Table of Contents
#1: The syllabus is attached. Please read the syllabus and react to it. Please engage in a very objective discussion regarding the course syllabus. Please speak out NOW!
IET 698 course is ‘Research Methods in Technology’ and the syllabus seems to be made for complete development of our research skills. The course has recommended four books which are sufficient for the purpose.
#2: Please read the attached article and discuss: What is the purpose for graduate education. Please read the attachment and discuss on the TEXT format NOT attachment.
The article “The Purpose for Graduate Education” seems to be clearly stating the purpose of graduate education and is also very encouraging for us to understand graduate learning process. I agree with the author that, “The major function of the Graduate College is to motivate and educate a person at an advanced level to be an independent intellectual leader in his or her profession and in research.” because our carrier after graduate studies needs independent thinking and solution finding ability. Further the author mentioned that “the graduate student should learn, as distinguished from being taught.” I think this is the punch-line of this article because graduate education is not just passing certain minimum requirement of courses but is to develop a student capable enough to analyze and explore the problem to find unique solution.
#1: What is research? Why should there be any question about the definition of research?
Research is a process of determining, acquiring, and analyzing past and present data to enable the decision makers to make proper decisions to improve organizations business performance.
Even-though any work can be called as research only when it meets certain standards like clearly defined purpose, planed design, adequate analysis and justified conclusion.
#2: Managers who wish to have information on which to base a decision face do-or-buy situation. What are the problems they face in selecting either of these alternatives?
I think very first aspect to look for in do-or-buy situation will be confidentiality of the requirement because if the need is fairly confidential then all other aspects can be manipulated. Then the manager should think about the time. If they have sufficient time to conduct the experiment then they should think about other things like coast difference self built and outsourced product, equipment and space needed to conduct experiments, quality difference and if their employee has sufficient and relevant experience for the research. If the manager has information about all these things then he can make correct decision whether to do or buy.
#3: You are manager of the Midwestern of a major corporation, supervising five animal feed plants scattered over four states. Corporate headquarters asks you to conduct an investigation to determine whether any of these plants should be closed, expanded, moved, or reduced. IS there a possible conflict between your roles as research and manager? Explain.
Obviously there will be conflicts between my role as a manager and researcher; it would be great to play both though. For example if any of five plants is suffering loss, as a researcher I will recommend to close it because my organization is facing problem but as a manager I will have to think about my employees too. I can’t close the plant and leave them unemployed, because as a manager making profit is not the only goal for me.
On the other hand as a researcher, I would know what is going wrong with particular plant and as a manager I can take proper decisions to get the best out of it.
#4: The new president of an old, established company is facing a problem. The company is currently unprofitable and is, in the president’s opinion, operating inefficiently. The company sells a wide line of equipment and supplies to the dairy industry. Some items it manufactures, and many it wholesales to dairies, creameries, and similar plants. Because the industry is changing in several ways, survival will be more difficult in the future. In particular, many equipment companies are bypassing the wholesalers and selling directly to dairies. In particular, many equipment companies are bypassing the wholesalers and selling directly to dairies. In addition, many of the independent dairies are being taken over by large food chains. How might research help the new president make the right decisions? In answering this question, consider the areas of marketing and finance as well as the whole company.
In order to improve company’s condition president should thrust both internal and external research. As stated in the problem other companies are doing well than his company then they should run a survey on competitors regarding what new products they are selling, production procedure, machineries and marketing. This research will enable them to compare their products, machineries and marketing skills with other growing firms. After external research they should run a survey within the company to match and differences with competitors. Check finances if they can afford necessary changes. Thy will also have to upgrade their production process with new machineries. They will also have to look into the marketing department to meet new marketing competitions.
#5: You have received a research report done by a consultant for your firm, a life insurance company. The study is a survey of morale in the home office and covers the opinions of about 500 secretaries and clerks plus about 100 executives and actuaries. You are asked to comment on its quality. What will you look for?
Before making any comment on the research report I will first look at the purpose of the research if it is clearly defined or not. Then I will go through survey questionnaires whether questions valid for the purpose or not. Then I will look for the process used for research and if it meets ethical standards. Whether research limitations are stated clearly and if are they valid or not? Then I will go through various plots and graphs in research findings and check if it supports the conclusion of the research.
#6: As area sales manager of a company manufacturing and marketing outboard engines, you have been assigned the responsibility of conducting a research study to estimate the sales potential of your products in the domestic (U.S. or Canadian) market. Discuss hey issues and concerns arising from the fact that you, the manager, are also the researcher.
If I am playing role of both manager and researcher it can lead to biased research output, because as a manager I might want only positive outcomes conflicting the reality just to save my job or salary. On the other hand being a manager I can work on this research quick and more efficiently, as a manager I am already familiar with the existing market conditions.
