Impact of Philosophy on Management Practice - Research Paper Example

Impact of Research Philosophy on Management Practice Introduction Jeep, a registered trademark of Chrysler Corporation, which is operating in the market since the early 1940’s has recently asked his workers who wash and paint their car models to stop using antiperspirants while doing their jobs. Interestingly, the management says that this step is a part of their total quality management program. This decision is a result of the production quality research that they have conducted. Chrysler’s investigation has shown that the all the antiperspirants that their workers use, have chemicals like zinc zirconium present in them. Chemicals like these have the ability to wash away or at least lighting the tone of the paint of the car. In addition, research indicates that the simultaneously they can also create a depression or dent on the car’s body, which would not be more than the size of a baby’s fingertip. In addition, the research also points out that hands, which have remains of cream, or hands used for eating microwave popcorns have the capability to cause somewhat the same damage to car. One important point here to note is that Chrysler did not go into this investigation or research process after incurring heavy loses. In other words, this research was a reaction of anything. However, it was a small observation and more of a routine research that they believe they should have after every small interval. Certainly, this research saved Chrysler millions of dollars because even a small defect of this kind, can be enough for an inspector to send the car back for repairs. Moreover, repairs can account for almost have the cost and time that needs for the actual manufacturing. Furthermore, the company, based on these findings, has started an awareness program for employees, that would be conducted by the respective managers. The agenda for the program would be share all these findings with the workers and pursue them to change their approaches, which have the potential to harm the production quality of the company. According to the World Association of Opinion and Market Research Intelligence, business research now amounts to be around 16.5 billion globally and business people expect it to grow even at a higher rate (Lancaster, pp. 16-41, 2005) (Kothari, pp. 156-184, 2008). It would have been much easier to operate in the scenario of six or seven decades back when there was not much competition, customers were not as aware of the products and services that they are using as they are today. Moreover, quality was not an issue of life and they took it for granted as well; sustainability and survival were not an issue, customers did not have many options and things were simple and sweet (Kotabe & Aulakh, pp. 125-128, 2002). Unfortunately, the 21st century is not the same. Life is becoming miserable for producers and employers in the sense that the degree of sophistication and complexity is increasing drastically. Firms now understand that it is there survival, which is at stake, and any wrong move can cost them their very existence in the market (Herbst & Coldwell, pp. 56-78, 2004). Managers did not want to be a victim of globalization and increased competition so they had to sit down and find a remedy. Their biggest problem was the ongoing rapid change in the market and the fear of being obsolete. The obvious solution to this problem was to pursue continuous and effective business research on sides, employees, and customers, to gain new and changing insights of the minds of customers. The firms that understand the importance of continuous market research have survived through the tough times but the rest are either struggling or are long gone. The director of Category management and trade marketing of Fuji has very well said, “If you don’t have market research to help you figure out that what is changing and what the future will be, you will be left behind” (Herbst & Coldwell, pp. 56-78, 2004) (Kotabe & Aulakh, pp. 125-128, 2002). Not only business research is a matter of life and death for big, multinational, profit making companies but also for each and every firm on this planet considering the global economic and financial markets of today. A firm no matter, if is not for profit, small in size and scope, locally operating, with relatively stagnant technology, still needs research. If it avoids business research, feedback or customer and employee insights, it would cost them, if not in short run and then definite guaranteed destruction in the long run. According to the basic definition, marketing research means, “the systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation facing the company” (Herbst & Coldwell, pp. 56-78, 2004) (Remenyi, Williams & Money, pp. 56-78, 1998). The same is true for our Local Authority Fire and Rescue Service and this paper intends to examine the impact, effects and results of research practice sand methodologies on the management of this organization. Despite the fact, that this organization does not exists for making profits but still quality, productivity, effectiveness and value delivery are still our motives and keeping an eye on what is happening is vital