STA630 Notes

Lesson 1

INTRODUCTION, DEFINITION & VALUE OF RESEARCH

Whether we are aware of it or not, we are surrounded by research. Educators, administrators, government officials, business leaders, human service providers, health care professionals, regularly use social research findings in their jobs. Social research can be used to raise children, reduce crime, improve public health, sell products, improve workers‟ efficiency, or just understand one‟s life.

Assume for the moment that you are the Manager of a restaurant. You are experiencing a significant turn over in your waiter/waitress pool, and long-time customers have been commenting that the friendly atmosphere that has historically drawn them to your door is changing. What will you do? Where will you try to solve this problem? The problem of high turnover and decline in the friendly atmosphere at the restaurant has to be researched.

The study of research methods provides you with the knowledge and skills you need to solve the problem and meet the challenges of a fast-paced decision-making environment. A systematic inquiry whose objective is to provide information to the problems (be they managerial as in our example) is one way to explain research.

What is Research?

General image of the research is that it has something to do with the laboratory where scientists are supposedly doing some experiments. Somebody who is interviewing consumers to find out their opinion about the new packaging of milk is also doing research.

Research is simply the process of finding solutions to a problem after through study and analysis of the situational factors. It is gathering information needed to answer a question, and thereby help in solving a problem.

We do not study in any haphazard manner. Instead, we try to follow a system or a procedure in an organized manner. It is all the more necessary in case we want to repeat the study, or somebody else wants to verify our findings. In the latter case the other person has to follow the same procedure that we followed. Hence not only we have to do the study in a systematic manner but also that system should be known to others.

What is the value of Research?

The nature of research problems could vary. Problems may refer to some undesirable situation or these may refer to simply a curiosity of the researcher that may be agitating his or her mind.

For example, in a recent BA/BS examination of the Punjab University 67 percent of the students failed. That is a colossal wastage of the resources; hence an undesirable situation that needs research is to find a solution. The researcher may come up with a variety of reasons that may relate with the students, the teachers, the curricula, the availability of books, the examination system, the family environment of the student, and many more.

So, a study may be carried out to diagnose the situation, and the recommendations to be applied to overcome the undesirable situation of mass failure of students.

In the same examination result one finds that girls have captured a good number of top positions; and that is happening for the last couple of years. One gets curious and tries to do research for finding out the reasons. This is an academic problem but certainly a research problem. Conducting such research offers the pleasure of solving a puzzle. Why the girls are catching most of the top positions in different examination? This might be a puzzle that the research may like to explain. Such findings make a good contribution to the body of knowledge i.e. making some good discoveries as part of the basic research. Finding answer to any enigma is self satisfying. The researchers try to make use of their findings for generating theories and models that could be used for understanding human behavior and the functioning of different structures both at the micro (organizational) and macro (societal) level.

Therefore, research may be considered as an organized, systematic, data based, critical, objective, scientific inquiry or investigation into a specific problem, undertaken with the purpose of finding answers or solutions to it. In this way research provides the needed information that guides the planners to make informed decisions to successfully deal with the problems. The information provided could be the result of a careful analysis of data gathered first hand or of the data that are already available with an organization. .

The value of research for policy makers, planners, business managers, and other stakeholders is that it reduces uncertainty by providing information that improves the decision-making process. The decision making process associated with the development and implementation of a strategy involves four interrelated stages:

1. Identifying problems or opportunities;
2. Diagnosing and assessing problems or opportunities;
3. Selecting and implementing a course of action; and
4. Evaluating the course of action.

Identifying problems and solutions to the same problems is in fact applying the research findings to overcome an undesirable situation. Initially a problem may appear to be simply a „tip of the iceberg‟ but the study by a professional might help locating the magnitude of the issue as well as its solutions. Such research is usually referred to as applied research, which shall be discussed in detail in the coming lectures.

Research helps in developing methodologies

By now we know that the researchers have to develop methodologies for carrying out the research. These methodologies are for the collection of data, data processing and data analysis. For the new researchers these methodologies are already available, most of the researchers just use these. Nevertheless, there is always a scope for improvement and certainly new methodologies are developed. Also we try to borrow methodologies from sister subjects.

