Sekaran’s Steps to Successful Business Research

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Introduction

Understanding the research process is significant for success in scientific activity. There are some essential points included in the research process, starting with the picking of a research subject and the working out of an experimental thesis, which is the dispute that is necessary to be defended in the research paper itself. After the topic has been selected, it is required to find all the possible necessary sources which are claimed to support the research. Such sources may be (but not only) books, journal articles, newspapers, websites, interviews, etc. The next key step in the research process entails the definite writing of the paper, report, or project. Working from the notes, it is always necessary to summarize, paraphrase, and add direct quotes into a sketch. This draft can be subjected to one or more content amendments before a final draft is accomplished. Next, it is significant that “a credit” was given to the sources by the means of endnotes, footnotes, a bibliography, or just only a list of sources. As a final step, the accomplished text should always be edited before obedience.

According to Sekaran, there are eleven steps that are necessary to be taken for successful research. Each will be thoroughly regarded.

General Observation

Either the author made it or not can not be stated credibly. As it presupposes the general review of the problem and statement of the purposes of the research itself, it is only possible to guess. The review of the issue, and the actuality is usually stated in the abstract, or in the introduction, but student practice shows, that abstract may be written at the very end of the whole work. But the fact is that academic research is absolutely impossible without a preliminary definition of the problem. So it should be presumed, that the “general observation” step had not been missed, or taken in the last turn. Managerial decision making in the context of moral issues is not regarded to be the general research topic, and that is why the author had to make a solid decision on the significance of the paper, and the order of the writing, and as it is known, is entailed in the matters of general observation. (Sekaran, 2003).

Data Gathering

First of all, it is necessary to mention, that step two (data gathering) and step three (Literature review, Definition of the problem, and research question) are in some measure interfere and interlink with each other. Consequently, there is no essential need to regard both separately. Once the key topic had been identified and the keywords stated, one or more sources of backdrop data are necessary to be studied. These sources would help to realize the wider context of the planned research and tell the researcher in general terms what is known, and should be taken into account on the planned topic. The most general background sources are encyclopedias and dictionaries from print and online reference gatherings. Class textbooks also offer background data. (Sekaran, 2003).

It should be pointed, that these two steps are concealed from the readers, and the only author knows how it was going, but readers may see the results. The results of data gathering and literature review assisted in creating the key principle of the paper, which states, that the scheme of moral decision-making has the following scheme:

Moral Judgment ► Managerial Judgment ► Managerial Intent ► Managerial Behavior.

Primary sources are original, first-hand articles such as creative works, research studies, or interviews that had been conducted. Secondary sources are remarks about primary sources such as studies of creative work or original research. The author could use a combination of primary and secondary sources to reply to the research matter, dependent on the issue and the kind of sources it necessitates.

In spite of the fact, that the paper had been accomplished in 2007, and is claimed to cover the contemporary issues of moral decision making, there are the sources of the previous century in the reference list. Probably, it points the fact that the issues of morality have not changed since 1998, and even 1986.

The definition of the problem was made in the abstract, and it states, that:

this study uses the judgment and decision making (JDM) perspective with the help of framing and schema literature from cognitive psychology to evaluate how managers behave when problems with unethical overtones are presented to them in a managerial frame rather than an ethical frame. In the proposed managerial model, moral judgment of the situation is one of the inputs to managerial judgment, among several other inputs regarding costs and benefits of various alternatives.

Theoretical framework

A theoretical framework is a gathering of interrelated notions, like a theory but not essentially so well worked out. A theoretical framework guides the research, defining what objects the researcher needs to measure, and what statistical connections the researcher will look for. Theoretical frameworks are perceptibly critical in deductive, theory-testing types of studies. In such types of studies, the theoretical framework must be very detailed and well-thought-out. (Sekaran, 2003)

Arguing on the matters of the goal of the study, the author states, that:

A review of ethical and managerial decision-making models shows that these models deal with situations presented in different frames. For the situation presented in an ethical frame, the goal is finding the best ethically right decision. On the other hand, when presented in a managerial frame, the goal in the situation is to find the best decision for the manager and his/her organization.

Thus, it is claimed that the finding of the universal model of ethical decision making in the context of business planning and management.

