The Research Process

step 6: Elements of Research

Design
CHAPTER 6

Chapter Objectives

Understand the different aspects relevant to

designing a research study.
Identify the scope of any given study and the
end use of the results.
Describe the type of investigation needed, the
study setting, the extent of researcher
interference, the unit of analysis, and the time
horizon of the study.
Identify which of the two, a causal or a
correlational study, would be more appropriate
in a given situation.

The Research Design

In this step we need to design

the research in a way that the
requisite data can be gathered and
analyzed to arrive at a solution.
The research design was originally
presented in a simple manner in
box 6 of Figure 6.1.
3

Figure 6.1

Fig 5.2:Various Issues Involved in the Research

Design

Purpose of The Study

The Nature of Studies:

Exploratory Study
Descriptive Study
Hypothesis Testing (Analytical and
Predictive)
Case Study Analysis

Exploratory Study

Exploratory Study is undertaken when not

much is known about the situation at hand,
or no information is available on how
similar problems or research issues have
been solved in the past.

These studies are often necessary in order to

understand the nature of the problem (an essential
element in research design), since there may be little
or no previous work to provide guidance. Once the
data disclose a pattern or a story, other
characteristics of research design can be applied.
Studies that collect data through observations or
interviews (i.e.qualitative studies) are often
exploratory in nature.
7

Example 5.1

The manager of a multinational corporation

is curious to know if the work ethic values
of employees working in Hassan Industrial
City would be different from those of
Americans.
That city is a small city, and no information
about the ethic values of its workers.
Also, the work ethic values mean be
different to people in different cultures.
8

Example 5.1 (Cont.)

The best way to study the above

situation is by conducting an
exploratory study, by interviewing
the employees in organizations

Descriptive Study

Is undertaken in order to determine and be

able to describe the characteristics of
the variables of interest in a situation. (How,
When Where, Male, Female, Income, Area etc.)

For instance, a study of a Research

Methods 200 class in terms of the
percentage of members who are in their
senior ( will be in the graduation stage),
sex composition, age groupings, number of
semesters left until graduation, can be
considered as descriptive in nature.
10

Descriptive Study

In addition, descriptive studies

are undertaken in organizations to
learn about and describe the
characteristics of a group of
employees, as for example, the

age, education level, job status,

and length of service.
11

Example 5.2

A bank manager wants to have a profile of

the individuals who have loan
payments outstanding for 6 months
and more.
This profile would include details of their
average age, earnings, nature of
occupation, full-time/ part-time
employment status, and the like.
The above information might help the
manager to decide right away on the types
of individuals who should be made
ineligible for loans in the future.
12

Example 5.3
A marketing manager might want to develop
a pricing, sales, distribution, and
advertising strategy for his product.
The manager might ask for information
regarding the competitors, with respect to the
following:
1. the percentage of companies who have prices
higher and lower than the industry norm.
2. the percentage of competitors hiring inhouse staff to handle sales and those who use
independent agents.

13

Example 5.3 (Cont.)

3. percentage of sales groups organized by
product line, by accounts, and by region.
4. the types of distribution channels used
and the percentage of customers using
each.
5. percentage of competitors spending
more rupees on advertising/promotion
than the firm and those spending less.
6. Percentage of those using the web to sell
the product.
14

Hypotheses Testing

Studies that engage in hypotheses testing

usually explain the nature of certain
relationships, or establish the differences
among groups or the independence of two
or more factors in a situation.
Hypotheses testing is undertaken to
explain the variance in the dependent
variable or to predict organizational
outcomes.
15

Example 5.4

A marketing manager wants to know if

the sales of the company will increase if
he doubles the advertising Rupees.
Here, the manager would like to know the
nature of the relationship between
advertising and sales by testing the
hypothesis:
If advertising is increased, then sales
will also go up.
16

Case Study Analysis

Case studies involve in-depth,

appropriate analyses of matters relating to
similar situations in other organizations.
Case studies, as a problem solving
technique, are not frequently remedy to in
organizations because findings the same
type of problem in another comparable
setting is difficult due to the reluctance of
the companies to disclose their problems.
17

Case Study Analysis

Case studies that are qualitative in

nature are, however, useful in applying
solutions to current problems based on
past problem-solving experiences.
Also, case studies are useful in
understanding certain phenomena,
and generating further theories for
empirical testing.
18

Type of Investigation: Causal

versus Correlational

A causal study: Is an inquiry to

know the cause of one or more
problems.
A correlational study: Is an
inquiry to know the important
variables associated with the
problem.
19

Example 5.5

A causal study question:

Does smoking cause cancer?
A correlational study question:
Are smoking and cancer related?
Or
Are smoking, drinking, and chewing
tobacco associated with cancer?
If so, which of these contributes most to
the variance in the dependent variable?
20

Example 5.6

Fears of an earthquake predicted

recently in an area were a causal
of a number of crashes of some
houses in the area in order to be
eligible of insurance policy.

