Research Methods for Managers

More about REF results. Find out more about opportunities to visit Bristol. You may also be interested in related postgraduate research programmes. Graduate Studies Admissions Team Phone: Important disclaimer information about our programmes. Programme overview Social Science Research Methods Management provides comprehensive training in the process of research conceptualisation, design and operationalisation. Alumni scholarship University of Bristol students and graduates can benefit from a ten per cent reduction in tuition fees for postgraduate study.

Research Methods for Managers (N1504)

Programme structure The MSc programme comprises six week taught units 20 credits each followed by a dissertation 60 credits. Entry requirements An upper second-class honours degree or equivalent qualification. English language requirements If English is not your first language, you need to meet this profile level: Admissions statement Read the programme admissions statement for important information on entry requirements, the application process and supporting documents required. Careers The programme will provide you with a sound basis for further study at doctoral level or for your future career in a wide range of fields, including business, the public sector and third sector organisations.

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International students Find out more about becoming a student at Bristol, applying for a visa and the support we offer to international students. This puts an emphasis on a view of the social world as processual , in which organisational actors interpret the situation in which they find themselves and act in ways that are meaningful to them. It also requires interpretive, qualitative methods that can tap into action at the level of meaning.

The comparative case study method 54 adopted here draws on interpretive ethnography, which is a qualitative approach and set of methods directed at understanding cultural phenomena that, in turn, reflect the system of meanings guiding the actions of a social group — in our case, health-care managers.

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Implicit in the understanding of management as a socially constructed phenomenon is the understanding that particular constructions of management promote the reproduction of particular social and economic relations. Therefore, the attempt made through fieldwork is to present an integrated perspective of context, arguing that external factors are a fundamental part of the internal composition of the local domain and should be recognised as such — even at the most micro level of interaction.

In developing such research, it can be argued that our attempt to understand the effects of differences in organisational and community context on how managers use managerial knowledge requires a research strategy that allows depth of analysis as well as breadth of application. This suggests the need for a comparative case study approach that is able to examine, using in-depth qualitative methods, the practices of managers — but in a way that is also sensitive to important differences in context both organisational and institutional.

A comparative case study approach has proven to be a powerful methodology, particularly for allowing the direct application of research findings to their practical context and also for helping understand the issues involved in complex organisational settings. A comparative case study approach was adopted by focusing attention on studying middle managers within and across three very different types of NHS trust.

These three trusts were selected to provide quite distinct cases with regard to the diversity of services provided and, consequently, the knowledge requirements faced by managers and the networks likely to be available to them. Our expectation on commencing the research was that each trust context would be distinct with regard to the knowledge requirements faced by managers and the networks likely to be available to them. Our assumption was that this would be reflected in several characteristics that differentiate these types of trust, including their geographical spread, the number of locations from which services are provided, the diversity of services provided and the number of organisations purchasing services from them.

A summary of these characteristics can be seen in Table 1. The categorisation of each trust in this table is necessarily very broad, highlighting factors which were relatively objective and identifiable and which may be expected to have an impact on issues of relevance to the study. However, this categorisation was also largely a priori, inferred and set out in the research project design in advance of detailed empirical work in each trust the exceptions were the two bold areas for which original expectations that the care trust would rate medium were revised to high ratings following initial investigations.

A key priority in the research was to establish empirically which aspects of context, both historical and immediate, impacted most directly on operations and activity in each trust. This is the focus of Chapter 3 , in which we provide a more fine-grained analysis of the salient aspects of the organisational context in each trust and also indicate the most pressing current concerns for managers at each organisation, drawing directly upon the perceptions of our interviewees. As was noted in Chapter 1 , management in the NHS is highly complex, consisting of groups with very distinctive professional orientations and knowledge bases.

We set out to include middle managers across the three types of trust, to be selected on the basis of important expected differences in the community of middle managers who work in these organisations and in the managerial activities and challenges that they face. Our intention was to understand the effects of differences amongst communities of NHS managers in terms of sources of managerial knowledge, knowledge utilisation and learning processes.

Therefore, it was important to be able to develop a systematic framework for the identification and selection of managers. Our NHS Management Model, which broadly differentiates between three general categories of manager — functional, general and clinical — and which includes within it more precise indications of the locations of particular managerial roles, is presented in Figure 1. This model was the result of the development and refinement of an initial framework that had attempted to differentiate between managerial groups on the basis of their qualifications and experience.

