Types of research methodology Essay

Research is a purposeful search used to understand a particular subject area (Kumar, 2005). Research methodology is a set of rules for research and validation of knowledge by the researcher (Creswell, 2003). According to Cooper and Schindler (1998) one of the challenge faced by the researcher is research methodology. According to Sekaran (2003), research methodology is a collection and evaluation of the existing knowledge created by the regulatory framework.
Research philosophy can be defined as development of research knowledge, background and nature (Saunders, Lewis and Thomhil, 2007). According to Bryman and Bell (2003), philosophy can be divided into two main parts as Positivism and Interpretivism. Saunders et al (2009), came up two more philosophies as Pragmatism and Realism. Researcher will use Pragmatism as the research philosophy as it takes both internal and external views into consideration. It also adopts objective and subjective views as well (Saunders et al, 2009).
Research approach is another important decision for a researcher to make during the research. (Creswell, 2003). According to Hair and Ortinau (2003), research approaches are quantitative versus qualitative and deductive versus inductive approach. Quantitative research focuses more on numbers (Punch, 2000), whereas qualitative data which are non-numerical (Johnson &Christensen 2008). The combination of both of these approaches is known as mixed approach (Onwuegbuzie & Jiao, 2007).
One of the crucial steps in research is research sampling (Powell, 2000). Purposive sampling will be used throughout this research by the researcher. Purposive sampling is limited to specific people who can provide desired information and purposive sampling is best approach as this be well suited to the situation and helps to answer the research questions easily (Sekaran, 2003).
In carrying out the research, the researcher will select the Quantitative approach as the researcher is planning to collect primary data using questionnaires. Total population within the organisation is three hundred and estimated sample group will be hundred and fifty. Questionnaires will be issued to 150 employees within the organisation and it will consist of twenty to twenty-five questions mostly based on closed end questions. Further, Johnson (2002) states that closed end questionnaire will be easy for an interviewee to answer and to analyse. Collected data will be analysed through diagrams and statistical numbers (Saunders et al., 2000).
Secondary data is also important as primary data, in order to provide an insight on area which is already known (Creswell, 2003).Lancaster (2005), claims that secondary data collection is significant that helps to identify and solve the research problems. Secondary data will be collected by the researcher using books, newspaper, journals, magazines and other sources.
There are three main research purpose activity known as exploratory, descriptive and explanatory (Saunders et al., 2009). Platon (1998) came up with fourth purpose known as prescriptive. In this research, researcher will use this method. As perspective method as it aims to propose a well-defined solution to a problem (Hair et al., 2003). Most scholars have carried out their research using perspective purpose as it is more valuable than others (Jackson 1994 Patton, 1990 Cooper, 2004).