Research Process & Methodology

This course affords the student the opportunity to thoroughly explore a specific area of human resources as it relates to business. Research is a complex undertaking with formal processes, methodologies and design. A successful manager needs not only to be able to research opportunities and/or problems as they present themselves, but also evaluate research produced by others. To do so, s/he must be fully cognizant of acceptable research techniques, data collection, research design, internal and external validity and statistical methods for hypothesis testing. This course equips the student with the required research skills that are necessary to successfully conceptualize a research topic with original ideas and subsequently develop a proposal for researching that topic. Upon completion of the course, students are expected to have learned: how to conduct a literature survey, the hallmarks of scientific research, the hypothetico-deductive method, how to develop a theoretical framework, data collection methods, analysis and interpretation, and how to evaluate a research report. Students will also be introduced to methods for correctly citing references and quoting other works without plagiarizing, infringing upon copyright or violating the rules governing proprietary information. Upon successful completion of this course, students will have completed a research proposal containing all the required, formal elements.