Understanding the Research Process: A Guide to Identifying and Developing Research Aim and Objective

LO1: Explore the application of quantitative and qualitative research methods used in the business environment.

LO2: Demonstrate and apply the principles and methods (both primary and secondary) of research. LO3: Identify and develop research aim and objectives.

1. Provide an understanding of the research process in total and discuss the application of that process to a research problem.

2. Provide the base understanding of process to undertake the major assignment and develop the theoretical and practical elements.

1. Describe a research problem of your choice meeting specified criteria for a client (real or fictional).

2. Prepare a report for the client of the process that will be undertaken including all steps in the process.

This is discussed in class with the lecturer. Make sure you do that. I will be looking at the topic in terms of whether you can complete the assignment with it. Other than this you can use any topic of interest to you.

The purpose of this assignment is an overview understanding of the research process and being able to relate this to a manager.

You are employed in, a consultant to, or part of an organisation. That can be any organisation including a company, charity, sport, and business. There is a problem. The problem is the general issue that would be understood by the business. The manager has asked that you make a recommendation on what to do so that a decision can be made on resourcing a process to resolve the issue. This is preliminary to a proposal. At this step you are outlining an entire process and providing general guidance on how the process would be undertaken with options. In a proposal you provide a clear process including the steps and the tools to be used. 

1. Setting out the issue for the business. This is generally saying what is going wrong, an area that needs evaluation, a growth aim, an investigation to understand some part of the organisation. Something that needs to be looked into.

2. The research problem statement. This is a general but more focused statement of what needs to be understood and/or provided to solve the issue.  Research aims can be included here. What are you trying to achieve?

3. The research questions. This is a set of questions that refine the research problem into the specific questions needed to be answered. This includes analysis of the sector of the business which is relevant, understanding the theories relevant to the issue(s), making comparisons with industry standards (benchmarking), understanding the environment operated in,  finding the best methods to collect and analyse data.

a. Subquestions.  The research questions are headings and you explain why the question is needed to solve the issue. They should be quite separate questions. If you need more detail under any of them you create research sub questions.

a. Once you have the research questions clear you then ask yourself; ‘what information do I need to be able to answer the question’? This is important as it drives the next steps.

a. Tools for data collection.  These are your research methods (not methodology).

i. For each question – how will you collect data And how will you analyse that data.

ii. Be clear on what is primary and what is secondary, what is qualitative and what is quantitative.