Reflective Journal Assignment: Business Research Process
Question
Task: For this assessment, students are expected to write a weekly journal over the duration of the 12-week teaching period that documents a critical analysis of their learning process for this unit. In the journal students need to reflect/review how they have progressed with the learning goals related to assessments 1 and 2 of engaging in Business Research.
Students need to write their individual reflective journal concurrently with performing assessment tasks 1 and 2, i.e. from the first week of the subject. For each week, students need to make journal entries that provide a reflection of their ‘journey’ of gaining, and applying knowledge of the research paradigm. For each week students should reflect and compare the theoretical knowledge with what they apply into practice. As assessment 1 and 2 are completed, students should clearly identify learning goals achieved.
Answer
Introduction
The objective of this reflective journal assignment is to document the critical analysis of the learning process of the overall unit. In this reflective journal assignment, I will review or reflect how I have progressed with the learning goals related previous assessment in business research. Basically, the entries will provide a reflection of a ‘journey’ of achieving and applying the knowledge of research paradigm. Business research can be described as the process of methodical examination to achieve innovative facts about the management and business along with findings which have some of the practical results (Zikmund, Babin Carr & Griffin, 2012). By the classroom learning, I gained knowledge about the process and methods to attain secondary data for research. Further, by the class lectures, I learned how to best respond the study question. The reflective journal assignment will focus on the analysis of strategy and actions which I adopted to conduct business research along with methodological selections, models and selected theories. Basically, there will be no learning from experience without reflection (Fisher, 2007).
Week 1: First lecture was all about the nature, process and strategy of business research. By this lecture, I learned about the research strategy, quantitative research, uniqueness of quantitative research, qualitative research and its distinctiveness and mixed method research. I gained significant knowledge about the research process and applied the knowledge in my research project i.e. Role o cloud computing in efficiency and productivity of business. I learned about the reason for conducting business research i.e. gap in literature, inconsistency amongst studies, unresolved issues and to understand any topic (Crowther & Lancaster, 2012). Further, in the lecture, I learned about evidence-based management which is crucial to enhance the management practice. I also learned about the process of business research which I applied in my project easily.
In the reflective journal assignment, used mixed method including qualitative as well as quantitative method for conducting the research in the proper way. From the class lectures, I learned that no hypothetical structure is correct and it is my selection to examine own definitive approach and prepare the research design to best answer the research question (Gill & Johnson, 2010).
Week 2: This lecture was helpful for me in understanding the research design and planning the research process. I learned about various research designs and methods which are important to conduct a proper research. Along with this, by the lecture, I learned about the types of validity and threats to internal and external validity. This lecture was also helpful for me in formulating research question and preparing them for the study. Basically, research design presents an outline for data collection and investigation. Preparing and selecting the research subject is the initial level of the research project. The choice of my research topic was attained by the brainstorming process which helped me in generating and defining research ideas. By the assessment of ideas, I discovered my interest in the role and importance of cloud computing on the efficiency and productivity on business. I used Google Drive method to sustain the significant activities of process and distribution of my results so that valuable information can be accessed easily. The selection of using Drive to share the work process was helpful in enhancing my experience in the business research. This decision was proved to be excellent by which I was able to use the limited resources in the efficient manner (Ghauri & Gronhaug, 2010).
In the next step of the project, I conducted secondary research for identifying and refining the research question. I conducted the body of literature by which I could have advantages from additional results. The literature was very perceptive and later than the analysis, I decided to draft the research question for overall study i.e. what is the impact of cloud computing on efficiency and productivity of business? After this, I undertook another brainstorming session to identify additional research areas and terms (Ridley, 2008).
Week 3: By the next week lecture, I learned about writing the literature review which is helpful in presenting the facts related to research topic. I learned that writing literature review is all about reviewing the main ideas and research related to my chosen areas of research. By the systematic review, I can enhance the reliability of my study. I gathered secondary data from the review of various literatures which provided me contextual and comparative data. By this, I was able to compare the findings about the use and importance of cloud computing in the business management. I conducted proper literature review for the selected research question. In addition to this, I reviewed the current state of my knowledge on subject matter to complete the research in proper manner (Brinkman & Kvale, 2014).
Week 4: In this week lecture, I learned about ethical and legal considerations while conducting the business research. I understood that there can be various ethical issues in the business research i.e. hurt to contributors, dishonesty, assault of isolation, and lack of informed approval etc. In order to avoid the ethical issues and focus on legal and ethical considerations, I conducted the ethical review so that research should be kept in the ethical parameters by applying the research ethics (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2012). In the ethics parameters, I decided to ask any personal questions to the participants to maintain privacy in the research. Before the survey, respondents were requested to sign the consent form explaining the objective of research, the length of survey, and confidentiality of study (Myers, 2013).
