Introduction to Research Methods Course

Phani Radhakrishnan PhD

What is Research?• A way of knowing• E.g. How to “know” whether employees

are satisfied? Intuition You have a “gut feeling”

Authority Employees’ managers claim they are

Logic Because you pay them well, and pay is related to satisfaction, they should be satisfied

Observation You asked employees how satisfied they are

Research in HR/OB• A way of knowing using logic and “reliable”

empirical observation• Examples

– Is the e-learning training program more effective than the traditional classroom one?

– Has the new selection program resulted in better employees?

– How high is the rate of absenteeism? Why is it high? How can we decrease it?

Research in Arts/Humanities• E.g., the impact of “Hamlet” on

contemporary Cinema– Observation=cinema clips by author– Logic=Establish how characters in cinema

clips resemble Hamlet• How it may differ from HR/OB research

– Reliability of observations (author vs. many observers)

Why do research?• Describe • Predict• Explain/Understand

Why do research?Describe Phenomena

How satisfied are the employees

Establish standards How satisfied are our employees compared to another organization

Establish value added by a program

The effect of the new benefits program on employee satisfaction

Make decisions Should we continue with the new benefits program

Validate/test intuitions

Everyone else is using the new benefits program, is it any good?

Identify source of problem & potential solutions

Why are our employees dissatisfied? How can we improve their satisfaction?

Describe

Predict

Explain

Skills Comprising Research

Research

Statistics

Communication

Logic & Observation

Ways we learn research skills in this course

Statistics

Communication

Readings

Exercises

Readings Exercises

Communication Written All readings ■ Methodology Write-up

■ Rationale Write-up

■ Final Paper

■ Non graded exercisesOral Rowan

article ■ Class participation

■ Short Presentation

■ Final PresentationStatistics All

readings with statistical info

■ In Class demonstrations

■ SPSS workshops

■ Statistics Assignment

■ Project Data analyses

How course activities teach you research skills

SelectQuestion

ReviewResearch

DevelopHypothesis Research

Design

Measurement

Data Analyses CommunicateResults

EthicsOverview of Research Process

Select Question

Review Research

Develop Hypothesis

How do course activities fit into research process

PsycInfo Assignment

“Choosing a Research Question” Activity

Research Design

Measurement

Data Analyses

SurveyMeta-analysis Qualitative

ScalingReliability & Validity

Experimental

CommunicateResultsWritten AssignmentsOral Presentations

How course activities fit into the process

What this course is about• Learning to do research via

– Logic & Observation• Communicating

– Observations using Statistics– Logic using writing & oral presentation