Data Collection Procedures - Essay Example

Data collection procedures February 8, Data collection procedures Introduction Data collection procedure is one of the elements of a research and is significant in determining validity and reliability of research findings as well as compliance with ethical requirements. A researcher therefore needs to understand background information of applicable data collection techniques and involved sample space in order to identify and use the most suitable approach to data collection. In this paper, I discuss my proposed data collection procedure by exploring the research’s setting, the involved population and sample, and the proposed data collection process. Setting The research will be conducted in a manufacturing enterprise with diversified employees and a hierarchical structure. The setting is chosen for the proposed research because of its diversified population characteristics that can establish validity of the research results. Similarly, diversified research participants offer a wide base for exploring data towards a more informed conclusion. Diversity in the setting can be derived from different perspectives such as employees’ positions along the organization’s hierarchy, department, gender, age, ethnicity, and economic background. The organization stands to benefits from the research results through its human resource management department that is susceptible to employees’ psychological instability. Drug abuse being a common problem in the nation, and with prior affirmation that a significant number of organizations’ employees or the employees’ partners are victims of drug abuse, it is likely that the organization’s employees experience drug abuse based domestic violence. This further has implications on the employees’ emotional stability and therefore affects their interpersonal relationships and collective potentials. My research’s identification of the root cause of the type of violence will therefore help the organization in ensuring its employees’ healthy social lives through applying the research’s recommendations to prevent drug abuse based domestic violence in employees’ homes. This will then translate into a social and cohesive workforce that is psychologically stable and will ensure effectiveness and efficiency of employees (Borg, 2011). Population and sample The target population is the set of employees in a profit making manufacturing organization. It forms a mixed pool of adults with diversified characteristics in gender, ethnicity, age, and academic qualifications. High-level diversity in the population establishes its uniqueness and is appropriate for understanding underlying factors to the relationship between drug abuse and domestic violence. The diversity is essential because consistency in a factor across different strata will identify the factor’s importance as a primary element to the studied relationship. Differences in the population also offer a wider approach to understanding the relationship. My proposed sample is a section of employees from the selected manufacturing organization. Any member of the organization will be viable for selection into the sample subject to inclusion and exclusion criteria. With experienced cases of domestic violence and drug abuse as the inclusion criteria and prior involvement in a similar research as exclusion criteria, stratified sampling will be appropriate to yield reliable and representative information because of the diversified nature of the target population. Participants’ identity will not be used as a strategy for selecting the sample and participants will majorly be selected because of their willingness to engage in the research. A sample size of 137 participants will be used for research. This is based on a comparative review of the required resources for implementing the research process and the expected benefits from the research. With a proposed stratified sampling strategy, each stratum should have a minimum of 30 participants and this identifies the need for a relatively large sample size. The research is however economically feasible for the proposed sample size (Kothari, 2009). Application of stratified random sampling strategy is further suitable for the study that explores a diversified population. The sampling approach identifies unique features among the subject population, defines strata within the population, and samples by the strata. It is appropriate for heterogeneous populations because it ensures representation of each population characteristic. Its randomized approach also eliminates researcher’s bias at the sampling stage. The correspondence between the sampling strategy’s features and characteristics of the proposed population identifies it as the best sampling strategy for the research (Sekaran and Bougie, 2010). I will use direct interaction with the target population in recruiting potential participants. The recruitment procedure will commence after attainment of ethical approval for implementation of the research. Seeking approval from the host organization will follow this before planning for available resources. A forum will then be formed in which the relationship between drug abuse, domestic violence, and employees’ productivity will be discussed before introducing the proposed study to the employees. The scope of the study, its benefits, and potential effects will then be explained before asking willing employees to register for participation. Registered employees will then read and sign consent forms in which they will disclose any prior involvement in a similar study. Participants will then be selected using stratified random sampling on different bases such as position, gender, ethnicity, age group, and department of service. Procedure for collecting primary data The study will use phenomenology, a methodology that explores people’s experiences to develop meanings from consequences of phenomena. Its scope matches the research’s objective of exploring participants’ experiences to understand whether drug abuse is the primary cause of domestic violence or not (Rubin and Babbie, 2012). My previous involvement in qualitative research together with my academic background and knowledge from professional conferences identifies my sufficient experience and training to implement the research Participants will be recruited through an organized awareness forum in which the research’s background and scope will be explained to them before seeking their informed consent. Data will be gathered through interviews and the applied questionnaire forms will be used for recording. Both verbal and non-verbal response approaches will be used in capturing data in processes that will take about 30 minutes per participant. Procedure for collecting secondary data Secondary data involving association between drug abuse and domestic violence will be collected to offer background information to the study. Data will be collected from online databases using different search engines and key terms: drug abuse, and domestic violence. Obtained data will then be reviewed to determine their relevance to the study, and to ascertain the problem statement. References Borg, A. (2011). Domestic violence against women and its impacts on employment prospects. University of Malta. Retrieved from: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/ewco/2010/12/MT1012019I.htm. Kothari, C. (2009). Research methodology: Methods and techniques. New Delhi: New Age International. Rubin, A. and Babbie, E. (2012). Essential research methods for social work. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning. Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R. (2010). Research methods for business: A skilful building approach. New Jersey, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Read More