Role of the Researcher and Participants - Essay Example

? Role of the Researcher and Participants By The researcher and the participants are core to any research process. These have different roles they play, which are important in ensuring the successful completion of the research process. While the researcher facilitates and oversees the whole research process, the participants are key in the provision of data, which the research aims at acquiring. Apart from these, the researcher and participants have other roles they perform in a research process, depending on the nature of the research. Nonetheless, this paper focuses on my role as a researcher, including ways that I will adopt to ensure a good relationship with the participants and employees, with whom I will interact during the research process. The intended research on Indian negotiation styles is qualitative in nature, and is also a phenomenological study. This is because; it seeks to study the aspect of negotiation, which is a phenomenon. Nonetheless, in-depth interviews with specific participants and questionnaires will be employed, in order to obtain their perceptions on negotiations in India. Furthermore, the participants in this study include business managers, who have experience in negotiations in India. On the other hand, the researcher is a trained individual in the field of Business Management and International Business, and is currently fulfilling the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration. Therefore, this brief background about the research, the researcher, and the research participants is essential, as it helps in determining the contexts and roles of participants and the researcher in the research process. The researcher will play the greatest role in the research process, as it is the research that highly determines what direction the research will take, and whether the research will be successful or not, depending on the level of commitment and dedication to the research process. Apart from initiating the research process, including determining the topic and area of research, the researcher is charged with the most important role of data collection during the research process. Therefore, in this research, the researcher will ensure that data is collected for analysis, and most importantly, the data should be of high quality and ample. Since this research employs in-depth interviewing, the researcher has to conduct the interviews and administer questionnaires, while ensuring that the information gathered is relevant and is of high quality. In this research, the researcher will serve as the human instrument; therefore, will be charged with asking probing questions, listening, and getting into the deeper levels of the interviews with participants (Hammersley, 2010). Before data collection, it is the role of the researcher to choose the research population, including the criteria for selection, as well as the methodology for the research. In this research therefore, the researcher based the criterion for selection of participants on the aspect of their experience in international negotiations. Therefore, the researcher has the role of ensuring that only those individuals meeting the criteria for selection participate in the research. This will be essential in ensuring that the data collected is relevant to the research topic, and is of high quality, as the right participants will have the capability of providing valid and important insights into the research topic. Another important role of the researcher during the research process is to ensure positive relationship with the participants, including the employees of the organizations from which some of the data will be drawn. It is of great importance for the researcher to ensure that the response from participants is positive. This can mainly be achieved by ensuring that the relationship between the researcher and participants is positive. Through this, the participants will have a positive attitude toward the researcher, and will be obliged to cooperate with the researcher, and provide reliable and valid information during the interview process. Therefore, for this to be attained, there are different ways through which the researcher can foster a good relationship with the participants (Barsky, 2010). First, the researcher must uphold ethics during the research process. In this research process, the researcher must first inform the potential participants about the research, and its aim. The participants will therefore, be made aware of the fact that the research aims at improving international business in India, especially with the West. Therefore, the participants will understand that, by providing insights into the Indian negotiation styles, the Western companies will learn how to negotiate with Indian managers, thus boosting the business relationships between India and the West. The researcher will therefore, have avoided deception, which is unethical in research. Deceiving participants in order to acquire data might lead to their loss of trust in the researcher and withdrawal from the research, when they find out about the deception. Similarly, as part of ethics in research, the researcher has the role of ensuring that the confidentiality and privacy of participants is upheld. In this case, therefore, the researcher will assure the participants that their identity, including names and personal information will not be disclosed for ethical reasons. In addition, the researcher will assure the participants that their responses will be kept confidential. The researcher also has the role of ensuring that the stated timeframe for the research is upheld. Extension of the time for interviews will only occur, if the respondents require more time for their responses. The role of the researcher in upholding ethics is important for earning the trust of participants, eliciting quality data, and avoiding ethical conflicts (Seale, Gobo, Gubrium & Silverman, 2004). On the other hand, participants in the research also do have an important role to play. In this research, the participants will play a major role of respondents, as these will be required to respond to the survey questionnaires, and respond to questions in the interview. Since the respondents will have participated in the research on a voluntary basis, with no coercion by the researcher, these will be expected to show maximum cooperation, to allow for a successful research. However, those that will wish to withdraw from the research will not be confined. In addition, the participants have the role of ensuring that they uphold honesty, truthfulness, and conduct themselves with integrity during the research process. Truthfulness and honesty in their response will help in eliciting quality data for the research (Knapik, 2006). While dealing with Indian employees, it will be necessary for the research to maintain a close relationship with them, as these value relationships. Above all, in order to ensure positive interactions with employees and all the participants, the researcher must base on ethical values in the interactions. Nonetheless, basing on ethics and exercising control, as well as professionalism will help the researcher to avoid any challenges or other issues that might influence the research process in a negative manner. Finally, the researcher will judge the response of the participants by the quality of data they provide. If the information is valid, and is of high quality, the researcher will consider tis as positive response, which is pleasing. Additionally, positive response from the participants will be measured by their dedication and commitment to the research process (Midgley, Danaher & Baguley, 2012). For instance, committed participants will keep time during interviews and will exhibit a high interest in the research. Nonetheless, if the researcher and participants play their different roles in a diligent manner, it is no doubt that quality data will be collected, and the research will be successful. Works Cited Barsky, A. (2010). The Virtuous Social Work Researcher. Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics. 7(1): 1-10. Retrieved from http://www.socialworker.com/jswve/spring2010/6virtuoussw.pdf Hammersley, M. (2010). Methodology: Who Needs It? Chapter 1 “The role of the researcher: limits, obligations and Virtues.” Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/36858_Hammersley_CH_01.pdf Knapik, M. (2006). The Qualitative Research Interview: Participants’ Responsive Participation in Knowledge Making. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 5 (3): 1-13. Retrieved from http://www.socsci.uci.edu/ssarc/sshonors/webdocs/qualitativeinterview.pdf Midgley, W., Danaher, P., & Baguley, M. (2012). The Role of Participants in Education Research: Ethics, Epistemologies, and Methods. New York: Routledge. Seale, C., Gobo, G., Gubrium, J., & Silverman, D. (2004). Qualitative Research Practice. Chapter 4, “The Ethics of Social Research.” Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/34088_Chapter4.pdf Read More