UNIT-ONE: INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH

 Meaning of Research
The term ‘research’ in common language refers to search for knowledge. Hence, people say that research
is a means to acquire knowledge about any natural or human phenomena. So, some are of the opinion that
research is a careful investigation or inquiry, especially through search, for new facts in any branch of knowledge.
Similarly, some people simply like to define research as a systematized effort to gain new knowledge.
The word ‘research’ is composed of “re” + “search”. Here, ‘re’ means again and again, and ‘search’
means to explore something. Thus, we can say that research means to search again. We study the social or any
other problem again and again to find out something more about the phenomenon. Indeed, human nature is
always curious to learn, understand and investigate the phenomenon by raising different questions like how, why,
what, when etc. The first look may not always be adequate, so we look into the phenomenon again and again, and
study the problem differently as well as thoroughly each time. This process of searching again and again is
known as research, or research is searching the answers to questions.
“Research is an organized, systematic, data-based, critical, scientific enquiry or investigation into a
specific problem, undertaken with the objective of finding answers or solutions to it.”(Sekaran-2000)
“Research is a systematic and objective analysis and recording of observations that may lead to the
development of a theory.” (Best-1992)
“Research is a systematic and critical enquiry which aims to contribute to the advancement of knowledge
and wisdom.” (Bassey-1999)
Research is an academic activity and as such it comprises defining problem, formulating hypothesis,
collecting, organizing and evaluating data, making analysis and finding conclusions. In other words, it involves a
series of well-thought out activities of gathering, recording, analyzing and interpreting the data with the purpose
of finding answers to the problem. A systematic careful inquiry or investigation carried out to find out truth, to
create something new or to discover new knowledge or information or facts and figures or relationships or
interpretations for finding solution to a problem or generalization to formulate a theory and to expand, verify the
existing knowledge, may be broadly defined as research. Thus, the entire process by which we attempt to solve
problems is called research.
Research is thus, a knowledge building and continuous process. It generates new knowledge which can
be used for different purposes. Research indicates the addition of some new stock in the area of human
understanding and thereby addition in the existing human knowledge. It is used to develop theories, policies,
support decision making and solve the problems. As a conclusion, we can define research as an organized,
systematic, data-based, critical, scientific inquiry or investigation into a specific problem, undertaken with the
objective of finding answers or solutions to it. Research therefore, is an on-going and ever growing activity. The
research process involves a series of well-thought-out activities of gathering, recording, analyzing and
interpreting the data with the purpose of finding answers to the problem.
The entire processes based on the philosophies, principles and mechanisms of research by which we
attempt to solve problems or search the answers to questions are collectively known as the Research
Methodology. Research therefore, is an on-going and ever growing activity. Methodology includes brief
explanation of population and sampling, hypothesis, data collecting procedures, different statistical and financial
tools. Those systematic rules, methods or working system which is undertaken in research study is known as
research methodology.

 Nature and purpose of research

To discover a new subject or to verify the existing one, the researcher undertakes research. The basic
purpose of research is, therefore, to generate new knowledge. The nature and purpose of research can be outlined
as follows:
 Exploration (to search for the purpose of discovery): The first nature and purpose of research is to
explore the reality. When we see some events in the street or anywhere, it may be base for the real study.
 Description: The next nature and purpose of research is to describe the phenomenon under investigation.
Precise observation and description are the basis of research.
 Explanation: The nature and purpose of research is also to study the phenomena and provide an
explanation for them. A researcher is not completely satisfied with classifying or describing phenomena,
why something happens? Should be well explained.
 Generalization: It refers wider applicability of the research findings. The more generalizable the
research, the greater will be its usefulness and value.
 Prediction: It is one of the primary functions of research. Without prediction, the whole research study
may not be completed. So, related variables should be predicted for further study.
 Types of research
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 Social science research can be classified into the different categories such as descriptive or analytical
research, qualitative or quantitative research, conceptual or empirical research, historical research, decision-
oriented research etc. The first purpose of research is to solve a currently existing problem in the work setting and
the other purpose is to generate new knowledge in a particular area or to develop a base of knowledge upon
which theory can be built. On the basis of purpose of research, it can be divided into the following two groups.
(1) Fundamental research: This research is also known as pure or basic research. Fundamental research
is undertaken to improve understanding of certain problems that commonly occur in organizational setting, and
how to solve them. Hence, the purpose of this type of research is not to apply the findings to solve an immediate
problem at hand, but rather to understand more about certain phenomena and problems that occur in several
organizations and how they can be solved.
For example; The Human Resource Development manager commonly believes that on-the-job training
has a great positive impact on the productivity of workers. However, they have observed that the productivity of
workers over forty years of age does not improve from such training. Why is this so? What factors might be
responsible for the phenomenon? What type of training should be provided to improve the productivity of such
workers? Therefore, fundamental research only develops new theories to solve the different problems but it does
not apply theory.
(2) Applied research: Applied research deals with a specific problem to find a solution for it. The major
purpose of applied research is to answer the practical and useful questions about policies, programs, projects,
procedures or organizations. For example; Chaudhary group has to improve its productivity in order to remain
competitive in the market. There are two alternative strategies to improve its productivity. One is to pay more
attention to all of its existing brands and make continuous improvement; the other is to focus on new brand
development. Now, the Chaudhary group has to identify advantages and disadvantages of each alternative (i.e. of
existing and new brand) and which alternative is the best; that is selected & immediately implemented in practice.
Therefore, applied research is concerned with knowledge that has immediate application and would be useful in
making decisions and formulating the policies.

 Scientific research and its process

Any systematic and organized effort of investigation is known as scientific. However, in this context,
scientific does not necessarily mean ‘science’, rather it refers to a manner of doing research known as scientific
method. Scientific research is designed to be an impartial, consistent and systematic process. It highlights the
most critical factors in the situation objectively.
Sekaran has defined, “Scientific research is a step-by-step logical, organized and rigorous (strict)
method to identify problems, gather data, analyze the data, and draw valid conclusions there from.”
Thus, on the basis of above definition, we can say that scientific research is a systematic and follows the
steps of the scientific method. Scientific research depends upon empirical evidence, it is committed to objectivity,
it utilizes relevant concept, it describes the methodology used in study and its aim is to formulate the relevant
theories.
Scientific research has the following characteristics or features:
 Purposive ness: Scientific investigation must have a focus or a specific purpose. Research without
purpose leads the study nowhere. By carefully following the major purpose of the study, the researcher
can reduce the possibility of making major errors.
 Testability: The purpose of scientific research is to develop and test the hypothesis. Test of hypothesis is
an important characteristic of scientific research.
 Replicability: Scientific research must be replicable. Replicability refers same result from the different
study, in other words, by using similar method and procedures of data collection and analysis as followed
by the previous study, the other research study must also come out with similar result.
 Rigour (rigidity): Scientific research is a rigorous process, which involves a good theory base and a
carefully thought-out methodology. These factors enable the researcher to collect the right and
appropriate data for further study.
 Generalization: It refers wider applicability of the research findings. The more generalizable the
research, the greater will be its usefulness and value. So, scientific research aims at making
generalization.
Scientific research process has the following
 Steps of Scientific research process:
1) Sensing or realizing the problem: The first step of scientific research process is to observe the
situation and realizing the problem. In sensing the problem, the researcher should analyze the environmental
factors. In this stage, the researcher does not know exactly that what is happening?
2) Problem identification: After sensing the problem considering environmental factors, what is exact
problem? Which is going to be solved, should be identified. It means focus should be given to the exact problem.
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 3) Theoretical framework: The researcher should attempt to integrate the information logically so that
the reason for the problem can be conceptualized in this third step of scientific research. Various related variables
should be identified in developing the theoretical framework.
4) Formulation of Hypothesis: Hypothesis for the study is drawn from the theoretical framework.
Hypotheses are assumption, which are used to show the relationship between the two or more variables. But it
should be testable.
5) Research design: The research design is the strategy for conducting research. It describes the general
framework for collecting, analyzing and evaluating data after identifying what the researcher wants to know and
what has to be dealt with in order to obtain required information.
6) Collection of data: This stage is also known as field work. In this stage, the researcher collects
required data either from primary source or from secondary source using different techniques such as
questionnaire method, interview method, observation method etc.
7) Data analysis: It is the statistical analysis of data that have been edited, coded and tabulated. In this
stage, collected data are analyzed using statistical techniques (correlation, regression, coefficient of variance,
standard deviation etc.) and financial techniques (trend analysis, ratio analysis, EBIT-EPS analysis etc.).
8) Generalization: After analyzing the data, it should be interpreted its findings into the larger body of
knowledge about the phenomenon. Scientific research helps researcher to state their findings more accurately and
with confidence.

 Quantitative Vs Qualitative research

Quantitative research seeks to collect data which is in a numerical form, and which can be analyzed or
presented using tables, charts, figures, graphs or statistics. They are about counting or measuring events or
phenomena. On the other hand, qualitative data consists either of written or spoken words, and does not normally
include any numerical measurements. Therefore, any research study that seeks to make measurements is known
as quantitative research and a design that can primarily be distinguished from quantitative methods because they
do not attempts to make any measurements is known as qualitative research. Many researchers use both
quantitative and qualitative techniques within a single research project.

 Feature of Social Science Research

Social science basically deals with human beings. But humans differ from each other in their activities,
attitudes, motives, beliefs, and values. Hence, social science is an extremely complex and diverse subject. The
discipline concerned with the study of people in terms of psychology and sociology, as opposed to the natural
sciences like physics and chemistry is known as social science research. Research in social science spans the
fields of psychology, sociology, history, anthropology, management science, economics, and other disciplines.
These disciplines deal with different dimensions of the society and human beings and use a wide range of
research methods.
“Social research is systematized effort to gain new knowledge.” (Redman and Morey)
Thus, social research is the systematic method of discovering the new facts or verifying the old facts,
their sequences and inter-relationship. In other words, to develop new ideas and knowledge as well as to avoid
weaknesses of society is main objective of social science research. Social science deals with human beings who
have no dependable behavior. Their behavior, habits, outlooks and approaches not only differ from place to place
and society to society but also from individual to individual and that too quickly.
Over the past few decades, many changes have taken place in terms of the major areas of research in
social science. The conduct of research investigations, the sophistication of methods, and the kinds of questions
that are investigated have changed significantly. Therefore, social science is concerned with human beings who
are always guided by personal considerations. Social problems are very complex and if the society is really to
progress for that it is very essential that these problems should be properly identified.

 The difficulties of applying scientific research methods to social science research

Scientific research is a step-by-step logical, organized and rigorous (strict) method to identify problems,
gather data, analyze the data, and draw valid conclusions there from. In scientific research, it requires separate
laboratory, chemicals and scientific tools and equipments, but social science research studies only human beings
in terms of their activities, motives, attitudes, beliefs and values. There are many areas or dimensions of social
science, where the application of scientific research methods is not possible. The difficulties, which are
commonly encountered by the researchers in social science, are as follows;
 Complexity of subject matter: Social science basically deals with human beings. But humans differ
from each other in their activities, attitudes, motives, beliefs, and values. Hence, social science is an
extremely complex and diverse subject. Human activities are so complex that it is virtually impossible to
develop an exact science capable of explaining all of them.
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  Difficulty of obtaining accurate measurement: The scientific method demands precise and accurate
measurement. But in social science, this type of accurate measurement is often quite difficult. Because
human attitudes and opinions can not be accurately measured. And it is also difficult to ascertain the
honesty of the various respondents.
 Difficulty of using experiments to test hypothesis: Establishing and testing the hypotheses are the key
component of scientific method. Activities of human beings, their behaviors, social settings are all factors
that typically are beyond the control of the researcher. They make it difficult to test meaningfully the
hypotheses developed for research purposes.
 Difficulty of making accurate predictions: Accurate prediction about the variables is an important
aspect in scientific research. But it is not possible in social science, because there are not same attitudes
and activities of people. We may face many obstacles in accurately predicting future economic
conditions, social mobility, market demand, and consumer behavior and so on.
 Influence of the measurement process on results: The respondents, when they know that they are being
observed and measured, often tend to react other than normally. Every time the respondents may not
provide accurate information to the researcher. So, it is difficult to apply scientific methods to social
science research.

 Managerail value of research

Managers are basically involved in problem solving and decision making activities. They have to be
continuously deciding as to what policies and programs are adopted for organizational effectiveness and how to
implement them to get the desired goals. Managers often need to understand the factors or events that affect their
organizations. A manager’s job does not end. A manager’s job is to achieve stated goals and the degree of his or
her success in this regard is directly dependent upon his or her making the right decisions at the right time. The
knowledge of research methods help them to identify the problems and find out more about the situation.
The decision-making process associated with the development and implementation of a strategy involves
four interrelated stages:
 Identifying problems and opportunities
 Assessing problems and opportunities
 Selecting and implementing a course of action
 Evaluating the course of action
Managers, therefore, need to ask the following questions to help decide what research to carry out to
collect the required information and solve a business problem:
 What information will help make right decisions?
 What are we going to do with this information?
 How should we collect this information?
 What are we going to measure?
 How should we analyze the result?
 How much should we spend on collecting the information?

 Stages in Management Process

There are different stages in the process of management. The main stages are analysis, planning,
execution and control.
Analysis is the initial stage of management process which attempts are made to recognize the emerging
opportunities and threats in the environment.
Planning involves development and selection from alternatives as the necessary courses of action to
achieve an objective. Top management often undertakes these activities and decisions.
Execution implies implementation of the plans. Execution function of management focuses on the day-
to-day activities of organization and how efficiently its resources are being used and
Control is the final stage in management cycle in which performance against plan is measured.

