THE RESEARCH PROCESS

Steps 1 to 3:
The Broad problem Area
Preliminary Data
Gathering Problem
Definition
THE RESEARCH PROCESS FOR
APPLIED AND BASIC RESEARCH
2.PRELIMINARY
1.OBSERVATION 3. PROBLEM
DATA
Broad Area of DEFINITION
GATHERING
Research interest Research Problem
Interviewing
identified Delineated
Literature Survey

4.THEORETICAL
6.SCIENTIIC
FRAMEWORK 5.GENERATION OF
RESEARCH
Variables Identified HYPOTHESIS
DESIGN
and Labeled
THE RESEARCH PROCESS FOR
APPLIED AND BASIC RESEARCH
8.DEDUCTION
7.DATA Hypothesis
COLLECTION, Generated
ANALYSIS Research Question
Answered

9.REPORT
WRITING

11. MANAGERIAL
10. REPORT
DECISSION
PRESENTATION
MAKING
 BROAD PROBLEM AREA
 Problem Currently Existing
 Areas need to be Improved
 A Conceptual or Theoretical view needed to be
tightened
 Research Question answered empirically
 PRELIMINARY DATA
COLLECTION
 Background Information of the Organization
(Contextual Factors)
 Origin and History of the Company
 Size in term of employees, assets, or both.
 Charter (Purpose & Ideology)
 Location
 Resources
 Interdependent relationships with other institutions and
external environment
 Financial Position for last 5 to 10 years
 PRELIMINARY DATA
COLLECTION
 Information Gathering is useful for
Talking knowledgeably during interviews
Raising appropriate issues related to problem
 Industry Analysis may reveal that issues encountered
are not industry specific but are faced industry wide
i.e.
Competition from foreign producers
Consumer resistance for spending money
 In such case more focused questions on strategies to
tackle such problems are asked.
 PRELIMINARY DATA
COLLECTION
 Information on Structural Factors and
Management Philosophy
 Ideas of priorities and values of the company
 Poor communication or misperceptions among
members of organization about company
philosophy, goals and values
 PRELIMINARY DATA
COLLECTION
 Structural Factors
 Roles and Position in the organisation.
 Number of employees at each level.
 Extent of Specialization.
 Communication Channels.
 Coordination and Span of Control.
 Reward Systems.
 Workflows Systems and the like.
 PRELIMINARY DATA
COLLECTION
 Perceptions, Attitudes and Behavioral Responses
› Attitudinal Factors
• Nature of Work.
• Workflow Interdependencies.
• Superiors in the Organisation.
• Participation In decision making.
• Client Systems.
• Co-workers.
• Rewards (pay raise, fringe Benefits)
• Opportunities for career Advancement
• Organization's Altitude towards employees family responsibilities.
 PRELIMINARY DATA
COLLECTION
 Behavioral Factors
 Actual work habits such as absenteeism, performance
on the job
 There's no substitute for good judgment
 ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plans)
 LITERATURE REVIEW
 Libraries
 Computerized Databases
 Interviews
 REASONS FOR LITERATURE
SURVEY
 Important Variables are Identified.
 Development of theoretical framework and
Hypothesis for testing.
 Problem statement with precision and clarity.
 Avoiding risk of “ reinventing the wheel”.
 Problem identified is relevant and significant.
 Conducting the Literature Survey
 Identifying the relevant sources
 Extracting the relevant Information
 Writing Up literature Review
 Identifying the Relevant Sources
 Manually going through bibliographic indexes.
 Libraries online computer system.
 Published and Unpublished articles
 Conference proceedings
 Statistical Databases
 Bibliographical Databases
 Abstract Databases
 Full text Databases
 Online Journals
 Government Reports
 Trade Union Bulletins
 Organizational Reports et al.
 Extracting the Relevant
Information
 Relevant articles to be looked in depth
 Design Details(Sample Size and data collection
methods)
 Ultimate finding systematically noted in
convenient form
 Other factors found to be related
 Writing up literature review
 Documentation of relevant studies citing the
author and the year if study is literature review/
literature survey.
 Clear and logical presentation of the relevant
research work.
 Purpose of literature survey

 To identify and highlight the important variables.

 To document the findings from earlier researches
that will serve as foundation.
 Such documentation convince the reader that
› researcher is knowledgeable about the problem area.
› the theoretical framework will be structured on work
already done and will add to the solid foundation of
existing knowledge.
• A good literature survey leads to good problem statement.
 The literature survey thus provides the basis or
foundation for developing a conceptual
framework for looking at the problem in a more
useful and/ or creative way.
 From a well-written literature survey, researcher
would be able to delineate a logical, well defined
and sharply focused problem for research
investigation.
 Problem definition
 A problem does not necessarily mean that
something is seriously wrong with a current
situation.
 A problem could indicate an interest in an issue
where finding the right answers might help to
improve an existing situation.
 Symptoms are not real problem
 “Is the factor I have identified an antecedent, the
real problem or the consequence?”
 Correct problem identification is critical for
finding solutions to issues
 Problem definition could pertain to
› Existing business problems
› Situations that manager feels have scope for
improvement,
(applied research)
› Areas where some conceptual clarity is needed for
better theory building,
› Situations in which a researcher is trying to answer a
research question because of interest in the topic.
(basic research)
 Managerial implications
 Managers look at symptoms and treat as real
problems.
 Manager’s input help researchers.
 Correct problem definition is critical
 Awareness of information sources.
 Managers can get to know about how other
businesses handle such situations.
 Ethical issues in preliminary stages
of investigation
 Inform all employees about problem particularly
who will be interviewed.
 The element of unpleasant surprise will be
eliminated for the employees.
 Assure the responses will be kept confidential.
 Attempts to obtain information through deceptive
means should be avoided.