Why methodology in research

This is due to testing in a way that provides data that is both proven to be exact while also being exploratory at the same time. If you've done your due diligence, you'll have an idea of which methodology approach is best suited to your research. Still, it is important to consider different options before setting your research into stone. Exploring different options available will help you to explain why the choice you ultimately make is preferable to other methods.

If proving your research problem requires you to gather large volumes of numerical data to test hypotheses, a quantitative research method is likely to provide you with the most usable results. It helps to always bring things back to the question: what do I want to achieve with my research? Research methodology refers to the techniques used to find and analyze information for a study, ensuring that the results are valid, reliable and that they address the research objective. Data can typically be organized into four different categories or methods: observational, experimental, simulation and derived.

Writing a methodology section is a process of introducing your methods and instruments, discussing your analysis, providing more background information, addressing your research limitations, and more.

Your research methodology section will need a clear research question and proposed research approach. You'll need to add a background, introduce your research question, write your methodology and add the works you cited during your data collecting phase. The research methodology section of your study will indicate how valid your findings are and how well-informed your paper is.

It also assists future researchers planning to use the same methodology, who want to cite your study or replicate it. Guides Research Research Methodology. What is research methodology? What is meant by research methodology? What are the 4 types of research methodology? How do you write a research methodology? What do you write in a research methodology proposal? This course so far has given you an overview of the research strategy, design and possible methodologies for collecting data.

What you have learned should be enough for you to have developed a clear idea of the general research strategy you want to adopt before you move on to develop your methodology for collecting data and review the methods in detail so that you are clear about the benefits and limitations of each before you collect your data.

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Free learning from The Open University. Featured content. Free courses. All content. Course content. About this free course 9 hours study. The research design is intended to provide an appropriate framework for a study. A very significant decision in research design process is the choice to be made regarding research approach since it determines how relevant information for a study will be obtained; however, the research design process involves many interrelated decisions [ 1 ]. This study employed a mixed type of methods.

The other design used is an interview of employees to know how they feel about safety and health of their workplace, and field observation at the selected industrial sites was undertaken. Hence, this study employs a descriptive research design to agree on the effects of occupational safety and health management system on employee health, safety, and property damage for selected manufacturing industries.

Saunders et al. This design offers to the researchers a profile of described relevant aspects of the phenomena of interest from an individual, organizational, and industry-oriented perspective.

Therefore, this research design enabled the researchers to gather data from a wide range of respondents on the impact of safety and health on manufacturing industries in Ethiopia.

The research overall design and flow process are depicted in Figure 1. Research methods and processes author design. To address the key research objectives, this research used both qualitative and quantitative methods and combination of primary and secondary sources.

The qualitative data supports the quantitative data analysis and results. The result obtained is triangulated since the researcher utilized the qualitative and quantitative data types in the data analysis.

The study area, data sources, and sampling techniques were discussed under this section. According to Fraenkel and Warren [ 4 ] studies, population refers to the complete set of individuals subjects or events having common characteristics in which the researcher is interested. The population of the study was determined based on random sampling system. This data collection was conducted from March 07, to December 10, , from selected manufacturing industries found in Addis Ababa city and around.

The manufacturing companies were selected based on their employee number, established year, and the potential accidents prevailing and the manufacturing industry type even though all criterions were difficult to satisfy. It was obtained from the original source of information. The primary data were more reliable and have more confidence level of decision-making with the trusted analysis having direct intact with occurrence of the events.

Desk review has been conducted to collect data from various secondary sources. This includes reports and project documents at each manufacturing sectors more on medium and large level. Reputable journals, books, different articles, periodicals, proceedings, magazines, newsletters, newspapers, websites, and other sources were considered on the manufacturing industrial sectors.

The data also obtained from the existing working documents, manuals, procedures, reports, statistical data, policies, regulations, and standards were taken into account for the review. In general, for this research study, the desk review has been completed to this end, and it had been polished and modified upon manuals and documents obtained from the selected companies. To select representative manufacturing industrial sector population, the types of the industries expected were more potential to accidents based on random and purposive sampling considered.

The population of data was from textile, leather, metal, chemicals, and food manufacturing industries. A total of sample sizes of industries responded to the questionnaire survey from the priority areas of the government.

Random sample sizes and disproportionate methods were used, and 80 from wood, metal, and iron works; 30 from food, beverage, and tobacco products; 50 from leather, textile, and garments; 20 from chemical and chemical products; and 9 from other remaining 9 clusters of manufacturing industries responded. A simple random sampling and purposive sampling methods were used to select the representative manufacturing industries and respondents for the study.

The simple random sampling ensures that each member of the population has an equal chance for the selection or the chance of getting a response which can be more than equal to the chance depending on the data analysis justification. Sample size determination procedure was used to get optimum and reasonable information. In this study, both probability simple random sampling and nonprobability convenience, quota, purposive, and judgmental sampling methods were used as the nature of the industries are varied.

This is because of the characteristics of data sources which permitted the researchers to follow the multi-methods. This helps the analysis to triangulate the data obtained and increase the reliability of the research outcome and its decision.

The determination of the sample size was adopted from Daniel [ 5 ] and Cochran [ 6 ] formula. The formula used was for unknown population size Eq. However, the collected data indicated that only populations were used for the analysis after rejecting some data having more missing values in the responses from the industries. The population were assumed to be satisfactory and representative for the data analysis.

The sample size for the experimental exposure measurements of physical work environment has been considered based on the physical data prepared for questionnaires and respondents.

The selection method was using random sampling in line with purposive method. Data collection methods were focused on the followings basic techniques. These included secondary and primary data collections focusing on both qualitative and quantitative data as defined in the previous section. The data collection mechanisms are devised and prepared with their proper procedures.

Primary data sources are qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative sources are field observation, interview, and informal discussions, while that of quantitative data sources are survey questionnaires and interview questions. The next sections elaborate how the data were obtained from the primary sources.

Observation is an important aspect of science. Observation is tightly connected to data collection, and there are different sources for this: documentation, archival records, interviews, direct observations, and participant observations. Observational research findings are considered strong in validity because the researcher is able to collect a depth of information about a particular behavior.

In this dissertation, the researchers used observation method as one tool for collecting information and data before questionnaire design and after the start of research too. The researcher made more than 20 specific observations of manufacturing industries in the study areas. During the observations, it found a deeper understanding of the working environment and the different sections in the production system and OSH practices.

Interview is a loosely structured qualitative in-depth interview with people who are considered to be particularly knowledgeable about the topic of interest. The semi-structured interview is usually conducted in a face-to-face setting which permits the researcher to seek new insights, ask questions, and assess phenomena in different perspectives. It let the researcher to know the in-depth of the present working environment influential factors and consequences.

It has provided opportunities for refining data collection efforts and examining specialized systems or processes. It was used when the researcher faces written records or published document limitation or wanted to triangulate the data obtained from other primary and secondary data sources. This dissertation is also conducted with a qualitative approach and conducting interviews. The advantage of using interviews as a method is that it allows respondents to raise issues that the interviewer may not have expected.

All interviews with employees, management, and technicians were conducted by the corresponding researcher, on a face-to-face basis at workplace.

All interviews were recorded and transcribed. The main tool for gaining primary information in practical research is questionnaires, due to the fact that the researcher can decide on the sample and the types of questions to be asked [ 2 ].