It was arrived at through interviews and meetings with advisory group members and other key informants from across the sector in the early phase of the research.

The model goes further than the original framework in recognising the interconnectedness of managerial and clinical orientations especially among some general managers , as well as the often blurred boundaries between managerial groups. Pragmatically, this would also enable us to construct a sample of interviewees in each organisation that we were confident covered the diversity of middle management in each trust in a balanced manner and which we hoped and expected would be clearly recognisable to potential participants in the study.

Of course, our interviewees were not types or categories but real individuals, hence the precise combination of background, experience, training and inclination of each particular interviewee was likely to vary significantly, as might be expected. The focus of the empirical analysis was to explore this in some considerable detail. The research project was scheduled to last 28 months and our original plan of investigation saw the research organised into four main stages or phases: These phases are captured in the project flow chart in Appendix 1 and are summarised below.

This phase lasted 5 months and involved the appointment of the research associate and establishment of an advisory group, an extensive literature search, identification and contact with key informants for interview, detailed design of research protocols and the securing of ethical approval. The first empirical phase of the study months 6—12 involved face-to-face or telephone interviews with a variety of key informants, selected to provide overviews of the key challenges and problems facing managers at a local, regional and national level in locating, interpreting and applying knowledge and learning.

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The advisory group included six external members including the lead collaborator or their representative from each trust who were among the key informants who were interviewed. Interviewees during this stage also included a number of figures of national and regional prominence, including those associated with:.

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These interviews generally lasted approximately an hour and were structured around a set of broad questions see Appendix 2 regarding:. Interviews were conducted by at least two members of the research team, they were recorded and transcribed and notes were also taken. During this phase, the first advisory group meeting was also held in order to help steer the design of the study by further validating the frameworks being developed and to assist with the identification of appropriate managerial cohorts.

Advisory group members were also prompted to identify and discuss with the research team appropriate managers for interview and key events to observe. Trust participants on the advisory group were also able to identify common interests and concerns across each trust as well as important differences in the use and exploitation of managerial knowledge. Phase 2 represented the main empirical component of the research months 9—24 and combined semistructured interviews with selected cohorts of managers with ethnographic observation methods.

Data collection was phased over a rolling programme of research over a period of about a year at each trust. Details of interviewing and observation methods and processes, as well as the coding and analysis of the data, are explained in greater detail in Methods of data collection and analysis. The final stage of the research months 24—28 involved further analysis of the empirical material and activity leading to the production of this final report.

During this phase, a second advisory group meeting was held, at which emergent findings were presented and discussed. Following this, separate research symposia were held at each of the three trusts where the results of the research were presented and discussed with managers who had participated in the research. This enabled the results to be further validated and also fed directly back into practice. The second phase of the study required the selection of a limited number of participants from identifiable groups of managers — clinical, general and functional — who could exemplify the range in each group.

By selecting individuals from each group or cohort, it would then be possible to explore important sources of similarity and difference both within and between each trust. To capture this qualitative variation, a purposive, non-random sample of approximately eight managers was identified for each of the three cohorts of managers in each of the three participating trusts, yielding a total target sample size of around 72 managers across the three trusts who would be interviewed during the main fieldwork phase in the event, 68 were actually interviewed.

Qualitative Research Methods - Management - Oxford Bibliographies

In the early stages of research, the research team worked with lead collaborators to identify potential interviewees among the managers. Selections were made on the basis of meeting the need to generate sufficient numbers of interviews in each broad group clinical, general and functional while allowing some variation in their work position and context e.

It also became clear that managerial grade was a useful proxy indicator of middle management status. In the event, most of those managers interviewed had salaries that were in grades 8a—8d the exceptions were one grade 7 manager, four grade 9 managers and five who were on the consultants scale.

The initial e-mail contact had been drafted by the researchers and included outline details of the research. Contact details of managers who agreed were then passed on from the HR department and they were contacted directly and provided with full information about the research, including an invitation letter, participant information sheet, project summary document and consent form see Appendices 3 — 6.

As part of the process of obtaining consent, managers were guaranteed that any information they gave would be kept confidential. When do I start? Admission Criteria There are no entry requirements, although you should have a reasonable level of English and Mathematics. The course consists of nine substantive sessions and one revision session: Fill the form and we will answer you with more information about this course. Preferred start date Immediately In 1 month In 6 months In 12 months. Looking for Classroom classes.