21

Example 5.7

Increases in interest rates and

property taxes, the recession, and
the predicted earthquake
considerably slowed down the
business of real state agents in the
country.

22

Extent of Researcher
Interference
With the Study

The extent of interference by

the researcher with the normal
flow of work at the workplace has
a direct bearing on whether the
study undertaken is causal or
correlational.

23

Extent of Researcher
Interference
With the Study

A correlational study is
conducted in the natural
environment of the organization
with minimum interference by the
researcher with the normal flow of
work.

24

Extent of Researcher
Interference
With the Study

In studies conducted to establish causeand-effect relationships, the researcher

tries to manipulate certain variables so
as to study the effects of such manipulation
on the dependent variable of interest.
In other words, the researcher deliberately
changes certain variables in the setting
and interferes with the events as they
normally occur in the organization.
25

Minimal Interference

Example 5.8
A hospital administrator wants to
examine the relationship between
the perceived emotional support in
the system and the stress
experienced by the nursing staff. In
other words, she wants to do a
correlational study.
26

Example 5.8 (Cont.)

The researcher will collect data from the

nurses ( through a questionnaire) to
indicate how much emotional support they
get in the hospital and to what extent they
experience stress. By correlating the two
variables, the answer is found.
In this case, beyond administering a
questionnaire to the nurses, the
researcher has not interfered with the
normal activities in the hospital.
27

Moderate Interference

If the researcher wants to establish

a causal connection between the
emotional support in the hospital
and stress, or, wants to
demonstrate that if the nurses had
emotional support, this indeed
would cause them to experience
less stress.
28

Moderate Interference

To test the cause-and-effect

relationship, the researcher will measure
the stress currently experienced by the
nurses in three wards in the hospital,
and then deliberately manipulate the
extent of emotional support given to the
three groups of nurses in the three wards
for perhaps a week, and measure the
amount of stress at the end of that period.
29

Moderate Interference

For one group, the researcher will ensure

that a number of lab technicians and
doctors help and comfort the nurses when
they face stressful events.
For a second group of nurses in another
ward, the researcher might arrange for
them only a moderate amount of
emotional support and employing only the
lab technicians and excluding doctors.
30

Moderate Interference

The third ward might operate without

any emotional support.
If the experimenters theory is
correct, then the reduction in the
stress levels before and after the 1week period should be greater for the
nurses in the first ward, moderate for
those in the second ward, and nil for the
nurses in the third ward.
31

Moderate Interference

We find that not only does the researcher

collect data from nurses on their
experienced stress at two different points in
time, but also manipulated the normal
course of events by deliberately changing
the amount of emotional support
received by the nurses in two wards,
while leaving things in the third ward
unchanged.
Here, the researcher has interfered more
than minimally.
32

Excessive Interference

Example 5.9
If the researcher feels, after conducting the
previous experiments, that the results may not
be valid since other external factors might have
influenced the stress levels experience by the
nurses.
For example, during that particular experimental
week, the nurses in one or more wards may not
have experienced high levels of stress because
there were no serious illnesses or deaths in the
ward. Hence the emotional support received might
not be related to the level of stresses experienced.
33

Excessive Interference

The researcher want to make sure

that such external factors that
might affect the cause-andeffect relationship are
controlled.

34

Controlling the External

factors

The researcher might take three groups of

medical students, put them in different
rooms, and confront all of them with the
same stressful task.
For example, he might ask them to
describe in detail, the surgical procedures
in performing surgery on a patient who has
not responded to chemotherapy and keep
asking them with more and more questions.
35

Controlling the External

factors

Although all are exposed to the same

intensive questioning, one group might
get help from a doctor who voluntarily
offers clarifications and help when
students stumble.
In the second group, a doctor might be
nearby, but might offer clarifications and
help only if the group seeks it.
In the third group, there is no doctor
present and no help is available.
36

Controlling the External

factors

In the above example, not only is the

support manipulated, but even the
setting in which this experiment is
conducted is artificial in as much as the
researcher has taken the subject away
from their normal environment and put
them in a totally different setting.
The researcher has intervened
maximally with the normal setting, the
participants, and their duties.
37

Excessive Interference

The extent of researcher interference

would depend on whether the study is
correlational or causal and also the
importance of establishing causal
relationship beyond any doubt.
Most organizational problems seldom
call for a causal study, except in some
market research areas.
38

Study Setting: Contrived and

Noncontrived

Correlational studies are

conducted in noncontrived settings
(normal settings), whereas most
causal studies are done in
contrived settings.
Correlational studies done in
organizations are called field
studies.
39

