4. Definition
Some of the definitions of Research are:
1. Redman and Mory define research as a “systematized effort
to gain new knowledge”.
2. Some people consider research as a movement, a movement
from known to unknown. It is actually a voyage to discovery.
3. According to Clifford Woody
“Research comprises of defining and redefining problems,
formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions; making
deductions and reaching conclusions; and at last carefully testing
the conclusions to determine whether they fit the formulating
hypothesis”.
www.StudsPlanet.com
5. On evaluating these definitions we can conclude that
Research refers to the systematic method consisting
of
· Enunciating the problem,
· Formulating a hypothesis,
· Collecting the fact or data,
· Analyzing the facts and
· Reaching certain conclusions either in the form of
solutions towards the concerned problem or in certain
generals for some theoretical formulation.
www.StudsPlanet.com
6. How is the Research made ?
What are possible methods or
approaches?
www.StudsPlanet.com
7. Search for facts can be by
a. Arbitrary methods or
b. Scientific method
www.StudsPlanet.com
8. Arbitrary method :
Imagination, opinion, blind belief or
impression.
The method is subjective and varies
from person to person.
It is vague and inaccurate.
www.StudsPlanet.com
9. Scientific method:
Systematic rational approach to seeking
facts. It is objective, precise and arrives
at conclusions on the basis of verifiable
evidences.
www.StudsPlanet.com
10. Characteristics of research
Research is systematic and critical investigations into a
phenomenon.
It is not a mere compilation but a purposive investigation; aiming
at describing, interpreting and explaining a phenomenon
It adopts scientific method
It is objective and logical, applying possible tests to validate the
measuring tools and the conclusion reached
It is based upon observable experience or empirical evidence.
Directed towards finding answers to pertinent questions and
solutions to problems.
It emphasizes the development of generalization, principles and
theories.
The purpose of research is not to arrive at an answer but which
will stand up to the test of criticism.
www.StudsPlanet.com
11. Scientific Method
The Scientific method is a systematic
step-by-step procedure following the
logical processes of reasoning.
www.StudsPlanet.com
12. Basis of Scientific method
The scientific method is based on certain
“articles of faith”, these are:
1. Reliance on empirical evidence
2. Use of relevant concepts
3. Commitment to objectivity
4. Ethical neutrality
5. Generalisation
6. Verifiability
7. Logical reasoning process
www.StudsPlanet.com
13. Empirical
The word empirical denotes
information gained by means of
observation, experience, or experiment,
as opposed to theoretical.
Empirical data are data that are
produced by experiment or observation.
www.StudsPlanet.com
15. Empirical cycle
Observation: The collecting and
organisation of empirical facts; Forming
hypotheses.
Induction: Formulating hypotheses.
Deduction: Deducting consequenses of
hypotheses as testable predictions.
Testing: Testing the hypotheses with new
empirical material.
Evaluation: Evaluating the outcome of
testing.
www.StudsPlanet.com
16. The Manager-Researcher
Relationship
Manager’s obligations
Specify problems
Provide adequate background information
Access to company information gatekeepers
Researcher’s obligations
Develop a creative research design
Provide answers to important business
questions
www.StudsPlanet.com
17. Manager-Researcher Conflicts
Management’s limited exposure to
research
Manager sees researcher as threat to
personal status
Researcher has to consider corporate
culture and political situations
Researcher’s isolation from managers
www.StudsPlanet.com
18. Scientific Method
The Scientific method is a systematic
step-by-step procedure following the
logical processes of reasoning.
www.StudsPlanet.com
19. Components of Scientific method:
Two components:
1. Procedural component
2. Personal component
www.StudsPlanet.com
20. Procedural component:
1. Define the problem
2. Establish hypothesis as to
causes/explanation/solutions of the
problem.
3. Collect data
4. Analyze the data to test the
hypothesis and draw inferences
www.StudsPlanet.com
21. Personal component (Scientific attitude):
1. Consistent thinking
2. Objective, dispassionate and unbiased
devotion to collection and treatment of facts
3. Overcoming personal preconceptions and
value judgements
4. Avoiding personal and vested interests
5. Avoiding wishful thinking
www.StudsPlanet.com
22. 6. Stubborn determination to analyse one’s
own system of thinking
7. Taking nothing for granted without
evidence, tests and proofs
8. “Faith in the universality of cause and
effect”
9. High curiosity, imagination and interest in
experimental inquiry.
10. Keeping an open mind
www.StudsPlanet.com
23. Basis of Scientific method
The scientific method is based on certain
“articles of faith”, these are:
1. Reliance on empirical (practical)evidence
2. Use of relevant concepts
3. Commitment to objectivity
4. Ethical neutrality
5. Generalisation
6. Verifiability
7. Logical reasoning process
www.StudsPlanet.com
24. Reliance on empirical evidence:
Truth is established on the basis of
evidence.
