RESEARCH METHOD By Abuzar Asra

STEP 6: ELEMENTS OF RESEARCH DESIGN SESSION 5 STEP 6: ELEMENTS OF RESEARCH DESIGN (Chapter 6 of Sekaran, 2000; Selltiz, 1976)

ISSUES IN RESEARCH DESIGN Purpose for the study Type of study/investigation Extent of researcher interference Unit of analysis Time horizon

KINDS OF RESEARCH (1) (Sekaran, 2000 and Johnston, 1986) Basic/fundamental/pure research: chiefly to enhance the understanding of certain problems and seek methods of solving them (i.e contribute to knowledge building in a certain area), similar to - Disciplinary research to improve a discipline, such as economics

KINDS OF RESEARCH (2) (Sekaran, 2000 and Johnston, 1986) Applied research: applying the results of the findings to solve specific problems currently being faced, similar to, Subject-Matter: multidisciplinary research on a subject of interest to a set of decision makers facing a set of practical problems or Problem-solving: To solve a specific problem for a specific decision makers

Exploratory or Formulative PURPOSE OF THE STUDY (1) (Selltiz, et al., 2000; Chapter 6 of Sekaran, 2000 ) Types of study, according to the purpose of the study and related to the stage to which knowledge about the research topic has advanced: Exploratory or Formulative Descriptive Analytical (Hypothesis testing, Explanatory, Validation, Predictive ) Case Study

EXPLORATORY (1) Objectives: To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights into it, help formulating a more precise research problem or to develop hypotheses

EXPLORATORY (2) Other Objectives: increasing investigators’ familiarity with the phenomenon to be studied further clarifying concepts establishing priorities for further research (iv) gathering information about practical possibilites for carrying out research in real-life setting

a review of the related science and literature experience survey: EXPLORATORY (3) Methods: a review of the related science and literature experience survey: a survey of people who had practical experience with the problem studied (individually or focus groups), and an analysis of ‘insighting-stimulating’ examples

A review of the related science and literature The focus: EXPLORATORY (4) A review of the related science and literature The focus: hypotheses that may serve as leads for further investigation

The experience survey: EXPLORATORY (5) The experience survey: a survey of people who had practical experience with the problem studied (individually or focus groups) Issues: Selection of respondents The question of respondents

The analysis of ‘insighting-stimulating’ examples EXPLORATORY (6) The analysis of ‘insighting-stimulating’ examples An intensive study of selected selected examples, a fruitful method for stimulating insights and suggesting hypotheses for research

Exploratory (7) Example: A manager, curious to know, work ethic values, employees, certain ethnic groups, different from that of others. Work ethic values? Quality of life, what does it mean?

DESCRIPTIVE (1) Objective: to portray and understand accurately the characteristics of a particular individual, situation, or group or of the variables of interest in a situation In sum, help to: understand the characteristics of a group in a given situation, think systematically about aspects in a given situation, offer ideas for further probe and research, and help make certain simple decisions

DESCRIPTIVE (2) Steps: Formulating the objectives Designing methods of data collection Selecting the sample Collecting and checking the data Analyzing the results

DESCRIPTIVE (3) Example: A profile of the clients having loan payment outstanding for six months and more. Characteristics: Average age Sex Earnings Type of occupation Employment status

HYPOTHESIS TESTING/ANALYTICAL Objective: Test a hypothesis or explain the nature of e.g., relationship between variables and the differences among groups Develop new theories or use the existing theories to account for observations Validating and replicating existing research and theory. Using different samples, populations, research methods Prediction: ascertain the extent to which observations of ..... agree with what the theory specifies.

EXAMPLES Sales, increases, if advertisement doubles? Is working night shift related to marital status? Is education associated with the adoption of family planning program?

In depth, contextual analysis CASE STUDY In depth, contextual analysis

TYPE OF INVESTIGATION Causal To establish a definitive cause and effect relationship To delineate the cause of one or more problems E.g., Does smoking cause cancer? Correlational To delineate the important variables that are associated with the problems E.g., Are smoking and cancer related?

