CHAPTER – 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY

3.1 Introduction

“Methodology” implies more than simply the methods you intend to use to collect data. It is
often necessary to include a consideration of the concepts and theories which underlie the
methods. The process used to collect information and data for the purpose of making business
decisions. The methodology may include publication research, interviews, surveys and other
research techniques, and could include both present and historical information. Using our earlier
definition of research it would seem sensible to define business and management research as
undertaking systematic research to find out things about business and management.

Research is an academic activity and as such the term should be used in a technical sense.
According to Clifford woody research companies defining and redefining problems, formulating
hypothesis or suggested solutions; collecting, organizing and evaluating data; making deductions
and reaching conclusions; and at last carefully testing the conclusions to determine whether they
fit the formulating hypothesis.

Research is, thus, an original contribution to the existing stock of knowledge making for its
advancement. It is the persuit of truth with the help of study, observation, comparison and
experiment.

The basic types of research are as follows:

(i) Descriptive vs. Analytical: Descriptive research includes surveys and fact-finding enquiries
of different kinds. The major purpose of descriptive research is description of the state of affairs
as it exists at present. In social science and business research we quite often use the term Ex post
facto research for descriptive research studies. The main characteristic of this method is that the
researcher has no control over the variables; he can only report what has happened or what is
happening. Most ex post facto research projects are used for descriptive studies in which the
researcher seeks to measure such items as, for example, frequency of shopping, preferences of
people, or similar data. Ex post facto studies also include attempts by researchers to discover
causes even when they cannot control the variables. The methods of research utilized in
descriptive research are survey methods of all kinds, including comparative and correlational
methods. In analytical research, on the other hand, the researcher has to use facts or information
already available, and analyze these to make a critical evaluation of the material.
(ii) Applied vs. Fundamental: Research can either be applied (or action) research or
fundamental (to basic or pure) research. Applied research aims at finding a solution for an
immediate problem facing a society or an industrial/business organisation, whereas fundamental
research is mainly concerned with generalisations and with the formulation of a theory.
“Gathering knowledge for knowledge‟s sake is termed „pure‟ or „basic‟ research.” Research
concerning some natural phenomenon or relating to pure mathematics are examples of
fundamental research. Similarly, research studies, concerning human behavior carried on with
view to make generalizations about human behavior, are also examples of fundamental research,
but research aimed at certain conclusions facing a concrete social or business problem is an
example of applied research. Research to identify social, economic or political trends that may
effect a particular institution or copy research or the marketing research are examples of applied
research. Thus, the central aim of applied research is to discover a solution for some pressing
practical problems. Whereas basic research is directed towards finding information that has a
broad base of applications and thus, adds to the already existing organized body of scientific
knowledge.
(iii) Quantitative vs. Qualitative: Quantitative research is based on the measurement of quantity
or amount. It is applicable to phenomena that can be expressed in terms of quantity. Qualitative
research, on the other hand, is concerned with qualitative phenomenon, i.e., phenomena relating
to or involving quality or kind. For instance, when we are interested in investigating the reasons
for human behavior, we quite often talk of „Motivation Research‟, an important type of
qualitative research. This type of research aims at discovering the underlying motives and
desires, using in depth interviews for the purpose. Other techniques of such research are word
association tests, sentence completion tests, story completion tests and similar other projective
techniques. Attitude or opinion research, i.e., research designed to find out how people feel or
what they think about a particular subject or institution is also qualitative research. Qualitative
research is especially important in the behavioral sciences where the aim is to discover the
underlying motives of human behavior. Through such research we can analyse the various
factors which motivate people to behave in a particular manner or which make people like or
dislike a particular thing. It may be stated, however, that to apply qualitative research in practice
is relatively a difficult job and therefore, while doing such research, one should seek guidance
from experimental psychologists.
(iv) Conceptual vs. Empirical: Conceptual research is that related to some abstract idea(s) or
theory. It is generally used by philosophers and thinkers to develop new concepts or to
reinterpret existing ones. On the other hand, empirical research relies an experience or
observation alone, often without due regard for system and theory. It is data based research,
coming up with conclusions which arc capable of being verified by observation or experiment.
We can also call it as experimental type of research, in such a research it is necessary to get at
facts firsthand, at their source, and actively to go about doing certain things to stimulate the
production of desired information. In such I research, die researcher must first provide himself
with a working hypothesis or guess as to the probable results. He then works to get enough facts
(data) to prove or disprove his hypothesis. He then sets up experimental designs which he thinks
will manipulate the persons or the materials concerned so as to bring forth the desired
information. Such research is thus characterized by the experimenter‟s control over the variables
under study and his deliberate manipulation of one of them to study its effects. Empirical
research is appropriate when proof is sought that certain variables affect other variables in some
way. Evidence gathered through experiments or empirical studies is today considered to be the
most powerful support possible for a given hypothesis.
(v) Some Other Types of Research: All other types of research are variations of one or more of
the above stated approaches, based on either the purpose of research, or the time required to
accomplish research, on the environment in which research is done, or on the basis of some other
similar factor. Form the point of view of time, we can think of research either as one-time
research or longitudinal research. In the former case the research is confined to a single time-
period, whereas in the latter case the research is carried on over several time-periods. Research
can be field-setting research or laboratory research or simulation research, depending upon the
environment in which it is to be carried out. Research can as well be understood as clinical or
diagnostic research. Such research follow case-study methods or indepth approaches to reach the
basic causal relations. Such studies usually go deep into the causes of things or events that
interest us, using very small samples and very deep probing data gathering devices. The research
may be exploratory or it may be formalized. The objective of exploratory research is the
development of hypotheses rather than their testing, whereas formalized research studies are
those with substantial structure and with specific hypotheses to be tested. Historical research is
that which utilizes historical sources like documents, remains, etc. to study events or ideas of the
past, including the philosophy of persons and groups at any remote point of time. Research can
also be classified as conclusion-oriented and decision oriented. While doing conclusion oriented
research, a researcher is free to pick up a problem, redesign the enquiry as he proceeds and is
prepared to conceptualize as he wishes. Decision-oriented research is always for the need of a
decision maker and the researcher in this case is not free to embark upon research according to
his own inclination. Operations research is an example of decision oriented research since it is a
scientific method of providing executive departments with a quantitative basis for decisions
regarding operations under their control.