Relevant data are collected through
observation or experimentation
The validity and reliability of data are
checked and analysed
Conclusion is reached on the basis of the
result of analysis.
www.StudsPlanet.com
25. Use of concepts:
A number of facts are experienced
through our senses
In order to deal with the facts we use
concepts with specific meanings
We use them in our thinking and
communications to get clarity and
correct understanding.
www.StudsPlanet.com
26. Commitment to objectivity:
It means forming a judgment upon facts
unbiased by personal impressions.
It is the willingness and ability to
examine evidence dispassionately
The conclusion should not vary from
person to person
www.StudsPlanet.com
27. Ethical neutrality:
Science does not pass normative
judgment on facts
It does not say that they are good or
bad
Science aims at nothing but making
true and adequate statements about its
objects
www.StudsPlanet.com
28. Generalisation:
Scientists are not concerned with
isolated events, but with the
commonality of a series of events.
They aim at discovering “under the
surface layer of of diversity the thread
of uniformity”.
www.StudsPlanet.com
29. Verifiability:
The conclusions arrived by a scientist
should be verifiable.
He must make known to others how he
arrived at his conclusions.
The methods and conclusions should
be brought out for critical scrutiny.
www.StudsPlanet.com
30. Logical reasoning process:
The scientific method involves the
logical process of reasoning.
This reasoning process is used for
drawing inference from the finding of a
study or for arriving at conclusion.
The logical reasoning process consists
of Induction and Deduction.
www.StudsPlanet.com
31. Induction: Study of individual cases and
drawing a generalisation.
Induction involves two process –
Observation and generalisation.
Conclusion from induction are tentative
inferences and are subject to further
evidences
www.StudsPlanet.com
32. Essential conditions to satisfactory
conditions:
Observation must be correctly performed and
recorded, data collected should be accurate.
Observations must cover representative case
drawn from a specific universe.
Observations must cover an adequate
number of cases
Conclusions must be confined to inferences
drawn from the findings.
www.StudsPlanet.com
33. Deduction: Deduction is reasoning
process of applying a general accepted
principle to a specific individual case
falling under the general principle.
It is regarded as General to particular.
Establishes a logical relationship
between a major premise, a minor
premise and a conclusion.
www.StudsPlanet.com
34. Deductive method is useful for solving
problems
But is not useful for finding new truths.
The inductive process overcomes this
limitation
www.StudsPlanet.com
35. Essential conditions :
The general rule or assumption must be
correct
The general rule must be applied only
to the case which properly fall under it
www.StudsPlanet.com
36. Major Premise : All men are Mortal
Minor premise : Sanjay is a man
Conclusion : Sanjay is mortal
www.StudsPlanet.com
37. Types of Research
Qualitative: Qualitative approach to
research is concerned with subjective
assesment of attitudes, opinions and
behaviour
Quantitative: Quantitative approach to
research involves the generation of data in
quantitative form.
This includes experimental, case study,
survey and analytical approach
www.StudsPlanet.com
38. Research can also fall into two distinct types:
Primary research: (field research) involves the
collection of data that does not already exist.
This can be through numerous forms, including
questionnaires and telephone interviews amongst
others. This information may be used in such things
as questionnaires, magazines, and Interviews
Secondary research :(desk research) involves the
summary, collation and/or synthesis of existing
research rather than primary research, where data is
collected from, for example, research subjects or
experiments.
www.StudsPlanet.com
39. Types of Research
Research may be classified according to its
major intent or methods:
1. Pure research
2. Historical research
3. Case study
4. Experimental research
5. Survey approach
6. Descriptive study
7. Analytical study
www.StudsPlanet.com
40. Pure research
(Basic research, fundamental)
Pure research is research carried out to
increase understanding of fundamental
principles.
Many times the end results have no direct or
immediate commercial benefits, which is to
say that basic research can be thought of as
arising out of pure curiosity.
However, in the long term it is the basis for
many commercial products and applied
research.
Like in science the research on basic
objects, forces, relations between them and
laws governing themwww.StudsPlanet.com
41. Historical research
This is when the research is conducted
on the basis of past data
This method is followed by historians,
philosophers,
psychiatrics&academicians
Its objective is to draw explanations and
generalisations from the past trends in
order to understand the present and to
anticipate the future.
www.StudsPlanet.com
42. The historical method comprises the
techniques and guidelines by which historians
use historical sources and other evidence to
research and then to write history.
There are various history guidelines
commonly used by historians in their work,
under the headings of external criticism,
internal criticism, and synthesis.
