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MODULE 7 ASSIGNMENT-DATA COLLECTION APPROACHES

RESEARCH METHODS

JOHN BOYD PEELE

DATA COLLECTION APPROACHES

GSB5021

ASSIGNMENT 7

DR. NICHOLAS ODONGO

DUE DATE: 3RD JULY, 2022

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MODULE 7 ASSIGNMENT-DATA COLLECTION APPROACHES

Introduction

A research which Bhattacherjee, (2012) describes “as a procedure of an enquiry or a journey of

discovery that moves from the known to the realm of the unknown for the truth to be established
or to either prove a phenomenon valid or invalid, or to enable serious scrutiny of something
which has been conjectured or inferred as an unproven idea in the form of a proposition,
assumption, hypothesis, or an adumbration or intimation of something which is vague in
outline,” requires the collection of data from the respondents which is later utilized to draw a
conclusion on the problem being investigated. The situation at hand requires the general manager
of Protea Hotel to resolve the problem the institution is facing which is underperformance. This
means the hotel has not been meeting its targets that may have been set by the management to
measure its performance. According to Yemer (2017), “usually when the hotel underperforms it
means the services being offered are of low quality, system in place is poor and internal controls
are not functional as expected.”

Therefore, the only sure way of ascertaining the cause of the problem is by conducting the
research and then come up with recommendations that the management would use to resolve the
problem of underperformance. The process would mean gathering both primary and secondary
data in order to identify the problem and device a plan of how to resolve it. Kabir (2016) defines
“data collection as the process of gathering and measuring information on variables of interest, in
an established systematic fashion that enables one to answer stated research questions, test
hypotheses, and evaluate outcomes.” The main purpose of gathering data is to unearth an
undisputed evidence that would be assessed or analyzed and allow someone to establish the
cause of the problem, which in this case is the missing of targets by the Hotel.

Types of Data

Gathering of data is the process requires someone to carefully collect it so that the intended
purpose is achieved as it is supposed to answer the research questions. In the data gathering
process the initial step is by identifying the kind of data that is needed to achieve the objective
followed by the determination of the instruments required to collect that data.
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According to Bhattacherjee (2012) data can be classified as either “qualitative data which is
descriptive and can be categorized based on characteristics such as text data from interviews, and
observations or quantitative data which is usually expressed using numeric scores, metrics, etc.

In order to help the manager come up with causes of poor performance for a hotel both primary
and secondary data will be gathered from the sample group comprising workers of the hotel, and
some customers that have used the services offered by the hotel before. This is going to help the
manager gather exhaustive evidence as both sets of respondents will give views or responses that
are going to be compared in order to make an informed decision.

To gather secondary data the manager will turn to the books, journals, newspapers, and review
some literature that have been done on the problem at hand. This may give him an insight into
what usually causes the poor performance of the hotel.

Data collection approaches

There are various methods one can utilize to collect either primary data or secondary data from
the sample size. These are going to be discussed in detail before and justifications will be made

Interviews with customers and hotel employees

The first type of approach the writer would use to collect data as the manager is the use of
interviews. The justification for using interviews in this case is that, interviews are suitable for
use especially where the sample size is small and also interviews are appropriate method due to
the need to gather in-depth information on hotel’s employees and customer’s opinions, thoughts,
experiences, and feelings regarding the situation at hand. Seidman, I. (1998) states that
“interviews are a useful tool of data collection particularly when the topic of inquiry relates to
issues that require considerable probing.” Therefore, it is important to use interviews in this
scenario.

As stated by Trochim (2006), there are several types of research interviews such as structured
interviews which comprises of predetermined questions that are meant for respondents, semi-
structured interviews are open and allow new ideas and follow up questions, and lastly is the
unstructured interviews which do not used any systematically questions, it uses spontaneous
questions to gather relevant answers from the respondent. In this case the structured interviews
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will be appropriate this is because these interviews will bring more objectivity. By forming a
standardized list of questions and assessment methods, the researcher will make equitable
comparisons between candidates because there is less room for common interviewer biases.

Historical research approach

This is one of the data collection methods that the writer will utilize to establish why Protea
Hotel is not performing as anticipated resulting in failure to meet an organization’s targets.
“Historical research approach helps to analyse the meaning of the past events in an attempt to
interpret the facts and explain the cause of events as well as the effect in the present events
(Spasovska, 2008).”

The past and present facts are analysed using the performance indicators. In hotel industry
performance indicators are regarded as very important because they are used as variables to
analyze the performance of an organization. Examples of these variables are average daily rate,
revenue per available room, occupancy rate, and average length of stay, gross operating profit
per available room, average rate index, market penetration index, customer satisfaction and
online reviews. These indicators can be accessed on (www.myplaceconnect.com).

The above mentioned indicators can be utilized by gathering their information for the last five
years and analyze them to establish the degree of the performance of an institution. The emphasis
is on the customers’ satisfaction because in hotel industry business is dependent on meeting
customers’ needs and expectation. Failure to which, it will result in the drop of business
performance.

Survey Approach

Another approach that would be suitable collecting primary data from the source is the
deployment of survey. A survey is a very powerful tool for data collection. The choice for this
approach is due to the fact that it is flexible as it can be administered in different modes like
online survey, email survey, telephone survey, and face-to-face interview survey among others.
The other reason for the choice of this approach is its dependability. This approach allows
respondents to answer questions with more candid and valid responses. It is also not expensive.
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As such using survey approach will help the researcher to reach out to many respondents to
solicit for candid and valid answers.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the approaches mentioned above are suitable for data collection this is because
they will enable the researcher to analyse the collected data and make recommendations for the
manager to make an informed decision.
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References

Bhattacherjee, Anol (2012). Social Science Research-Principles, Methods, and Practices [Online]

Retrieved from

http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=oa_textbo

oks

Seidman, I (1998). Technique isn't everything, but it is a lot. In Interviewing as qualitative

research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences. New York, NY: Teachers
College Press

www.myplaceconnect.com

Spasovska, 2008). Research Methods in Education [Online] Retrieved from

https://islmblogblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/rme-edu-helpline-blogspot-com.pdf