I have completed my research, my first scientific research.

Yes, I have completed my very first scientific research.

This research looked at the correlation between two variables and the hypotheses were tested in a non-contrived setting.

Yup, I lifted that sentence from my abstract.

It was fun playing around with the SPSS software analysing the data relying on factor analysis, reliability analysis, descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis.

Statistic is never my favourite subject, what's more advanced multivariate statistics, but now I realise statistics are not really that boring.

My research supervisor told me she will help me to publish this research in an international journal. Great!

Now, the MBA is over. So, what's next? A doctoral research!

But, I still have to make several decisions.

Should I do a quantitative (a scientific deductive) research like what I just did or should I do a qualitative (interpretive inductive) research? A qualitative research can be quite interesting, it involves a lot of interviewing and observation compared to a quantitative scientific research which involves more on distributing and collecting questionnaires and using statistics. I stumbled upon a USM thesis where the candidate had to personally live with the orang asli in Pahang and to immerse with them in order to write up her anthropology doctoral research. That is one example of a qualitative research. That is anthropology, so I am not going to Pahang for sure, LOL. For me, my research interest is in organisational behaviour. So, if I were to do a qualitative research, I would have to meet up with some factory managers perhaps and interview them.

Should I do it at the business school or the social science school since I am venturing into the behavioural field? Well, I think it doesn't matter because a PhD is still a PhD no matter which school it is from. That's what my supervisor told me.

The journey has just begun...

It's been a long time

It's been a longggg time....

Finally, I found time to write something.

I have collected, roughly, about 160 completed questionnaires. But, out of that, only 132 questionnaires are usable. It's because the rest are not filled in correctly. What do you mean by that? Example, some people just filled in the questionnaire by ticking...Neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral, neutral......

Everytime I see such a response, I feel like waving my magic wand sending them to a research methodology class immediately. Some people still don't see the importance of filling in questionnaires, thinking that research is something useless.

It would be good if all undergraduate students have to conduct a research before they can graduate. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Research projects are not compulsory in most undergraduate studies.

Even in some postgraduate studies, especially coursework Master's degree from Australia, research is not part of the syllabus. So, I ponder what is the point of getting that postgraduate degree if one does not have to do a research. It's just like doing another one-year diploma programme, except that it is called a Master's degree.

Anyway, it's so obvious that such blatant responses cannot be used. So, the questionnaires had to be discarded. If I were to include it in, it would wreaked havoc in my analysis.

No, I'm not to going to do a simple analysis in the Excel worksheet or producing simple graphs and charts. Instead, I'm going to analyse statistically using the SPSS 17.0 Software (Statistical Package for Social Science). And this software is smart enough to detect anomalies.

An interesting field experiment

A research (a field experiment) showed that drinking Yakult could lead to lower incidences of diarrhoea. And the result was statistically significant (p<0.01).

Ok, you might ask what is this p<0.01. It means that the result was above 99% confidence, in statistical sense. Read the news right here. http://thestar.com.my/health/story.asp?file=/2011/3/13/health/7878096&sec=health

So let's have some Yakult to drink down those Probiotics (good bacteria) for a healthier gut!

Anyway, there is always ethical concern when comes to field experiment. The unfortunate kids who were given placebo are at the losing end compared to the lucky kids who were given Yakult at random.

I remember reading another field experiment where a group of sex workers were given placebo and some were given actual anti-viral drugs at random. Among the ones who were given anti-viral drugs, there were lesser reports of HIV infection. Again, the sex workers who were given placebo are at the losing end compared to the one who were given the actual anti-viral drugs.

Sometimes, sacrifices are needed for the benefit to the greater good of majority. Utilitarianism!

Preacher of corporate responsibility

Accounting practitioners are supposed to be a preacher of good governance and corporate responsibility. Unfortunately, they have neglected one important group of minority stakeholders - RESEARCHERS!

One Star reader has responded today to my article, right here. She claimed that the GLCs have been very supportive to her research including allowing access to her to distribute questionnaires.

