Chapter 5

The Research Process:

Elements of Research Design


1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

6)
7)

The research design depends on the following

criteria:
The purpose of the study: exploratory,
descriptive, hypothesis testing, case study
analysis.
The type of investigation: causal versus
correlational
The extent of researcher interference with the
study
The study setting: contrived versus noncontrived
The unit of analysis: individuals, dyads, groups,
organizations, cultures
The time horizon of study: cross-sectional versus
longitudinal
Managerial implications

 After having identified the variables in a problem

situation and developed the theoretical framework,
the next step is related to gathering data and
analyzing it.

 The extent of scientific rigor in a research study

depends on how carefully the manager/researcher
chooses the appropriate design alternatives, taking
into consideration its specific purpose (to what
extent research problem is critical and important to
the company and then careful attention to detail is
necessary to ensure that the study has precision
and has the acceptable level of confidence.
The more sophisticated and rigorous the research
design is, the greater the time, costs, and other
resources expended on it will be.

Purpose of the study: exploratory, descriptive,

hypothesis testing (analytical and predictive), case
study analysis
The purpose of studies can be classified into: a)
exploratory purposes, b) descriptive purposes, c) testing
hypotheses, and d) case study.
Choosing the type of research depends on the stage to
which knowledge about the research topic has advanced.
Methodological rigor increases as we move progressively
from an exploratory study to a hypothesis-testing study,
and with this, the costs of research also increase.
Exploratory study
It tends to explore new areas of organizational research.
It is undertaken when not much is known about the
situation at hand, or no information is available on how
similar problems or research issues have been solved in
the past.

 It used to narrow the scope of the research topic and

help transform ambiguous problems into well-defined
ones that yield specific research objectives.
It used to develop the researchs hypotheses.
It is also necessary when some facts are known, but
more information is needed for developing a viable
theoretical framework.
It is usually a first step conducted with the expectation
that additional research will be needed to provide more
conclusive evidence.
It can be conducted through extensive interviews or
focus groups discussions.
Pilot studies on a small scale, by interviewing
individuals or gathering information from a limited
number of occurrences, are considered as an
exploratory research.

 It useful to avoid a common mistake in business

research programs; rushing into detailed surveys
before it is clear exactly what decisions need to be
made can waste time, money, and effort by providing
irrelevant information.
Exploratory research is particularly useful in new
product development.
Example (if a company manufacturing cosmetics
wants to obtain a thorough understanding of what it
is that arouses emotive appeal for the product and
induces people to buy cosmetics, several focus
groups can be convened to discuss the related
issues.

 In sum, exploratory studies are important for

obtaining a good grasp of the phenomenon of
interest and advancing knowledge through
subsequent theory building and hypothesis testing.
It is important to note that doing a study for the first
time in a particular organization does not make the
research exploratory in nature; only when
knowledge is scant, and a deeper understanding is
sought, does the study become exploratory.

1.
2.

Descriptive study
As the name implies, the major purpose of
descriptive research is to describe the
characteristics of objects, people, groups,
organizations, or environments. It tries to paint a
picture of a given situation by addressing who,
what, when, where, and how questions.
Unlike exploratory research, descriptive studies are
conducted after the researcher has gained a firm
grasp of the situation being studied. Specifically, it
is used to:
Describe the characteristics of the variables of
interest in a situation.
Offer to the researcher a profile or to describe
relevant aspects of the phenomenon of interest from
an individual, organizational, industry-oriented, or
other perspective.

3. Understand the characteristics of a group in a given

situation.
4. Think systematically about aspects in a given
situation.
5. Offer ideas for further probe and research.
6. Help to make certain simple decisions (such as how
many and what kinds of individuals should be
transferred from one department to another).
7. Describe the market segments.
8. conclusive evidence in the form of answers to
questions of fact must be collected to determine
the actual activities.

 Quantitative data in terms of frequencies, or mean

and standard deviations and advanced statistics
are used in the analysis of descriptive studies.
Example: A bank manager wants to have a profile
of the individuals who have loan payments
outstanding for six months and more. The profile
will include details of their average age, earnings,
nature of occupation, full-time/part-time
employment status, and the like. This might help
him to elicit further information or decide right
away on the types of individuals who should be
made ineligible for loans in the future.

