Assignment

Title - ''A study on Customer Satisfaction in commercial Bank ( HSBC )''

AIM: This assignment assesses the learning outcomes of the Research Methods module. To this end, you are asked to devise a research project, to conduct pilot research, and to analyse your results on one of the following topics:

- A study on human resource development in Oman.
- A study on consumer buying behaviour with reference to any electronic goods in Oman.
- Any appropriate topic agreed with your module tutor

Please note that the total word count excludes appendices. Appendices contain supporting information and for this assignment little supporting information should be needed beyond that identified in the tasks or guidelines. The recommended (approximate) number of words for each part of the assignment gives guidance on the required extent of analysis (i.e. approximates to the marks allocated to a task).

The assignment should be appropriately presented in numbered sections and sources of information must be Harvard Referenced.

COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SEVEN TASKS:

1. Give your research a title and develop one research objective. (100 words)

2. Undertake a short literature review. Summarise any theory and evidence relevant to your research objective. (500 words)

3. Briefly explain your research philosophy, approach and strategy. In particular, comment on what makes your research positivist, phenomenological or a hybrid of both. Your research approach can be inductive or deductive approach and your strategy can be ethnography, grounded theory or survey in inductive approach. State the reason for your choice of philosophy, approach and strategy. (300 words).

4. Complete the Faculty ethical approval process for your proposed research using the fast track ethical approval form. The research must be approved by one of the module tutors before undertaking any primary research. Attach the approved form (and mandatory additional documents) to the assignment as an appendix. Briefly reflect on the ethical implications of your research. (100 words).

5. Answer either part (a) or part (b). (300 words plus questionnaire/interview schedule))
a. Design and implement an effective questionnaire (no more than five questions) to research the objective that you specified in Task 1. Your questionnaire should contain one or two (and no more) open-ended questions capable of generating qualitative data. Then explain and evaluate the purpose and design of at least two non-trivial questions. (Your maximum pilot sample size should be 10 respondents.) Attach a blank copy of your questionnaire as an Appendix.

b. Design and implement an effective schedule for a semi-structured interview (with five potential questions) to research the objective that you specified in Task 1. Your schedule should contain one or two (and no more) closed question capable of generating quantitative data. Then explain and evaluate the purpose of at least two non-trivial questions. Comment briefly on what you expect to discover from a semi-structured interview that you could not discover from a questionnaire. (Your maximum pilot sample size should be 10 respondents.) Attach a blank copy of your semi structured interview schedule as an Appendix.

6. Analyse your results in relation to your research objective and attach the raw data collected in an appendix (500 words).

a. Analyse the qualitative data from your pilot research. Briefly summarise and analyse the key themes and issues arising from your responses.

b. Analyse the quantitative data from your pilot research. Give a summary and brief analysis of the results for each question.

7. Evaluate your research in terms of the lessons learnt from the pilot, appropriateness of the research instrument in relation to the research strategy outlined in Task 3, the reliability and validity of your results, etc. (200 words).

Guideline

Introduction:

Research objective:

Literature Review: (5 paragraphs each 100 words)

Research Philosophy, approach and strategy: (300 words)

Explain in general what do you mean by research philosophy.

Then state the types of philosophies given below:

Research philosophy:
1. Postivism
2. Post Postivism
3. Realism
4. Interpretivism
5. Phenomenology

Now choose one from the above and state the reason why you have chosen that particular philosophy

Explain in general what do you mean by research approach?

Research approach: Two types
1. Inductive approach
2. Deductive approach
State the reason why you choose inductive approach

Explain in general what do you mean by research strategy
Research strategy with the nature of inductive approach where as follows:
1. Survey
2. Ethnography
3. Grounded theory strategy

Choose one among these three.
Ethical implications in this research: (100 words)

Research Methodology: (400 words)
1. Research Design: Explain in general What do you mean by research design?
There are three types: Choose one
a. Descriptive analysis
b. Empirical analysis
c. Analytical analysis

2. Sampling:
First explain what sampling technique you have chosen for your study
Probability Sampling Methods:
a. Simple random sampling technique
b. Systematic random sampling technique

3. Data Collection methods:
Primary data: through Questionnaires
Secondary data through : books , journals and internet

4. Tools used for analysis: Percentage analysis

5. Structure of questionnaire:

4 Close ended questions for doing quantitative analysis and one Open ended question for doing qualitative analysis.

Task: (400 Words)
Data analysis and interpretation:

Chart 1-4
Chart title:
Draw pie chart

Give inference: From the above it is clear that 70% strongly agree 10% agree and 10% disagree as well as 10% strongly disagree to the ....

Chart 2-4
Chart title:
Draw pie chart

Give reference:

Chart 3-4
Chart title:
Draw pie chart

Give reference:

Chart 4-4
Chart title:
Draw pie chart

Give reference; The fifth and final question answer to the suggestions provided by the

References: (15 references which should include book reference, journal references and internet references)