Propose and Justify Research Method and Design - Term Paper Example

 Propose and Justify Research Method and Design Introduction The problem statement of the current research work is to find out what are the potential outcomes of satisfying employees’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivational requirements with the help of monetary and non-monetary motivators. To identify the best available research method and design that the researcher is going to follow to answer the research question in this regard, the researcher presents an overview of the selected research method along with its strengths and weaknesses. The researcher justifies his selection of the research methodology with the help of other research works conducted on the subject. 1. Available Research Methods There are two methods available to the researchers when it comes to developing an appropriate research design. As the design of the research work is the basic pillar of the reliability of results retrieved, it becomes of pivotal importance for researchers to carefully select a research design and methodology keeping in view the nature of the study. The two types of methodologies identified by the researcher are qualitative research and quantitative research. Qualitative research methods are primarily the personal interpretation of the researcher’s idea about the subject on which research work is carried out. The outcomes retrieved from qualitative researches vary mainly because each member of the sample has its own opinion and perceptions about different phenomena. The most popular characteristic of qualitative research work is that the data on which the results are tested is also descriptive and qualitative in nature. Qualitative research methods are appropriate for studies that aim at identifying prevailing trends, social practices or different phenomena. In this manner, qualitative research is more suitable for environmental studies. On the other hand, the quantitative research methods depend upon facts and figures to validate or reject the reliability of the research outcomes. The outcome of these research methods are presented in the form of statistical trends and numerical indicators. Studies based on quantitative research designs are deductive in nature and are applicable to research works aimed at studying realistic, authentic, and practical phenomenon. These research designs help researchers to test the reliability of the outcomes from primary research by applying statistical and mathematical formulas. The outcome of these calculations helps the researchers to monitor the reaction of sample members towards a number of questions, multiple choice questions, stimulators and case studies. The best aspect of the quantitative research method is that it allows researchers to adopt scientific approach to find the answers to research questions and validate or reject hypothesis. Another factor which makes quantitative research methods more reliable and accurate is that it depends upon the cause and effect to validate or reject the hypothesis, thus facilitating to conclude the research work efficiently. 2. Selected Research Method Considering the research problem, which is aimed to identify the impact of monetary and non-monetary motivators on employees’ motivation, the researcher has selected the quantitative research method and design. For this reason, the researcher has selected two companies, i.e. ABC Corporation and XYZ Associates. The reason behind selecting the quantitative research methodology is that it allows the researcher to manipulate the statistical data pertaining to employees’ perception of motivators into useful information and answer the research questions. This data contains employees’ responses to a survey questionnaire which represents employees’ degree of agreement and disagreement with particular statements. These statements measure the respondents’ idea about different motivators, and then help to rank the motivators from top to bottom, according the employees’ preference for each motivator. The research methodology adopted by the researcher would help him to analyze the data with the help of statistical tools and methods and confirm the results of the current study with the studies carried out in past on the similar subject. 2.1. Strengths and Weaknesses of Quantitative Research Methods Strengths Weaknesses Produces data which is quantifiable and applicable to masses or general population. It does not contain depth and description of the phenomenon under study Increases the reliability of outcomes of the study. Makes it near to impossible to gather complete information of every respondent because there are usually large numbers of respondents who become the part of the sample. Provides an opportunity to test the hypothesis with the help of determining respondents’ inclination towards agreement or disagreement. Quantitative research works are carried out in an uncontrolled environment, which makes it vulnerable to variations in the responses. There are less chance of biasness in the results of a quantitative research, because the surveys are conducted in an un-controlled environment. It is not possible for everyone to read and understand the quantitative research work and its data. It allows the researcher to link the findings of the data with the demographic data of the respondents, to determine preference trends and impact of demographic factors on the behavior of the respondent towards a phenomenon. It provides data in descriptive form so that trends can be identified. Quantitative studies refers to positivistic approach while answering the research questions and defends the hypothetically deducing procedure of validating or rejecting the hypothesis. Data from the respondents, is collected speedily and requires less time to manipulate it into useful information. 