Week 6: In lecture 6, I learned about the process of qualitative research which is helpful in conducting proper data and information related to research. I gained knowledge about the method of quantitative research i.e. the method is meant to be flexible and should not be too structured. I decided to use mixed method including qualitative as well as quantitative research method. This decision was taken to understand the use and significant impact of cloud computing on business operations and this was possible by conducting qualitative research. The approaches of both the studies were very iterative and interactive (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2011). The mixed method provided the scope for the effective approach of data collection in future. In the quantitative method, I conducted the research by using the questionnaire including open-ended questions which was helpful for me to design the quantitative research questions. By this research method, I was able to better understand the process of achieving the significant data for overall study (Rowley, 2012).
Week 7: In this week, I learned about the process of qualitative research method. As I am going to use both qualitative as well qualitative method in the research so this week lectures was also important for me. Qualitative method is important to gather large amount of data and this is the most prominent approach. Documents in qualitative research must be in printed, digital, visual, and in other retrievable format (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe & Jackson, 2012).
Week 9: Next lecture was very crucial for my research project as it was all about structured in interviewing and questionnaire design. As I was using the questionnaire method in my study so I focused on this part and gained significant knowledge about the process of preparing questionnaire. This lecture was helpful for me in framing the questions which I need to ask from the respondents. I learned that closed ended questions should be used in the questionnaire as open ended questions can create coding issues in the research. In addition to this, the layout and presentation of closed ended questions is important in the study. So, I conducted the research by using the questionnaire including closed-ended questions which was helpful for me to design the quantitative research questions. By this research method, I was able to better understand the process of achieving the significant data for overall study (Rowley, 2012).
Week 10 : This week learning is all about structured observation to study the behavior which is an alternative to survey-based measure. I learned that there should be content analysis in the quantitative research method. For the content analysis, I can use coding schedule coding manual for the content analysis (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2012). .
Week 12: The last lecture was about mixed method research which is helpful in achieving the best answers of research questions. In the mixed method, there are qualitative and quantitative methods which can be used in the research. I used all my knowledge and learning in conducting research of my project. The requirement of the research was to collect both quantitative as well as qualitative information to address the identified research questions (Bryman & Bell, 2011). I gained significant knowledge about the method of collecting the data. So, I decided to use mixed method including qualitative as well as quantitative research method. This decision was taken to understand the use and significant impact of cloud computing on business operations and this was possible by conducting qualitative research. The approaches of both the studies were very iterative and interactive (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2011). The mixed method provided the scope for the effective approach of data collection in future.
Conclusion
In conclusion of this reflective journal assignment, I can say that I am confident about the research project which was successfully managed with the potential scope of improvement. It can be said that by the evaluation of ideas, I discovered my interest in the role and importance of cloud computing on the efficiency and productivity on business. By the class learning, I was able to conduct proper literature review for the selected research question. I gained significant knowledge about the method of collecting the data. So, I decided to use mixed method including qualitative as well as quantitative research method. I applied process with maximal objectivity into my business research i.e. having clear objectives, and presenting facts and findings. Reflective journal assignments are being prepared by our top management assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable help with assignment service.
References
Brinkman, S. and Kvale, S., 2014. Interviews: Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing (3rd), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
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Crowther, D., & Lancaster, G., 2012. Research methods, IND: Routledge
Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R., & Jackson, P., 2012. Management research, UK: Sage
Fisher, C., 2007. Researching and writing a dissertation: a guidebook for business students (2nd), Harlow: Prentice Hall
Ghauri, P. and Gronhaug, K., 2010. Research methods in Business Studies, Harlow: Prentice Hall
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Marchington, M., & Wilkinson, A. J., 2012. Human resource management at work, UK: Sage
Marchington, M., & Wilkinson, A. J., 2012. Human resource management at work, UK: Sage
Ridley, D., 2008. The literature review: a step-by-step guide for students, UK: Sage
Rowley, J., 2012. Conducting research interviews. Management Research Review, 35(3/4), 260-271
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A., 2012. Research Methods for Business Students, (6th) Harlow: FT/Prentice Hall
Teddlie, C., & Tashakkori, A., 2011. Mixed methods research, The Sage handbook of qualitative research, 285
Zikmund, W., Babin, B., Carr, J., & Griffin, M., 2012. Business research methods, Cengage Learning
