Research Methods for Organizational Studies

Beautifully written and thoroughly class-tested, this practical text provides students of management and organizational studies with clear guidelines for conducting real-world research. Unusually applied, it provides tools with which to do research (data sets and statistical software) and discusses application issues typically missing from other research texts--for example, cleaning data, addressing missing data, coding data, and transforming data. It also provides numerous exercises for solving applied research problems. Among the more notable features are the following: Organizing Model-Two organizing figures (carried throughout the text) imbue discussions with an unusual degree of clarity and coherence. The first illustrates the mutual relationship between the three main research activities-design, measurement, and analysis. The second illustrates how conceptual validity is the major criterion for evaluating empirical research outcomes and procedures. Flexibility-This book accommodates the wide variation in background that students bring into this course. In addition to the first 15 chapters which introduce basic research topics, the final section contains four chapters that extend the discussion of some basic topic. These extension chapters make the text adaptable for doctoral level students. Statistics-In addition to an entire section on data analysis, discussions throughout take an applied data analysis perspective rather than a statistical one. Also, statistics is separated from statistical inference. Supplements-An instructor's manual contains the following elements for each chapter: chapter outlines, teaching objectives and ideas, answers to chapter questions, and additional questions and answers that can be used for tests. Many chapters also have exercises to reinforce material covered. A disk is available that contains cases and data for chapter exercises and for course projects. The disk also contains all of the Exhibits in the book in PowerPoint slides.