One- Two-
l One-
bulleti Two- One- Two-
langu
way
Speec way
meeti way
ns/ way
Letter way
Films way
age
hes ngs Newsl s Poster Video
Audio Infor etters Mem s confer
recor mal Printe os Graph encin
ding conve d Emails ics g
rsatio notice Multi
ns s media
Diarie
s/Logs

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Access to data

• Your project will not be feasible unless you sure you can
gain access to the research data you need
• A internship, job or family and friends may provide
access to suitable organizations/individuals and/or
published data
– Less easy to gain access without an introduction
• Main issues
– Agreeing terms
– Personal safety
– Courtesy

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Exercise 2
Research ethics
• Ethics refers to the moral values or principles that form
the basis of a code of conduct and research ethics focus on
the way in which research is conducted and how the
results or findings are reported
• Research must not harm the participants (physical harm,
harm to self-development, self-esteem, career or
employment prospects) and they must not be encouraged
to perform reprehensible acts
• What other ethical principles should researchers follow?

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Solution 2
Research ethics

• Participants must be informed of

– The purpose of the research
– Voluntary participation and the right to withdraw at any time
– The right to confidentiality (data) and anonymity (people, firms)
• Researchers do not have the right to invade a person’s
privacy or to abandon respect for other people’s values
– What about deception or representing your research as
something other than it is (eg disguised or covert observation)?
– Do participants have the right to know what observation
techniques are being used?
– Do participants have the right to request destruction of recorded
data under the Data Protection Act?
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Checklist for ethical research
• Have you obtained explicit or implicit consent from participants?
• Have you used coercion to persuade people to participate?
• Will the research process or the findings harm participants,
those about whom information is gathered or others not
involved in the research?
• Have you stored personal/confidential data about participants
(people and organisations) securely?
• Have you ensured that participants (people and organisations)
are anonymous?
• Are you following accepted practice in your conduct of the
research, analysis and when drawing conclusions?
• Are you adhering to community standards of conduct?
• Have you obtained permission before sending mass emails?

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Planning and administration

• You will need to set a realistic timetable and plan how

you will organize your printed/digital materials
– Relevant items resulting from your literature search
– Correspondence with your supervisor(s)
– Contact details of potential and actual participants,
business and academic contacts
– Instructions for using e-resources, software, etc
– Transcripts of any interviews you conduct
– Field notes, summaries and preliminary data analysis
– Draft chapters of your proposal and subsequently of your
dissertation or thesis

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Approximate time for main stages of research

Stage % of time

Choose a topic and search the literature 10

Review the literature and define the research problem 20

and research questions

Design the research and write the proposal 10

Collect the research data 20

Analyse and interpret the research data 20

Write the dissertation or thesis 20

100

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Conclusions

• The starting point is to choose a research topic that

interests you and read the literature to identify a
particular research problem and research question(s) to
investigate
• The project needs to be feasible
– Main issues are access to data, ethical issues and funding
– You need to develop your project management skills and
set and set a timetable for the main stages in the research
process
• Now read Chapter 2

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