Study Setting: Contrived and

Noncontrived

Studies conducted to establish causeand-effect relationship using the

same natural environment in which
employees normally function are called
field experiments.
Experiments done to establish causeand- effect relationship in a contrived
environment and strictly controlled are
called lab experiments.
40

Example 5.10 Field Study

A bank manager wants to analyze the

relationship between interest rates and
bank deposit patterns of clients.
The researcher tries to correlate the
two by looking at deposits into different
kinds of accounts (such as savings,
certificates of deposit, and interestbearing checking accounts) as interest
rates changed.
41

Example 5.15 Field Study

This is a field study where the bank

manager has taken the balances in
various types of accounts and
correlated them to the changes in
interest rates.
Research here is done in a
noncontrived setting with no
interference with the normal work
routine.
42

Example 5.11 Field

Experiment

The bank manager now wants to

determine the cause-and-effect
relationship between interest
rate and the incentives it offers to
clients to save and deposit money
in the bank. The researcher selects
four branches within 60/km radius
for the experiment.
43

Example 5.16 Field

Experiment

For 1 week only, he advertises the annual

rate for new certificates of deposit
received during that week. The interest
rate would be 9% in one branch, 8% in
another, and 10% in the third. In the fourth
branch, the interest rate remains
unchanged at 5%. Within the week, the
researcher would be able to determine the
effects, if any, of interest rates on deposit
mobilization.
44

Example 5.11 Field

Experiment

This example would be a field experiment

since nothing but the interest rate is
manipulated, with all activities occurring in
the normal and natural work environment.
Hopefully, all four branches chosen would
be compatible in size, number of depositors,
deposit patterns, and the like, so that the
interest-savings relationships are
influenced by some third factor.
45

Example 5.12 Lab Experiment

To be sure about the true relationship

between the interest rate and deposits, the
researcher could create an artificial
environment by choosing, for instance, 40
students who are all business majors in
their final year of study and in the same
age. The researcher splits the students into
four groups and give each one of them
$1000, which they are told they might buy
their needs or save for the future, or both.
46

Example 5.12 Lab Experiment

The researcher offers them interest on what
they save as followings:
6% on savings for group 1.
8% for group 2.
9% for group 3.
1% for group 4 ( the old rate of interest).
Here, the researcher has created an
artificial laboratory environment and has
manipulated the interest rates for savings.
He also chosen subjects with similar
backgrounds.
47

Unit of Analysis

The unit of analysis refers to the

level of aggregation of the data
collected during the subsequent
data analysis.

Individual
Dyads
Groups
Organizations
Cultures

48

Unit of Analysis: Individual

If the researcher focuses on how

to raise the motivational levels of
employees, then we are
interested in individual
employees in the organization.
Here the unit of analysis is the
individual (the data will be
gathered from each individual).
49

Unit of Analysis: Dyads

If the researcher is interested in

studying two-person interaction,
then several two-person groups
also known as dyads, will
become the unit of analysis
( analysis of husband-wife, and
supervisor-subordinate
relationships at the work place.
50

Unit of Analysis
Groups as a unit of analysis
Organizations as a unit of
analysis
Cultures as a unit of
analysis

51

Example 5.8 Individuals as

The Unit of Analysis

The Chief Financial Officer of a

manufacturing company wants to know
how many of the staff would be interested
in attending a 3-day seminar on making
appropriate investment decisions.
Data will have to be collected from each
individual staff member and the unit of
analysis is individual.
The unit of analysis is the individual.
52

Example 5.13 Dyads as the

Unit of Analysis

A human resources manager wants

to first identify the number of
employees in three departments of
the organization who are in
mentoring relationships, and then
find out what the jointly perceived
benefits of such a relationship are.
53

Example 5.13 Dyads as the

Unit of Analysis

Once the mentor and the mentored pairs

are identified, their joint perceptions can be
obtained by treating each pair as one unit.
If the manager wants data from a sample of
10 pairs, he will have to deal with 20
individuals, a pair at a time. The
information obtained from each pair will be
a data point for subsequent analysis.
Thus, the unit of analysis is the dyad.
54

Example 5.20 Groups as Unit

of Analysis

A manager wants to see the patterns of

usage of the newly installed Information
System (IS) by the production, sales, and
operations personnel.
Here three groups of personnel are involved
and information on the number of times the
IS is used by each member in each of the
three groups as well as other relevant
issues will be collected and analyzed.
Here the unit of analysis is the group.
55

Example 5.14 Divisions as

the Unit of Analysis

Johnson & Johnson company wants to see

which of its various divisions (soap,
shampoo, body oil, etc.) have made profits
of over 12% during the current year.
Here, the profits of each of the divisions
will be examined and the information
aggregated across the various
geographical units of the division.
The unit of analysis will be the
division, at which level the data will
be aggregated.
56