This descriptive or explanatory research was designed and conducted to assess and develop the
criterion for performance appraisal and the relative increment-cum-compensation in the
higher educational institutions of Delhi.

In addition, this study was also being undertaken to find out whether performance appraisal is
really adopted as an important management tool, and to understand the frequency of use, the
advantages obtained, and the challenges faced in using the performance appraisal. It includes the
population, the sampling techniques, the data collection methods, the data collection instruments,
the collected data and data analysis.
3.2 Study Population

The research population is usually a huge collection of the individuals or objects that is the main
target of a scientific question. It is for the benefit of the population studied that researches are
done. However, due to the large size of the populations, the researchers often cannot test each
and every individual in the population as it is too expensive and time-consuming. It is the reason
why researchers depend largely on the sampling techniques.
Population is defined as the totality of almost all the subjects that conform to a set of many a
specification, comprising the whole group of individuals that is of interest to the researcher and
with whom the research genesis can be generalized.
A research population is also called as a well-defined collection of respondents or the objects
known to have similar features. All the individuals within a certain population normally have a
common, binding quality. Moreover, the description of the population and the common binding
feature of its members are all the more same. Herein, "Government officials" is a clearly-defined
group of persons which can be taken ahead as a population and all the individuals of this
population are actually the officials of the government.

Types of Population in Research

 Target Population – It refers to the whole group of individual persons to which

researchers are directly interested in reaching the conclusions. The target population
normally has varying features and it is also called as the theoretical population.
 Accessible Population – It is the population in the research study to which the
researchers could relate and apply their conclusions. This population is a considered to be
a subset of the target population and is also called as the population under study. It is on
behalf of the accessible population that researchers have a tendency to decide their
samples.

With respect to this, the target population for my research study comprised of male and female
academicians involved in the appraisal process in around 40 institutions of Delhi.

Relationship between the Sample and the Population in Research

The sample is usually a subpart of the population. The idea of sample came from the inability of
the researchers to be able to test all the individuals in the decided population. The sample should
be a representative of the population under study from which it was taken and it should be of a
good size to warrant statistical evaluation. The crucial function of the sample is to permit the
researchers to conduct the study on the individuals from the population so that the outcomes of
their study can be made use of to arrive at meaningful conclusions that shall imply to the whole
population. It is more of like a give-and-take procedure. The population “gives” the sample, and
then it “takes” out the findings and the conclusions from the results had and obtained from the
sample.
The sample for my research study had a total of 500 academicians as respondents from 40
colleges of Delhi.

