Research Methods Applied in Examining Relationships between Concepts - Assignment Example

?Research Methods Research is necessary in understanding business dynamics and the way in which concepts influence business decisions. With research papers, knowledge is created in that a good research provides the basis on which decisions have to be made and the prospected results for taking such lines of action determined. Though businesses concepts may not be similar in every scenario, research papers undertake to evaluate how certain aspects influence certain decision making process in a specific area; it is upon the reader to make informed decisions based on the evidence provided in such research. There are two main research methods used in the business field, which are the qualitative and quantitative research methods; their use depends on different scenarios and the type of data that is required. Qualitative research methods are meant to help the researcher in understanding how people make decisions. This is achieved by evaluating the cultural and social contexts that describe the environment in which such people are situated (Myers, 2013). On the other hand, quantitative research was developed from natural sciences in understanding natural phenomena; the research approach uses numbers to represent values in constructing theoretical concepts. Interpreting such numbers is a strong scientific based method of understanding how a process actually works, and allows greater reliability as data collected offers a better trend of relations between two variables (Myers, 2013). This report uses a qualitative and a quantitative article in management to show how each research methodology applies in examining relationships between concepts. The report further determines the suitability of each methodology under differing research contexts. Holts (2011) uses a descriptive quantitative approach in determining the necessary behaviours, skills and practices that a pharmaceutical company would require to establish a reliable and effective leadership development program. The research involves collecting data from sales representatives and district managers. The two groups represent multi-level structures in an organization and offer reliable trends in the behaviour of sales persons in the company. Case studies as in Holts case may be said to be, “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context” (Yin 2003, p.13). In other words, the study is aimed at investigating the dynamics that manifest in a single research setting, in this case examining actions taken by sales persons in a pharmaceutical company. The author aims at tracing operational links and their impacts on sales representatives. In addition, the research establishes ‘how’ the company may use skills of the experienced sales persons in formulating a training program for new personnel in the future. Holts first offers a background on how companies formulate different approaches to structure leadership development programs, and forms a problem statement based on this introduction. The research problem, which forms the basis of the article, is that companies lack enough knowledge on how to formulate effective leadership training programs. Holts justifies this problem by examining the benefits of forming a program based on the data from sales representatives and district managers, as they possess the required skills in marketing the company’s products. However, Holts in the conceptual framework fails to provide similar programs that have been formed through evidence based methods, similar to his research. Holts provides a detailed literature on the importance of developing leadership skills in companies. Holts undertakes a detailed interview with the head of training from the pharmaceutical company, which forms as a credible and reliable justification to formulate the research based on actual needs of the company. In addition, he formulates the main research question that the research tries to answer from the interview and the conceptual framework. Holts in the conceptual framework and introduction establishes an emergent theory on leadership training. Consequently, supporting this theory with existing literature helps in increasing the generalizability and internal validity of a case study research (Yin, 2003). The effectiveness of using a case study is that case studies are best suited for an exploratory and explanatory research approach (Saunders et al., 2007). Therefore, by using the case study of the pharmaceutical company, Holts tries to achieve this end. In order to understand the concepts, Holt undertakes a critical data analysis of all data collected from the regional sales representatives and compares the findings with similar research studies. Holts observes a close correlation between his results and results in previous studies, with the close correlation making the research more reliable. This makes it possible for Holt to make a statistical generalisation regarding the inference made based on a population sample from the pharmaceutical company (Yin, 2003). In addition, Holt manages to undertake analytical generalisation by using existing theories as the basis on which to compare the results of the case study with previous studies. From the data analysis, Holt’s results appear to replicate results in several other studies. Holt’s research makes best use of the quantitative research method in that he uses a large sample size to observe a general trend in a large population and recommends the use of his model for training sales persons in similar companies (Myers, 2013). The approach was also good in that it is possible to use several statistical methods to arrive at a similar conclusion, given all the data collected from the sample population. On the other hand, Dembowski (2013) carried out a qualitative research on the best practices and innovative strategies that may lead to organisational excellence. The study involves examining issues around