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Problem Solution Usa World Bank

1. Distinguish among what is knowable, unknowable, and researchable
a. Why study research? (Cooper Chapter 1) (p. 5) The study of research methods provides you with the knowledge and skills you need to solve the problems and meet the challenges of a fast-paced decision-making environment. We define business research as a systematic inquiry whose objective is to provide information to solve managerial problems. Business research courses recognize that students preparing to manage business, not-for-profit, and public organizations—in all functional areas—need training in a disciplined process for conducting an inquiry of a management dilemma, the problem or opportunity that requires a management decision. Three factors stimulate an interest in a scientific approach to decision making: (1) the manager's increase need for more and better information (2) the availability of improved techniques and tools to meet his need. (30 the resulting information overload if discipline is not employed in the process.
b. What is research? (Cooper Chapter 1) (p. 7) Begin with a few examples of management problems involving decision making based on information gathering. From each of these, abstract the essence of research. How is it carried out? What can it do? What should it not be expected to do? Think about the possible range of situations for conducting business research, and try answering these questions: (1) what is the decision-making dilemma facing the manager? (2) what must the researcher accomplish? Different types of study can be classified as reporting, descriptive, explanatory, or predictive. Reporting study may be made only to provide an account or summation of some data or to generate some statistics. The task may be quite simple and the data readily available. At other times, the information may be difficult to find. A reporting study calls for knowledge and skill with information sources and gatekeepers of information sources. Descriptive study tries to discover...