3.3 Sampling Techniques

The concept of sampling refers to the statistical procedure of selecting and studying the features
of a comparative small number of items from a relatively huge population of such items to draw
out the statistically viable inferences about the features and about the entire population. The
research studies are the distinctive events that include a specific group of participants. However,
the researchers normally intend in giving answer to a general question about the larger
population of the respondents rather than a smaller group under consideration. Hence, the
ultimate objective of any psychological research is to be capable to make valid decisions and
generalizations and then extend their results besides those who participated in it. Due to this
reason, the selection of the participants to be a part of research is a very vital issue when anyone
is planning for research. Yes obviously, the researchers cannot gather data from each and every
single individual from the population concerned and of interest, since this could be very
expensive and may even take a very longer time! Therefore in place of this they make use of a
very small group of individuals which is called a sample. Usually the sample is selected from the
population concerned and is actually used to represent this population. Researchers even make
use of the sampling techniques to decide about the participants to constitute their sample – these
techniques really help a lot minimize the cost to be incurred whilst maximizing the conclusions
and the generalizability. There are different sampling methods available for the researchers to
select the various individuals for a study to decide on the sample. Sampling methods can be
divided into two categories:
1. Probability sampling: Every individual in the population is called upon and each has an
equal and a certain chance of being selected in the sample. A random procedure decides
the sample on the basis of each individual‟s probability.
2. Non-probability sampling: The population is not completely known, thus individual
probabilities cannot be really known. Common sense or ease is used to select the sample,
but efforts are strictly made to avoid any prejudice and decide on the sample
representative.
 Simple random sampling is an instance of probability sampling. This is when a list
constituting all of the population is developed and used to obtain the participants
through a random selection. This random selection assures that every individual has a
free and equal chance of being chosen. This method is quite fair, without any bias and
simple to carry out. Moreover, with the help of simple random sampling there is no
guarantee of full representativeness of the sample. One more instance of simple random
sampling is cluster sampling. This happens when the sample is obtained by the random
selection of the clusters formed (pre-existing groups of participants) from a list
containing all of the clusters present within the population.

 Cluster sampling is usually used to find the number of mortalities in the sequence of
events such as war and the natural calamities. This method is very easy for deciding for
a large and comparatively random selection of the participants, moreover, the choice
lack independence.

 Convenience sampling is an instance of non-probability sampling. With the help of

convenience sampling, the sample is constituted of the independent participants whom
are simple to get. Convenience sampling is very simple to carry out, but one of the
demerits is that the sample is likely to be partial. At last, quota sampling is one of the
other methods of non-probability sampling. This is when various subgroups are found
out and the participants are chosen with the help of convenience from every different
subgroup. For illustration, say a researcher wants to choose a sample of students to
participate in a research study by making use of a convenience sample but wanted to
make sure that an equal number of boys and girls were chosen – quota sampling will be
the apt method for them to consider. This type of sampling can usually help to control a
convenience sample but might result in a prejudiced sample, which may not be a good
representative of the vast population under study.

How long and how far we can elaborate such results to understand a population is much
dependent on how minutely the sample represents the population – the representativeness. The
common threat to representativeness is partiality. A prejudiced sample is the one which had the
features that are quite different from that of the population. This type of biasness can happen
only by chance, but normally is down to selection biasness. The selection bias exists only when
the participants are chosen in a way which increases the probability of having a partial sample.
For instance, if a researcher appoints the participants from a gym, they are likely to be more
healthy and fit in comparison to the rest of the public.
Convenience sampling technique was used in collecting data with respect to my area of
research study.

3.4 Data Collection Methods

Data collection is one of the most significant stages in the conducting of a research study. You
can consider the best research design in the world but if you are not able to gather the needed
data you shall not be able to wind up your studies. Data collection is a very crucial job which
needs in-depth planning, efforts, lots of patience, perseverance and much more to be able to end
the task successfully. It begins with the determination of what kind of data is needed followed by
the choice of a sample from a particular population. After this, you require to use a certain
instrument to gather the data from the chosen sample.

