5 D Research Methodology

As a subject, Research Methodology has been the bane of the teachers and the taught alike. Teachers do not produce academic and empirical papers since many of them lack a firm grounding in research methodology. Students on the other hand do not relish research methodology due to three main reasons. The first is poor quality of teachers, the second is a mind bloc that creates a phobia for mathematics and the third is their preference for taking the easy way out. Computers have ushered in an era of cut, copy and paste thereby allowing students and teachers to bypass real research. Therefore, the managers that B-Schools churn out annually will enter industry with a very poor knowledge of research methodology and thus denying them the ability to

Since it is a supposition that can only be the starting point of an investigation based on known facts, a hypothesis has to be validated empirically. Every hypothesis can thus be proved or disproved. Hence when a hypothesis is stated, the null (or opposite) hypothesis must be stated alongside and their notations conventionally being H. # 1 and H # 0. Once a hypothesis has been tested and proved it becomes a theory. The process of converting a hypothesis into theory is the backbone of Research Methodology. And this process itself has a sequence known as the core methodology or method. It is called the 5 D Method, used in Human Resources Management and Organisational Development and is named after Sadri and Jayashree. A method is a sequential process whereas methodology is the science of

Understanding that correlation does not amount to causation. Because two variables are statistically correlated, it does not follow that one causes the other or is caused by it.

One must never forget that mathematics is a language albeit a scientific language just as music is an artistic language. These days no subject can be excelled in without the use of mathematics and hence it cannot be wished away as some so called practical thinkers seem to do. Moreover, here the homily of the great grammarian George Bernard Shaw must be remembered when using statistical analysis of data. He said that statistics is akin to a blind man looking for a black cat in a dark room that does not exist.

Unfortunately, many people who claim to be into doing serious research over use statistics to the point of stupidity or do not use statistics at all, rely on intuition and thereby miss the wood for the trees. The first characteristic can be found amongst people who specialise in subjects like econometrics and psychometrics and that confuse between statistics as a means to with statistics as an end of any investigation. The second tendency can be found amongst people who claim to know something about media and communications research when all they have done is looked at data somewhat logically but often cursorily without using any statistical instruments. Their innate confusion and inaccuracy springs from the fact that they can never have all the facts at their disposal and yet think they are