 Types of management research

An executive needs specific study of problems and opportunities area. They may need a market survey,
an employee survey, a product-preference test, a sales forecast by region, environmental analysis etc.
Management research has become very necessary for organization today. This research includes the study in wide
variety of subjects like strategy formulation, environmental scanning, organizational structure, rules and policies,
employee participation, job analysis, record management and so on. In view of the informational needs of
managers at each stage of the management process, management research uses a wide variety of research

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methods to improve knowledge and practices. Management research can be categorized into the following four
groups:
1) Policy research: It is concerned with the analysis of overall organizational situation with the purpose
of formulating major policy proposals. Any research which is actually conducted with particular function in mind
is called policy research. Policy research is thus,
 Studies how policy formulation occurs with a view to understanding and improving the process.
 It is designed to analyze situations at the strategic level and to formulate overall policy proposals and
 This research systematically evaluates the priorities to be accorded to conflicting and complementary policy
alternatives.
2) Managerial research: This type of research is focused on one particular activity, scheme or project
launched by the management. Managerial research is concerned with the seeking of solutions as to what should
be done to solve given problem and how to implement the situation.
3) Action research: It involves a continuous gathering and analyzing of research data during the normal
on-going operations of an organization. Action research is a methodology that combines ‘action’ and ‘research’
together. Action research is thus, generally involves identification of practical problems and attempts to seek and
implement solution, generates new knowledge, it works towards situation improvement by implementing the new
knowledge and so on.
4) Evaluation research: Evaluation is the process of determining the value or worth of something. This
research is closely related with policy research in which policies, objectives, strategies and problems are
examined. Evaluation research is, therefore, oriented toward formal and objective measurement of the extent
which a given action. Activity or program had achieved its original objectives.

 Methodology for Management Research

Objectives Data requirement and analysis Research output/result
Policy Research -Macro-level data about the -Identification of policy options and
-to formulate major policy environmental forces, overall policy priorities for the
-to identify their implication organizational situation, and organization.
-to establish their priorities competitor’s position and time series
data.
Managerial Research -specific and detailed data about the -Identification of the problem
-to study the on-going operation operation situation
-to help in improving managerial -data collection through MIS -Identification of options
effectiveness -collection of qualitative data through
-to help in decision making survey and observational methods

Action Research -continuous gathering and analysis of -to recommend the actions to be
-to feed the information into the data through focus groups, interviews taken with regard to organizational
organization to improve the and questionnaires methods structure, rules, reward &
function punishment system, performance
-to improve managerial actions and evaluation and work environment
to suggest future course of action
Evaluation Research -micro level data about the comparative -Identification of program strengths
-to measure achievements performance through focus groups, and weaknesses
-to identify the problem areas interviews and questionnaire methods -recommendation for program
-to suggest the improvement improvement
required

 Ethical Issues in Management Research

The term ethics commonly refers to principles of behavior that distinguish between what is good, bad,
right, and wrong. Ethics are thus the norms for conduct. These are moral principles or beliefs about what is right
or wrong. Ethical issues are critical aspects for the conduct of research. These norms guide researchers in their
dealing with their respondents and other related parties, and provide a basis for deciding whether behavior is right
and proper. In other words, research ethics refer to the appropriateness of the researcher’s behavior in relation to
the right of those who become the subject of his or her work, or are affected by the work.
The researcher should clearly state to the respondents that what is the objective of research study? The
researcher should introduce himself before questioning or discussing with the respondents. He/she must be

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courteous and polite. And the researcher should understand the situation and psychology of respondents as a
result; the respondents are ready to provide accurate information to the researcher (interviewer). Thus, the
researcher should recognize and consider the potential ethical issues of their research project. The common
ethical issues that are likely to be found at different phases of the management research project are as follows;
 Force the respondents to provide personal and confidential data
 Put pressure on the participants to provide information
 Violate an individual’s right to privacy
 Replace actual data with false data
 Select only the best data for reporting
 False reporting of data or event
 Report data without permission from the organization
 Publish the same paper in two different journals without telling the editors
Some general ethical principles are honesty, objectivity, integrity, carefulness, legality, confidentiality etc.

UNIT-2: PRELIMINARY STAGES OF RESEARCH

 Concept of review literature/Review of Literature (ROL):
All the sources of secondary data are literature for every researcher. A literature review is the process of
locating, obtaining, reading and evaluating the research literature in the area of the students’ interest. The ROL is
an essential part of the all research studies. The researcher should study different materials such as books,
bulletins, articles, reports and newspapers for further research study. To review the different literature (i.e.
materials) is essential for further research work. The researchers have to study the previews materials, which
helps to them for present research work. By reviewing the different literatures, researcher can get the available
information and ideas to the present research work, such as what new contribution can be made and what is
remain to do? Similarly, by the help of ROL, researcher can know how to select the appropriate topics for study?
How to collect the required data? And reviewing the literature may clear the broad information about the
formulation of hypothesis, tabulation, presentation and analysis of data, population, sampling etc.
“A literature review is a body of text that aims to review the critical points of current knowledge on a
particular topic.” (Baker-2002)
“A literature review (or overview) is a summary and analysis of current knowledge about a particular
topic or area of inquiry.” (Walliman-2006)
“A literature review is the process of locating, obtaining, reading and evaluating the research literature
in the area of your interest.”(Haywood and Wragg-1982)
Therefore, the process of reviewing the adequate materials relating to the particular research work is
known as literature review. Review of literature is, thus, an essential part of all research studies. It is a way to
discover what other research in the area of study has uncovered. There are different methods of ROL such as
Bibliography method, CD-ROM technology method, computerized catalogue method etc. The followings are
Importance/Role (Purposes) of ROL in the research work:
- ROL helps to increase new knowledge
- It helps to select the best research topic to the researcher
- It helps to prepare the outline of research study
- It helps to obtain new ideas and techniques
- It makes easier to present research study
- The remaining research sector can be known by the ROL
- It helps to identify what others have written about the topic? etc.

 Sources of reviewing literature: The main sources of reviewing the literature are as follows;
(a) Books & Journals: different types of books and journals are the main source of reviewing literature.
Various periodical journals are published by different organizations; it may be daily, weekly, monthly, half-yearly
and yearly. These materials are available in the library, so that libraries are store of materials.
(b) Abstracts (;f/?k): research report which are conducted in various sectors are involved in abstract.
Similarly, it includes title of the research report, name of the researcher, research methodology, bibliography etc.
(c) Reports: various types of report which are published by government, non-government and
international institutions are also main sources of reviewing the literature.
(d) Research-oriented dissertation: (sodhmulak anusandhan) it includes indexes, articles, thesis for
master’s degree and Ph.D. etc conducted in academic sectors.

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 (e) Electronic communication: it includes radio, television, CD-ROMs etc which are also main sources
of reviewing the literature.

 Format of review presentation:

The following abstract is an example of the right format for presenting the literature review in a research
report. It was concerned with the internet banking system.
In recent years, the banking sector has been an interesting case for service innovation as it moves
toward using the Web for commercial purposes through Internet banking. Internet banking allows
customers to have direct access to their financial information and to undertake financial transactions
with no need to go to the bank. (Nielsen-2002) found that internet banking is expanding in many
Asian countries, including South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Taiwan. The banks have
followed worldwide trends in implementing self-service technology via the internet (Speece-2002).
Internet banking provides opportunities for the bank to develop its market by attracting a new
customer base from existing internet users (Suganthi & Karun-2001)
Source: Speece, M. (2003). Barriers to Internet Banking Adoption. International journal of Bank
Marketing, 312-323.
Hence, from the above extract, the researcher can get some insights that the literature review introduces
the subject of study, highlights the problem, summarizes the work so far done on the topic, and provides the basis
or foundation to develop a theoretical framework of the study.

 Phases in the literature review process:

There are usually four different phases in the process of literature review.
1. Locating 2. Obtaining 3. Reading 4. Evaluating
-Encyclopedia -Libraries -Efficient reading -critical review
-Computer catalogue -Online sources -Selective reading -style & tone
-Journal -CD ROM sources -Developing structure -content analysis
-Bibliographies -Other sources -Arranging reference -criteria of review

 Problem definition:
Problem definition is the critical step in the research process. The main function of formulating a
research problem is to decide what the researchers want to find out about? Therefore, research problem
identifies the destination of researcher. It should clearly state that what the researcher intend to research. If the
problem is vaguely stated, or if the wrong problem is defined, then the rest of the research work is completely
useless. It is said that the problem well defined is the problem half-solved.
The research problem is such question whose answer can't be found with immediately. It is concerned
with to show the relationship between two or more related variables. Hence, the research problems are generally
stated as question showing the relationship between two or more variables. For instance, what is the relationship
between sales of "A" product in Itahari before and after introducing the advertisement? It is a problem and
answer of this problem can't be obtained immediately. This problem is now hypothetically tested using different
statistical tools like standard deviation, correlation, mean, median, etc. then, findings are drawn. After selecting
the research topic, in which problem, the researcher should study that is fixed. The research problem must be
solvable, testable and measurable. So, a research problem in general, implies some difficulties, which a
researcher experiences in the context of either theoretical or practical situation and wants to obtain a conclusion.
Moreover, the research problem is one for which the researcher tries to find out the best solution of it. In other
words, whatever the researcher wants to find out from the selected research topic; is known as research problem.
The research problem has the following characteristics as; it should raise a question about the
relationship between different variables, the relationship between variables should be stated and explained clearly
and the problem statement should suggest a method of researching the question. Therefore, the research problem
should be clearly understood, feasibility and availability of material assessed. There should not be ambiguity
about the problem to be investigated. Similarly, the objective of the research study should be clearly defined.

 Theoretical framework: (;}bflGts ?k/]vf)

The theoretical framework is the basis or foundation upon which the study is established. It is within the
framework of this theory that the entire study proceeds. It is important that the theoretical framework be carefully
developed and presented. A theoretical model may be presented in graphic form, which reflects the variables or
characteristics selected in the investigation. The theoretical framework describes the relationship among the
variables, elaborates the theory underlying these relations, and describes the nature and direction of the
relationship.

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 For instance, the researcher has selected ‘employee absenteeism’ as the dependent variable for
the study. Certainly, this variable is influenced by different independent variables such as age, gender, marital
status, place of residence etc. Now, these independent variables should be defined properly.
The greater the age of employees, the higher is likely to be the rate of absenteeism among them. The
older people have greater chances of sickness than the younger ones. Female employees tend to have higher rate
of absenteeism due to their family preoccupations. Similarly, other independent variables also affect to the
dependent variable (i.e. employee absenteeism), they should also be explained clearly. Hence, the theoretical
framework deals various independent variables which affects to the dependent variable.
Research is closely related to theory. Theory is a statement concerning the relationship between or among
the concepts. The purpose of theory is to define, establish, and explain relationships between concepts. Concept is
a generalized idea about an object that has been given a name. Concepts like democracy, participation, leadership,
productivity; justice etc. represents some meaning under one general label.

 Concept and Types of Variables:

A variable is defined as anything that can take on differing or varying values. Variables are characteristics
of person, things, groups, objects etc. The term variable is a trait of person or group or thing which is
measurable. A variable is the nature of person or group that the student or the researcher manipulates, controls
and observes in their study. A variable always affects to other variables. For example, absenteeism or
dissatisfaction is a variable that is changeable and affects to the production. In this example, absenteeism or
dissatisfaction and production are variables and one variable affect to the other variable because lower the
absenteeism or dissatisfaction, higher the productivity and vice-versa. Similarly, training, income level, age,
education, fatigue, intelligence, fertilizer, practice etc. are also examples of variable.
D.Amato defines; "A variable is any measurable attribute of object, things and person." So, a variable is
changeable and measurable that can be either low or high, which has traits of influence or to be influenced. In
other words, a variable is one of the conditions measured or controlled in an experiment which is measurable and
observable.

 Types of Variables:
The followings are main types of variable;
1) Dependent Variable: A variable is called dependent variable when its values depend upon another
variable. The researcher attempts to observe the effect of any one variable to other variable in the study. The
dependent variable is that factor which appears, disappears or varies as the experimenter or the researcher
introduces, removes or varies the independent variables. According to Rober ,"Dependent variable is any
variable whose values are in principle, the result of changes in the values of one or more independent variable ."
Hence, dependent variables are those variables whose value depends upon another variable. For example, the
saving depends upon sound earning, the sales depend on effective advertising, and productivity depends on
skilled manpower and so on. Here, saving, sales and productivity are examples of dependent variables.
2) Independent Variable: A variable is called independent variable when it is not influenced by other
variable. Any change in the dependent variable is due to change in the independent variable. The higher the
earning, the greater the saving. Here, the earning of the person affects his/her saving capacity. So, the earning is
a independent variable and saving is a dependent variable. Similarly, advertising affects to sales volume,
smoking affects to health, fertilizer affects to agricultural output etc. Here, advertising, smoking and fertilizer
are examples of independent variable and others are dependent variables. It can be presented by the following
figure:

Saving Earning
Sales Advertising
Productivity Skilled manpower
Health Smoking
Agricultural output fertilizer

Dependent Variables Independent Variables

3) Intervening Variable: When a variable affect the nature and degree of relationship between
dependent and independent variable, such variable is called intervening variable. For example, training and
productivity are two variables, here training is independent and productivity is dependent variable. In practice,
the more training provided to the employees, the greater will be the productivity. But this positive relationship
hold true only with young workers. The training provided to those workers who are supposing above 45 years of
age may not lead to increase in productivity. Therefore, in this example, "age" is the intervening variable, because
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this variable has affected the relationship between dependent and independent variable. It can be shown by the
following:
Training Productivity Age
Independent V. Dependent V. Intervening V.

 Deductive & Inductive reasoning/approach:

A theory may be developed with deductive or inductive reasoning. The exercise of developing
hypotheses from theory is called deductive approach or logic. Deductive reasoning is the logical process of
deriving a conclusion based on a known general premise or something known to be true. On the other hand,
constructing theory or general principles from specific observations is known as inductive logic.
Deduction is the research approach used to test a theory. It involves the development of a theory. This
research approach is also called a top-down approach. In Induction approach, the researcher tries to understand
the nature of the problem, gather the required quantitative and qualitative data and analyze them to draw
conclusion. This research approach is also called bottom-up approach. The result of this analysis would be the
formulation of a theory. Deductive reasoning is narrower in nature and is concerned with testing and confirming
hypothesis but inductive reasoning, is more open-ended in nature. Therefore, in deductive approach, data would
follow a theory and is tested hypothesis, in an inductive approach, theory is built. However, both these
approaches can be used in combination on the same research work. This approach can be presented as follows;

Theory Theory
Hypothesis Hypothesis
Observation Pattern
Confirmation Observation
Deduction approach Induction approach
OR

In other figure, it can be presented by the following ways;

THEORY Obs 1 Obs 2 Obs 3 Obs 4

Obs 1 Obs 2 Obs 3 Obs 4 THEORY

Deductive approach Inductive approach

Note: Obs = Observations

 Research Questions:
The research questions are the vital components of a research study. The research questions indicate the
purpose and intention of the researcher that what the researcher specially wants to understand by doing the study?
It must be clearly spell out (to tell) what he/she will attempt to obtain or learn. These questions directly link to all
of the other components of research investigation. It is said that, “a question well-stated is a question half
answered.”
A research question is defined as a statement that identifies the phenomenon to be studied. For example,
what factors are responsible for the growing rate of employee absenteeism?, To what extent are pay and
productivity related in Nepalese business enterprises?, Do the demographic factors of employee affect their
organizational commitment? etc. Therefore, research question provides the information to researcher that what
site (study area) to choose? What data to collect? How to analyze the data? etc. The research question may
different like; can I obtain adequate information and data? Do I have the available time and budget to complete
it? Can I obtain administrative support, guidance and co-operation for the conduct of study? etc. The research
questions serve the following two functions such as to help the researcher to focus the study and to give the
researcher guidance on how to conduct it. Hence, the research questions state what the researcher wants to
learn. The research question, thus, indicates that the purpose and motive of the research investigation. Research
question should be precisely designed to attain the research objective.

