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The Research Process

step 6: Elements of Research Design
CHAPTER 6
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Chapter Objectives
Understand the different aspects relevant to
designing a research study.
Identify the scope of any given study and the
end use of the results.
Describe the type of investigation needed,
the study setting, the extent of researcher
interference, the unit of analysis, and the
time horizon of the study.
Identify which of the two, a causal or a
correlational study, would be more
appropriate in a given situation.
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The Research Design
In this step we need to design the
research in a way that the requisite
data can be gathered and analyzed to
arrive at a solution.
The research design was originally
presented in a simple manner in box 6
of Figure 6.1.
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Figure 6.1
FIGURE 6.1 Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sekaran/RESEARCH 4E
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Figure 6.2: The Various Issues
Involved in the Research Design
FIGURE 6.2 Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sekaran/RESEARCH 4E
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Purpose of The Study
The Nature of Studies:
Exploratory Study
Descriptive Study
Hypothesis Testing (Analytical and
Predictive)
Case Study Analysis

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Exploratory Study
Exploratory Study is undertaken when
not much is known about the situation
at hand, or no information is
available on how similar problems or
research issues have been solved in the
past.
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Example 6.1
The manager of a multinational corporation is
curious to know if the work ethic values of
employees working in Prince Hassan
Industrial City would be different from those
of Americans.
That city is a small city, and no information
about the ethic values of its workers.
Also, the work ethic values mean be different
to people in different cultures.
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Example 6.1 (Cont.)
The best way to study the above
situation is by conducting an
exploratory study, by interviewing the
employees in organizations in Irbid
area.
10
Descriptive Study
Is undertaken in order to ascertain and be
able to describe the characteristics of the
variables of interest in a situation.
For instance, a study of a the Research
Methods 200 class in terms of the percentage
of members who are in their senior ( will be
in the graduation stage), sex composition,
age groupings, number of semesters left until
graduation, can be considered as descriptive
in nature.
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Descriptive Study
In addition, descriptive studies are
undertaken in organizations to learn
about and describe the characteristics
of a group of employees, as for
example, the age, education level, job
status, and length of service.
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Example 6.2
A bank manager wants to have a profile of
the individuals who have loan payments
outstanding for 6 months and more.
This profile would include details of their
average age, earnings, nature of occupation,
full-time/ part-time employment status, and
the like.
The above information might help the
manager to decide right away on the types of
individuals who should be made ineligible for
loans in the future.
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Example 6.4
A marketing manager might want to develop a
pricing, sales, distribution, and advertising
strategy for his product.
The manager might ask for information regarding the
competitors, with respect to the following:
1. the percentage of companies who have prices higher
and lower than the industry norm.
2. the percentage of competitors hiring in-house staff
to handle sales and those who use independent
agents.
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Example 6.4 (Cont.)
3. percentage of sales groups organized by
product line, by accounts, and by region.
4. the types of distribution channels used and
the percentage of customers using each.
5. percentage of competitors spending more
dollars on advertising/promotion than the
firm and those spending less.
6. Percentage of those using the web to sell
the product.

