Research Methodology

Lecture No : 6
(Research Design)

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 RECAP

• Hypotheses statements are stated in such way that

they can be easily testable
• Hypotheses statement are written in directional, non
directional formats for testing group differences,
relationship between variables.
• We develop null and alternate hypotheses
• We now want to design the research in such a way
that the data can obtained and analyzed in away that
we arrive at a solution

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 Elements of Research Design

• Refers to the outline, plan, or strategy specifying the

procedure to be used in answering research
questions

• It encompasses many issues.

• We need to decide on the different choices.

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• To decide for any given situation
– the type of investigation needed,
– the study setting,
– the extent of researcher interference,
– the unit of analysis,
– the time horizon of the study
– To identify whether a casual or a correlation study
would be more appropriate in a given situation

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 The Research Design
Purpose of the Types of Extent of Study setting Measurement
study Investigation Researcher & Measures
interference
1. Feel for
Operational data
Exploratory Establishing: Minimal: studying Definition
Description -Casual events as they contrived scaling
Hypotheses relationship normally occur categorizing
Testing - Correlation's Manipulation non-contrived coding
- Group
difference
ranks, etc.

2.Goofiness
of data

Units of analysis Sampling Data collection

Time horizon method
(population to be design
studied) 3. Hypothesis
Testing

individuals Observation
dyads Interview
one-shot Questionnaire
groups
(cross-sectional) Physical
organizations Probability/
\machines Non-probability measurement
Longitudinal Un-obstructive
etc Sample size (n) 5
 THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

• Studies can be either exploratory in nature, or

descriptive, or they can be conducted to test
hypotheses.
• The nature of the study - whether it is exploratory,
descriptive or hypothesis testing - depends on the
stage to which knowledge about the research topic
has advanced.

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• The Case Studies, which is an examination of studies
done in similar organizational situations, is also a
method of solving problems, or for understanding
phenomena of interest and generating additional
knowledge in that area.

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• Exploratory Study
Exploratory studies are undertaken to better
comprehend the nature of the problem, since very
few studies might have been conducted in that area.

• Extensive interviews with many people might have to

be undertaken to get handle on the situation and to
understand the phenomena.

• After obtaining a better understanding, more

rigorous researches proceed. 8
• Some qualitative studies (as opposed to quantitative
data gathered through questionnaire, etc.) where
data are collected through observation or interviews,
are exploratory studies in nature.

• When the data reveals some pattern regarding the

phenomena of interest, theories are developed and
hypotheses formulated for subsequent testing.

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Example: Managers of firm wants to explore the nature
of managerial work (Mitnizberg in 1970)

Based on the analysis of his interview data, he

formulated theories of managerial roles, the nature
and types of managerial activities, and so on.

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Example : What is the role of virtual markets for e -
commerce ? (in 2005)
The recent development of the internet and the busy
life style of the people in the west, lots of the
individuals are showing interests in accessing
internet .

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• Descriptive Study:
A descriptive study is under taken in order to
ascertain and be able to describe the characteristics
of the variables of interest in a situation.
• For instance a study of class in terms of the
percentage of members who are in their senior and
junior years, gender composition, age groupings,
number of semesters until graduation, and number
of business courses taken, can only be considered as
descriptive in nature
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• Descriptive studies that present data in a meaningful
form help to:
• 1. Understand the characteristics of a group in a
given situation.
• 2. Think systematically about aspects in a given
situation.
• 3. Offer ideas for further probe and research
• 4. Help make certain simple decisions (such as how
many and what type of individuals should be
transferred from one department to another
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• Example:
• A bank manager wants to have a profile of the
individuals who have loan payments outstanding for
six months and more. It would include details of their
earnings, type of occupation they are in, full
time/part time employment status, and the like.
• This information might help to ask for further
information or make an immediate decision on the
types of individuals to whom he would not extend
loans in future.
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• Hypotheses Testing:
Hypothesis testing is undertaken to explain the
variance in the dependent variable or to predict
organizational outcomes.
• Example:
• A Marketing manager would like to know the sales
of the company will increase if he doubles the
advertising expenses.
• Here, the manager wants to know the nature of the
relationship between advertising and sales that can
be established by testing the hypothesis:

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• H0: There is no relationship between sales and
advertisement
• HA: If advertising is increased, then sales will also
increase

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• Example: The manager of a manufacturing firm
believes that the voluntary turn over is more of with
it’s female employees. The manager would like to
test the difference between the turnover rates of
male and female.

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• Ho: There is no difference between the turn over rate
of men and women

• HA: There is a difference between the turn over rate

of men and women
• Ho:μturn-over-men = μturn-over-men

• HA:μturn-over-men ≠ μturn-over-men

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• So exploratory studies are focused on understanding
the characteristics of a phenomenon of interest.
• A pilot study on small scale interviewing individuals is
done. ( What is an internet café )
• A Descriptive study is when characteristics of the
phenomenon are known and we want to describe it
better ( How many internet cafés are in the city,
how many are open for 24 hrs etc)
• A hypothesis testing is when we try test certain
theories. (Internet cafés have a cased a decline in the
social values )
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 Types of Investigation: Causal versus
Correlation
• When the researcher wants to define the cause of
one or more problems, then the study is called a
Causal Study.
• When the researcher is interested in outline the
important variables that are associated with the
problem, it is called a Correlational Study.

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• Example:
• A causal study question:
– Does smoking cause cancer?
• A correlational question:
– Are smoking, chewing tobacco related to cancer ?
• A causal study hypothesis:
– Smoking causes cancer.
• A correlational hypothesis:
– Smoking and cancer are related
– Chewing tobacco and cancer are related 21
 Extent of Researcher Interference with the
Study
• The extent to which the researcher interferes with
the normal flow of work at the workplace has direct
bearing on whether the study undertaken is casual or
correlational.
• A correlational study is conducted in the natural
environment of the organization, with the researcher
interfering minimally with the normal flow of work.

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• For example,
• if a researcher wants to study the factors
influencing training effectiveness
• (a correlational study),
• the individual simply has to develop a
theoretical framework, collect the relevant
data, and analyze them to come up with the
findings.

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• Although there is some disruption to the normal flow
of work in the system as the researcher interviews
employees and administers questionnaire at the
workplace, the researcher’s interference in the
system is minimal compared with that in causal
studies.

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• In case of causal study the researcher would try to
manipulate certain variables so as to study the effect
on the dependent variable
• Example.
• Effect of lighting on employee performance
• The researcher's interfere is high

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 Recap

• We covered some of the research design elements

• We talked about the research purpose
– (exploratory, descriptive, hypothesis testing)
• Type of investigation
– (causal, correlations)
• Extent of researcher's interference
– (High,moderate,low)

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