SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION

Scientific Investigation
• Scientific research (or investigation or inquiry)
is not based on hunches, experience or
intuition

• Scientific research should be purposive and

rigorous. Because of these, findings of
different researchers about the same or
similar issue can be compared
 Scientific Investigation
• Scientific research enhances the researcher to
state his/her finding with accuracy and
confidence

• Scientific research should be more objective

than subjective
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Purposiveness

• Rigor

• Testability

• Replicability

• Precision
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Confidence

• Objectivity

• Generalizability

• Parsimony
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Purposiveness
• Research should have a definite aim or purpose

• It is beneficial to operationalise or break down a larger

concept into small one

• For example, employee dissatisfaction can be broken into

different dimensions (work-life balance, incompetent
salary, working environment, organizational justice,
leadership issues)
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Rigor
• It requires a good theoretical base and sound
understanding of research methodologies.

• This enables the researcher to collect the right

kind of information from an appropriate
sample and with the minimum degree of bias.
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Example:

• A General manager of a large division asks 06

employees about the factors that may increase
their commitment level. On the basis of their
response, he draws few conclusion how
employee commitment can be increased. This
approach lacks rigor because of:
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
1. The conclusions are incorrectly drawn, because 06
employees can’t be a correct representation of entire
workforce

2. The framing or addressing the question can introduce bias

3. There may be many other important factors on

commitment that were not highlighted by the respondents
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Testability

• Scientific research must lend itself to testify

• After studying previous literature done in the area of

employee commitment and collecting feedback from
sufficient employees, researcher develops
hypotheses and then test it by applying certain
statistical tools to the data (chi-square, t-test, CFA)
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Example:
• Ho: Work-life balance affects employee commitment
with the organization

• Ho: Incompetent Salary negatively affects the

employee commitment with the organization
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Replicability

• The results of the test of hypotheses should be

supported again and again when the same type of
research is conducted in the similar circumstances.

• This shows that our hypotheses were not supported

by chance but are true reflection of truth / facts in
the population
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Precision
• All the research studies are based on samples
that are drawn from the population or
universe.

• Since we try to study the characteristics of

population with the help of sample through
statistical tools, it can’t be exact reflection of
population characteristics.
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Standard errors and measurement errors are
introduced as a bias or error in research
findings.

• The basic aim of researcher is to ensure that

his/her findings should be as close to reality
(population) as possible.
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Precision reflects the degree of accuracy or
exactitude of research results on the basis of
sample, to what really exists in the universe.

• Mr. Hasnain estimates that the gravity varies

between 9.6 to 9.9 m/s2, whereas Mr. Saad
estimates that it varies between 9.4 to 10.1 m/s2.
The estimate of former one has more precision
than latter one.
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Confidence
• It is not enough that research is precise.

• Confidence refers to the probability that

estimations are correct.

• Confidence level is usually set by researcher.

 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Common confidence levels are 99%, 95% and
90%.

• 99% confidence level indicates that researcher

confidently claim that 99% times his results will
be true and there is only 1% chance of being
wrong.
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Objectivity
• Interpretation of results after data analysis should be
facts and not on subjective (researcher’s own values or
interest)

• Similarly, conclusion and implementation should be

based on factual findings of data

• Subjectivity increases financial burden, wastage of time

and efforts etc
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Generalizability

• It refers to the scope of applicability of research

findings in one organizational setting to other

• The wider the range of applicability of solutions, the

more useful the research will be
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• For example, a research whose findings are applicable
in manufacturing, service and banking industries is
more useful than the one whose findings are applicable
for a particular industry

• For wider Generalizability, sampling design (size, and

selection) should be carefully developed

• But as the sample design is sophisticated, ……….. of

research also increases.
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Parsimony

• Simplicity in explaining the phenomena or problem or

generating the solution is called parsimony in research
findings

• Consider a research A, in which 53% change in

dependent variable can be explained by four
independent variables. Another research B explains 57%
change in dependent variable with the help of seven
independent variables.
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Research A is more parsimonious and meaningful than
research B in practical terms.

• Achieving meaningful and parsimonious research model

is more important than the elaborated and complex one.

• Economy in research can be achieved with a good

understanding of problem and conceptual and
theoretical understanding.
 Hallmarks of Scientific
Investigation
• Example:

• 53% Customer Satisfaction can be improved with the

help of four independent factors: Technical support,
Complaint Resolution, Order & Billing, Delivery speed

• 57% Customer Satisfaction can be improved with the

help of seven variables: technical support, complaint
resolution, order & billing, delivery speed,
warranties, price flexibility, salesforce image