Research Report

University of Technology, Jamaica – School of Business Administration

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT MODULE – HRM3007

Critiquing a Research Report

1. The Problem. This section of the study covers the background, significance, research questions/hypotheses, and purpose of the study. Check if this section of the report satisfies the following criteria:

a. Clarity and precision of the problem

b. Is the research problem researchable and does it have any value to justify being studied?

c. Description of the relationship between the problem and previous research

d. The research questions/hypotheses should be directly derived from the research problem

2. Literature Review. The review is an analysis of previous studies relevant to the research problem at hand.

a. The review must address all the research questions/hypotheses given in the previous section of the report.

b. The point of the review is that it must explore the available knowledge of the subject and by so doing identify the knowledge gaps that exist as it pertains the research problem.

c. There should be an indication of how this study will seek to fill this knowledge gap.

d. Where there are theoretical frameworks, the review should discuss these.

e. References should be given for each of the issues discussed

3. Research Variables/Hypotheses. Not all research studies have hypotheses.

a. Quantitative studies that seek to identify the characteristics of observed phenomena or seek to determine correlations between variables typically require hypothesis testing. In this case the hypotheses should be clearly written, relevant to the research problem and explained.

b. Other studies make use of research questions to guide the research effort.

c. It should be clear which variable/variables are of interest to the researcher. By so doing the dependent...