Business Research Methods - Essay Example

Business Research Methods By PART When I started learning this I knew that I had a weakness in research, and soI was keen and drew a lot of interest in the course knowing that this would boost my research competencies. Today, there is a significant difference in my research capabilities as compared to when I started this course. I have mastered important research aspects that have also influenced other parts of my life apart from academics. A fail in this course was sad news for me; however, I view this as an opportunity to improve and learn more. Failing this course means that there are some things that I did wrong. I consider poor reading and writing skills to be a major cause of the fail. I read different material on research methods, but I failed to internalize the most important aspects. I also consider myself to write shallowly, thus leave out a lot of information, even though I am knowledgeable. This has therefore, led me to fail to answer questions in satisfactory manner and made my work to be shallow. Nevertheless, this course has cultivated in me important aspects. Socially, I have become a better communicator and my relationship with people has improved. The different class presentations and interaction with my instructor shaped my confidence and communication and interpersonal skills. This course has also taught me to differentiate a research article from an opinion article because the course exposed me to many research articles. There is need for me to make my future work better and this depends on whatever action plan that I will lay down. First, I intend to improve on my reading and writing skills. It is necessary that I exhibit a bit of depth be it in writing or reading. Therefore, I will consult as many sources on research methods as possible. Additionally, I will keep practising so that I can avoid shallow writing. I also plan to consult widely with my instructor whenever possible. PART 2 Organizations are today faced with different complex and sometimes ambiguous problems, hence require members and management that are well equipped to explore and design options that can effectively contribute to solving the different organizational problems encountered (Adesola & Baines 2005). The ability to undertake focussed business research and design innovative and sustainable solutions is therefore, important as far as organizational productivity is concerned (Cavana, Delahaye & Sekaran 2001). In the provided scenario, the low output level of employees warrant a research in order to understand the cause of the low employee productivity and help to design effective interventions. In this case, the four variables of skills, rewards, employee motivation and job satisfaction will be explored in order to ascertain their level and how they determine employee productivity. In a research process, employee productivity will be the dependent variable, while these four variables will be the independent variables. There are different research designs that the production manager in this case can adopt for his research. The researcher’s main purpose in this case is to investigate the causes of low output levels by his employees through the exploration of the four independent variables. First, the research could adopt the type of study called “exploratory research”. For this study, the type of approach to be adopted is the inductive approach. This is appropriate because the researcher knows little about the problem, thus collects data that will help to offer an explanation. Therefore, through the inductive approach, an exploratory study will help the researcher discover new relations and ideas, among others (Braguglia & Jackson 2012). An exploratory study will provide a window into employee perceptions, behaviours and needs and enable the management to develop effect measures of addressing employee needs and ensuring their improved productivity (Saunders & Lewis 2012). In conducting an exploratory research, the researcher will adopt a specific methodology. Exploratory studies can adopt either qualitative or quantitative data or a mix of the two (Jankowicz 2005). In this case, quantitative data will be more suitable, as the researcher will be seeking the perceptions of respondents on the problem. With regard to strategy, exploratory studies have various strategies. Secondary data analysis can be undertaken and this may include searching trade and academic journals. The researcher may conduct a desktop review on each of the four independent variables and their effect on employee productivity. It is also possible to adopt the strategy of archival research in this case. In relation to the problem, the researcher will review the company records that bear information on the qualifications of the employees, their job assessments, and employee remunerations. This will offer important insights into the four selected independent variables. In addition, it is possible for the researcher to conduct a case study as a strategy for the problem. This involves investigating in detail and carefully one or more situations similar to the problem under research (Dul & Hak 2008). Experience surveys can also be appropriate strategy for the researcher in this case. The researcher through experience surveys can collect information from individuals considered to be knowledgeable on the aspect of employee productivity, including how to boost it (Mathiyazhagan & Nandan 2010). The researcher could identify organizations in the same industry as his that exhibit a higher level of employee productivity. He could identify the human resources managers of such organizations as well as and include them in the survey. These can generate important information that the researcher can apply to his organization. The researcher