Elements of Research

Design

Elements of Research Design

Purpose

of the study
Types of investigation
Extent of researcher interference
Study setting
Unit of analysis (population to be
studies)
Time horizon

1) Purpose of the study

Exploratory

study

Descriptive

study

Hypotheses

testing

Exploratory study
An

exploratory study is undertaken

when not much is known about the
situation at hand.

OR:

no information is available on
how similar problems or research
issues have been solved in the past.

Exploratory study(2)
Therefore,

Extensive preliminary work needs to

be done to gain familiarity with the
phenomena in the situation and to
understand what is occurring before
developing a model..etc

Example
Interviewing

managers to exploring
the nature of managerial work..
Done by Mintizberg 1973.

Based

on the analysis of his

interview data, he formulated
theories of managerial roles, the
nature and types of managerial
activities.

Example
A

service provider wants to know

why his customers are switching to

other service providers?

Descriptive study
A

descriptive study is undertaken to

be able to describe the
characteristics of the variables of
interest in a situation.
Descriptive studies are undertaken in
organizations to learn about and
describe the characteristics of a
group of employees

Descriptive study
Descriptive

studies are undertaken in

organizations to understand the
characteristics of the
organizations that follow certain
common practices.

Examples
Descriptive in nature
A study of a class in terms of the
percentage of members who are in
their senior and junior years, gender
composition, age grouping, number
of semesters left until graduation

Examples
Describe

the group.
(The age, the educational level, job
status, .)
Describe

the organization:
Describe the characteristics of the
organization that implement flexible
manufacturing systems..

Example

A bank manager wants to have a profile of

the individuals who have loan payments
outstanding for 6 months and more. It
would include details of their average age,
earnings, nature of occupation, fulltime/part-time employment status, and
the like. This might help him to elicit
further information or decide right away
on the types of individuals who should be
made ineligible for loans in the future.

Hypotheses testing
Hypotheses

testing study usually

explain the nature of certain
relationships,
or establish the differences
among groups
or the independence of two or
more factors in a situation

Examples
The

relationships that can be

established between advertising and
sales:
If advertising is increased, then sales
will go up.

Examples
establish
There

the differences

are some differences

between male and female in the
managerial skills.

Examples
independence

of two or more
factors in a situation
Working the night shifts is related to
whether or not one is married.
A marketing manager wants to know
if the sales of the company will
increase if he doubles the advertising
dollars.

Types of investigation
Causal

study: When the researcher

wants to determine the cause of one
or more problems.

Correlatioanl

study: When the

researcher wants to determine the
important variables associated with
the problem

Examples
Causal

study:

Does smoking cause cancer?

Correlatioanl

study:

Are smoking and cancer related?

Extent of researcher interference

A

correlational study is conducted

in the nature environment of the
organization with minimum
interference by the researcher with
the normal flow of work.

An Example
if

a researcher wants to study the

factors influencing training
effectiveness
so he will collect relevant data,
analyze them to come up with the
findings.

Extent of researcher interference

(2)
A cause and effect relationships:
A researcher wants to study the
influence of lighting on workers
performance, and manipulates the
lighting in the work situation
So

the researcher interferences with

the natural and normal setting.

Study setting
A

correlational studies are conducted

in noncontrived settings ( natural)

cause and effect studies are

conducted in contrived lab settings
(Artificial setting).

Field studies
where various factors are
examined in the natural setting
in which daily activities go on as
normal with minimal researcher
interference

Field experiments
Where cause and effect relationships
are studied with some amount of
researcher interference, but still in
the natural setting where work
continues in the normal fashion.
Example: Cause and effect of training
on employees after a week, a month,
a 3 months

Lab experiments
Where

the researcher explores cause

and effect relationships not only
exercising a high degree of control
but also in an artificial created
setting.

Example:

Students sample.

Unit of analysis (population to be

studies)
Individual

as a unit of analysis
Groups as a unit of analysis
Organization as a unit of analysis
Industry as a unit of analysis
Country as a unit of analysis

Time horizon
Cross-sectional

shot)

studies ( one

study can be done in which data

are gathered just once, over a
period of days or weeks or months.

Time horizon (2)

Longitudinal studies:
When the researcher would like to study
people or phenomena at more than one
point in time in order to answer the
researcher question.
Example:
Employees behavior before and after
changes in the top management to know
what effects the change accomplished.