Advanced Research Methods (ARM)

Company Logo

Scientific Method and

Overview of Research in
Management
Lecture - 2
 Objectives of Research

 Make contribution to scientific knowledge by

gaining a better understanding and explanation
of organizations (basic / fundamental research)
 To make a contribution to a real-world situation
by solving problems (practical or applied
research)
 Research Steps
1. Statement of Problem

2. Design Research Study

3. Measurement
et acil pe R

4. Data Analysis

5. Conclusions
 Journey from Fundamental to
Applied research

 Fundamental research (FR) is based on theories and

abstract concepts
 Going from fundamental to applied research (AR),
concepts and their interrelationships must be
operationalized
 Both researches have different starting points:
 In FR, research questions arise from theory or scientific
literature
 In AR, research questions often stem from a particular
client
 Both researches have different end points. AR
pays more attention to questions like:
 What is the use of this study?
 For whom is this study interesting?
 AR is just as scientific as FR
Methodological Requirements

 FR must meet a number of requirements

 Researchers must have a good knowledge of what
already has been found out wrt the research topic
 A researcher cannot therefore, just come up with a
research question, but has to take into account all the
findings from previous research
 Researchers must stick to a number of methodological
rules, reflect on them explicitly and answer for their
use
 Requirements of objectivity, preciseness, replicability,
publicity, ethics, simplicity, and generalizability
 Research Process

Orientation to the Research Question /

problem: social and Aim sub questions Design and
scientific planning
research model
Literature Review and variables

Report and
Presentation Hypotheses

Data Data Research Operationalization

Analysis collection strategies
Company Logo

Problem Orientation
Orientation to the Research Question /
problem: social and Aim sub questions
scientific

Literature Review
 Overview of Problem Orientation

 First step to take when conducting scientific

research is to establish the aim of the research
and formulate main research question
 But how? Through literature review. You should
determine what is already known about the topic by
studying the published literature
 Then determine what type of research you
should conduct in order to formulate your
research question and answer it

www.themegallery.com Company Logo

 How to establish aim of the
research?
 You must make clear:
 Why you are doing the research?
 What you want to achieve and for whom you want to
achieve this?
 What is the desired final product?
 Theoretical vs practical aim

 Theoretical aim usually involves a contribution

to scientific knowledge:
 Developing or testing a specific theory about
absenteeism
 Practical aim usually involves a solution to any
problem:
 Helping to solve a problem from the daily practice of
controlling absenteeism
 Developing an instrument to measure the tendency of
employees to be absent
Examples of research objectives

 Acquiring more insight into the causes of

absenteeism within the company
 Investigating the nature of differences in culture
between organizations and developing a
classification system for these differences
 Developing an accurate performance
management for departments in an organization
 Developing and testing a method with which
administrative procedures can be described and
classified
Formulating the research questions

 Research question is the central, briefly worded

question that you are going to answer in your
research: what exactly are you going to do?
 You must define the domain:
 The set of all objects to be studies (e.g. individual
employees of an organization)
 Attributes of the objects (e.g. tendency to be absent or
job satisfaction)
 Expected relationships b/w attributes of the objects
(e.g. low satisfaction is related to high tendency towards
absenteeism)
 It is not the objects themselves that vary, but the
attributes of these objects
 Attributes of the objects that you are interested in
are defined as variables in the research
 In the research question, you relate the variables
from a specific domain (the set of research units
or objects) to each other
 Dissatisfaction leads to more absenteeism
 Sometimes, research question is called as
problem statement
 Example: Historical analysis of performance
measurement and management in operations management

 Purpose – This paper seeks to take a historic

perspective on performance measurement and
management (PMM) within operations
management (OM) across all sectors
(manufacturing, service and public) in order to
reflect on and undercover relevant lessons and
issues about PMM in OM.
 RQ1. How has PMM within operations
management evolved and developed?
 RQ2. How have the measures and the
management of them changed?
 RQ3. How can PMM be defined within
operations management?
 RQ4. Finally, considering an historical analysis
can any conclusions be drawn about the future
and, importantly, the challenges of PMM in OM?
 Other examples

 What are the effects of management development

programme on organizational performance?
 Does management development programme have
an effect on organizational performance?
 Is maximum organizational performance
achieved after 40 hours of management
development programme?
Relationship b/w Research Questions &
Research Methods