2.2. Justification for Research Method Selection The first and foremost reason to select the quantitative research method is that it provides the researcher with descriptive data. The descriptive analysis of the data allows the researcher to manipulate respondents’ responses into descriptive statistics like the mean, median, mode, standard deviation, t-tests, ANOVAs, Cronbach Alpha, regression and correlation analysis, etc. With the help of these statistical tools, the researcher of the current study would establish the reliability of the responses gathered to determine whether the respondents are in favor of motivators or not; if they are in favour, what type of motivators motivate them more; find average decision of the employees pertaining to ranking of different motivators based on their effectiveness in motivating employees, etc. From academic point of view, a number of researchers who studied the impact of monetary and non-monetary motivators on employees’ motivation have been based on quantitative research methods. For example, Huddleston and Good [Hud99] studied how motivators are perceived by employees’ working in Russian and Polish retail firms. Similarly, Ogunlana and Chang [Ogu98] also used the quantitative research design to study the impact of different motivators on the motivational level of employees working in Bangkok’s construction industry. Wong, Siu, and Tsang (1999) also used the quantitative methodology to rank the different motivators after analyzing the preferences of employees working in hospitality industry of Hong Kong. 2.3. Primary Research The aim of this study is to collect maximum data regarding employees’ preference to monetary and non-monetary motivators and their perception of each motivator in order to develop a ranking of the motivators. In this regard, the researcher is going to gather data by developing a survey questionnaire, containing a number of statements aimed at investigating into the level of agreement or disagreement reflected in respondents’ responses. The survey questionnaire would consist of 23 statements, and the responses will be measured on the basis of Likert scale. The Likert scale that will be used in the survey questionnaire is projected below: Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree 1 2 3 4 5 The survey questionnaire will be divided into three parts, i.e., the first part containing statements aiming to identify employees’ agreement or disagreement with monetary motivators; the second aiming to identify the employees’ agreement or disagreement with non-monetary motivators; and the third part listing a number of motivators out of which employees need to rank those motivators according to their personal preference. Besides these three parts, an additional section of the questionnaire would consist of questions aiming to identify the name and demographic attributes of the respondents such as age, educational qualification, number of years working in the company, and the hierarchal position in the company. 2.4. Sampling The sample size for the current study would consist of 100 respondents. The number of respondents selected from each company, i.e. ABC Corporation and XYZ Associates, is 50. The researcher would select 50 respondents within the middle and lower level staff of both companies on the basis of simple random sampling. The idea behind adopting a simple random technique is to allow each employee of the companies to have an opportunity to be selected for the research work. This will help the researcher to remove any biasness in the sample selection. 2.5. Identifying the Variables As per the discussion carried out in the previous sections of this research report, three variables have been identified. These three variables are classified as dependent and independent variables in the table below: Serial Number Variables Classification 1 Monitory motivators Independent Variable 2 Non-monetary motivators Independent Variable 3 Overall motivation Dependent Variable 2.6. Descriptive Analysis It is the basic essence of any quantitative research methodology that it provides descriptive analysis of the data to further establish the reliability of the responses gathered. In this manner, the researcher of the current study would use descriptive statistics, regression analysis and comparison of means test to answer the research questions, rank the motivators according to respondents’ preferences and validate or reject the hypothesis of the research study. 3. Reasons for Not Selecting Qualitative Research Approach The first and foremost reason for not selecting qualitative methods of studies is that research based on the qualitative approach does not gauge the reliability of the results on the basis of facts, figures, and scientific assessment methods. In contrast, qualitative research works are mainly based on the personal interpretation or quality and characteristics of the subject in study. Where quantitative methods are used to apply the outcome of the research work on general population, qualitative studies provide results that are applicable to a particular group or people or geographic location. As the current study aims at scientifically establishing the impact of monetary and non-monetary motivators on the workers, the same reliability of the results achieved by the quantitative methodology would not have been achieved if the researcher had used qualitative methodology. This is because qualitative studies aim to analyze the human behavior, emotions, and characteristics of an individual’s personality. Moreover, the data collection process for qualitative research works needs the researcher to gather in-depth responses from respondents. For this reason, primary data is gathered in the presence of researcher which makes the data highly exposed to biasness. Another factor which makes the qualitative research method a poor choice for studying the impact of monetary and non-monetary motivators on employees’ motivation is that it consumes too much time in data collection and assessment. Additionally, chances for human errors while recording respondents’ responses are also high. As the researcher is carrying out the research work in organizations where people belonging to a number of nationalities work, the in-depth data collection would be useless due to language barriers. There are also chances that, because of the language barriers, the researcher might get the wrong meaning of respondents’ responses and manipulate them accordingly to present the results. Considering this, the results of the study based on the qualitative research method would not be reliable and authentic. Another major reason behind not selecting the qualitative research method for the current study is that there are very few scholarly research articles available in library sources which are based on the qualitative approach. In this scenario, it would become difficult for the researcher of the current study to confirm and justify the findings of this study with that of the previous research work and theories presented in past pertaining to the same subject. 4. Conclusion Through the review of different research works based on the quantitative approach, the researcher of the current study selected the quantitative research approach and design. As the aim of this study is to measure the effectiveness of different motivators on employees’ motivation in two companies, it has been found that the quantitative research method is appropriate as it would help the researcher to support the results of this study scientifically and with the help of facts and figures. Reference List Hud99: , (1999), Ogu98: , (1998), Read More