 Hypothesis formulation:
Hypothesis is a statement that the researcher uses for further study. It is an assuming theory that helps to
researcher in proceeding further study and finding solution of the problem. In other words, hypothesis is an
9
assumption which is used to show the relationship between two or more variables in research study. Hence, it is a
provisional theory that is used to explain observed facts in research study.
“A hypothesis is a formal statement that presents the expected relationship between independent and
dependent variables.” (Creswell-2002)
“A hypothesis is a logically conjectured relationship between two or more variables expressed in the
form of testable statements.” (Sekaran-2000)
“A hypothesis is a conjectured statement that implies or states a relationship between two or more
variables.” (Kerlinger-1996)
Therefore, the statistical hypothesis is a statement about the relationship between two or more variables
which provides a tentative solution to the question of how and why. Lung cancer is caused by the smoking,
agricultural productivity can be increased by proper system of irrigation etc are examples of hypothesis.
In order to formulate a useful hypothesis, it is essential to have good knowledge of the background to the
subject and the nature of the problem. A hypothesis statement is derived directly from the statement of the
problem. Hypothesis can be stated rather easily once the research problem is known. A diagrammatic presentation
of the process of hypothesis formulation can be presented by the following figure;

Observation Theory

Hypothesis

Fig. Process of hypothesis formulation

A good hypothesis should have some features & criteria like;

 it should describe the relationship between two or more variables,
 it should be measurable & testable,
 it should be stated in declaration form,
 it should be clearly & precisely stated,
 it should be limited in scope,
 it should be consistent with the most known fact and
 It should be related with the study.
 Formats of hypothesis:
The formats of hypothesis construction depends upon nature of relationship between different variables
predicted by the researcher, it means there are different formats for formulating and stating the hypothesis.
Generally, the following statements would explain the different ways in which the hypothesis could be stated.
(a) Directional statement: It indicates the direction of the relationship between two variables. These
relationships could be stated in positive or negative form. In stating the relationship between two variables, the
term such as “positive” or “negative”, “more than” or “less than” etc are used (i.e. for one-tailed test). For
example: There is positive relationship between saving and income, the greater the workload, the lower the job
satisfaction etc.
(b) Non-directional statement: It is formulated at that time when there are no clues available about the
positive or negative, more than or less than relationship between two variables (i.e. for two-tailed test). For
example: There is difference between work attitudes of industrial and agricultural workers, there is no
relationship between skilled and unskilled employees in their occupation etc.
Knowl has given three different formats of hypothesis construction based on association and correlation
between variables;
Correlation: There is a significant relationship between variables ‘A’ and ‘B’ for group-1
Difference between means: There is a significant difference between mean levels of variable A for group-1 and
group-2
Difference between frequencies: There is significant difference between group-1 and group-2 for variable A

 Types of Hypothesis:
1) Descriptive and Relational Hypothesis: Descriptive hypotheses are in the form of propositions that
only state the existence, size, form or distribution of some variable. This hypothesis describes only one variable.
For example: The Tarahar-Dharan sector of the east highway (case) has a higher than average accident rates

10
(variables). For this research question may be why is the accident rate higher in Tarahara-Dharan sector of the
east highway?
Relational hypotheses, on the other hand, describes the relationship between two or more variables. Relational
hypotheses are of two types; Correlational and explanatory hypothesis. When a statement describes the
relationship between two variables, is called correlational hypothesis. Example; families with higher incomes
spend more for recreation. In an explanatory hypothesis, the implication of on variable on the other is stated.
Example; the productivity of skilled workers will increase if the workers are given added pay for production in
access of the standard.
2) Directional and Non-directional hypotheses: (see! Formats of hypotheses)
3) Null and Alternative hypotheses: There are two methods of statistical hypotheses; they are null and
alternative. A null hypothesis is a statistical hypothesis which is denoted by Ho and assumes that “no difference”,
or “no effect” between variables. On the other hand, alternative hypothesis is just opposite form of null
hypothesis that is denoted by H1. And reflects “difference” or “effect”. For example;
Ho: There is no difference between male and female employees in terms of their skills.
H1: There is difference between male and female employees in terms of their skills. (It means either male >
Female or male < female).

 Steps in testing the statistical hypotheses:

1. Setting the null and alternative hypothesis
2. Determining and selecting the level of significance or confidence level at 5% or at 95%
3. Decision criteria
 If the calculated value using formula (Z cal) is equal or greater than the tabulated value
which is given in table (Z tab), Ho is rejected, i.e. H1is highly accepted.
 If the Z cal is less than Z tab, Ho is accepted i.e. H1is highly rejected.

[Note:Example of Problem, Theory & Hypothesis]

Problem: The population of Nepal is increasing so rapidly that if it continues at its present rate in 40 years, it
will not be possible to feed (manage) all of its citizens.
Theory: Population growth can be controlled through family planning.
Hypothesis: Family planning can reduce the growth of population in Nepal.

BEST OF LUCK
UNIT-3: RESEARCH DESIGN:
 Concept of research design:
The research design is an integrated approach that guides the researcher in formulating, implementing,
and controlling the study. Therefore, it is an outline of research study. When a particular research area has been
identified, research problem defined, and the related literature in the area have been reviewed; the next step is to
construct the research design. Research design describes the general plan for collecting, analyzing and evaluating
the data for further study. Actually, it decides the fate of research work. Research design provides a picture for
whole research study before studying it. Hence, the research design is a plan of the proposed research work.
Kerlinger (1986) defines, “Research design is the plan, structure & strategy of investigation conceived
so as to obtain the answers to research questions and to control the variance”.
Yong (1966) defines, “Research design is the logical and systematic planning and directing a piece of
research”.
Zikmund (2007) defines, “Research design is a master plan specifying the methods and procedures for
collecting and analyzing the needed information”.
These definitions have highlighted the following essentials of a good research design;
 It is an overall plan for the activities to be undertaken during the research work.
 It is a blueprint specifying the method to be adopted for gathering and analyzing the data.
 It is an organized and integrated system that guides the researcher in formulating, implementing
and controlling the study.
 It is the strategy of obtaining all the required information and data.
 It serves as a framework for the study.
Research design is a blue-print (detail scheme) of proposed research. Hence, it serves as a framework for
the study, guiding the collection and analysis of the data. Research design provides the answer of following
questions such as how to collect and analyze the data?, Which tools are used for analyze the data?, Which sample
method will be used?, What are the sources of data?, What is the area of study?, What time, approximately, is
required for the study? etc. Therefore, research design is an organized frame that guides the researcher in

11
formulating, implementing and controlling the research study. It is an integrated frame that guides the researcher
in planning and executing the research work, and choosing an appropriate research design is crucially important
to the success of the research project. Hence, the research design describes that what the researcher wants to
know? And what has to be dealt with in order to obtain the required information? Therefore, by research design
an overall framework or plan for the activities to be undertaken during the course of a research design.

 Elements of research design:

Research design includes various elements, which are as follows:
i) The problem:- It is also called the subject for investigation. The problem is that whose answer can’t be
found immediately. In other words, the problem is concerned with to show the relationship between two or more
variable. The researcher should be interested for research subject in which he/she is going to study. Similarly, the
selected problem must be testable as well as researcher should consider the availability of resources & time for
study.
ii) Methodology:- A set of methods used in a particular area of activity is called methodology.
Methodology is a way to solve the research problem with systematically. In other words, those systematic rules,
methods or working system, which is undertaken in research study, is known as research methodology.
Methodology includes briefly explanation of population & Sampling, hypothesis, data collecting procedures,
different statistical tools like mean, standard deviation, correlation, t-test, F-test, etc.
iii) Data Collection:- Mainly there are two types of data source or methods of data collection, they are
primary & secondary method. Primary data is also called first hand or pure data & secondary data is called
second hand data that may be both published & unpublished. Primary data are different types like questionnaire,
observation, survey etc. Research may use both methods either primary or secondary for their research work.
iv) Data analysis:- Before interpreting the collected data, it requires editing, coding & tabulating process
for further study. If the collected data are incomplete & inaccurate then try to complete & accurate them. After
editing the data they are presented into table. By the help of tabulating data, it is easy to analyze & interpret the
data which makes simpler to research study.
v) Report writing:- It is a final product of research study. A report is simply a statement, or description
of things or findings of the research work. After analyzing & interpreting the tabulated data, valid conclusion is
drawn i.e. called report. Generally, there are two types of report for the purpose of thesis assignment. They are-
descriptive & analytical report.

Types of research design:

The research design asks, what approach to the problem should be taken?; what methods will be used?;
what strategies will be most effective? etc. The researcher must construct the research design before doing the
research which refers to the entire process of planning & carrying out a research study. The following types of
research design can be discussed.
1) Exploratory research design
2) Descriptive research design
(i) Historical research
(ii) Descriptive research
(iii) Developmental research
(iv) Survey research
(v) Case study research
3) Comparative research design
(i) Co relational research
(ii) Causal-comparative research
4) Interventional research design
(i) True experimental research
(ii) Quasi-experimental research

1) Exploratory research design:

An exploratory research is defined as a study undertaken in areas where very little prior knowledge or
information is available on the subject under investigation. Therefore, it is the initial research conducted to study
and defines the nature of a problem. An exploratory study is undertaken when we do not know much about the
situation at hand. The purpose of exploratory research is to achieve new insights into a phenomenon. The major
emphasis in those studies is the discovery of new insights or ideas. There are three purposes for exploratory
research. They are: (i) diagnosing a situation (ii) screening alternatives and (iii) discovering new ideas. Some
important features of exploratory research are as follows;
 There is no set method of conducting exploratory research, it is more flexible.
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  Exploratory research studies are not characterized by formal research design.
 The researcher may utilize any number of informal approaches in attempting to define the
problem and collect the data.

2) Descriptive research design: It includes the following research designs;

i) Historical research design:-
Historical research is unique among the various types of research in practice. It is related with past
phenomenon. Historical research is a process of collecting, evaluating, verifying and synthesizing (combination)
the past evidence systematically and objectively to find the valid conclusion. The main purpose of conducting the
historical research is to show the relevance of past events to the present. Moreover, historical research is
concerned with to analyze the past and present trends of events and estimate the future trend. There are two main
sources from which past evidence can be found. They are primary and secondary source. Generally, historical
research depends upon data observed by others rather than the investigator (researcher). The steps involved in
historical research designs are as follows: (i) Define the problem (ii) State the research objective (iii) Collect the
data (iv) Evaluate the data (v) Report the findings/conclusions.
ii) Descriptive research design:-
Descriptive research is a fact-finding operation searching for the adequate information. It is used in the
sense of describing situation or phenomenon. Generally, descriptive research is a type of survey study, which is
conducted to know the opinions, activities or characteristics of a given population and to describe the situation or
events. Moreover, descriptive research is a process of collecting facts; where the researchers collect, classify and
correlate the data to describe what exists but they don’t fully analyze the data and researcher doesn’t test the
hypothesis as well as they do not make the prediction. Therefore, the main purpose of descriptive study is to
collect the detail information that describes existing phenomenon. The steps involved in a descriptive research are
as follows: (i) Select the research problem (ii) Define the objectives (iii) Design the approach (i.e. how to collect
the required data or by which procedures) (iv) Collect the data (v) Analyze and interpret the data (vi) Report the
results.
iii) Developmental research design:-
Developmental research is conducted for the purpose of estimating the future trend on the basis of past
and present phenomenon. It concentrates on the study of variables, their rates of changes, directions and other
inter-related factors over a period of time. Lets, heredity is a variable. In this developmental research, researcher
can study about the heredity that how affects the heredity to coming generation or how affect it to the activities of
new generation? Therefore, developmental research focuses on the study of variables and their development over
a period. In developmental research, trend study is popular method, which is designed to establish patterns of
change in the past in order to predict future conditions. The steps involved in a developmental research are as
follows: (i) Define the problem (ii) Review the literature (iii) Design the approach (iv) Collect and evaluate the
data (v) Report the results.
iv) Survey research design:-
A survey is a means of gathering information about the characteristics, actions, or opinions of a large
group of people, referred to as a population. The survey research is a systematic gathering of information from
respondents for the purpose of understanding and predicting some aspect of the behavior of the population of
interest. A survey may be done in the field like employee satisfaction of a factory, in the library i.e. the study of
literature etc. In survey research, the researcher selects a sample of respondents from a population and
administers a standardized questionnaire to them. The aim of survey research is to measure certain attitudes or
behavior of a population or a sample. The attitudes might be opinions about the services provided by a business
firm or any other. The steps are: (i) Establish the objectives (ii) Design the approach (iii) Determine the sample
(iv) Prepare the instruments and pre-test it (v) Conduct the survey (vi) Analyze the data
v) Case-Study research design:-
In this case-study research, researcher makes an intensive investigation of a social unit that may be a
person, a family, a social group, an institution, or the whole culture. In this case study, an investigator (researcher)
collects appropriate and adequate data about the present condition, past experience and other environmental
forces that contribute to the behavior of the unit. After analyzing these facts, researcher makes a comprehensive
study of the social unit. Therefore, a case study may be an intensive and integrated method of studying the social
phenomena. In other words, case studies are in-depth investigation of a given social unit resulting in a complete
and well-organized picture of that unit. The steps involved in case study research designs are as follows: (i)
Define the problem and state the objectives (ii) Define the research question (iii) Design the approach (iv) Collect
and evaluate the data (v) Organize and analyze the data (vi) Report the result.
vi) Action research design:-
It is concerned with to acquire new approaches about something. This type of research is more practical
and directly relevant to the actual situation. It also provides framework for problem solving. Specially, action
13
research is concerned with to solve the social problems. Furthermore, if the researcher is studying about different
social problems such as educational problem, administrative problem in the organization, etc. then action
research is undertaken for the study. Hence, the main objective of action research is to solve the different social
problems by developing new approaches. Action research is practical and directly relevant to an actual situation
in the working world. The steps involved in action research are: (i) Define the problem (ii) Review the literature
(iii) State the Hypothesis (iv) Design the approach (v) Establish the Management techniques (vi) Analyze and
interpret the data (vii) Report the results.

