The major characteristics of any research are; Objectivity, precision, design and verifiability.
3.2.1 Objectivity.
In an ideal situation, a research is beyond the subjective bias of the researcher. As a researcher, you have to make deliberate efforts to eliminate all personal preferences. You should resist the temptation to seek only such data which support your hypotheses or your 10
line of taught. In a scientific research, emphasis is on testing the hypothesis not to prove it. You have to willingly suspend your personal judgment in order to allow the data and logic to lead independently to a sound conclusion. If you want to achieve objectivity in your investigation, you have to use standardized research instruments, choose appropriate research design and analytical tools and also ensure the dependability of data.
3.2.2 Precision
When you conduct a good research and write the report but your readers do not understand what you have done, you may have succeeded in wasting your time and efforts. Every research should use a technical language in order to convey the exact meaning to the readers. Such research languages include validity, reliability, random sampling variables etc. The most precise expression in quantitative research is the mathematical equation or statistical finding which explains or represents the truth. But in qualitative research, precision is achieved through words rather than numbers. So you have to use a very precise language to describe your study accurately. This is done so that the study can be replicated or the results correctly used.
3.2.3 Design
If you want to have a good research, you must have a very good and systematic design. This implies that every scientific inquiry will generally undergo such steps as: -
Definition of the problem
Statement of the hypothesis
Collection and analysis of data
Testing and confirmation or rejection of hypothesis.
Reporting of the results.
Any research, which has no orderly design, cannot be replicated for
verification.
3.2.4 Verifiability
When you conduct a research, you write your report. This presents the research design and the findings to the professional community. From this point other researchers and scholars will study 11
the report, analyze it in order to confirm or reject the outcomes. This tells you that research is a social enterprise. Its information is open for public scrutiny. Verification is related to objectivity and precision. It is only through further investigation or replication of the study can the results of any study be confirmed, revised or rejected. It is also through this process that a body of new knowledge is developed and new questions identified. Verifiability can be achieved through two different approaches.
i. Analyzing the same data on the same sample through alternative analytical tools or statistical methods.
ii. Replicating the study on a different sample.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE: 1
i. In your own words define the concept research.
ii. Discuss the characteristics of research.
3.3. TYPES OF RESEARCH
Research in general can be classified in many different ways. If we want to classify research based on its goal or objective, then we think of two major types. These are fundamental or basic research and applied research.
3.3.1. Fundamental Research:
The main purpose of these types of research is to obtain empirical data which can be used to formulate, expand or evaluate a theory. It is not actually directed in design or purpose towards the solution of practical problems. The main aim is to expand the frontiers of knowledge without the intention of having practical applications. However, the results may be applied eventually to practical problems that have social values. Let us use hotel management as an example. You will see that all the advances made in this area are dependent upon basic researches in foods and nutrition, catering and hospitalities. In the same way, the progress made in business administration practices has been related to progress in the discovery of economics theories, administrative theories and management theories. 12
But you have to bear in mind that the primary concern of basic research is to create knowledge solely for the sake of knowledge. Its design is not in any way hampered by considerations of special usefulness of the findings.
3.3.2. Applied Research:
Unlike basic research, this type is directed towards the solution to an immediate, specific and practical problem. It is the type of research which you can conduct in relation to actual problems and under the conditions in which they are found in practice. You can use the applied research to solve problems at the appropriate level of complexity. Take for instance in the area of business management, or administration or even your own area of specialization, you can depend on basic research for discovering the more general laws of management or administration, but you have to employ applied research to determine how these laws operate in the real situation if scientific changes are to be affected in our lives, this approach will continue to be very essential.
At this juncture, you have to note that there is no sharp line of demarcation between basic and applied research. This is because applications of theory help in solving practical problems. You always apply the theories of administration or organization in your business management. On the other hand, basic research can also depend upon the findings of applied research to complete the theoretical formulations for example an organizational experiment could shed some light on a learning theory. At the same time, observations in a practical situation serve to test theories and may lead to the formulation of new theories.
When research is classified according to methodology, if can also be classified according to Creswell (1994) into two broad areas. These are quantitative and qualitative approaches.
3.3.3. Quantitative and Qualitative Research:
According to Leedy (1995) Quantitative research is an inquiry into a social or human problem, based on testing a theory composed of variables measured with numbers or figures and analyzed with statistical procedures in order to determine whether the predictive generalizations of the theory hold true. He also defines Qualitative research is an enquiry process of understanding a social or human problem, based on building a complex, holistic picture formed with words 13
reporting detailed views of information, and conducted in a natural setting. Whereas quantitative research, sometimes referred to as the traditional, the positivist, the experimental or the empiricist approach, is typically used to answer questions about the relationships among measured variables with the purpose of explaining, predicting and controlling phenomena; the qualitative research is used to an answer questions about the nature of phenomena with the purpose of describing and understanding the phenomena from the participant‟s points of view. The qualitative research is sometimes referred to as the interpretative, the naturalistic, the constructivist or the postpositive approach.
3.3.4. Other Categorizations:
These are other classifications of research based mainly on their specific method and goals. The different types of research are:-
i. Action research: - A type of applied research that focuses on finding a solution to local problem in a local setting
ii. Case and field study research: - A type of qualitative research in which data are gathered directly from individual or social or community groups in their natural environment for the purpose of studying interactions, attitudes or characteristics of individuals or groups.
iii. Correlational research: - A statistical investigation of the relationship between one factor and one or more other factors. It looks at the surface relationship but does not necessarily probe for casual reasons underlying them
iv. Descriptive or Normative Survey: - A survey method used to describe the incidence, frequency and distribution of certain characteristics of a population.
v. Ethnography: - A type of qualitative inquiry that involves an in-depth study of an intact cultural group in a natural setting.
vi. Expost facto or Evaluation research: - A type of research which observes existing causal comparative searches back research and through the data for plausible causal factors.
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vii. Grounded theory research: - A type of qualitative research studies that aim at deriving theory through the use of multiple stages of data collection and interpretation.
viii. Historical research: - A type of research that attempts to solve certain problems arising out of historical context through gathering and examining of relevant data.
ix. Phenomenological research: - A type of qualitative research method that attempts to understand participants‟ perspectives and views of social realities.
x. Quasi-experimental research: - An experimental research that is not based on randomization and control.
xi. True-experimental research: - An experimental study based a random assignment of subjects to groups and the administration of possibly different treatments followed by observations or measurements to assess the effect of the treatments. (Leedy. 1995)
