Week 3: Topic Selection & Problem Analysis

1. Week 3: Topic Selection & Problem Analysis Prepared & Delivered by: Dr. Khalid A. Dahleez Business Administration Department Islamic University of Gaza – IUG

2. Objectives: • Choose a strategy for finding a successful dissertation topic • Generate ideas that will help in the choice of a suitable research topic; • Identify the attributes of a good research topic; • Turn research ideas into a research project that has clear research question (s) and objectives; • know how to check out whether a topic will succeed • Identify a Suitable Research Gap (Contribution) • Setting out the stages of your research. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

3. Research Journey \ Process Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

4. First Advice • Think of research as a process. • As your topic evolves, you may find new questions arising that require you to create a new search strategy; • find additional sources; • and challenge your initial assumptions. • Keep an open mind throughout the process; • be curious; • and enjoy the detective work. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

5. Flowcharting the Research Process (1) Problem Discovery Selection of exploratory research technique Secondary (historical) data Pilot Study Experience Survey Case Study Problem Definition (Statement of research objectives) Survey (Interview, Questionnaire) Experiment (Laboratory, Field) Secondary Data Study Observation Selection of basic research method Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

6. Flowcharting the Research Process (2) Survey (Interview, Questionnaire) Experiment (Laboratory, Field) Secondary Data Study Observation Collection of Data (Fieldwork) Editing and Coding Data Sample Design Data Processing and Analysis Interpretation of Findings Probability Sampling Non-Probability Sampling Report Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

7. Critical Questions to be asked? • Where to begin? • What is my research topic? • How to begin? • Sources of research ideas? • Research Gap? • Research Contribution? • Which Industry? • ………….. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

8. Before you begin? • You have a hunch (لديك حدس) • Something is nagging (ملح)you • Something you are dissatisfied with • You’ve noticed a new trend and no one else • You have a desire to figure something out. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

9. FINDING A DISSERTATION TOPIC • It is quite possible to stumble into (تتعثر في) a good dissertation topic. • But by adopting a more systematic approach you • should find a topic: • that can be completed ممكن استكماله • that is suitable for your degree award مناسب للماجستير • that is enjoyable to complete ممتع Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

10. FINDING A DISSERTATION TOPIC (strategies) • The Burning Desire strategy الرغبة الجامحة • The Replication strategy التكرار لدراسة سابقة • The Career Goals strategy بناء على توقعات المسار الوظيفي • The Practical Problem Strategy بناء على مشكلة عملية • The Convenient Access Strategy وفق الوصول السهل • The Tutor-driven Strategy وفق توجهات المشرف • The Development Of Earlier Work Strategy استكمال لبحث سابق • The Important Problem Strategyبحث مشكلة مهمة • Horn, R. (2012). Researching and Writing Dissertations: A Complete Guide for Business: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

11. THE BURNING DESIRE STRATEGY • The Burning Desire strategy centres on an issue or a problem that you have wanted to investigate for a long time. • The topic is important to you, although you may nonetheless think it not specially important to the academic world or the professional world. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

12. The Burning Desire strategy: TYPICAL TOPICS • Typical topics include: • an investigation into stress relief at work • research into the length of holiday time in relation to work motivation • a statistical analysis of retirement age and gender • a study of family and/or work commitment Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

13. THE REPLICATION STRATEGY • The Replication strategy works by finding some published research in an area that interests you or your organisation, and adjusting the scope and context, and then repeating the research. • This is a fairly common approach in commercial and academic research because it directly builds on existing knowledge and data and represents a saying that is often heard in academia: ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

14. The Replication strategy: ADVANTAGES AND DRAWBACKS • There are a number of positives aspects to this strategy, including: • The literature is well defined. • The literature is well critiqued. • The method may have been developed and tested. • The possible lines of analysis are already established. • A survey instrument or a set of interview questions may already exist. • The research data can be compared with other studies. • Access and ethical issues will have been investigated. • The one drawback with this strategy is that your own personal motivation to complete the research may not be as high as it would be with the Burning Desire strategy. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

15. THE CAREER GOALS STRATEGY • The Career Goals strategy requires you to do some analysis of where you think your career path will lead in the next five years, and to develop a dissertation that will assist that career. • When using this strategy it is also worth discussing with your line supervisor the developmental potential of any study you may undertake. • In some circumstances your work organisation may have a very particular area of its business that needs research to be carried out. • Researching an organisational problem may also gain some useful support from your employer, frequently in the form of: • time away from your normal duties • finance to assist with the research costs. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

16. The Career Goals strategy: ADVANTAGES • Many of the difficult-to-solve issues around carrying out research are avoided using this strategy: • Access to most or all parts of your organisation should be granted once you have organisational support. • The support your employer can provide will prove invaluable in finding the time and motivation to complete the research. • You may well receive assistance from your colleagues and superiors in dealing with the practical and intellectual issues around the research. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