3) Comparative research design

i) Correlational research design:-
It is used to obtain the detail descriptions of different phenomenon or variables. This technique is used to
ascertain the extent to which two variables are related. Correlational research is used to determine the relationship
between two or more variables. Variables may be positive correlation (i.e. worker’s satisfaction increases the
productivity), negative correlation (i.e. increase in absence rate of workers, decreases the productivity) and no
correlation (i.e. zero correlation). Therefore, correlation technique is an important statistical tool, which is used
to obtain description of different variables for research study. The steps involved in correlational research design
are as follows: (i) Define the problem (ii) Review the literature (iii) Design the approach (iv) Collect the data (v)
Analyze and interpret the results.

ii) Causal-Comparative research design:-

It is concerned with to analyze the “cause” and “effect” of different variables. In this research design, the
investigator takes one or more dependent variables and examines the effect to the independent variable. In other
words, in causal-comparative research, investigator searches the likeliness and differences among his/her subjects
to obtain clue (formula) about what might cause to the occurrence of a particular phenomenon. Moreover, this
research is ‘ex-post-facto’ in nature. Ex-post-facto research is such type of research in which the independent
variables have already occurred and the researcher starts with the observation of dependent variables. The steps
involved in this research are as follows: (i) Define the problem (ii) Review the literature (iii) State the hypothesis
(iv) Design the approach (v) Collect and evaluate the data (vi) Report the results.

4) Interventional research design: This research design includes;

i) True-experimental research:-
The purpose of experimental research is to investigate possible cause and effect relationship by exposing
one or more experimental groups to one or more treatment conditions and comparing the results to one or more
control groups not receiving the treatment. Experimental research starts with the identification and analysis of a
problem. Experimental research may be conducted in the laboratory or in the field. A laboratory experiment is an
artificially created situation in which the researcher controls one or more variables while manipulating other
variables. In field experiment, the researcher attempts to control all other variables while manipulating the one
that is the experimental variable. Experimental research in business is used like this; as a sample example,
assume an office has a great number of office assistants doing the same routine job. Management decides to make
a study of the effects of incentive pay. Now, it separates the office assistants into two groups about equal in
experience, skills and previous production rates. Then, one group is placed on an incentive-pay basis. During the
time length of the study, the difference in the two groups is noted. Because the incentive-pay is assumed to be the
only variable, any difference is attributed to its influence. The steps involved in this research are as follows: (i)
Survey the literature relating to problem (ii) Identify and define the problem (iii) Formulate the hypothesis (iv)
Construct an experimental plan (v) Conduct the experiment (vi) Report the result
ii) Quasi-experimental research:-
When the experimental method is used to solve the problems, it is the most respected means of obtaining
reliable knowledge. However, there are several difficulties in conducting true experimental studies in social
science due to its nature. The word ‘quasi’ means as if or almost. Hence, a quasi-experiment means almost a true
experiment. As with true experimental research, the goal of quasi-experimental research is to test cause and effect
by observing how subjects react to phenomena. This research typically involves applied settings where it is not
possible to control all the relevant variables but only some of them. The steps in quasi-experimental research are
the same as with true-experimental research.
Hence, there are different types of research design. However, the main task is to select the most suitable
design for a study.

Qualitative research design:

Qualitative research is an approach to gathering and analyzing the information using formal and informal
techniques of data collection and analysis. This research includes the exploration and interpretation of the
14
perception, opinions, behaviors, concerns, motivation, culture or lifestyle of small samples of individuals. It is
highly focused, exploring in-depth, the attitudes of people. This type of in-depth analysis provides insights into
the problem under investigation. Thus, qualitative research is valuable in providing rich description of complex
phenomena.
Creswell (2003) defines that, “Qualitative research is an inquiry process of understanding based on
distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that explore a social or human problem.
Therefore, qualitative research is multi-method in focus, involving an interpretive approach to its subject
matter. The followings are basic assumptions of qualitative research:
 The research design cannot be completely specified in advance of the fieldwork.
 It is descriptive and subjective in nature.
 The researcher has direct and personal contact with the people involved in phenomenon.
 The process of research is inductive.
 Data are directly collected by the researcher rather than through surveys or other methods.
The model or components of qualitative research are;
1) Purposes: it includes some questions such as what are the ultimate goals of the study?, why do you
want to conduct it?, what practices will it influence? etc.
2) Theoretical framework: What literature and personal experience will you draw on?. It means some
theories are developed.
3) Research question: What, specially, do you want to understand by doing this study?, what questions
will your research attempt to answer? etc
4) Methods: What will you, actually do in conducting this study?, what approaches and techniques will
you use to collect and analyze the information? etc
5) Validity: How do the data that you have, or that you could collect? Why should we believe your
result? etc.
The main types of qualitative research are; Case study (it can be an individual or a group or an
institution), Historical, Ethnology (focuses on a community) etc.
 Pilot study:
A ‘pilot study’ is defined as “a preliminary investigation to determine the feasibility of a larger study”.
It is conducted before the main study. A pilot study is a miniature (small study or scale representation) version of
the study. It is usually done on a small scale. It involves selecting a few people and trying out the study on them.
Hence, it is exploratory in nature. The purpose of pilot study is to refine data collection procedures, instruments,
or the research design. It is always useful to test new instruments, learn more about the sample, and check the
methodology on a small scale. The more complex the questionnaire and other instruments used in research, the
more important it is to pilot test the survey. Therefore, the pilot test is the pre-testing over the anything or
questionnaire or data collection procedures. The pilot study has the following advantages:
 It provides available ideas, approaches and clues about the study to the researcher.
 It may reduce the number of errors in the study.
 It also saves the time and money of the researcher.
 It helps to make effective study.
 It permits a preliminary testing of the hypotheses that leads to testing more precise hypotheses in the
main study.
 Common sources of errors in research design:
The common sources of errors in research design, which occur due to poor research design and its poor
implementation, are as follows;
1) The rating errors: It includes mainly the over-rater error (i.e. rating subjects in general on the side of
favorableness), the under-rater error (i.e. rating subjects in general on the side of unfavorable ness) and the
central error (i.e. generally an average answer is provided by the respondents, which is known as central error
like;
best better good bad worst)
2) The Halo effect: Typically, a strong initial positive or negative impression of a person, group or events
tends to influence the ratings on all subsequent observations. Impression formed early in a series of observations
often affect later observation.
3) The Hawthorne effect: In an industrial efficiency study performed at the Hawthorne plant of western
electric in Chicago during the 1920s, it was observed that to single out a group of workers for a special research
project makes them feel and act differently compared to regular workers. Such working condition also invites
error in research study.
Except these errors, some of other errors are The Placebo effect, the experimenter bias effect, error of
misplaced, error of typical case study etc.

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 UNIT-4: MEASUREMENT AND SCALING
 Scales of Measurement:
The overall quality of research study depends not only upon the appropriateness of the research design
and sampling techniques used but also on the measurement procedures followed. The variables need to be
defined and measured clearly. The variables used in a research have no meaning if they not properly measured.
[About the variables,see! chapter-2]
The ‘scale’ is such tool which measures the values of different things; like ‘liter’ is used to measure the
‘liquid object’, ‘kilometer’ is used to measure the ‘length & width’ of the road and so on. There are different
scales from which physical objects can be measured. Hence, the scale is an important tool to measure the values
of different things or objects or events. In research study, various types of data and information are used and it
also requires different types of equipments, methods or procedures to measure it, is known as scales of
measurement. Different scale or techniques can be used for data collection. Generally, in the social science, there
are basic four types of scales as follows;
1) Nominal Scale: It is the simplest and lowest form of data and it provides more basic information. This
scale permits the researcher to assign this subject to certain groups or categories. Nominal scale is used to obtain
personal data from the respondents. Suppose, a researcher wants to collect different information from a certain
group of population, then h/she prepares as form such as gender, religion, occupation, nationality, department etc.
All the above categories are mutually exclusive and every respondent has to fit into one of these
categories. The data that can be generated from nominal scale is to calculate the percentage. For example, if we
interviewed 120 people in a city, and suppose there is 50 educated and 70 uneducated. Now, it refers
approximately 42% of the respondents are educated and 58% are uneducated people. Hence, the nominal scale
tells us nothing more than basic information.
2) Ordinal Scale: This scale provides more information than nominal scale. This scale is usually used to
rank the preferences of the respondent. It applies to data which can be ranked according to value and preference
but cannot be given a particular numerical value. For example, one can rank to drinks as Coca-Cola, Fanta, Pepsi
etc. according to his/her preference from most preferred to least preferred. This implies that one may like Pepsi
better than Fanta and Coca-Cola. Similarly, next example of ordinal scale can be presented as the rank as below;
Occupations Rank (in terms of their social status)
Engineer ---------
Professor ---------
Pilot ---------
In this above example, suppose, if the respondents give higher rank to lawyer than Engineer, Professor,
and Pilot, we can say that lawyer has relatively higher social status than other three occupations and so on. So,
the most common uses of ordinal scale are obtaining preference measurements from the different respondents.
3) Interval Scale: This scale assumes that the data have equal intervals. In other words, the main theme
of this scale is that all the things or points have equal interval. Suppose, there are five boys, who are all one year
apart in age. Names of boys suppose; “A”, “B”, “C”, and “D” are 4, 3, 2, and 1year older than the youngest boy
“E”. The important point is that we can not say that the oldest boy “A” is twice as old as “C” and four times older
than “D” because we don’t know actual age of the youngest boy i.e. “E”. Similarly, examples of interval scale can
be presented as a minute, hours, months etc. This scale is often used in behavioral research and more powerful
scale than the nominal and ordinal scale. So, it refers to indicate equal interval and provides with information on
the magnitude of the differences in the variable.
4) Ratio Scale: This scale is the most powerful of the four scales, because it has an absolute zero origin.
This allows the researcher to calculate the ratio of difference between the specially age and income of the
individual. For example, one can say that the girl who is 8 years old is twice as old as the boy who is 4 years old.
Therefore, the ratio scale represent a further refinement in quantitative measurement in that it has a defined zero
point. This feature permits certain comparison between scale values which are not possible on the basis of
interval scale. Ratio scales are found more commonly in the physical science than in the social science. The
measurement of weight, length, time interval, etc all conform to ratio scales.
 Techniques of Measuring attitude data (attitude measurement):
People have certain feelings, perceptions and behavior towards other things. These feelings and
perceptions are measured by different attitude scales for collecting the required data & information in research
investigation. There are mainly three well-known attitude of measuring feelings and perceptions of the people
which is also known as types of social scales are as follows;
a) Summated rating scale (Likert-type scale):
R.Likert was developed this summated rating scale to measure the attitude of people so, it is called
Likert-type scale. In this technique of constructing the attitude of people, when an individual responds to any
statement, s/he expresses his/her attitudes on a scale of one to five in rank. This scale can be arranged with many
other similar items. When the all items are summed, the total number is an indication of some general attitude.
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For example, suppose, a researcher wants to collect attitude data about the following items or statements, then
h/she construct the following frame; (the statement may be)
The hands that help are holier than the lips that pray.
Now, the format of the responses may be;
Strongly agree Agree Undecided Disagree Strongly disagree
--- --- --- --- ---
b) Equal-appearing interval scale (Thurstone scale):
This scale is developed by Thurstone so, it is also called Thurstone scale. This scale also consist of a
number of items which a subject response to by either indicating his agreement or disagreement. The main
features of this scale is that all the items on the objective tests are of equal importance but some items are given
higher values than other items. Therefore, this scale consists of a number of items whose position on the scale has
been determined previously by a ranking operation performed by the judge or the researcher. For example;
I'm satisfied with my job for the time being.
My job is like hobby to me.
I'm often bored with my job. etc.
The above statements are equal importance but the respondent must indicate or tick on any one out of three given.

c) Cumulative scale (Guttman Scale):

