Independent Studies
7BM998
Introduction to Conducting Research
Dr Jill Hanson
N509
J.Hanson@derby.ac.uk
Content 1
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Introduction to the module
Introduction to conducting a research project
 Why do we conduct research?
 What is a research project?
 Different levels of research
Developing ideas
 Choosing topics
 Searching and using the literature
Writing aims and objectives
Content 2
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Introduction to research philosophy and study design
 The different approaches and their strengths and
weaknesses
 Associated methodologies and their strengths and
weaknesses
 How do you choose the right design and methods?
The Data Requirements Table
Introduction to analytical techniques (choosing the
right analysis)
ETHICS and the Ethics Approval form
GANTT charts
Learning Outcomes
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The student should be able to:
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Understand what the research project involves
Be able to search the literature and select an
appropriate topic
Write appropriate aims and objectives
Devise an appropriate strategy/design and data
collection methods
Produce a data requirements table
Write a proposal and GANTT chart
Recommended Reading
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Easterby-Smith et al (2008) Management Research.
Sage
Lancaster, G. (2005) Research Methods in
Management. Elsevier
Lee & Lings (2008) Doing Business Research. Sage
Salkind, N. (2006) Exploring Research. Pearson.
Saunders et al (various) Research methods for business
students. London: FT Pitman Publishing.
Silverman, D. (2011) Qualitative Research. Sage
Introduction to the module
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For many students this module represents their
worst nightmare!
But remember we will equip you with the skills you
need to design, conduct and write up the research
You will have an experienced supervisor to guide
you all the way
It is an opportunity to explore something that
interests YOU in more detail and discover
something NEW!
Don’t be afraid, you can do it!
Things You Will Need to Do
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Complete the topic submission form (at the back of
your handbook and on blackboard) and return it to
E5 by the deadline – see the handbook)
Write your proposal
Design the research and collection methods
Complete an ethics form and receive clearance
Conduct the research
Write up the research
Things You Can Expect From Your
Supervisor
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6 hours of their time for face to face
meetings, reading the chapters of your
dissertation as you progress and providing
feedback on them
A final read through of your dissertation
before you hand in (must be submitted to the
supervisor4 weeks before the deadline)
Guidance on aims, objectives, design,
methodologies, analysis and writing up
Things You Should Not Expect
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Spell checking
Supervisors to chase you to get work completed
Supervisors to write your project or do your work for you.
They provide feedback on your plans, not make your
plans for you.
Supervisors to provide grades before submission
Supervisors to provide feedback on each chapter more
than once
Extensions because you haven’t done the work in time
Feedback on work immediately. We all have very have
teaching loads and several students to supervise.
Therefore it can take us a while to respond to emails and
to read through chapters and provide feedback.
What we expect from you
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Turn up to all meetings and come prepared
(having done the work set/read the literature
etc)
You to work independently and to meet the
deadlines you set yourself
Adequate time to read your work and provide
feedback
Introduction to conducting a research
project: Why do we conduct research?
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To “find things out in a systematic way”
(Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 1997, pp.1)
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Systematic research – moving beyond beliefs or
assumptions to testing the existence and/or
nature of logical relationships with scientific rigour
Finding out – can include identifying, describing,
exploring, explaining, understanding, criticising
and analysing
What Is A Research Project?
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A programme of research that seeks to
answer a series of questions pertaining to a
relevant subject area
Will be between 12000 and 15000 words
Not as scary as it sounds…
Will fall somewhere on the academic-applied
continuum…
Academic and Applied Research
(Source: Saunders et al, 1997)
Academic research
Applied Research
Expand knowledge of processes
Improve understanding of particular
business or management problem
Results in universal principles relating to
the process and its relationship to
outcomes
Results in solution to problem
Findings of significance and value to
society in general
New knowledge limited to problem
Choice of topic and objectives determined
by researcher
Findings of practical relevance and of value
to manager(s) in the organisation(s)
Flexible timescales
Objectives negotiated with originator
Tight timescales
Different Levels of Research
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Research can be used to find out information in
different ways. When developing and planning
research, think about whether you want to:
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Describe
Identify
Explore
Explain
At masters level you MUST move beyond simply
describing into the realms of identifying the
existence of relationships and possibly attempting to
explain relationships
What makes a good project?
