Program: Project Planning & Management

Course Title: Research Methods

Course Code: PMGT 5011

Credit Hours: 3

Course Instructor: Gojjam Ademe (PhD)

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 Chapter one: Research Methods: An
Introduction
Chapter outline:
1.1. Meanings of Research
1.2. Types of Research
1.3. Motivation of doing Research
1.4. Research and Scientific Method
1.5. Research Process
1.6. Criteria of Good Research
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What is research?

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 What is research?
• It is an investigation of finding solutions to
scientific and social problems through objective
and systematic analysis.
• Research is an organized and systematic way of
finding answers to questions.
• Literally, research (re-search) -“search again”
iterative, through patient and careful look at the
data

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 What is research?
• Research is a systematic, controlled empirical
and critical method consisting of enumerating the
problem, formulating a hypothesis, collecting the
facts or data, analyzing the facts and reaching
certain conclusions either in the form of solutions
toward the concerned problem or in certain
generalizations for some theoretical formulation.

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 What is research?
– an activity that contributes to the understanding of a
phenomenon [Kuhn, 1962; Lakatos, 1978]
•phenomenon: a set of behaviors of some entity(ies)
that is found interesting by a research community
•understanding: knowledge that allows prediction
of the behavior of some aspect of the phenomenon
•activities considered appropriate to the production
of understanding (knowledge) are the research
methods and techniques of a research community

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 What Research Is Not
Research isn’t information gathering:
• Gathering information from resources such as
books or magazines isn’t research.
• No contribution to new knowledge.
Research isn’t the transportation of facts:
• Merely transporting facts from one resource to
another doesn’t constitute research.
• No contribution to new knowledge although this
might make existing knowledge more accessible.
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 What is Business Research?
•Business research is defined as the systematic
and objective process of generating information for
aid in making business decisions.
•It is a systematic inquiry that provides
information to guide managerial decisions.
• It strives to provide information regarding
market,, economics, organization (finance, people,
products, management, production, etc)

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 What is Business Research?
• Research information is neither intuitive nor
haphazardly gathered. (systematic. Orderly and
organized process)
• Scientific method, research must be objective to
generate objective and accurate information.
• Detached and impersonal rather than biased
• It facilitates decision process or problem solving

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 Classification/types of Research
Basis of Classification
• Goal of research • The type of data used in
1. Basic research research
2. Applied research 1. Primary or field research
• Specific Objectives of Research 2. Secondary or desk research
1. Descriptive
2. Explanatory • Fields of study.
3. exploratory 1. natural science research,
• Approaches of research 2. social science research,
1. Qualitative research 3. educational research,
2. Quantitative research
3. Mixed research 4. behavioral science research,
• Designs 5. health science research, etc
1. Experimental
2. Quasi-experimental
3. Non-experimental

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 Motivations in Doing Research
• What makes people to undertake research?
• The possible motives for doing research may be
either one or more of the following among others:
a. Desire to get a research degree along with its
consequential benefits like better employment,
promotion, increment in salary, etc.

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 Motivations in Doing Research
b. Desire to face the challenges in solving the
unresolved problems, i.e., concern over
practical problems;
c. Desire to get intellectual joy of doing some
creative work;
d. Desire to be of service to society; and
e. Desire to get respectability.

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 The Research Process
• Research process consists of series of actions or
steps necessary to effectively carry out research
and the desired sequencing of these steps.
• These activities indeed overlap continuously
rather than following a strictly prescribed
sequence.
• A brief description of these activities is as follows:

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 1. Formulating the Research Problem

• Formulating a research problem is the first and

most important step in the research process.
• Formulation of the problem means defining the
problem precisely.
• Formulation of problem is essential because
when the problem is formulated, an appropriate
technique can easily be applied to generate
alternative solutions.
• In other words, a problem clearly defined is
half solved.
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 2. Extensive Literature Review
• Once the problem is formulated, a brief
summery of it should be written down.
• Literature review has three functions:
• Bringing clarity and focus to the research
problem
• Improving the methodology
• Broadening the researcher knowledge in the
research area.

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 3. Development of Working Hypothesis
• After extensive literature survey, researcher
should state in clear terms the working hypothesis.
• Working hypotheses is tentative solutions or
assumption made in order to draw out and test its
logical or empirical consequences.
• Hypotheses should be very specific and limited to
the piece of research in hand because it has to be
tested.

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 4. Preparing the Research Design
• Research design is defined as a blueprint or
detailed plan for how a research study is to be
completed, operationalizing variables so they can
be measured, selecting a sample of interest to
study, collecting data to be used as a basis for
testing hypothesis and analyzing the results.
• It is the complete scheme or programme of the
research.

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 5. Determining Sampling Design
• All the items under consideration in any field of
inquiry constitute a universe or population.
• A complete enumeration of all the items in the
population is known as a census inquiry.
• Because of the difficulty, relative inaccuracy and
biasness related to census study determining sample,
few elements from the population, becomes mandatory.
• In such cases, the researcher must decide the way of
selecting a sample or what is popularly known as the
sample design.
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 6. Collecting the Data
• There are several ways of collecting the
appropriate data which differ considerably in
context of money (costs), time and other
resources at the disposal of the researcher.
• There are two types of data to be used in
research endeavors
Secondary data
Primary data

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 7. Analysis of Data
• The analysis of data requires a number of
closely related operations such as:
a) Establishment of categories,
b) Coding,
c) Tabulation ,and
d) Drawing statistical values.

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 8. Hypothesis Testing
• After analyzing the data, the researcher is in a
position to test the hypothesis, if any, he/she had
formulated earlier.
• Do the facts support the hypotheses or they
happen to be contrary?
• Various tests, such as Chi square test, t-test, F-
test may be applied.

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 9. Preparation of the Research Report

• Finally, the researcher has to prepare the report

of what has been done by him following the
appropriate formats and appropriate language.
• There are many different formats for reporting
research; journal articles, technical research
reports, monographs or books, graduate theses
or dissertations.

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 Criteria of Good Research
• To qualify as a research, a process must have
certain characteristics as listed below:
 Organized in that there is a structure or method in
going about doing research. It is a planned procedure,
not a spontaneous one. It is focused and limited to a
specific scope.
 Systematic because there is a definite set of procedures
and steps which you will follow. There are certain
things in the research process which are always done in
order to get the most accurate results.

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 Criteria of Good Research
• Rigorous- The research procedures followed to
find answers to questions are relevant,
appropriate and justified.
• Critical-The methods employed and procedures
used should be critically scrutinized. The process
of investigation must be foolproof and free from
any drawbacks. The process adopted and the
procedures used must be able to withstand critical
scrutiny.
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 Criteria of Good Research
• Valid and verifiable- This concept implies that whatever
you conclude on the basis of your findings is correct and
can be verified by you and others
• Controlled- In exploring the causality relation to two
variables, the study must be set in way that minimizes the
effects of other factors affecting relationship. In social
science research, however, since controlling is almost
impossible, the effect of the other variable must be quantified
rather.
• Empirical- This means that any conclusions drawn are
based upon hard evidence gathered from information
collected from real life experiences or observations. 1-25
 Thank you
Questions and Comments

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