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Course: PEBL 101: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY & DESIGN FOR BUSINESS > Section: UNIT 2: STEPS IN THE RESEARCH PROCESS AND PROBLEM DEFINITION

Unit 2 Learning Outcomes

Indicative Content

Problem Definition, Determining Variables and Formulation Of A Research Topic, Research Design And Research Proposal Writing And Presentation, Measurement, Data Collection, Data Analysis, Generalisation And Managerial Decision-Making.

Intended Learning Outcomes for Unit 2:

By the end of this unit, you will be able to;

a)      describe the steps in the research process

b)      state a good research problem

c)      develop a conceptual framework

d)     design objectives, hypotheses, and research questions

Unit 2 E-tivities

Learning Outcome(s) addressed: Unit 2 addresses Module Learning Outcomes 1 & 2.

Purpose: Research is a process that is systematic beginning from problem identification to dissemination of findings and managerial decision making. The process can either take a long time or happen instantly. This unit will enable you learn the stages in the research process and the importance of each step.

Over to you: As you embark on the research journey, you may want to complete the journey smoothly without any hindrance. But such a journey will begin from identifying a problem. That is the stimulus that will motivate you to inquire further. In the business and economic environment, you may have identified or experienced problems that call for scientific inquiry. Hence the need to carry out research and come up with solutions.

Preparatory research: In order to be able to learn the steps in the research process,

1. Read minilecture about the research process here.
2. Watch slides about the Research process here.
3. Read minilecture about a research problem here.
4. Read further about variables, a conceptual framework and stating a research topic here.
5. Read minilecture about hypotheses, objectives, research questions and purpose of the study here.
6. Read minilecture about other steps of the research process here.
7. Read about stages in the research process on page 86 of Research Methods for Business by Sekarani (2003) available here.

E-tivity 2.1: Please access the Transversal Assignment of preparation of a concept paper here. In your group discussion forums, create a new discussion topic titled ‘Concept Paper’. Create another new discussion topic in your group forum titled ‘E-tivity 2.1’. Under it, discuss and identify a research problem in business research in your area of specialisation and develop a problem statement. Select one member of the group to the WEAVER who will compile the final problem statement and post it the new discussion topic titled ‘Concept Paper’ by 14^th February 2019.

E-tivity 2.2: In your discussion forums, create another new discussion topic in your group forum titled ‘E-tivity 2.2’. Under it, identify variables from the problem statement, draw a conceptual framework and state the topic, objectives and research questions, all related to the problem you identified. Your weaver should summarise the final solution for E-tivity 2.2 and post it under the discussion topic titled ‘Concept Paper’ by 17^th February 2019.

Link to other Units: Unit 2 links to Units 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8.

Anticipated time required for Unit 2 activities: 6 hours.

Deadlines for Unit 2 activity:

E-tivity 2.1 – Problem statement uploaded: 11^th February 2019.

E-tivity 2.2 – Conceptual framework, topic, objectives and research questions uploaded: 17^th February 2019.

Introduction to the research process

QN: In the activity where you visited parents, describe the procedure you followed from the time of receiving the question to writing your findings.

Watch slides about the Research process here. https://slideplayer.com/slide/9234846/

As you will notice, in order to generate empirically verified knowledge, the process of research has definite stages to facilitate questioning how the knowledge was obtained. The stages involve;

1. Problem Definition

2. Determining Variables And Formulation Of A Research Topic

3. Research Design And Research Proposal Writing And Presentation

4. Measurement

5. Data Collection

6. Data Analysis

7. Generalisation, Dissemination of findings and Managerial Decision-Making

These can be illustrated as below;

In the sections that follow, we shall consider each stage in detail and justify why it is important. Remember when defining research, we agreed that research is 'systematic' meaning that it has stages that depend on each other.

Click here to Go to Revision Questions

STAGE ONE: PROBLEM DEFINITION

This is the first step in the research process. The research process cannot start without a problem identified. But what is a research problem?

A research problem is an intellectual stimulus calling for a response in form of scientific inquiry.

•The research problem is a knowledge gap; a situation that is continuing to exist despite the solutions that are being implemented and which could lead to some social injustice or catastrophé.

•Any situation where a gap exists between the actual and the desired or ideal/known states.

A research problem is an intellectual stimulus calling for a response in the form of scientific inquiry. The first step in designing research is to perceive a problem. It is a researcher’s perception or recognition of a problem that motivates research. A problem exists when we do not have enough information to answer a question.