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Hypotheses Testing
Studies that engage in hypotheses testing
usually explain the nature of certain
relationships, or establish the differences
among groups or the independence of two or
more factors in a situation.
Hypotheses testing is undertaken to explain
the variance in the dependent variable or to
predict organizational outcomes.
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Example 6.5
A marketing manager wants to know if the
sales of the company will increase if he
doubles the advertising dollars.
Here, the manager would like to know the
nature of the relationship between
advertising and sales by testing the
hypothesis:
If advertising is increased, then sales will also
go up.
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Case Study Analysis
Case studies involve in-depth, contextual
analyses of matters relating to similar
situations in other organizations.
Case studies, as a problem solving
technique, are not frequently resorted to in
organizations because findings the same type
of problem in another comparable setting is
difficult due to the reluctance of the
companies to reveal their problems.
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Case Study Analysis
Case studies that are qualitative in
nature are, however, useful in applying
solutions to current problems based on
past problem-solving experiences.
Also, case studies are useful in
understanding certain phenomena, and
generating further theories for empirical
testing.
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Type of Investigation: Causal
versus Correlational
A causal study: Is an inquiry to know
the cause of one or more problems.
A correlational study: Is an inquiry to
know the important variables associated
with the problem.
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Example 6.9
A causal study question:
Does smoking cause cancer?
A correlational study question:
Are smoking and cancer related?
Or
Are smoking, drinking, and chewing
tobacco associated with cancer?
If so, which of these contributes most to the
variance in the dependent variable?
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Example 6.10
Fears of an earthquake predicted
recently in an area were a causal of a
number of crashes of some houses in
the area in order to be eligible of
insurance policy.
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Example 6.11
Increases in interest rates and property
taxes, the recession, and the predicted
earthquake considerably slowed down
the business of real state agents in the
country.
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Extent of Researcher Interference
With the Study
The extent of interference by the
researcher with the normal flow of work
at the workplace has a direct bearing
on whether the study undertaken is
causal or correlational.
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Extent of Researcher Interference
With the Study
A correlational study is conducted in
the natural environment of the
organization with minimum interference
by the researcher with the normal flow
of work.
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Extent of Researcher Interference
With the Study
In studies conducted to establish cause-
and-effect relationships, the researcher
tries to manipulate certain variables so as
to study the effects of such manipulation on
the dependent variable of interest.
In other words, the researcher deliberately
changes certain variables in the setting
and interferes with the events as they
normally occur in the organization.
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Minimal Interference
Example 6.12
A hospital administrator wants to
examine the relationship between the
perceived emotional support in the
system and the stress experienced by
the nursing staff. In other words, she
wants to do a correlational study.
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Example 6.12 (Cont.)
The researcher will collect data from the
nurses ( through a questionnaire) to indicate
how much emotional support they get in the
hospital and to what extent they experience
stress. By correlating the two variables, the
answer is found.
In this case, beyond administering a
questionnaire to the nurses, the researcher
has not interfered with the normal
activities in the hospital.
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Moderate Interference
If the researcher wants to establish a
causal connection between the
emotional support in the hospital and
stress, or, wants to demonstrate that if
the nurses had emotional support, this
indeed would cause them to
experience less stress.
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Moderate Interference
To test the cause-and-effect relationship,
the researcher will measure the stress
currently experienced by the nurses in three
wards in the hospital, and then deliberately
manipulate the extent of emotional support
given to the three groups of nurses in the
three wards for perhaps a week, and
measure the amount of stress at the end of
that period.
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Moderate Interference
For one group, the researcher will ensure
that a number of lab technicians and doctors
help and comfort the nurses when they face
stressful events.
For a second group of nurses in another
ward, the researcher might arrange for them
only a moderate amount of emotional support
and employing only the lab technicians and
excluding doctors.
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Moderate Interference
The third ward might operate without any
emotional support.
If the experimenters theory is correct,
then the reduction in the stress levels
before and after the 1-week period should be
greater for the nurses in the first ward,
moderate for those in the second ward, and
nil for the nurses in the third ward.
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Moderate Interference
We find that not only does the researcher
collect data from nurses on their experienced
stress at two different points in time, but also
manipulated the normal course of events by
deliberately changing the amount of
emotional support received by the
nurses in two wards, while leaving things in
the third ward unchanged.
Here, the researcher has interfered more
than minimally.
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Excessive Interference
Example 6.14
IF the researcher feels, after conducting the previous
experiments, that the results may not be valid
since other external factors might have influenced
the stress levels experience by the nurses.
For example, during that particular experimental
week, the nurses in one or more wards may not have
experienced high levels of stress because there were
no serious illnesses or deaths in the ward. Hence the
emotional support received might not be related to
the level of stresses experienced.
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Excessive Interference
The researcher want to make sure that
such external factors that might affect
the cause-and-effect relationship
are controlled.
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Controlling the External factors
The researcher might take three groups of
medical students, put them in different
rooms, and confront all of them with the
same stressful task.
For example, he might ask them to describe
in detail, the surgical procedures in
performing surgery on a patient who has not
responded to chemotherapy and keep asking
them with more and more questions.
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Controlling the External factors
Although all are exposed to the same
intensive questioning, one group might get
help from a doctor who voluntarily offers
clarifications and help when students
stumble.
In the second group, a doctor might be
nearby, but might offer clarifications and help
only if the group seeks it.
In the third group, there is no doctor
present and no help is available.