Hypothesis testing
The hypothesis testing purpose examines whether or
not the conjectured relationships have been
substantiated and an answer to the research question
has been obtained.
It usually explains the nature of certain relationships,
or establish the differences among groups, or the
independence of two or more factors in a situation.
It is used to explain the variance in the dependent
variable or to predict organizational outcomes.
Example (A marketing manager wants to know if the sales of the
company will increase if he doubles the advertising dollars. Here, the
manager would like to know the nature of the relationship that may be
established between advertising and sales by testing the hypothesis: If
advertising is increased, then sales will also go up.

Case study analysis

Case studies involve in-depth, contextual analyses of
similar situations in 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 as well as the findings of the same
type of problem in another comparable setting are
difficult due to the reluctance of companies to reveal
their problems.
Case studies usually provide qualitative data rather
than quantitative data for analysis and interpretation.

 Case studies that are qualitative in nature are useful

in applying solutions to current problems based on
past problem-solving experiences. They are also
useful in understanding certain phenomena, and
generating further theories for empirical testing.

Exploratory

descriptive

Hypothesis testing

Case studies

Explore the
characteristics of
the phenomena
of interest

The phenomena to
be tapped in a
situation are known
and existed

Examine the
relationship between
the variables of the
phenomena

Applying the
characteristics of the
phenomena on
another situations

Not offering a
profile for the
factors

Offering a profile
for the factors

Offering a profile for

the factors and
identify the
contribution of each
factors

Offering a profile for

the factors

Not establish
cause-and-effect
relationships

Not establish
cause-and-effect
relationships

Establish cause-andeffect relationships

Not establish causeand-effect

relationships

Qualitative

Quantitative

Qualitative and
quantitative data

Qualitative (in
general)

Type of investigation: causal versus

correlational

The causal or correlational study depends on the type of research questions

asked and how the problem is defined.

Causal

Correlational

Establish a definitive cause-and-effect relationship (Rain

causes grass to get wet. Rain is the cause and wet grass
is the effect).

Identify the important factors "associated

with" the problem

Delineate one or more factors that are undoubtedly

causing the problem

Identify the importance of factors through

using sophisticated analysis

High costs and efforts

Low costs and efforts

Do not take into account all the factors that influence the
problem simultaneously

Taking into account the influence of multifactors on the problem simultaneously

Interference by the researcher may influence the results

Minimal interference by the researcher

The researcher manipulates certain variables to study the

effects of such manipulation on the dependent variable of
interest

No manipulation for the research

variables (not create new artificial setting)

 A causal study question: Does smoking cause

cancer?
A correlational study question: Are smoking and
cancer related? OR Are smoking, drinking, and
chewing tobacco associated with cancer? If so,
which of these contributes most to the variance in
the dependent variable?
In summary the exploratory research builds the
foundation for descriptive research, which usually
establishes the basis for causal research.

Extent of researcher interference with the study

It relies on the type of investigation (causal or
correlational).
The interference can be classified into the degrees of
interference-minimal, moderate, and excessive.
Most organizational problems seldom call for a causal
study. In any case, researcher interference through a
change in the setting in which the causal study is
conducted is rarely done, except in some market
research areas.
Examples
Minimal interference: A hospital administrator wants to examine the
relationship between the perceived emotional support in the system
and the stresses experienced by the nursing staff (collect data from
the nurses through a questionnaire to indicate how much emotional
support they get in the hospital and to what extent they experience
stress.

 Moderate interference: the researcher wants to demonstrate

that if the nurses had emotional support, this would cause them to
experience less stress (use the experiment to measure the stress of
the nurses in three wards in the hospital/manipulate the extent of
emotional support given to the three groups of nurses in the three
wards for perhaps a week, and measure the amount of stress at the
end of that period).

Excessive interference: The above researcher, after

conducting the previous experiments, feels that the results may or
may not be valid since other external factors might have influenced
the stress levels experienced by the nurses resultant to the
differences in the levels of stress (high, moderate, and low
stresses.

Study setting: contrived and non-contrived

There are two types of study setting:
1) Noncontrived setting (natural environment):
It is related to the Correlational studies.
It is related to the field studies.

Example: A bank manager wants to analyze the relationship between

interest rates and bank deposit patterns of clients. She tries to correlate the
two by looking at deposits into different kinds of accounts (such as savings,
certificates of deposit, golden passbooks, and interest-bearing checking
accounts) as interest rates change.

