...What is research? Research in common parlance refers to a search for knowledge (Kothari, 2004) What is Knowledge? The Oxford Dictionary defines “Knowledge” as: * The information, understanding and skills that you gain through education and experience; * The state of knowing about a particular fact or situation; What other ways of knowing exist? “There are four ways of knowing” (Gakuu & Kidombo, 2014) Server time Sensory Experience The Oxford Dictionary defines “Sensory” as “Connected to your physical senses” By this definition we can infer that we use our “Sensory Organs” to Know or Gain Knowledge. Our sensory organs include eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin, We use our eyes to see things hence gaining knowledge; we use our ears to hear and gain knowledge…….etc. etc. We should not forget that this information or knowledge is first processed by our brain then and only then do we understand what it is we are seeing, hearing, tasting and so on and therefore understand. Normally we, see, hear, and smell taste touch. We gather a lot of data through our senses. “However, sensory knowledge is undependable and in some cases incomplete. The data we take through our sense do not account for all (or even most) of what we seem to feel is the range of human knowing. For us to obtain reliable knowledge, therefore, we cannot rely on our senses alone, but must check what we think we know with other sources” (Gakuu & Kidombo, 2014) The opinion of other is...
Words: 1044 - Pages: 5
...Critical review of: An employment systems approach to turnover: Human resources practices, quits, dismissals, and performance. By Rosemary Batt and Alexander J.S Colvin (August, 2011). Academy of Management Journal, 54 (4): 695-717. Introduction Drawing on internal labor market and efficiency wage theories, this study intends to contribute in turnover and employment systems literature by examining theoretically and empirically whether applying three categories of human resources (HR) practices, instead of treating HR practices as a consistent group (Batt and Colvin, 2011: 697), might produce similar effects on quits and dismissals rates. Previous researches had diversified views about the causes of quit and dismissals due to various factors and conditions that were considered in these studies and theoretically show plausible dissimilarity. In addition, the authors attempt to explore the potential effects of those sets of HR practices and turnover on the organizational performance and the reflections on customer satisfaction. Hypotheses Batt and Colvin (2011: 696-701) analysis and arguments about the current literature yield seven hypotheses. Whereas employers in which apply two sets of incentive HR practices, namely, high-involvement work and attractive investments and inducements practices, they may encounter lower turnover rate and higher level of operational performance. By contrast, the third set of these incentive HR practices, labeled performance-enhancing...
Words: 967 - Pages: 4
...Submission Form |Name: |Vigneshwaran Palanisamy | |Email: |1118562@rgu.ac.uk | |Course: |Msc Purchasing & Supply Chain Management | |Module: |BSM577 - Research Methods | |Assignment and Title: |Implementing E-procurement in Indian organisation : surveys of SMEs | |Date: |7/1/13 | |For the attention of: |Dr Elizabeth Tait | WORD COUNT: ABSTRACT: This report was undertaken for the commitment of future research in dissertation. E-commerce is gaining a lot more attention in current global market. E-commerce models such as B2B, B2C, B2E and B2G has been successful due to many implementation and adoption of standardized process tools like EDI, shipping, tracking, payment and delivery among the suppliers around the globe through a strong supply network. The most vital element of B2B model is the E-procurement. E-procurement is the process for acquiring resources...
Words: 4257 - Pages: 18
...Manager know about research when the job entails managing people, products events, environments and the like? Answer: Research comes in many form, any person in any position should know how to research in order to get their job efficiently. If there is something you didn't know, you have to research it and study to know it better. This way you can manage well because you know what you are doing. Research is an inherent part of management. Quality research displays a well-organized cognitive and comprehensive skill necessary to succeed in a manager position. Also, a manager must be a jack of all trades, filling in various positions during times of crisis or emergency. The manager, while managing people, products, events, and environments will invariably face problems, big and small, and will have to seek ways to find long lasting effective solutions. This can be achieved only through knowledge of research even if consultants are engaged to solve problems. The primary purpose for applied research (as opposed to basic research) is discovering, interpreting, and the development of methods and systems for the advancement of human knowledge on a wide variety of scientific matters of our world and the universe. Research can use the scientific method, but need not do so. The goal of the research process is to produce new knowledge, which takes three main forms (although, as previously discussed, the boundaries between them may be fuzzy) Exploratory research, which structures and...