This scale is also called Guttmann Scale. In this scale, all the items are related to each other in such way that an
individual who replies favorably to item first and also replies favorably to other items. Moreover, according to
this scale, if a respondent can answer the first item, then h/she probably will be to answer the second, third and so
on other items. On the other hand, if a respondent cannot answer the last item then, h/she probably cannot able to
answer the all items.
Suppose, there are three questions (a), (b), and (c). According to this scale, the 1 st person who gets first
question i.e. (a) as correct, then rest (b) and (c) also gets as correct. The 2 nd person who misses first question i.e.
(a) but gets (b) correct, then (c) also gets as correct. Similarly, the 4 th person who misses (c) question, then not
likely to get (a) & (b) as correct. It can be shown by the following table:
Respondents (a) (b) (c) Total score
First 1 (√ ) 1 (√ ) 1 (√ ) 3
Second 0 (X) 1 (√ ) 1 (√ ) 2
Third 0 (X) 0 (X) 1 (√ ) 1
Fourth 0 (X) 0 (X) 0 (X) 0
Where, 1 = correct response and 0 = incorrect response.
 Reliability and validity of measurement : The followings are the primary criteria of evaluation in any
measurement are:
Reliability: Data are considered to be reliable when they give assurance that they are reasonably close to
truth. The researcher must be considered with the reliability of his/her measuring scale. Reliability implies the
consistency between measurements in a series. A measurement device is reliable when it will consistently
produce about the same result when applied to the same sample. For example, if a person advocates any event
what h/she observes at first time? After one week or a month, again h/she presents that events as same statement
then there is found consistency or that is assumed as reliable. So, reliability indicates the precision of
measurement score from same sample size or how accurately such scores will be reproduced with repeated
measurement. In this regard, Kerlinger defines, "Reliability is the accuracy or of precision of a measuring
instrument". Hence, if the experiment frequently gives a same result that is called reliability or the consistency of
result is reliability. Reliability is thus a sign that whatever the researcher has attempted to measure would give the
same results even if more people were surveyed. The reliability of the measurement may be obtained by the
different methods or procedures like test-retest method, alternative form method and split-half method.
Validity: It is concerned with systematic error. Any experiment or scientific study must be valid. In other
words, data & information are considered to be valid when they measure what they are supposing to measure.
Validity generally results from carefully planning of questionnaire or interview question. In this regard, Brown
defines, " validity is defined as the proportion of true variance i.e. relevant the purposes of the test." Hence, the
validity implies effectiveness and faithfulness of a test in obtaining specified objectives. For example, in an
entrance examination of MBBS for doctor, if a person secure the highest mark in entrance and h/she will be a
good doctor in the future, such examination is assumed valid. On the other hand, if a person secure the highest
mark in entrance but h/she fails to be a good doctor in the future, that examination is not assumed as valid. There
are different types of validity like content validity, construct validity, criterion-related validity etc.
The basic purpose of testing reliability and validity in research is to calculate the measurement error. The
measurement error can be either systematic or variable in its impact. A systematic error is one that occurs in a
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consistent manner each time something is measured. In this sense, a biased question may be a systematic error.
On the other hand, a variable error is that which occurs randomly each time that something is measured. As a
conclusion, validity is result from careful planning of questionnaire items and reliability is an outcome of
sampling from the population.
 Formats of scale construction: It includes the following formats;
Likert scale: It is the most widely used scale in business research to measure the respondent’s attitudes.
With this scale, the respondents indicate their attitudes by checking how strongly they agree or disagree with the
statements given in the questionnaire.
Semantic differential scale: It is a type of survey question where respondents are asked to rate their
opinions on a linear scale between two points, typically with seven levels (i.e. 1 to 7). For example; statements
are given to the respondent with seven levels scale such as, Please rate your supervisor on the following
dimensions.
Good 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bad
Positive 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Negative
And their opinions are calculated as an average.
Stapel scale: it is a modified and simplified version of the semantic differential scale. In this scale,
respondents are asked to indicate their response in 1 to 1o rating scale. This scale also produces results similar to
the semantic scale and the results can be analyzed in the same way.
Graphic and itemized rating scale: Rating methods can take either a numerical or a graphic form.
Graphic and itemized rating scales are the most common means of measuring attitudes. These rating scales
require the rater to select one of the limited numbers of categories that are ordered in terms of their scale
positions. For example:
Excellent All right Very bad

Rank order rating scales: This method is widely used to measure preference for an object. The
respondents can be asked to rank order their preferences from most preferred to least preferred. For example,
based upon what you have seen, heard, and experienced, please rank the following brands according to your
reliability from most preferred to the least preferred;
Wai-Wai --------------------
Rumpum --------------------
Mayoj --------------------
Other frequently used scales : This method includes;
-Simple category questions: For example, have you ever purchased a product from the website?
(i) Yes (ii) No
-Multiple choice questions: For example, how did you first known about our product?
(i) Television (ii) Newspaper (iii) Internet (iv) Other, please specify.
-Open-ended questions: For example, what is your suggestion about this product?
(Now, the respondents provide their suggestion in paragraph)
-Demographic questions: It is used to identify the characteristics of respondents such as age, gender,
income, address, number of children, and so forth. This method helps to researcher to clarify the difference
between different categories of respondents.

UNIT-5: SAMPLING
 Concept & Meaning of Sampling:
A population in most studies usually consists of a large group of people. Population or universe implies
to the entire group of people or events or things that the researcher wishes to investigate. For example; if the
researcher is interested in investigating the salary level of employees in a factory, then all employees in that
factory will form the population. Population may be finite or infinite. A finite population is one containing a
fixed number of elements such as the number of books in a library etc. An infinite population is one without
limits of any kind such as the production of cigarettes by Janakpur cigarette factory etc.
Sample is a collection of items or elements from the whole population. Hence, sample is a part of
universe which is taken by researcher for further study. It is not always possible to study every items or elements
in a population. If the total items are studied, that is called census method. But for a thesis or project work to be
undertaken by a student, the study of the total population is neither possible nor necessary. Making a census study
of the entire universe is not possible on account of limitation of time and budget. Hence, sampling becomes
inevitable in the research work. It is an essential part of any research investigation. The researchers normally

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cannot survey everyone in the population; but through sampling techniques, they can be confident that only a
small part of the total population can fairly represent the total population.
A sample is only a portion of the whole population and the process of selecting a sample is known as
sampling. Borgardus defines, “Sampling is the selection of certain percentage from the group of items
according to predetermined plan.” For an example; if the 15 students are drawn from a population of 300
students of a college, those 15 students are sample and process of selecting these sample (i.e.5% of 300) is called
sampling. So, sampling is defined as the selection of certain part from the total population. Sampling is thus a
vital part of effective surveys.

 Sampling Design: Good sampling technique or methods can save the much time and money of investigator.
The students or the researcher should pay attention to the following factors in designing the sample;
i) The sampling frame: It is the list of items or unit involved in the population from which the sampling
is to be taken. Therefore, it may be all the students at college, all the employees in a factory, all names in the
telephone directory etc.
ii) Selection of sample items: After determining the sample frame, the researcher must decide how
sample will be selected. Basically, it includes different sampling techniques like Probability and Non-probability
sampling methods.
iii) Sample size: The size of the sample must be determined. Or how much sample size is required for
his/her study must be determined. Therefore, the basic elements of sample designs are choosing the sampling
units, and choosing the sampling procedures.
The sampling problems in the research study are: (a) the definition of the population, (b) the size of the
sample and (c) the representative of the sample

 Significance of Sampling: The role of sampling is important in the research study. The researcher normally
cannot survey each item involved in the population but through sampling technique, h/she can be confident that
only a small part of the total population can fairly represent the total population. The followings are the main
significance of sampling technique in research work.
a) Time saving: The sampling methods save the time of the researcher because sample is the small part
of whole population, so it reduces the time taken for collecting and analyzing the data in comparison to census
method.
b) Economy: The sampling methods also minimize the cost of the researcher, because making a census
method of the entire population is not possible. So, sampling method is essential for research work.
c) Simple and intensive study: The study of whole population is more difficult and there is chance of
getting more errors. In such condition, it is necessary to select certain items or units from the population and by
the help of sampling technique; it is possible to study with deeply because it has limited items or units.
d) Possible to cover wide area: When the samples are drawn from the whole population and it is
assumed that they are more representative from the whole population. So, it is possible to cover wide area within
reasonably short time.

 Steps or Process of Sampling: It is necessary to define the population to the actual selection of sample in
sampling process. There are seven steps involved in sampling process;
1) Define the population: In the first stage of sampling process, population must be defined in terms of
elements, sampling units, extent and time. If the population is defined incorrectly then results of the study may be
meaningless. For examples, suppose, we are going to monitor the sales of a product like Horlicks , recently
introduced it then the population might be as a element product i.e. Horlicks, as a sampling unit; it may be retailer
or wholesaler, as a extent; it may be Biratnagar and as a time it may be started date.
2) Specify the sampling frame: A sampling frame is a means of accounting for all elements in the
population. It may be employee roster (i.e. list of employee), a list of all students or a list of customer in a certain
locality etc.
3) Specify the sampling unit: The sampling unit is the basic unit containing the element of the target
population like wholesaler, retailer, supermarket etc.
4) Specify the sampling method: The sampling method is the way of selecting the sample units. There
are different techniques of selecting the sample and which method is more appropriate for data collection that
must be defined.
5) Determine the sample size: In this stage of sampling process, the number of elements of the
population to be sampled is chosen. Moreover, the researcher has to decide how many elements of the target
population are to be chosen that must be determined.

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 6) Specify the sampling plan: In this stage, the researcher should indicate how each of the decisions
made so far is to be implemented. For example; if a survey of house-hold is to be conducted, a sampling plan
should define a house-hold that how h/she should take a systematic sample of house-hold.
7) Select the sample: The final step of the sampling process is the actual selection of the sample. It
requires substantial amount and field work procedures.

 Types of Sampling (or Methods/Techniques): Different types of sampling methods are used in research
work. Generally, there are two types of sampling techniques, which are as follows;

(A) Probability sampling method: This technique is assumed more useful and popular method in research work,
which is based on probability theory. According to this method, there is equal probability of including the each
item or unit of population in sample. Therefore, in probability sampling method, each number or unit of the
population has an equal chance of being selected as a sample. For examples lottery, card, coin, dice etc. The
followings are different types of probability sampling methods:
1) Stratified sampling method: This method is more useful at that time when the researcher selects the
sample from the heterogeneous population. In this method, the whole population of a certain area is divided into
different strata (sub-group) and sample is taken from each strata with randomly. Strata may be male and female,
educated and uneducated, tall and short, black and white, boys and girls etc. Suppose, a researcher is selecting 28
students from the whole student of a college for his/her study, then the first of all, according to this technique,
h/she divides the whole students on the basis of boys and girls and the researcher selects the certain portion as a
sample from sub-divided groups for further study. Suppose, the total students are 280, now first of all, the
researcher divides them on the basis of boys & girls then draws sample randomly as follows;
Population 10% Sample from each group
Boys Girls Boys Girls
120 160 12 16
2) Systematic sampling method: It is the simplest and most widely used method of drawing a sample
from the whole population. In this method, first of all, a list of the whole population is prepared and given them
role sheet serially. And sample is randomly drawn from each certain interval. Suppose, the researcher wants to
select 5 workers for interview from the total 50 workers of a factory. Now, first of all, h/she generates the role
sheet with serially like 1, 2, 3…….50 and takes every 2 nd or 3rd number from the role sheet. If h/she takes after
every 2nd interval, then sample may be 3rd , 5th , 7th and so on.
3) Cluster sampling method: This method is also called multistage sampling method. The cluster
sampling method is more useful at that time, when the stratified sampling method is not possible to select the
sample. Moreover, when the population is too large, the cluster sampling method is used. Generally, this method
is widely used in conducting the area survey. Suppose, the researcher is going study the industrial problems in
Nepal, according to this method the first step, h/she prepares the list of the whole factory, after that h/she restricts
some factories into Eastern and Western regions and finally h/she selects the certain individual factory and
employee from each of these region as a sample.
4) Simple Random sampling: This method of sampling is commonly used. In a simple random
sampling method, all items of the population have equal probability of being selected in the sample. This method
is used only in those studies where the entire population can be listed or when the population is finite. Lottery is
also a method of selecting a simple random sample. When the size of the population is manageable, this method
would be suitable. This method has the some advantages like, it requires minimum knowledge of population in
advance, Free of possible classification errors, Easy to analyze data and compute errors and disadvantages are; it
does not make use of knowledge of population which researcher may have and larger errors for same sample size
than in stratified sampling.

(B) Non-Probability sampling method: In this sampling method, all items in the population do not have equal
chance of being selected as a sample. These methods are those which are not determined by chance but rather by
the personal convenience of the researcher. The followings are different types of non-probability sampling
method.
1) Judgmental sampling method: This method is also called purposive sampling method. Judgmental
samples are drawn from the population through the researchers’ intuition. Moreover, in this method, the selection
of sample depends upon researcher’s own judgment. For example, if the researcher wants to study the social
problem, h/she selects some professors as a sample according to his/her judgments, where subjects are selected
on the basis of their experience in the subject investigated.
2) Convenience sampling method: In this method of non-probability sampling method, samples are
taken on the basis of researcher’s convenience. This method is useful at that time when the researcher has limited

20
time and money. In this sampling method, data are collected by asking the different questions to the number of
passers-by, family, friends etc.
3) Sequential sampling method: In this method, a number of sample lots are drawn one after another
from a population depending on results of the earlier samples. Moreover, if the first sample is completely
acceptable, no new sample is drawn and if the lot is completely unacceptable, such sample is rejected and further
process is done.
4) Quota sampling method: This method is the most sophisticated method. In this method, the whole
population is divided into a number of segments after that the researcher arbitrarily selects the sample from each
segment. For example, if a researcher studies the opinion of different economists about the current budget speech,
h/she determines the certain quota as 4 economists from each political party as a sample like;
Segments N.C. N.C.P R.P.P.
No of economists 30 40 20
Quota (4) 2 1 1

 Sampling error and non-sampling error : A sampling error is the error which is made in selecting the
samples that are not representative of the population. This error is the difference between sample value and the
true value of the population. Generally, finding the appropriate sample size from the population is more difficult
problem. The main objective of sampling is to obtain information from the whole population in such way that it
ensures a good representation of the population with in a reasonable time and cost. The sampling procedures
include two types of error as follows: (i) Sampling error and (ii) Non-sampling error.
The sampling error can be attributed to the selection of sampling procedures, research design and the
sample design. Generally, the size of the sample is one of the important factor for the error that larger the
sampling size, lower will be the error. Good sampling plan assures low error, where poor sampling plan leads to
more error. The following figure shows the relationship between error and sample size.
The above figure shows the size of sampling is increasing that error is decreasing. It means if the
researcher increases the size of sample for their study; it will be less chance of error in the sample. Or the sample
size is increased from 1 to 3; the error is decreased from 3 to 1. Generally, the sampling error is occurred due to
wrong choice of sampling procedures, poor sampling plan and not proper selection of sample statistic from the
population.
The non-sampling error is executed to the acquiring the data, recording or tabulating the data. During the
interview, the data might not come true from the respondents. There is a tendency to over-value and undervalue
in evaluation process. Some information depending upon the situation that is non response of the data. This type
of error is the highest in case of mail questionnaire method. However, increasing the sample size can reduce the
error but it also increases the non-sampling error. The interviewer should be well aware of this situation and
should check the information obtained by the respondents and get accurate data & information. Therefore,
recording or tabulating stage of the data also needs more careful because there is great chance of committing
error that is called non-sampling error. The non-sampling error occurred due to the recording and tabulating stage
of data by the interviewer or not correctly reported by the respondents, lying by the respondents, ambiguity
questions, publication error etc.
Lipstein (1975) offers some broad guidelines for minimizing non-sampling errors are as follows;
- Don’t ask questions to the respondents as they really cannot answer
- Establish procedures for keeping both respondent and interviewer involved in the study
- Make an effort to minimize participant’s fatigue
- pre-test the questionnaire
- Keep the sample survey as easy to execute as possible
- Use the smallest sample consistent with study objectives
- Don’t ask to the respondents to do the impossible etc.

