Reseach methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Reseach methods - Essay ExampleThe effect of this is that the focus of the research moves from theory to data.The deductive commence is also a descriptive overture in that it describes facts and illustrates theories. Deductive research is often applied to questionnaires and the collection of quantitative data which addresses the hypothesis.There are several advantages to deductive reasoning. It is a relatively simply research method to standardise, as it is a highly structured approach based on scientific principles. Furthermore the structured approach means that the researcher does not necessarily need to be highly knowledgeable about the research topic. Most managers are familiar with the deductive approach and therefore are much more likely to put faith in conclusions that are made using it. In addition it is a brisk method of gaining data, as the time-consuming aspects of this suit of research are mainly in the set-up and data collection phases. This also means that the amou nt of time required to invest in the research can be scheduled and predicted relatively easily. All of these things make deductive research low risk in similarity to inductive research.There are also a number of concerns with this approach. Firstly it is important that causal kinships between all variables in the research are explained and defined. Selecting samples of sufficient size is a crucial factor in determining the success of this type of research. The sample must be large enough to generate consummate conclusions that are reliable in all applications of the data. A significant issue with deductive research is in clearly defining abstract concepts. Taking the usage of employee morale, it must be defined in terms of level of satisfaction of employees, which is a personal concept and may mean different things to different people. Conducting this type of research means that concepts must be clearly defined to enable accurate responses from research subjects. Lastly, contr ols must be applied to ensure the validity of the data gained from the research. If the research was in defining levels of employee satisfaction in a particular department, reasons for high or low employee moral must be established. For example, the data interpreted from employees may indicate a relationship between workload and employee salary. This data can then be used to refine the hypothesis of a relationship between workload, employee salary, and morale, and then collect new data for analysis. This may include input from different departments, both to increase sample size and to note the effectuate of varying workloads or salaries in different departments. This ensures the accuracy of the hypothesis because it takes into account variation of these aspects in different departments. A larger sample size allows and refinement of the hypothesis - for example it may narrow down the hypothesis to focus on young employees, and allow the researcher to pinpoint different make of low or high morale, such as absenteeism. In this way, an initial hypothesis focusing simply on employee morale can be increasingly refined to pinpoint causal relationships that become evident as the focus of the research narrows. One of the main disadvantages of this type of research is that it relies on subjects to fill and restitution questionnaires, which may become more difficult to do as sample size