Assesses Learning Outcome

1. Apply critical and analytical skills required to undertake academic and applied management research in an organised way, including systematic review of research literature

2. Evaluate a variety of quantitative and qualitative research methods and discuss the different research philosophies, including Kaupapa Māori research

3. Identify and evaluate ethical issues in management research

4. Decide when to apply qualitative methodologies and methods, and when to apply quantitative methodologies and methods

5. Collect qualitative and/ or quantitative data for a small-scale research project, and analyse raw data.

6. Develop academic writing and APA reference skills. 

General instructions:

Assignment 3 is an applied research project that requires you to apply all that you have learned in the course. As an applied project, you are free to choose a specific research topic, and you are looking for a solution to a planning problem based on empirical data that you are to collect and analyse for them.

Present your findings in the form of a formal research report including an Abstract, Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Findings and Discussion, Conclusion, Limitations and Future Directions.

BUT Include:

1. Integrity declaration as the first page

2. A separate cover page as the second page (project title, contributors names & IDs, date)

3. A Table of Contents, as well as List of Tables and List of Figures (if appropriate)

4. A reference list in APA format of all sources cited in your report.

Detailed Instructions

1. You are to collect data using a survey or semi-structured interview research design. This means deciding on a suitable data collection method (online, pencil-and-paper, or face-to-face) and developing a questionnaire/interview appropriate for the method. Determine the procedure you will use to administer your questionnaire to participants, elicit their participation and obtain informed consent as per Whitireia’s research ethics requirements.

2. You are to ONLY collect data from students currently enrolled in postgraduate courses in Management on the Whitireia Auckland campus. Anyone or group found to have violated this instruction will receive a zero mark for the assignment.

3. If another group asks you to complete their questionnaire, you are expected to assist. Treat it as a learning exercise and compare their questionnaire and procedure with your own.

4. For quantitative data, you are required to use SPSS to analyse your data, please choose either crosstabs analysis or simple regression analysis. A minimum of 20 to 30 surveys or questionnaires are required to be collected.

5. For any qualitative data you collect, please choose either thematic analysis or Grounded Theory. A minimum of 3 to 4 individual in-depth interviews are required to be conducted.

6. Data you collect, including questionnaires and data files, must be held secure by ONE of your team members (identify this person in your report) and is to be surrendered to Whitireia academic staff if requested.

7. Individual participant data is to be anonymous and confidential.