Chapter 4: Research Methods

(4.1) INTRODUCTION
For doing any of the research some methods are being used and which are known as research
methods. Without research methods no one can carry out any research that is a research cannot be
done. Even for doing this research, one will be using some of the research methods. This chapter is
divided into different sections. They are research design, research methods, reliability and validity
and finally the conclusion. Research design will talk about the issues like what type of approach will
be used and all. Research methods will talk about the kind of methods that is research methods that
will be used to carry out the research and its advantages and disadvantages. Reliability and validity
will talk about that till what extent is the data reliable and valid that is to mention about the negative
points regarding my research. What all are the limitations of the research. Finally the conclusion
which will summarise the entire research methods chapter.

(4.2) Research Design

Research design is like that it will be consisting of both qualitative and quantitative research. These
are the two different ways of collecting data. Both of these research styles will be used because
quantitative research ‘collects facts and study the relationship of one set of facts to another. They use
techniques that are likely to produce quantified and, if possible generalize conclusions. Qualitative
researches are more concerned to understand individual’s perception of the world. They seek insights
rather than statistical perception of the world’ (Bell, 2005, p.7). With the quantitative research one
can get the accurate answer and can easily come to the conclusion and in the qualitative research a
person can to come to know about what one thinks about the particular issue. The people that will be
targeted are the customer care people who simply handle the calling jobs. There are twenty five
people which will be targeted. There is a process (name cannot be disclosed) in the concerned
organisation which has twenty five people working for that process. It’s a US based process that is
people call US people and they shift timings are from nine pm at night till seven am in the morning.
Access to the organisation was gained through a personal contact who is working in the same team.
The personal contact helped in taking the research. So the personal contact is in the same team of
twenty five people. Manager will also be contacted for the research.

A case study is being done. It helps in improving the reliability and validity of the research.
According to Bell (2005, p.10), case studies help to precede a survey and can be used as a means of
identifying key issues which merit further investigation, but the majority are carried out as free
standing exercises’. Kitay and Callus (1998, p.103) states that the case study is ‘a research design or
strategy that is used to study one or more selected social phenomena and to understand or explain the
phenomena by placing them in their wider context’. The main advantage of case study is that the
‘amount of information that is collected and the ability to probe beneath the surface enhance the
validity of the information that is obtained’ (p.111). The disadvantage of this study is that there might
be the possibility of the biasness or gullibility and simplification is also not always feasible.

(4.3) Research Methods

There are two research methods that will be used in the research work. These two methods are
questionnaires and telephonic interview. Questionnaire is the quantitative form of research technique
and interview is the qualitative form of research technique. The personal contact will be distributing
the questionnaire to the call centre workers, and then returned the completed questionnaires to the
researcher through e-mail. It will help in getting the preference or aptitudes of employees on the
particular issue. It will help in collecting factual data. All the questions in the questionnaire are
closed ended. In this the respondent needs to give only one answer that is the fixed answer. These
types of questionnaires are frequently used because they are easy and help the survey to complete
easily. The other method that will be used is the telephonic interview. In this the interview will be
taken of the manager regarding the ways that how do they retain their employees. Do they really take
any steps to retain their employees or not. In case manager is not available on telephone, then the
email would be send regarding the same. In the case of data analysis, descriptive statistics method
will be used. It will help in finding out the result. It will helping in describing the fundamental and
basic type of the data. It will also help in simple summarising of the samples and the measures and
will also help in explaining through graphs. It will tell like what the data reveals or shows. In case
manager is available for telephonic interview then the interview will not extend more than fifteen
minutes and if through mail then it depends upon her when she will mail back. Regarding
questionnaires, it’s already mentioned above that the questionnaire will be closed ended that is it will
consist of closed ended questions. It will be distributed among twenty five people. The questionnaire
and the questions that are asked from the manager will be included in the appendix one and two that
will be at the end of the project report.

The questionnaire and the telephonic interview will be used because they are one of the best ways of
collecting data. Questionnaires do not give any problems during the analysis and interpretation stage.
Interview will help me in finding the methods of retaining the employees that questionnaire won’t
help me. Apart from advantages there are disadvantages of questionnaires and interviews as well.
The advantages according to Bell (2005) are that interviews are adaptable. ‘A skilful interviewer can
follow up ideas, probe responses and investigate motives and feelings’ (p.157). There are problems
that are disadvantages as well. Interviews are time consuming and if there are for example say 10
hour project, one can only interview a limited number of people. There can be high degree of
biasness. The major drawback of telephonic interviews is that one cannot see the interviewer to judge
their responses and one can never see their expressions. The advantages and disadvantages of
questionnaire are ‘the responses are gathered in a standardized way, so questionnaires are more
objective, certainly more so than interviews. Generally it is relatively quick to collect information
using a questionnaire. However in some situations they can take a long time not only to design but
also to apply and analyze. Questionnaires, like many evaluation methods occur after the event, so
participants may forget important issues. Questionnaires are standardized so it is not possible to
explain any points in the questions that participants might misinterpret. This could be partially solved
by piloting the questions on a small group of students or at least friends and colleagues. Open-ended
questions can generate large amounts of data that can take a long time to process and analyze’
(http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/ltdi/cookbook/info_questionnaires/index.html).

(4.4) Reliability and Validity

The terms reliability and validity are very important. According to Bell (2005, p.117), ‘reliability is
the extent to which a test or procedure produces similar results under constant conditions on all
occasions’. Validity is more complex than reliability. ‘It tells us whether an item or instrument
measures or describes what it is supposed to measure or describe, but this is rather vague and leaves
many questions unanswered’ (p.117). In reliability if we do the research again do we get the same
result again or not. In order to ensure that we need to use combination of methods. Here we need to
have consistency of data and sources. If more collection of data is used it will be more reliable. In
validity one gets closest to the truth. The data that has been collected is quantitative or qualitative
reflects the reality of the situation. In order to increase the reliability for the research findings,
different data collection methods will be used. For example in case of interviews, if the result of it
can be reproduced again then the research method that is interview is considered to be reliable and if
not then it is not reliable. It means that if the same research is being taken again and the result comes
the same then the research method is reliable. In case of validity one need to know whether the
research methods used are valid or not. The result that is found from the collection of questionnaires
can be biased. The researcher may not come to know whether the answers that the participants have
marked are done under any pressure or not.

(4.5) Conclusion
Every research requires one or the other research methods to be used. None of the research can be
done without using any research methods. The order in which I will be doing my research is being
listed above; that is first designing the research whether the research is quantitative or qualitative.
The research which is being done is both quantitative and qualitative. Then it is the research methods
that will be used. There are two different methods which are being used and they are questionnaires
and the telephonic interview. The total number of participants that are being used for the
questionnaires are twenty five. After the result it’s important to know whether the result is valid and
reliable or not. Every research has some or the other limitations. Even my research has some
limitations in both the research methods.

References
Bell, J (2005), Doing your research project: A guide for first time researchers in education,
health and social science (4th edition), maidenhead: Open University Press.