Scientific Investigation

Chapter 2
Learning outcomes

1. Explain what is meant by scientific investigation, giving

examples of both scientific and nonscientific investigations.
2. Explain the eight hallmarks of science.
3. Briefly explain why research in the organizational behavior
and management areas cannot be completely scientific.
4. Describe the building blocks of science.
5. Discuss the seven steps of the hypothetico-deductive
method, using an example of your own.
6. Appreciate the advantages of knowledge about scientific
investigation
Topics covered

• Hallmarks of scientific research

• The Seven-Step Process in the
Hypothetico-Deductive Method
Hallmarks of scientific research:

• Hallmarks or main distinguishing

characteristics of scientific research:
1. Purposiveness
2. Rigor
3. Testability
4. Replicability
5. Precision and Confidence
6. Objectivity
7. Generalizability
8. Parsimony
Hallmarks of scientific research:

1. Purposiveness
– Manager has stated the research with a definite
aim or purpose.
– The focus is on increasing the commitment of
employees to the company, as this will be
beneficial in many ways.
– An increase in employee commitment will
translate into lower turnover, less absenteeism,
and probably increased performance levels.
– The research thus has a purposive focus.
Hallmarks of scientific research:

2. Rigor
– A good theoretical base and a sound methodological
design add rigor to a purposive study.
– Rigor connotes carefulness, scrupulousness, and the
degree of exactitude in research investigation.
– E.g., the manager asks 10 to 12 of its employees to
indicate what would increase their level of
commitment to it.
– If solely on the basis of their responses, the manager
reaches several conclusions on how employee
commitment can be increased  whole approach is
unscientific.
Hallmarks of scientific research:
2. Rigor
– It lack rigor for the following reasons:
• The conclusions are incorrectly drawn because they are
based on the responses of just a few employees whose
opinions may not be representative of those of the
entire workforce. (lacks a good methodological
sophistication)
• The manner of framing and addressing the questions
could have introduced bias or incorrectness in the
responses. (lacks a good methodological sophistication)
• Other important influences on organizational
commitment that this small sample of respondent did
not or could not verbalize during the interviews 
researchers has failed to include them. (lacks a good
theoretical foundation)
Hallmarks of scientific research:
2. Rigor
– Rigorous research involves a good theoretical
base and a carefully thought-out methodology.
– These factors enable the researcher to collect the
right kind of information from an appropriate
sample with the minimum degree of bias, and
facilitate suitable analysis of the data gathered.
– Rigor in research design also makes possible the
achievement of the other six hallmark of science.
Hallmarks of scientific research:

3. Testability
– Testability is a property that applies to the
hypotheses of a study.
– Hypotheses is a tentative, yet testable,
statement, which predicts what you expect to
find in your empirical data.
– Hypotheses are derived from theory, which is
based on the logical beliefs of the researcher and
on (the results of) previous scientific research.
Hallmarks of scientific research:

3. Testability
– Scientific hypothesis must be testable.
– Non-testable hypotheses  vague statements,
cannot be tested experimentally, e.g., God
created the earth.
– Testable hypotheses  employees who perceive
greater opportunities for participation in decision
making will have a higher level of commitment 
can be tested when the data are collected.
Hallmarks of scientific research:

4. Replicability
– The results of the tests of hypotheses should be
supported again and yet again when the same
type of research is repeated in similar
circumstances.
– Replication is made possible by a detailed
description of the design details of the study,
such as the sampling method and the data
collection methods.
Hallmarks of scientific research:

5. Precision and Confidence

– Precision refers to the closeness of the findings
to “reality” based on a sample  reflects the
degree of accuracy or exactitude of the results
on the basis of the sample, to what really exists
in the universe.
– E.g., expected number of production days lost
per year is between 30 and 40 versus actual of 35
days  better precision than somewhere
between 20 and 50 days.
– Confidence interval referred as precision.
Hallmarks of scientific research:

