The Research Process

step 6: Elements of Research

Design

CHAPTER 6

1
Chapter Objectives
 Understand the different aspects relevant
to designing a research study.
 Identify the scope of any given study and
the end use of the results.
 Describe the type of investigation needed,
the study setting, the extent of researcher
interference, the unit of analysis, and the
time horizon of the study.
 Identify which of the two, a causal or a
correlational study, would be more
appropriate in a given situation.

2
The Research Design
 In this step we need to design
the research in a way that the
requisite data can be gathered and
analyzed to arrive at a solution.
 The research design was originally
presented in a simple manner in
box 6 of Figure 6.1.

3
Figure 6.1

4
Figure 6.2: The Various Issues
Involved in the Research Design

5
Purpose of The Study
The Nature of Studies:
 Exploratory Study
 Descriptive Study
 Hypothesis Testing (Analytical and
Predictive)
 Case Study Analysis

6
Exploratory Study
 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.

7
Example 6.1
 The manager of a multinational corporation is
curious to know if the work ethic values of
employees working in Prince Hassan Industrial
City would be different from those of Americans.
That city is a small city, and no information about
the ethic values of its workers.
Also, the work ethic values mean be different to
people in different cultures.

8
.(Example 6.1 (Cont
 The best way to study the above
situation is by conducting an
exploratory study, by interviewing
the employees in organizations in
Irbid area.

9
Descriptive Study
 Is undertaken in order to ascertain and be able
to describe the characteristics of the
variables of interest in a situation.
 For instance, a study of a the Research
Methods 200 class in terms of the percentage
of members who are in their senior ( will be in
the graduation stage), sex composition, age
groupings, number of semesters left until
graduation, can be considered as descriptive in
nature.

10
Descriptive Study
 In addition, descriptive studies
are undertaken in organizations to
learn about and describe the
characteristics of a group of
employees, as for example, the
age, education level, job status,
and length of service.

11
Example 6.2
 A bank manager wants to have a profile
of the individuals who have loan
payments outstanding for 6 months
and more.
This profile would include details of their
average age, earnings, nature of
occupation, full-time/ part-time
employment status, and the like.
The above information might help the
manager to decide right away on the types
of individuals who should be made
ineligible for loans in the future.
12
Example 6.4
 A marketing manager might want to develop
a pricing, sales, distribution, and
advertising strategy for his product.
The manager might ask for information
regarding the competitors, with respect to the
following:
1. the percentage of companies who have prices
higher and lower than the industry norm.
2. the percentage of competitors hiring in-
house staff to handle sales and those who use
independent agents.

13
.(Example 6.4 (Cont
3. percentage of sales groups organized by
product line, by accounts, and by region.
4. the types of distribution channels used and
the percentage of customers using each.
5. percentage of competitors spending more
dollars on advertising/promotion than the firm
and those spending less.
6. Percentage of those using the web to sell the
product.

14
Hypotheses Testing
 Studies that engage in hypotheses testing
usually explain the nature of certain
relationships, or establish the differences
among groups or the independence of two
or more factors in a situation.
 Hypotheses testing is undertaken to explain
the variance in the dependent variable or to
predict organizational outcomes.

15
Example 6.5
 A marketing manager wants to know if
the sales of the company will increase if
he doubles the advertising dollars.
 Here, the manager would like to know
the nature of the relationship between
advertising and sales by testing the
hypothesis:
If advertising is increased, then sales
will also go up.
16
Case Study Analysis
 Case studies involve in-depth, contextual
analyses of matters relating to similar situations
in other organizations.
 Case studies, as a problem solving technique,
are not frequently resorted to in organizations
because findings the same type of problem in
another comparable setting is difficult due to
the reluctance of the companies to reveal their
problems.

17
Case Study Analysis
 Case studies that are qualitative in
nature are, however, useful in applying
solutions to current problems based on
past problem-solving experiences.
 Also, case studies are useful in
understanding certain phenomena, and
generating further theories for
empirical testing.

18
Type of Investigation: Causal
versus Correlational
 A causal study: Is an inquiry to
know the cause of one or more
problems.
 A correlational study: Is an
inquiry to know the important
variables associated with the
problem.

19
Example 6.9
 A causal study question:
Does smoking cause cancer?
 A correlational study question:
Are smoking and cancer related?
Or
Are smoking, drinking, and chewing
tobacco associated with cancer?
If so, which of these contributes most to
the variance in the dependent variable?
20
Example 6.10
 Fears of an earthquake predicted
recently in an area were a causal
of a number of crashes of some
houses in the area in order to be
eligible of insurance policy.

21
Example 6.11
 Increases in interest rates and
property taxes, the recession, and
the predicted earthquake
considerably slowed down the
business of real state agents in the
country.