2) Contrived setting (artificial environment):

It is related to most rigorous causal studies that are
conducted on lab settings.
It is related to cause-and-effect relationships that
conducted through field or lab experiments.

 There is a difference between field experiment and

lab experiment. Studies using the same natural
environment in which employees normally function
are called field experiments. Studies that are based
on creating an artificial environment through
controlling all the extraneous factors are referred to
as lab experiments. Example: a manager wanting to know the
effects of pay on performance should raise the salary of employees
in one unit, decrease the pay of employees in another unit, and
leave the pay of the employees in a third unit untouched. Here there
is a tampering with, or manipulating of, the pay system to establish a
cause-and-effect relationship between pay and performance, but the
study is still conducted in the natural setting and hence is called a
field experiment.

Unit of analysis: individuals, dyads, groups,

organizations, cultures
The unit of analysis refers to the level of aggregation
of the data collected during the subsequent data
analysis stage. It depends on the problem statement
(raising the motivational levels of employees in
general/individuals. Taking data from wife and
husband/dyads. Taking data from 1st , 2nd, 3rd grades/
groups. Taking data from comparing different
departments in the organization/organization. study
cultural differences among nations/cultures ).
It is necessary to decide on the unit of analysis even
as we formulate the research question.

Time horizon: cross-sectional versus

longitudinal studies
1) Cross-sectional studies
It refers to one-shot data collection over a period of
days or weeks or months in order to answer a
research question.
2) Longitudinal studies
It refers to study people or phenomena at more than
one point in time in order to answer the research
question. For instance, the researcher might want to
study employees' behavior before and after a change
in the top management, so as to know what effects the
change accomplished (data are gathered at two
different points in time).

 Longitudinal studies take more time and effort and

cost more than cross-sectional studies. well-planned
longitudinal studies can, among other things, help to
identify cause- and-effect relationships.
Experimental designs invariably are longitudinal
studies, since data are collected both before and
after a manipulation. Field studies may also be
longitudinal.
Most field studies conducted are cross-sectional in
nature because of the time, effort, and costs
involved in collecting data over several time periods.

 Longitudinal studies will certainly be necessary if a

manager wants to keep track of certain factors (e.g.,
sales, advertising effectiveness, etc.) over a period
of time to assess improvements, or to detect
possible causal connections (sales promotions and
actual sales data; frequency of drug testing and
reduction in drug usage, etc.). Though more
expensive, longitudinal studies offer some good
insights.

Managerial implications
Research design helps the manager to understand
what the researcher is attempting to do.
Knowing that more rigorous research designs
consume more resources, the manager is in a position
to weigh the gravity of the problem experienced and
decide what kind of design will yield acceptable
results in an efficient manner.
One of the main advantages in fully understanding the
difference between causal and correlational studies is
that managers do not fall into the trap of making
implicit causal assumptions when two variables are
only associated with each other.

 Knowledge of research design details also helps

managers to study and intelligently comment on
research proposals.

Exercises

A foreman thinks that the low efficiency of the

machine tool operators is directly linked to the high
level of fumes emitted in the workshop. He would
like to prove this to his supervisor through a
research study.
1. Would this be a causal or a correlational study?
Why?
2. Is this an exploratory, descriptive, or hypothesistesting (analytical or predictive) study? Why? Establish
cause-and-effect relationships

3. What kind of a study would this be: field study, lab

experiment, or field experiment? Why?
4. What would be the unit of analysis? Why?
5. Would this be a cross-sectional or a longitudinal
study? Why?

 You want to examine how exposure to thin or heavy

models in advertisements influences a person's selfesteem. You believe that the effect of exposure to
models in advertisements depends on the extremity
of the model's thinness or heaviness. Discuss the
design decisions that you as a researcher will make
to investigate this issue, giving reasons for your
choices.
You want to investigate the specific effects of
specific emotions on customers' behavioral
responses to failed service encounters across
industries. Discuss the design decisions that you as
a researcher will make to investigate this issue,
giving reasons for your choices.

 Dr Larry Norton of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer

Center predicts that cancer treatment will undergo
major changes. Several drugs are being developed
to battle cancer without harming healthy tissue. It is
a question of discovering which of these drugs does
the job best. Design a study that would help find
which drug would do the trick.