UNIT-6: DATA COLLECTION

 What is data ?
Data are various types. These can be categorized in general terms of their meaning. There are two
categories of data: (i.) facts data and (ii.) Opinion data. Facts data usually describe tangible thing. It measures
anything that actually exists or has existed. A fact is thus described as a thing done, on actual occurrence, a piece
of information presented as having objective reality. For example; the distance between Dharan and Itahari is 16
kilometers, Gorkha Department Store sells 1500 bottles of Mineral water in a week and so on. Opinion data is a
judgment formed in the mind about a particular matter. Opinions are the result of people’s attitude, intentions,

21
knowledge and motives, and reflect their perception about something or what they believe about something? , the
perception of people may different in different thing, which is called opinion data.
Required data and information are collected from different sources. Mainly, the researcher collects data
either from primary source or from secondary source (i.e. sources of data). But the researcher should pay more
attention to the Budget available, sample available, chance of getting response rate, technology available
(computer, e-mail address of respondents etc), implementation time (i.e. how long will it take you to get your
data?), words used in questionnaire and interview methods etc. while making data collection decisions.
Primary data collection: The primary data are original or first hand data collected by the researcher. The
primary data are those data which is collected by the researcher through different techniques such as
questionnaire, interview, observation, survey method etc. Primary data have not been previously collected and
used for any other purpose. The available information may not be obtained from only secondary sources in the
research study. In such condition, the researcher himself goes to the field for collecting the data & information
that is known as primary data.
Sources of Primary data: The major sources of primary data in business are as follows;
a) The organization: The organization is not only source of secondary data but also is an important
source of primary data. The organizations have people dimension that includes manager, administrative staff,
salesman and other personnel. Hence, these selections of people are the important source of primary data. Many
organizations use their own employees for testing new products and product concept and sales people often
provide valuable input to the organization to develop its marketing strategy as they have close contact with
customers and their need.
b) Intermediaries: The intermediaries involved in the channel distribution or in the supply of raw
materials are often very good sources of primary data. For a manufacturer the wholesaler and retailers are the
intermediaries, for a hotel business the travel agents and tourist guide are the intermediaries. For an insurance
company, the authorized agents are the entrepreneur. The intermediaries have much more knowledge about the
current market trend because they are near to customers and manufacturing companies. So, the intermediaries are
also sources of primary data.
c) Current and potential Customers: The consumers are ultimate users of product and services. So,
they are the most important of all the source of primary data. Any researcher attempting to assess consumers
wants and needs should directly be concerned with what consumers think of existing product and what they
would like in new product, similarly; the researcher can also secure information about their attitudes, behavior
and intention through direct contact with them. So, consumers are also important source of primary data.

 Methods/Techniques/ of Collecting Primary data: There are different types of primary data;
Questionnaire, Interview and Observation methods are important.
(1) Questionnaire method:
A questionnaire is a formal list of questions designed to collect the responses from different respondents
on a given topic. From the questionnaire method, a researcher can obtain the required data and information for
further study. In questionnaire method, researcher prepares short questions which is related with research study
and provides the respondents for response through the post office. Hence, questionnaire is a method of data
collection which includes list of questions and it is sent to the number of respondents for response and respondent
again returns it to the researcher after filling the answer but the words and sentences used in questionnaire must
be clear and simple. Bogardus defines, “A questionnaire is a list of questions to the number of persons for them
to answer.” There are different types of questionnaires such as structured, unstructured, open-end questionnaire,
pictorial questionnaire etc.
Components or Parts of a questionnaire: The major components or part of the questionnaire fall into
three basic categories. They are;
a) Explanation information: It is provided by the researcher to the different respondents explaining the
purpose of the research study. Explanation information is attached at the beginning of the questionnaire in a form
of a letter. It includes purpose of the study, an appeal for responses and other information for completing the
questionnaire.
b) Basic information: It is the main part of the questionnaire in which all the questions are included. It
may be several pages depending upon the required data for further study.
c) Classification information: It is the end of the questionnaire, classification or personal information
can be designed. It includes age, gender, occupation, income, marital status etc of the respondents.
Types of questionnaires are as follows;
A) Self-administration questionnaires: it includes; (i) Online questionnaire, (ii) Mail (postal) questionnaire
and (iii) Delivery and collection questionnaire
B) Interviewer administration questionnaires: it includes (i) Telephone questionnaire and (ii) Interview
schedule questionnaire
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 Qualities or features/principles or design of a good questionnaire: The followings are some qualities
of questionnaire;
- The language used in questionnaire should be summarized and clear. It is always essential that care should be
taken to ensure that respondents do not interpret the sense of question in different ways. Hence, the respondent
should understand in the same way in which researcher wishes them to understand.
- The sequence of the questions should be such that it will make sense to the respondents.
- Such phrases and expressions which are understood by only the few respondents and are not in common use
should be avoided.
- Easily answerable questions should be kept in the beginning and difficult at bottom of the questionnaire.
- The question should be so worded that ego of the respondents is not injured in any way.
- While deciding about the length of the question, respondent’s capacity should be taken into account. If the
question is too large, it should be split up in the best possible manner that lengthy questions should not be asked.
- All the questions should be related with research study and it should be well arranged and also attractive.
- Emotional and multiple meaning of questions should be avoided.
- Units of question should be precisely mentioned.
- The amount of the writing required on the questionnaire should be kept to the minimum.
- As far as possible such questions which call for responses towards socially accepted, norms & values should be
avoided.
- For the final printed question, quality of paper, margin, spacing, grammatical rules and mistakes and all the
formatting should be cared.
Advantages of Questionnaire method:
i) Time and cost saving: The researcher can save his/her time and cost by using questionnaire method. In
this method, the researcher should not expense more time and money that only nominal expenses like stamp,
envelop, printing cost etc. are needed for constructing the questionnaire.
ii) Large coverage of population: Through questionnaire method, the large number of population (i.e.
respondents) may be covered. Geographically, the questionnaire can reach everywhere, where the post office has
established. The geographical advantage is an important factor in Nepal because, it is difficult to locate and
interview many individuals. A large coverage of population increases the validity of the study by obtaining the
more representative sample.
iii) Free from bias: Questionnaire method is free from the bias of the interviewer because answers are in
respondent’s own words.
iv) Adequate time for respondents: Respondents have adequate time to give well-thought-out answers
because they get more time of thinking about the questions.
v) Convenience: the respondents, who are not easily approachable, can also be reached conveniently.
Similarly, the samples can be made so that the results can be made more dependable and reliable.
Disadvantages of Questionnaire method:
i) Partly filled in questionnaire: All the respondents may not fill the answer with neatly as well as there
may be more incorrect words, the respondents may be confused in some question as a result, accurate and
available response rate may not be obtained.
ii) Unwillingness and inability of respondents to provide information: In questionnaire method of
data collection, there is no guarantee of achieving adequate information from the respondents because
respondents may not fill accurate and right answer in the questionnaire. Some respondents may not able to
provide accurate information. If any question listed in questionnaire is vague and ambiguity, the respondents
can’t provide the accurate answer, as a result, available information and data may not be completed.
iii) Not possible to all respondents: questionnaire method is not possible to all respondents. It can be
used only when the respondents are educated and co-operating.
iv) Less response rate: there is no compulsion to provide exact and accurate response to the respondents;
as a result, information may not be available. There is also possibility of ambiguous replies.
v) Difficulties on identifying actual respondents: it is difficult to identify actual respondents for
response geographically and if there is lack of actual respondents, the study may not be completed.

 Pre-testing the questionnaire:

The final test of a questionnaire is to try it on a small target audience. For this purpose, there should be at
least 5-6 people (respondents). In pre-testing the questionnaire, the respondents are requested to provide
weaknesses and feedback on how easy it was to complete of the questionnaire. The researcher can also ask them
about their opinion on wording, sequence, and layout of the questionnaire. The researcher should use the
feedback from this piloting exercise to review and emend the questionnaire. Therefore, the main objective of pre-
testing questionnaire is to identify that what type of questions should be involved & what should not be involved
or what are the practical difficulties of the questionnaire that is identified and avoided from the questionnaire.
23
Hence, it helps to indicate the weaknesses of questionnaire, helps to make effective structure of the questionnaire,
helps to identify sources of required information etc. Important guide to questionnaire construction are as
follows;
1. Identify the data needs: what type of data and information are required for the study, should be
defined.
2. Formulate the questions: use simple words and language to the respondents. Avoid long and
ambiguous questions. Don’t ask: like, how many magazines do you read? instead of it, Ask: which magazine
mostly do you read? Don’t ask: do you think the husband should help with dressing and feeding the small
children when he is at home? Ask: who should dress and feed the children when the husband is at home? And so
on. Decide whether the question should be open or closed for example; Open question: it is believed that some
people in this community have too much power. Do you think it is true? If so who are they? Closed question: it is
believed that some people in this community have too much power. True ( ) False ( ) Don’t know ( ); If true,
who are they? Brahmins and Chhetries ( ) Limbus ( ) Tamangs ( ) and others ( )
3. Organize the questionnaire: start with easy questions that the respondents will enjoy answering.
Don’t start with age, income level, occupation, marital status etc. The questions should be properly arranged so
that they provide complete response. etc.
4. Pre-test the questionnaire: select a sample of individuals (respondents) who are representative of the
population, request them to provide reactions and feedback, analyze the feedback provided by them, check the
comments about the questionnaire, etc. and prepare the final question considering suggestions provided by the
respondents.
5. Pay attention: Select qualitative paper for printing the questions and type carefully. And examine the
technique for increasing return of the questionnaire.

 Questionnaire administration (managing the questionnaire): Modes of data collection by

questionnaire differ in several ways, including the method of contracting respondents, the medium of delivering
the questionnaire to respondents and the administration of the questionnaire. The researcher’s performance in
questionnaire administration can be measured usually with respect to four aspects, as follows;
a) Contact rate: Making contacts with respondents could be a problem in some cases. The proportion of
addresses and names with which the researcher makes contact measures this rate.
b) Response rate: non-response could also be a problem in some research studies. The proportion of
contacts that result in interviews measures the response rate.
c) Completeness rate: Questionnaires returned incomplete are useless. The proportion of information
obtained to that desired measures the completeness rate.
d) Accuracy rate: The accuracy rate is defined as the ratio of measured to true value.
To minimize these problems, the researchers have to consider carefully that how to manage and achieve
correct responses from the various respondents. For this purpose, the length of the question should be
appropriate. In order to obtain accurate information, the researchers have to give some thought to what question
you ask, how to ask, and the order of questions and overall layout of the questions.

(2) Research Interview method:

Interview is an important method of primary data collection. It is a face to face conversation between the
interviewer (researcher) and interviewee (respondents). According to Zenzin “An interview is a face to face
conversional exchange where one person obtains the required information from another person”. Attitude and
values of people can be easily known by the interview. Generally, a good interview should have various features
such as formal introduction, systematic and clear questions, should not ask same questions as two times.
Therefore, interview is a face to face communication for the purpose of obtaining factual information from the
interviewee. The interview can also be conducted over the telephone; mainly it can be classified (i.e.
classification of research interview) into following categories which is also known as Interview schedule.
a) Structured interview: - Structured interviews are conducted with a pre-determined list of questions.
In such type of interview, the researcher cannot change the structure or order of the questions from respondents to
respondent. Therefore in this type of unstructured interview, the same questions are asked to different
respondents. The interviewer does not have the flexibility to change the questions, their formats or order.
b) Unstructured Interview: - Unstructured interviews are conducted without pre-determined list of
questions. Such type of interview helps the researchers to identify broader problem areas and the perception,
norms & values, opinions, interest etc. of the respondents. This type of interview provides greater flexibility. And
this interview may be depth, focused or non-directed.
c) Semi-structured Interview: - Such types of interviews have the features of both structured and
unstructured interviews. The researcher will have a tentative list of questions to be covered during the interview.

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However, these questions may vary from interview to interview and the interviewer may slightly change the
questions, their numbers and their order.

 Types of research interview are as follows;

(1) One-to-one interview (2) One-to-many interview

a) Face-to-face interview a) Focus group interview
b) Telephone interview

Face-to-face interview: The most common method of obtaining survey data is face-to-face interview. In
this method, the interviewer talks to the respondent directly. This can be done in the home of respondents or place
of employment or in street, colleges, hall, and office or in any other suitable place. The use of either structured or
unstructured interview has to be selected. The appearance, situation, mood of respondents and the dealing of
interviewer may also affect the response of the respondents; these factors should be kept in mind by the
interviewer.
Telephone interview: Today, telephone interview is a well-established technique of data collection. In a
telephone interviewing, the interviewer contacts respondents by telephone rather than by mail. The questions
asked are more or less of structured nature. This type of interviewing is best suited when many respondents are to
be researched over a wide geographical area and the time available for interview is very short. Similarly, some
questions can be asked more easily over the telephone than in the written form.
Focus group interview: Focus group interviews involve two or more participants (interviewees).
Generally, it involves 6-10 persons i.e. interviewees at a time. They are brought together at one place to discuss
the topic of interest. When the focus group is organized, the interviewer provides a brief general comment on the
purpose of the meeting and suggests a specific topic to open the discussion, from this discussion, the interviewer
may move the group to talk about how they feel about the subject matter. Focus group interviews are successful
only when skilled interviewer conducts them.
Focus groups interviews have been extensively used in marketing research, in political campaigning, and as part
of public and communications research. More recently, focus groups have been used in social, health, linguistics,
and environmental research studies. The followings are some examples where focus groups can be effectively
used;
 Developing community awareness to prevent HIV/AIDS
 Investigating the public perceptions of the environment
 Investigating the public attitudes and sensitivities towards growing unplanned urbanization
 Assessing the impact of advertisements before going public etc.
Therefore, a focus group is a group of individuals selected and assembled by the researcher to discuss
and comment on, from personal experience, the topic that is the subject of research study. The important features
of focus group interviews are;
 Focus groups are special groups in terms of purpose, size, composition and procedures
 Participants need to be remained of some rules at the beginning of the discussion
 Focus group interview may vary research to research
 It requires careful planning about the study
 It requires skillful interviewer with good personal, communication and managing qualities
 Focus group questions need to be carefully developed, etc.
Principles of interviewing: Some basic rules must be kept in mind while interviewing. Good interviews
are those in which respondents are at ease and talk freely about their points of view. The followings are some
guidelines about the interviewing;
 Interviewer must welcome to interviewee before starting the interview.
 Start with formal introduction that inspires to interviewee to provide accurate and more information
easily.
 Should inform about the objectives of interview to the interviewee.
 H/she must be polite and co-operative.
 Seriously read the psychology of interviewee.
 H/she must have ability to conduct interview properly and should analyze the situation.
 Should create effective environment so that the interviewees provide more response easily.
 Should not use those words that affect the ego of interviewee.
 Should pay more attention to the biaslessness in asking the questions.

