Quantitative and Qualitative Research (HRM/OB)

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the main methodologies and methods used in business research;
• the paradigms deployed by business researchers;

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• defend your chosen approach for data collection and analysis.
• critically identify and evaluate a body of literature;
• critically evaluate the main methodologies uses in business research;
• formulate research aims, objectives and questions;

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• develop your own research proposal.
• critically assess the main types of contemporary business research;

Foundations of management research: ontology, epistemology, axiology and links to methodology and methods; positivist/phenomenological research; conducting a literature review, research ethics, collecting and analysing data using quantitative and qualitative methods; formulating questions and questionnaire design; interviews; participant observation; exploratory data analysis; data pre-processing; case study methodology; grounded theory; ethnography.

Teaching and learning methods

This module is delivered as a series of lectures. The delivery draws on the expertise of the lecturers, sharing their particular skills and experiences in the research field.

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A (2016). Research Methods for Business Students. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External