Types of Data

Data can be classified into two kinds, i.e. quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative data is
numerical in its nature and can be computed mathematically. Quantitative data measure makes
use of the various scales, which can be categorized as the nominal scale, the ordinal scale, the
interval scale and the ratio scale. The nominal scale is used to divide the items of study into
various groups, for instance males and females, the different examination grades, different castes
existing in the country, various kinds of business; the various shoe sizes, etc. The statistical tool
that is used to assess this type of data is known as mode. The second measure used for
quantitative data is the concept of ordinal scale which in place of providing information as the
nominal scale does even allow permit rating of the data gathered. For instance, shoe sizes can be
considered from biggest to the smallest. A typical ordinal turns out to be ranking a set of data as
poor, satisfactory, good, very good, and excellent. On the other side, the interval scale not only
rates the order of a set of the information, it even measures the order in the units at equal
intervals of time. Moreover, the initiating point for the measurement sounds to be more of
arbitrary rather than adequate and absolute. For illustration, Celsius for temperature
measurement is an interval scale as 0o C is an arbitrary value, it is not considered as absolute
zero, and it does not mean that temperature is going down at that point. For the absolute
quantitative figures, we need to use the ratio scale.

Qualitative data are highly non-numerical in nature and normally descriptive or nominal. This
means that the data gathered are in the form of sentences and words.

Sources of data

Generally we can gather data from two wide resources, the primary sources and the secondary
sources. The data gathered from the primary sources are called as the primary data and the data
collected from the secondary sources are called the secondary data.

 Primary data are also called as the raw data. The data is collected from the original
sources in a regulated or an uncontrolled environment. The example of a controlled
environment is an experimental research where a few variables are being regulated by the
researcher conducting the study. On the other side, the data collected with the help of
observation or the questionnaire survey in a natural setting are the instances of data
obtained in uncontrolled surroundings.
 Secondary data are the data obtained from the secondary sources such as the reports,
books, documents, journals, the websites and much more.

Data Collection Methods

There are many methods to gather the data, depending on the research design and the
methodologies deployed. Few of the common methods used are the questionnaires, observations,
discussions and interviews.

 Questionnaires Survey

A questionnaire is said to be a research instrument consisting of a number of questions and

others for the objective of collecting information from the respondents. Though they are more
often structured for the statistical assessment of the responses, this may not ever be the case.
Questionnaires are most broadly used for both the quantitative and the qualitative research.

Questionnaires work best with standardized questions that you can be confident will be
interpreted the same way by all respondents. Questionnaires therefore tend to be used for
descriptive or explanatory research. Descriptive research, such as that undertaken using attitude
and opinion questionnaires and questionnaires of organizational practices, will enable you to
identify and describe the variability in different phenomena. They make use of different
measuring scales to collect information from the respondents. In order to obtain the personal
information from the respondents, we make use of the nominal scale as it serves as mark of label
or identification like the gender and age, which may not include many calculations. In order to
collect the respondents' preferences, we can make use of the ordinal scale which can be used to
arrange the alternatives according to their magnitude as per the ordered relationship. In order to
gather the data related to attitude, we make use of the rating scales. Rating tends to ask the
respondents to find out the magnitude of a feature or the quality regarding a certain object or a
thing.

Questionnaires are structured both for the descriptive as well as the analytical surveys. In a
descriptive survey, the questionnaire shall usually make use of the nominal and the ordinal scales
as it considers initially with the specific features of a particular population of subjects under
study. It does not call for the examination and verification of the dependent and the independent
variables included in the research. Illustrations of questions asked in a descriptive survey can be
as follows:

 When the company was founded?

 Mention the exact location of your company?
 How many employees are working in your organization?

On the other side, the rating scale can be ever used to measure the attitude or the viewpoints of
the respondents in an evaluative survey. In this survey, it normally requires to find out the
independent, the dependent and the other extraneous variables of study based on a particular
conceptual framework. The researcher requires conducting a thorough and detailed study of the
literature by giving attention to any of the existing research and the theory highly significant to
the research problem for further study. Once the variables are identified and decided, they are
transformed into a questionnaire using the rating scale measures, one of the most famous one
being the Likert scale. The questions of the Likert scale can constitute of three to seven items and
more. The data obtained from the respondents are then narrowed down and summarized up to
represent a specific variable, such as job satisfaction, level of motivation, reduced turnover, etc.
These can be used to evaluate any kind of a causal relationship in addition to the other variables.

Whenever we are thinking of designing a questionnaire, we must pay attention to the following
areas:

 The instructions must be clearly mentioned.

 Simple language to be used in framing the questions.
 Sequence of the questions should be logical enough.

Questionnaires can also be administered by post, the face-to-face distribution or even by

interviewing the respondents constituting the study. If you are thinking of conducting
questionnaire survey with the help of an interview, you are supposed to keep the interviewer‟s
biasness to the minimum by following some particular rules like:

 Go through the questions slowly.

