Preparing to Conduct Business Research: Part 3

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Preparing to Conduct Business Research: Part 3
Christopher Keech, Matthew Smiley, Nathan Haggard, David Olazaran
RES/351
October 20, 2014
Roxanna Johnson













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Research is a very important thing in human life, without it you could say that we
probably wouldnt exist. Research and the ability to experiment with it increase the stock of
knowledge we have as humans. Over the years research led to breakthroughs in agriculture,
medical procedures, medicine, and plenty more. There are different methods to conduct research
and two of these ways are qualitative research and quantitative research. Qualitative research is
ideal for earlier phases of research projects while quantitative research is recommended for later
phases.
Quantitative research simply produces statistical data and/or information while
qualitative research does the opposite in reference to numerical or statistical data. Cooper &
Schindler states in reference to quantitative research, Quantitative research attempts precise
measurement of something. In business research, quantitative methodologies usually measure
consumer behavior, knowledge, opinions, or attitudes. Such methodologies answer questions
related to how much, how often, how many, when, and who. Although the survey is not the only
methodology of the quantitative researcher, it is considered a dominant one (Cooper &
Schindler, 2011, p.144).
Learning Team D feels that in conducting interviews to find the right staff, although
using a quantitative research design might be beneficial in its own way it might be better to use a
qualitative research design. At the end of the research and interviews the main objective is to
find the right staff. Numbers in themselves might not lie yet they also do not tell the whole story
in respect to filling position with the right people. The main goal in using a qualitative research
design is to provide a more thorough and more descriptive analysis of the applicants and their
capabilities as well, how they will fit into secure the goals of finding the right staff. While a
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qualitative research design may be the most appropriate choice for this specific research study, a
combining quantitative research methods may also be useful.
According to Cooper and Schindler (2011), the goal of qualitative research is to provide
management with an insight as to how and why things are or are not happening. Quantitative
research can help management answer questions related to how much, how often, how many,
when, and who (Cooper & Schindler, 2011, p. 146). Qualitative and quantitative studies when
used together can help strengthen the study. While the primary research design may be to
conduct interviews to gain the insight and knowledge with which to create the interview
questions, a survey of desired skills for the job could provide valuable insight when determining
how to create the pre-interview screening.
After the team decision to use qualitative research over quantitative research we had to
consider the drawbacks of using one over the other. Many researchers like to use the mixed-
methodology research because they are limiting their studies with only one type of methodology.
Qualitative study offers the opportunity to provide subtle details that outline a problem. The
research then uses a quantitative tool, like a survey, to validate or invalidate observations made
during the qualitative phase. This approach assigns qualitative analysis to an exploratory tool
and does not maximize quantitative analysis as a tool to both explore and define a problem and
potential solutions. Another issue or drawback of using only one methodology by the researcher
or researchers could be a skewed or bias if they are basing their research from their personal
view and not from the research with the methodology. The last drawback of using one
methodology to research the problem would be the amount of data will be less than using a
multi-methodology. With having less data to research with, researchers have fewer ideas or
hypothesis to work with.
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In conclusion, research is very important to all aspects of human life even in the work
environment. Every method is different but are usually directed toward the same point in the end.
There are always an abundance of roads to get where you need to go but in the end they all get
you there even though some are long and need a little work. Basically in the end, quantitative
research is objective and qualitative is subjective.


















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References
Cooper, D. & Schindler, P. (2011). Business Research Methods (11
th
ed.). New York, NY:
Mcgraw-Hill/Irwin