Research types and research strategies

Research

Research is often described as an active, diligent, and systematic process of inquiry aimed at discovering, interpreting and revising facts. This intellectual investigation produces a greater knowledge of events, behaviors, theories, and laws and makes practical applications possible. The term research is also used to describe an entire collection of information about a particular subject, and is usually associated with the output of science and the scientific method.

Research Types And Research Strategies

It’s necessary to choose the right type of research strategy that suits the research aim and objectives. It’s considered to be very essential while doing a research. According to Saunders et al (2000) various research strategies are Survey, experimental, case study, ethnography, grounded theory, cross-sectional and longitudinal studies , action research and exploratory, descriptive and the explanatory studies. According to Collis and Hussey (2003) the research types are descriptive, exploratory, analytical and predictive research, applied and the basic research, quantitative and qualitative research and deductive research and inductive research. Before selecting the exact research strategy it’s important to have complete review about the above research strategies.

Experiment is a form of classical type of research that which owes in natural sciences. According to Saunders et al. (2000) this research is suitable for research related to social science particularly to psychology. Survey is a form of deductive approach and this is a common strategy in business and management type of research. Survey is based on questionnaires with sizable population. Sizable population can be of any number from low numbers to large population in the city. It can be compared easily and is perceived authoritatively of people in general. The reason because why the survey based research is advised because it is understandable. It gives a good control the research process when conducting the survey based research. The data when collected by this strategy is not wide ranging as the other strategies. But however it is not the only strategy present for data collection. The prime disadvantage in using the questionnaire process is that it is not good for exploratory or other types of research which required large amount of open ended questions. But can be used in explanatory and descriptive types of research.

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Qualitative And Quantitative Methods

The researcher adopts both qualitative and quantitative methods for data acquisition. Questionnaire technique is adopted for the quantitative method and semi structured interview for qualitative method. The Quantitative research methods were originally developed in the natural sciences to study natural phenomena. Examples of quantitative methods now well accepted in the social sciences include survey methods, laboratory experiments, formal methods and numerical methods such as mathematical modeling. This is primarily based on the measurements with the level of employee attitudes based on the topic. The qualitative research technique is widely used in the business management.

The strengths of quantitative method are helps to state the research problem in very specific and it helps to achieve high level of reliability of gathered data due to controlled surveys and other form of research manipulations. The questionnaire is prepared by the author and distributed to the respondents to collect the data for the research. It involves the use of survey in gathering information about the group’s view regarding the effectiveness of the firm. All Staffs from top management down to the junior staff participate in the survey feedback. Once the data are collected from the respondents it is organized by the researcher to used it in the research. The kind of information needed for the research is evaluated with necessary conversations with the respondents of an organization. For this research the primary research methods are used to collect data from National Food Products Company (NFPC). From different Quantitative methodologies, questionnaire method will be used for this research for collecting the primary data from NFPC. The questionnaire is designed based on the research objectives and it will be distributed to the staffs of NFPC for collecting the primary data of this research.

Research Design

A research design is the logical and systematic planning and directing a place of research. A research design is considered as the framework or plan for the study that guides as well as helps the data collection and analysis of the data.

Sampling

The first work of sampling is identifying and defining precisely the population to be sampled. The sample is any part of the population regardless of whether is representative or not. The most difficult task in selecting a sample is to define the population by appropriate technique, which makes sure that the sample is the representative of the population and the outcome of the data is not biased in any way. Since, it is usually impossible to select the actual sample size a generalization is used but the researcher has to make sure that the representative sample is generalization of the whole sample.

Even before the researcher has started his analysis, he should not have a biased outcome in his mind because this might alter the outcome of the whole sample. In order to draw representative samples from which valid generalization can be made to the population, a number technique can be used. The most frequently used sampling technique by the student researcher is the random sample. Here, after identifying the population, a representative sample can be drawn. Here, each member of the population of the equal chance of being selected and selection of one object is independent of the selection of any other. The research sampling also involves another type sampling method of cluster sampling. Here, the sample size would include a group as a unit. The group has similarities to the representative of the whole sample. However in the cluster, sampling method is not much helpful to the researcher if it is wide spread across a huge geographical area. Both random sampling and cluster sampling in this research, would sample representative of completely different people of the society thus, both methods are essential for the research.

