Chapter 4

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER FOUR

THE RESEARCH PROCESS

Broad problem area can be identified through the process of observing and focusing on the situation. The specific issues that need to be researched might fall into:

1.) problem currently existing in an organization
2.) areas that a manager believes need to be improved in the organization
3.) conceptual or theoretical issue that needs to be tightened up for the basic researcher to understand certain phenomena.

Preliminary Data Collection:

Nature of Data to be Gathered:- The nature of information needed by the researcher for the purpose could be broadly classified under three headings:

I. Background information of the organization – that is, the contextual factors like the origin and history of the company, size in terms of employees, location etc.
II. Managerial philosophy, company policies, and other structural aspects.
III. Perceptions, attitudes, and behavioral responses of organizational members and client systems.

Literature Survey:- This is the documentation of a comprehensive review of the published and unpublished work from secondary source of data in the area of specific interest to the researcher. With computerized databases now available and accessible, the literature search is much easier and speedier, and this can even be done without entering the portals of any library. The purpose of literature review is to ensure that no important variable that has in the past been found repeatedly to have had an impact on the problem is ignored.

Based on the specific issues of concern to the manager and the factors identified during the interview process, a literature review needs to be done on these variables. The first step in this process involves identifying the various published and unpublished materials that are available on the topics of interest, and gaining access to them.

In the past, in order to identify relevant sources, researcher needs to manually go through several bibliographical indexes that are compiled periodically, listing the journals, books, and other sources in which published work in the area of interest can be found. Global business information, published articles in newspapers and periodicals among others are all now available on databases. Computerized databases include bibliographies, abstracts, and full-texts database, statistical and financial databases are also easily accessible.

Accessing the online system and getting a printout of all published works in the area of interest from bibliographical index will provide a comprehensive summary of the subject. Whereas, the printout could sometimes include as many as a hundred or more listings, a glance at the titles of the articles or books will indicate which of these may be pertinent and which others are likely to be peripheral to be contemplated.

Writing up Literature Review

The documentation of the relevant studies citing the author and the year of the study is called literature review or literature survey. This survey is a clear and logical presentation of the relevant research work done thus far in the area of investigation. As sated earlier, the purpose of literature survey is to identify and highlight the important variables, and to document the significant findings from earlier research that will serve as the foundation on which the theoretical framework for the current investigation can be built and the hypothesis researcher is knowledgeable about the problem area and has done the preliminary homework that is necessary to conduct the research. A point to note is that literature survey should bring together all relevant information in a cogent and logical manner instead of presenting all the studies in chronological order with bits and pieces of uncoordinated information.

Problem Definition

After the interview and the literature survey, the researcher is in apposition to narrow down the problem from its original broad base and define the issues of concern more clearly. It is critical that the focus of further research be unambiguously identified and defined; there is no amount of research work that can find solutions to the problem if critical issue or problem to be studied is not clearly pinpointed. A problem does not necessarily mean that something is seriously wrong with the current situation that needs to be rectified immediately. A problem could simply indicate an interest in an issue where finding the right answers might help to improve an existing situation.

Examples of well defined problems
i.) to what extent do the structure of the organization and type of information systems installed account for the variance in the perceived effectiveness of managerial decision making?
ii.) how was the new packaging affected the sales of the product?
iii.) Has the new advertising message resulted in enhanced recall?

Managerial Implications

Managers sometimes look at the symptoms in problematic situations and treat them as if they are the real problems, getting frustrated when their remedies do not work. Understanding the antecedents-problem-consequences sequence, and gathering the relevant information to get a real grasp of the problem go a long way in pinpointing it. Managers’ input helps researchers to define the broad problem area and confirm their own theories about the situational factors impacting on the central problems. Managers who realize that correct problem solution, do not grudge the time spent in working closely with researchers, particularly at this stage. Using this facility, the managers can get to know how similar businesses the world over grapple with similar situations and get a better handle on the issues at hand.