CLASSIFICATION OF RESEARCH DESIGNS

      In selecting a research design for one's study, you may be guided by a simple classification system that defines all the variations to be considered.  This system looks at research designs as a complex concept that may be viewed from at least eight different perspectives, namely:

a) the degree to which the research problem hase been crystallized (the study may be exploratory or formal) b) the method of data collection (studies may be observational or survey)
c) the power of the researcher to affect the variables under study (the two major types of research are the experimental and ex post facto)
d) the purpose of the study (research studies may be descriptive or causal)
e) the time dimension (research may be cross-sectional or longitudinal)
f) the topical or the breadth and depth of the study (a case or a statistical study)
g) the research environment (field or laboratory setting)
h) subject's perception of the research (normal activity or deviation fro  everyday routines) (Emory,1991,p.12).

A.  DEGREE OF PROBLEM CONCEPTUALIZATION

      A study may be viewed as either exploratory or formal.  The essence of distinction between the two is the degree of structure and the immediate objective of the study.

      Exploratory studies tend to be loosely strucutured with an objective of learning what the major research tasks are to be.  The immediate purpose of exploration is usually to develop hypotheses or questions for future research.

      The formal study begins where the exploration leaves off.  It begins with a hypothesis or a question and involves precise procedures with data source specifications.  The goal of a formal research design is to test hypothesis or answer the research questions.  All studies have elements of both exploration and formality.

B.  METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION

      The method of data collection leads to the distincition between interrogation and monitoring processes.

      Interrogation involves asking questions and collecting responses by personal or impersonal means.  The collection may result from interview or telephone conversations, self-administered or self-report instruments sent through the mails or left in convenient locations or transmitted electronically or through some other means.

      Monitoring involves making observations.  Some examples would include a traffic count at an intersection, a search of library collection and an observation of the actions of a group of decision makers without trying to elicit responses from them.

C.  RESEARCHER'S CONTROL OF VARIABLES
     
      This factor would distinguish between the experimental and the ex-post facto research.  In an experiment, there is an attempt on the part of the researcher to control and/or manipulate the variables of the study.  Experimentation provides the most powerful support possible for a hypothesis of causation.

      In an ex-post facto design, investigators have no control over the variables in the sense of being able to manipulate them.  They can only report what has happened or what is happening.  The researcher is limited to holding the factors constant by judicious selection of subjects according to strict sampling procedures and by statistical manipulation of findings.

D.  THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

      The purpose of the study would classify design into the descriptive and the causal.  If the research is concerned with finding out who, what and when or how much, then the study is descriptive.  If the study asks why, or how one variabel affects another, the study is causal.

E.  THE TIME DIMENSION

      The time factor is the element that makes the cross-sectional study different from the longitudinal.  The former is carried out only once and the study represents a "snapshot" of one point in time whereas in the latter, research investigates the same people over a long repetitive period of time and tracks changes that occur over time through extended observations.  It is more expensive than the cross-sectional study.

F.  THE TOPICAL SCOPE

      This factor classifies research design into the statistical and the case study.  Designed for breadth than depth, statistical studies attempt to capture adequate;y the characteristics of a population by making inferences from a sample of items.  Hypotheses are tested quantitatively rather than qualitatively.  Generalizations about findings are presented based on the representativeness of the sample and the validity characteristics of the design.  Case studies place more emphasis ona full contextual analysis of a limited number of events or conditions and their interrrelations.

G.  THE RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT

      Designs that take place under actual environmental conditions are field studies and under simulated  conditions are laboratory studies.  Simulation is replicating the essence of a system or process.

H.  SUBJECTS' PERCEPTIONS

      The subjects' perception that research is being conducted may have a bearing on the results of the study.  If subjects believe that something out of the ordinary is happening, they may behave less naturally.  If done like a candid camera, behavior is as natural as possible.

THE RESEARCH DESIGN

All studies have certain procedures in common – a statement of the problem, collection and analysis of data, and conclusion, but each type of research has its own distinct design in terms of methods to be used including sampling, data gathering and data analysis.  Each research type is designed to answer a different type of question and represent a readily identifiable method or strategy uniquely different from the others.