Without realizing what the real framework is can be a difficulty. The framework is inclined to guide what one notices in an organization, and what one does not. It is almost impossible to completely get around the problem, but it is probable to decrease the problem significantly by simply stating the implicit framework as explicit. Once it is explicit, the researcher has an opportunity to deliberately consider other frameworks, and make an attempt to see the organizational state through different prisms.

Generation of hypotheses

During this step, the author collects all the possible notions on the matter of ethical decision making, and the defining the probable general frame for the current research. The key hypothesis here is that all people use various frameworks for taking decisions. Adit is also suggested, that managers frequently do not face moral issues in taking decisions or just do not think them over through the prism of ethics, being motivated by the interests of the company. Managers calculate the charges and benefits of choosing different alternatives (i.e., how managerially bad or good those variants are) to shape the managerial considerations. The managerial judgment heads for the managerial intent, i.e., what option they are eager to choose. The model can be suggested, as it has been already mentioned:

Moral Judgment ► Managerial Judgment ► Managerial Intent ► Managerial Behavior.

But it should be asserted, that on the basis of the made suggestions and schemes, the author makes the conclusive hypotheses, which appear to be the essentials of the paper:

Hypotheses 1: The judgment of ethical wrongness of a decision will be positively associated with the judgment of managerial badness of the decision. Hypothesis 2: The judgment of managerial badness of a decision will be negatively associated with the judgment of whether an action should be taken or not.

Research design

Research design offers the glue that keeps the research project jointly. A design is applied to arrange the study, to reveal how all of the key parts of the research project – the examples or groups, gauges, approaches or programs, and methods of the project – work together to try to tackle the key research matters. Realizing the connection among designs is essential in making design selections and thinking about the powers and weaknesses of various intents. (Sekaran, 2003).

The research design of the current paper may be described as one, grounded on the survey, which is claimed to confirm the suggestion, being stated at the very beginning of the research. Thus, the survey among the MBA students of different ages was arranged, the hypotheses were stated and the conclusions on those bases were made.

The author states the following structure of the research:

Study various ethical hypotheses and make readers judge all the stakeholders that may probably be influenced by the conclusion.
Define (confirm) that good ethics generally means good business, i.e., good ethics always pays off for the commerce in the short-term or long-term.
Even if an ethical conclusion is not probable to pay off in economic terms, a morally right conclusion should be made as it is ethically right.

This proposal is generally followed by a discussion of business institutions’ social accountability.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

The aim of studying business ethics seems obvious for everyone, but frequently, it just stays at the level of general notions and suggestions, while the practical application is often neglected. The data analysis here stands for taking into account the research inheritance of business ethics in its common statements, and applying the practice of surveys in order to make the research, and suggest practical application and observation of the business ethics issues. (Sekaran, 2003).

For the successful data analysis it is necessary to observe the following points:

Be sure the sample is descriptive of the topic on which the research is based.
Be sure the assumptions of the statistical procedures are understood, and satisfied. In meticulous, beware of hierarchically arranged (non-sovereign) data; use technologies created to deal with them.
Be sure to use the best dimension tools achievable. If the measures include error, that is necessary to be taken into account.
Beware of multiple judgments. There needs to be a lot of tests.
Keep clear in mind what is being tried to determine – the results are more significant than the initial data.
Numerical notation in a rational way should be used – without the confusion of precision with correctness.
Be sure the conditions for causal inference are clearly understood. If it is necessary to make a causal deduction, try to use random obligation. If that’s not probable, it would be necessary to devote a lot of powers to exposing causal relations with a diversity of advances to the matter.
Be sure your graphs are accurate and reflect the data variation clearly.

The data collected and analyzed in the paper just summarizes the preliminary data and then offers the descriptive analysis, represented in the form of the table with a clear distinction of data clusters (Table II).

Deduction

Deductive reasoning works from the more general to the more specific. Sometimes this is informally called a “top-down” approach. There is much new terminology to study taking into account the conduction of research. While lots of terms are in general use, there are exclusive terms applied by some disciplines. This paper mainly concentrates on the process of research itself and simplification of the data being complex enough, in order not to exceed the existing research frames. In general, the terminology used was taken from sociology and management. (Sekaran, 2003).

