Conducting Academic Research – Key Considerations Part 2

Picking up from where we ended the writing last week, we will examine the primary data approach, assuming Motivation as the research topic.

This approach is suitable for this research considering the assumed topic, Motivation. Therefore, information can best be gathered directly from the employees and managers so as to identify the current key factors that motivates, which are peculiar to the company of study. Whereas, secondary data approach cannot provide such data, which might be as a result of secondary data not being updated.

However, information gathered using primary approach will be more reliable and relates to whichever company is being studied, but the cost and time involved in gathering such information may be greater when compared to secondary approach (which focuses on data that are already available).

Nevertheless, secondary data such as publications on motivational theories can be used to support the primary data obtained.

Note that the target population for obtaining primary data for the study will be restricted to internal sources. The sample size should include randomly selected employees, which should include the managers from each unit of the target population.

Sources of Information Using Primary Data Approach

In order to gather sufficient and appropriate information to help reach an authentic and reliable conclusion, data should be obtained from the following sources:

Employees

These sources are directly involved in functions that require adequate motivation to get the work done effectively and efficiently, therefore, data for the research analysis should be gathered directly from employees using the questionnaires and interviewing those expected to be knowledgeable about the job and affected by the subject matter.

Unit Managers

Unit managers are heads of each unit within the company, they are responsible for supervising activities of the employees. This source will provide information to evaluate and verify data provided by employees while the information obtained from this source will be used to corroborate the explanation of the analysis of research results so as to give meaning to the research.

HR Manager

This source is responsible for the overall welfare of employees in the company. Therefore, the researcher should consider it appropriate to interview him/her considering his/her position within the company of study, so as to confirm certain issues raised by employees.

Method of Gathering Primary Data

Questionnaires

A questionnaire is a list of questions, usually printed and distributed to respondents for replies that can be analyzed for usable information.

In order to obtain reliable and useful information for the research report, a good number of questionnaires should be distributed to selected staff within the Company, on a random basis.

Ensure that the questions adequately capture areas of key interest of the respondents and should focus around factors present at the Company of study. Due to anonymity nature of questionnaire, respondent opinions will be freely expressed which will make the data collected more reliable and very suitable for analysis. However, in some cases, not all questionnaires may be returned.

Interview

Oral interview involves verbal communication between the researcher and the respondent. This method can be used independently or to compliment the questionnaire method. Unit heads should be interviewed to understand what they think motivates their team members and how they have been able to respond positively to those factors.

I hope you found this piece helpful for your next research work.