Identify six reasons why organisation members may participate in research and explain what effects this may have on the research findings. What, if anything, shoul, or can, a researcher do to control for these effects - Essay Example

Organization Members and Research Research in Organizations Introduction To understand a particular organization’s position, its competency, its level of knowledge and equity, researchers come up with the significant activity of organizational research which bring them to the understanding of the organization position. There are different methods to conduct research within organizations in which one method is in which members of organization participate in the research process (Brewerton & Millward, 2001).

This study investigates the procedure in which members of organization are involved in the research activity. The study focuses on the reasons of why organization’s members participate in research and what effects their participation has on the research findings. The study will present recommendations on how such effects can be overcome by the researcher in order to make the research more conductive and out-bringing. Six Reasons of why Organization Members Participate in Research Members as Primary Source of Data According to Woodside (2010), researchers involve organization’s members to make their researcher more comprehensive (Woodside, 2010).

The author asserts that to collect primary data and information for research, researchers conduct interviews with organization’s members who are involved as observing participants in the research (Woodside, 2010). Collection of the Authentic Information To accomplish the research objective, which is to collect the right valid information, researchers approach organization members who provide them the authentic, relevant and validated information about organization (Symon & Cassell, 2012, p.63). For the Right Assessment of the Organization As members of any organization are well aware of their organization’s system so their point of opinion is really what matters to sketch the whole picture of organization (Symon & Cassell, 2012).

For such reason researchers take personal opinions and reflections of the organization members, in order to understand the structure and the system of the organization they are dealing with (Bishop, 2007). Members’ Knowledge is One Reason The researchers include organization’s members because of the members’ knowledge and experience in the organization and because of their understanding about how well the organization is performing (Swanson & Holton, 2005). Being well aware of the organization’s position, members provide true essential knowledge to researchers, which come out significant in research findings (Cassell & Symon, 2004).

Diversity as One Reason The factor of diversity is another reason of why researchers include organization members in their researches (Swanson & Holton, 2005). To get diverse opinions, researchers prefer to include organization members, who are undergone with changing work experiences and keep different perceptions to express about their organization’s position (Shore, 2011). With diversity, the scope of research gets widened making the research more pervasive and knowledge oriented (Swanson & Holton, 2005).

For Integrity of Ethics One more important reason of why researchers involve organization members in their research as their participation maintains the integrity of all ethical considerations (Rogelberg, 2008, p.34). Ethical considerations such as organization’s confidentiality and privacy are maintained throughout the research by means of involving the organization’s members in research. It is the members’ presence in the research that confidential information remains protected throughout the research process (Broussine, 2008).

There are cases in which organizations deploy representatives to get engaged with researchers. Those representatives appear as participants of research maintaining the integrity and discipline of all organizational codes and ethics during the research (McDaniel, 2004). Members’ Participation and Effects on Research Findings It has been noted that when organization’s members participate in research, they present diversity, coordination, comprehensives and integrity to researchers, making the research more resourceful and effective (Rogelberg, 2008).

For accomplishing the goals and concerns of a research, such positive influences of members’ participation are important to have, because if any of these are missing, the research comes out insignificant or ineffective. These are some positive outcomes-positive effects which members bring onto the research, but there are some negative influences too which members leave onto the research process (Feldman, 1981). There have been several cases in which members are told to present disguise information about the organization, making the researcher misguided or mislead on the way.

Similarly, there are cases when members who are upper managers mostly present half information to a researcher which is due to reasons of organization’s confidentiality and privacy (Broussine, 2008). This affects the findings of the research because when incomplete information is plotted at the beginning of the research, the findings of the research come out insignificant or incomplete. This happens mostly because of the distrust relationship between researcher and members of the organization, that information is not fully revealed and the research outcomes come out insignificant both for the researcher and the organization itself (Brewerton & Millward, 2001).

Furthermore, with diversity of opinions there is increased complexity in research. Research findings have to be specific. They have to be directional and purposive in order to get applied in any further study or research. When findings become complex due to diverse opinions and inputs of the organization’s members, the research purpose gets lost as the researcher remains meaningless in the conclusion of his findings (McDaniel, 2004). These are some technical effects which organization’s members leave on the work of the researcher and the research outcomes.

These effects are actually flaws in research, because they ruin the findings if not overcome or controlled at the first stage of the research (Brewerton & Millward, 2001). Overcoming Effects- Recommendation and Conclusion The effects of organization members in research are important to be overcome, as they can influence the research findings if not controlled at the early stage of research. Researchers at the very first should develop trust relationship with members of the organization (Broussine, 2008).

When trust relationships are there between researcher and members, the members will share full and significant information about the organization. With the element of trust, there will be no hesitation shown by the members to reveal full knowledge to the researcher (Shore, 2011). A certain bond has to be created by the researcher with members, so that members find full confidence in the work of the researcher, that he might not reveal or misuse organization’s confidential information outside (Broussine, 2008).

To avoid complexity due to diversity, researcher should consider only those opinions, which can bring something good for the research (Bishop, 2007). Filtration of opinions has to be done by the researcher as only filtered information can come out useful in making the research findings significant. Moreover, experienced participants/members can best input to the research so the researcher should approach the experienced personnel of organization (Broussine, 2008). List of References Bishop, R.C., 2007.

The Philosophy of the Social Sciences: An Introduction. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. Brewerton, P.M. & Millward, L.J., 2001. Organizational Research Methods: A Guide for Students and Researchers. London: SAGE. Broussine, M., 2008. Creative Methods in Organizational Research. London: SAGE. Cassell, C. & Symon, G., 2004. Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research. London: SAGE. Feldman, D.C., 1981. The Multiple Socialization Of Organization Members. Academy of Management Review, 6(2), pp.309-18. McDaniel, C., 2004. Organizational Ethics: Research and Ethical Environments.

Burlington: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Rogelberg, S.G., 2008. Handbook of Research Methods in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Shore, L.M., 2011. Inclusion and Diversity in Work Groups: A Review and Model for Future Research. Journal of Management, 37(4), pp.1262-89. Swanson, R.A. & Holton, E.F., 2005. Research in Organizations: Foundations and Methods in Inquiry. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Symon, G. & Cassell, C., 2012. Qualitative Organizational Research: Core Methods and Current Challenges.

Singapore: SAGE. Woodside, A.G., 2010. Case Study Research: Theory, Methods, Practice. Bradford: Emerald Group Publishing.