This involves several aspects and they are;

a. Identifying the broad research problem i.e. indicating why you are going out to do the research.

Identifying a broad problem is done through the process of observing and focussing on the situation.It is the entire situation where one sees a possible need for research and problem solving. The specific issues that need to be researched within this situation may not be identified at this stage. Such issues may be problems existing currently that need to be solved, areas that need to be improved, etc.

QN: Focusing on any community/area of your choice, list any 4 problems that you think require solutions using the research approach.

Ways of identifying the problem

•When results of several inquiries disagree. For instance, once study may discover that the youth hate work while another says that they love work. This calls for research to establish the truth.

•When one wants to test the results of earlier investigators. A researcher may have discovered in the year 2000 that the financial status of a family determines the attitude towards educating girls. You may be interested in finding out if this is still the case even today. So you carry out research.

•When there is desire to follow up new leads and to refine or qualify the findings of earlier studies. For example, a study to explain the effect of cultural beliefs on business success may have been carried out in the year 2002. However, in 2010 you observer that it is more of personality than culture that leads the business success. You then decide to carry out a study to follow this new lead.

•When a fact exists in form of unexplained information ie deviation from past experience or the plan or the ideal situation. For example, the sales of a certain product may have been increasing but they they begin to fall. This is clear deviation from the past and it is important that a study is carried out to establish the causes of this situation the generate solutions.

•When there is desire for innovation. This is common in modern organisations where managers are constantly looking for new ways of solving problems and serving customers better. For example, in case a bank manager wants to find a new method of serving customers so as to reduce the time they spend waiting in queues (lines), he/she will institute a study/research to understand how the current method is used and how it can be improved or gotten rid of and a new one introduced.

•Other people presenting a problem. There are situations where an individual may not notice that something is wrong with the operations of an organisation. However, if employees present the problem or customers comment on the quality of services and products that they are getting, a study can be carried out to either improve the situation or find new ways of doing the work.

•Performance of competitors. The performance of other players in the same industry may also indicate a need for research. For example, if competitors are performing better than your company, you will need to establish why this is so and find solutions. However, it can also happen that your competitors are performing so poorly. If many of your competitors' businesses are collapsing, do not sit back and think that everything is alright. There is need to carry out research and establish why they are performing poorly because you may be making similar mistake and it is only a matter of time before the same calamity befalls your business.

b. Preliminary data collection or pilot study:

This involves gathering evidence about the behaviour of the performance measure and the area selected. Background details of the organisation or area of study should also be gathered. This will enable the researcher to understand the behaviour of the performance measure, which will become the dependent variable.

The sources of such information may be Company and area office records, Official statistics, News paper articles, Observation, Administering questionnaires, Auditors, Previous research in that organisation or area or subject, Competitors’ records, etc

c. Preliminary Literature Survey:

This involves a critical review of published and unpublished work from secondary sources of data in the areas of specific interest to the researcher. It will help to ensure that no aspect is left out and that variables can be defined. It also helps to establish the level of the debate as regards the variables. This involves reading Journals, Books, Conference papers, Doctoral dissertations, Masters Dissertations and Other publications.

The researcher should go through all the existing literature relating to the problem. This helps to know whether the problem has already been investigated before. If so, how and to what extent?

The literature review will help to define the variables and their interrelationships.

d.Specific Research Problem Definition:

After preliminary data gathering and literature review, the researcher is able to narrow down the problem from its original broad base and define more clearly the issues of concern. Attempt to relate the variables and identify the missing links is also made. The research problem is a knowledge gap. A situation that is continuing to exist despite the solutions that are being implemented and which could lead to some social injustice or catastrophe.

A problem does not necessarily mean that something is seriously wrong with a current situation, which needs to be rectified immediately. A “research problem” could simply indicate interest in an issue where finding the right answers might help to improve the situation. A research problem is an intellectual stimulus or some feeling of discomfort to a scientist calling for an answer in terms of a scientific inquiry.

It is therefore desirable to define a problem as any situation where a gap exists between the actual and the desired or ideal/known states.

Stating the Specific Problem

A research problem needs to be well conceptualised to point out the knowledge gap in more specific terms. When defining the problem, answer the following:

1. What is wrong out there?
2. What has been done to try and rectify the situation?
3. Has the problem been rectified? If NO, then,
4. What is the probable cause?
5. What will happen if the situation continues?

QN: Focusing on the 4 problems in the community that you identified earlier, select one and use it to answer the above five questions.