in the achievement of these objectives. In addition, our company also would experience some tight financial times in the months coming ahead. As a responsible organization, we need to get into a great deal of planning for the upcoming scenario. The best in the market are proactive and we need to be the same. This paper analyzes how can we be proactive and how would it effect out company and its services in the long run. Discussion This part of the paper focuses on all the possible effects of the research methodology on management practice of any firm and then narrowed down to the specific situation of our local authority fire and rescue service. The first question that arises when any company thinks of research is “who” (Herbst & Coldwell, pp. 56-78, 2004). This question is closely associated with the cost that the firm would incur. It is obvious that when research has the capability of providing so many benefits to the firm there are definitely some costs associated with it as well. Companies that avoid research usually do it because of the costs that they will incur. Furthermore, usually companies dedicate only 1 to 2 percent of their sales as their research budget (Marschan-Piekkari & Welch, pp. 3-7, 2004) (Remenyi, Williams & Money, pp. 56-78, 1998). However, important here to note is, this cost can even further decrease if one uses some creative and affordable. The first method could be by engaging business students and university professors. Especially business students are very eager to carry out these projects because in this way, they get a chance to develop and enhance their skills and they get a chance to witness the real corporate world. Universities are also cooperative in this regard because the want the same for their students. For example, when American Express wanted to develop a new advertising campaign target towards the younger generation, they took help from the MBA students of Boston University (Ghauri, & Grønhaug, pp. 23-45, 2005). It became the term project for those students and at the end; American Express got what they needed. Surprisingly, not only the ad was according to their standards but also the cost was not more than fifteen thousand US dollars (Lancaster, pp. 16-41, 2005). Another affordable way of conducting research could be through internet. This method helps the researchers to save the costs, time, and efforts of all the paper work, traveling, encoding, decoding, and others. Online survey forms, questionnaires, interviews, and accessing other data regarding the customers can be beneficial (Marschan-Piekkari & Welch, pp. 3-7, 2004). Since most of the customers that we serve for risk checks use internet, this way would be worth using. Once the researchers find answer to the question of “whom” they fund answer to the question of “how” (Gummesson, pp. 74-86, 2000). Fortunately, companies follow a well-defined process during business research. At the first stage of the research, it is all about defining the problem in a proper way, listing all the decision alternatives and the research objectives (Lancaster, pp. 16-41, 2005). The first way in which research practice effects the management during this research process is by defining the problem. The management should be careful in the way in which they are defining the problem (Martocchio, pp. 584-597, 2005). Problem defining in a board way can lead to increased workload and they would end up finding a lot of unnecessary information (Kothari, pp. 156-184, 2008). Problem defining in a very narrow manner would leave them with little or no scope of research (Kotabe & Aulakh, pp. 125-128, 2002) A board problem definition in the discussed scenario could be “To find out everything about all the homes that are at even little or minimum risk and find out ways to overcome them” (Ghauri, & Grønhaug, pp. 23-45, 2005). A narrow problem would look like this “to find out that if the seventeenth home on the left of the fifth street is free from fire risk or not”. However, the managers need to come up with a balanced approach that could be “To find out that what could be possible percentage of homes that are at risk and what percentage of them could be left unchecked.” Then comes the point where the manager finds himself listing the decision alternatives and research objectives. It is also important here to remain specific, precise and careful (Ghauri, & Grønhaug, pp. 23-45, 2005) (Thiétart, pp. 65-94, 2001). Even a small mistake here can create large problems during the upcoming stages. Developing the research plan is the second stage of the research process. Captivatingly, this stage makes the majority of the decision of this paper. This is because at this stage the manager makes distinction between the various ways of data sources, research approaches, research instruments, sampling plan, and contact methods (Lancaster, pp. 16-41, 2005). The first way in which the management practice affects by research method in this stage is by making the distinction between the data sources. The manager evaluates that either primary or secondary data sources would be feasible. Using primary data sources means that the manager wants to fresh and first hand information about the problem. Managers