Triangulation In Social Sciences Research For Impact Of Decision-making Under Pressure In The Automobile Industry

Research Questions

Discuss about the Triangulation in Social Sciences Research.

The research paper would potentially focus on conducting both empirical research and also in designing an effective methodology for data collection and analysis for understanding the factors that enhance the level of pressure concerning decision-making functions in automobile industry. The research would also probe in understanding the impacts of pressure of decision-making functions and the manner the pressure can be reduced for enhancing productivity of decision-making in automobile industry.

Decision-making activities are required to be carried out in an information-sharing and collaborative environment between the different stakeholders such that the same helps in reducing the level of pressure concerning decision-making functions. Thus, effective information technology tools are required to be aligned contributing in information-sharing such that the same would help in reducing pressure concerning decision-making activities.

The research aims in finding out the reasons and rationale regarding decision making under pressure in automobile industry. It would thereby aim in understanding the impacts behind generating decision making under pressure in automobile industry. Finally the research activity would also aim in understanding the process through which pressure can be reduced regards decision making in the automobile industry.

The objectives of the research activity are outlined as follows.

• To understand the reasons behind growth of pressure regards decision making activity in automobile industry.
• To reflect on the positive and negative impacts of decision making under pressure in automobile industry.
• To reflect on the fashion by which pressure can be lessened for enhancing productivity of decision making in automobile industry.

1. What are the reasons for conducting decision making activity in the automobile industry under pressure?
2. What are the impacts of the decision making activities conducted under pressure on the automobile firms?
3. How can the pressure be reduced for aiding in effective decision making in the automobile industry?

The growing levels of complexity concerning changing structure of consumer demands with also the demand for new technological levels and sustainable products run on renewable energy sources is observed to increase the level of complexity concerning decision-making functions in automobile industry. The research activity thus focuses on understanding the different processes through which pressure concerning decision-making can be reduced in automobile firms and its impacts thereof.

Nowadays the activities concerning decision-making in the automobile industry are observed to turn increasingly complex owing to growing intricacies concerning the product development stages, enhancing the productivity of the supply chains and also in terms of meeting the sustainability objectives while introducing new technologies, operational processes and products. Moreover, the decision-making activities in the automobile industry are now governed with a demand for acting in a transparent, flexible and collaborative fashion through involving ideas generated by different stakeholders to the decision-making process (Ghemawat, 2011). Thus lack of availability of effective connectivity and online or virtual sharing platforms creates pressure concerning carrying out the decision-making functions in automobile industry. Continual changes in consumer demand regarding new and sustainable car models with also the growth of external competition contribute in growth of pressure regarding decision-making in automobile industry (Kapoor, 2017).

Positive and Negative Impacts of making decisions in pressure in the Automobile Industry

Decision-making activities under pressure are observed to have both positive and negative impacts for the automobile industry. On a positive note decision-making activities under immense pressure contribute in generating faster decisions and in rapidly redesigning the production and customer servicing processes to meet external and stakeholder demands. It thereby enhances the responsive nature of the automobile firms (Heugten, 2011).

On the negative front, decision-making activities under pressure signify a failure concerning the sharing of effective information aiding in decision-making functions between the different stakeholder groups. The same affects the productivity of the decision-making functions leading to a failure in meeting of desired objectives (Baumruková, 2016).

The amount of pressure concerning decision-making activities in the automobile industry can be effectively reduced through the incorporation of effective information technology systems and processes that would enable greater collaboration between the different stakeholders like suppliers, production and operation managers and customers. Development of effective collaboration between the parties involved in decision-making helps the production and operation team gain key access to effective resources and infrastructure while also in gaining access to key ideas from customers for designing of effective and sustainable vehicle models (Machado & Davim, 2016). Different types of analytical tools are required to be rightly incorporated for contributing in generating productive decision-making under pressure. Use of different types of analytical and designing tools are required to be incorporated for aiding the decision-making process concerning automobile designing  (Tavana, 2014).

The research would be carried out through the involvement of two research philosophies like Interpretivism and Positivism.