Problem statement

It is a statement that clarifies in a few sentences the problem to be investigated ie the unanswered question. Indicators of what a researcher claims to be a problem should be given. The above five issues should be addressed in the statement. Citation of the source of information may be important. Statement of a research problem is important because:-

· It enables the researcher to clarify the problem and possible factors that contribute to it.

· It facilitates making decisions concerning the focus and scope of the research.

· It enables the researcher to pool the knowledge of the problem provided by several resource persons.

QN: From the answers to the questions relating to the problem in the community, write a problem statement.

Features of a good research problem

i.It should be original. The purpose of research is to fill gaps in existing knowledge to discover new facts and not to repeat already known facts. Therefore, a preliminary survey of the existing literature in the proposed area of research should be carried out to find out the possibility of making original contribution. Knowledge about previous research will serve five useful purposes;

§It will enable the researcher to identify his specific problem for research;

§It will eliminate the possibility of unnecessary duplication of effort;

§It will give him valuable information on the merits and demerits of various research techniques which have been used in the past;

§It will tell him/her where others have found difficultiesso that he/she may be cautious;

§It will enrich his/her knowledge of the characteristic concepts and terminology in his/her area of specialization.

ii.It should be neither very general nor very specific. If the problem is very general, it is usually too vague to be tested. On the other hand, if the problem is very specific, it is usually too narrow to be important or consequential. Too great specificity is perhaps a worse danger than too great generality. At any rate, some kind of compromise must be made between generality and specificity.

Besides being empirically grounded, research problems have to be clearly and specifically articulated.. A lack of clarity and specificity may lead to ambiguous findings that can be interpreted in contradictory ways.

iii.It should be solvable. No problem, however significant, is a good choice if it is unsolvable. Generally, a problem may be unsolvable due to the following reasons;

§It may concern some supernatural or amorphous phenomena. Eg researching on the mind of the one who created the world. The impossibility of obtaining relevant data renders the problem unsolvable.

§It cannot be operationally defined. An operational definition of a problem specifies the activities the investigator must perform in order to measure it. Essentially, an operational definition is one that indicates that a certain phenomenon exists and does so by specifying precisely how (and probably in what units) the phenomenon is measured. Some phenomena eg gender, social class are easier to measure than others like anxiety, creativity, motivation. Further, the same phenomena may be measured differently by different investigators according to their purpose of inquiry eg wealth.

iv.It should be feasible. The feasibility of carrying out research on the selected problem should be checked against the following considerations;

§Study design

oAccess to organization and respondents

oSample or population to be studied

oSource of data

oMethod of collecting data

oType of variables involved

oSelection of scales of measurement and statistics

oCharacter of distribution of variables

oTreatment of data

oTime required for study and its availability.

oFunds required and their availability.

v. There should bea discrepancy between what is known and what should be known or what exists and what should exist. The reasons for this difference should be unclear so that it makes sense to develop a research question, and there should be more than one possible answer to the question or solution to the problem. If there is one possible answer and it is known, there is no need to do research on the problem.

REFLECTION QUESTION

Finding a problem is easy but identifying one that is researchable is difficult. Discuss this statement looking at ways in which this difficulty can be lessened and conditions that a problem must meet in order for it to be researchable.

Determining Variables And Formulation Of A Research Topic

As you will notice, a research topic comes after identifying the problem and determining variables.

But what is a variable?

A variable is any characteristic/ attribute/ property of the population that is capable of taking on different values. It is any characteristic of a person, organisation, phenomenon or subject that can take on different values

A variable is an empirical property that takes two or more values. If a property can change in value or kind, it can be regarded as a variable. For example, “social class” is a variable because it can be distinguished by at least five distinct values, namely: lower; lower middle; middle, upper middle, and upper.

Forms of Variables

1.Numerical variables: can be expressed in numbers eg Income.

For example an individual studying the relationship between income and expenditure will have ‘income’ as a variable and ‘Expenditure’ and another variable. These are numerical because they both can be stated in figure.

2. Categorical variables: they are attributes say colour, attitudes, status, youth welfare, early pregnancy, attitude towards education etc.

For example, an individual studying the effect of early pregnancies on family stability will have ‘Early pregnancy’ as a variable and ‘family stability’ as another variable. These are categorical because they cannot be expressed in figures/numbers.

QN: Identify the variables in the study that you would wish to carry out.

