Basic Social Sciences Research Methods - Essay Example

Full topic and Section # of The basic research methods that are the foundations of the social science research can effectively by mapped onto business research methods and technologies. They follow the same theoretical idea and form the basis of many research methods and technologies. Business Research Methods Business Research Methods are those methods and tools that are used by business executives to predict and comprehend the situation and future outcomes related to a certain decision or judgment. These methods are usually accepted throughout the world and help in making reasonable predictions about the future that a certain decision might lead to or the consequences of a definite assessment. Social science research on the other hand is the research techniques that are used to understand the underlying theories on which the societal norms are working on. They help in assessing the rules and laws that are being observed by the society. They are the basic research methods that are being used primarily in the business world to understand the consequences of certain actions and procedures. There are many types of social science research methods that are being used in today's world to use it accordingly to the needs and requirements of the individuals. The idea is to use the right kind of research method that best suits your needs and helps you in generating a sound conclusion. The more focused you are about the information you want to gain with the help of the research, the better you will be at choosing the technique, and the more efficient and effective you will be on you research. Another factor that should be kept in mind is that conducting researches uses up valuable time and resources. Therefore, if you chose the best research methodology to help you in your research, the lesser it will cost you and save you with valuable resources; whether it is the time or cost of the company or your own self. Usually your research depends upon what information you need to collect in order to make further decisions or to validate a previously taken decision. Obviously, in conducting a research there are shortfalls too. The depth and breadth of the information are important variables. The more you get into the breadth of the information, the lesser you are able to penetrate in to the depth. This might not happen if you have numerous resources to carry out the research. For those who are starting on a research and are relatively new on these horizons, they can use a combination of research methods to help themselves in getting the right mix of breadth and depth of information that they require. Research Approaches and Strategies There are five basic types of research methods used in the contemporary world today. They are primarily qualitative, descriptive, co-relational, casual-competitive and experimental research. Qualitative research is sometimes called 'ethnographic' research. It involves the collection of data and information in a natural setting so that valuable insight is gained on the variables of interest and how these variables affect the outcome. This research studies numerous variables over a vast period of time. Time and resources are spent to understand how and why things are they way they are, how and why they became the way they are, and what is the underlying meaning of all of them. The basic advantage is that qualitative researchers don't want to control or lead anything. Instead, they focus on understanding the impact of the variables on the outcomes in the natural environment. Descriptive Research Descriptive research, as the name implies, just answers the question of 'what'. There is no manipulation of variables just like qualitative research and the researchers are just worried about the descriptions of variables and their relationships with the outcomes as they naturally occur. Descriptive research methods incorporate a number of research methods in itself. They range from survey research where the description of the variables is given to the co relational study which helps in investigating the relationship between different variables that are present in an environment that effect the outcomes. Co-Relational Research Co-relational research signifies how a variable is related to the other variable that is present in the environment. It helps us to understand the relationship between two or more quantifiable variables. The idea is to first gather significant data about two variables and then find out the coefficient of correlation. This coefficient may have a value from 0.00 to 1.00. A value of 0.00 will signify that there exists no relationship between the variables and 1.00 will signify perfect relationship between the variables. However, this fact cannot be disregarded that their correlation might be dependent on the third factor that is not being studied. Therefore, further research should be conducted to analyze other factors present in the environment as well. Casual Comparative Research Casual comparative research is conducted when you are unable to manipulate variables present in the environment. This kind of relationship lets you analyze variables like intelligence, socioeconomic class, creativity and instructor's personality. These kinds of variables cannot be manipulated, for example, you can't change the socioeconomic condition of students to test a hypothesis. In these cases, you use casual comparative research methods. Experimental Research Experimental research method is the simplest and perhaps the most popular means of research methods. It basically has three important characteristics. Firstly, there exists an interdependent variable that can be manipulated. Then, other variables except the independent variable are kept constant. Lastly, the effect of the independent variable on the other constant variables is studied. The independent variable can be termed as the cause and the dependent variable as the effect. The essence of experimentation research is control; and this sets this kind of research apart from other researches. The basic research methods are the ones that can be characterized as the bifurcations or branches of these major types of research techniques. Business research methods use the social science researches to map out their strategies for their research methods. These methods serve as guidelines to the business circle and they use the basic outline of the social sciences methods and techniques according to the needs and requirements to formulate business research methods that are then used to evaluate variables and predict outcomes. Some of the research methods that are being effectively and widely used in the business sector are case studies, focus group, interviews and questionnaires; to name a few. Case studies are especially useful in portraying a holistic view of a client's experiences and resulting problems. For example, to appraise the efficiency of a program's processes, including its strengths and weaknesses, evaluators might build up cases studies on the program's accomplishments and crashes. A case might be on a company, individual and the perception about the strengths or weaknesses or the ideas about solution might differ with different people, therefore depth analysis and comparison is required. The concept of case studies uses qualitative research methods or ethnographic method as the basis. They don't change try to change any variables present in the environment and just analyze the relationship that is present in the variables by the simple studying of a case. Focus groups serve as a influential means of research to test new ideas or to evaluate services. Basically, focus groups are interviews of six to ten people but at the same time. The idea is the the participants are asked a questions about a particular topic and their responses are recorded. The questions are formulated in such a way so as to follow an agenda and to study the relationships that are present between the people and the product or service. This type of technique uses the casual-comparative research method in which the variables that cannot be manipulated. Interviews form the basic recruitment requirement in today's world. Almost every single recruitment in a firm or organization is done after conducting an interview of candidates and then selecting the best suited for the position. Interviews are particularly useful in understanding and getting the story behind a person's experiences. Usually open ended questions are asked in an interview to analyze the depth and breadth of the knowledge of the candidate and to evaluate the personality. Interviews are usually followed by questionnaires to further test the expertise of candidates. Interviews are the prime example of experimental research, where candidates are placed in a controlled environment with certain conditions and the responses of these candidates are recorded and evaluated in the presence of these conditions. For example, while going for an interview a person has to wear a certain kind of attire, has to use a formal tone, and use ways and means to attract the interviewer. Questionnaires form a part of business research methods. They are composed of a number of questions that have been formulated to understand the relationship between two variables in a person's eyes. For example, a questionnaire about the fact that if a shampoo's fragrance or its packaging will attract me more to buy it will test the relationship that exists between consumers and the product's characteristics. The questionnaire can then be used to change the product according to the wishes of the consumer to increase sales. This kind of technique uses co relational method. Questions are formulated in such a manner that they see that effect of manipulating one variable and how is will affect our decision to buy the product. The above analysis has provided us with sufficient evidence that basic social sciences research methods are being taken as the basis and are being used in today's corporate world to help them in solving their problems. Bibliography 1. Carter McNamara. (2007) Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development. 2. Pervez Ghauri, Kjell Gronhaug. (2005) Research Methods in Business Studies. Pearson. 3. Mark Saunders, Adrian Thornhill (2006) Research Methods for Business Students. Pearson. 4. Carter McNamara (2006) Basic Business Research Methods. [Internet]. Available from < www.managementhelp.org/research/research.htm> [Accessed 14 November 2007] 5. Donald R. Cooper. (2007) Business Research Methods. [Internet]. Available from < www.c-r-g.com/busresearch/> [Accessed 14 November 2007] Read More