1.
2.
3.
4.
The project can be completed given your time, skill,
access, ethical and resource constraints
The project meets the universities assessment criteria
a.
It involves some primary data collection
b.
You will be able to write 12000-15000 words on it
c.
It moves beyond simple description
d.
It has a subject pathway relevant strategic element and a
theoretical framework
Some aspect of the project is ‘original’
You find it reasonably interesting…
Typical pitfalls with project ideas…
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Project too big (you aren’t doing a PhD!)
Project too small (you have to collect enough data to write 1215000 words about)
No way you will get access (e.g. massive international
companies are unlikely to grant you access)
You do not have the resources to carry out the actual research
(e.g. time, money, skills etc)
Project is too simple (level of analysis is purely descriptive and
does not seek to explore/explain)
Project aims and objectives are too vague
Project has been done to death (e.g. motivation) or isn’t current
Project has no theoretical framework and/or no strategic element
in place
Project does not include any collection of primary data
Developing Ideas
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This can be extremely difficult and sometimes
is the part of the process that takes the
longest amount of time and the most amount
of work!
But there are things you can do to help and
your supervisor will provide guidance
Remember that the research process of
devise, plan, conduct and write up is not a
linear activity. It is iterative! You will go back
and forth between stages.
So, where do you start? Some ideas….
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Try to keep the fear under control….
Think of issues in your work place or subjects in
the programme that interest you
Do some background reading and pick out the
topical issues, theory/model that is most relevant
(be able to defend your choice of theory)
Think about the organisations that you might be
able to access and whether these topical issues
could be important in these organisations
If not, perhaps investigate the organisations you
can access and see what problems or issues they
have then revisit the literature to clarify
approaches to studying these issues and the
models/theories that are relevant
Choosing Topics
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Usually best to choose something you are interested
in
But sometimes that particular topic will not be
feasible given your restraints, e.g. CSR in Shell
Sometimes need to compromise to produce a topic
that is obtainable without you dying trying!
Don’t make your life more difficult than it needs to
be. To a large extent your topic choice will be
constrained by where you can gain access to
and the issues that particular organisation has
The Literature
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It is important to read around your topic early on.
WHY?
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Helps you to uncover and understand the key themes
It helps you to establish a clear rationale for your project
(your proposal is graded on this)
Helps you to establish which is the best theory to use as a
framework and WHY
Helps you to formulate interesting research aims and
objectives
Helps you to devise a rigorous methodology
Helps you to find valid and reliable data collection
techniques
Searching and Using Literature
Sources of Literature (Saunders et al, 2009)
PRIMARY
SECONDARY
TERTIARY
Reports
Newspapers
Indexes
Theses
Books
Abstracts
Conference reports
Journals
Catalogues
Company reports
Some government
publications
Encyclopaedias
Some government
publications
Dictionaries
Unpublished
manuscripts
Bibliographies
Defining Parameters
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Includes things like language/country of publication,
subject area, business sector, publication period
and literature
Common problem is to define parameters too
narrowly which leaves you with no literature
If this happens broaden your parameters until you
do find something relevant
To build your list of parameters read through lecture
notes and course texts, making notes on key
themes and authors which you can then use in your
key word searches
The Literature Search
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Plan, Plan and Plan some more
The literature search is a time consuming
process and often takes much longer than
expected
Planning will reduce the time you spend on it
and will help to protect you from information
overload
Saunders et al (09) suggest you begin by:
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Defining the parameters of your search
Generating the key words and search terms
Discussing your topic ideas with peers or tutors
Generating subject search areas and key
words
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Sources to read to generate subjects relevant to
your project topic:
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Lecture notes
Course texts
General review articles
Then can identify key words:
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Discussion with colleagues, peers, librarians and tutors
Initial reading
Handbooks and other reference books
Brainstorming
Relevance Trees
A Relevance Tree
Source: http://info.emeraldinsight.com/learning/study_skills/img/tree.jpg
Conducting A Literature Search – Where?
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Academic search engines such as google scholar
and emerald
Library (remember them?)
