1. Professor Ruth Boaden Manchester Business School Ruth.Boaden@mbs.ac.uk
What is research?
Professor Ruth Boaden
Manchester Business School

2. “Research is about illumination
“Research is about illumination. If a person reads something and doesn’t feel any wiser, then why was it done?
Richardson et al, 1990, p75

3. useful? What is research? A process of inquiry and investigation
… Questions
Systematic and methodical
… so methods matter
Increases knowledge
… illumination?

4. Do you need research? Intelligence-gathering - the ‘what’ questions
Gathering information
Audit
Evaluation (might be research)
Research - the ‘why’ questions
Research looks for explanations, relationships, comparisons, predictions, generalizations and theories. It may need to gather information in order to do this, but the emphasis is on "why".

5. Your view of the world matters …
Tools and techniques (methods)
Data/evidence

6. Morgan G (1986) “Images of Organisations”
Views of the world …
Morgan G (1986) “Images of Organisations”

7. Views of the world … and research approaches
The facts are definitely out there
Truth depends on your viewpoint
Scientific
focus on measurement:
look for general patterns to turn into theories or “laws”
typically interested in physical or macro systems rather than people or micro systems
Ethnographic
focus on culture:
Uncover differences in how people see the world and see what shapes these different perceptions
typically interested in people, groups or organisations

8. The questions, the method and the data
Answer WHAT? and HOW MUCH? questions
Tools include SURVEYS and EXPERIMENTS
Data is mainly NUMBERS
Findings are about MEASURE
Answer WHY? and HOW? questions
Tools include OBSERVATION and INTERVIEWS
Data is mainly WORDS
Findings are about MEANING

9. Not all research is “good” … what you find out depends on
Context
Methods used
How data have been analysed and interpreted

10. Be careful if you (the researcher) are involved …
They tell you what they think you want to know
Trust
Bias
Ethics
Politics
Asking the same things to everyone, in the same way
Confidentiality?
Where is the power?
Are you trying to change the organisation in some way as part of the research?
This is ACTION RESEARCH – be careful not to go “native”

11. Qualities of a good researcher
communication skills
intellectual skills
independence
perseverance
motivation
IT skills
organisational skills

12. So does research matter?
Is there a question to be answered?
Is there a way to answer it?
Is there data that can be collected?
Are there ways it can be analysed?
Will the findings be useful to others?
Can you do it?
If people feel that research illuminates their understanding and gets into their thinking, then it’s of use