Reference no: EM132196586

Topic :- A study on leadership and interpersonal skills in Omantel

Learning outcome:

On successful completion of the module, the student will have:

1. A knowledge of the research process in its wider context.
2. An ability to critically evaluate the robustness of different research approaches and their strengths and limitations
3. An ability to design research proposals in terms of methodology and approach
4. The practical skills to administer a range of research techniques particularly in relation to data collection
and analysis

Research Methods for Business Essay

Please read the attached assignment and guidelines carefully.

AIM: This assignment assesses the learning outcomes of the Research Methods module. To this end, you are asked to devise a research project, to conduct pilot research, and to analyse your results on one of the following topics:

• A study on the importance of customer satisfaction for the organisational growth.
• A study on brand positioning in the minds of customers in Oman.
• Any appropriate topic agreed with your module tutor

Please note that the total word count excludes appendices. Appendices contain supporting information and for this assignment little supporting information should be needed beyond that identified in the tasks or guidelines. The recommended (approximate) number of words for each part of the assignment gives guidance on the required extent of analysis (i.e. approximates to the marks allocated to a task).

The assignment should be appropriately presented in numbered sections and sources of information must be Harvard Referenced. (You are required to provide minimum of 7 Journal references, 5 book references and 3 website references).

COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SEVEN TASKS:

1. Give a short introduction and the objectives of your proposed study.

Present your research topic for approval to your tutor. Once approved, undertake a short literature review (at most seven related literature & studies). Summarise any theory and evidence relevant to your topic. (700 words)

2. Formulate the research problem and sub-problems (specific questions). (100 words)

3. Briefly explain your research philosophy, approach and strategy. In particular, comment on what makes your research positivist, interpretive or critical (500 words). In approach, whether you have used an inductive or deductive approach. In strategy. Whether you have used ethnography, grounded theory or survey strategy in inductive approach. State the reason for your choice of philosophy, approach and strategy. Provide its strengths and limitations.

4. Complete the Faculty ethical approval process for your proposed research using the fast track ethical approval form. The research must be approved by one of the module tutors before undertaking any primary research. Attach the approved form (and mandatory additional documents) to the assignment as appendices. Briefly reflect on the ethical implications of your research. (200 words).

5 For your research proposal in terms of methodology and approach you need to know the appropriate: A. Research design, B. Sampling details, C. Data collection method/s. D. Type of research instrument/s; and E. Statistical tool/s to enable you achieve the research objectives or answer the research questions, which should contain the following answer either part (a) or part (b). (600 words plus questionnaire/interview schedule)

a) If the research design/method is descriptive survey, the appropriate research instrument is questionnaire. Items/questions (no more than five questions) are constructed in such a way that these are aligned with the research sub-problems/questions. The use of both open-ended (at most 2) and close-ended questions is recommended to extract all possible information that will answer the research questions. It will generate both qualitative and quantitative data. (Your maximum pilot sample size should be 10 respondents). Attach a blank copy of your questionnaire as an appendix.

b) In a descriptive case study, a semi-standardised interview is used where the interviewer asks a number of specific major questions (five potential questions), and beyond these he is free to probe as he chooses in order to achieve the objectives set forth in task 2. Observation can be done simultaneously to validate the answers made by the interviewee-respondent, in which his non-verbal reaction or behaviour is observed while the interview is going on. The use of interview and observation instruments will generate qualitative data. (Your maximum pilot sample size should be 10 respondents.) Attach a blank copy of your semi-standardised interview schedule (guide questions) as an appendix.

6. Analyse your results in relation to your research objective/question and attach the raw data collected in an appendix (700 words).
a. Analyse the qualitative data from your pilot research. Briefly summarise and analyse the key themes and issues arising from your responses.
b. Analyse the quantitative data from your pilot research. Give a summary and brief analysis of the results for each question.

7. Evaluate your research in terms of the lessons learnt from the pilot, appropriateness of the research iriitrument in relation to the research strategy outlined in Task 3, the reliability and validity of your results, etc. (200 words).
Comments on each task:

Tasks 1, 2 and 3 will test student's ability to design a research project.

Task 1 Distinguish between the broad aim of your research and specific research questions/objectives. One objective/question is sufficient to show that you understand this distinction and to inform the rest of the assignment.

Task 2 Gather and process a more relevant critical review of literature (i.e., you know how to use different sources, relate your project to debates and disagreements and identify knowledge gaps that provide a rationale for your research objective/question). For this task, you are required to do enough additional readings to identify six or seven relevant non-trivial references for use in the literature review (try to include a mix of newspaper/magazine articles, web sites, and academic journals).

Task 3 Explain your research strategy and methodology in terms of an appropriate selection from the range of concepts introduced in the lecture course: e.g., positivist/interpretive/creative research; deductive/inductive approaches; theory-testing/theory-building; quantitative/qualitative data; research sample frame / sample size and so forth.

You will need to think carefully about both your research question/objective and your research philosophy/strategy/approach, as these will influence your choice of research technique in Task

Task 4 You need to ensure that you understand and have learned how to comply with University's procedures for ensuring that proposed research complies with prevailing ethical standards.

Task 5 Design a research instrument to implement your chosen research methodology and so answer your question/meet your objective. Five questions are sufficient to demonstrate that you understand how to design a survey questionnaire or a schedule for a semi-structured interview. However, it is not feasible for you to implement the full-scale project. Accordingly, you are required to implement only the pilot research with a small pilot sample size of 10 (for a questionnaire) or 10 (for an interview). The purpose of a pilot is to ensure that your research instrument is capable of generating valid data, and that the collection and analysis systems are appropriate, before embarking on the full research.

In Research Methodology the researcher has to state clearly what research design, sampling technique, tool used for analysis and sample size they have adopted in their research study.

Task 6 Present and then analyse both quantitative and qualitative results. The balance between quantitative and qualitative analysis will depend on whether your research instrument was a survey questionnaire or an interview schedule: for the former, the main emphasis will be quantitative; for the latter, qualitative. However, all answers must contain at least some analyses of both types with emphasis of its data implications. The data analysis and interpretation has to be supported with proper diagrammatic representation like pie chart or bar chart.

Task 7 Demonstrate the ability to reflect critically upon the strengths and weaknesses of your research strategy, methodology and research instrument in terms of theory and in light of lessons learned during the pilot data collection and analysis phase of the research.