Prof Peter Abell and Dr Nuno Oliveira

This course is available on the BSc in Management. This course is not available as an outside option. This course is available to General Course students.

BSc Management students must take either MG202 or MG205 in their second year.

ST107 or equivalent is recommended but not required.

This course will provide students with the knowledge and tools required to perform qualitative and quantitative analysis in support of managerial decision making, and to read and interpret the management research literature. The course introduces the fundamentals of behavioural research design, and provides an introduction to various methods used to gather data, analyse data, and communicate results. In the course, students will: 1) acquire the knowledge needed to act as critical consumers of a wide range of academic and commercial research, 2) acquire some facility in designing valid research and reporting research results, and 3) be exposed to a range of stock knowledge regarding research design and research methods. A particular focus of the course will be on methods which are used in management research, and which are useful in doing applied research within a management context.

Topics covered: Introduction to behavioural research and causality. Designing valid research.  Experimental design. Bivariate analysis. Survey design. Multivariate analysis. Measurement analysis. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Collecting and coding recorded behaviours. Collecting and analysing network data. Collecting and analysing process data. Communicating results. Forward engineering with data.

20 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the MT. 20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the LT. 2 hours of lectures and 1 hour of classes in the ST.

A supplementary learning activity may take place during reading week, Week 6.

Students will be provided with regular opportunities to submit formative work, consisting of both quizzes administered in class and short individual or group assignments to be discussed in class. Students will be expected to provide and receive formative peer feedback on all written assignments during class, and designated written formative assignments will be marked and commented on by course instructors.

Cozby, and Bates, S 2012. Methods in Behavioral Research, New York: McGraw-Hill; Huff, D. (1991). How to Lie with Statistics. London: Penguin; Jackson, S. 2012. Research Methods and Statistics: A critical thinking approach. Wadsworth: Cengage Learning; Shadish,W., Cook, T., and Campbell, D. 2002. Experimental and Quasi-Experimental De- signs for Generalized Causal Inference, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Exam (50%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.
Essay (25%, 2000 words) in the LT.
Project (25%, 3000 words) in the ST.

Lent Term coursework will be an individual essay; Summer Term coursework will be a group project.