Every day, managers are involved in designing projects, jobs, organi- sational or departmental structures, and ways of matching individual and group needs in organisations. They base their decisions on existing knowledge resulting from what they or others have learnt from applied or pure academic research. In fact, designing questions to solve man- agement problems is such a fundamental skill that we overlook its significance as a major factor contributing to quality management.
Management Research Methods aims to foster in readers an under- standing of the basic research processes and a capacity to identify management-related research questions. Readers will learn the man- ner in which others have designed and conducted research studies to answer management-related questions, the sources of the main exist- ing literature in management-related studies, the procedures involved in collecting primary data, the purposes of techniques for analysing and presenting data, and the necessary structuring and writing skills to generate a research report.
This text therefore provides a basic introduction to research design in management, types of research designs, data collection and measure- ment techniques, coding data, reliability and validity, qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis, interpreting and discussing results, structuring and writing the research report, and integrating individual research into the overall management literature.
