HR Research Methods Overview

HR Research

• Systematic investigation to advance organizational and employee knowledge, or create solutions to HR problems.
• Pure research aims to increase understanding by establishing causes, relationships, and ongoing investigations.
• Applied research provides information for decision-making, considering action, time constraints, and costs.
• Quality of research depends on researcher knowledge and skills, and the research process.

Research Process

• Defining the research topic and objectives.
• Collecting data using appropriate methods.
• Analyzing data to answer research questions.
• Sharing findings with others to use in decision-making.

Language of Research

• Theoretical: Defines abstract ideas that cannot be directly observed.
• Empirical: Measures and tests constructs using data and variables.
• Probabilistic: Suggests associations between variables.
• Causal: Suggests cause-and-effect relationships between variables.
• Descriptive: Describes phenomena.
• Relational: Explores connections or associations between variables.

Purpose of Literature Review

• Understand the known and unknown aspects of a topic.
• Evaluate and justify the research value.
• Develop and refine research questions.
• Anchor research to a theory or model.
• Find relevant measures and scales.

Effective Writing in Literature Review

• Chronological: Shows progression of ideas or methodology over time.
• Thematic: Organizes information around key themes or theoretical frameworks.

Research Approach

• Deductive (Quantitative): Establishes cause-and-effect relationships and tests hypotheses.
• Inductive (Qualitative): Discovers and describes phenomena, meanings, and relationships, often developing theory.

Types of Data

• Qualitative: Focused on exploration and understanding contexts and meanings using words, texts, visuals, etc.
• Quantitative: Testing hypotheses, predicting outcomes, using numbers to measure variables and outcomes.

Research Objectives

• Specific statements about key issues in a research project.
• Constructs are abstract concepts (not directly observable), and variables measure them.
• Variables include independent (cause) and dependent (effect) variables (the effects of influences).
• Conceptualization defines a construct, while operationalization details how to measure it.

Research Ethics

• Ethical principles guide individual research design and implementations and reporting of findings.
• Respect for persons, beneficence, and justice are essential.
• Deception and misleading participants should be avoided.
• Principles like anonymity, confidentiality, and informed consent are crucial.
• Institutional review boards (IRBs) review research protocols to protect participants.

Reliability

• Test-retest reliability: Consistent results when the same participants take the same test or questionnaire repeatedly.
• Internal consistency: Measures whether the items in a questionnaire or scale are related in a coherent way.
• Inter-rater reliability: Researchers who assess the same data yield similar results.

Validity

• Face validity: Measures whether the measure seems appropriate based on face value.
• Content validity: Assesses whether a measure adequately captures all aspects of a concept.
• Criterion validity: Measures the relationship between a measure and a known outcome or criterion.
• Construct validity: Assesses whether the measure is actually measuring the intended construct/concept.

Sampling

• Probability sampling: Selecting participants randomly to generalize to the entire population.
• Non-probability sampling: Specific groups may be selected, like with quotas or snowball sampling.

Qualitative Data

• Natural, detailed exploration and understanding of contexts.
• Understanding of actions, attitudes, or beliefs
• Provides insights and insights for understanding phenomenon.

Processing Qualitative Research

• Labeling, sorting, and examining related incidents.
• Comparing cases.
• Analyzing information/data, noting trends, themes, and relationships.
• Identifying insights for understanding phenomena and for insight development and knowledge sharing.
• The researcher should interpret findings with the aim of generating useful insights, and then communicating these in a way that is relevant and useful.

Qualitative Methods

• Interviews: Exploring detailed perspectives and experiences.
• Focus groups: Exploring group dynamics and shared perspectives.