UKCBC Unit 8 Research Skills

UKCBC Unit 8 Research Skills

1.3 Importance of qualitative and quantitative data for UKCBC Unit 8 Research Skills

There are several types of data and information that are collected in a research method depending on the type of research, type of issue or problem, required size of data and importance of the research method. The major classifications of the data collected in a research method are qualitative and quantitative data.

UKCBC Unit 8 Research Skills Qualitative data 

This type of data is generally very rich in information but very poor in terms of data. This type of data is collected by a research method to clearly understand the behaviour and trends of the environment. These types of data provide an in-depth description of the environment in terms of a specific issue or event. This type of data is quite tough to analyse as nothing is defined in terms of measurement in a particular scale (Liamputtong, 2009).

Quantitative data – This type of data generally provides statistical numeric values about certain event or issue in the environment. This of data is comparatively easier to analyse as compared to the qualitative data, because this type of data is measured on a particular scale. This type of data is collected by the researchers who are carrying out experimental or scientific research on the environment (Neuman, 2005).

For example, suppose a research is being carried out by an organisation on the students of a class. The qualitative data that are collected are related to several traits of the students such as school spirit, environmentalist, and friendliness. But the quantitative data that are collected in this research method are the number of students in the class, number of boys and girls in the class, number of students strong in specific topics and the percentage of the students who has scholarships.

Hence the type of data collected in the research method depends on the requirements of the research method. The methods to analyse these collected data are chosen depending on the type of the data. The analysis of the quantitative data is done by using statistical and mathematical processes (Patton, 1990).

1.4 Problems that can arise when undertaking research

There are several problems associated to the business processes directly or indirectly can arise during the research. These problems can cause the research method to yield unreliable and invalid results. Some of the problems may cause the research process to fail before reaching completion. Some of the basic research problems are described below (Harris, 1997).

Dependency – There are several variables in the environment that depend on the values of several other independent variables. In the quantitative research methodology, these variables play a great role. So there is a type of problem that can arise due to the dependent variables if they are not determined on time and properly. For example the SAT score is the independent variable that is used to determine the freshman grade point average which is the variable dependent on the first one.

Information sources – There are several primary and secondary sources of data that are used by the organisation carrying out the research. The access to these sources can cause a problem in the research method if the access is not achieved in time. These information sources should always be accessible to the organisation carrying out the research for the research to be successful. For example, the research method goes into a pause if a specific required report is not available at the correct time (Taylor, 1984).

Time – There is a constraint on the research method in terms of the scheduled timeline associated with the entire research process. The unavailability of any resource or any other adverse event could cause the research methods to compromise its schedule, which poses a big problem to the organisation carrying out the research.

Money – The monetary resource is another constraint for the research method in terms of the budget associated with a particular research methods. This can also be a source of a problem in a situation of shortage of resource (Cooper, 2003).

Expertise – The expertise required to complete all the processes of a research method is another source of problem in the research process in terms of unavailability of a specific set of expertise.

Introduction of bias – The validity and reliability of the results of the research processes can be compromised if the researchers are biased by any of the factors in the environment.

The Hawthorne effect – Another major problem that may occur while the research is going on is defined by the Hawthorne effect. This effect suggests that some of the workers in an organisation tend to work harder when they are included in a research. This causes those employees to change their regular behaviour when they are included in any research. This compromises the validity and reliability of the findings of the research (Kothari, 2004).

The Halo effect – This effect specifies another problem that may occur while researching which defines that some of customers have a bias towards a product of an organisation due to a positive past experience with another product of the same organisation. For example, a customer having a good experience in using a product of Nike may have a bias towards another range of products by Nike.

LO2 Know how to conduct a literature review

2.1 Use of research sources

The literature review is basically an organised collection of the summary and synthesis of the information sources used in a particular research. It basically provides the readers and critics with the complete organised collection of the sources from which the information and data are collected during the research. There are several types of sources of information which are used in a research. These sources of information can be of several types such as electronic, audio, video or paper-based. These sources can be broadly categorised into primary and secondary resources. The literature review includes all these types of sources referred during the research (Kothari, 2004).

Primary sources – These are the reports, journals or published letters from the actual researchers i.e. the organisation carrying out the research. These sources may be accessible in the physical or electronics medium. These allow the organisation carrying out the research to communicate and interact directly with the subjects of the research. Generally the primary sources of data are preferred as compared to the secondary sources as the validity and the reliability of the information of these sources are not compromised (Cooper, 2003).

Secondary sources – These sources of information are the repository of the information created and maintained by several other organisations for entirely different purpose. These are the published reports or papers from organisations that is not carrying the current research. These sources are used by the current researchers to find historical data related to a particular event or issue. Generally the choice of secondary sources of information should be taken carefully as the validity and reliability of the information of these sources are directly proportional to the reputation and image of the organisation that maintains them.

2.2 Importance of using primary information sources

A primary source of information generally defines the reports or papers published physically or electronically by the organisation that is carrying out the research. This involves direct interaction with the subjects of the research which allows the organisation to gain a more in-depth knowledge as compared to the secondary sources. The importance of the primary sources of information are described below.

Reliability – The factor of reliability defines the extent to which the researchers can rely on the information of the sources. The reliability of the source defines the reliability of the data it provides. Hence primary sources are perceived to be more reliable as the organisation carrying out the research is the one collecting the data. So there is generally no doubt about the reliability of the data from the primary sources as the exposure of the data to compromising factors are minimum (Kothari, 2004).

Validity – This is the factor that defines the extent to which the relevant information is collected. The primary sources of information assure the researchers that the data being analysed and processed are relevant to the topics and issues of the research. The fact that the organisation which collected the data is carrying out the research assures the researchers that the data are valid.

Accuracy – The primary sources of data ensure the researchers about the accuracy of the data collected regarding particular topics or issue. This allows the researcher to use the data from primary sources with complete confidence of its accuracy.

Deeper understanding – Using primary sources of information allows the organisation to gain a deeper understanding of the trends in the environment and the needs of the customers. This allows the organisation to interact directly with the current and potential customers, which in turn allows the organisation to analyse its environment in a much better way (Cooper, 2003).

Some of the other major importance of primary sources of information are increase in critical thinking skills of the employees and the increase in the knowledge of the employees.

2.3 System for referencing

The reports prepared in a research or any other processes in an organisation require external sources of information that provide the researchers with relevant data. These external sources which are used in the report should clearly reference in the report. The clear referencing of the external sources helps readers to use available external sources, protects the writer from the plagiarism accusations, shows the knowledge and understanding of the writer regarding the corresponding topic, supports the arguments of the writer with the external sources and shows the extent to which the writer has researched. If something is taken from another published material by paraphrasing or directly quoting, it should be properly referenced in the report. This allows the writer not to lose credibility by being accused of plagiarism.

There are several types of referencing styles which are used to refer external sources in the report and those references are cited in the text of the report. This defines the sections referred from particular part of a particular external source (Cooper, 2003). The reference includes the name of the author, title of report or book, date of publishes, publisher details and the corresponding sections in the external source.

Harvard referencing system is one such referencing system used to refer to external sources in the report. The in-text citations in this referencing system are done in a (author, date) format where the date is the year of publish of the external source. The quotation marks ‘’ are used to directly quote something from the external source. Some of the arguments taken from the external sources are paraphrased into the words of the writer.

Generally the Harvard referencing system allows a list of all the references at the end of the text, which are alphabetically arranged according to the author name. The format of a general reference is author, date of publish, title and publisher. Generally in the Harvard referencing system, the title is the only thing which is in Italics in the entire reference.Order Now