#7: List defining characteristics of the Scientific Method (Research)
Scientific research characteristics can be listed as follows :
1. Clearly defined purpose
2. Detailed research process
3. Thoroughly planned design
4. High ethical standards
5. Limitations addressed
6. Adequate analysis
7. Unambiguous presentation
8. Justified conclusion
9. Credentials
#8: Explain and differentiate between Omnibus studies and Syndicated research?
Omnibus studies is the oldest method of market research. In this method different business sectors can survey same population, with their own questionnaires. This method considers large population so is highly reliable.
Syndicated research consists survey within the company periodically to keep the track of timely changes in the organization.
#9: Go to the Assignment Section, open the Readings folder, click on the article, Digitization and Graphic Communication .............". Read and review the article and post your critical review on Literature, Methodology, Findings, and Summary.
Literature: The author Ms. Sartorius has provided sufficient references for her article The article Digitization and Graphic Communication Education, but some of them merely matches the provided data.
Methodology: This article was hard to read but the author has presented the topic nicely. The subject seems to be flowing continuously through the article. The author has supported her research with sufficient references.
Findings and summary: the author Ms. Sartorius has explained how technology is affecting employment. Technology has eliminated lots of jobs but it is creating jobs too, the only difference is the requirement of jobs. Lastly in summery section she explained how educational system must change to adapt the changing job requirement.
#1: Go to the External Link, click on the IMD site, click on World Competitiveness Center, Click on World Competitiveness Yearbook, visit the URL (http://www.imd.ch/documents/wcc/content/eSummary.pdf) - The World Competitiveness Landscape in 2006, review the summary and present your opinion on the following 3 topics of the paper On FORUM Six of the Discussion Board. The topics are:1) Some governments have become a burden for competitiveness 2) competitive people are everything, and 3) location is essential. Please engage in discussions. NO ATTACHMENT.
Some governments have become a burden for competitiveness:
The author stated that “Ranking is calculated by combining four factors of competitiveness Economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure.” Competitiveness is the balance between government policies and growth. The government which stimulates competitiveness and provides environment to be competitive for businesses and employees certainly helps the growth. But some of the governments like Italy, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico failed to perform on certain fronts like budget, debs, taxes and bureaucracy which hinders growth. The author has clearly explained that how growth of the country can be hindered because of the imbalance between economy and social competitiveness.
Competitive People are Everything:
The author compared Germany and India to explain his point. Eagerness to succeed and willingness are the qualities of competitiveness and creating wealth. Cause reasonable labor coast and appropriate working hours attracts the companies to relocate. If certain country like India has cheap labor and more working hours then companies will go for relocating to India for the production, creating lots of jobs and opportunities which on the other hand helps grow country’s economy.
Location is essential:
Location is the most important factor for the organizations to build or relocate a plant. Availability of cheap, skilled labor and raw material are the key factors. Globalization has made the things easier by off-shoring and out-sourcing which provides mobility to organization. At the same time there is a risk of creating competitors for tomorrow.
#2: Please read and discuss the following discussion (Q2) in page 131. Free Waters in Miro Beach: Boaters Inc. versus City Government (page 131)
I think city commissioners have violated the code of ethics in too many ways. It seems like they were continuously missing the goal and so took wrong decisions. They wanted to save money by utilizing research proposals by themselves with unskilled surveyors. On the other hand they engaged private investigators they spent money for the result they wanted.
Boaters, who have right to defend themselves were doing what they needed to do. In a manner they were polluting the city but they were paying their taxes to help community there. Whatever steps city commissioners took, were going to affect city’s business.
As a summery city commissioners were unethical and wrong while handling this problem.
#2: You are the administrative assistant for a division chief in a large holding company that owns several hotels and theme parks. You and the division chief have just come from the CEO’s office, where you were informed that the guest complaints related to housekeeping and employee attitude are increasing. Your on-site managers have mentioned some tension among workers, but have not considered it unusual. The CEO and your division chief instruct you to investigate. Suggest at least three different types of research that might be appropriate to the situation.
I think I will run a survey among employees regarding their job satisfaction and team work. I will look for the reason for tension among them and will try to solve it. Then interview each employee to know what problem they are facing while working.
Second thing is to survey customers regarding their experience during the stay regarding employee behavior and service. I will try to socialize with customers as one of them so that I can get correct feedback.
I will ask my trustworthy people to visit hotels and parks as customers and experience the problem
#3: Propose one or more hypotheses for each of the following variable pairs, specifying which is the IV and which is the DV. Then develop the basic hypothesis to include at least one moderating variable or intervening variable.
