Module BUSS2101: ANALYSIS, RESEARCH AND BUSINESS SKILLS II

Department: Business School (Business) [Queen's Campus, Stockton]

BUSS2101: ANALYSIS, RESEARCH AND BUSINESS SKILLS II

Prerequisites

• Analysis, Research and Business Skills I

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• to develop further students' abilities to communicate, to work individually and to work with others to achieve goals.
• to extend students' abilities to use tools and techniques of investigation, analysis and research in the context of business with particular emphasis on quantitative approaches.
• to provide opportunities to acquire and develop intermediate level skills in the practice of these techniques.
• to provide relevant techniques for the exercise of critical enquiry at second year level across relevant modules
• to extend the basis for the support of further development of business, analysis and research techniques and approaches in subsequent years of the programme e.g. Dissertation, Research Project.
• to reinforce students’ preparation for employment.
• to address reflective, analytical, worldly, collaborative and action mindsets, with particular focus on the analytical.

Content

• Types of knowledge and ways of knowing, cultural impacts.
• Types of research, investigative designs and implications for method e.g. cross-sectional, longitudinal, case study, comparison, quasi-experiment, experiment, survey. Theories and hypothesis testing.
• Conducting a structured literature review.
• Measurement and meaning. Types of quantitative data. Validity and reliability.
• Study and practice of methods of gathering of quantitative data e.g. questionnaire, simple scales, quantitative content analysis.
• Recording, storing and analysing data – practical and ethical issues
• Analysis of quantitative data and statistical methods. Descriptive statistics e.g. average, dispersion, probability and sampling, scales. Analytical statistics e.g. analysis of variance, correlation, introduction to multivariate analysis. Graphical and algebraic analysis and interpretation. Effect size and statistical significance. Using statistical packages.
• Brief introduction to experimental design. Controls, placebos, double blind. Classic experiments in Business.
• Business and Communication. Presenting data, information, argument, conclusions, and action.
• Designing and carrying out an intermediate investigative study and analysis based on e.g. survey method: question design, piloting and testing; scale building and anlysis, collection and analysis of data; presentation via wrtitten, visual and other media.
• Application of knowledge and skills to a Business game and analysis of performance.

Learning Outcomes

• demonstrate knowledge and competence in collecting data and using a range of quantitative research methods and techniques.

• understand the implications of different approaches and designs of research and investigation for meaning and method.
• design and conduct small-scale research investigations, including gathering of appropriate primary and secondary data from business and other sources.
• select appropriate methods, conduct analyses of data and draw inferences using statistical, mathematical and qualitative techniques as appropriate.
• report on the process, outcomes and implications of a business project or investigation to different audiences.
• take an active role in a management team within a business game.

• Ability to access data and information from a range of sources.
• Ability to analyse and present quantitative and qualitative data.
• Ability to make written and verbal presentations to peers and others.
• Ability to self-manage and reflect on their own performance.
• Interpersonal skills including working in and leading groups.
• Ability to exercise effective time management.
• Ability to take account of their own and others’ abilities and preferred approaches to learning, working and engaging with other people and adapting behaviours accordingly.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The central learning approach involves students taking an active role in learning, practising and developing the skills and approaches that make up the majority of the module content. The frameworks for these competences will be presented in lectures, through directed reading and by direction to other materials e.g. DUO, podcasts.
• Preparation for and participation in workshop and seminar sessions will provide opportunities for students to analyse their current abilities, knowledge and preferences and to apply these to small-scale investigations, simulations and group and individual activities. These will then be developed and extended in active research and fieldwork.
• The module will integrate with and provide resources for other modules. Skills and knowledge developed in this module will provide the bases for further enquiry, learning and practice in modules at level two and three. In turn, the knowledge base from those modules will also be called on to inform and contextualise the development of skills and competences within the ARBS 2 module. Regular feedback from workshops along with that from specific formative assignment(s) will provide information to students on their progress.
• The formative and summative assessments build skills and knowledge. Part one focuses on a team based project in which students are required to work together for example to design and test survey items and scale(s) and produce appropriate descriptive statistics. The main component of the summative assessment for this module is an individual research assignment, typically built on the group-based formative assignment. This will utilise survey or other mainly quantitative business relevant data.
• A full day business game will provide opportunities for students to practise social and decision-making skills, and to review their own performance and that of their colleagues using research and investigative skills developed in the module e.g. observation, questioning, analysis. The activity contributes to a wide range of competences including data gathering, analysis, leading groups and communication. A self-reflective report on the business game will form one part of the summative assessment of the module and will build on the qualitative skills developed in ARBS1.
• The techniques developed in this module and its precursor ARBS1 are expected to contribute directly to students’ dissertations at level 3.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Group assignment with individual component.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University