Managers and administrators with knowledge of research have an advantage over those who are without. Though a manager/administrator him/herself may not be doing any major research yet he/she will have to understand, predict, and control events that are dysfunctional to the organization.

For example, a new product developed may not be “taking off,” or a financial investment may not be “paying off” as anticipated. Such disturbing phenomena have to be understood and explained. Unless this is done, it will not be possible to predict the future of that product or the prospects of that investment, and how future catastrophic outcomes can be controlled. A grasp of research methods will enable managers/administrators to understand, predict, and control their environment.

Managers may not be doing the research themselves, in fact they could hire the services of professionals, and still they should be well conversant with research methodologies. The manager who is knowledgeable about research can interact effectively with outside researchers or consultants. Knowledge about research processes, design, and interpretation of data also helps managers to become discriminating recipients of the research findings presented, and to determine whether or not the recommended solution are appropriate for implementation.

We are surrounded by research

For the understanding of the professional works, incorporation of the new findings in the practical situations, and for the implementation of the recommendations in policy/planning, the managers have

Lesson 2

SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF RESEARCH & ITS SPECIAL FEATURES

Research produces knowledge which could be used for the solution of problems as well as for the generation of universal theories, principles and laws. But all knowledge is not science. The critical factor that separates scientific knowledge from other ways of acquiring knowledge is that it uses scientific approach. What is this approach? Or what is science?

When most people hear the word science, the first image that comes to mind is one of test tubes, computers, rocket ships, and people in white lab coats. These outward trappings are part of science. Some sciences, such as the natural sciences deal with the physical and material world. Some other sciences involve the study of people – their beliefs, behavior, interactions, attitudes, institutions, and so forth. They are sometimes called soft sciences. This is not that their work is sloppy or lack rigor but because their subject matter, human social life, is fluid, formidable to observe, and hard to measure precisely with laboratory instruments. The subject matter of a science (e.g. human attitudes, protoplasm, or galaxies) determines the techniques and instruments (e.g. surveys, microscopes, or telescopes) used by it.

Science is a way to produce knowledge, which is based on truth and attempts to be universal. In other words science is a method, a procedure to produce knowledge i.e. discovering universalities/principles, laws, and theories through the process of observation and re-observation. Observation here implies that scientists use “sensory experiences” for the study of the phenomena. They use their five senses, which are possessed by every normal human being. They not only do the observation of a phenomenon but also repeat the observation, may be several times. The researchers do so because they want to be accurate and definite about their findings

Re-observation may be made by the same researcher at a different time and place or done by other professionals at some other time or place. All such observations are made in this universe where a normal professional human being can go, make the observation and come back. Therefore we are focusing on this universe not on the one hereafter. By repeating the observation, the researchers want to be definite and positive about their findings. Those who want to be definite and positive are often referred to as positivists. The researchers do not leave their findings into scattered bits and pieces. Rather the results are organized, systematized, and made part of the existing body of knowledge; and this is how the knowledge grows. All this procedure for the creation of knowledge is called a scientific method, whereby the consequent knowledge may be referred to as scientific knowledge. In this way science refers to both a system for producing knowledge and the knowledge produced from that system. Since the subject matters of the researchers differ, therefore, we have the diversification of different sciences: broadly natural or physical sciences and human sciences.

Important Characteristics of Scientific Method

1. Empirical

Scientific method is concerned with the realities that are observable through “sensory experiences.” It generates knowledge which is verifiable by experience or observation. Some of the realities could be directly observed, like the number of students present in the class and how many of them are male and how many female. The same students have attitudes, values, motivations, aspirations, and commitments. These are also realities which cannot be observed directly, but the researchers have designed ways to observe these indirectly. Any reality that cannot be put to “sensory experience” directly or indirectly (existence of heaven, the Day of Judgment, life hereafter, God‟s rewards for good deeds) does not fall within the domain of scientific method.

2. Verifiable

Observations made through scientific method are to be verified again by using the senses to confirm or refute the previous findings. Such confirmations may have to be made by the same researcher or