Example 5.15 Industry as the

Unit of Analysis

An employment survey specialist wants to

see the proportion of the workforce
employed by the health care,
transportation, and manufacturing
industries.
The researcher has to aggregate the data
relating to each of the subunits
comprised in each of the industries and
report the proportions of the workforce
employed at the industry level.
57

Example 5.16 Industry as the

Unit of Analysis

The health care industry, for instance,

includes hospitals, nursing homes, small
and large clinics, and other health care
providing facilities.
The data from these subunits will have to
be aggregated to see how many employees
are employed by the heath care industry.
This will need to be done for each of the
other industries.
58

Example 5.17 Countries as

the Unit of Analysis

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of

a multinational corporation wants to
know the profits made during the past
5 years by each of the subsidiaries in
England, Germany, and France. It is
possible that there are many regional
offices of these subsidiaries in each of
these countries.
59

Example 5.18 Countries as the

Unit of Analysis

The profits of the various regional

centers for each country have to
be aggregated and the profits for
each country for the past 5 years
provided to the CFO.
The data will now have to be
aggregated at the country
level.
60

Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional

Versus Longitudinal Studies

Cross-Sectional Studies
A study can be done in which data
are gathered just once, perhaps
over a period of days or weeks or
months, in order to answer a
research question.

61

Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional

Versus Longitudinal Studies
Example 5.19
Data were collected from stock
brokers between April and June of
last year to study their concerns in
a turbulent stock market.
Data has to be collected at one
point in time. It is a crosssectional design.
62

Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional

Versus Longitudinal Studies
Example 5.20

A drug company desirous of investing

in research for a new headache pill
conducted a survey among headachy
people to see how many of them would
be interested in trying the new pill.
This is a one-shot or cross-sectional
study to assess the likely demand for
the new product.

63

Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional

Versus Longitudinal Studies

Longitudinal Studies
Studying people or phenomena at
more than one point in time in order
to answer the research question.
Because data are gathered at two
different points in time, the study is
not cross-sectional kind, but is carried
longitudinally across a period of time.
64

Example 5.21

A marketing manager is interested in

tracing the pattern of sales of a
particular product in four different
regions of the country on a quarterly
basis for the next 2 years.
Since the data are collected several
times to answer the same issue, the
study falls under the longitudinal
category.
65

Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional

Versus Longitudinal Studies

Longitudinal studies take more time and

effort and cost more than cross-sectional
studies. However, will-planned longitudinal
studies could help to identify cause-and-effect
relationships.
For example, one could study the sales
volume of a product before and after an
advertisement, and provided other
environmental changes have not impacted on
the results, one could attribute the increase in
the sales volume, if any, to the advertisement.
66

Exercise 5.1
A supervisor thinks that the low
efficiency of the machine tool operators
is directly linked to the high level of
fumes emitted in the workshop. He
would like to prove this to his
supervisor through a research study.
1. Would this be a causal or a
correlational study? Why?

67

Exercise 5.1
2. Is this an exploratory, descriptive, or
hypothesis-testing (analytical or
predictive) study? Why?
3. What kind of study would this be: field
study, lab experiment, or field
experiment? Why?
4. What would be the unit of analysis?
Why?
5. Would this be a cross-section or a
longitudinal study? Why?
68

Exercise 5.1

1.

2.

Answers:
This would be a causal study because the
operator wants to prove to the supervisor that
the fumes are causing operators to be low in
their efficiency. In other words, the machine
tool operator is trying to establish the fact
that fumes cause low efficiency in workers.
This is an analytical study because the
machine tool operator wants to establish that
fumes cause low efficiency and convince his
workshop supervisor through such analysis
(i.e. establish cause and effect relationship).
69

Exercise 5.1
3.

4.

This would be a field experiment. Though the

study would be set up in the natural environment
of the workers where the work is normally done,
the amount of fumes will have to be manipulated
while other factors such as atmospheric pressure
may have to be controlled. Because of the
location of the study, it will be a field experiment.
The unit of analysis would be the individual
operators. The data will be collected with respect
to each operator and then the conclusions will be
made as to whether the operators are less
efficient because of the fumes emitted in the
workshop.
70

Exercise 5.1
5.

This would be a longitudinal study because

data will be gathered at more than one
point in time. First, the efficiency of the
operators would be assessed at a given
rate of fume emission. Then the fumes
emitted would be manipulated to varying
degrees, and at each manipulation, the
efficiency of the workers would again be
assessed to confirm that the high rate of
fume emission causes a drop in operators
efficiency.
71

Exercise 5.1
6.

This would be a longitudinal study because

data will be gathered at more than one
point in time. First, the efficiency of the
operators would be assessed at a given
rate of fume emission. Then the fumes
emitted would be manipulated to varying
degrees, and at each manipulation, the
efficiency of the workers would again be
assessed to confirm that the high rate of
fume emission causes a drop in operators
efficiency.
72