The research design constitute the blueprint for the collection, measurement and analysis if data (Vockell, 1983,p.150).  In other words, in includes the plan, structure and strategy of inverstigation conceived so as to obtain answers to research questions and to control variance (Kerlinger, 1985,p.300).

The plan is the overall scheme or program of what the investigator will do from the writing the hypothesis to the final analysis of data.  The structure of the research is the outline, the scheme, the paradigm or model of the relations among the variables of a study.

The strategy includes the methods to be used to gather and analyze the data.  It implies how the research objectives will be reached and how the problems encountered in the research will be tackled.

Based on these components, a research design approximates an expression of both the structure of the research problem and the plan of investigation used to obtain empirical evidence on the relations of the variables in the problem.

Ackoff (1952,p.10) gives the distinction between design and methodology.

Whereas design exposes research decisions to evaluation before they are carried out, methodology actually makes the evaluation and exposes the method used at arriving at these design decisions so that it too can be evaluated beforehand.

Kerlinger (1986,p.280) explained that research designs are made to enable researchers to answer research questions as  validly, objectively, accurately and economically as possible.  Research plans are deliberately and specifically conceived and executed to bring empirical evidence to bear on the research problem.  The design also tells what observations to make, how to make them, and how to analyze the quantitative representations of the observations.  An adequate design suggest how many observations should be made and which variables are active and which are attribute.  We can then act to manipulate the active variables and then categorize and measure the attribute variables.  A design tells what type of statistical analysis to use and outlines possible conclusions to be drawn from the statistical analysis.

THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

      The scientific approach which is the foundation of all researches is a special systematized form of all reflective thinking and inquiry.  John Dewey, (1993,p.116), outlined a general paradigm of inquiry that has provided the basis of the scientific approach with the following components:

      1.  Problem-Obstacle-Idea

      The researcher encounters an obstacle to understanding, an incomprehensible unrest about observed and unobserved phenomena.  The most important step is to get the idea out into the open and express it into a reasonably manageable form.  Dewey (1993, p.118) said:

      "There is a troubled, perplexed, trying situation, where difficulty is as it were, spread throughout the entire situation, infecting it as a whole.  In stating the problem, one intellectualizes what is merely an emotional quality of the whole situation."

      2.  Hypothesis

      Intellectualizing the problem and turning back on experience for possible solutions precede the formulation of a hypothesis which is a conjectural statement, a tentative proposition about the relation between two or more phenomena or variables (Dewey,p.119).

      3.  Reasoning-Deduction is the step where one makes a deduction of the consequences of a hypothesis.  This is a deductive reasoning which requires experience and knowledge (Dewey, p.120).

      4.  Observation-Test-Experiment

      This involves testing the relation expressed by the hypothesis. Observation, testing and experimentation put the problem relation to empirical test.

      The steps of the scientific method follow a consecutive pattern, but they are not neatly fixed.  What is important is the controlled rationality of the scientific process, the interdependence of the parts of the process and the importance of the problem at hand.

      

MEANING OF RESEARCH

    
  Kerlinger (1986,p.10), defines research as the systematic, controlled and critical investigation of natural phenomena guided by theory and hypothesis about the presumed relations among phenomena.  Simply, it is the application of the scientific method to seek solutions to problems.

      With this definition, you are brought face-to-face with theory which is a set of interrelated propositions and constructs (concepts) that present a systematic view of phenomena by specifying relations among variables with the purpose of explaining and predicting the phenomena (Kidder, Selltiz, Wrightman and Cook, 1981,p.9).

      An example of theory is one that points out the positive relation between leadership and management behavior and formal training in management.  This relation, however, does not always hold true.  The author's doctoral dissertation (Fonollera, 1990, p.138) and other studies she cited revealed that formal training in management has no significant influence on the leadership and management effectiveness of a person. (Pambid, 1989, p.98).

      A hypothesis is also introduced here and defined as a conjectural statement, a tentative proposition about the relation between two or more phenomena or variables (Kerlinger, 1986,p.11).  

      Selltiz and Jahoda et al (1959,p.479) opined that research bridges the gap between the theoretical (what one thinks) and the experiential (what actually happens) domains.  The theoretical pole consists of the researcher's speculations about reality; the empirical pole contains the basic elemensts of what is actually happening in reality, in social groups and the individual.

