Managers of today require a range of skills and this book addresses a skill-set often overlooked in leadership and organisational development fields. Research is often an integral feature of organisational life and indeed, the authors assert early on that “managers with knowledge of research have an advantage over those without”. Organisational research might concern areas as diverse as absenteeism, job satisfaction, selection and recruitment, strategy formulation, evaluation of systems, complain handling, new product development, risk assessment, market efficiency, sustainability, audit reports, corporate governance and much more. There are plenty of texts about management theory and the latest organisational development techniques but this is one of the few books that aims to give managers and business people the necessary skill to be competent at the research element of their role.
Research Methods for Business is a practical book made up of 17 chapters and has an accompanying interactive e-book (access to which is only valid for just over a year which is a little disappointing). The book starts with an introduction to business research and includes sections on working with consultants and ethics (consideration of ethics remains a theme throughout the book). This segues nicely into scientific approaches to business research and to defining the problem area to be investigated. Chapter 4 discusses the all-important critical literature review which includes online resources that are useful for business research.
Elements of research design and hypotheses development are crucial stages in research and these are dealt with thoroughly across chapters 5 and 6. Experiments, surveys, observation, case studies, action research and grounded theory are all given due and careful consideration. This is followed by a chapter on interviewing, which practitioners would find useful in other areas of organisational life such as selection too. Further chapters delve more deeply into questionnaire design which seem to be a mainstay of organisational research.
A number of chapters deal with technical issues such as experimental design, measurement of variables and sampling, all of which are essential to be aware about in order to either conduct research or to make sense of any research findings within an organisation. Data analysis is dealt with well, though I feel it is likely that statisticians would carry out such a role so some readers may skip these chapters; however, a basic knowledge of statistical techniques can only help in understanding the significance of any findings so it is probably a good idea not to turn over too quickly!
The book ends with advice about how to design a research report; again, this section might be more useful to aspiring mangers or business students but is still a valuable addition to the text.
The book is extremely readable and is peppered with interesting real-life case studies that really bring the material to life. I especially like the features within the book that refer the reader to the interactive e-book for further material (such as clips about the topic) though feel it a shame that these elements will not be accessible a year on. This is a book that lends itself to being dipped into rather than read all at once for some, so access to the interactive features might have expired by the time they get around to a particular section. For business students, however, this limitation may be less of an issue. Indeed, the format of the book is more textbook than reader, but the clear signposting and sectioning should have wide appeal. I can imagine business leaders or OD practitioners wanting to get a better handle on the research that is being carried out within their organisation, finding this a useful and readable text to dip in and out of and to shelve close to hand.
Overall, a thoroughly useful book for all involved in any aspect of organisational and business research.