usually take this way when there is no secondary data available (Martocchio, pp. 584-597, 2005). Secondary data are the data, which already exist and is worth using. Managers prefer secondary data, if available because of decreased costs and quick availability (Remenyi, Williams & Money, pp. 56-78, 1998). However, if in case, there is no published or available data then managers will have to collect all the data by themselves. Using primary data is useful in the sense that it is recent, firsthand and fresh however as mentioned earlier in the paper that it has some costs associated with it (Wrenn, Stevens & Loudon, pp. 412-452, 2007). In the considered scenario of Fire Rescue Service, very little secondary data would be available therefore; the organization will have to collect the information through primary sources. For most situations, primary data has five major ways of its collection. At the top, it is the method of observational research (Marschan-Piekkari & Welch, pp. 3-7, 2004). The best method could be to select a team, train them for this research, and send them to the whole population or a specific sample of homes to check their level of risk. It would require extensive traveling and restless efforts from the team since their proper observation would be the key to proper findings. The next could be focus group research (Martocchio, pp. 584-597, 2005). This is a practice which most of the organizations use extensively despite of the fact that there are some disadvantages associated with it (Herbst & Coldwell, pp. 56-78, 2004). Our fire rescue service different subjects belonging to diverse backgrounds to investigate and understand the factors that cause being at risk. In this way, the company can minimize costs since they assume that this focus group represents the whole population. However, in most of the cases the focus group findings are not reliable. The basic assumptions that focus group sample represents the whole population is questionable (Kothari, pp. 156-184, 2008). In addition, the focus group subjects at time do not provide researchers with accurate information due to various reasons. If not focus group research, then the manager always has the most common option of survey research (Zikmund, pp. 3-25, 2007). Designing a survey or questionnaire and making the customers or subjects answer that question is a useful method of data collecting (Marschan-Piekkari & Welch, pp. 3-7, 2004). This would help the organization with a better understanding of their customers and all the people with which they have difficulty dealing with (Ghauri, & Grønhaug, pp. 23-45, 2005). However, these days’ companies are also engaging into behavioral data research where they analyze the behaviors patterns of the customers through their dustbins, catalog purchases, databases, and previous records (Lancaster, pp. 16-41, 2005). However, this method is not effective for the discussed scenario but the last method is. Experimental research seems to be the most fitting one in this specific scenario. This is the finest method in terms of scientific validity because it tries to search for the cause and effect relationships (Herbst & Coldwell, pp. 56-78, 2004). It has edge over all other methods since it removes almost all the subjective biases that are present in the previous methods. In this discussed scenario, experimental research would mean selecting some houses and checking out their exposure and risk of being at a possible fire catch. Once any organization is done with deciding the research approach then it would decide on the sampling plan. Three important questions require answering during this process. “Who is to be surveyed? How many people should be surveyed? How should the respondents be chosen?” (Farr, & Timm, pp. 16-24, 1994) (Remenyi, Williams & Money, pp. 56-78, 1998). In this case, people from the locality would witness the surveys. The second question is very important and it depends on the time and money constraints of the organization. Large samples are good since they decrease the probability of error however, at the same time they are difficult to handle and costly in terms of time, money and other resources (Marschan-Piekkari & Welch, pp. 3-7, 2004). The answer to the third question could be a random way. The next step incorporates deciding of what contact methods would be the most feasible to use. The various options that managers have are to mail their questionnaires, take interviews on telephones, personal interviews and online interviews (Goddard, pp. 54-59, 2004). There are some pros and cons of every method (Ghauri, & Grønhaug, pp. 23-45, 2005). However, it seems that personal interviews would be the best option in this particular. This is because the many customers with which the organization has been finding itself difficult to engage. Those groups of elderly people, disabled, sick, kids, dependent, minority groups can be best understood by personal interviews. Not only that would help getting reliable information but at the same time, the company would be in a position to answer and address their long time concerns and problems as well. The remaining stages of research process are collecting the information, analyzing the data, presenting the