Development of

Research Methodology

Why Research Important

Adds to knowledge

Provides an ability to identify problems,

to address them and search for potential

solutions.

Addressing gaps in knowledge

Expanding knowledge to new ideas or

practices, replicating knowledge and

adding voices of individuals to society.

Sound Reasoning

Inductive/Deductive Process

Induction and Deduction

Deductive

Inductive

Combining Induction and Deduction

You promote a product but sales don‟t increase. (Fact1)

You ask the question “Why didn‟t sales increase?” (Induction)

You infer a conclusion (hypothesis) to answer the question: The promotion was poorly executed. (Hypothesis)

You use this hypothesis to conclude (deduce) that sales will not increase during a poorly executed promotion. You know from experience that ineffective promotion will not increase sales. (Deduction1)

We deduce that a well-executed promotion will result in increased sales. (Deduction2)

We run an effective promotion, and sales increase. (Fact2)

Combining Induction and Deduction

Induction and deduction are used together inresearch reasoning. Induction occurs when weobserve a fact and ask, “Why is this?” In answerto this question, we advance a tentativeexplanation (hypothesis). The hypothesis isplausible if it explains the event or condition(fact) that prompted the question. Deductionis the process by which we test whether thehypothesis is capable of explaining the fact.

Concepts to Practice

Research studies show that heavy

smokers have a higher rate of lung cancer

than do nonsmokers; therefore heavy

smoking causes lung cancer.

Show me a person who goes to church

regularly, and I will show you a reliable

worker.

Epistemology

Epistemology addresses the “nature of

knowledge, its possibility, scope and

general basis” (Hamlyn, 1995).

“Epistemology is concerned with

providing a philosophical grounding for

deciding what kinds of knowledge are

possible, and how we can ensure they are

both adequate and legitimate” (Maynard,

1994).

Paradigms of Research

A paradigm is a “worldview” or a set of assumptions about how things work.

Rossman & Rollis define paradigm as “shared understandings of reality”

Frames of reference we use to organize our observations and reasoning.

Often implicit, assumed, taken for granted.

New paradigms proposes unique ways of seeing and explaining things that then take hold

PARADIGM SHIFT

Thomas Kuhn wrote The Structure of

Scientific Revolution, and fathered, defined

and popularized the concept of "paradigm

shift”.

It's a revolution, a transformation, a sort

of metamorphosis. It just does not

happen, but rather it is driven by agents of

change.

Scientific Method

Scientific method is a way to ask and

answer scientific questions by making

observations and doing experiments.

Steps of the scientific method are to: Ask a Question

Do Background Research

Construct a Hypothesis

Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment

Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion

Communicate Your Results

Flow diagram of Scientific Method.

Traditional Model of Science

Four elements

Develop a Theory.

Conceptualize it components

Develop operational definitions that

specify the process involved in measuring

a variable.

Observe and measure of what is seen.

Two Main Traditions

There is a long-standing debate in the social sciences

about the most appropriate philosophical position from

which methods should be derived. In the red corner is

post positivism; in the blue corner is positivism.

So what are these traditions?

Let us start with positivism.

Positivism

The key idea of positivism is that the social worldexists externally, and that its properties should bemeasured through objective methods, ratherthan being inferred subjectively throughsensation, reflection or intuition.

The French philosopher, Auguste Comte (1853),was an early and influential proponent of thisview, as he said: „All good intellects haverepeated, since Bacon‟s time, that there can beno real knowledge but that which is based onobserved facts‟.

Positivism

The statement contains two assumptions:

Reality is external and objective;

Knowledge is only of significance if it is

based on observations of this external

reality.

Positivism

Independence : the observer is independent of

what is being observed;

Value - freedom : the choice of what to study, and

how to study it, can be determined by objective

criteria rather than by human beliefs and interests;

Causality: the aim of social sciences should be to

identify casual explanations and fundamental laws

that explain regularities in human social behaviour.

Hypothetic - deductive: science proceeds through

a process of hypothesizing fundamental laws and

then deducing what kinds of observations will

demonstrate the truth or falsity of these hypotheses.

Operationalisation: concepts need to be operationalised in a way which enables facts to be measured quantitatively.

Reductionism: problems as a whole are better understood if they are reduced into the simplest possible elements;

Generalization: in order to be able to generalize about regularities in human and social behaviour it is necessary to select samples of sufficient size;

Cross - Sectional analysis: such regularities can most easily be identified by making comparisons of variations across samples.

Positivism

Post Positivism

The new paradigm that has arisen during the last half century, largely in reaction to the application of positivism to the social sciences, stems from the view that the world and ‘reality’ are not objective and exterior, but that they are socially constructed and given meaning by people (Husserl, 1946).

Post Positivism

Reality is socially constructed rather than objectively determined.

Task of the social scientist should not be to gather facts and measure

how often certain patterns occur, but to appreciate the different

constructions and meanings that people place upon their experience.

Need to understand and explain why people have different experience,

rather than search for external causes and fundamental laws to explain

their behaviour.

Human action arises from the sense that people make of different

situations, rather than as a direct response from external stimuli.

Strengths and Weaknesses of each side

Quantitative methods and the positivist paradigm

Main strengths are that they can provide wide coverage of the range of situations; they can be fast and economical; and, particularly when statistics are aggregated from large samples, they may be of considerable relevance to policy decisions.

On the debit side, they are not very effective in understanding processes or the significance that people attach to actions; they are not very helpful in generating theories; and because they focus on what is, or what has been recently, they make it hard for the policy-maker to infer what changes and actions should take place in the future.

Strengths and Weaknesses of each side

Post positivist paradigm and associated qualitative methods

Post positivist paradigm and associated qualitativemethods have strengths in their ability to look at changeprocesses over time, to understand people‟s meanings, toadjust to new issues and ideas as they emerge, and tocontribute to the evolution of new theories.

They also provide a way of gathering data which is seen asnatural rather than artificial.

Data collection can take up a great deal of time andresources, and the interpretation of data may be verydifficult.

Qualitative studies often feel very untidy because it isharder to control their pace, progress and end-points.There is also the problem that many people, especiallypolicy-makers, may give low credibility to studies based ona post positivist approach.

Language of Research

Language of Research (Concept)

Job Redesign Constructs and Concepts

Operationalization

Operationalizing Learning

A Variable Is the Property Being

Studied

Types of Variables

Types of Variables

Independent

Dependent

Moderating

Mediating

Extraneous

Test Case

I am a manufacturer of raincoats.

I want to increase sales.

I increase my advertising budget by 100%.

Sales go up 20%.

What is the relationship between the

increase in the advertising budget and the

increase in sales?

AdvertisingBudget

Weather

Fashion

Sales

Cause

Effect

Concept to Practice

An automobile manufacturer observes the

demand for its brand increasing as per capita

income increases. Sales increases also follow

low interest rates which ease credit conditions.

Buyer purchase behavior is seen to be

dependent on age and gender. Other factors

influencing sales appear to fluctuate almost

randomly(Competitor advertising, competitor

discounts, introduction of competitive models).

Concept to Practice

If sales and per capita income are

positively related, classify all variables as

dependent, independent, moderating and

extraneous.

Comment on the utility of a model based

on the hypothesis.

Distinguish among the following sets

of items Concept and construct

Deduction and induction

Operational definition and dictionary definition

Concept and variable

Hypothesis and proposition

Theory and model

Scientific method and scientific attitude