Categories/ Types of variables

a) Independent variables

These are those factors that cause the research variable or other variables to have different values. They may also be refereed to as the predictor. The independent variable is the explanatory variable; it is the presumed cause of changes in the values of the dependent variable.

b) Dependent Variables

These are factors whose value or behaviour changes as a result of a change in other aspects or variables influencing them. They are also called criterion variables. They are the variables that the researcher wishes to explain. The dependent variable is the expected outcome of the independent variable(s).

In mathematical terms, the dependent variable is the variable that happens to appear on the Left-Hand Side (LHS) of an equation. For example, if we write Y = Y(X) or Y = f(X), we are considering Y to be the dependent and X the independent variable. In this case, we say that Y is a function of X, i.e., that changes in the values of X are associated with changes in the values of Y or that X yields Y, via the function f.

c) Intervening/mediating variables

Intervening variables are a product or a creation of the independent variables through which the independent variable influences the dependent variable.

d) Moderating/moderator variables

Moderating/control variables are those variables that harmonise the relationship between both the dependent and independent variables eg legislation.

Figure Importance of a Control Variable

e) Control/extraneous/background Variables

They are variables other than the independent variable that may bear any effect on the behaviour of the subject being studied. Take for example an experiment, in which a salesperson sells clothing on a door-to-door basis. The independent variable is the salesperson’s activities, and the dependent variable is the clothing sales. The extraneous variables, which are variables which have a bearing in the experiment being studied, are the salesperson's gender, age, or price.

The function of control variables in empirical research is to reduce the risk of attributing explanatory power to independent variables that in fact are not responsible for the occurrence of variation in the dependent variable. Control variables are used to test the possibility that an empirically observed relation between an independent and dependent variable is spurious. A spurious relation is a relation that can be explained by other variables. That is, if the effects of all relevant variables are eliminated (or controlled for) and the empirical relation between the independent variable and the dependent variable is maintained, then the relation is non-spurious. It implies that there is an inherent causal link between the variables, that the observed relation is not based on an accidental connection with some other related phenomenon.

Suppose that one observes that the number of firefighters is related to the amount of fire damage. For instance, the more firefighters at a fire site the greater the amount of fire damage. Apparently, firefighters are not the cause of the damage. Accordingly, the amount of fire damage should not be explained by the number of firefighters at the site but by another variable, namely the size of the fire. Large fires require more firefighters and also cause more damage. Thus, the original observed relation between the number of firefighters at the fire site and the amount of fire damage is spurious because another factor, namely, the size of the fire, explains it. In this case, the size of the fire is a control variable. Without the influence of the control variable, no relation would have been observed between the number of firefighters (the independent variable) and the amount of fire damage (the dependent variable). This is illustrated in the next figure.

The conceptual framework

It is a diagram of proposed causal linkages among a set of variables / concepts believed to be related to a particular problem. The variable/ concept and/ or its indicators are in boxes while the relationships are shown by arrows.

QN: Identify and label any five variables in the study you wish to carry out.

A conceptual Framework

It is a diagram of proposed causal linkages among a set of variables / concepts believed to be related to a particular problem. The variable/ concept and/ or its indicators are in boxes while the relationships are shown by arrows as seen in the figure below;

Example

A study has the following variables;

Independent variable - Staff Skills

Dependent variable - Employee productivity

Intervening variable - allocation of tasks

Control variable - Company policy

Extraneous variables - Gender, Attitude towards work

The conceptual framework diagram will be as follows:

It is drawn from one or more theories, empirical evidence or knowledge specific to the particular case.

QN: Prepare a conceptual framework for the variables that you want to consider in your research.

REVISION QUESTIONS

1. (a) Define the term conceptual framework.

(b) Explain why conceptualisation of a framework is compulsory in research.

(c) Explain any four types of variables that should be considered when constructing a conceptual framework.

(d) Outline the procedure for developing a conceptual framework.

2. Prepare a conceptual framework for the variables that you want to consider in your research.

Stating the Topic / Title of the research project

Topic is a sentence which conveys the message of what the proposal is about. It is related to the purpose of the study and should contain the major variables to be used ie the dependent and independent variables.

It must be brief, concise and accurate, reflecting the content of the research. The researcher should make sure that it contains both the dependent and independent variables, especially if the research correlational in nature. It also indicates the purpose of the study. Words like relationship, impact or effect may not be used in correlational studies.

