GSB 656 Methods in Organisational Research
This unit concentrates on research pertinent to management and organisations. It is designed as an introductory unit for those engaging in research for the first time. No prior knowledge of research methods is assumed. The unit focuses essentially on:
- understanding the nature of research, especially the difference between knowledge gained from disciplined inquiry as opposed to knowledge gained from other forms of inquiry (focus of Assignment 1); and
- getting into research (Assignment 2 concentrates on defining a research problem and formulating meaningful research questions and Assignment 3 offers the chance to develop a research proposal).
The unit does not have a heavily statistical, ‘number-crunching’ emphasis but is broader in scope.
If students learn only four things from doing this unit, we hope they will be that:
- research is not merely gathering data and writing a report;
- research-based knowledge differs a great deal from knowledge gained from experience, opinion, commonsense and other forms of informal and tacit knowledge;
- the nature of the problem and the research questions we ask (as well as our guiding philosophical stances) guide our choice of research methods; and
- getting into ‘real’ research requires careful, thorough and systematic planning.
Students who have studied the unit in the past rate its value highly. They appreciate greatly the content—dimensions of research, tools of research, planning and designing a research project and writing the research report—and the quality of the feedback provided. Some topics they have proposed for research in the past include: financial and non-financial reward systems in companies; under-performing organisations; turnover costs and developing effective retention strategies for staff; culture change during business mergers; bullying in organisations; enhancing standards of customer service; and leadership style as a major determinant in a work group.