17. The Career Goals strategy: DRAWBACKS • There are on the other hand some significant downsides to this strategy that must be weighed against the benefits: • Your dissertation performance will quickly become part of your role and may well be assessed along with your work performance. • This is fine if all is going well – but research tends to have a life and path of its own. • Your workplace line manager may well be looking for scope and results beyond what can be delivered in a dissertation. • The outcomes expected by the university for the award of a higher degree may be substantially different from the outcomes expected by your organisation. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

18. THE PRACTICAL PROBLEM STRATEGY • Practical organisational problems exist everywhere and can provide useful dissertation topics. • These topics may relate to your own organisation or may be represented in the professional press. • Practical problems generated from within your own organisation may have many characteristics of those aimed at by the Career Goals strategy, and should benefit from the advantages of following that strategy. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

19. The Practical Problems strategy: DRAWBACK • There is one major issue to be overcome with basing your dissertation on a practical problem from your own organisation, and that is the need to untangle (يفك) the problem and place it in a theoretical context. • This clarifying, untangling, and placing in theoretical context is vital if the dissertation is to succeed in fulfilling the requirements of your degree. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

20. THE CONVENIENT ACCESS STRATEGY • This strategy focuses on securing one of the most difficult aspects of dissertations first – access – and then fitting the research around the access you have acquired. • The routes to access are many and varied, and include: • a family member or acquaintance who has a senior position in an organisation • organisations where you have previously worked and with which you have maintained good contacts • the organisation in which you currently work • organisations that have traditionally been used for research – schools, hospitals, universities • family-owned organisations in general • your own university (often used as the access of last resort) • access through your personal networks to organisations Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

21. The Convenient Access strategy: POTENTIAL DRAWBACKS • The Convenient Access strategy always requires some compromises in relation to the research as planned from a theoretical or practical standpoint. • You may be able to get access to look at reward management in general, but not access to data about individual rewards. • As a general rule, the more confidential aspects of organisations and employees will be restricted. • This requires that you follow the strategy as stated, in that you negotiate the access rights and then develop the research proposal. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

22. THE TUTOR-DRIVEN STRATEGY • Your supervising tutor will probably be involved in a number of research areas and will generally be responsive to developing those areas through your dissertation. • There is also scope to do replication studies from the tutor’s research or a former student’s research. • Tutors who are managing research studies will also be responsive to developing dissertations on some aspect of the funded research. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

23. The Tutor-Driven strategy: ADVANTAGES AND DRAWBACKS • As with all the strategies, there are benefits from this approach and probably some downsides. • The main advantage to this strategy is that the tutor will know the research area very well and will be able to guide you quickly and efficiently towards the appropriate literature, method and techniques of analysis. • The tutor will also have a personal interest in your research and will be fully motivated to assist you in completing the study. • However, this approach can sometimes feel like a tutor-set assignment, with the topic substantially driven by the tutor, and it is very possible to become demotivated by the apparent lack of personal control. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

24. THE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLIER WORK STRATEGY • This strategy builds on work you have already completed. The topic for the dissertation is a development of earlier work – possibly: • a development of an undergraduate project or dissertation • an assignment from either undergraduate work or higher-degree work Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

25. The Development of Earlier Work strategy: ADVANTAGES AND DRAWBACKS • The advantage to this approach is that some of the early tasks – such as reviewing the literature, investigating the method, the collection of some data, and some data analysis – may have taken place. • Most of these areas will have to be revisited and improved upon, but the basic groundwork will have been done. • Dissertations developed along these lines can sometimes become boring and tedious because the work can seem like mere duplication of what has been done previously. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

26. THE IMPORTANT PROBLEM STRATEGY • The final strategic approach to finding a dissertation topic is to investigate one of the important problems of the time. The notion of ‘the important problem’ changes quite quickly, and one way to discover what is regarded as important to academics and professionals is to scan the professional journals, such as: • People Management • The Economic Journal • The British Journal of Management • TheSociological Review • The British Journal of Sociology Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

27. CHECKING OUT YOUR TOPIC IDEA • Theory: all research is driven by theory, and at this early stage you have to discover the areas of theory that have been used by other researchers in completing their work. • Empirical research: most topic areas will have had some research carried out. You can find this research on websites and represented in journal articles. For very important topics, textbooks will have some representation of the main research in the area. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

28. Formulating And Clarifying Your Research Topic • Saunders, M. N., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2016). Research methods for business students (7 ed.). England: Pearson Education Limited. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

29. Attributes of a good research topic (1) Capability: is it feasible? • Are you fascinated by منبهرthe topic? • Do you have the necessary research skills? • Can you complete the project in the time available? • Will the research still be current when you finish? • Do you have sufficient financial and other resources? • Will you be able to gain access to data? Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

30. Attributes of a good research topic (2) Appropriateness: is it worthwhile? • Will the examining institute's standards be met? • Does the topic contain issues with clear links to theory? • Are the research questions and objectives clearly stated? • Will the proposed research provide fresh insights into the topic? • Are the findings likely to be symmetrical? • Does the research topic match your career goals? Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