If the GLCs can be supportive of researchers, why accounting firms cannot? It is time we must change the mindset of accounting practitioners. We may not be able to force accounting firms to support researchers, but I believe, I strongly believe, we can do something to change their mindset. Now, I have this wild idea of finding ways to 'educate' those practitioners on research methods to open up themselves to researchers.

Perhaps, one day, after I graduate, I would like to seek help from my professional organisation to co-organise a forum together with my University to talk on this issue.

Researchers not welcome! Yesss, it was published!

I woke up this morning hoping for my article to be published. And there it is, printed in the Editor's column of The Star right here.

This time, I chose to reveal my name. And as usual, the article was edited.

Now, my main obstacles to my research are getting access to the organisations and getting people to respond to the questionnaire. Malaysians are infamous for not inclining in filling up questionnaires. Even my lecturer said that.

If you were to distribute questionnaires in the United States, the people there will be willing to fill up for you, including very busy CEOs and CFOs. It's because there is a strong research culture over there.

Anyway, I just wrote in to my professional organisation for help and they actually contacted me. One of the officers rang me up and said they can help in some way by distributing the questionnaires to their network members in Penang.

Now, at least there is hope.

I sent another article to The Star

I sent another letter to The Star this morning. Let's see whether it will be published or not.

I am a business postgraduate student of a local private university and I intend to do a research on one specific issue of the current employment trend among the accounting profession after reading more than a dozen journal articles and press articles. Many of these articles featured prominent figures, both local and foreign, from the accounting profession calling for a need to understand the current employment trend. One of them even urged research to be done to understand the current employment trend among the young accountants today.

In fact, I have already cited all of these statements and literature in my research proposal. Hence, with great passion, I sent my requests to the major accounting firms to seek permission to distribute questionnaires to their employees. Soon, my passion was broken when an international accounting firm turned down my request citing it is a sensitive issue. Another firm outright told me that they will not entertain such a request. And most of them did not even reply me at all.

I remember sitting in my class and one of my classmates, who is a manager, lamented that there were a lack of research publications in the top-tier journals contributed by our local academic researchers. I also have friends, who are working adults, who lamented of our local public universities’ poor ranking. I even recalled my friends telling me that filling in questionnaires distributed by students are just a waste of time. I could only shake my head now because it is these very people, who are business practitioners, who might have contributed to a low number of research publications in the top-tier journals.

I was deeply disappointed because it is the business practitioners who are complaining about our local universities and yet they are the one who do not lend support to our local academic business researchers. Another classmate of mine, who is a head of an accounting department, agreed with me that many practitioners are ignorant about research and are not willing to let researchers come in to their organisations. It seems like our local business practitioners are practising a ‘closed door policy’ towards researchers.

How are we, Malaysian academic researchers are able to produce world quality research when many of these practitioners are refusing access to researchers? I am aware that many of my peers resorted to go ‘underground’ by distributing questionnaires to their network of friends working in some specific organisations instead of asking official permission directly from those organisations. And it began to sink in my mind that this is the only practical way to conduct research and distribute questionnaires on our Malaysian shore.

The second appointment

I had another appointment with my Project Supervisor on Chinese New Year's eve, which was actually last Wednesday. I brought along a few couple of academic journals together with my proposal.

I presented my idea to her and she expressed doubt on it. I had a similar feeling too, actually. I believed it was because the theoretical framework was rather simple.

We spent a wholesome two hours discussing a few couple of theoretical frameworks. Finally, we came to an agreement after I told her about another interesting study. She immediately liked it after seeing the framework. So, we agreed on the spot to conduct a research based on that theoretical framework.

Since this is just an MBA 6-month project, all we can do is just a replication of a previous study. A new theoretical contribution is not needed as expected in a PhD student.

Now, I have to start preparing my Project Proposal to be handed in to the University. This is the beginning of the journey of my quest to be an Academic Social Scientist/Researcher.

My first appointment with my supervisor

I had my very first appointment with my project supervisor today regarding my MBA project. I already had in mind what topic I wanted to do. I will be doing a research on a specific career theory (As usual, any research student will not reveal to everyone exactly what is he researching on).

The most I can say is that I will be doing a social scientific research focusing on one specific career model. The journey will not be simple. It will involve a lot of reading, reading, and reading.