THE RESEARCH PROCESS

By Dr E. A. Kassembe
Snr Lect
Dar es Salaam Maritime Institute
THE RESEARCH PROCESS
What is management?
What is research?
Who does research?
Why research?
The history of management thinking and
research.
 THE RESEARCH PROCESS
• The outcomes of research affect modern life
fundamentally, and the importance of research
into science and technology and into people and
organisations and their relationships is widely
acknowLedged.
• Understanding how knowledge is generated and
used, and having the ability to generate valid and
useful information about the management
environment can be considered a key skill for
modern managers.
 What is management?
• Robbins and Mukerj (1994): define management as ‘..the
process of getting activities completed efficiently with
and through other people’, while
• Van Fleet (1991): defines management as ’..a set of
activities directed at the efficient and effective utilization
of resources in the pursuit of one or more goals’.
• Richard Daft (1994): combines the above two views,
describing management as ‘..the attainment of
organisational goals in an effective and efficient manner
through planning, organising, leading, and controlling
organisational resources’.
What is management?
Therefore management can be regarded as the process
of ..
Looking into problems and getting
solutions for the problems within your
working environment.
What is research?
• In The Management Research Handbook, Roger
Bernnet (1991: 68) defines research as:
• ‘.. a systematic, careful inquiry or examination
to discover new information or relationships
and to expand/verify existing knowledge for
some specified purpose’.
• The ‘specified purpose’ of research refers to
some problem of concern to the researcher or
manager, which may be theoretical or practical
in nature.
What is research?
• The ‘discovery of new information and relationships for a
particular purpose’ covers a number of investigatory
activities, for instance the work of journalists, detectives
or even auditors. However, the methods and purposes of
research as defined above distinguish it from these other
forms of professional inquiry.
• Scientific research is research that is conducted within the
rules and conventions of science. That means that it is
based on logic, reason and systematic examination of
evidence.
• Ideally, within the scientific model it should be possible for
research to be replicated by the same or different
researchers and for similar conclusions to emerge.
What is research?
• Scientific research should also contribute to a
cumulative body of knowledge about a field or
topic.
• This model of scientific research applies most
aptly in the physical or natural sciences, such
as physics or chemistry.
• Biological science differs somewhat from the
purely physical sciences because the natural
world is in a constant state of evolution.
What is research?
• In the area of social science, which deals with
people as social things, in groups and in
organisations, the scientific model frequently
needs to be modified, or even, in some cases,
abandoned.
• Social science research is carried out using the
methods and traditions of social science. Social
science differs from the physical or natural science
because it deals with people and groups of peple
and their behaviour, and people are much less
predictable than nonhuman phenomena.
Three types of Research
1. Descriptive research – finding out, describing
the current situation, what is happening e.g.
What competition am I facing in my
environment – Qualitative methods.
2. Explanatory research – explaining how or why
things are as they are (and using this to predict)
– e.g. optimization.
3. Evaluative research – evaluation of policies,
strategies, programs and practices dents e.g.
making Dar a hub of shipping Centre (TZ policy)
Three types of
research
• Exercise 1 – Which category of research do
you want your research to fit into and why?
 Who does Research?
1. Academics - publishingManagers
2. Students
3. Government and business organisations - lots
of explanatory research
4. Consultants
Research context
• Academics: the importance of the peer review
process – other academics evaluate the
research process
• Students: projects and honours, masters & Ph.D.
• Government and business organisation:
immediate policy relevance
• Consultants: serving government / organisations
• Managers: depend on high quality information
Examples of research
areas
1. Optimizing transport routes
2. Optimizing vessel size per route
3. Investigating whether information system meet their
original objectives
4. Examination of employee churn within the shipping
industry – HR improvement
5. Optimization of cross docking facilities
6. Examination of inventory policy
7. Developing models of inventory forecasting
8. Optimization of crane handling operations
9. Warehouse location problems
 WHY RESEARCH?
• Emphasis here: to contribute to the
management process and management
decision making
• An essential tool of management
• Information needs to be credible, reliable, and
valid if it is going to assist decision making
Historical Development of Managerial
Thinking/Research
• Pre-industrial
Ancients Planning/coordination for
• Sumerians (3500 BC) cities, armies, government, etc
• Babylonians (2000 BC)
• Egyptians (4000-2000 BC)
• Romans (300 BC-300 AD)
• Chinese (1500 BC)

European Middle Ages Maritime legal framework, early

• Venetians (450-1500 AD) ship assembly line
Renaissance Politics & power
• Machievelli (1500 AD)
Industrial Revolution Division of labour, market forces
• Adam Smith (1700s)
Historical Development of Managerial
Thinking/Research
Classical School (1800s)
Scientific Management

• Taylor
Principles of scientific management -
what is good data? How can I introduce
• Gilbreths good data?
• Gantt Time&motion, employee welfare
Production scheduling, Gantt chart
General Administrative Theorists
• Fayol 14 general principles of management
• Weber Concepts of bureaucracy & professional
management

• Behavioral Approaches (1850 - 1950)

• Munsterberg Industrial psychology
• Follett Individuals & groups in organisations
• Bamard Communication& social relationships
• Mayoo Human factors - Hawthome studies
Historical Development of Managerial
Thinking/Research
• Human Relations Approaches (mid-1900s)
• Maslow Hierachy of needs
• McGregor Theory X & Theory Y

Modern Approaches
• McNamara Application of statistics, modelling
• Thornton and computers
• Bertalanffy Systems theory
• Fiedler Contigency approach
• Ouchi Japanese management
• French & RavenSystems theory Role & importence of power,
politics and culture in
organisational functioning
 SUMMARY
• Business research is a varied and complex process,
crossing a number of disciplinary boundaries
• Research can be seen as an integral part of the
strategic management process
• Research is an essential management tool related
to policy development, implementation and
evaluation
• Research can be divided into three types:
descriptive, explanatory and evaluative
 SUMMARY
• Stakeholders and practitioners in
management/business research include academics,
students, government and private organisations,
consultants and managers themselves
• The development of management/business
knowledge can be traced to pre-industrial times,
but research-based developments are a
phenomenon of industrial era and have involved a
wide range disciplines, including sociology,
psychology, economics and systems theory.