benchmarking, innovations and best practices, and how these may be integrated in the operations of an organisation. The aim was to investigate benchmarking process in identifying the best practices that can be used to ensure an organisation leads the rest in the market. In other words, the research involved the use of theories, models and frameworks that have been used by other researchers to come up with the best practices that when employed in any organization would lead to improved performance. While in quantitative research there are specific research questions that establish a focused start and for directing data and analysis (Moon, 2007), Dembowski (2013) approaches the issue from a more generalized way, the study lacks special questions to guide the research through a specific line of study. In other words, the research involves a broader understanding and application of concepts that have been reported in other scholarly work, and how these may be integrated in the management process to ensure the company attains operational excellence. In this case, the research is a valuable piece for exploratory purposes (Myers, 2013). Dembowski (2013) in this research establishes the political, social and cultural dynamics of people and organisations with no specific data that relate to a particular company. This approach would limit the researcher in providing broad generalisations of the findings to many companies; such generalisation would not amount to using a sampling logic, as is the case in Holts’ quantitative analysis. However, the qualitative study allows the researcher to delve into greater depths in determining relationships in an organisation and the general trends of organisations to employ “best practices,” which may not be possible in quantitative analysis. Holts in the quantitative analysis may not offer the relationships between concepts in details. Dembowski in the qualitative analysis is also more subjective, as the researcher aims at proposing and evaluating the use of benchmarking and innovations in organisations in general, and their impact in ensuring a culture of performance excellence in a company. Moreover, Holt (2011) uses a triangulation approach to make the research approach more comprehensive and in addressing the weaknesses of a quantitative study. However, Dembowski (2013) does not attempt to use such a mixed approach, but is only interested in investigating theoretical significance of models and theories and their use in facilitating the culture of excellence in an organisation. This makes Holts (2011) more comprehensive and with a good set data and analytical work that may be used for generalization purposes. 2. Research question Does employee motivation improve employee’s performance in an organization? Introduction Organisations are currently using a myriad of ways to ensure employees are motivated, in encouraging them to offer more of their skills to the company towards ensuring competitiveness. Nohria, Groysberg & Lee (2008) explained four systems for motivating employees to produce more: these are the reward system, culture, performance management and job design, all which are based on Maslow’s theory on human needs. The theory stipulates the basic needs that have to be satisfied in actualizing the strengths and abilities of individuals. Consequently, all motivation theories are based on Maslow’s model of human needs that identifies five levels that an employee has to meet their need. The levels are safety, ego, actualizing oneself , psychological and social needs, with a systematic order of satisfaction where the lower needs have to be satisfied before the higher ones (Lindner, 1998). In addition, to Maslow’s theory of motivation, Vroom’s theory of motivation asserts that the efforts of an employee will be necessary to enhance their performance, and that such performance will be the key towards rewarding the employee (Lindner, 1998). In addition, theories have shown that employee rewards are either negative or positive; the more positive a reward is, the more an employee would be motivated. On the other hand, the more negative a reward is, the more an employee would be demotivated. The main reason behind employee motivation is for their survival in a world of changing needs and dynamics. Theories have shown that motivated employees facilitate more production in helping an organisation to wade through a competitive environment. Managers face a huge task in balancing between costs to a company and the need to keep employees motivated to perform. Purpose of study The purpose of this study is to identify the various factors that motivate an employee in an SME, and ranking the motivation factors in a hierarchy to illustrate the importance of each motivating factor. By understanding how employees value certain aspects in the work place, it will help managers in SMEs to understand the vital areas to consider in ensuring they encourage more productivity in the work place and having a happy workforce at the same time. Methodology The study will use a descriptive survey method, though the method can only describe the set of observed trends in the collected data (Jackson, 2009). Therefore, to solve the shortcoming of each methodology, the research will employ both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The survey will offer reliable observation of trends in understanding motivational factors and their level of importance. The research will involve a self-administered survey in giving questionnaires to a sample size of 45 employees of Nature World Investments (19 males and 16 females), an SME that deals in exportation of horticultural crops. The target population consists of semi-skilled employees in the lower to middle-income category. Nature World Investments has three distinct departments, which are processing the horticultural products, sorting the products and the final department that involves labelling and packing of the products. All employs operate at similar working conditions