Introductory description

This module is designed to familiarise you with current issues in researching culture and communication in business and professional contexts, introduce you to a range of data collection methods and analytical options relevant to this, and help you develop relevant skills in data collection and analysis. You will also be introduced to ethical issues in research and provided with guidance on how to design, plan and manage your dissertation. The module prepares you to begin work on your dissertation at the end of Term 2 and comprises two parts. The first part will focus on quantitative research methods, while the second part introduces qualitative research methods. Both parts will cover a range of core topics dedicated to introducing you to relevant data collection and analysis methods, and research ethics will be discussed throughout.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Term 1:

• What is research?
• What is quantitative research and how does it differ from other approaches?
• Reliability and Validity (especially in cross-cultural, multicultural contexts)
• Construct validity and internal/external validity
• Questionnaire design
• Measuring social phenomena quantitatively
• Correlation (theory)
• Chi-square test (theory)
• Comparing groups (theory)
• Linear & Hierarchical Regression (theory)
• Mixed methods

Term 2:

• The research process (including ethics)
• Introducing qualitative research
• Planning and conducting interviews and focus groups
• Transcribing and analysing interviews
• Collecting spoken data and doing observations: audio/video recording of actual interactions and role plays
• Collecting and working with online data
• Multimodal analysis
• Planning, designing and executing your dissertation research

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Specify the minimum criteria for adequate research
• Identify different approaches to research and the paradigmatic orientations underlying these
• State the criteria, considerations and procedures necessary to ensure that ethical requirements are met
• Identify and describe a range of relevant methods for collecting data in business, professional and intercultural contexts
• Describe relevant procedures for analysing data quantitatively and qualitatively, and using mixed methods
• Identify the different elements in a research proposal and understand how these relate to one another
• Read and critically respond to relevant academic articles and books
• Use relevant analytical tools and programmes (e.g. SPSS; R)
• Participate in group tasks and discussions
• Observe workplace/professional settings and draw inferences from these
• Appreciate the ethical dimension in research and respond appropriately to ethical challenges
• Formulate precisely focused, answerable questions
• Identify relationships between questions and procedures designed to provide responses to them
• Perform calculations and follow specifiable analytical procedures independently in order to develop responses to specific questions
• Recognise cultural and organisational patterns and signals in written and spoken texts
• Identify and respond to a professional/intercultural issue or situation requiring further investigation
• Negotiate, design and plan a research project
• Fill in the relevant ethics form for their own dissertation research project

Indicative reading list

• Fielding, N., Lee, R. M., & Blank, G. (2017). The SAGE handbook of online research methods (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications Ltd.
• Flick, U. (Ed.). (2017). The SAGE handbook of qualitative data analysis. SAGE.
• Greatbatch, D., & Clark, T. (2018). Using conversation analysis for business and management students. Sage Research Methods E-book Collection.
• Hart, C. (Ed.). (2020). Researching discourse: A student guide. Routledge.
• Hesse-Biber, S. N., & Johnson, B. (Eds.). (2016). The Oxford handbook of multimethod and mixed methods research inquiry. Oxford University Press.
• McKinley, J., & Rose, H. (Eds.). (2020). The Routledge handbook of research methods in applied linguistics. Routledge.
• Muijs, D. (2010). Doing quantitative research in education with SPSS. SAGE Publications.
• Oliver, P. (2010). The student’s guide to research ethics (2nd ed.). Open University Press.
• Page, R., Barton, D., Unger, J. W., & Zappavigna, M. (2014). Researching language and social media: A student guide. Routledge.
• Quan-Haase, A., & Sloan, L. (Eds.). (2017). The SAGE handbook of social media research methods. Sage Publications,
• Reis, H. T., & Judd, C. M. (2014). Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• Scholz, R. (Ed.). (2019). Quantifying approaches to discourse for social scientists. Palgrave Macmillan.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Research element

Students are asked to design and plan their dissertation research and to think about the ethical implications.

International

This module equips students with the skills to research and work in workplaces around the world and think critically about the role of culture. It thereby also contributes to the development of their intercultural competence.

Subject specific skills

• Discern appropriate methods for researching culture and communication
• Negotiate, design and plan a research project
• Give a short presentation of their planned research project
• Present an appropriately structured, clearly articulated ethics form

Transferable skills

• Formulate precisely focused, answerable questions
• Identify relationships between questions and procedures designed to provide responses to them
• Perform calculations and follow specifiable analytical procedures independently in order to develop responses to specific questions
• Design and plan a research project