Words: 1231 - Pages: 5
...is given (hesitation). 3. The number of respondents that don’t respond to the test word (blocking). If the respondent takes more than three seconds to answer a particular question this is called hesitation, and this indicates some comparison between emotional involvement from that chosen word. Which will mean sometimes the stimulus word will evoke such strong feeling that the respondent will be unable to give any response because of the ‘block’ (Chisnall (2005)). According to Kolb (2008) this technique gains emotional responses to questions instead of the respondents giving intellectual thoughts or information about the company so we thought that this would be an acceptable method to use as it offers something different than your traditional questionnaire for example. By us as the research team using this technique we may decide to ask the respondents to give the first two, three or maybe even four words that come into their mind instead of one in order to gain more information or to gain more chance of similar answers between the respondents. We need to gain a different range of respondents in order to prevent bias answers and to make the technique as successful as possible for example standing outside a particular shop will only gain respondents with...
Words: 547 - Pages: 3
...+ Research Methods Name: Institution: Research Process In any research endeavor, developing the research question is an important phase in the research process. It helps in the determination of the where, what, how and when of data collection. A well-developed question helps in focusing ideas and ensuring the collection of appropriate data. This case study examines various aspects associated with the research process. There are remarkable difference, descriptive and relationship questions. Newton, Bower & Williams (2004) contend that descriptive research explains the data and the characteristics under investigation by addressing questions of when, who, what, why, and where. It holds factual information, but does not determine the casual relationship between the information. On the other hand, relationship questions make use of the information or data provided and explains how a particular set of information can affect another set, and as a result determines the relationship between them (Blazer, 2007). Comparison research questions are used in describing cause and effect by asking why one aspect may have led to another. For example, “has mental illness among adults increased in the past decade?” is a descriptive question that makes use of raw data from one year to another to demonstrate that either an increase has or has not occurred over the past decade. A relationship question may attempt to determine the reasons why there...
Words: 938 - Pages: 4
... the searches of mind and behavior of criminals in collaboration with judicial and law enforcement system. Stanford prison experiment was the major experiment conducted for the purpose of social psychology. Social Psychology Defined Social psychology is defined as the branch of psychology that deals with the scientific study of “how people think about one another, influence others and relate to others” (Meyers,2010). For example, how a person looks the world, he or she devises the situation and how individuals look at each other is social psychology. According to Allport, (1985), “Social psychology is the discipline which uses scientific methods to explain the behavior of individuals, their thoughts and feeling, also how behavior influences individuals by the actual or imaginative presence of others”. When it comes to thinking, It’s about the judgment the person makes about something , what he believes and perceives about something. When it comes to influence it means how the person influences the group of people, Persuades others and culture. Lastly social relations include aggression, helping and prejudice. Social psychology when compared to sociology...
Words: 910 - Pages: 4
...Evidence Based Practice. Research Methods. Evidence-Based Practice (EBP), the skill of using correct research methods, the importance of making informative decisions based on the best EBP within the health care industry as well as an example of EBP in regards to infection control and hand washing procedures will be key issues discussed throughout this essay. The health profession is continually developing and adapting in its implementation to health care techniques and skills due to changing world health conditions. It is therefore imperative that research be constantly conducted to analyse new research relating to health care to ensure health care practitioners are using techniques derived from the most current evidence (Aveyard & Sharpe, 2009). Evidence Based Practice can be defined as, “the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the health care of patients” (Sackett, Richardson, Rosenberg, & Haynes, as cited in Craig & Smyth 2007). The basis of EBP is that decisions are made by assessing not only the information at hand, but also integrating clinical experience, the most current evidence available, critical thinking and keeping in mind the patient’s best interest and preferences (Aveyard & Sharpe, 2009). Evidence based practice was developed because of the commitment of health care practitioners to social research and science (Mullen, as cited in Liamputtong...
