Research Designs
16th
Learning Outcomes
• Students should be able to understand the
different aspects relevant to designing a
research study
Outlines
• Research design
• Purpose of the study: exploratory, descriptive,
hypotheses testing, case studies
• Type of investigation: causal vs correlational
• Unit of analysis: individuals, dyads, groups,
organizations, cultures
• Time horizon: cross-sectional vs longitudinal
• The relevance of research design with purpose of
the study/ managerial implications
Components of Research Method
• Basic design issues regarding:
– Purpose of the study
– Type of investigation
– Extent of researcher interference
– Study setting
– Unit of analysis
– Time horizon
Purpose of The Study
• Exploration
– An exploratory study is taken when not much is known
about the situation at hand, or no available information on
how similar research issues have been solved in the past.
• Organizationally relevant differences in race, ethnic, and country
origins are being undertaken using exploratory study. Sound theories
about managing a diverse work group can be evolved for the future.
• Description
– Undertaken in order to ascertain and be able to describe the
characteristics of the variables of interest in situation.
• 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.
• Hypothesis testing
– Undertaken to explain the variance in the dependent
variable or to predict organizational outcomes. Usually
hypothesis testing study explain the nature of certain
relationships, or establish the difference among groups.
• A marketing manager wants to know if the sales of the company
will increase if he doubles the advertising cost.
• Case study analysis
– Involve in-depth, contextual analyses of matters relating to
a similar situations in other organization.
– Case studies that are qualitative in nature are useful in
applying solutions to current problems based on past
problem-solving experiences.
Types of Investigation
• Causal relationship (the study in which the researcher
wants to delineate the cause of one or more
problems).
– Does smoking cause cancer?
• Correlations (the study in which the researcher is
interested in delineating the important variables
associated with the problem).
– Are smoking and cancer related?
– Are smoking, drinking, and chewing tobacco associated
with cancer? If so, which one contributes most to cancer?
• Group differences, ranks, etc
Extent of Researcher Interference
• Minimal: studying events as they normally
occur.
• Manipulation and/or control and/or
simulation, ex. a researcher wants to study the
influence of lighting on worker performance,
and hence manipulates the lighting in the
work situation to varying intensities.
Study setting
• Contrived
– Research that can be done in artificial settings
– Most causal studies are done in contrived lab
settings
• Noncontrived
– Organizational research can be done in the natural
environment where work proceeds normally
– Correlational studies are invariably conducted in
noncontrived setting
Unit of Analysis
• Shows population to be studied, which consist of:
– Individuals
• data gathered from individual as an individual data source
– Dyads
• two-persons interactions, such as husband-wife interactions in families,
supervisor-subordinate relationship at the workplace
– Groups
• By treating individuals in one department as one unit, then compare
different departments in the organization (examine group size, group
cohesiveness, group structure, etc)
– Organizations
• Collecting data from organizations exist to examine various aspects
–
–
–
–
Divisions
Industry
Countries
etc
Time Horizon
• One-shot (cross sectional)
– A study can be done in which data are gathered just
once, over period of days or weeks or months.
• Data were collected from brokers between April and June
2009 to study their concern in a turbulent stock market.
• A survey among obese people to see how many of them
would be interested in trying the new obesity pill.
• Longitudinal
– A study can be done at a more than one point in time
in order to answer the research questions.
• 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.
• A research on employees’ behavior before and after a change
in the top management
Managerial Implications
• Knowledge about research design issues helps the
manager to understand what the researcher is attempting
to do.
• The manager also understands why the reports
sometimes indicate data analytic results based on small
sample sizes, when a lot of time has been spent in
collecting data from several scores of individuals, as in the
case of studies involving groups, departments, or branch
offices.
• Knowledge of interconnections among various aspects of
the research design helps managers to call for the most
effective study, after weighing the nature and magnitude
of the problem encountered and the type of solution
desired.
• Knowledge of research design details also helps managers
to study and intelligently comment on research proposals.