THE RESEARCH PROCESS: ELEMENTS OF RESEARCH DESIGN

The Research Process

The Research Design Many definitions of research design: Constitutes the blueprint for collection, measurement, and analysis of data Aids the researcher in the allocation of limited resources by posing crucial choices in methodology The plan and structure of investigation so conceived as to obtain answers to research questions Express both the structure of the research problem and the plan of investigation used to obtain empirical evidence on those relationships

The Research Design (Cont’d) The essentials of research design: An activity- and time-based plan A plan always based in the research question A guide for selecting sources and type of information A framework for specifying the relationships among the study’s variables A procedural outline for every research activity

The Research Design (Cont’d) Issues relating to decisions regarding: The purpose for the study Study setting Type of investigation Extent of researcher interference Time horizon Unit of analysis

The Research Design (Cont’d) Issues relating to decisions regarding (Cont’d): Sampling design Data collection methods Measurement Data analysis

The Research Design (Cont’d)

Purpose of the study Exploratory: Undertaken when not much is known about the situation at hand, or no information is available on how similar problems or research issues have been solved in the past

Purpose of the study (Cont’d) Descriptive: Undertaken in order to ascertain and be able to describe the characteristics of the variable of interest in a situation

Purpose of the study (Cont’d) Hypotheses testing: Undertaken to explain the variance in the independent variable or to predict organizational outcomes

Type of Investigation Causal The study in which the researcher wants to delineate the cause of one or more variables Correlation When the researcher is interested in delineating the important variables associated with the problems

Extent of Researcher Interference Minimal Moderate Excessive

Study Setting Contrived Artificial settings Noncontrived Natural environment

Unit of analysis Refers to the level of aggregation if the data collected during the subsequent data analysis stage Individual, dyads, groups, etc

Time Horizon Cross sectional Data are gathered just once Longitudinal Data are gathered at more than one point in time