Lecture 1. Methodology and Methods of Scientific Research in Professional Activity

1.

Кафедра «Экономика и
Организация»
Methodology and Methods
of Scientific Research in
Professional Activity – aka
Research Methods in Management
Consultancy
in English Language
https://polytech.webex.com/meet/w339
Charles Goddard

2.

VK Group
https://vk.com/club208093073

3.

Note taking
Essential activity
Notebook - robust
Glossary – writing down words and phrases and translating
(or otherwise expressing them) in/to your native language.
Ideally at the back
Refer to it after the lecture and add further observations
based on your own research
Handwriting, not digital notetaking. Active filtering (active
activity) as opposed to recording, photographing (passive
activity). Keyboard based notetaking not recommended

4.

Dimensions of the Subject
Background and Major Themes
Managing your Development as a Manager
Research in Management
Management Consultancy and Research
Consultancy Research Process
Data Collection – Approaches, Methods and Techniques
Secondary Data Collection
Observational Research for Data Collection
Asking Questions in Data Collection
Analysing Data
Actioning your Research

5.

VK Group

6.

Quantitative Methods – be
aware of Number Illiteracy

7.

Qualitative Methods – be
aware of Psychological Biases
See Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
Cognitive, Social and Memory- at least 206 to be aware of

8.

Practical Work /
Hometasks
Will FIRSTLY be based on these
Objective – to get you aware of how you can
misled yourself and misrepresent data and finding
Secondly – examples of Research in the
Professional Activity

9.

10.

Background / Major
Themes
Objectives- helping develop your competence and expertise as
a manager using consultancy type research.
Important to stress that consultancy type projects and research
are among the most useful vehicles for helping to acquire and
develop transferable skills needed for personal and professional
development throughout a management/executive career.
Tempting to believe that once a professional has been trained,
perhaps through completing successfully a course of study,
passing the requisite examinations and assessments, and
receiving a qualification of some kind, that thereis no need for
any further training and development, rather the
professionalcan now get on with simply practising and applying
his/her skills and knowledge.
However, such a belief is misplaced

11.

A management research or consultancy project,
besides being an ideal vehicle for completing a
project or dissertation, is often a part of an
academic programme on management.
It is also an extremely useful way for helping the
individual manager to develop as an executive
and an effective manager in the future.
There are a variety of approaches to developing
management competence and expertise, but
one of the most useful and long lasting of these
approaches is that of self development, of
competence and expertise.

12.

Even if we accepted the idea that the newly qualified
MBA graduate, for example, was honed to a point of
perfection with regard to up-to-date and comprehensive
managerial knowledge and skills – again perhaps itself a
misplaced idea – in today’s rapidly changing environment
it would not be long before at least some of this
knowledge and skills became outmoded.
Quite simply, organizations change, ideas and knowledge
change, and the circumstances also change.

13.

Over the course of a manager’s working life there
is no doubt that change will not only be inevitable
but may often involve seismic changes in ideas
and thinking.
Quite simply, then, it is crucial that the effective
manager adopts the attitude of an acceptance
of the need for continuous professional
development over a working life

14.

Approaches to
Professional Development
Once we accept the need for continued professional development for the
manager, then we have to consider how such development can be achieved.
There are a number of ways in which this can be accomplished that include:
external training courses/study courses,
internal training,
learning on the job/action learning.
These alternatives for the continuous professional development of managers
are not of course mutually exclusive. All three approaches may play a part in
the development process. In addition, development may be facilitated in a
number of ways by using a number of alternative methods and approaches
including:
‘tutoring’ by a tutor or trainer,
learning from others in the organization,
‘shadowing’ in another organization,
self-development activities.

15.

the following are some of the most commonly found routes
to self-development within organizations:
● mentoring,
● coaching/counselling,
● appraisal,
● internal rotation, attachment and placement,
● external attachments and placements,
● reading,
● joining special projects,
● committee membership,
● discussion groups, working parties, meetings of professional
bodies and institutes,
● learning from one’s own job and experience,
● special activities.

16.

Action Learning
learning by doing things (actions) in real life situations
action learning offers a particularly useful way of thinking about
learning for the professional manager. After all, management
takes place in the real world of organizations
the most important aspect of action learning is the notion that an
individual’s work and activities undertaken in completing the
work as a manager is perhaps the most valuable learning
experience possible
We shall see that action research – which
in turn leads to action learning – is an approach to research
involving practical
hands-on field research in an organization where the researcher
has the objective of solving practical problems in an organization
with a view to solving real-world problems

17.

Although the main thrust of action learning is
learning by working on real-life problems in an
organization, another key supporting feature of
the concept of action learning is the notion of
learning from others.
Action learning, therefore,is often done by joining
a small group that meets periodically, and where
membersof the group discuss the problems they
are working on with others.
These small groups are usually referred to as a set.

18.

Main Objectives tonight –
be able to:
Compare and contrast the different theoretical
stances to the practice of research;
understand the overall management research
process;
discuss the different approaches to conducting
management research; and
understand the relationship between
management research and
managementdevelopment and how these are
related to the process of management
consultancy.

19.

understand the development and meaning of the
consultancy process,
compare and contrast the advantages and
disadvantages of using management consultants,
discuss the different types, roles and activities of
management consultancy approaches,
understand the different models of consultancy
roles,
be aware of recent developments and trends in
management consultancy,
understand the key professional and ethical issues in
management consultancy and research.

20.

Hometask / Practical
Review the material in the 2 book chapters which are in the
VK Group – MAKE NOTES
Review the Wikipedia page on biases – MAKE NOTES ON
WHAT YOU THINK ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT 5
“What approach to Research in Management,
Management Consultancy and Research do you think is
best. Why?
How might your work become biased – and how would you
prevent this from happening?
(Approx 1 page of A4 handwritten text)