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h 2013

Academic Research is a Challenge

No rock climbing required

No path laid out

How to do research!

• There is no one way to conduct research

• There is no central control

• Anything goes?

• Don’t swim against the tide.

• There are many voices and they need to be given some attention

Research Oreintation

I am a positivist

I am a interpretivist

I am a social constructivist

I am a empiricist

I am a theorist

I am a realist

I am a critical thinker I am a interpretivist

I am a falibalist

I am a positivist

I am a pragmatist I am a post-positivist

I am a reductionist

I am an anti-reductionist

I am a critical thinker I am a interpretivist

I am a falibalist

I am a positivist

I am a pragmatist

I am a post-positivist

I am realist

I am a naturalist I am a relativist

I am a critical thinker

I am a interpretivist

I am a fallibalist I am a positivist

I am a pragmatist

I am a post-positivist

I am a theorist I am entirely agnostic

I am a scientist

I am an experimentalist

I am a social constructivist

I am a grounded theorist

I am a critical thinker

I am a ethnographer

I am a fallibalist I am a positivist

I am a pragmatist

I am a post-positivist

I am a theorist I am entirely agnostic

I am a scientist

I am an experimentalist

I am a social constructivist

I am a grounded theorist

I am a interpretivist

I am a historicist

I am a mathematical modeller

I am a practical epistemologist

I am a lost in space

I am a autoethonographer

I am a participant observer

What is your research orientation?

I am a...............

• Competent academic research practice is reflective and has to be justified as both rigorous and relevant

• Rigorous research ensures that all the requirements of the method are followed

• It is not enough to simply follow the techniques prescribed (Gummersson 2000). What is needed is an understanding of the rational behind the techniques and nothing should be taken for granted

• This leads to asking questions about assumptions and values as well as operational issues such as the appropriateness of informants and data

Academic research prerequisites

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• The world is knowable/understandable

• We want to know and are open minded to accept the results

• There is no definitive understanding – When one hear words like ‘It was settled for once

and for all’ there is no science behind this.

• There is no Via Regio or privileged way

• We have to recognise certeris paribus

• We have to use Occam’s Razor

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Assumptions underpinning research

• Curiosity is important

• Lifelong learning is critical for sustained success

• Business and management is worth researching

• Scepticism….Opinions need to be supported by evidence

• Preparedness to make mistakes and rectify them

Values required to be a successful research…..1

• The ‘value’ of your own discovery

• Neither exaggerate or attempt to understate achievements or obstacles

• Other peoples’ opinions are important

• Change driven by research findings

• Research should delivery some practical value in the near term

Values required to be a successful research…..2

As a scientist • As a scientist one needs to:

– Be aware of the need to have a clearly articulated research question;

– Have a carefully worked out research design;

– Understand what value the research will have and to whom;

– What are the ethical issues involved;

– Who has to consider your research a success and what criteria will they use.

• A social scientist is every bit as much a scientist as a physical or life scientist

Hollywood’s version of a CDC discussion

• What do we think?

• What do we know?

• What can we prove? Better to say What do we have evidence (or data) to support?

• A guiding principle is Listen but reserve belief!

• Always look to corroboration i.e. triangulation.

Hall mark of a scientist

• Be reflective – Sherlock Holmes had Three Pipe Problems!

• Know what other think or have thought.

• Understanding that science is a process.

• Care with the way ideas are expressed.

• Being parsimonious.

• Avoid extreme positions.

• But few scientists have ever attended a course on research methods

Websites

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7PCn_zId4Q