Course title Hours
Methods of Research and
168 hours
Intervention
Academic Skills 168 hours
Statistics 168 hours
Organisation Theory 168 hours
Marketing … hours
Environmental Studies … hours
Financial Economics … hours
Public Administration … hours
Philosophy … hours
Globalising Worrlds … hours
Political Theory … hours
Urban and Regional Mobility … hours
Human Resource Management … hours
Course description
Research methodology is the foundation for designing and performing scientific research in management. This
course is a first introduction to the research methodology of the social and management sciences.
During the course, you will learn about various social science paradigms and schools within research
methodology and you will learn many basic concepts, such as validity and reliability. The course is organised
around the elements of the empirical cycle, such as problem definition, the process of conceptualisation and
operationalisation, research strategies and methods of observation, data gathering and data analysis.
You will learn to formulate a proper research goal and proper research questions, develop a conceptual model,
design a questionnaire, choose a method of observation and carry out basic quantitative analysis.
In this course you have to write and present the first two chapters of an academic paper. The first chapter
contains the introduction, the second chapter provides a theoretical overview of the subject that you study. To
reach this goal, you have to make several assignments and participate actively in class. For many tasks we
apply the principles of 'learning by writing'. What counts is that - by writing - you gain insights and delve into
the material. Most assignments and tasks in this course are "open assignments" that stimulate or challenge
you to research a subject more deeply. They do not aim at finding a correct answer or a single solution (which
is the case with "closed assignments"). In other words, you are expected to take the initiative to delve into a
subject and to take your thought process to a deeper level.
In this course basic elements from descriptive and inductive statistics are linked to scientific research and
research questions in business administration. Special attention is paid to decision making and interpretations
regarding statistical procedures and analyses, and the basis of these choices, decisions and interpretations.
The analyses will also be applied during assignments and practical sessions by students using the software
package SPSS. The following topics are covered: sampling, probability and variables, estimation of
characteristics of a population, cross tabulation, correlation, differences in means between
groups and simple and multivariate regression analysis.
The main objective of the course is to introduce students to the rich and diverse field of organisation theory.
To reach this goal, we will guide you through seminal approaches, namely Scientific Management, Human
Relations, and theories addressing bureaucracy, organisational culture, the role of technology and the
relationship between organisations and their environment. We will discuss the historical context of these
approaches as well as an original text central to each approach. During seminars we will go into how these
theories still apply to today's organisational practice and discuss the results of your weekly assignments.
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Literature used
Babbie, E. (2012). The Practice of Social Research.
13th Edition. Wadsworth, Belmont.
Workbook Methods of Research and Intervention
n/a
Field, A. (2013). Discovering statistics using IBM
SPSS Statistics (4th revised edition). London:
SAGE.
David Jaffee (2000): Organizational Theory:
Tension and Change. Mcgraw-Hill Professional.
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