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  Ask generally more open (open-ended) questions (i.e. How to improve qualitative education in Nepal?
Ans.............................................) then closed questions (i.e. with options orYes/No).
 Don’t use difficult terminologies
 Use correct & concrete words
 Determine whether the interview is structured, unstructured or semi-structured in nature.
 Should maintain proper discipline during the interview.
 At last, shouldn’t forget to say ‘thank you’ to the interviewee.

(3) Observation method:

It is next important method of primary data collection. In this method, the researchers actually ask no
more questions rather h/she observes the related phenomenon according to their research objective. Observation
is a purposive or intentional examination of something, particularly for purpose of gathering facts. According to
Creswell, “Observational research is the careful watching and recording of somebody or something in a
systematic way to establish knowledge”. Therefore, observation method is more useful to the researcher because
h/she can obtain the real and reliable information with extensive study. Observation can be done in the sector of
sociology, anthropology, marketing research and other sectors where the researcher notes and records by
observing the facts. There are different types of observation method like participant, rating system, category
system etc. Hence, by the help of observation method, the researcher can achieve reliable and adequate data and
information for their study. Observation method of data collection is the process of
recognizing and noting people, objects and occurrences rather than asking for questions. For example, instead of
asking respondents what brand of soft drink they buy, the researcher arrange to observe what brands of soft drink
are being bought by them.
The following factors should be considered for proper planning of the observational studies;
 An appropriate group of subjects to observe
 Selection and arrangement of any special condition for the group
 Length of each observational period
 Units of behavior to be observed
 Tallies in the record & Form of recording
 Training of the observer & interpretation of observation
There are two types of direct observation method, which are as follows;
(a) Participative observation method is unstructured and unsystematic. The observer simply notes down
his/her observations of what happened or what was said. According to this method, suppose, if the
observer (researcher) studies the behavior of the hostel students then the observer first joins or admits
being a student or a member. However h/she informs to the administration about the purpose of joined in
hostel but the students don’t know about it and they feel as student. After that h/she starts to analyze,
records and notes required information from the groups. In other words, person acting as participant,
observer try to look at the group as a complex whole. They try to understand many different aspects of
the group, including relationships with its surrounding.
(b) Non-participant observation method may further be classified as structured and unstructured. Structured
observation is quantitative, systematic & predetermined and it provides a complete list of all expected
behaviors. Unstructured observation is to observe the phenomena without the use of a predetermined
guide. According to this method, the researcher does not directly involve with participants, h/she tries to
understand subject matter or activities indirectly. In the case of studying social events or problems such
as theft, drug user, illegal behavior, kidnap etc. the participative observation method may not be suitable,
at that condition, this method is more useful.
 Qualitative data collection:
Qualitative methods are characterized as those that aim to explore meaning and that produce non-
numerical data such as written, audio or visual, behavior etc. These methods aim to focus on how people interpret
the social worlds and to explore the meaning of phenomena. The followings are major methods of qualitative
data collection:
(i) Focus group interview (See from types of research interview)
(ii) in-depth interview
(iii) Projective technique
(iv) Observation method (See from earlier page)
(ii) In-depth interview: It is a qualitative research technique that allows person to person discussion. It
is a dialogue between an interviewer and interviewee. This type of interview can lead to increase insight into
people’s thoughts, feelings and behavior on important issues. Therefore, the main goal of this interview is to
deeply explore the respondent’s point of view, feelings and perspectives. Such interviews are best conducted

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face-to-face, although in some situation; telephone interviewing can also be conducted. Some key characteristics
or this interview includes open-ended questions, semi-structured formats, recording responses, conversational,
record observation etc. Therefore, the main goal of this interview is to deeply explore the respondent’s point of
view, feelings and perspectives. Such interviews are best conducted face-to-face, although in some situation
telephone interviewing can also be conducted.
Steps for in-depth interview: (i) Plan how to conduct the in-depth interview. (ii) Decide who are the
respondents. (iii) Introduce yourself. (iv) Explain the general purpose of the interview. (v) Conduct the actual
interview. (vi) Analyze the data. (vii) Make a report.
(iii) Projective technique: This technique is other important source of collecting qualitative data. This is
mostly the unstructured methods that encourage respondents to project their underlying motivation, behavior,
attitudes or feelings. It is more useful in the sector of marketing research but only trained researcher can use these
types of technique. There are very specific methods of project technique which can be classified as follows:
 Word association: In this technique, the respondents are given a list of words related to research work
and asked to respond with the first word that comes to his/her mind.
 Sentence completion: In this technique, the respondents are given incomplete sentences and asked to
complete them.
 Story completion: In this technique, the respondents are given a part of the story (related to the research
work) and asked to complete it.
 Cartoon test: In this technique, the respondents are provided some pictures of the cartoon and asked to
complete them.
 Role playing: In this technique, the respondents are given to play the role of someone and asked to give
responses.
 Meaning and use of Secondary data:
Data may be obtained either from primary or from secondary sources. Secondary sources of data refer to
those which are already collected by others. The sources of secondary data can be divided into two groups; they
are internal and external source. The internal secondary data are found within organization, where external
secondary data are collected from outside the organization. These sources may include computer, data bank,
books, bulletins, reports etc.
Secondary data are offered in the form of published data. However, it may be unpublished data like
statistic data or unpublished record etc. So, secondary data is defined as data collected earlier for a purpose other
than the one currently being pursed.
Sources of secondary data in Nepal are government organization such as national planning commissions,
Nepal Bank Ltd., Nepal Rastriya Banijya Bank, Economic Development sector, trade promotion sector etc and
non-government agencies like trade organization, Federation of Nepalese chamber of commerce and industry
etc. Therefore, secondary data are actually the results of actually collected by previous investigators that provide
the researcher with a considerable amount of useful information. Secondary data are cheaper and more quickly
obtainable than primary data and also may be available where primary data cannot be obtained at all.
The secondary data can be classified into the following categories (Classification of secondary data);
(A) Documents and Reports: It includes Written documents like organizational records, notice and
publications, websites, committee reports, books, journals, newspaper, research reports and Non-written records
like CD-ROMs, TV & Radio recordings, taped interviews, pictures & drawings etc.
(B) Surveys: It includes Censuses like population, industrial, employment, agricultural etc. and Regular
and Occasional surveys like price index, import and export, attitude surveys, labor market etc.
Advantages: The followings are important advantages of secondary data:
i) Economy: Economy is the clearly the greatest advantage of secondary data. The cost of secondary data
collection is relatively lower than primary data and most of the secondary data are available at little or low cost.
ii) Time saving: Secondary data can be obtained more quickly than primary data. While, a fieldwork
project often takes two or three months or more, but secondary data can often be collected within a few days or
even hours.
iii) Availability of information: Certain types of information may be available only in the form of
secondary data. Such data may be virtually impossible to collect through primary sources like census
information.
Disadvantages:
i) Lack of accuracy: The major disadvantage of secondary data is its lack of accuracy. Most of the
secondary data information suffers from this limitation. Data may be inaccurate due to simple errors made by the
researchers that who collects and publishes the information.
ii) Inappropriate & incomplete data: The secondary data may also be not appropriate and complete for
the needs of study project. The collected information from secondary data may be completely out of date or
expired data. As a result, appropriate and available data may not be obtained through secondary source.
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 Factors affecting choice of data collection methods:
The quality of research study highly depends upon it data and information. Without data and information it is not
possible to complete research work. Data and information may be collected either from primary or from
secondary sources. The following factors affect in choice of data collection:
1) Nature of research study: Data collection is affected by the nature of research study. Due to weak
ability of researcher h/she may be failure in selecting proper data collection method in their study.
2) Available resources: If the researchers have not available resources i.e. budget, time, manpower for
data collection, it also affects in collecting data.
3) Level of accuracy: All the respondents may not be equal capable, educated, as well as income level &
life standard of respondents may differ one to another, as a result they may not provide accurate responses.
4) Co-operation of the respondents: Respondents may differ in nature, sometimes it is not possible to
contact with the respondents or they may not willing to provide exact data to the interviewer, as a result, it affects
to the data collection method.
5) Selection of proper design: If the researcher does not make proper design for the research, h/she may
failure in colleting data from the field. Therefore, before doing the study, proper research design should be
selected.

 Use of Internet for data collection:

Data and information are important things for the research study. There are mainly two sources of data
collection; primary and secondary source. If the researcher goes to the field and watches, notes, records &
collects the data, known as primary data. H/she may use various methods such as questionnaire, interview,
observation, survey, face to face, telephone etc. On the other hand, the secondary data may be published or
unpublished. Published data may be balance sheet, P/L account, income statement, articles, bulletins etc. and
unpublished data may be taken either from internal record of organization or from their websites. Important
information can be collected using internet & concerned websites. One of the popular website address is
“google”, from this, other various websites may be obtained. Some important websites are as follows:
www.commercialbank.com.np
www.tucentrallibrary.com.np
www.google.com.np
www.wikkipedia.com.np
www.go.com.np
www.alltheweb.com.np
www.ebscohost.com/title list/ bu-journals.pdf
www.ebscohost.com/title list/ bu-others.pdf
etc.

UNIT-8: TOPIC SELECTION AND RESEARCH PROPOSAL

 Selection of Research topic/Criteria for selecting a research topic:
A topic is what the thesis or research paper is all about. The selection of research topic is an important
task. It may be based on the number of considerations. Moreover, it may be based on some theoretical or some
practical consideration. The research topic may very well be selected from the burning problems that based on the
special interest and the convenience of the researcher. Therefore, the topic for research should be selected that
new and more useful conclusions could be drawn. Simply, in selecting the research topic, the researcher
(students) should pay more attention to the following aspects:
* The student should immediately begin to think relevance, feasibility, acceptability, applicability, cost
effectiveness etc. about the topic selection.
* The researcher should be more interested to the selected topic.
* Library facilities for the studies are sufficient or not that should be considered.
* Required data for the study and money is available or not, Study areas are favorable or not etc. should be
considered by the researcher in selecting the research topic.
* Is the research topic achievable within the time period?
* Hence, basically the researcher should pay more attention to the different aspects like is it interesting? Is it
new? Is it significant? Is it feasible? And so on.

 Concept of Research Proposal:

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 The term ‘research proposal’ is an outline or plan of the research work. A research proposal is an
argument for proposed study. It is an important document which is prepared before writing the thesis. In other
words, it is a preliminary function of research study, which is prepared before doing the research to related area.
A research proposal is a plan of a research work which is prepared before starting that research work. It is
an outline of how the research data could be collected and used to solve a specific problem. In other words, it is
the presentation of an idea that a researcher wishes to pursue. Before starting the research work about something,
the students should prepare the proposal on the format prescribed by the related department and submit it for
further study. The proposal, which the students submit to the research committee of the campus through Head of
the department, explains which topic h/she plans to research. Moreover, what is the research topic? How to
collect the required data? Which tools are used for analyze the data? As well as how much time and money is
required for study? etc. are explained in brief. So, the main purpose of the research proposal is to explain and
justify the proposed study to an audience or to other researchers of non-expert about research topic. There are
different types of proposals such as proposal for academic sector like masters' degree and Ph.D., proposal for
economic grant prepared by government and other non-government organization etc. Generally, proposals are
different according to the study and whom it is to be submitted. In the academic area, a thesis proposal has
mainly the following four distinct sections: the title, the introduction, the research methodology and the
reference section or bibliography.

 Format or structure or contents of research Proposal:

Proposal is different according to the study and whom it is to be submitted. Generally, in the academic
sector a thesis proposal is prepared on the basis of following format:
(A) Title page: In this first page of proposal, the title of the research proposal is presented. The title
should be as short as possible and it should be reflected the contents of proposed study.
(B) Introduction: It includes the following sub-headings;
i) Background information of the study: In this section of proposal, the general background of the study i.e.
related organization or company should be mentioned in brief. Similarly, relevance of the proposed study is
explained.
ii)Statement of the problem: In this section, what are the general problems that is facing by the company or
organization must be described in brief.
iii) Theoretical framework: In this section, brief survey of related literature and explanation of relationship
between different variables are presented.
iv) Statement of objective/hypothesis: In this section of research proposal, what are the objectives of proposed
research study that is clearly defined; and so on statement of the research hypothesis which the study will try to
test that is presented in brief.
v) Definition of terms used: Generally, the words, which are used in proposal or report or thesis, must be simple
and clear. If the technical terms are used in proposal, should be well explained.
vi) Significance & limitation of study: In this section, what are the advantages and limitations of the study that is
describe in brief. For e.g. limitation may be like, data presented in this proposal are assumed true and fact, only
five year's data are used etc.
(C) Research Methodology: In this section of research proposal, mainly, research design, population
and sampling, source of data, data collection methods, testing of hypothesis, different statistical and financial
tools like mean, standard deviation, correlation, ratio analysis etc. for analyzing the data must be precisely
explained.
(D) Bibliography: In this section of proposal, different materials like books, bulletins, reports, and
newspapers etc., which are used in proposed study that is presented with alphabetically and appendices can also
be mentioned after the bibliography section.
In addition to the information required in a research proposal for an academic degree, a proposal to do
funded research requires further information covering the budget, equipment & instruments, research personnel
& their qualification, expected outputs, time-frame and other related issues.

 Purposes of research proposal:

 To provide relevant background information in the context of research study.
 To show significance of the problem proposed to investigate.
 To make an original contribution.
 To address the value of research project.
 To throw the light in the field of research or the topic of investigation.
 To show the planning of suitable and feasible methods.

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 Types of research proposal:
There are different types of proposals according to their objectives and nature:
(a)According to the objectives: it includes the following two types of proposals:
(i) Academic research proposal: Academic research proposal is an internal proposal which is prepared to
the academic institution either for academic degree or for other academic purposes. It is prepared by the students
for their academic degree. It is presented to convince a supervisor or academic committee about the topic and
approach of research work.
(ii) Funding research proposal: When a research proposal is made to obtain some fund from funding
agency, then such proposal is termed as ‘funding research proposal’. Generally, such proposals are prepared by
the single person or group of persons or an institution. It is an external proposal made by individual or
organization to another parties or donors.
(b)According to the nature: it includes the following two types of proposals:
(i) Solicited research proposal: It is formal type of proposal and called through the media or notice or
newspaper. When a research proposal is written and submitted in response to the issuance of a ‘Request for
proposals’, then such proposal is termed as a solicited proposal. In other words, when a funding agency or an
institution sends out a public announcement requesting proposals for a specific project, is known as solicited
proposal. All proposals are collected by the funding agency and then evaluated, after that, the best one is selected
for final research work.
(ii) Unsolicited research proposal: It is informal type of proposal. Those proposals which are submitted
by the researchers in response to a general call made by the funding agencies or other institutions, is called
unsolicited proposal. In other words, unsolicited proposals are those in which the funding agency or an institution
does not request for proposals. The researcher should submit the proposal identifying the problem and agency
must be convinced on it.