A topic should be chosen with care. Selecting a suitable topic requires a clear research question and current significance.  Normally a research topic should satisfy the following criteria:

(i) state the key variables included in the study,

(ii) relate it to the research design and/or state relationship between variables for associational studies,

(iii) state the population/area/organisation to which results would be applicable or where the data will be collected from,

(iv) avoid redundant words like impact, relationship, effectiveness, etc.,

(v) use only acceptable discipline-related terms,

(vi) should neither be too long to be over explicit nor too short to be over implicit; it should be concise and to the point.

It is related to the purpose and design of the research.

For example, in an associational study, if my independent variable is ‘Attitude towards work’ and the dependent variable is ‘prevalence of early pregnancies’, in order for me to have a topic for an associational study, I state it as follow;

Attitude towards work and prevalence of early pregnancies among the youths of Katanga, Kampala District.

OR

The relationship between attitude towards work and prevalence of early pregnancies among the youths of Katanga, Kampala District.

NB: The word 'relationship' may not be used in correlational studies. So the topic may be stated as;

Attitude towards work and prevalence of early pregnancies among the youths of Katanga, Kampala District.

Another example. If there is prevalence of poor attitudes towards work among the youth in Katanga, Kampala district and I am interested in a causal study, the topic would be;

Causes of poor attitude towards work among the youth of Katanga, Kampala district.

QN: What are the variables in your study?

QN: What is the purpose of your study?

QN: State the topic of your study.

STAGE TWO: STATING HYPOTHESES, OBJECTIVES, RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

HYPOTHESES

A hypothesis is a tentative answer to a research problem that is expressed in the form of a relationship between independent and dependent variables. Hypotheses are tentative answers because they can be verified only after they have been tested empirically. When proposing a hypothesis, the researcher does not know whether it will be verified or not. A hypothesis is constructed and tested. If it is rejected, another hypothesis is put forward, while if it is accepted, it is incorporated into the scientific body of knowledge.

Source of hypothesis

- A formal theory, hence testing relationship to find whether or not they conform to the theory.
- Observation of some correlation between variables and hence hypothesizing and testing the hypothesis to confirm or refute the observed correlation.
- Commonly held lay beliefs to prove or refute them.
- Personal Experiences

Attributes of Research hypotheses

a)Hypotheses must be clear. In order to test a hypothesis empirically, one has to define all the variables in the hypothesis operationally. The professional literature and experts’ opinions can be of great help when constructing hypotheses and defining the variables.

b)Scientific Hypotheses are not subjective. In principle, the researcher’s own values, biases, and subjective preferences have no place in the scientific approach. However, given that researcher in the social sciences is to a certain extent a social activity whose problems are affected by its environment, the researcher must be aware of personal biases and make them as explicit as possible.

c)Hypotheses are specific. The investigator has to point out the expected relations among the variables in terms of direction (positive or negative) and conditions under which the relations will hold. A hypothesis that X is related to Y is too general. The relation between X and Y can be positive or negative.

d)Hypotheses are testable with available methods. One can arrive at clear, value-free, as well as specific hypotheses and find that there are no research methods to test them. The evaluation of hypotheses depends on the existence of methods for testing them. Note that, progress in science is dependent upon the development of new research methods, methods of observation, data collection, and data analysis.

Types of hypotheses

To be testable, concepts in a hypothesis statement must be defined clearly and measurable so that data can clearly either support or refute the hypothesis. Two types of hypothesis are conceptual (literal) and operational hypotheses.

a)Conceptual hypotheses describe in words and in general the relationship between variables. It is difficult to test them since the concept used can mean different things to various people and may not be measurable.

Example

People with more education earn more income than that earned by those with less education. It is difficult to test such hypothesis because more education, less education more income and less income are not defined operationally.

b) Operational hypotheses indicate how the variables and expected relationship are to be empirically measured. They also show how researcher will judge whether the relation is significant.

Example

Operationalization of the above conceptual hypothesis can be done by first defining operationally key terms in the hypothesis as follows:

Low education= less than 7 years of schooling

More education= more than 6 years of schooling

Less income= less than U shs 125,000/= per year per capita.

More income.= Ushs 125,000/= and more per year per capita

Therefore, the operational hypothesis can be stated as

·People who went to school for more than 7 years get an income of at least Ushs 125,000/= per year per capita while those who went to school for less than 7 years get an income of less than Ushs 125,000/= per year per capita.

·Alternatively, the income levels may not be specified and we can only test if the means in income between the two groups differ. Therefore, we can say:

Income in Ushs per capita per year differs significantly between people who went to school for less than 7 years and those who went to school for more than 6 years.