may choose from the different data collection techniques available for exploratory study. This study relies more on qualitative techniques although sometimes the quantitative techniques can be adopted. The nature of the research problem in this situation makes the use of qualitative technique to be more appropriate. The researcher may use in-depth interviews to identify what issues are causing employees to be less productive. The interview questions that employees will be asked in the process should be based on the four independent variables of skills, rewards, job satisfaction and motivation. The researcher may also moderate focus group discussions as well as use questionnaires to collect qualitative data (Eriksson & Kovalainen 2008). In the case of archival research, the researcher will use official statistics, tests and other numerical data. Apart from the exploratory study, the researcher can alternatively adopt the type of study known as descriptive study in order to address the problem. This study portrays an accurate profile of persons or events by synthesizing data. The approach in this study is mainly deductive. In this case therefore, the researcher will develop a theory or hypothesis and test it using a selected strategy (Hair, Wolfinbarger, Money, Samouel & Page 2015). For instance, the researcher may hypothesise that high employee motivation, high employee job satisfaction, high employee skills and high salary and rewards will lead to high employee productivity and vice versa. The methodology that the researcher will adopt in the descriptive study is the quantitative methodology. The data will be quantitative in nature thus will be in numbers and its presentation will be in tables, graphs and charts (Westat 2002). The most appropriate strategy that the researcher can use in this study is the archival research. Data will be collected from official statistics, tests and other numerical data. The researcher can observe the company’s financial data and documents over the years. For each year, the researcher may consider the profitability of the company, the skills of employees at that given time, the amount of salary and any allowances of employees, and employee turnover, which may measure employee job satisfaction. This study may confirm to the researcher whether high or low employee job satisfaction, motivation, rewards, and skills result in their high or low level of productivity. This way, the researcher will be able to prove or disprove the hypothesis developed at the beginning of the research process. An advantage of employing descriptive research study in this case is that it offers a unique means of data collection. In this case, the use of archival research on the organization under investigation will provide important insights into the organization and eliminate the strict academic approaches, which can sometimes act as barriers. On the other hand, a major disadvantage of descriptive research is also subject to subjectivity and error during data collection and analysis stages, especially in this case where a quantitative methodology is employed (Thomas 2011). For different reasons, the exploratory research design is the most suitable research design that the researcher can adopt in this research situation. First of all, this increases the understanding of the problem. It helps a researcher to determine how and why things happen (Jain, Jain & Jain 2014). Thus, in this case, the researcher will be able to determine the causes of low output levels by employees. Additionally, exploratory research employs flexible sources of data. In secondary data analysis, as seen, it is possible to use secondary data, which is readily available and easily accessible (Bezzina & Saunders 2013). Apart from secondary data, exploratory research allows for in-depth interviews, experience surveys and pilot studies. This research design also allows for open-ended questions in interview process. This therefore, helps a researcher to gather sufficient information on the research problem (Mullen, Budeva & Doney 2009). The main disadvantage of adopting the exploratory research is that the researcher may not obtain adequate answers to the research questions. Nonetheless, this can hint at the answers. Additionally, respondents may not answer questions that they consider to be personal. Nevertheless, exploratory study remains suitable for this research situation. 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Samouel, P. & Page, M 2015, “Essentials of Business Research Methods,” Routledge, New York. Jain, R., Jain, P. & Jain, C. 2014, "Research Methodology, Social & Behavioural Sciences, Psychology, Organizational Behaviour, Business Studies", Vision, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 69. Jankowicz, A. D 2005, “Business Research Projects,” New York, Cengage Learning EMEA. Mathiyazhagan, T. & Nandan, D 2010, “Survey Research Method,” PDF. Mullen, M. R., Budeva, D. G. & Doney, P. M 2009, “Research Methods in the Leading Small Business Entrepreneurship Journals: A Critical Review with Recommendations for Future Research,” Journal of Small Business Management, Vol. 47, no.3, pp. 287-307. Saunders, M & Lewis P 2012, “Doing Research in Business and Management: An Essential Guide in Planning your Project,” Financial Times Prentice Hall, New York. Seaker, R.F., Waller, M.A. & Dunn, S.C. 1993, "A note on research methodology in business logistics", Logistics and Transportation Review, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 383. Thomas, A.E. 2011, "Business Research Methodology", SCMS Journal of Indian Management, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 123-124. Westat, J 2002, “The 2002 User-Friendly Handbook for Project Evaluation,” Directorate for Education and Human Resources. Pdf. Read More