 Criteria of evaluating the research proposal:

The criterion of evaluating the research proposal includes, basically the following bases:
1) Quality of proposal: Proposal should be on prescribed format provided by the concerned university. Its layout
and presentation should be attractive. The research objectives, methods and tools, should be defined clearly.
Required charts, tables and diagrams should be presented, data must be analyzed clearly according to its
objectives, attention must be paid to the grammatical rules, should use simple words and short sentences as far as
possible and so on.
2) Ability of researcher: It includes academic qualification, training, experience, knowledge of various languages
according to locality and place, analysis of situation in collecting the data and information, study habit on various
literatures, knowledge about the questionnaire, interview and observation methods of data collection etc.
3) Technical possibility and availability of resources: It includes overall project concept is available or not, the
objectives appear achievable in the time-frame stated or not, the mentioned budget is realistic or not etc.

UNIT-9: WRITING A RESEARCH REPORT:

 Meaning of research report:
A report is simply a statement or description of things that have already occurred. A report is clear
communication of the important findings of the research work. Simply any research work begins with an idea and
ends with a report. Thus, report is a final product or output of a research study. The research report is a written
statement of any related research that informs to the readers, what is the main finding of research. Moreover,
report is a summary of any research work that includes introduction of study, its objectives, review of literature,
research methodology i.e. research design, population, sampling, data collection procedures, hypothesis test, data
analysis tools, tabulation, presentation, analysis and interpretation, and findings of the study. Therefore, the
output or the final product of the thesis or project work is the report. This final product in the form of a report is
important for the students because it is evaluated and marks are awarded (to grant).

 What a research report serve? (purposes):

-The main purpose of research report is to tell the readers (i.e. other students or researcher) the problem
investigated the methods to solve the problem, the result of investigation and the findings of the study. Similarly,
the thesis work of a student will be judged mainly by the quality of the report. The examining committee may not
see the effort of the student while at field, therefore, the student should show his/her performance, skill and
thoughts in the report, which are vital to its assessment and grading.
-The effectiveness of the report may be judged by its use. The organizations, professors, researchers and
students are using good reports for different purpose.

30
 -Purposes of report can be explained such as to provide bases for further researchers, to tell readers that
what is problem and findings of the study, to provide the knowledge of rules and principles involved in writing a
thesis report, to evaluate the relevance of various methods, and to impart the whole information about how to
prepare the report.

 Research Report Process:

Information sources Literature & field Survey

Data banks, Bulletins & Observation
Condensation Editing & coding of data
Master sheet data

Combination Charts, tables, graphs, diagram etc.

Assimilation Analysis, Interpretation & writing

Finished Product REPORT

 Types of Research Report:

The research report enables a student to demonstrate his/her understanding of, and ability to, use
techniques in methods of analysis and provides him/her with the opportunity to significantly develop his/her
management and research skills. Different types of reports are used in business sector, such as formal & informal,
internal & external, oral & written, short & long etc. However, for the purpose of the thesis assignment, reports
are classified into following two functional groups:
Descriptive report: Descriptive reports are those, which only describe the facts of real situation.
Moreover, descriptive reports are only description of facts or opinions collected by researcher during his/her field
study. These reports indicate the nature of the problems facing by the organization or the company under study
and also indicate the reforms required to overcome such problems. Thus, descriptive report is a description of
problems facing by the business organization or the company that does not test hypothesis and it does not use
different statistical tools for further study.
Analytical report: This type of report goes to one step further than descriptive. In analytical report, data
are collected, presented, analyzed and interpreted using different statistical and financial tools, and then valid
conclusion is drawn. These reports follow the scientific investigation process. And also recommend the actions to
be taken for improvements to the organization. Hence, in analytical report, data are analyzed, interpreted;
conclusions are drawn and appropriate suggestions for improvement is focused to the related organization and
company by the researcher.
The students may choose any one of these types of report, which depend on the nature of the data or
investigation. But sometimes, it may include the features of both these types of research reports.

 Rules of typography/Typing the research report :

The following guidelines are given for typing the report:
(i) Margin & font size: In report writing, margin of 1.5" on the left-hand side, 0.5" on the right-hand
side, top & bottom of the page 1/1" are commonly used. And 12-14 font sizes of text in report writing are
commonly used.
(ii) Pagination: Pages in report writing should be numbered in Arabic numerals like 1,2,3 from the first
page of the text (i.e. Introduction chapter) to the end page of the text (i.e. last chapter including the appendices).
The pages in the preliminary section (i.e. preface, recommendation, table of contents etc.) should be numbered
with small roman numerals (i.e. i, ii, iii etc.) one inch from the bottom of the page.
(iii) Spacing & page numbers: The text of the report i.e. line spacing must be double spaced but
quotations and footnotes should be single spaced. And, the page number should come at the top right-hand corner
of the page. The first line of the text should be two spaces below the page number.
(iv) Paper: The size of the paper should be 8.6" by 11" (i.e.A-4 size), and only one side of the paper is to
be used. Similarly, attention should pay to proper chapter page and proof-reading.

 Style/qualities/elements of report writing:

The following attention should be paid in report writing;
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 Footnotes: Footnotes are essential part of the reference section due to the function they perform. The
footnotes serve the purpose such as the identification of materials used in quotations in report. Footnotes
acknowledge (to make known) the source of quotation, paraphrase borrowed by the different author. The
footnotes are placed at the bottom of the page and always typed in single space, and it should be numbered
continuously like 1,2,3, etc. The style of footnoting and the order of information are illustrated in the following
examples;
Last & First name of writer, Name of article (i.e. book's name), Publisher, date and edition, place, page number.
For example; 1Panta P.R., "Fieldwork & Report Writing", Buddha Academy p. Ltd., 2 nd edition-2000AD,
Kathmandu, Nepal, Page no. 123.
Write clearly: The sentences used in report writing must be as simple as possible. Two or three
relatively simple and short sentences may be more effective than one complicated sentence. Similarly, long
paragraph should not be written.
Be careful of terminology: In report writing, adequate attention should be paid to the correct use of
grammar, and to the correct spellings of all words. Similarly, appropriate punctuation marks and all other
grammatical rules must be used.
Direct and positive sentences: In report writing, unessential words and phrases should not be used.
Especially, naturally & directly using familiar words with simple constructions must be used.
Presentation: In report writing, required figures, charts, tables, headings and sub-headings must be
presented. In writing, the introduction, data analysis & findings are to be in past tense, conclusion in present tense
and suggestions in the future tense. In writing, the pronounce words like 'the writer' of 'the investigator' should be
used instead of I, me, my, our, we, us, & mine.
Focus to the study objectives: The students or researcher should focus on the research problem. The
main purpose of the research investigation is to answer the questions or more attention should be paid to the
research objectives.
Therefore, the researcher should pay more attention to the several aspects such as report must be in
prescribed format by related department. Only noted or famous words must be used in writing. Similarly,
attractive paper margin, spacing, use of footnotes, bibliography and appendices is important for report writing.

 Contents/Format/Components of the research report:

There is no one best format or formula for all reports prescribed by different department. However, the
following format is suggested by Wolff & Pant as a basic outline:

(A) THE PRELIMINARY SECTION: The followings are the essential components of the preliminary
section of a research report;
* Title page: The title page is a covering page of the fieldwork report that includes the following
information;
(i) Title of the report
(ii) Full name of the candidate i.e. researcher
(iii) Name of the institution to which the report is submitted
(iv) Degree for which the report is prepared and
(v) The place and year of the report when it is submitted
* Approval sheet: In this page of the report, it is described that, this fieldwork assignment report is
forwarded for evaluation. The recommendation sheet also includes name of the student, title of the study, date
and signature of the research department.
* Acknowledgement: In this page, thanks may be expressed to those, who have provided him/her
substantial help, guidance or assistance in completing the research report.
* Executive summary: It covers all the aspects in the body of the report in a summarized form. In this
regard, some attentions must be paid as, make sure that the information in the executive summary reflects what is
in the body of the report, do not include any information that does not appear in the report, make the executive
summary as concise as possible etc.
* Table of contents: It provides exact information to the reader or other researcher/students that in which
page the materials are located. For example,
* List of tables and figures: In a report or thesis having many tables and figures, separate lists of
tables and figures are prepared and placed just after the table of contents.

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(Example of table of contents)

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 Table of contents
pages

Acknowledgement ii
List of tables and figures iv
Chapter One
Introduction 1-9
1.1 Background of the study 1
1.2 Purpose of the study 2
1.3 Literature survey 3
And so on……………………….
Chapter Two
Review of literature 10-22
And so on………………………
References…………………….
Appendices……………………
(B) THE MAIN OR TEXT BODY: It includes the following elements;
Chapter-One
Introduction
This section includes a clear understanding of the background information, scope and purpose of the
study, Research hypothesis, the problem, and the variables,. Similarly, some assumption or limitations like
sample taken is assumed to be representative of the population, all the figures are rounded from the balance sheet
etc. should be explained. And a brief textual outline of each of the chapter should be mentioned as an
organization of the study. Generally, the introduction chapter tells the reader, what the report is about or what the
researcher did and how h/she went about it. Chapter-Two
Review of Literature
In this section, reviews of previous writings and studies relevant to the problem are involved. It may
occur that a few previous studies are directly related to the current investigation, with many reports being of
indirect or relative importance. A summary of previous studies (findings) may be appropriate to include in a
separate section. An effort should be made to break up the text of this chapter with appropriate sub-headings.
Chapter-Three
Research Methodology
This chapter includes mainly the research design, the population and sampling procedure, data collection
and processing procedure, and different statistical procedure.
Chapter-Four
Presentation and Analysis of Data
This section is divided into two parts that Presentation and Analysis. The data must be processed &
grouped into several items or headings for analysis, the processed data should then be presented in the form of
tables, charts, diagrams etc. and different statistical techniques should be made for better interpretation of data,
the result should be explained in detail, the data gathered must be examined in relation to the objectives.
Chapter-Five
Summary, Conclusions & Recommendations
This chapter is divided into three parts as; Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation. A summary is a
brief narration of the entire report including the main findings. The summary should provide the reader an overall
picture of the study, and the researcher should draw the significant conclusions from the study as well as the
student also may suggest to the related organization or the company for improvement.
(C) THE SUPPLEMENTARY SECTION: This section includes bibliography and appendices, are as
follows;
* Bibliography: It tells the reader various source of the materials and provides a clear and complete
description of these sources that were used in preparing the report. Thus, in this section, different materials like
books, bulletins etc. which are used in the report, must be presented as an alphabetically. An example or format of
bibliography can be presented as follows;
Pant, P.R. (2009). Social Science Research and Thesis Writing. Kathmandu: Buddha Academic Publishers and
Distributors Pvt. Ltd. [in the case of single writer]
Poudyal, Santosh R. et. al. (2064). Principles of Management. Kathmandu: Asmita Publication.
[in the case of more than three writers]
Kothari, C.R. (2009). Research Methodology Methods and Techniques. 2nd ed. New Delhi: New Age
International (P) Ltd. Publishers. [in the case of revised edition]
(note: et al – it is derived from Latin words; its meaning is and others)
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 * Appendices: The appendix is a storehouse for the questionnaires, charts, tabulation, balance sheet,
profit & loss account, and other illustrative materials. So, the appendix is an important section containing a
variety of items that are concerned with the study.
 Uses of citations and references:
There are four referencing systems from which to choose for text citation. But the researcher has to use
only one system which is preferred by the university or department (in academic research). They are as follows:
1. The short-title system
2. The author-date system or APA style (it is popular)
3. The number system
4. The author-number system
Note: APA=American Psychological Association
Generally, two types of quotations are undertaken in report. They are: direct and indirect quotation.
Followings are the ways of writing information of other writers (review of literature) in the report/thesis:
Direct quotation: When the researcher feels that the version or concept of others is clearer than h/she
could make, direct quotation is made without losing the words and punctuation. Therefore, direct quotation may
be used when the words of the author add force to validate the argument in the report. It should be used when
citing mathematical and other formulas and it may be used for presenting the major arguments of authors.
In report writing or thesis, quotation is assumed an important factor, which is taken from different books or
magazines.
Indirect quotation, On the other hands, is concerned with to avoid the possibility of a long quotation
expressed by the author. Sometimes, long quotation which is expressed by the author is necessary to paraphrase
the writer's own words. Hence, in indirect quotation, the exact words used by the author are not used in the
quotation marks.
There are number of procedures to follow in quoting. Its length initially determines the basic form of
quotation. For short quotation (up to 3 lines), use the same line spacing (i.e. double 1.5) as the rest of the text
and use double quotation marks at the beginning and the end of the quotation. For long quotation (4 or more
lines), use the single line spacing (i.e. automatic of computer), use no quotation marks at the beginning & end of
the quotation and indent the quotation five spaces from the left margin.
Ellipsis are also used to avoid the long quotation that are not completely relevant, it is possible to omit
(avoid) the part of a quotation. The ellipsis is indicated by three full stops with the space before. For E.g."...The
HRD manager commonly believe that on the job training has a great impact on the productivity of the workers."
The source of the all quotations must be presented in the footnote and the reference section (bibliography) of the
report writing.
 Abbreviation:
Abbreviations are used in the reports or thesis. The students should be familiar with many of these term
abbreviations. It is the short form of words used in report writing. When the short forms are used in report
writing, then it should be presented in separate page by explaining theirs meaning and arranged with
alphabetically. For example;
Abbreviation Meaning
APA American Psychological Association
et al. (from Latin words et alii) and others
ibid (from Latin words ibidem) in the same place, from the same book
n.d. No date of publication
op. cit. (from Latin words opera citato) in the work cited

[Note: signs like &, %, <, >, / etc. should be arranged after ‘Z’ or at last]

BEST OF LUCK

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