According to the paper, the deduction process states, that it comes from the consequences that managerial judgment arbitrated between ethical judgment and managerial intention as proposed by the offered model. In two out of three decision-making steps, the moral decision essentially impacted the managerial decision, which in turn essentially impacted the managerial objective.

The deductive conclusions that are made in the paper reveal the notion that the research had been held properly, and the set aims had been achieved, but are necessary to point out, that the research offers substantiation that teaching a business ethics way may not strictly impact moral considerations by itself, but may impact managerial consideration and managerial intention in other ways. This result of teaching business ethics to experts had mainly been disregarded. Moreover, the study offered and suggested maintenance for a managerial decision-making replica of business situations that involve ethical matters, but are not distinguished as moral matters.

Final steps

First of all, it should be pointed out, that report writing, report presentation, and the conclusions (according to Secaran “managerial decision making”) are difficult to value (if not impossible) for the reader. That is why it would be sufficient to state some tips, that would be valuable for the presentation. (Sekaran, 2003) The process of report writing itself is discussed all through the current paper, and it is not desirable to separate this stage from all the others. The structure of the report and data presenting had been selected as the most suitable for the current type of research paper. It offers a better understanding of the suggestion offered and gives all the necessary supportive data.

The schemes, tables, and charts are created for better comprehension of the problem, thus offering the great possibility of getting acquainted with the problem briefly, if there is no much time to read the whole report. These are also useful for the presentations in front of the public, as visual information adds to the impression on the report.

Managerial decision making

Managerial culture motivated by arranging culture is the philosophical appearance of ruling business, of the working approach accepted by a manager, of the managerial policy and tactics. They also entail the practices in management and the managers approach, managerial happenings, and last, but not least the principles of managerial ethics. The system of charges is a situation factor, impacting the managers’ outset taking into account the ethics they offer in contact with their workers, their clients, their contractors, the investors, the trade-unions, the foreign shareholder, the business society. (Sekaran, 2003).

Estimation of strategic behavior of a director offers rise to a real predicament in the sense that it entails a selection between two options, both being equally intolerable, i.e. taking into account the manager’s conclusions only on purely financial and economic criteria, to the intolerance of the ones belonging to managerial ethics and vice-versa, passing considerations on the managerial activity considering the ethics and rightness criteria only, ignoring the financial estimation.

This regard in business and the executive behavior has very sold basement and economic feasibility, generating competitive benefit in the long run. In other words, the company executives should learn to lose in the short run if they wish to benefit in the long run by following the moral code of business and being accountable for the choices made. These successes in the business of the rigorous corporations, who rule their conduct in accordance to moral principles, deny the notion in accordance to which the morality is implied, profit is reduced.

Conclusion

Lots of managers are tempted to neglect ethical behavior and their social accountability under complex circumstances or deep crises. In Canada, for instance, during the recent 7 years, most companies were impacted by global crises, and they often disregarded the existent regulations and the moral principles in business. On the grounds of our studies in time, managers attained the termination that can be stated (in accordance to the existence or non-existence of a moral system of business and the respect for legislation) the subsequent categories of the company’s components:

Amoral Companies. Generally, they are small-size companies set up after 1989 which permanently ignore legislation and its owner has no idea of morality. He secures a great deal of his necessary resources from the “underground network” and does not realize the responsibility he has to take for his acts.

Immoral Companies. This type of company exists mainly because of the immorality of the managerial team who ignores the standards of legal conduct and those of general ethics, the only reason inspiring their conduct is profit at all costs.

The paper by Vidya N. Awasthi makes a great contribution in order to decrease the amount of Amoral and Immoral companies, in order to make commerce and business more ethical, and satisfactory for workers, managers, and consumers.

References

Bazerman, M. H. (2006). “Judgment in managerial decision making” (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Sekaran, U.(2003), “Research methods for business: A skill building approach”, (4th ed.), Hoboken NJ, Wiley.

Vidya N. Awasthi (2007),” Managerial Decision-Making on Moral Issues and the Effects of Teaching Ethics” Journal of Business Ethics (2008) 78:207–223.

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