This old process of research consists of the

following seven steps;

1. Observation
2. Preliminary data collection
3. Theory formulation/ Theoretical frame work
4. Hypothesis
5. Further scientific data collection
6. Data analysis
7. Deduction or Conclusion
 Observation
“The test stage of the research in which we
observe or sense that certain changes are occurring
or some new behaviors, attitudes and feelings are
emerging at workplace.”

The people oriented manager is always

sensitive to aware about what is happening in and
around the workplace

Example:

In a shopping centre, management observes that the numbers

of buyers are reducing day by day and that is why the sale
volume is declining day by day, discussions among the
salesmen are increasing or in other words the level of
satisfaction of the customers is not up to mark. So this reflects
change in attitudes and behaviors.
 Observation

Preliminary Data Collection

Theory Formulation

Hypothesis

Further Scientific data Collection

Data Analysis

Deduction
Preliminary Data Collection
“Preliminary information gathering involves the
seeking of information in depth of what is
observed.”

This could be done by talking informally to several

people at workplace or to clients or to other relevant
sources, thereby gathering information on what is
happening and why. Through these unstructured
interviews one gets an idea or a feel for what is wrong.
So this will increase the level of awareness as to what is
happening after that we can focus on problem and
associate the factors through further structured, formal
interviews with the relevant groups.
Example
• Management discusses with the people and thus
come to know:
(From buyer)
• There is shortage of goods that are the demand of
clients
• Salesmen are not cooperative with them
• There is less supply as compare to demand
(From salesmen)
• There is shortage of supply
• Supply is not at the promised time by the supplier
(From suppliers)
• The delay in supply is cause of breakdown of
electricity
• Labour strike
• Defective marketing
 Theory formulation
“Theory formulation is an attempt to integrate
all the information in a logical manner, so that
the factors responsible for the problem can be
associated and tested.”
It is guided by the experience or intuition. In this step
critical variables are examined as to their contribution
or influence in explaining why the problem occurs and
how it can be solved. So we can say that it is a
process to make a network of factors involved in the
problem.
Example:
Delay in supply from supplier
Inadequate supply
Customer dissatisfaction
 Hypothesis
“From the network of association among
variables a certain testable statement is
generated that is called hypothesis”

Hypothesis testing is called deductive research.

Sometimes, hypothesis that were not originally
formulated do get generated through the process of
induction which is to be tested later.

Example:
“If we stock sufficient number of items on the
shelves, customer dissatisfaction will be considerably
reduced.”
This is a hypothesis that can be tested to determine
whether the statement true or not.
 Further data collection
“After the development of the hypothesis
data with respect to each variable in the
hypothesis need to be collected”

In other words scientific data should be collected to

test the hypothesis that is generated during the
study

Example:
For instance to test the hypothesis that stocking
sufficient items will reduce customer dissatisfaction,
one needs to measure the current level of customer
dissatisfaction and collect further data on customer
satisfaction levels whenever sufficient stocks are
made available to the customers.
 Data Analysis
In this step the data gathered are statistically
analyzed to see the validity of the hypothesis.
Analysis of both quantitative and qualitative
data can be done to determine the
relationship among the factors. Qualitative
information collected will be converted into
quantitative information.

Example
If we will increase the stock will then the level of
dissatisfaction of customer will be reduced so we will
analyze the data by applying the statistical tool of
correlation at various level of stocks.
 Deduction
Deduction is a process of arriving at
the conclusion by the interpretation
of the results after data analysis. On
the basis of deduction the researcher
would make recommendations on
how the problem can be solved.

Example:
After the data analysis we can deduce that if we
will increase the stock level then customer’s level
of satisfaction will be increased.