(a) The Index of Consumer Confidence and the business cycle.
(b) Level of worker output and closeness of worker supervision.
(c) Student GPA and level of effort in a class required by student’s major.
a. The Index of Consumer Confidence (DV) and the business cycle (IV).
Customer confidence increases with business cycle, especially in newer firms.
b. Level of worker output (DV) and closeness of worker supervision (IV).
Worker output increases with increased worker supervision, especially in large production line.
c. Student GPA (DV) and level of effort (IV) in a class required by student’s major. Student’s GPA in major increases with increased student’s effort, when there are too many subjects to concentrate on.
#4: You have been asked to determine how hospitals prepare and train volunteers. Since you know relatively little about this subject, how will you find out? Be as specific as possible.
First thing I will do is to go online and gather some more information about volunteer’s training. Then I will survey hospitals which prepare and train volunteers. In the survey I will try to gather information about criteria, abilities and procedures. Then I will interview hospital administration and trainers regarding training procedures. Interviewing people who had volunteered in past will be very useful.
#5: Please read and discuss the the following Question in pages 131 - Chapter 5 - Ethics in Research Competitive Coup in the In-Flight Magazine (page 131)
I think that competitiveness is not everything, ethics does matter pretty much. I would suggest not to use that document although it is opposite to competitiveness but it sticks to ethics. There were two choices for her one is to use the document and save lot of money for her company and other is to return it without even reading it. It seems that it is appropriate to use it career wise, but I don’t think it is legal to use someone’s information without permission.
#1: What are the three types of evidence a research seeks when testing causal hypotheses? Explain.
Experimental Evidence: Experiments are designed to determine if one factor really causes the orher one.
Comparative Evidence: comparisons are made between behaviour of one factor with respect to changes in other factor.
Anecdotal Evidence: it starts with observation which comes from testimonies in which people find simmilar patterns and developes in a hypothesis.
#2: What problems of secondary data quality must researchers face? How can they deal with them?
Researcher might face certain problems while handling secondary data, as data may be nither valid or reliable, instruments or data collection methodes may have changed over the time, the data may b poorly documented, limited access, and most important is credibility of the source.
Researcher should understand the point of view of the research for which perticular data is gathered. Then he should look for the group of users for which that data is gathered. Researcher should consider the period and situation when data was collected cause dataa may decay over time and became less usefull. Also Researcher should look at the credibility of the source.
#3: Assume that you are asked to investigate the use of mathematical programming in accounting applications. You decide to depend on secondary data source. What search tools might you use? Which do you think would be the most fruitful? Sketch a flow diagram of your search sequence.
The challenge with secondary data is to assure that the data appropriately address our research question. Before starting search I will gather information about range of variables that I am going to use mathematical application. Then I will search for related data sets on internet at the same time I will have to consider about credibility of the source. Then will check in Electronic database for related sets of data. If I found some data set then I will try to use it with mathematical programme and look for the results if they are closer enoush to expected outcome. I will also try to validate the result theoretically. If they matches then mathematical model is all set to use for desired accounting application.
#4: What is data mining?
Data mining is a principle of sorting and analyzing through large amount of data and pickingout revelent information. It is a powerful technology with a great potential to help companies to focus on the important information out of very large sets of collected data. Mining tools can predict behaviors and future trends, allowing businesses to make proactive decisions. Data mining tools can be used for solving complex business questions which were too time consuming traditionally.
#5: Explain how each of the five evaluation factors for a secondary source influences its management decision-making value:
(a) Purpose, (b) Scope, (c) Authority, (d) Audience, (e) Format
Purpose: What point of view does the author represent? Is the website sponsored by a company or organization that advocates a certain philosophy?
Scope: What is the extensiveness of the article, book, website or other material? Is it a general work that provides an overview of the topic or is it specifically focused on only one aspect of your topic
Authority: Who is the author? What are his or her academic credentials? What else has this author written? It helps to search the author's name in a general web search engine like Google.
Audience: Who is the intended audience for this source? Is the material too technical or too clinical? Is it too elementary or basic?
Format: A bibliography, along with footnotes, indicates that the author has consulted other sources and serves to authenticate the information that author is presenting.
#1: Distinguish among response error, interviewer error, and nonresponse error.
Response error occurs due to currepted data reported by interviews or interviewees. Interviewer error: Reported data may differ from the origional data because of biased interviewer or when the interviewer cannot successfully encourage the intended participant to respond.
Non-response error occurs due to unavailability of participants or if the interviewee does not accurately answer the questions.
#2: How do environmental factors affect response rates in personal interviews? How can we overcome these environmental problems?
The respondent can be influenced by the environment set by the interviewer. If some authority interviews someone, if can lead respondent to provide false answers, answers in rushed manner, or no-response.
