Free «CAL Progress Report» Essay Sample

Module Work Accomplished

I have completed all the reports and assignments on the module of management research to date. I am confident that the knowledge I acquired on designing interventions will help me to frame the research design that I use while investigating the problem of knowledge hoarding in our organization. Although I had a problem while deciding the data generation method that I should use while investigating the problem of knowledge hoarding in our organization, my fellow set members advised me to use interviews.

Learning from Readings and Team Members

Creswell’s (2013) book outlines the data collection activities that researchers should use while conducting a qualitative research. These activities include locating a site or individuals, gaining access and making report, purposeful sampling, collecting data, recording information, resolving field issues and storing data. These activities differ across the five methodologies of data collection. In the narrative of the research, the research issue that mainly affects the researcher is obtaining access to information that may be contained in the achievements. In contrast, the issue that mainly faces phenomenology researchers is finding the right people who may have particular information. Creswell’s (2013) book also outlined different methods of sampling that researchers may apply. Sampling methods depend on the target and size of the population under study. Examples of the types of sampling used to collect qualitative research include theory based sampling, critical case sampling, politically important sampling, criterion sampling, opportunistic and typical case sampling. According to Creswell (2013), accessing the site of a particular research may also turn out to be an issue during the process of research. This is because the host of the site from which a particular researcher wants to obtain his/her information may refuse to grant permission to the researcher. Researchers should first obtain consent from the gatekeepers before conducting a particular research.

Easterby-Smith et al.’s (2012) book mainly explains how a researcher should collect his/her data from the field. According to this book, it is very critical for a researcher to differentiate between ethnographic data, natural language data and interactive data. It also explains different types of interviews that a researcher may opt to use while collecting data from the field. A researcher may use open interviews, semi-structured interviews or structured interviews. Structured interviews are mainly used when the researcher wants to obtain the meaning of a particular issue by being given narratives. Interviews can be conducted in different ways. A researcher may conduct interviews using face-to-face method. Alternatively, interviews may also be conducted through the mobile phones or email messages. According to Easterby-Smith et al. (2012), an interviewer may face problems due to dynamics that might be present in his/her focus group.

Application of Concepts from Classroom

I will use the knowledge on designing interventions to design my research. I will mainly use semi-structured interviews to collect information from my investment team members concerning the factors that cause them to hoard information. I will also seek consent from the top officials in our organization to ensure that my research process is approved before I start interviewing the members of my investment team.

Additional Reflection

The research design that can be used to solve my organizational problem is the one defined by Creswell. The design starts with locating a site or individuals, gaining access and making report, purposeful sampling, collecting data, recording information, resolving field issues and storing data (Creswell, 2013). The underlying assumption under this design is that all the steps that it outlines will be completed successfully. This design is useful since it will help me to collect reliable data from members of my investment team. The data collection methods that I will use will be interviews and observation. This is because these methods will help me to collect the first hand information, which is accurate and reliable (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson, 2012).