Words: 1421 - Pages: 6
...Q1. How do you choose a good research topic? Research can be defined as the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions.1 The sources of research problems are elaborated below; 2 First is the specialization of the researcher. Specialization of the researcher is an impetus towards research. Second is the availability of current and past researches. Current and past researches are rich sources of research problems even for research replication by using the same instrument, apparatus or equipment. But for descriptive research, the instrument such as questionnaires or tests is administered to different groups of subject and areas in order to compare the similarities and difference of the findings. The third source is recommendations from theses, dissertations, and research journals. The researcher of the said thesis, dissertations and research journals recommend for future researches to be conducted as sources also of research problem. Fourth is original and creative ideas of the researcher based on the problems in the locality and country. To choose a Research Topic the following factors must be considered; * Types of publications in which you expect to find information related to your specific topic, * Subject areas in which you expect experts will be discussing your topic, * Key questions that you have regarding the topic, * Specific terms and phrases that are...
Words: 915 - Pages: 4
...may read only titles and Abstracts. Those wanting to go deeper may look at the Tables and Figures in the Results, and so on. The take home point here is that the scientific format helps to insure that at whatever level a person reads your paper (beyond title skimming), they will likely get the key results and conclusions. Top of page The Sections of the Paper Most journal-style scientific papers are subdivided into the following sections: Title, Authors and Affiliation, Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgments, and Literature Cited, which parallel the experimental process. This is the system we will use. This website describes the style, content, and format associated with each section. The sections appear in a journal style paper in the following prescribed order: Experimental process Section of Paper What did I do in a nutshell? Abstract What is the problem? Introduction How did I solve the problem? Materials and Methods What did I find out? Results What does it mean? Discussion Who helped me out? Acknowledgments (optional) Whose work did I refer to? Literature Cited Extra Information Appendices (optional) Section Headings: Main Section Headings: Each main section of the paper begins with a heading which should be...
Words: 381 - Pages: 2
...Research Method One 7th July, 2016 Accra, Ghana How do you choose a good research topic? Give 5 examples of a good research topic and justify your choices, i.e. problem issues in each topic and why they must be researched upon. (Not less than 2000 words). 1. Research defined The Oxford English Dictionary, 2002, defines research as ‘the systematic study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions’. According to Zina O’Leary, 2004, a research is a process that needs to be actively managed. The main aim of research is to find out the truth which is hidden and has not yet been discovered. Research is therefore undertaken to gain familiarity with new insights into a phenomenon (i.e., formative research studies); to accurately portray the characteristics of a particular individual, group, or a situation (i.e., descriptive research studies); to analyse the frequency with which something occurs (i.e., diagnostic research studies); and to examine the hypothesis of a causal relationship between two variables (i.e., hypothesis-testing research studies). 1.2 Research topic defined According to Laura Morrison, 2014, a research topic is an idea or theory that is expressed as a statement, a contention for which evidence is gathered and discussed logically. One of the most important concerns in choosing a thesis topic is that the topic speaks to an area of current or future demand. A research topic should be...