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Controlling the External factors
In the above example, not only is the
support manipulated, but even the
setting in which this experiment is
conducted is artificial inasmuch as the
researcher has taken the subject away from
their normal environment and put them in a
totally different setting.
The researcher has intervened maximally
with the normal setting, the participants, and
their duties.
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Excessive Interference
The extent of researcher interference
would depend on whether the study is
correlational or causal and also the
importance of establishing causal
relationship beyond any doubt.
Most organizational problems seldom
call for a causal study, except in some
market research areas.
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Study Setting: Contrived and
Noncontrived
Correlational studies are conducted
in noncontrived settings (normal
settings), whereas most causal
studies are done in contrived settings.
Correlational studies done in
organizations are called field studies.
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Study Setting: Contrived and
Noncontrived
Studies conducted to establish cause-and-
effect relationship using the same natural
environment in which employees normally
function are called field experiments.
Experiments done to establish cause-and-
effect relationship in a contrived
environment and strictly controlled are
called lab experiments.
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Example 6.15 Field Study
A bank manager wants to analyze the
relationship between interest rates and bank
deposit patterns of clients.
The researcher tries to correlate the two by
looking at deposits into different kinds of
accounts (such as savings, certificates of
deposit, and interest-bearing checking
accounts) as interest rates changed.
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Example 6.15 Field Study
This is a field study where the bank
manager has taken the balances in various
types of accounts and correlated them to the
changes in interest rates.
Research here is done in a noncontrived
setting with no interference with the normal
work routine.
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Example 6.16 Field Experiment
The bank manager now wants to
determine the cause-and-effect
relationship between interest rate and
the inducements it offers to clients to
save and deposit money in the bank.
The researcher selects four branches
within 60/km radius for the experiment.
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Example 6.16 Field Experiment
For 1 week only, he advertises the annual
rate for new certificates of deposit received
during that week. The interest rate would be
9% in one branch, 8% in another, and
10% in the third. In the fourth branch, the
interest rate remains unchanged at 5%.
Within the week, the researcher would be
able to determine the effects, if any, of
interest rates on deposit mobilization.
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Example 6.16 Field Experiment
This example would be a field experiment
since nothing but the interest rate is
manipulated, with all activities occurring in
the normal and natural work environment.
Hopefully, all four branches chosen would be
compatible in size, number of depositors,
deposit patterns, and the like, so that the
interest-savings relationships are
influenced by some third factor.
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Example 6.17 Lab Experiment
To be sure about the true relationship
between the interest rate and deposits, the
researcher could create an artificial
environment by choosing, for instance, 40
students who are all business majors in their
final year of study and in the same age. The
researcher splits the students into four
groups and give each one of them $1000,
which they are told they might buy their
needs or save for the future, or both.
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Example 6.17 Lab Experiment
The researcher offers them interest on what
they save as followings:
6% on savings for group 1.
8% for group 2.
9% for group 3.
1% for group 4 ( the old rate of interest).
Here, the researcher has created an artificial
laboratory environment and has manipulated
the interest rates for savings. He also chosen
subjects with similar backgrounds.
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Unit of Analysis
The unit of analysis refers to the level
of aggregation of the data collected
during the subsequent data analysis.
Individual
Dyads
Groups
Organizations
Cultures





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Unit of Analysis: Individual
If the researcher focuses on how to
raise the motivational levels of
employees, then we are interested in
individual employees in the
organization. Here the unit of
analysis is the individual (the data
will be gathered from each
individual).
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Unit of Analysis: Dyads
If the researcher is interested in
studying two-person interaction, then
several two-person groups also
known as dyads, will become the
unit of analysis ( analysis of
husband-wife, and supervisor-
subordinate relationships at the work
place.

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Unit of Analysis
Groups as a unit of analysis
Organizations as a unit of
analysis
Cultures as a unit of analysis
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Example 6.18 Individuals as The
Unit of Analysis
The Chief Financial Officer of a manufacturing
company wants to know how many of the
staff would be interested in attending a 3-day
seminar on making appropriate investment
decisions.
Data will have to be collected from each
individual staff member and the unit of
analysis is individual.
The unit of analysis is the individual.
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Example 6.19 Dyads as the Unit
of Analysis
A human resources manager wants to
first identify the number of employees
in three departments of the
organization who are in mentoring
relationships, and then find out what
the jointly perceived benefits of such a
relationship are.
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Example 6.19 Dyads as the Unit
of Analysis
Once the mentor and the mentored pairs are
identified, their joint perceptions can be
obtained by treating each pair as one unit.
If the manager wants data from a sample of
10 pairs, he will have to deal with 20
individuals, a pair at a time. The information
obtained from each pair will be a data point
for subsequent analysis.
Thus, the unit of analysis is the dyad.
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Example 6.20 Groups as Unit of
Analysis
A manager wants to see the patterns of
usage of the newly installed Information
System (IS) by the production, sales, and
operations personnel.
Here three groups of personnel are involved
and information on the number of times the
IS is used by each member in each of the
three groups as well as other relevant issues
will be collected and analyzed.
Here the unit of analysis is the group.
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Example 6.21 Divisions as the
Unit of Analysis
Johnson & Johnson company wants to see
which of its various divisions (soap, shampoo,
body oil, etc.) have made profits of over 12%
during the current year.
Here, the profits of each of the divisions will
be examined and the information
aggregated across the various geographical
units of the division.
The unit of analysis will be the division,
at which level the data will be
aggregated.
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Example 6.22 Industry as the
Unit of Analysis
An employment survey specialist wants to see
the proportion of the workforce employed by
the health care, transportation, and
manufacturing industries.
The researcher has to aggregate the data
relating to each of the subunits
comprised in each of the industries and
report the proportions of the workforce
employed at the industry level.
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Example 6.22 Industry as the
Unit of Analysis
The health care industry, for instance,
includes hospitals, nursing homes, small and
large clinics, and other health care providing
facilities.
The data from these subunits will have to be
aggregated to see how many employees are
employed by the heath care industry.
This will need to be done for each of the
other industries.
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Example 6.23 Countries as the
Unit of Analysis
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of
a multinational corporation wants to
know the profits made during the past
5 years by each of the subsidiaries in
England, Germany, and France. It is
possible that there are many regional
offices of these subsidiaries in each of
these countries.
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Example 6.23 Countries as the
Unit of Analysis
The profits of the various regional
centers for each country have to be
aggregated and the profits for each
country for the past 5 years provided to
the CFO.
The data will now have to be
aggregated at the country level.
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Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional
Versus Longitudinal Studies
Cross-Sectional Studies
A study can be done in which data are
gathered just once, perhaps over a
period of days or weeks or months, in
order to answer a research question.
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Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional
Versus Longitudinal Studies
Example 6.24
Data were collected from stock brokers
between April and June of last year to
study their concerns in a turbulent stock
market.
Data has to be collected at one
point in time. It is a cross-sectional
design.
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Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional
Versus Longitudinal Studies
Example 6.25
A drug company desirous of investing in
research for a new headache pill conducted a
survey among headachy people to see how
many of them would be interested in trying
the new pill.
This is a one-shot or cross-sectional
study to assess the likely demand for the
new product.