22
Extent of Researcher
Interference
With the Study

 The extent of interference by

the researcher with the normal
flow of work at the workplace has
a direct bearing on whether the
study undertaken is causal or
correlational.

23
Extent of Researcher
Interference
With the Study

 A correlational study is
conducted in the natural
environment of the organization
with minimum interference by the
researcher with the normal flow of
work.

24
Extent of Researcher
Interference
With the Study
 In studies conducted to establish cause-and-
effect relationships, the researcher tries to
manipulate certain variables so as to study
the effects of such manipulation on the
dependent variable of interest.
 In other words, the researcher deliberately
changes certain variables in the setting and
interferes with the events as they normally
occur in the organization.

25
Minimal Interference
Example 6.12
 A hospital administrator wants to
examine the relationship between
the perceived emotional support in
the system and the stress
experienced by the nursing staff.
In other words, she wants to do a
correlational study.
26
.(Example 6.12 (Cont
 The researcher will collect data from the
nurses ( through a questionnaire) to
indicate how much emotional support they
get in the hospital and to what extent they
experience stress. By correlating the two
variables, the answer is found.
 In this case, beyond administering a
questionnaire to the nurses, the
researcher has not interfered with the
normal activities in the hospital.

27
Moderate Interference
 If the researcher wants to establish
a causal connection between the
emotional support in the hospital
and stress, or, wants to
demonstrate that if the nurses had
emotional support, this indeed
would cause them to experience
less stress.
28
Moderate Interference
 To test the cause-and-effect relationship, the
researcher will measure the stress currently
experienced by the nurses in three wards in
the hospital, and then deliberately manipulate
the extent of emotional support given to the
three groups of nurses in the three wards for
perhaps a week, and measure the amount of
stress at the end of that period.

29
Moderate Interference
 For one group, the researcher will ensure
that a number of lab technicians and
doctors help and comfort the nurses when
they face stressful events.
 For a second group of nurses in another
ward, the researcher might arrange for
them only a moderate amount of emotional
support and employing only the lab
technicians and excluding doctors.

30
Moderate Interference
 The third ward might operate without
any emotional support.
 If the experimenter’s theory is
correct, then the reduction in the
stress levels before and after the 1-
week period should be greater for the
nurses in the first ward, moderate for
those in the second ward, and nil for the
nurses in the third ward.
31
Moderate Interference
 We find that not only does the researcher
collect data from nurses on their
experienced stress at two different points
in time, but also manipulated the normal
course of events by deliberately changing
the amount of emotional support
received by the nurses in two wards,
while leaving things in the third ward
unchanged.
 Here, the researcher has interfered more
than minimally.
32
Excessive Interference
Example 6.14
 IF the researcher feels, after conducting the
previous experiments, that the results may not
be valid since other external factors might have
influenced the stress levels experience by the
nurses.
 For example, during that particular experimental
week, the nurses in one or more wards may not
have experienced high levels of stress because
there were no serious illnesses or deaths in the
ward. Hence the emotional support received might
not be related to the level of stresses experienced.

33
Excessive Interference
 The researcher want to make sure
that such external factors that
might affect the cause-and-
effect relationship are
controlled.

34
Controlling the External
factors
 The researcher might take three groups of
medical students, put them in different
rooms, and confront all of them with the
same stressful task.
 For example, he might ask them to
describe in detail, the surgical procedures
in performing surgery on a patient who has
not responded to chemotherapy and keep
asking them with more and more questions.

35
Controlling the External
factors
 Although all are exposed to the same
intensive questioning, one group might get
help from a doctor who voluntarily offers
clarifications and help when students
stumble.
 In the second group, a doctor might be
nearby, but might offer clarifications and
help only if the group seeks it.
 In the third group, there is no doctor
present and no help is available.

36
Controlling the External
factors
 In the above example, not only is the
support manipulated, but even the
setting in which this experiment is
conducted is artificial inasmuch as the
researcher has taken the subject away
from their normal environment and put
them in a totally different setting.
 The researcher has intervened
maximally with the normal setting, the
participants, and their duties.
37
Excessive Interference
 The extent of researcher interference
would depend on whether the study is
correlational or causal and also the
importance of establishing causal
relationship beyond any doubt.
 Most organizational problems seldom call for
a causal study, except in some market
research areas.

