I01920000120104012PP 5 Elements of Research Design

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Elements of Research Design

Meeting 5

Course : I0192 - Research Methodology

Year : 2010



Research Designs

Learning Outcomes

Students should be able tounderstand the different aspectsrelevant 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 thestudy/ 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 situationat hand, or no available information on how similar research issues havebeen solved in the past.

• Organizationally relevant differences in race, ethnic, andcountry origins are being undertaken using exploratory study.Sound theories about managing a diverse work group can beevolved 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. Itwould include details of their average age, earnings, nature ofoccupation, full-time/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 testingstudy explain the nature of certain relationships, or establish thedifference among groups.

• A marketing manager wants to know if the sales ofthe company will increase if he doubles theadvertising cost.

• Case study analysis

– Involve in-depth, contextual analyses of matters relating to asimilar situations in other organization.

– Case studies that are qualitative in nature are useful in applyingsolutions to current problems based on past problem-solvingexperiences.



Types of Investigation

• Causal relationship (the study in which the researcherwants to delineate the cause of one or more problems).

– Does smoking cause cancer?

• Correlations (the study in which the researcher isinterested in delineating the important variablesassociated 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. aresearcher wants to study the influence of lighting onworker performance, and hence manipulates the lightingin 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 environmentwhere work proceeds normally

– Correlational studies are invariably conducted in noncontrivedsetting



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 infamilies, supervisor-subordinate relationship at the workplace – Groups

• By treating individuals in one department as one unit, thencompare different departments in the organization (examine groupsize, 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 stockmarket.

• A survey among obese people to see how many of themwould be interested in trying the new obesity pill.

• Longitudinal

– A study can be done at a more than one point in time in order toanswer the research questions.

• A marketing manager is interested in tracing the patternof sales of a particular product in four different regions ofthe 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 themanager to understand what the researcher isattempting to do.

• The manager also understands why the reportssometimes indicate data analytic results based onsmall sample sizes, when a lot of time has beenspent in collecting data from several scores ofindividuals, as in the case of studies involving groups,departments, or branch offices.

• Knowledge of interconnections among variousaspects of the research design helps managers to callfor the most effective study, after weighing thenature and magnitude of the problem encountered

and the type of solution desired.• Knowled e of research desi n details also hel s

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