Interpretivism based research activity requires the focus to be made on the development on unstructured questions that helps in generating narrative inferences addressing the research problem. It focuses on interpreting the perception and feelings of the respondents associated to the context of the research. The open-ended questions are employed by the researcher for undertaking of interviews of respondent groups to meet the objectives of interpretivism research. Employment of interpretivism research philosophy contributes in generating qualitative inferences  (Hussein, 2009).

The deployment of Positivism Research is identified as that which requires the use of statistical tools and diagrammatic research styles for aptly addressing the research objectives. Positivism research philosophy focuses on generation of research hypotheses and thereby in employing quantitative techniques for proving the same. The researcher in terms of employing Positivism Research aims in the development of unstructured or close-ended questionnaire sets that contributes in generating specific and quantitative inferences for meeting research objectives  (Hammer, 2015).

Research Technique

The employment of inductive research styles requires the researcher to focus on studying different literary sources for gaining access to qualitative and conceptual inferences. The study of contextual research activity ideally contributes in the development of novel contexts and theoretical approaches while also helps in the generation of a conceptual diagram associated to the research problem. Qualitative inferences are generated based on the employment of inductive research  (Gioia, Corley, & Hamilton, 2013).

The incorporation of deductive research activity focuses on generating research hypotheses and thereby conducts survey activity through the generation of structured questionnaires that are employed for conducting surveys. Conducting of deductive research ideally contributes in the generation of quantitative and specific inferences that meets the different research hypotheses  (Cortina, Aguinis, & DeShon, 2017).

The use of secondary or empirical research is made in terms of study of potential literatures like books, journals and other online articles and reports in the research context. Employment of secondary research design helps the researcher for gaining access to authentic and qualitative data in a faster and cheaper manner. Qualitative inferences gained from the use of secondary research ideally serve as an effective background for carrying out primary research activities in future  (Parker, Morgeson, & Johns, 2017).

Employment of primary research activity requires the development of both open and close-ended questionnaires.  The questionnaires are used for conducting of interviews and surveys respectively. The application of primary research activity is identified to be time consuming and costly in nature. However, the application of primary research contributes in generating current inferences for effectively addressing different research objectives  (Venable, Pries-Heje, & Baskerville, 2016).

Carrying of interview and survey research ideally contributes in generating both qualitative and also quantitative inferences associated to the research issue. The combination of both qualitative and also quantitative research approaches ideally helps in meeting the objectives of triangulated research. Employing triangulated research enhances the potential of research in that the same addresses both the research questions and objectives. Qualitative inferences gained based on conducting of interview and quantitative inferences gained based on employing survey activity rightly helps in the generating both elucidatory and specific inferences  (Wolf & Floyd, 2013).

The conducting of interview based research activity requires the generation of focused groups that are subjected to interviews based on the construction of open-ended questionnaires. Here, the researcher focuses on incorporating different types of instruments like good quality microphones, recording gadgets, pen and paper for capturing and recording inferences rendered by respondents. The use of the above tools rightly helps in generating interview transcripts which in turn fulfills the conducting of the research activity. Focused groups are required to be constructed of managerial respondents pertaining to different automobile companies which would be interviewed for gaining of in-depth inferences associated to the research context. Face-to-face interviews are carried out such that the same helps the researcher for undertaking of notes regarding observation made of the respondent groups  (Wright, Wahoush, Gabel, & Jack, 2016).

Data collection regarding survey activity is conducted by the researcher through the development of structured questions for generating specific inferences to address the research objectives. The structured questionnaires thus constructed are required to be dispatched to the respondents either through the use of physical mailers or based on the application of survey monkey as an online survey tool. Quantitative data is collected through the development of five-point likert scales against the different structured questions such that the percentage of responses gained associated to the different questions are tabulated in an excel sheet for conducting of needful analysis  (McCarthy, Wagner, & Sanders, 2017).

