Practical Business Research: An Overview

Practical business research is carried out in a wide range of contexts, for different purposes, and in many different ways. It can have a substantial influence, for good or ill, upon organisations and upon the working lives of their employees. This book is intended to develop the skills you will need to carry out or draw on such research. Those skills will be of value to your career as a manager or consultant. Although the book will help you to do a good dissertation on a business-related topic, it is not designed to prepare you for a PhD. The first part of the book covers the research process and the complexities of doing research in organisational contexts on topics of relevance to their managers. This chapter provides an introduction to most of the issues that you will have to consider when planning or evaluating such research. It aims to give you a clear overall picture of what business research means, what it can achieve, and how you can usefully draw upon theory to help with this. Some of the inevitable complexities involved in researching 'real’ issues are highlighted and some of the hazards that they present are explored. It is important to avoid such hazards if your research is to be useful rather than misleading.

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