and have similar remunerations. A survey questionnaire will be designed with 10 aspects that previous research studies have listed as being important in employee motivation, and a scale of one to five besides the question. An employee will be supposed to mark the number that corresponds to the importance of the specific motivational aspect based on their perception. The scale of one will indicate the specific aspect is of utmost importance in employee motivation, while a scale of five will indicate the aspect is of least importance. The motivating factors to be included are: wages, appreciation of work done by management, the level of interest in the work, working conditions, job security, ability to attain self-actualization, discipline, personal attachment with management in solving problems, promotions and ability to grow and the level of responsibility in decision making (Lindnel, 1998). In addition, there will be a small space where the employees will be required to indicate a maximum of four other aspects that they feel are critical towards motivation, but have not been provided in the scale. Data analysis First, a graph will be plotted to indicate the skewedness of data in a distribution curve. In addition, a frequency distribution chart of all he 10 responses will be provided as a percentage of the total number of participating respondents. The responses will also be grouped into male and female category and a cross tabulation table constructed to indicate the importance of each aspect of motivation according to gender. A correlational table will be important in observing the importance of each motivating factor across gender, which may be critical for managers to consider in design their employees’ motivational policies (Chambliss, 2010). As Jackson (2009) indicates, quantitative data is only meant to show an observational trend of how the elements under study perform under different conditions, but does not indicate the relationships that exist between these data sets. To facilitate better understanding of the data set and their relations, the research will involve a triangulation approach. This will involve using qualitative data analysis method to describe in detail how the observed data sets are related to each other and their comparison across gender. Qualitative analysis is also important in comparing the results obtained with previous studies to ensure a greater degree of reliability in the research. Moreover, by establishing the existing relationships, it will be possible to analyse how each motivational factor compares to the rest. This will offer a good basis to construct a hierarchy in which the motivational factors have to be met. Quantitative data offers a good platform for data generalizability to a wider population in companies. Consequently, through triangulation, such generalisation will be dealt with in detail, by establishing descriptive trends in the data, relating to pervious research work and determining the variation of SMEs from bigger companies in which most of the research studies have been based on. Ethical statement All the respondents will not be required to indicate their names on the survey questionnaire and will not be forced to participate in the survey. The survey responses will not be shown to the management, but the data analysis results will be provided to both the respondents and the management. Limitations It will be expected that since the survey will not be a face-to-face survey but a self-administered one, all respondents will offer objective responses with more than 90% of targeted sample participating in the research. Conclusion Research is an important aspect in the business field in helping to create knowledge necessary for decision-making. Research can be undertaken under two different research methodologies, which are the qualitative and quantitative methodology. Qualitative research involves a descriptive approach where the researcher establishes trends and relations of various concepts in details. In other words, the researcher uses descriptive and analytical methods to bring out the relations of concepts and in determining any social, cultural or political trends that may manifest in the relation. The research is derived from social sciences where the main aim is to understand how concepts relate with one another. On the other hand, quantitative research is a scientific method where statistical methods are used to investigate relationships in data collected through surveys. This approach allows the research to make generalisations and to use any statistical method for reproducibility of the same results, making it more reliable in investigating phenomena. However, due to limitations of each methodology, most research methods involve triangulation in capturing the strengths of each research methodology to make the results more reliable. References Chambliss, F. 2010. Making Sense of the Social World: Methods of Investigation: Pine Forge Press Dembowski, L.F. 2013. “The Roles of Benchmarking, Best Practices & Innovation in Organizational Effectiveness.” The International Journal of Organizational Innovation, 5(3), pp. 6-21. Holt, W.S. 2011. Creating Effective Leadership Development Programs: A Descriptive Quantitative Case Study. Doctoral Dissertation. Jackson, S.L. (2009). Research Methods and Statistics: A Critical Thinking Approach 3rd edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Lindner, J.R. 1998. “Understanding Employee Motivation.” Journal of Extension, 36(3) Moon, S. 2007. Empirical Quantitative case Study in operations management. Newcastle: Newcastle University Business School. Myers, M.D. 2008. Overview of Qualitative Research. London: SAGE. Nohria, N., Groysberg, B. & Lee, L.E. 2008(July-August). “Employee Motivation.” Harvard Business Review, pp1-7 Saunders, M., Lewis, P & Thornhill, A. 2007. Research Methods for Business Students, 4th ed. Harlow: Prentice Hall. Yin, R.K. 2003. Case Study Research, 3rd ed. London, SAGE. Read More