To avoid cursory statement of hypothesis, researchers are advisee to state them both conceptually and operationally.

Null Hypothesis and Alternative Hypothesis

A researcher should state two hypotheses: the null hypothesis (Ho) and alternative hypothesis (H1).

A Null hypothesis (H_0) is a belief treated as a valid or viable possibility unless the actual behaviour of the data contradicts this assumption. It is never accepted; it is either rejected or not rejected. The null hypothesis is often the reverse of what the experimenter actually believes. It is put forward to allow the data to contradict it and the researcher tries to disprove, reject or nullify it.

An alternative hypothesis is the negation of the null hypothesis. It is a hypothesis that is contrary to the null hypothesis.

One hypothesis may be stated in four different forms as follows:

Conceptual null hypothesis:Income among people with low and high education does not differ significantly

Conceptual alternative hypothesis: Income among people with low and high education differs significantly.

Operational null hypothesis:Income among people having at most 6 years of schooling and that among those having at least 7 years of schooling does not differ significantly.

Operational alternative hypothesis: Income among people having at most 6 years of schooling and that among those having at least 7 years of schooling differ significantly.

Since it is tedious to state one hypothesis in four various ways, it is customary to do with conceptual hypotheses and just state hypotheses in only operational null and alternative forms without even writing the word o[operational.

For a hypothesis to be tested, we examine the significance level of the relationship between independent and independent variables with regard to null and alternative hypotheses. The main trick in hypothesis testing is to prove that null hypothesis is false so that the tentative answer to the research problem (alternative hypothesis) remains intact (Cooksey and Lokuji, 1995:12). If the null hypothesis (Ho) is found false, the alternative hypothesis (Hi) is confirmed. If data indicate that Ho is true, Hi must be rejected if also the level of significance is appropriate, that is 0.001, 0.01 or 0.05 which are significance level of 0.1%, 1% and 5%, respectively.

Errors in Interpretation of hypothesis testing results

a) Type I Error

If the researcher rejects the null hypothesis while it is true, he/she is committing an error called Type I Error.

b) Type II Error

If he/she does not reject (‘accepts’) the null hypothesis while it is false, he/she is committing a Type II Error.

Rejecting a null hypothesis at 0.1%, 1% or 5% level of significance means that the probability of rejecting it while it is true is 0.1, 1 or 5 chances, respectively, in 100 (Thorne, 1980, cited by Cooksey and Lokuji, 1995:13). The likelihood of committing an error varies directly with sample size. That is why, where resources allow, larger sample are preferred to smaller ones.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

These indicate what you want to achieve at the end of the research. The research objectives should be designed from the variables.Objectives should be measurable and are written in operational format using words like ‘establish’, ‘examine’, ‘assess’, ‘identify’, ‘determine’, etc.

Objectives should be stated in action verbs that are specific enough to be achieved not vague/abstract verbs.

Examples:

ACTION VERBS (RECOMMENDED) | VAGUE / ABSTRACT VERBS (AVOID)
To: -

• Identify

• Describe

• Find

• Determine

• Establish

• Investigate

• Compare

• Calculate

• Analyse, etc.
To: -

• Know

• Appreciate

• Understand

• Study

These vague verbs do not direct student’s activity towards acquiring specific data.

For example:

To determine the causes of poor attitudes towards work among the youths of Katanga, Kampala district.

QN: State three objectives that your study is intended to achieve.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

These are the specific questions that the research is going to answer. Researchers usually change objectives into questions.

For example:

Objective: To determine the causes of poor attitudes towards work among the youths of Katanga, Kampala district.

Question: What are the causes of poor attitudes towards work among the youths of Katanga, Kampala district?

QN: State three research questions that your study is intended to answer.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

This gives an understanding of what the study is about. It tends to replicate the topic or explain exactly what the research is intended to achieve.

For example

Topic: Attitude towards work and prevalence of early pregnancies among the youths of Katanga, Kampala District.

Purpose:The purpose of this study is to establish the relationship between attitude towards work and prevalence of early pregnancies among the youths of Katanga, Kampala District.

QN: State the purpose that your study is intended to achieve.

STAGE THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND RESEARCH PROPOSAL WRITING AND PRESENTATION

Before research is done, one has to have a plan of executing the task. Even in our daily life, many of those who have achieved planned for the activities they carried out. This section will introduce us to the planning required to do research.

