Deck 5: Formulating the Research Design

Question 1

A research design is the general plan of how you will go about answering your research questions.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Research design is different to research tactics because ________.

A) It deals with details of your method
B) It takes an overview of all the research activities
C) It comes after tactics have been decided
D) It is grounded in the literature

Answer 2

It takes an overview of all the research activities

Question 3

Which of these is NOT an element of research design.

A) Objectives
B) Sources of data
C) Ethics
D) Conclusions

Answer 3

Conclusions

Question 4

One of the most important elements of research design is having valid reasons for the choices you have made.

Question 5

Justification of your research design should take account of ________.

A) Your sample size
B) Your method
C) Your philosophy
D) Your supervisor

Question 6

"Tomas is researching the effect of firms' web-based corporate responsibility disclosures on societal perceptions. He is taking an inductive approach and has decided to survey managers responsible for community affairs in five large organisations." What is wrong with this research design?

A) Inductive research cannot use surveys
B) The sample is unlikely to be able to answer the research question
C) Interviewing managers is not an inductive method
D) Five large organisations will not be enough data

Question 7

"Alisha wants to investigate patterns of stealing among housekeeping staff in a hotel chain. She plans to install hidden cameras in the staff room to record video for later analysis. The findings from the video will then help to structure subsequent interviews." What is wrong with this research design?

A) Ethics have not been considered
B) It will be too costly to install cameras
C) She is incorrectly taking a deductive approach
D) Her method and objectives do not match

Question 8

Which of these is NOT a type of research design?

A) Exploratory
B) Restrictive
C) Explanatory
D) Descriptive

Question 9

"Research that aims to find out the occurrence or significance of a new issue." What type of research does this describe?

A) Exploratory
B) Explanatory
C) Descriptive
D) Deductive

Question 10

"James' project will investigate why female bar workers take less time off sick than male bar workers." Is this research ________.

A) Descriptive
B) Exploratory
C) Explanatory
D) None of the above

Question 11

"Sunitha wants to find out what percentage of overseas students in the UK open UK bank accounts." What is the purpose of her research?

A) To explain the relationship between variables
B) To describe the characteristics of a situation
C) To assess the impact of a new social phenomenon
D) None of the above

Question 12

No research strategy is inherently superior to another.

Question 13

"Mark has been asked by his manager at work to test whether a new brand of washing powder is perceived by customers as superior to the old one." What research strategy would be most appropriate for Mark to use?

A) Experiment
B) Archival research
C) Case Study
D) Ethnography

Question 14

Which of these is NOT a research strategy?

A) Survey
B) Action research
C) Interviews
D) Grounded Theory

Question 15

What is a 'control' group in the context of an experimental research strategy?

A) People who are told the reasons for the study
B) People who will be experimented on
C) People who do not know they are in the research
D) People who do not receive the research intervention

Question 16

What must you ensure when selecting participants for the control group and experimental group in an experiment?

A) That they all share common characteristics
B) That they are all unaware of the purpose of the research
C) You choose a range of different types of people
D) You must not choose too many people

Question 17

What type of validity is difficult to achieve with experiments?

A) Internal validity
B) External validity
C) Both
D) None

Question 18

Which research strategy is described here? "The collection of data using questionnaires, structured observation and structured interviews."

A) Survey
B) Grounded theory
C) Ethnography
D) Action research

Question 19

Which of these is a benefit of a survey strategy?

A) Greater control over data collection process
B) You can collect a large amount of data easily
C) Produces standardised, comparable data
D) All of the above

Question 20

Which research strategy is described here? "The empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, using multiple sources of evidence."

A) Experiment
B) Survey
C) Case study
D) Grounded theory

Question 21

In case study research the boundaries between the phenomenon being studied and its context should be clearly distinguished.

Question 22

Which research design is a case study strategy most suitable for?

A) Exploratory
B) Explanatory
C) Neither of these
D) Both of these

Question 23

What does "triangulation" involve?

A) Using three research strategies in one study
B) Using three research philosophies in one study
C) Looking at an issue from three perspectives
D) Using different data collection techniques in one study

Question 24

The need to justify your reasons for choosing your research site is greater in a single case study strategy than in a multiple one.

Question 25

What is an "embedded case study" strategy?

A) A case study used alongside a survey
B) Using more than one case to study
C) Focusing on a multiple elements within a larger case
D) One that links well to your research questions

Question 26

"Harriet works for a large national charity. Donation levels are falling in her region and she has decided to do her student project on donation behaviours in a time of recession. She is going to work closely with the marketing department during her investigation and she hopes her findings will enable the charity to raise its donation income as a result of her findings." What research strategy is being described here?