This includes higher criticism and textual
criticism.
www.StudsPlanet.com
43. Though items may vary depending on the
subject matter and researcher, the following
concepts are usually part of most formal
historical research:
Identification of origin date
Evidence of localization
Recognition of authorship
Analysis of data
Identification of integrity
Attribution of credibility
www.StudsPlanet.com
44. Sources of data:
1. Eyewitness accounts narrated by an
actual observer or participant
2. Oral testimony of elders
3. Records and other documentary
materials
4. Relics
www.StudsPlanet.com
45. The limitations of this research are –
non-matching situations over
generalisation and subjective
interpretation.
www.StudsPlanet.com
46. Case Studies
This is one of the most popular types of
research
Research performed in detail on a single
case rather than on a sample of whole
population.
It is an in-depth comprehensive study of a
person, a social group, and episode, a
process, a situation, a program, a community,
an institution or any other social unit.
www.StudsPlanet.com
47. The purpose is to understand the lifecycle of
the unit under study or the interaction
between factors that explain the present
status or the development over a period of
time.
They provide a systematic way of looking at
events, collecting data, analyzing information,
and reporting the results.
www.StudsPlanet.com
48. When selecting a case for a case study,
researchers often use information-
oriented sampling, as opposed to
random sampling
The case study method is intensive in
nature, it helps in formulating a valid
hypothesis.
www.StudsPlanet.com
49. Experimental research
This approach to research is based on
scientific methods in so far as the cause and
effect relationships are studied under
controlled conditions.
This is characterized by greater control over
the research environment and where some
variables are manipulated to observe their
effect on other variables.
www.StudsPlanet.com
50. Survey approach
It is a fact finding study.
The fact finding may be related to inumerous issues
like, poverty, BPO, night shifts, housing problems,
etc, etc.
Survey research studies large and small populations
by selecting samples to discover the relative
incidence, distribution, and inter-relations of social
and psychological variables.
The types of survey research are general survey.
Specific survey, regular survey, ad-hoc survey,
government survey, market survey and so on.
www.StudsPlanet.com
51. Descriptive study
This approach is a fact finding investigation
with adequate interpretation.
It seeks to describe a field or a problem by
using questionnaire and opinions
Data are collected by using one or more
appropriate methods- observation,
interviewing and questionnaire.
The study reveals potential relationships
between variables.
www.StudsPlanet.com
52. Analytical study
This approach is primarily concerned with
testing hypothesis and interpreting
relationships.
Analytical study design approximates to the
model of an experimental design.
This study employs advanced statitical
techniques like corelation, ANOVA,
regression, multi-variate analysis and so on.
www.StudsPlanet.com
53. Criteria for good research
1. Careful logical analysis of the problem, separating
its elements and whenever possible, formulating
hypothesis
2. Unequivocal definition of terms and concepts and
statistical units and measures, so that others will
understand exactly and be able repeat the analysis
and test the generlisations
3. Collection of data pertinant to the problem under
study
4. Classification of data
5. Expression of variables in quantitative terms
whenevr possible
www.StudsPlanet.com
54. 6. Rigorous and exacting experimental or statistical
procedure in summerising the data and in isolating
the attributes or variables and measuring their
relationships and inter-effects
7. Sound and logical reasoning as to the testing of
hypothesis and drawing generalisations
8. Statement in unassailable terms of the exact
conclusion arrived at from the findings
9. Specific and clear statement of generalisation to
facilitate checking and testing by others
10. Complete elimination of personal equation
11. Complete and careful reporting of the research
process, definitions and the methods of analysis so
that others can check the analysis or test the
generalisations with new sets of data.
www.StudsPlanet.com
55. Review of Literature
A researcher needs to survey the available literature relating
to his field of study.
Literature consists of
1. Books: Text books, Encyclopedia, Reference books, etc
2. Journals : Annual, Half yearly, Quarterly,etc
3. Reports: Committees, commissions appointed by govenrment,
public inst., Seminar and conference reports etc
4. Research dissertations and theses
5. Newspapers
6. Micro forms: Audio and Video tapes, Micro films, CDs, etc
www.StudsPlanet.com
56. Purpose of review
The literature review starts with the selection of a
problem for research.
The purpose is to :
1. gain background knowledge of the research topic
2. Identify concepts relating to it
3. Identify appropriate methodology, research design,
methods, concepts and techniques
4. Identify data sources
5. Learn others structured their reports.
www.StudsPlanet.com
57. Sources of Literature
1. Subject catalogues of li9braries
2. Documentation services
3. Bibliography: Indian national Bibliography etc
monthly publication
4. Lists of Books and Publishers Bulletins
5. Journals: Index India, documentation fortnightly etc
6. Government reports
7. Research Abstracts : HBR journal of Abstracts and
journals
8. Information on research done: University news
www.StudsPlanet.com
58. Notes taking
The most suitable method of notes
taking as is use of cards and a tentative
outline of the key elements regarding
the topic .Although the outline may
undergo revision when the researcher
acquires further insight into his
subject,it is useful in deciding which
information is needed and how various
bits of information should be related.
www.StudsPlanet.com