The researcher must have a definite plan of executing the study ie a design. This should appear in a proposal.

What is a research proposal?

A research proposal is a plan for carrying out the entire research. It shows what, why, when and how one is going to carry out the study and who will be the respondents.

In additions to the research topic, the problem, objective, research questions and purpose of the study, the aspects below will be compiled into one document called a research proposal.

a. Detailed literature review

The literature review will help to define the variables and their interrelationships. It will also identify gaps.

b. Select a suitable research design

Depending on the nature of the problem, one will determine the best research design to use while focusing on the possible respondents.

c. Select the sample

This involves determining the unit of response who are actually the respondents in research. The study population needs to be determined.

We need to identify where the respondents are located. It may also involve deciding how many objects or units to include in the sample.

d. Select the sources of data; Primary and secondary sources.

These are usually two source of data primary source and secondary source

e. Data collection methods.

This involves identifying the methods of carrying out research. There are a number of methods i.e. questionnaire, interview,

f. Determination of the analytical approach of data

This involves determining how to analyze the data so as to determine or provide the required information.

What analytical techniques should the researcher use depending one research problem at hand and the available information e.g. will you use sample tables, pie chats, mean, egression tables, e.t.c.

g. Determination of approaches to Research interpretation and presentation of findings.

Always the research is done with a purpose. After analyzing the data, it must be interpreted and understood, conclusions drawn and recommendations and suggestions given.

However a format must be designed in which the presentation would be made.

The presentations are made to those who are interested in the research findings.

h. Specify the time and financial requirements of the research.

The time to be considered is in terms of the period in which the research is going to be done.

We can also consider the seasons appropriate for doing research e.g. is it a recession period or room, it is a rainy season or dry season.Further more the cost involved for carrying out research will also be estimated. After analyzing the cost then the budget should be designed.

The budget helps to identify weather we have enough funds available or not if not then adjustments should be done.

STAGE FOUR: MEASUREMENT

This is the process of reducing the abstract concepts to observable behaviour and characteristics. In other words, the abstract notions are broken down into observable characteristic behaviours. One has to identify the elements/ behavioural dimensions/ facets/ characteristics/ indicators that we would hope to find in people or elements with that attribute.

For example, if one of the variables one is researching about is ‘Achievement Motivation’ then, a person with achievement motivation would have the following five typical broad characteristics or dimensions;

a) driven by work

b)find it hard to relax

c) prefer to work alone

d)engage in challenging but not too challenging jobs,

e) seek feedback

QN: Using you research variables as an example, what are the elements or indicators of each?

After knowing the indicators, one will then design the instruments of data collection eg questionnaires, interview guides etc. These will include the questions that one will ask to establish whether each indicator is present in the person or element being studied.

QN: Having identified the indicators of each variable, design a simple questionnaire that you will use to collect data on the aspect.

STAGE FIVE: DATA COLLECTION

This step involves compiling tools and instruments that will be used to collect data. These may be questionnaires, interview guides, etc. After compiling them, they are distributed to respondents. Interviews are also conducted while taking record of the responses. This is the actual measurement of the concept.

However, before the instruments are distributed to the entire number of respondents, they can be pre-tested to establish their validity ie whether the questions are good enough for the target group and will enable the researcher get the information he/she requires.

QN: Using the simple instrument that you designed in the previous section, visit five possible respondents and have them respond to the questions. After they have answered, ask them whether the questions were relevant and understandable.

STAGE SIX: DATA ANALYSIS

The data so collected will be analysed to derive meaning out of it. This involves selection of appropriate statistical techniques.Each statistical technique serves a special purpose and has assumptions which must be met before it can be used for analysis and interpretation. Data analysis can be done manually or using a computer package like Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).

Data can be presented in tables and charts.

QN: From the data you collected, prepare frequency tables to show which responses were most frequent.

After analysis, a research report is written and presented. This will involve compiling all previous aspects into one document. This document will involve the purpose of the aspects of the proposal, findings, interpretation and recommendations. It may also include the problems encountered during the study.

QN: From the frequency tables you prepared, explain what the results show.

STAGE SEVEN: GENERALISATION, DISSEMINATION OF FINDINGS AND MANAGERIAL DECISION-MAKING

The information so collected will be used to make decisions and to solve the problems so encountered.