findings and making the final decision respectively. Since these steps involve a great of deal of subjectivity, are basic and differ from situation to situation (Goddard, pp. 54-59, 2004) they are not being discussed here. However, there are seven important points that are the seven characteristics of good business research for all the organizations (Herbst & Coldwell, pp. 56-78, 2004). The same applies to the discussed scenario as well. Firstly, scientific method of research is vital with careful observation, correct hypothesis, predication, and testing methods (Marschan-Piekkari & Welch, pp. 3-7, 2004). Secondly, the creativity of the research matters a lot. Thirdly, it is also important to take multiple methods into consideration so that they possibility of corruption and errors may be avoided (Ghauri, & Grønhaug, pp. 23-45, 2005). In addition, they should also understand that the data they have is interdependent. The fifth point is to analyze the value and cost of information and strike a balance between them (Gummesson, pp. 74-86, 2000). It is also imperative to remain skeptic regarding the results and observations because some degree of skepticism is always healthy and fruitful as a manager (Wrenn, Stevens & Loudon, pp. 412-452, 2007). Lastly, it is being ethical under all possible circumstances and keeping in mind the benefits and concerns of the society (Gummesson, pp. 74-86, 2000). In this last portion of this paper, it would be worth highlighting the possible benefits or advantages that the company can have with research. As mentioned earlier in the paper that research, now a days, is not a choice but a need. However, there are many benefits associated with it. In the discussed scenario, our Local Authority Fire and Rescue Service are spending loads of money on other activities for understanding the customers. With proper scientific research, we would be in a better position to communicate with your customers. The company has problems in communicating and understanding some specific groups of people. With personal interviews and questionnaires the customers would get a chance to express themselves freely which would act as mirror for the organization that where it is standing (Kothari, pp. 156-184, 2008). These groups of customers would also indicate the way in which they want the company to treat and understand them. In short, with proper research, the organization would find itself in a better position to understand and communicate with them. Even better scenario would be that with these interviews or any other research method the organization would get a chance to develop a relationship with the customers, a relationship of trust and mutual understanding (Gummesson, pp. 74-86, 2000). It will also help the Rescue Service to identify the possible opportunities for growth, expansion, or diversification. In addition, with a greater understanding of all the customers the Fire rescue Service would find it self a level where it would be in a situation to minimize the risk and its costs. With sufficient data of customers and a greater understanding of them, the Rescue service would possibly reduce the number of home safety checks (especially those that are unnecessary) and divert that energy, time and cost towards other beneficial activities. This market research would also provide the organization with sufficient data about the organizational problems. This is because there is no better mirror or feedback than market research. Furthermore, with continuous and timely researches the organization would be able to benchmark and measure its performance against the previous or expected standards. The best part is all these advantages would have a tickle down effect on the organizational performance (Stahl, & Björkman, pp. 36-38, 2006). This is because if the organizational performance would increase even a little bit, then it would increase the morale of the workers. With increased morale of the employees and the employers, they would be in a situation to work even harder for the achievement for their goals (Stahl, & Björkman, pp. 36-38, 2006). Conclusion With doubts, business research is an enlightening process for all the organizations and it has changed the fortune of many companies al around the world. All the big fishes in the corporate world Procter and Gamble, Unilever, Shell, American Airlines, DuPont, McDonalds, KFC, Coke, Levis, Pepsi, (Stahl, & Björkman, pp. 36-38, 2006) and so many other organizations rely heavily on the data available from researches and associate their success with them. Therefore, if this fire rescue service also takes the same route then it will witness many of its present and potential problems solving automatically and it will be able to deliver excellent service and quality to its customers. Conclusively, the paper has discussed some of the significant aspects of the impact of research philosophy and methodology on management practices in organizations. The paper has identified and analyzed different studies related to the topic; however, it is anticipation that future researches in this regard will allow a more comprehensive and updated understanding of the impact. 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