31. Attributes of a good research topic (3) And - (if relevant) Does the topic relate clearly to an idea you were given - possibly by your organisation ? Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

32. Formulating And Clarifying Your Research Topic • Saunders, M. N., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2016). Research methods for business students (7 ed.). England: Pearson Education Limited. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

33. Generating research ideas Useful Techniques • Rational thinking • Creative thinking • Searching the literature • Scanning the media • Brainstorming • Relevance Trees • Exploring past projects • Discussion • Keeping an ideas notebook Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

34. Rational thinking and creative thinking Table 2.1 More frequently used techniques for generating and refining research ideas Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

35. Rational thinking and creative thinking • These techniques will generate possible project one of two outcomes: • One or more possible project ideas that you might undertake; • Absolute panic خوف وتردد because nothing in which you are interested or which seems suitable has come to mind. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

36. Examining own strengths and interests • Having some academic knowledge • Look at those assignments for which you have received good grade. • You may, as part of your reading, be able to focus more precisely on the sort of ideas about which you wish to conduct your research • There is a need to think about your future Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

37. Looking at past project title • Dissertations; • Theses. Scan your university’s list of past project titles for anything that captures your imagination • Scanning actual research projects. You need to beware. The fact that a project is in your library is no guarantee of the quality of the arguments and observations it contains. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

38. Discussion • Colleagues, friends, university tutors, practitioner and professional groups Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

39. Searching the literature • As part of your discussions, relevant literature may also be suggested. Sharp et al, (2002) discuss types of literature that are of particular use for generating research ideas. These include: • Article in academic and professional journals; • Reports; • Books. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

40. Scanning the media • Keeping up to date with items in the news can be a very rich source of ideas Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

41. Keeping a notebook of ideas • One of the more creative techniques that we all use is to keep a notebook of ideas. • All this involves is simply noting down any interesting research ideas as you think of them and, of equal importance, what sparked off your thought. • You can then pursue the idea using more rational thinking technique later. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

42. Relevance tree • You start with a broad concept from which you generate further (usually more specific) topics. • Each of these topics forms a separate branch from which you can generate further, more detailed sub branches. • As you proceed down the sub branches more ideas are generated and recorded. • These can then be examined and a number selected and combined to provide a research idea Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

43. Brainstorming • Define your problem – that is, the sorts of ideas you are interested in – as precisely as possible. • Ask for suggestions, relating to the problem • Record all suggestions, observing the following rules: • No suggestion should be criticized or evaluated in any way before all ideas have been considered; • All suggestions, however wild, should be recorded and considered • As many suggestions as possible should be recorded. • Review all the suggestions and explore what is meant by each. • Analyze the list of suggestions and decide which appeal to you most as research ideas why. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

44. Refining research ideas • Using the Delphi Technique • Conducting a preliminary study • Continually testing out your ideas • Integrating ideas • Refining topics given to you by your organisation Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

45. The Delphi technique • This involves using a group of people who are either involved or interested in the research idea to generate and choose a more specific research idea. To use this technique you need: • To brief the members of the group about the research idea; • At the end of the briefing to encourage group members to seek clarification and more information as appropriate; • To ask each member of the group including the originator of the research ideas based on the idea that has been described (justification) Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

46. The Delphi technique • To collect the research ideas in unedited and non-attributable form and to distribute them to all members of the group; • A second cycle of the process (steps 2 to 4)in which comment on the research ideas and revise their own contributions in the light of what others have said; • Subsequence cycles of the process until a consensus is reached . These either follow a similar pattern (steps 2 to 4)in or use discussion. Voting or some other method. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

47. Formulating And Clarifying Your Research Topic • Saunders, M. N., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2016). Research methods for business students (7 ed.). England: Pearson Education Limited. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

48. Propose questions worth exploring. • Propose questions worth exploring. • Pose a few questions that seem worth researching — questions that you want to explore; • That you feel would interest your audience; • and about which there is a substantial debate. • Examples: • How can Palestinian Academic Institutions survive during low demand? • كيف تستطيع الجامعات الفلسطينية تحسين مستوياتها البحثية بالرغم من قلة مواردها المالية؟ Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

49. Refine Your Questions • Narrow down the questions you have posed by eliminating those that are not researchable • According to Brink & Wood (2001) researchable questions are • Focused on fact not opinion – answers will help to describe or explain a phenomenon • “Now” questions - deal with current, significant issues • Relevant - Generate useable information • Action oriented - usually require you to do something and provide direction for the rest of the research process. Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez

50. Refine Your Questions • As you think about possible questions, make sure that they are: • appropriate lines of inquiry for a research thesis. • Choose questions that are narrow (not too broad), • challenging (not too bland عليل/غير محبوك), • and grounded (not too speculative تحزيري). Research Methodlogy - Assistant Prof. Khalid Dahleez