Research Methods

WEEK 8: RESEARCH METHODS

HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW

- Knowledge by tradition

- But: tradition differs between cultures, traditions change

- Knowledge by listening to authoritative sources

- BUT: authorities are not always well informed, authorities have diff views so there is disagreement between experts

- Knowledge by intuition

- BUT: intuitions are not always correct (perceptual biases)

- Knowledge by applying logic

- BUT: reasoning process (where we get our logic may be wrong)

- Knowledge by personal experience

- BUT: what happened may have been just chance/ coincidence

CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

- Looking at things objectively, avoid assumptions and biases, avoid emotional reasoning, avoid oversimplification, consider alternative explanations

- Critical thinking is important → read and evaluate rearch

THEORY BUILDING

- INDUCTIVE PHASE→ draws on personal experience to form a preliminary theory

1) Personal observation→ your own observation, anecdotes from others, observe is theme in research literature

2) Preliminary Theory→ form conjecture. Take existing theory and tweak them by adding things. This forms preliminary theory

Building theory in OB

- Theories are made up of construct (Concept) and relationships between those constructs

- Two types of relationships; correlations and casual relationships

- CORRELATION RELATIONSHIP→ unsure of what construct causes what but there seems to be some relationship e.g. move in same or opposite directions. We do not say one variable causes another variable to occur because they may both be affected by a third variable

- CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP→ one construct causes another construct to increase/ decrease. Independent variables are presumed causes of dependent variable

- 3 requirements for causality

- 1) There is association between the variables e.g. correlation

- 2) The cause precedes the effect (in time)

- 3) Alternative explanations are ruled out → not another variable for the association existing

- A good theory will lead to testable hypotheses

DEDUCTIVE PHASE→ SCIETIFIC METHOD IS USED TO TEST THE THEORY

1) FORMING HYPOTHESES

- A formal way of defining the question you are trying to answer

- Predictions must be specific

- Null