Words: 3279 - Pages: 14
...How Do You Choose a Good Research Topic? Give Five Examples of a Good Research Topic and Justify Why You Choose Them, I E. Problem Issues in Each Topic and Why They Must Be Researched Upon. Many at times choosing an appropriate topic seem like a herculean task as a lot of problem areas may come to mind at the time of choosing the topic. What is more frustrating is being able to settle on a brilliant topic. Choosing the research topic is one of the most critical steps in conducting a successful by all standards. The truth is, the search for a good research topic is a daunting task, especially when researchers are often expected to know how to identify or figure out a good research question by themselves. It also is important for us to keep in mind that an initial topic that we come up with may not be the exact topic which we end up writing about. Research topics are often fluid and dictated more by the student's ongoing research rather than by the original chosen topic. Such fluidity is common in research, and should be embraced as one of its many characteristics. The ability to identify and develop a good research topic depends on a number of factors. Fortunately, with every problem, there is always a place at which we can use as a starting point that will hopefully lead us to a desirable solution. The first important factor to consider when selecting or choosing a good research topic is to choose a topic that is of interest to them. The researcher should...
Words: 2378 - Pages: 10
...Business research Business research is a systematic process of acquiring and analyzing relevant business data for aid in making business decisions .The primary purpose of business research is to reduce risk of a marketing decision. Business Information system and decision support system simulate the business research process. A decision support system consists of business activities stored in an organized manner for retrieval .A business information system provide the manager with information about events and trends in different arenas . The emerging trends that affect business research include: Technology, economic, political, cultural, social and competitive arenas. Emerging hierarchy of research-based decision makers. Top tier which consists of visionaries where every decision is made and guided by business research. Middle tier which consists of standard decision makers where only some decisions are made by business research Base tier which consists of intuitive decision makers where decisions are made based on past experience. Types of research studies Reporting studies which provides data to achieve deeper understanding and generate statistics for comparison. Descriptive study which tries to answer the questions-who, what, when , where and sometimes how. Predictive study which attempts to predict when a certain event will occur. Explanatory study which attempts to explain the reasons for the phenomenon that the descriptive study only observed. Good research generates...
Words: 554 - Pages: 3
...RESEARCH METHOD This study utilized the descriptive method of research. As widely accepted, the descriptive method of research is a fact-finding study that involves adequate and accurate interpretation of findings. Descriptive research describes a certain present condition. Relatively, the method is appropriate to this study since it aims to describe the present condition of technical analysis as it is used in the stock market. The technique that was used under descriptive method is the normative survey approach and evaluation, which is commonly used to explore opinions according to respondents that can represent a whole population. The survey is appropriate in this study because it enables the researcher in formulation of generalizations. The purpose of employing the descriptive method is to describe the nature of a condition, as it takes place during the time of the study and to explore the cause or causes of a particular condition. The researcher opted to use this kind of research considering the desire to acquire first hand data from the respondents so as to formulate rational and sound conclusions and recommendations for the study. According to Creswell (1994), the descriptive method of research is to gather information about the present existing condition. Since this study is focused on the perception or evaluation of the consultancy firm's effective human resource management, the descriptive method is the most appropriate method to use. Two types of data were used: the...
Words: 356 - Pages: 2
...Business Research Methods – Part I University of Phoenix July 5, 2010 Introduction Business research is very important in solving business related problems. Business research, “is a process of planning, acquiring, analyzing and disseminating relevant data, information, and insights to decision makers in ways that mobile the organization to take appropriate actions, that in turn, maximize business performance” (Cooper & Schindler, 2006). Nonprofit organizations are currently having a tough time in this economy because of budget cuts. One place in particular suffering is the YMCA. This business research plan will form a research question, which arose from this dilemma as well as define the problem the YMCA is currently having. Along with the research question, an appropriate research design will be defined in order to try to fix the problem appropriately and then a sample design used for collecting data will be defined. Research Question Development When conducting research of any kind, it is crucial to address any potential problems that may arise to ensure that an organization is operating at its optimal level. Because of the turmoil in the economy, nonprofit organizations all over the nation are experiencing a tough time due to budget cuts. In addition to a lower budget there has been a significant decrease in employee satisfaction possibly due to a decrease in raises and incentives for YMCA employees. Finally, there has been an increase in employee absenteeism...
Words: 694 - Pages: 3