5. Precision and Confidence

– Confidence refers to the probability that our
estimations are correct.
– E.g, 95% of the time our results will be true and
5% chance of our being wrong  also known as
the confidence level.
– 95% confidence level and 0.05 significance level
(p = 0.05).
Hallmarks of scientific research:

6. Objectivity
– The conclusions drawn through the interpretation
of the results of data analysis should be objective,
that is, they should be based on the facts of the
findings derived from actual data, and not on our
own subjective or emotional values. (Data –based
research findings.)
– E.g., if the hypothesis relating to organizational
commitment is not supported, considerable time
and effort would be wasted in finding ways to
create opportunities for employee participation in
decision making.
Hallmarks of scientific research:

7. Generalizability
– Generalizability refers to the scope of applicability
of the research findings in one organizational
setting to other settings.
– Obviously, the wider the range of applicability of
the solutions generated by research, the more
useful and value the research is to the users.
– E.g., if a research’s findings that participation in decision
making enhance organizational commitment are found to be
true in a variety of manufacturing, industrial, and service
organizations, not only in the particular organization studied
by the researcher, then the generalizability of the findings to
other organizational settings is enhanced.
Hallmarks of scientific research:

8. Parsimony
– Simplicity in explaining the phenomena or
problems that occur, and in generating solutions
for the problems, is always preferred to complex
research frameworks that consider an
unmanageable number of factors.
– E.g., if 2 or 3 specific variables in the work situation are
identified, which when changed would raise the
organizational commitment of the employees by 45%,
that would be more useful and valuable to the manager
than if it were recommended that he should change 10
different variables to increase organizational commitment
by 48%
Hypothetico-Deductive Research

• The Seven-Step Process in the Hypothetico-

Deductive Method
1. Identify a broad problem area
2. Define the problem statement
3. Develop hypotheses
4. Determine measures
5. Data collection
6. Data analysis
7. Interpretation of data
Hypothetico-Deductive Research

1. Identify a broad problem area

• a drop in sales, frequent production
interruptions, incorrect accounting results,
low yielding investments, disinterestedness
of employees in their work, customer
switching and the like, could attract the
attention of the manager and catalyse the
research project.
Hypothetico-Deductive Research
2. Define the problem statement
– Scientific research start with a definite aim or purpose.
– To find solutions for identified problems, a problem
statement that includes the general objective and
research questions of the research should be developed.
– Gathering initial information about the factors that are
possibly related to the problem will help us to narrow the
broad problem area and to define the problem statement
 done by a literature review or by talking to several
people in the work setting, to clients, or to other relevant
sources  get an idea or a “feel” for what is transpiring in
the situation (what is happening and why).
Hypothetico-Deductive Research

3. Develop hypotheses
– Scientific hypothesis must meet 2 requirements:
Testable and falsifiable.
– Falsifiable – it must be possible to disprove the
hypothesis
– According to Karl Popper, this is important
because hypothesis cannot be confirmed; there
is always a possibility that future research will
show that it is false.
Hypothetico-Deductive Research

4. Determine measures
– Unless the variables in the theoretical
framework are measured in some way, we will
not be able to test our hypothesis.
– E.g., to test the hypothesis that unresponsive
employees affect customer switching, we need
to operationalize unresponsiveness and
customer switching.
Hypothetico-Deductive Research

5. Data collection
– After we have determined how to measure our
variables, data with respect to each variable in
the hypothesis need to be obtained.
– These data then form the basis for data analysis.
Hypothetico-Deductive Research

6. Data analysis
– The data gathered are statistically analyzed to
see if the hypotheses that were generated have
been supported.
– E.g., to see if unresponsive employees affects
customer switching, we might want to do a
correlational analysis to determine the
relationship between these variables.
Hypothetico-Deductive Research

7. Interpretation of data
– Decide whether our hypothesis are supported
or not by interpreting the meaning of the results
of the data analysis.
– E.g., if it was found from the data analysis that
increased responsiveness of employees was
negatively related to customer switching, then
we can deduce that if customer retention is to be
increased, our employees have to be trained to
be more responsive.