EXTENT OF RESEARCHER INTERFERENCE WITH THE STUDY Depend on whether the study is correlational or causal the importance of establishing causal relationship beyond any doubt whatever

EXTENT OF RESEARCHER INTERFERENCE WITH THE STUDY Correlational study: in the natural environment, e.g., the study the factors influencing training effectiveness; develop a theoretical framework, collect the relevant data, and analyse them to come up with the findings Causal study: manipulate certain variables so as to study the effects of such manipulation on the dependent variable of interest (and tightly controll certain other variables, as in a laboratory) – artificial lab setting

STUDY SETTING Noncontrived: ‘normal condition’ (minimal interference), such as correlational/field studies Contrived/Artificial: causal studies (moderate interference) and lab experiments (excessive interference)

AN EXAMPLE (1) Correlational study, in some cases is called field study: noncontrived setting with minimal interference Emotional support in the system and the stress experienced by the nursing staff (say, using a questionnaire) Collect data on how much emotional support they get and to what extent they experience stress, and Then correlate the 2 variables.

AN EXAMPLE (2) Causal study, in some cases is called field experiment: noncontrived setting with moderate interference Having emotional support does indeed cause the nurses to experience less stress Experiment, 3 wards, before and after ‘treatment’ (emotional support) Before: measure the stress currently experienced in the 3 wards

AN EXAMPLE (3) Deliberately manipulate the extent of emotional support given to the three groups of nurses, say for a week, say 3 levels: - extensive support; moderate support; no support After: measure the amount of stress at the end of the period If the theory is correct, the difference in the stress levels before and after the one-week period should be greatest in the first ward, moderate in the second and nil for in the third

AN EXAMPLE (4) Lab experiment: Excessive interference, a contrived setting Create an artificial environment, close to laboratory setting Say, connection between interest rate and savings Recruits 40 students, business majors in the final year, same age

AN EXAMPLE (5) Split into 4 groups, give them chips that count for $1,000 for spending, saving, or both Manipulate the interest rates by offerring a 1% interest on savings for group 1; 6% group 2; 8% group 3; and 9% group 4. Do students who are offerred more interest are inclined to sava more?

UNIT OF ANALYSIS (1) Level of aggregation of the data collected during the subsequent data analyis stage Individual : e.g. Employees Dyads : e.g. Husband-wife; supervisor-supervisee, as unit of analysis Group: e.g. to study group effectiveness Organization, etc etc etc Data collection methods, sample size, the variables included in the framework are determined by the level at which data are aggregated for analyis

UNIT OF ANALYSIS (2) Examples: Individual: how many interested in joining the demonstration Dyad: what jointly mother and daughter perceive benefits of the program Group: Group of production, sales and operation personnells on using the new IT system Division: profit of each of divisions (soap, paper, oil, etc)

Cross-sectional studies TIME HORIZON (1) Cross-sectional studies Data are gathered just once (at one point in time), perhaps over a period of days or weeks, across unit of observation. Example: A number of female students were interviewed in March 2010 regarding the brand of hair shampo used and ethnci background

(ii) Longitudinal/Time-Series studies TIME HORIZON (2) (ii) Longitudinal/Time-Series studies To study people or phenomena (unit of observation) at more than one point in time Prospective /cohort/forward looking study Retrospective /trohoc/’backward looking’/case history study:

Employees’ behavior before and after a change in the top management, TIME HORIZON (3) Example: Employees’ behavior before and after a change in the top management, to study the effects of the change

TIME HORIZON (4) Cause Outcome Prospective: Smokers Non-smokers Retrospective: With disease Without disease

(iii) Studies using pooled cross-section and time-series data TIME HORIZON (5) (iii) Studies using pooled cross-section and time-series data

Exercises 6.1 and 6.2 of Sekaran, 2000