Data Collection And Analysis

The main modes of data collection are primary and secondary methods.

Primary Data

The primary data are those data which are collected afresh and for the first time, and thus happens to be original in character. There are several methods of collecting primary data.

• Observation Method

• Interview Method

• Through questionnaires

• Through schedules etc.

Secondary Data

Secondary data means data that are already available ie: they refer to the data which have already been collected and analyzed by someone else. When the research needs secondary data, then he has to look into various sources from where he can obtain them.

Secondary data may be either:

• Published or unpublished data or records.

• Company brochures and other books offering relevant information for the study

• Company web sites.

Questionnaire Method

Questionnaires will be designed and distributed to the large number of potential respondent’s for collecting the primary data. It will be used for collecting large number of reviews to allow statistical analysis of the results. The extraction of information from the respondents depends on the well designed questionnaire. Questionnaire is prominent method of collecting primary data. Questionnaire will contain multiple choice and open ended questions is described by Graziano and Raulin (2006). For this research multiple choice questions will be used to collect more response from respondents the success of data collection is indeed dependent on design of questionnaire and the careful selection of questions.

Questionnaire is one of the most reliable forms of collecting primary data. A questionnaire is an excellent information provider. No research is complete without a well designed questionnaire. If the questionnaire is not properly structured it could lead to inconclusive information hence logical thinking, correct language and transparently of the questionnaire is essential. The Questionnaire Transcript will be attached in Appendix-I for reference.

Sample Size

The size of the sample chosen for survey is 60 respondents. The researcher distributed questionnaire to the employees of Grade 5 above, to know about their view on the performance appraisal conducted in the company.

Universe Of Study

National Food Products Company, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Topic Of Study

The topic of study is entitled as “Effectiveness of Performance Appraisal System in National Food Product Company (NFPC), Abu Dhabi, UAE.”

Scope Of Study

The number of Samples elements for Questionnaire survey is 60, these are respect to the area of the research within NFPC, UAE. The company mainly has divided their employees in different grades.

Grade 1- 4: Cleaners, Kitchen Helper, Sales Helper, Production Helper, Garage Helper, Operators (machine), Tea boys, Drivers.

Grade 5 and above: Foreman, HR assistant, Secretaries, Coordinators Supervisors and Senior Accountants, Assistant Managers and above.

In this report, Grade 5 and above employees are taken into consideration. The respondents were, Manager of different departments of NFPC namely MILCO, LACNOR, PLASTIC and also their supervisors and foreman’s. Respondents from departments namely Human Resource, Accounts, Public Relations and Purchasing were also taken. The Questionnaire will be distributed directly to the employees of the company in the printed format giving prior introduction about the research in brief.

Summary

As explained in this chapter the quantitative – questionnaire methods will be used in this research for collecting the primary data. In the next chapter primary data which is collected from NFPC, UAE using the selected research methodologies will be discussed by the researcher with related charts.

Objectives Of The Study

1. To study about the present Performance Appraisal system in National Food Product Company, UAE.

2. To study about the effectiveness of Performance appraisal system adopted in NFPC, UAE.

3. To identify the appropriate frequency considered by present performance appraisal adopted by NFPC, UAE.

4. To find out the preferences regarding methods of Performance appraisal system adopted in NFPC, UAE in future.

5. To draw inferences based on the study.

Limitations

• The study is confined itself to only one organization namely, National Food Products Company, (NFPC), UAE, as such the findings of the study cannot be generalized to other undertakings because it may not be reliable as the work environment may vary from one place to another.

• Time constraints of some respondents forced them to give casual response without evaluating the questions seriously because of their busy schedule of given task accomplishment in the organization.

• The number of respondents was limited to 60 respondents because of the busy schedule of the staff and did not respond to the questionnaire.

• Due to company’s policies, certain information was not shared.

• The response given by the respondents may be biased.