 If you are exclusively interested in the

occurrence of objects (or characteristics /
attributes thereof), then this would be defined as
a descriptive research
 What is (…)?
 What does (…) look like?
 Which (…) are present?
 If you suspect that there are possible causes or
influencing factors for attributes of objects, this
is defined as exploratory research
 This is concerned with the tentative formulation of
relationship between phenomena and explanations of
them
 There is still no theory and / or hypothesis present:
the aim is to develop these.
 E.g. What is the link / relationship between (…) and
(…)? Why is (…)? How is it possible that (…)?
 If you want to explicitly evaluate a relation or a
difference based on a number of criteria, this is
defined as empirical testing research
 You statistically test whether certain explicitly
formulated relationships or correlations between
phenomena exist and whether specific explanation
indeed apply
 Is there a significant positive correlation between
(…)? Is it true that (…)?
 Advisory and prescriptive research questions can
occur specifically with applied organizational
research
 Is the implementation (…) desirable? If yes, how can
this best be done?
 Feasibility

 Check to see whether it is theoretically possible

to research the question which is under
consideration. Is it possible to collect the
empirical data?
 Example: as part of a study of absenteeism:
 Is the frequency and degree of absenteeism properly
recorded?
 Is it possible to measure the variables like tendency
towards absenteeism, and work satisfaction?
 Example

 Should people be allowed to call in sick if

they are dissatisfied with their work?
 It is difficult to answer in empirical
research.
 Solution: Focused group discussions
among the stakeholders like trade unions,
employers, the government and experts in
labour laws and etics
 Sub Questions

 Researchers can develop a number of sub

questions from a research question?
 Answers to sub questions should contribute to the
solution of the main research question.
 The sub-questions are independent i.e. one sub
question can be answered w/o knowing the answer
to another sub-question.
 They often concern the distinct attributes of the
main research question
 Sub-questions should not enlarge the domain of
the research topic but should make it more
specific
 Sub-questions often define the structure of the
report
 Example

 Research Question: What factors cause the

high rate of return?
 Sub-questions:
 Is there a high rate of absenteeism?
 What exactly is absenteeism?
 How do I determine whether the rate of absenteeism
is high?
 Example

 The purpose of this paper is to identify the main problems

that can be encountered during the implementation and use
of a performance management system (PMS).
 Research Question:
 What are problems organizations can expect when implementing a
PMS?
 Sub-research questions:
 How often has a particular problem been encountered during PMS
implementation and use?
 What is the impact of this problem on the implementation and use of
the PMS?
 Can the problem easily be solved or not?
 Example
 Title: Performance measurement: a remedy for
increasing the efficiency of public services?
 Purpose – Promoters of performance measurement are
convinced that performance measurement can greatly
contribute to an efficiency boost in the field of public
services. The purpose of this article is to treat this as a
hypothesis and examine this hypothesis from various
theoretical perspectives.
 Research Question: Is performance measurement a
driver for making public service delivery more efficient?
Company Logo

Hypothesis
 Hypothesis

 A tentative theory that has not yet been tested.

 Hypotheses are propositions which are
empirically testable. They are usually concerned
with the relationships between variables
 Example: Increasing salary by 10% will double the
production
 If basic needs are not met, then motivation level among
the employees will be low
 The Role of the Hypothesis

 Guides the direction of the study

 Identifies facts that are relevant
 Suggests which form of research design is
appropriate
 Provides a framework for organizing the
conclusions that result
 What is a Good Hypothesis?

 A good hypothesis should fulfill three conditions:

 Must be adequate for its purpose
 Must be testable
 Must be better than its rivals
 Types of Hypotheses

 Descriptive Hypotheses:
 These describe properties
 Example:
Current turnover in Pakistan telecom
industry is greater than 15 per cent per
annum
 Relational Hypotheses:
 These describe relationship between two variables
 Example:
 CEOs with higher education spend more on
training and development of their employees
 The greater the employees welfare measures
provided by the management of a company, the
smaller the labour turnover of skilled workers
 Explanatory Hypotheses:
 These indicate a cause-effect relationship
 Direction of the relationship is important and should
be interpreted properly
 Example:
 When the salaries of government employees
increase, their families spend more on their
clothing.
 Example: A universalistic perspective for
explaining the relationship between HRM practices and
firm performance at different points in time