Articles referenced in books and journals you have
already read
Websites of professional bodies e.g. CIPD
Other tertiary sources
Remember to check your spelling (American
spelling/UK spelling), parameters, search words…
Getting Hold of the Literature
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Check to see whether the library has access
to the journal online or holds the paper
version
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If not can do an interlibrary loan request
(http://www.derby.ac.uk/library/ill/general-guidefor-students-and-staff)
Check to see whether the library holds the
book (or do an inter library loan as above)
Scan the abstract/contents pages/relevant
chapters to see if literature holds relevance
What Next? What do I read first?
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My advice is to begin with the most general, beginner
level material
 Usually this will be a generic text book
This will introduce the basics to you – it’s important to
understand them before launching into complex journal
articles (but they should NOT form the basis of your
literature review)
Take notes of the key issues and key authors in the field
Do you see interesting aims emerging from the material
yet?
NB the introductory text is not a good source to be
using when you actually write your literature review
because the lit. review should be a review of
research.
Then….
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Once you are familiar with the fundamentals
of the topic and understand all the terms and
key issues you can move onto:
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Specific textbooks or edited books
Review journal articles
Again with each piece you read take notes –
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what are the key theories/models/themes?
What are the key criticisms of theories/research?
(your literature review should be a CRITICAL review)
Good Research Ideas
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Good research often flows from
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addressing the shortcomings of what has gone before
testing aspects of theories that have not been adequately
tested before
looking at weaknesses in theories and seeing if you can
improve them by adding/removing variables
Comparing two theories ability to predict outcomes
Seeing if a theory applies in a range of different
circumstances
Testing a range of variables and generating your own
theory (much more difficult though)
Identifying a workplace issue, applying a theoretical
framework to attempt to explain it and then seeing if the
theory does explain the issue
Then…
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Once you have read review articles you can move on to
reading specific journal articles that directly assess
specific issues
These are more complex – always read with a dictionary
at hand and look up terms you do not understand
You will need to try to understand their methodology:
 Because you need to evaluate their research in your
lit. review and
 because you can ‘borrow’ methodologies
Make notes on what they have examined and HOW they
did it
Now you are ready to develop your own aims and
objectives
What is a Literature Review?
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Your Literature Review should be just that: a review
of the relevant literature
Note that ‘review’ does NOT mean ‘describe’
Review actually means YOUR interpretation of what
others have said/done/concluded AND some
discussion of whether what they have
said/done/concluded is valid/reliable/accurate
Relevant means it covers material that you are
examining in your objectives
It is NOT an essay, it is a critical review of relevant
research
The structure of a literature review
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Start broad and work towards reviewing specifics
Sometimes appropriate to spend a little time discussing the general area
(a paragraph) and sorts of theories/models that exist in that area (1 or 2
paragraphs) to set the scene for what YOU are looking at
Then make sure you describe the theory/theories you are using as a
framework and be able to justify WHY you are using that theory as your
framework
Follow this with an evaluation of the theory itself – what are its strengths
and what are its weaknesses? USE PUBLISHED RESEARCH TO
SUPPORT YOUR ARGUMENT
Remember the key aim is to REVIEW relevant literature i.e. research
that has examined similar things to your project
At Masters level you are also required to show that you have some
understanding of the research on that model/theory
Using Research in the Literature Review
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The whole point of a literature review is TO REVIEW
RELEVANT LITERATURE. It is NOT an essay
Research evidence critical for supporting arguments
or points
You should be able to describe and evaluate the
relevant research
To do this you need to be able to sum up and
evaluate research concisely:
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What were the research aims and methodology?
What did they find and conclude?
What were the research shortcomings (usually discussed in
the discussion section of an article) and how much do
these shortcomings impact on the validity and reliability of
the findings?
Thinking Critically
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You must therefore stop reading everything as if it is
completely true!
Question everything you read and do not accept it as
fact
Think about the reliability of the source of your
information :
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The Sun
The Times
The Harvard Business Review
Journal of
CIPD website
Wikipedia
Think about the research design and weaknesses
Make sure you demonstrate in your write up that you are
aware of these weaknesses!
Writing aims and objectives
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A project needs one over-riding aim that
should specify the area and particular issues
under investigation
A project then needs three or four objectives
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These flow from the overall aim
Are very specific in terms of the variables and
process required
Are related to each other
Have some sensible order