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Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional
Versus Longitudinal Studies
Longitudinal Studies
Studying people or phenomena at more
than one point in time in order to
answer the research question.
Because data are gathered at two
different points in time, the study is not
cross-sectional kind, but is carried
longitudinally across a period of time.
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Example 6.27
A marketing manager is interested in tracing
the pattern of sales of a particular product in
four different regions of the country on a
quarterly basis for the next 2 years.
Since the data are collected several
times to answer the same issue, the study
falls under the longitudinal category.
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Time Horizon: Cross-Sectional
Versus Longitudinal Studies
Longitudinal studies take more time and effort
and cost more than cross-sectional studies. However,
will-planned longitudinal studies could help to identify
cause-and-effect relationships.
For example, one could study the sales volume of a
product before and after an advertisement, and
provided other environmental changes have not
impacted on the results, one could attribute the
increase in the sales volume, if any, to the
advertisement.
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Exercise 6.1
A supervisor thinks that the low
efficiency of the machine tool operators
is directly linked to the high level of
fumes emitted in the workshop. He
would like to prove this to his
supervisor through a research study.
1. Would this be a causal or a
correlational study? Why?

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Exercise 6.1
2. Is this an exploratory, descriptive, or
hypothesis-testing (analytical or predictive)
study? Why?
3. What kind of study would this be: field
study, lab experiment, or field experiment?
Why?
4. What would be the unit of analysis? Why?
5. Would this be a cross-section or a
longitudinal study? Why?
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Exercise 6.1
Answers:
1. This would be a causal study because the operator
wants to prove to the supervisor that the fumes are
causing operators to be low in their efficiency. In
other words, the machine tool operator is trying to
establish the fact that fumes cause low efficiency in
workers.
2. This is an analytical study because the machine tool
operator wants to establish that fumes cause low
efficiency and convince his workshop supervisor
through such analysis (i.e. establish cause and effect
relationship).
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Exercise 6.1
3. This would be a field experiment. Though the study
would be set up in the natural environment of the
workers where the work is normally done, the
amount of fumes will have to be manipulated while
other factors such as atmospheric pressure may
have to be controlled. Because of the location of
the study, it will be a field experiment.
4. The unit of analysis would be the individual
operators. The data will be collected with respect
to each operator and then the conclusions will be
made as to whether the operators are less efficient
because of the fumes emitted in the workshop.
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Exercise 6.1
5. This would be a longitudinal study because
data will be gathered at more than one
point in time. First, the efficiency of the
operators would be assessed at a given rate
of fume emission. Then the fumes emitted
would be manipulated to varying degrees,
and at each manipulation, the efficiency of
the workers would again be assessed to
confirm that the high rate of fume emission
causes a drop in operators efficiency.



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Exercise 6.1
6. This would be a longitudinal study because
data will be gathered at more than one
point in time. First, the efficiency of the
operators would be assessed at a given rate
of fume emission. Then the fumes emitted
would be manipulated to varying degrees,
and at each manipulation, the efficiency of
the workers would again be assessed to
confirm that the high rate of fume emission
causes a drop in operators efficiency.