 According to the universalistic perspective,

organizations from different sectors, across
industries, and through different time periods
should use a series of select human resource
management practices (HRMP).
 The main purpose of this paper is to investigates
whether there is any difference in the
relationship between HRMPs and organizational
performance across time (stable or not).
 H1. Training and perceived organizational
performance are related to each other and are
not time-specific.
 H2. Employee participation and perceived
organizational performance are related to each
other and are not time-specific.
 H3. Compensation and perceived organizational
performance are related to each other and are
not time-specific.
 H4. Internal labor market and perceived
organizational performance are related to each
other and are not time-specific.
 H5. Selection and perceived organizational
performance are related to each other and are
not time-specific.
Your site here Company Logo
Company Logo

Should we kill the performance

appraisal process?
www.themegallery.com Company Logo
Company Logo

A Survey of Research
Methods
 Research Methods
Exercises
1. Available data still suggest that on average, women receive
lower pay than men. A professor decided to design a
program to train college women to negotiate higher salaries.
To assess the effectiveness of the program, 30 college
women were randomly assigned to attend either a 12-hour
salary negotiation skill training course or to be on a waiting
list for the course. After the first group attended the training,
both groups were tested on their negotiation skills by a
trained individual(a grad student) role-playing as an
employer making a job offer. The individuals that had salary
negotiation training negotiated a higher salary in the role-
playing exercise.
 Exercises

Exercise 1.
 Research method?
 Answer: Lab experiment
 Independent variable?
 Answer: Training
 Dependent variable?
 Answer: Salary negotiated
 Confounds (To cause to become confused or perplexed)?
 Answer: Did negotiator know intent of study?
 Exercises

2. A researcher wants to understand to what extent

variables such as financial difficulties, employment
commitment (how much work means to a person), social
support, and an individual’s ability to structure his or her
time and keep busy have an impact on mental and
physical health during unemployment. In order to
answer this question, 100 unemployed executives are
asked to complete a questionnaire that asks questions
about financial difficulties, employment commitment,
social support, time structure, mental health, and
physical health. Forty of the 100 questionnaires given
out are returned.
 Exercises
Exercise 2.
 Research method?
 Answer: Survey
 Independent variable(s)?
 Answer: Financial difficulties, employment
commitment, social support, and time structure
 Dependent variable?
 Answer: Mental and physical health
 Confounds?
 Answer: Are the 40% who returned the surveys
representative of that population?
 Exercises

3. The Scandinavian Sweets Factory recently implemented

shift work. The factory is now open 24 hours a day, and
employees either work an early shift, a late shift, or a
night shift. The manager plans to compare each shift in
six months to assess whether there are differences in
the groups on productivity and turnover.
 Exercises

Exercise 3.
 Research method?
 Answer: Field experiment
 Independent variable(s)?
 Answer: Shift worked
 Dependent variable?
 Answer: Productivity and turnover
 Confounds?
 Answer: How were shifts assigned?
 Exercises

4. A researcher wanted to examine whether anew machine

would lead to increased productivity on an assembly line
at Sam’s Office Supply Factory. He randomly assigned
ten workers to the new machine and ten workers to the
old machine. The workers in the two groups were
carefully matched in terms of their ability and experience.
The researcher monitored the total number of products
produced and the amount of product rejects on the two
machines over a period of two weeks. Results showed
the workers on the new machine had higher levels of
productivity.
 Exercises

Exercise 4.
 Research method?
 Answer: Field experiment
 Independent variable(s)?
 Answer: Machine
 Dependent variable?
 Answer: Products produced and rejects
 Confounds?
 Answer: Hawthorne Effect?
 Exercises

5. In a study of bias in work performance ratings, black

and white undergraduate psychology students were
assigned the task of providing work performance
ratings for videotaped “employees” (really grad
students pretending to be employees) who differed in
terms of their race (black or white). Level of
performance was held constant on the videotape.
Results showed that white raters tended to give slightly
higher work performance ratings to the white
employees on the videotape. Black raters, on the other
hand, tended to give slightly higher work performance
ratings to the black employees on the videotape.
 Exercises

Exercise 5.
 Research method?
 Answer: Laboratory experiment
 Independent variable(s)?
 Answer: Race of rater and ratee
 Dependent variable?
 Answer: Work performance ratings
 Confounds?
 Answer: Was gender a factor or experience of
raters?
Company Logo

Thank you for your

kind attention
Go forth and research….
….but be careful out there.