Week 2

* METHODS OF
STUDY &
RESEARCH

* RESEARCH IN I/O
Why conduct research?

Answering
Questions & Making
Decision
How to save
organizations
money?
Selection of
workers?
Increased
workers
productivity?
Accidents at
the
workplace?

Research &
Everyday Life

Common Sense is
Often Wrong

Understanding
research helps us
to critically listen
& analyze results
thus make more
clever decisions.

Using common
sense as the
answer to explain
certain behaviors
at workplace is
wrong.

Women
employees
could not
perform as
well as men?

* CONSIDERATIONS IN CONDUCTING RESEARCH

How do I know what to research?

IDEAS
Decide what to
research.
Example:
What employee
recruitment
source is best?

HYPOTHESIS

THEORIES

An educated
prediction about
the answer to a
question.

A systematic set of
assumptions regarding
the cause and nature
of behavior.

Example:
Employee referrals
will result in
employees who
stay with the
company longer
than will the other
recruitment
methods.

Example:
Realistic job preview
theory.
Personality similarity
theory.
Socialization theory.

Idea

Hypothesis

Theory

Does all this

noise affect my
employees
performance?

High levels of
noise will increase
the number of
errors made in
assembling
electronic
components

Noise causes a
distraction
making it difficult
to concentrate

Noise Example

CONSIDERATIONS IN CONDUCTING RESEARCH

After we have the ideas, hypotheses and the theory, we need to

start reading!
LITERATURE REVIEWS

Journals
A written collection of
articles describing the
methods and results of new
research

Bridge Publications
A publication with the goal of
bridging the gap between the
research conducted by academics
and the practical needs of
practitioners.

Magazines
An unscientific collection of
articles about a wide range
of topics.

Trade Magazines
A collection of articles for
those in the biz, about
related professionals
topics, seldom directly
reporting the methods and
results of new research.

* INTRODUCING BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH

* 2 main methods used

by psychologists to study human

behaviors:

Experiment

Observational Research

Give information about which

one variable acts as a cause to
another variable (cause-effect
research).

Give information about which

2 or more variables are
associated (exploratory
research).

Can manipulate variables.

Can not manipulate variables.

Expensive and time

consuming.

Cheaper and faster to obtain

results.

Laboratory setting.

Anywhere.

Limited in studying ethically

sensitive issues/ problems.

Can be used for studying

ethically sensitive issues/
problems.

* INTRODUCING BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH

BEHAVIOR A

2
4

By doing observational study, we can discover that there are several

causes that influence BEHAVIOR A and these causes are vary in strength.
When we identified these variables that make up the causal network of
a particular behavior, then we could evaluate the importance of each
variable in shaping the behavior.
We could do this by conducting a series of experiments.

* INTRODUCING BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH

Example: observational study of leadership in an interacting group.
Motivation

Job
satisfaction

Selfconfidence

Performance

a) High job satisfaction causes the person to engage in leading.

b) Engaging in leadership may cause the person to become more
satisfied.
c) Other behavioral characteristic (i.e. self-confidence) may be
causing the person to be both satisfied and leaderlike.

* EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
History and Definition.
* Famous experiment done was Hawthorne studies around 1925
and continued several years at the Western Electric Companys
Hawthorne plant.
* Designed to give researcher a very high degree of control over
the research setting.
* The experiment is a simulation of real life but not duplicate
because not all conditions in the life situation are represented.
* To create a situation as close as possible and especially to
incorporate the conditions most important to the behavior under
study.

* EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
* There are 3 characteristics define an experiment:
1. Manipulation of one or more independent variables.
2. Random assignment of subjects to experimental and control
3.

conditions.
The independent and dependent variables must have its
operational definitions so that the researcher can maintain to
control over the experiment and measure the behavior that
occurs.

*. The main key point in experimental design are the manipulation

of independent variable (IV) towards dependent variable (DV)
and the division of subjects in experimental group and control
group.

* EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
INDEPENDENT
VARIABLE
(IV)

DEPENDENT VARIABLE
(DV)

The variable that is manipulated

The variable that is expected
by the researcher.
to change as the result of
changes in the IV (the outcome
variable).
VS
EXPERIMENTAL
GROUP

CONTROL GROUP

A group of subjects that receives A group of subjects who does

the experimental treatment of
not receive any treatment so
Interest.
that the result produced by
them can be compared with
those in experimental group.

* EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
Example 1: to test the effectiveness of a new training program for sales
skills.
INDEPENDENT
VARIABLE
(IV)

DEPENDENT VARIABLE
(DV)
Amount of sales

Training program

EXPERIMENTAL
GROUP
Salesperson who
received training
program

CONTROL GROUP

VS

Salesperson who
do not receive
any training
program

* EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
Example 2: to test whether engaging in leadership may cause the person
to become more satisfied.
INDEPENDENT
VARIABLE
(IV)

DEPENDENT VARIABLE
(DV)
Level of satisfaction

Leadership

EXPERIMENTAL
GROUP
Those who were
given chances to
lead

CONTROL GROUP

VS

Those who were

not given
chances to lead

* EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
*
*
*

Another variable that might interfere between IV and DV thus

contaminate the results of experiment; extraneous variable.
Extraneous variable can be defined as variable other than
independent variable (IV) that may influence the dependent
variable (DV).
Example:
INDEPENDENT
VARIABLE
(IV)
Leadership

EXTRANEOUS
VARIABLE
Self-confidence

DEPENDENT VARIABLE
(DV)
Level of satisfaction

* EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
* There are 2 ways to deal with extraneous

variable:
1. We can control them by standardizing them;
by making sure they do not vary between the
experimental and control groups.
2. We can control them by making sure that
whatever influence they do have is
thoroughly scattered so as to have no
consistent effect on either group.

* QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
* Even though researchers prefer to use

experiments, it is not always possible.

* Quasi-experiment refers to a research method

in which the experimenter either does not
manipulate the independent variable or in
which subjects are not randomly assigned to
conditions.

* QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
Idea

Hypothesis

Theory

Does all this

noise affect my
employees
performance?

High levels of
noise will increase
the number of
errors made in
assembling
electronic
components

Noise causes a
distraction
making it difficult
to concentrate

Noise Example

* QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
* Example: To test the effectiveness of childcenter at the workplace

Level of
absenteeism before
the center was
introduced in the
organization

Implementation of
Child-center

Level of
absenteeism after
the center was
implemented

* OBSERVATIONAL METHOD
* Observation is a method in which the

researcher watches the subjects at their

respective places.
* This involves the researchers themselves
recording certain behaviors that they
have defined operationally.

* OBSERVATIONAL METHOD
OBSERVATIONAL
STUDY
Direct Observation
Researcher observes and
records what are doing.

Obtrusive
Observation

Unobtrusive
Observation

The
presence of
researcher is
known to
the subjects

The presence
of researcher
is not known
to the
subjects

Self-report
techniques
Method that relies
on the experimental
subjects to report
their own
behaviors.
Surveys
A common selfreport measure in
which the subjects
are asked to report
on their behaviors.

* SELF-REPORT TECHNIQUES
* Survey
Surveys can be used to measure any number of
aspects of the work situation, including workers
attitudes towards their jobs, their perception of the
amount and quality of the work they perform and the
specific problems they encounter on the job.
Typically survey takes the form of pencil-and-paper
(questionnaire).
Surveys can be administered in 3 ways:
1. By mail
2. By telephone
3. By face-to-face interview

* SELF-REPORT TECHNIQUES
*
*
*
*

Questionnaire Construction
Whether we construct our own questionnaire or we
borrow from others questionnaire that was used in the
previous study.
Need to find a questionnaire that tap the variables in
questions.
This what we called as content adequacy or the
extent to which the questionnaire adequately samples
the issues.

* SELF-REPORT TECHNIQUES
* Writing Questions in the questionnaire
1. Language of the question

- the use of vocabulary that is well understood by the

survey participants.

2. The accessibility of information

- the researcher must consider whether the participants are
likely to know the answer.

3. Motivation of participants
- to increase motivation to respond. Avoid sensitive issues,
long questions.

* Archival Research
* Archival research involving using previously
collected data or records to an answer a
research questions.

* For example, if we want to know what

distinguishes good workers from poor

workers, we could look in the personnel
files to see whether the backgrounds of
good workers have common characteristics
not shared by poor workers.

* Meta-Analysis
* Meta-analysis is a statistical method of

reaching conclusions based on previous

research.

* A researcher interested in reviewing the

literature on a topic, its methodologies,
its mean effect size.