A) Action research
B) Grounded research
C) Biased research
D) Survey research

Question 27

What is meant by the "action research spiral"?

A) Becoming increasingly involved in an organisation
B) Putting research into action in organisations
C) A hands off research strategy
D) The iterative nature of diagnosis, evaluation and action

Question 28

Action research is favoured by positivist researchers.

Question 29

Which of these is NOT a problem of being a 'practitioner-researcher'?

A) You will find it difficult to gain access to the organisation
B) You may find it hard to divorce the roles of employee and researcher
C) Your position in the organisation may bias people's reactions to your research
D) You may not think to question the 'basics' of your organisation

Question 30

"Dennis is carrying out research into the ways 'bullying' is dealt with by HRM managers. He conducts some interviews where he asks the managers to explain the behaviours exhibited in fictional workplace scenarios where bullying is clearly happening. From this data, he develops a hypothesis that managers often call bullying 'strong management'. He then interviews more managers and finds out that calling 'strong management' means HR do not feel they have to deal with the case under the 'bullying' grievance procedures. From this data he develops another hypothesis that HR managers are afraid of the reputational damage having cases of bullying in their organisation would bring. He then sets out to test this in more interviews."
What research strategy is this an example of?

A) Multi-stage sampling
B) Mixed methods
C) Grounded Theory
D) Triangulation

Question 31

Grounded theory is a logico-deductive process and not an interpretive one.

Question 32

Ethnography is a development of the social science anthropology.

Question 33

Which of these is a benefit of using ethnography?

A) You go native
B) You get a naturalistic view
C) It can be done quickly
D) It is good for hypothesis testing

Question 34

Mixed model research can combine ________.

A) Quantitative and qualitative methods
B) Qualitative analysis of quantitative data
C) Quantitative analysis of qualitative data
D) All of the above

Question 35

"Tim has decided to research female gender stereotypes in the fashion industry since the introduction of the Sex Discrimination Act came into force in the 1970's. He plans to conduct a visual analysis of pages of a company's mail order catalogues since 1972. " What kind of research strategy is this?

A) Archival
B) Survey
C) Experiment
D) Action research

Question 36

Which one of these is NOT normally associated with qualitative data?

A) An interview transcript
B) A magazine advert
C) A YouTube video
D) Pie Charts

Question 37

The combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods is referred to as ________.

A) Mono method
B) Multi method
C) Mixed methods
D) Any of these

Question 38

Using multiple research methods is always better than using one.

Question 39

Which of these (according to Bryman 2006) is a reason for using mixed-method research designs?

A) Complementarity
B) Cost
C) Ethics
D) All of the above

Question 40

Cross-sectional research studies ________.

A) A phenomenon at a particular point in time
B) A phenomenon in different industries
C) A phenomenon over a period of time
D) A phenomenon in different countries

Question 41

What is the correct term for the 'diary perspective' on research?

A) Cross-sectional
B) Snapshot
C) Grounded
D) Longitudinal

Question 42

What is meant by 'reliability' in research?

A) Research which yields consistent findings
B) Research that generates findings that could be reached by other researchers
C) Research that clearly shows how conclusions flow from the data
D) All of the above

Question 43

"Michaela is a manager of an IT firm interviewing her own employees about outsourcing. She suspects many of them have been telling her what they think she wants to hear." This is an example of ________.

A) Participant error
B) Participant Bias
C) Observer Error
D) Observer Bias

Question 44

"Ranj gives out his employee satisfaction survey to his participants the day after bonuses have been announced for all staff." What threat to the validity of his data does this pose?

A) Mortality
B) Testing
C) History
D) No threat at all

Question 45

Valid research actually measures what it claims to be about.

Question 46

Generalisability only causes researchers a problem if they claim their results have external validity.

Question 47

What is meant by the term 'logic leaps' in research?

A) Stating conclusions with little or no reasoning
B) Flashes of inspiration that guide your research design
C) Leaving out important literature
D) Development of new insights into a topic

Question 48

Ethical considerations in research design mean you should always take the most ideal data collection opportunity.

Question 49

Your research findings show that teenagers replace their mobile phones more frequently than any other age group. You conclude that teenagers are the highest spending mobile phone consumers. What have you done wrong here?

A) Failed to define the sample correctly
B) Acted unethically
C) Assumed an unsubstantiated causal relationship
D) Fallen pray to mortality bias

Question 50

Reliability and validity are crucial in establishing the credibility of research findings.