38
Study Setting: Contrived and
Noncontrived
 Correlational studies are
conducted in noncontrived settings
(normal settings), whereas most
causal studies are done in
contrived settings.
 Correlational studies done in
organizations are called field
studies.
39
Study Setting: Contrived and
Noncontrived
 Studies conducted to establish cause-
and-effect relationship using the
same natural environment in which
employees normally function are called
field experiments.
 Experiments done to establish cause-
and- effect relationship in a contrived
environment and strictly controlled are
called lab experiments.
40
Example 6.15 Field Study
 A bank manager wants to analyze the
relationship between interest rates and
bank deposit patterns of clients.
The researcher tries to correlate the
two by looking at deposits into different
kinds of accounts (such as savings,
certificates of deposit, and interest-
bearing checking accounts) as interest
rates changed.
41
Example 6.15 Field Study
 This is a field study where the bank
manager has taken the balances in
various types of accounts and
correlated them to the changes in
interest rates.
 Research here is done in a
noncontrived setting with no
interference with the normal work
routine.
42
Example 6.16 Field
Experiment
 The bank manager now wants to
determine the cause-and-effect
relationship between interest
rate and the inducements it offers
to clients to save and deposit
money in the bank. The researcher
selects four branches within 60/km
radius for the experiment.
43
Example 6.16 Field
Experiment
 For 1 week only, he advertises the annual
rate for new certificates of deposit
received during that week. The interest
rate would be 9% in one branch, 8% in
another, and 10% in the third. In the fourth
branch, the interest rate remains
unchanged at 5%. Within the week, the
researcher would be able to determine the
effects, if any, of interest rates on deposit
mobilization.
44
Example 6.16 Field
Experiment
 This example would be a field experiment
since nothing but the interest rate is
manipulated, with all activities occurring in the
normal and natural work environment.
 Hopefully, all four branches chosen would be
compatible in size, number of depositors,
deposit patterns, and the like, so that the
interest-savings relationships are
influenced by some third factor.

45
Example 6.17 Lab Experiment
 To be sure about the true relationship
between the interest rate and deposits, the
researcher could create an artificial
environment by choosing, for instance, 40
students who are all business majors in their
final year of study and in the same age. The
researcher splits the students into four groups
and give each one of them $1000, which they
are told they might buy their needs or save for
the future, or both.

46
Example 6.17 Lab Experiment
The researcher offers them interest on what
they save as followings:
 6% on savings for group 1.

 8% for group 2.

 9% for group 3.

 1% for group 4 ( the old rate of interest).

Here, the researcher has created an artificial

laboratory environment and has manipulated
the interest rates for savings. He also chosen
subjects with similar backgrounds.

47
Unit of Analysis
 The unit of analysis refers to the level of aggregation
of the data collected during the subsequent data
analysis.
 Individual
 Dyads
 Groups
 Organizations
 Cultures

48
Unit of Analysis: Individual
 If the researcher focuses on how
to raise the motivational levels of
employees, then we are
interested in individual
employees in the organization.
Here the unit of analysis is the
individual (the data will be
gathered from each individual).
49
Unit of Analysis: Dyads
 If the researcher is interested in
studying two-person interaction, then
several two-person groups also
known as dyads, will become the
unit of analysis ( analysis of
husband-wife, and supervisor-
subordinate relationships at the work
place.

50
Unit of Analysis
 Groups as a unit of analysis
 Organizations as a unit of

analysis
 Cultures as a unit of

analysis

51
Example 6.18 Individuals as
The Unit of Analysis
 The Chief Financial Officer of a manufacturing
company wants to know how many of the staff
would be interested in attending a 3-day seminar
on making appropriate investment decisions.
 Data will have to be collected from each
individual staff member and the unit of
analysis is individual.
 The unit of analysis is the individual.

52
Example 6.19 Dyads as the
Unit of Analysis
 A human resources manager wants
to first identify the number of
employees in three departments of
the organization who are in
mentoring relationships, and then
find out what the jointly perceived
benefits of such a relationship are.

53
Example 6.19 Dyads as the
Unit of Analysis
 Once the mentor and the mentored pairs are
identified, their joint perceptions can be obtained
by treating each pair as one unit.
 If the manager wants data from a sample of 10
pairs, he will have to deal with 20 individuals, a
pair at a time. The information obtained from
each pair will be a data point for subsequent
analysis.
 Thus, the unit of analysis is the dyad.

54
Example 6.20 Groups as Unit
of Analysis
 A manager wants to see the patterns of usage of the
newly installed Information System (IS) by the
production, sales, and operations personnel.
 Here three groups of personnel are involved and
information on the number of times the IS is used by
each member in each of the three groups as well as
other relevant issues will be collected and analyzed.
 Here the unit of analysis is the group.

55
Example 6.21 Divisions as
the Unit of Analysis
 Johnson & Johnson company wants to see
which of its various divisions (soap,
shampoo, body oil, etc.) have made profits
of over 12% during the current year.
 Here, the profits of each of the divisions
will be examined and the information
aggregated across the various
geographical units of the division.
 The unit of analysis will be the
division, at which level the data will
be aggregated.

56
Example 6.22 Industry as the
Unit of Analysis
 An employment survey specialist wants to see
the proportion of the workforce employed by
the health care, transportation, and
manufacturing industries.
 The researcher has to aggregate the data
relating to each of the subunits comprised
in each of the industries and report the
proportions of the workforce employed at the
industry level.