Environmental effect can be reduced by providing a quiet and ‘private’ space to the interviewer to interview the respondent. interviewer should be carefully selected and skilled to reduce environmental problems.
#3: Assume you are planning to interview shoppers in a shopping mall about their views on increased food prices and what the federal government should do about them. In what different ways might you try to motivate shoppers to cooperate in your survey?
To motivate shoppers to cooperate in survey first thing to keep in mind is the time of the interview, it shouldent be a busy day. keep the interview as short as possible. The interviewer should provide good introduction to the issue and its seriousness. enguaging a Well dressed and skilled person will be helpful.
#4: In recent years, in-home personal interviews have grown more costly and more difficult to compete. Suppose, however, you have a project in which you need to talk with people in their homes. What might you do to hold down costs and increase response rate?
First thing is to select the sample space, i will select the interviewees in close neighbourhood. This cluster sample will reduce transportation cost. Then will setup appointments by phone, I will leave questionnaires for persons can not be contacted provided with a self-addressed and stamped envelope for their return.
#5:When and under what conditions you will use the following (give your reason):
1. A personal interview,
2. A telephone survey,
3. A self-administered questionnaire.
1. Personal Interview is used to report answers for complex questions requiring clarification. This method will cost effective and time saving when cluster sample is used.
2. Telephone Interview is undertaken when samples are dispersed over large area. Effective for short questions (Y/N type questions)
3. Self-administered is used for simple survey among educated group of people. Uses easier questionaries to survey among large number of people in short time, very cost effective.
Even-though any work can be called as research only when it meets certain standards like clearly defined purpose, planed design, adequate analysis and justified conclusion.
On the other hand as a researcher, I would know what is going wrong with particular plant and as a manager I can take proper decisions to get the best out of it.
1. Clearly defined purpose
2. Detailed research process
3. Thoroughly planned design
4. High ethical standards
5. Limitations addressed
6. Adequate analysis
7. Unambiguous presentation
8. Justified conclusion
9. Credentials
Syndicated research consists survey within the company periodically to keep the track of timely changes in the organization.
Methodology: This article was hard to read but the author has presented the topic nicely. The subject seems to be flowing continuously through the article. The author has supported her research with sufficient references.
Findings and summary: the author Ms. Sartorius has explained how technology is affecting employment. Technology has eliminated lots of jobs but it is creating jobs too, the only difference is the requirement of jobs. Lastly in summery section she explained how educational system must change to adapt the changing job requirement.
The author stated that “Ranking is calculated by combining four factors of competitiveness Economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure.” Competitiveness is the balance between government policies and growth. The government which stimulates competitiveness and provides environment to be competitive for businesses and employees certainly helps the growth. But some of the governments like Italy, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico failed to perform on certain fronts like budget, debs, taxes and bureaucracy which hinders growth. The author has clearly explained that how growth of the country can be hindered because of the imbalance between economy and social competitiveness.
Competitive People are Everything:
The author compared Germany and India to explain his point. Eagerness to succeed and willingness are the qualities of competitiveness and creating wealth. Cause reasonable labor coast and appropriate working hours attracts the companies to relocate. If certain country like India has cheap labor and more working hours then companies will go for relocating to India for the production, creating lots of jobs and opportunities which on the other hand helps grow country’s economy.
Location is essential:
Location is the most important factor for the organizations to build or relocate a plant. Availability of cheap, skilled labor and raw material are the key factors. Globalization has made the things easier by off-shoring and out-sourcing which provides mobility to organization. At the same time there is a risk of creating competitors for tomorrow.
Boaters, who have right to defend themselves were doing what they needed to do. In a manner they were polluting the city but they were paying their taxes to help community there. Whatever steps city commissioners took, were going to affect city’s business.
As a summery city commissioners were unethical and wrong while handling this problem.
Second thing is to survey customers regarding their experience during the stay regarding employee behavior and service. I will try to socialize with customers as one of them so that I can get correct feedback.
I will ask my trustworthy people to visit hotels and parks as customers and experience the problem
(a) The Index of Consumer Confidence and the business cycle.
(b) Level of worker output and closeness of worker supervision.
(c) Student GPA and level of effort in a class required by student’s major.
Customer confidence increases with business cycle, especially in newer firms.
b. Level of worker output (DV) and closeness of worker supervision (IV).
Worker output increases with increased worker supervision, especially in large production line.
c. Student GPA (DV) and level of effort (IV) in a class required by student’s major. Student’s GPA in major increases with increased student’s effort, when there are too many subjects to concentrate on.
(a) Purpose, (b) Scope, (c) Authority, (d) Audience, (e) Format