The undertaking of focused group interviews requires the researcher for designing of focused groups through the incorporation of non-probability sampling approaches like convenient sampling. The use of convenient sampling ideally contributes in selection of respondents for conducting of focused groups in a faster and simpler fashion. Convenient sampling style requires the researcher to randomly select managerial respondents of around 20 in number from the larger population of managers  (Etikan, Musa, & Sunus, 2016).

The carrying out of survey research activity requires the researcher for selection of large number of sample respondents through the employment of probability sampling like stratified random sampling. The employment of stratified random sampling requires the researcher for development of the survey population based on two different strata sets like that of supervisors or front-line managers and employee groups.  Around 100 respondents are required to be selected from two strata groups in a random fashion. The incorporation of stratified random sampling approach ideally contributes in reducing the chances of emergence of sampling errors had in the case of simple random sampling  (Cekim & Kadilar, 2017).

The carrying out of interview based research activity contributing in the generation of qualitative inferences requires the researcher for focusing on conducting of qualitative data analysis. The conducing of qualitative data analysis requires the researcher for development of codes through the identification of words and phrases and thereby in identification of correlation between the different codes for generation of qualitative inferences. Herein, different codes like ‘decision making’, ‘decision making under pressure’, ‘productivity of decision making’, ‘automobile industry’, ‘decision making in automobile industry’ and ‘decision making under pressure in automobile industry’ are required to be identified and thereby the relationship between such are required to be analyzed for gaining of qualitative inferences  (Gioia, Corley, & Hamilton, 2013).

The conducting of quantitative data analysis requires the researcher for incorporation of different statistical and diagrammatic research tools for generation of specific and quantitative inferences in addressing the research objectives. Statistical tools like descriptive statistics can be employed for generation of quantitative inferences like mean, median and mode values and also skewness associated to the research variables. Similarly, different diagrammatic tools like pie, bar and line charts are needed to be constructed for enhancing the quality of the inferences gained based on the use of quantitative research  (Wright, Wahoush, Gabel, & Jack, 2016).

The undertaking of interviews and surveys requires the fulfillment of some ethical guidelines. The researcher firstly focuses on helping the respondents understand and approve the rationale and objectives regarding conducting the stated research. Approval of the research objectives and rationale rightly helps in generating needed support of the respondent groups for the undertaking of the research activity. Secondly, the researcher also requires in generating a statement reflecting that inferences rendered by the respondents are restricted in being published in printed and online fashion without gaining needed approval from the respondents. This would help in retaining the trust of the respondents on the researcher  (Graf, 2017).

The first chapter focuses on generating an introduction to the research issue. It would also focus on generating research aims and objectives. It would also reflect the research questions that need to be answered for conducting the research.

The second chapter ideally focuses on conducting a literature review in terms of studying of books, journals and other online articles associated to the research issue. The study of potential literature ideally contributes in the development of a contextual diagram. Further, the second chapter also focuses on development of research hypotheses for carrying out the research analysis.

The third chapter would ideally focus on identifying the different research methods for carrying out the research activity. The chapter in addition to identifying the different research methods also focuses on identifying the fashion based on which data can be collected and analyzed for addressing the research questions and objectives.

The third chapter would ideally focus on conducting a detailed analysis through the generation of open and close-ended questionnaires for conducting of interview and survey based research respectively. Collection of qualitative and quantitative inferences through the conducting of interviews and surveys requires the incorporation of qualitative and quantitative research analysis for generation of needful inferences.

The fourth chapter focuses on generating a summary of the research activity conducted along the research report. It would also focus on the generation of effective recommendations based on the inferences gained from the analysis.

The budget for addressing the different sections in the research activity is outlined as under.

Task	Contents	Budget
Formulation of the Problem Statement and identifying the research aim and objective with also reflecting on the research questions.	This section focuses on formulating the problem statement. It also contributes in identification and highlighting the different aims and objectives behind conducting the research. The section also highlights the research questions that are required to be answered in terms of conducting the research.	$50
Conducting of empirical research and also deigning of conceptual diagram with research hypotheses	Here, the researcher is concerned with the sourcing and study of essential literature associated with the research issue. It then focuses on development of a conceptual model based on empirical research and generation of research hypotheses.	$200
Highlighting the different research methods	Herein, the researcher is required to identify the different research methods for carrying out the research while also reflects on the different data collection and analytical processes to be involved.	$100
Conducting the data analysis	The researcher focuses on conducting data analysis through the use of qualitative and quantitative research tools.	$300
Summarizing and drafting the research paper	The researcher finally summarizes and drafts the research paper for submission	$100
Total		$750

The project scheduling is reflected through the use of a Gantt Chart as follows.

