Research objective in hypothesis-building research

to the development of a practitioner’s knowledge, and b the termin- ology proposition or hypothesis, and concepts and variables. The known and unknown variables of the hypothesis to be built must be further specified before an appropriate research strategy can be chosen. This results in four different types of hypothesis-building research, depicted in Flowchart 3B. The four types of hypothesis-building research are the same as the four types of theory-building research:

1. research that starts with known independent and dependent variables

and is aimed at specifying the relation between them; 2. research that starts with a known independent variable and is aimed at, first, identifying and specifying a relevant dependent variable and, next, specifying the relation between the inde- pendent and dependent variable; Chapter 10 Hypothesis-testing research See Flowchart 3A Known: independent and dependent variables Unknown: relation Experiment or Comparative case study Experiment or Comparative case study Known: independent variable Unknown: dependent variable and relation Known: – Unknown: independent and dependent variables and relation New hypothesis Specific research objective Hypothesis-building research Known: dependent variable Unknown: independent variable and relation Specific research objective Specific research objective Specific research objective Comparative case study Comparative case study Flowchart 3B Hypothesis-building practice-oriented research 3. research that starts with a known dependent variable and is aimed at, first, identifying and specifying a relevant independ- ent variable and, next, specifying the relation between the inde- pendent and dependent variable; 4. research that starts with an unknown independent variable and an unknown dependent variable and is aimed at, first, identify- ing and specifying relevant independent and dependent vari- ables and, next, specifying the relation between them.

10.2.2 Research strategy in hypothesis-building research

The choice of a research strategy in hypothesis-building research is governed by the same rules and principles as in theory-building research. First, it must be determined whether experimental research would be useful and feasible. If experimental research is not feasible, a hypothesis-building comparative case study must be designed and conducted. The one important difference between hypothesis-building research and theory-building research concerns, as with hypothesis-testing research, the domain from which instances are selected. In hypothesis- building research, instances are selected from the practice domain to which the research is oriented or from other practices that are similar. If a hypothesis has been built, usually it will be tested in the same study according to the principles discussed in 10.1 above. Only after such a test can the research contribute to the practitioner’s knowledge.

10.3 Descriptive research

The exploration of practice and of theory might have resulted in a speci- fication of the knowledge needs that does not contain one or more hypotheses, and it might have been decided that it is not necessary to build and test hypotheses in order to get the knowledge that is relevant for making decisions in the current phase of the problem. An example is a practitioner’s need to know what his employees on the shop floor think about current working conditions. In order to check whether such a situation exists, the following questions could be raised. ■ Do relevant parties agree on the phase of the problem in the intervention cycle? ■ Do relevant parties agree that the knowledge needs that are for- mulated are the most relevant in the current circumstances? ■ Is it agreed that it is not necessary that hypotheses are formu- lated in order to get satisfactory and useful knowledge, but that rather it is necessary that one or more variables are dis- covered and described? ■ How could research help to satisfy this knowledge need? If the answers to such questions are conclusive, descriptive research needs to be designed and conducted.

10.3.1 Research objective of descriptive practice-oriented research

If the researcher has decided after a successful exploration that descrip- tive research is needed, the general research objective for such research can be formulated as follows: The objective of this study is to contribute to the knowledge regarding problem P {specify here the problem and its phase in the intervention cycle} by identifying and describing the following variables: ■ {specify variable V1} ■ {specify variable V2} ■ {… etc.}. The format of this research objective is similar to the format of theory- building research aimed at the discovery of concepts discussed in 8.1.4, with an interesting difference. The aim of descriptive theory-oriented research is to discover and describe concepts of theoretical interest, whereas the aim of descriptive practice-oriented research is to discover and describe variables of a type that is already indicated in the know- ledge needs such as “what employees on the shop floor think about current working conditions”. The aim of descriptive practice-oriented research is to discover and describe variables within a broader category, which is already indicated in the research question. Examples of such research questions that spec- ify categories are: ■ an overview of the kinds of things about which our workers complain;