RESEARCH: DEFINITION, CHARACTERISTICS, FUNCTION and IMPORTANCE

IN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINES AND IN THE WORKPLACE

There are three terms that need to be defined so they can be used correctly: field, discipline and
science. Adopting the definition of McMillan and Schumacher, (1993) “field,” is an area of research,
knowledge and practice that is more than a single discipline, as is business administration, public
management, education, medicine, nursing and other related studies. “Discipline” refers to a method of
organizing academic knowledge. Disciplines are usually classified as the physical, behavioral, and social
sciences. Physical science is the study of the natural universe; behavioral science is the study of an
organism; and social science is the study of human social systems. Although scholars and scientists’
debate whether a particular discipline is a science, they generally agree it is the research topic that
distinguishes physical, behavioral, and social sciences.

A. Research: Definition
Here are some typical definitions of research:
• Research is the systematic study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach
conclusions.
• It is a process of searching repeatedly, re-searching for new insights and a more comprehensive,
cohesive, “elegant” theory (Brause, 2000:37; Brause & Mayher, 1991, in Baac, 2008).
• Research is a systematic, formal, rigorous, and precise process employed to gain solutions to problems
and/or to discover and interpret new facts and relationships (Waltz & Bausell, 1981, p.1).
• Research is the process of looking for a specific answer to a specific question in an organized objective,
reliable way (Payton, 1979, p. 4).
• Research is systematic, controlled, empirical, and critical investigation of natural phenomena guided
by theory and hypotheses about the presumed relations among such phenomena (Kerlinger, 1986, p.
10)