Serial No	Tasks	October	November	December
		1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4
1	Discussion of the Research Problem
2	Identifying Research Aims and Objectives and also reflecting on research questions
3	Rationalizing the research activity
4	Carrying out empirical research and formulation of conceptual diagram
5	Development of Research Methodology
6	Conducting of interviews and surveys for collecting data
7	Analyzing the data collected
9	Summarizing the inferences and generating recommendations
10	Drafting the research activity and gaining approval of the same

References

Baumruková, I. (2016). Manual of First Aid Professional English, Part 1. United States : Xlibris Corporation.

Cekim, H. O., & Kadilar, C. (2017). Hartley Ross type unbiased estimators using the stratified random sampling. Hacettepe Journal of Mathematics and Statistics , 46 (2), 165-176.

Cortina, J. M., Aguinis, H., & DeShon, R. P. (2017). Twilight of Dawn or of Evening? A Century of Research Methods in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Journal of Applied Psychology , 102 (3), 274-290.

Etikan, I., Musa, S. A., & Sunus, R. (2016). Comparison of Convenience Sampling and Purposive Sampling. American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics , 5 (1), 1-4.

Ghemawat, P. (2011). World 3.0: Global Prosperity and How to Achieve It. United States: Harvard Business Review Press.

Gioia, D. A., Corley, K. G., & Hamilton, A. L. (2013). Seeking Qualitative Rigor in Inductive Research: Notes on the Gioia Methodology. Organizational Research Methods , 16 (1), 15-31.

Graf, C. (2017). The Pillars of Publication Ethics and Research Integrity: Spread the Word. Chinese Medical Journal , 130 (12), 1502-1504.

Hammer, M. R. (2015). The Developmental paradigm for intercultural competence research. International Journal of Intercultural Relations , 48, 12-13.

Heugten, K. v. (2011). Social Work Under Pressure: How to Overcome Stress, Fatigue and Burnout in the Workplace. United States: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Hussein, A. (2009). The use of Triangulation in Social Sciences Research: Can qualitative and quantitative methods be combined? Journal of Comparative Social Work , 1-12.

Kapoor, V. (2017). What You Can Learn From Military Principles. United States : Bloomsbury Publishing.

Machado, C., & Davim, J. P. (2016). Green and Lean Management. United Kingdom : Springer.

McCarthy, J., Wagner, J., & Sanders, H. L. (2017). The Impact of Targeted Data Collection on Nonresponse Bias in an Establishment Survey: A Simulation Study of Adaptive Survey Design. Journal of Official Statistics , 33 (3), 857-871.

Parker, S. K., Morgeson, F. P., & Johns, G. (2017). One Hundred Years of Work Design Research: Looking Back and Looking Forward. Journal of Applied Psychology , 102 (3), 403-420.

Tavana, M. (2014). Analytical Approaches to Strategic Decision-Making: Interdisciplinary Considerations: Interdisciplinary Considerations. United Kingdom : IGI Global.

Venable, J., Pries-Heje, J., & Baskerville, R. (2016). FEDS: a Framework for Evaluation in Design Science Research. European Journal of Information Systems , 25, 77-89.

Wolf, C., & Floyd, S. W. (2013). Strategic Planning Research: Toward a Theory-Driven Agenda. Journal of Management , 30 (10), 1-35.

Wright, A. L., Wahoush, O., Gabel, C., & Jack, S. ,. (2016). Qualitative Health Research Involving Indigenous Peoples: Culturally Appropriate Data Collection Methods. The Qualitative Report , 21 (12), 2230-2245.