 Keep a record of what the respondent has answered for each question.
 Never answer on behalf of the other or fake respondents.

Observation

Observation is a procedure of recording the behavioral patterns of the respondents and

occurrences without questioning or interacting with them. It can take place like in a laboratory
setting and even in a natural setting. Usually, there are two ways of carrying out observation, i.e.
the participative observation and the non-participative observation.

The researcher in a non-participative observation does not include the tasks of the people under
observation. He merely keeps and maintains a record of whatever happens amongst the people,
involving their actions and behaviour, and whatever is worth recording. On the other hand, the
researcher in a participative style of observation includes fully the people under observation,
with the sole purpose of trying to understand the data collected, the goals and the practices of all
those on whom the research is conducted.

One of the major advantages of observation in comparison to the questionnaire survey is that we
can obtain more of the in-depth information. We can try and target the phenomena, the nature,
the tasks and other things that are quite impossible to be detected by the help of a questionnaire
survey. Beyond this, there are many weaknesses connected with the observation method as
listed:

 It is unable to regulate the variables in a natural setting.

 The researcher‟s individual value system may strongly have an impact on the objectivity
of the study.
 Chances of observer‟s prejudice tend to be high.

Therefore, for the successful conduct of my research study, both the primary and the secondary
sources of data were considered.

1. Primary data was obtained directly from academicians i.e. Lecturers, Assistant
Professors, Associate Professors and Doctorates who were taking an active part in the
appraisal process.
2. Secondary data was collected from relevant material related to the variables under
investigation and these involved record auditing techniques such as: the dissertations,
textbooks, internet, the methods and forms of performance appraisals of the academicians
in the various institutions of Delhi.

3.5 Data Collection Instruments

This study represents data from various academicians from the different institutions. In order to
effectively gather accurate and adequate data, a combination of study instruments was made use
of. Since, it‟s a survey research so Likert Scale was used. It is often used to measure the
respondents‟ attitudes and opinions by asking the extent to which they agree or disagree with a
specific question or the statement given. A typical scale might look like “strongly agree, agree,
undecided/don‟t know, disagree, strongly disagree.” On the surface of it, survey data using the
Likert Scale may seem very simple and easy to analyze, but there are many a important issues for
a data analyst to consider.

Instructions for the use and interpretation of Likert Scale in Statistical Analysis

1. Collect and keep your data ready for final evaluation by coding the responses. Each in
one survey question, the scale uses the following responses: strongly agree, agree,
undecided/don‟t know, disagree, strongly disagree. In this, we‟ll code the responses
accordingly: strongly disagree = 1, disagree = 2, undecided/don‟t know = 3, agree = 4,
strongly agree = 5.
2. Now start analyzing the Likert Scale data with the help of descriptive statistics. With
Likert Scale data, one of the best measures to use is the MODE, or the most frequent
response given. This makes the outcomes of the survey much simple and easier for the
analyst to interpret. You can even display the distribution of the collected responses in
the form of graphs and the pie diagrams.
3. Simplify your survey data further by combining the 4 main response categories (e.g.,
strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree) into 2 nominal categories, such as
agree/disagree, accept/reject, etc. This will offer possibilities for further analysis. The chi
square test is one approach for analyzing the data in this way.

Questionnaires

A Self-administered, closed-ended questionnaire was used for the study. This was so because it
had the ability to limit the inconsistency in data collection and also save time as recommended
by Amin (2004). The Likert Scale measurement of Strongly-agree, Agree, Don‟t know, Disagree
and Strongly-disagree was made use of so as to have the quantitative results simper for statistical
results. Questionnaires were developed to test the academicians‟ response on appraisal and the
relative compensation. These comprised closed-ended statements on work performance and the
appraisal. Questionnaire-1: had questions on the prevailing performance appraisal methods
adopted by the institution and how fairly it is implemented; Questionnaire-2: comprised of
questions related to the assessment of the performance appraisal on the proposed criteria and the
relative compensation. The questionnaires were chosen for this study because they produced
normative data important for analysis and interpretation.

3.6 Data Analysis

The data collected with the help of questionnaires was categorized and entered in the computer,
for further tabulation. In order to analyze the data both the inferential and the descriptive analysis
were used which are important for making many research judgments on the data collected for
meaningful conclusions and recommendations. For the final analysis and conclusions, chi-square
test was used.