Research methods tutorials -MSc Management (Gen)

Tutorial 1

This tutorial has been adapted from John Biggam (2011) Succeeding with your Master’s Dissertation: A step-by-step handbook, 2nd Edition, Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill OUP.

The aim of this session is to learn how to formulate your research aim and objectives which you will explicitly address in your research proposal.

Research aim Example 1: e-learning

Supposing you want to choose e-learning as the subject of your dissertation, however, you cannot do a dissertation on the general subject of e-learning – your proposal must be focused on its specific aspect. One way of narrowing your topic down is by investigating ‘how academic staff are prepared to cope with e-learning in the university environment’.

Even when you have focused on one particular aspect, you cannot just pluck your research focus out of thin air. You need to do some background reading to answer the questions:

Why do you want to study this area?

What evidence is there that it is an area worthy of study?

For example – there could be conflicting reports on the progress of e-learning in the universities.

So if you decide to focus on an investigation of how academic staff are being prepared to cope with the challenge of e-learning in the university environment, you need to identify your overall research aim and the specific objectives that you are required to meet in order to achieve your overall research aim.

Your overall research aim is a general statement, which tends to derive from the focus of the study.
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|Research focus: To investigate how academic staff are being prepared to cope with the challenge of e-learning in the |
|university environment. |
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|Research aim: The overall aim of this research is to advance an understanding of the impact of e-learning in the university |
|environment in relation to academic staff training preparation. |

Think of the subject area in general terms (e-learning, computer security) and then focus on a particular aspect of the subject. Narrowing your topic down can be done in four stages:

Step 1: Think of your research idea in terms of one word or label. e-learning

Step 2: Add other words to help clarify the context/focus of your research, include other words to give you a clearer idea: e-learning staff university preparation

Step 3 Connect the words above to form a sentence which starts with ‘The aim of this research is to…’ • ‘…advance an understanding of…’ / ‘…explore…’ (for inductive & exploratory research) • ‘…elucidate…’ / ‘…test…’/ ‘…explain…’ (for deductive / explanatory research)

E.g.: The aim of this research is to advance an understanding of the impact of e-learning in the university environment in relation to academic staff training preparation. OR ‘The aim of this research is to test the positive relationship between staff age and their effective use of e-learning in the university environment’

Example 2: employment aptitude tests

Step 1: Employment aptitude tests

Step 2 Employment aptitude tests Top marks What it takes The banking industry

Step 3 Connect the words above to form a sentence –customise it for exploratory / explanatory research

E.g. The overall aim of this research is to elucidate the elements that determine a top mark in employment aptitude tests set by the banking industry.

Some researchers prefer to formulate their overall research aim as a research question/focal question. For consistency on this course, stick to ‘research aim’ but remember that they are both accepted in the wide world of research.

Activity 1 Think of a possible subject which you would like to research in your dissertation. Follow the four steps outlined above, and suggest a possible research aim.

Research objectives Your research aim needs to be broken down into your research objectives

Example: E-learning:

1. Identify the forces driving e-learning and the barriers to successful delivery of e-learning programmes. 2. Evaluate critically models and frameworks relevant to supporting academic staff in coping with e-learning. 3. Explore staff views and practices related to e-learning preparation, including barriers and drivers to e-learning. 4. Formulate recommendations on staff preparation issues.

The words in italics are keywords. They indicate the depth of study to be carried out. There are a whole host of keywords that can be used: identify, assess, evaluate, explore, outline, examine, discuss, analyse

‘Identify’ normally suggests a straightforward academic undertaking, one not requiring much intellectual discussion and debate. Identify is suitable for an early objective (to provide background information) but try to use other keywords in your later objectives.

‘Evaluate critically’, ‘assess’, ‘explore’, ‘investigate’ and ‘examine’ – all imply an appropriate level of intellectual activity for a Master’s dissertation. Don’t use vague terms such as do, study, look at or learn about. Too many objectives will make your dissertation appear piecemeal, or will unnecessarily increase your workload. 3-5 objectives are typical.

Make sure your objectives are: • Appropriate (clearly related to what you want to study) • Focused (each objective is distinct and incrementally aids in achieving your overall research aim) • Clear (avoids ambiguity, and includes snappy meaningful keywords) • Achievable (realistic given the timescale available)

Activity 2 Think of possible aspects of the following topics and suggest one or two ways of narrowing the topics down. Draft a possible research aim and 3-4 objectives for each of these topics: absence management, mergers and acquisitions, leadership styles, and employee empowerment

Activity 3 (possibly homework): Starting from the research aim formulated in Activity 1, break it down to objectives for your proposal, following the method explained above.

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Tutorial 2

Choosing your research methodology and research methods
Essential points from the lecture: 1. In contrast to methodology, methods can be seen as techniques or tools used to collect and analyse data. 2. Research can start from theories (derived from the literature review) or from data (here, literature review only informs the contribution of the study). The former is known as deductive, while the latter, as inductive research.
Activity 1: check the assumptions behind your research aim and objectives –will you have an inductive / deductive, an exploratory / explanatory study?
Activity 2:
Based on your draft research aims and objectives, provide a brief outline of methodology, and methods of data collection and analysis which you intend to employ in your research. Discuss them either in pairs or with the rest of the class.

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