In practice, however, the research process occurs sometimes:

a)Quickly, sometimes slowly;

b)With a very high degree of formalization and vigor, sometimes quite informally, unself-consciously and intuitively;

c)Through the interaction of several scientists in distinct roles (of say, theorist, research director, interviewer, methodologist, sampling expert, statistician, etc) sometimes through the efforts of a single scientist;

d)Only in the scientist’s imagination, sometimes in actual fact.

Thus, our idealized reconstruction of the research process is not intended to be rigid but rather to convey the underlying themes of scientific research.

Research stages interdependence and research process circularity

Each of the stage is dependent upon the other as outlined below.

a) One cannot research unless one has a clearly stated researchable problem.

b) Hypothesis formulation aims at finding tentative answers to the problem; the hypothesis depend on the problem.

c) The researcher has to have knowledge to design research and identify levels of measurement befitting the hypothesis and data to be collected and statistical packages to be used.

d) Irreparable harm can be done to a research by performing one of the early stages inadequately; e.g. writing un testable hypothesis or using inappropriate sampling methods.

A research process is best conceived as a circle as outlined below.

a) It starts with a problem and ends with generalization. The latter is the beginning of another circle.

b) From the problem the researcher develops the hypothesis, research design and goes to the other stages.

c) After completing the last stage, the researcher may end there but the researcher process does not end there. If the results did not support or partially supported the hypothesis, the researcher may return to the early stages of investigation.

d) Alternatively, if the hypothesis is partially proven, the researcher may attribute the partial success to errors in some stages, such as inadequate sample design or measurement of key concepts, etc. and suggest issues for further research.

e) Even if the research is very successful, it may be important to repeat (replicate) it to demonstrate that the original findings were not coincidental. Replication is very important practice in natural sciences.

f) The circle process continues indefinitely, reflecting the process of scientific discipline or inquiry.

Practice Questions

1. The cause variable or the one that identifies forces or conditions that act on something else is called the__________ variable.

a)Moderating

b) Independent

c) Categorical

d) Dependent

2. A hypothesis is defined as;

a) a tentative prediction of the results of the research.

b) the operational definition of the study.

c) a qualitative research design.

d) a quantitative study.

3. A condition or characteristic that can take on different values or categories is called:

a) A constant

b) A variable

c) A cause and effect relationship

d) A descriptive relationship

4. A null hypothesis:

a)should only be used in the physical scientists

b)can be rejected but not proved

c)can be proved but not rejected

d)is beyond the scope of business

- 5. A dependent variable in an experiment:
- a)is a dimension that the experimenter suggests may vary by manipulating an independent variable
- b)is dependent on variation in the independent variable
- c)can be a wide variety of behaviours
- d)all of the above

6

6. Explain the criteria for judging whether a research is worthwhile.

7. Identify the operational sub-variables (constructs) for both the dependent and independent variables

8. As someone entrusted with a research project, what would be the starting point?

9. What is a research problem?

10. What issues or questions must be answered when defining a problem?

11. What are the features of a good research problem?

12. As a researcher, what would be the indicators that there is a problem in an organisation?

13. What is a variable?

14. Using an hypothetical topic, explain the categories of variables.

15. Which verbs are normally used when stating objectives?

16. What is the easiest way of getting research questions?

17. What is a hypothesis?

18. Distinguish between a null hypothesis and an alternative hypothesis.

19. Distinguish between Type 1 and Type 2 errors.

20. List the steps in the research process.

TRANSVERSAL ASSIGNMENT - CONCEPT PAPER PREPARATION

It is a brief explanation of what an individual intends to research about and how. It includes;

–Topic

–Statement of the Problem/ Problem statement

–Conceptual framework

–Objectives

–Research questions

–Methodology

–References

TASK

In preparation for the research paper, prepare a concept paper including the following;

- Topic (One statement)

– Background to the study (1 ¾ pages maximum)

– Statement of the Problem/ Problem statement (1/2 a page maximum)

– Variables

– Conceptual framework (diagram)

– Objectives

– Research questions

– Methodology (Research strategy and design (s), survey population, sampling design(sampling technique(s), sample size, sampling procedure), Data sources, data collection methods and tools, Data processing and analysis)

– References (A.P.A Format)

INSTRUCTIONS

a) Everyone should present their own original work.

b) Type your solution

c) All citations and References must be in A.P.A format.

d) Submit on ______

APA SOURCES

1. http://www.usq.edu.au/library/help/referencing/apa.htm

2. http://www.usq.edu.au/library/help/referencing/apa.htm#How_to_cite_references_within_the_text_of_an_assignment