      In order to be answerable by research, the questions must have one characteristic in common.  They must be such that observation or experimentation in the natural world can provide the needed information.  The scientific approach has a characteristic that no other method of attaining knowledge has:  self-correction.

      There are built-in checks all along the way to scientific knowledge.  These checks are so considered and used that they control and verify scientific activities and conclusions to the end of attaining dependable knowledge...  Scientists do not accept statements as true, even though the evidence at first looks promising.  They insist upon testing them.  They also insist that the testing procedure be open to public inspection (Kerlinger,p.264).

      When you are doing research, you should not be contented with the initial findings.  Go deeper using other methods and research designs, increasing samples or changing research instruments.  This is why you have to make and intensive and extensive review of literature to be able to discern vacuums in the field in which one is interested to spend time, money and effort to investigate on.

      Research is the manner in which we attempt to solve problems in a systematic effort to push back the frontiers of human ignorance or to confirm reality of the solutions to problems which other have presumably resolved (Leedy, 1986,p.9).  Ultimately, research is a way of thinking; a way of looking at accumulated facts so that these data become meaningful in the total process of discovering new insights and revealing new meanings.

      The checks used in scientific research are anchored as much as possible in reality lying outside the scientist's personal beliefs, biases, values, attitudes and emotions.  The best single word is objectivity... which is the agreement among "expert" judges on what is observed or what is to be done or has been done in research (Buchler, 1955, p.1).  But the scientific approach involves more than this.  More dependable knowledge is attained because science ultimately appeals to evidence.  Theory helps the scientists to attain greater objectivity.

      Scientists systematically and consciously use the self corrective aspect of the scientific approach (Polanyi, 1958, p.5).

       

DIFFICULTIES AND REWARDS OF RESEARCH

      Research is an abstract, conceptual and technical undertaking which requires vast amount of human and material resources with deferred rewards and gratification.  This is true, for you need a substantial amount of intellectual energy, a high level of communication skills, high degree of involvement and commitment and high degree of resourcefulness for funds, materials and othe assistance.  The dedicated researcher is devoted to his task, often working without regard to hours and without expectancy of immediate material rewards, pursuing research at great personal sacrifice.  Sometimes, you have to brave the ridicule of society when generating revolutionary and innovative ideas that are envisioned to change existing states of working, teaching, admistration, and institutions.

      But research has rewards more than the monetary gains you will receive for the expended efforts.  The various activities could lead t advencement in career, recognition by peers and authorities, travel, and /or sense of pesonal achievement.  Many are also actuated by the desire to see order where at first, there was only confusion.

      "Reward comes in the form of the aesthetic experience to discover the recurrent rhythms of nature, to feel the joy of genuine progress through the creation of something new, and self-fulfillment for leaving one's legacy to the vast reservoir of knowledge on Earth". (Good and Scates.1972,p.10) 

IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH

     
The progress of mankind has been a product of innumerable researches.  Man's continuous quest for the best environment that will enhance the satisfaction of his physical, social and spiritual needs has afforded him that indefatigable spirit to keep studying various phenomena around him, first randomly and later, scientifically.

      The role of research in man's march to progress can be gleaned from the following:

      The great progress of recent past has been possible because more number of people were at work on continually increasing the number of research projects... It is true that major adaptations to life can be made by the common man, and that convictions can be expanded and declared without the benefit of testing, but advances in the refined requirements of technology, and clearer insights into the intricate relations of scientific principles call for rigorous training, specialized equipment and extended, systematic endeavors (Good and Scates, 1972, p.4).

      Research is  journey towards the search for infinite knowledge both in modern and social sciences which are always unfinished processes as reflected in the following:

      "Whereas ancient science had the appearance of something completed, to which the notion of progress was not essential, modern science progresses into the infinite" (Jaspers, 1950,p.4.).

      In the field of business, research has been undertaken to serve as a voice on key national issues by providing research-based information to the commercial and industrial sectors as well as services such as product, consumer, advertising and image studies, public opinion polls, labor and employment data, viewership and listenership of mass communication and information for local and foreign inverstors.