On completion of this module you will be able to:
Introduction How to Use This Study Guide
Progress Check 1
Progress Check 2
Progress Check 3 Formative Assessment – 40075/01 83
Progress Check 4
Progress Check 5
In Level 1 you read of the four styles of learning and developed your skills in effective reading and research. You encountered the fundamental divide between what is called primary data, which you have obtained at first hand for yourself, and secondary data, which you have come by through the efforts of others. You also encountered a second key divide, between research that is quantitative and research that is qualitative. And you came across another classification, based on what the research is aiming to achieve: whether it is exploratory, descriptive, analytical or predictive. In this module you are going to see how research is applied to commercial life, where there are specific areas of interest to be addressed, so that resulting data may be sifted and turned into useful information that provides intelligence for contributing to the ever on-going effort to establish and maintain competitive advantage. The aim is to equip you with the ability to conduct, evaluate and present research to a standard that is appropriate and relevant in a business context. How to Use this Study Guide In this Business Research Methods module your primary source of reference is:
This book, which first appeared in 1991, provides a set of guidelines, methods and techniques for what the author calls ‘in-company work’. This is a respected and comprehensive text by someone who for some 30 years has specialised in teaching undergraduates how to conduct their research projects. In addition to this ‘core text’ there are several more that you may well want to investigate. The most directly relevant of these, as its title implies, is:
This is an excellent, thorough and respected academic work.
This concentrates, as its title suggests, on the detail of survey work. There are three more titles listed as indicative reading. Each concentrates on a particular aspect: Qualitative Methods and Analysis in Organisational Research, Symon and Cassell (Sage 1998); Key Concepts in Social Research, Payne and Payne (Sage 2004); and Analysing Quantitative Data, by Blackie (Sage 2003). From this you will gather that there is no shortage of texts on research, and you will also find an abundance of interesting reading in a wide variety of journals, magazines and newspapers. As with earlier modules, from time to time you will come across various Activities, all designed to add interest and encouragement. You’ll find that this subject is potentially very absorbing and can be quite fascinating. That is because it goes to the heart of how our world works. These diverting Activities are of variable duration – how long you are invited to take in each instance is clearly indicated – and some general feedback is provided at the end of each Study Guide. Most are for you alone to have a go at, but some may involve others, which you should be able to arrange yourself but you can always ask your Mentor to help if you wish to do so. As before, you will find icons used to indicate the classification of the Activity, which can be helpful for understanding why and where it has popped up. Of course, there are few greater satisfactions in this life than knowing that a job worth doing has been done well, so you’ll want to make the most of these opportunities. There will be four Assessments along the way; the first three for your Tutor to see and provide feedback on, and a final one that will reflect every element of the learning outcomes for the module. That’s some way ahead, though. First things first: have you a copy of the core text and do you know how you’ll being fitting in the time needed for this Module? About the Core Text Business Research Projects is designed to facilitate successful project-based reports. ‘The only research concepts, principles, and techniques that it provides are the ones you will need to complete your project, on time, and to an acceptable standard’. The practicality of the text is emphasised by the Project Guides, which appear at the end of each chapter. These are designed to pace the reader through his or her current research project stage by stage. Throughout this Study Guide you’ll be directed to reading specific parts of the Jankowicz book. This is designed to make sure that you extract what you need when you need it, but here are some overall points about the book. It aims to serve two audiences:
Obviously you belong to the second group, those people who are finding time in their busy lives for part-time study. It is helpful to bear this in mind when using the text, because, as the author says: ‘The needs of both groups are different, and the kind of business project they do tend to be different. Apart from anything else, the second kind of student almost always does an empirical project in which they collect data of their own, within their own organisation; the first kind of student may collect their own data in an organisation, but may prefer to do a library-based project, staying mostly within the premises of their university or college’. This difference soon becomes apparent if you decide to read the book as a whole. For instance, choosing a topic: chances are your subject has arisen at work, whereas the fulltime undergraduate has to think of something appropriate and viable ‘from scratch’. Throughout, the author seeks to address both audiences, so bear with him on this. About Your Project Among the ten main topics of study in Business Research Methods is:
This leads to your development of a personal development plan, which, in no more than 1,500 words, tells the examiners about your current job and career ambitions. It is worth up to 30% of the available marks. So start thinking around that now and see if you have some initial ideas about how you will want to research for it. You could plan this as one substantial activity or as a succession of shorter ones. Either way, you’ll need to address the self-evaluation, for which you may need help in framing some of the questions that you need to ask of yourself. If you are unfamiliar with personal development plans or could do with some help in getting started, consider asking your Mentor about this. There are self-evaluation questionnaires in instruction books and websites that may be helpful. Books range, for instance, from primers such as Hopson and Scally, Build Your Own Rainbow (Lifeskills Publishing Group/Open University) to more advanced texts, including Studner, Super Job Search (Mercury) and McMullan, Be Your Own Boss! (Kogan Page). It may well be that you have a personal development plan already. Perhaps you decided way back to develop one because at school the idea took hold that you definitely needed one. Or maybe your current employer or a past one insisted that you had one, framed in the context of your current occupation. In which case, well done, now you can use that to kick-start this project. Why, if you have one, start again? Well, as you know all such plans need to be kept under review and refreshed from time to time. But more immediately, this course requires you to produce one, and presents a golden opportunity to start asking of yourself some questions that you might not have thought much about lately. For instance:
So, in addition to telling you business research methods, this module includes a research exercise into you, which should be a whole lot more interesting that any other topic! And you can start on that project straight away. And before you start, here is a quick ‘health check’ to make sure you are match-fit.
In this first Section, we will consider research in the context of business, as against, say, medical or academic research. True, much research that is not specifically business-orientated ends up being used by managers for business purposes, for example, in the pharmaceuticals industry, but here we are thinking about research that is undertaken specifically with business purposes in mind. (End of Sample Material)
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