57
Example 6.22 Industry as the
Unit of Analysis
 The health care industry, for instance,
includes hospitals, nursing homes, small and
large clinics, and other health care providing
facilities.
 The data from these subunits will have to be
aggregated to see how many employees are
employed by the heath care industry.
 This will need to be done for each of the
other industries.

58
Example 6.23 Countries as
the Unit of Analysis
 The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a
multinational corporation wants to know
the profits made during the past 5 years by
each of the subsidiaries in England,
Germany, and France. It is possible that
there are many regional offices of these
subsidiaries in each of these countries.

59
Example 6.23 Countries as
the Unit of Analysis
 The profits of the various regional
centers for each country have to
be aggregated and the profits for
each country for the past 5 years
provided to the CFO.
 The data will now have to be
aggregated at the country
level.
60
Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional
Versus Longitudinal Studies
 Cross-Sectional Studies
A study can be done in which data
are gathered just once, perhaps
over a period of days or weeks or
months, in order to answer a
research question.

61
Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional
Versus Longitudinal Studies
Example 6.24
 Data were collected from stock

brokers between April and June of

last year to study their concerns in
a turbulent stock market.
 Data has to be collected at one

point in time. It is a cross-

sectional design.

62
Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional
Versus Longitudinal Studies
Example 6.25
 A drug company desirous of investing
in research for a new headache pill
conducted a survey among headachy
people to see how many of them would
be interested in trying the new pill.
 This is a one-shot or cross-sectional
study to assess the likely demand for
the new product.

63
Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional
Versus Longitudinal Studies
 Longitudinal Studies
Studying people or phenomena at more
than one point in time in order to answer
the research question.
 Because data are gathered at two
different points in time, the study is not
cross-sectional kind, but is carried
longitudinally across a period of time.

64
Example 6.27
 A marketing manager is interested in
tracing the pattern of sales of a
particular product in four different
regions of the country on a quarterly
basis for the next 2 years.
 Since the data are collected several
times to answer the same issue, the
study falls under the longitudinal
category.
65
Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional
Versus Longitudinal Studies
 Longitudinal studies take more time and
effort and cost more than cross-sectional
studies. However, will-planned longitudinal
studies could help to identify cause-and-effect
relationships.
 For example, one could study the sales
volume of a product before and after an
advertisement, and provided other
environmental changes have not impacted on
the results, one could attribute the increase in
the sales volume, if any, to the advertisement.

66
Exercise 6.1
A supervisor thinks that the low efficiency of
the machine tool operators is directly linked
to the high level of fumes emitted in the
workshop. He would like to prove this to his
supervisor through a research study.
1. Would this be a causal or a correlational
study? Why?

67
Exercise 6.1
2. Is this an exploratory, descriptive, or
hypothesis-testing (analytical or
predictive) study? Why?
3. What kind of study would this be: field
study, lab experiment, or field
experiment? Why?
4. What would be the unit of analysis?
Why?
5. Would this be a cross-section or a
longitudinal study? Why?
68
Exercise 6.1
 Answers:
1. This would be a causal study because the
operator wants to prove to the supervisor that
the fumes are causing operators to be low in
their efficiency. In other words, the machine
tool operator is trying to establish the fact
that fumes cause low efficiency in workers.
2. This is an analytical study because the
machine tool operator wants to establish that
fumes cause low efficiency and convince his
workshop supervisor through such analysis
(i.e. establish cause and effect relationship).

69
Exercise 6.1
3. This would be a field experiment. Though the study
would be set up in the natural environment of the
workers where the work is normally done, the amount
of fumes will have to be manipulated while other
factors such as atmospheric pressure may have to be
controlled. Because of the location of the study, it will
be a field experiment.
4. The unit of analysis would be the individual operators.
The data will be collected with respect to each
operator and then the conclusions will be made as to
whether the operators are less efficient because of
the fumes emitted in the workshop.

70
Exercise 6.1
5. This would be a longitudinal study because data
will be gathered at more than one point in time.
First, the efficiency of the operators would be
assessed at a given rate of fume emission. Then
the fumes emitted would be manipulated to
varying degrees, and at each manipulation, the
efficiency of the workers would again be
assessed to confirm that the high rate of fume
emission causes a drop in operators’ efficiency.

71
Exercise 6.1
6. This would be a longitudinal study because
data will be gathered at more than one point
in time. First, the efficiency of the operators
would be assessed at a given rate of fume
emission. Then the fumes emitted would be
manipulated to varying degrees, and at each
manipulation, the efficiency of the workers
would again be assessed to confirm that the
high rate of fume emission causes a drop in
operators’ efficiency.

72