The Impact of Group Support on Stress in the Workplace - Research Proposal Example

Impact of Group Support Methodology Section Impact of Group Support Methodology Section The research process should beviewed on a continuum, as there are certainly no lack of questions deserving of an educated response and conclusion to be drawn. Many of the questions and issues raised by society today require a great deal of thought and research before a valid and reliable response can be generated. The impact of group support on stressing the workplace is one such current issues that is truly of concern to the global community, providing the researcher with a plethora of study material in the quest for a sound conclusion that can then be added to the existing academic body of knowledge. Professionals involved in nearly any discipline rely of the results of such findings in order to perform their job more effectively (Neuman, 2006). Because of this, it is critically important that a researcher involved in studying the impact of group support on stress in the workplace review information currently published in the field, in addition to conducting in-depth personal interviews with those most knowledgeable in this area. Through this process, certain qualitative characteristics will be helpful to explore, including worker perceptions, sampling approaches, strategies to collect data, procedures designed to effectively analyze data, and the eventual drafting of conclusion based upon this information. All of this knowledge will work together to result in a narrative of personal experiences and insight related to the various ways that group support can impact the overall level of stress inherent in the workplace. The specific population focused on in this study will be one geographical region in the United States, but the results that are generated will be applicable to a variety of similar demographic groups around the globe. This qualitative study will be conducted with the aim of increasing the understanding related to the topic that is being studied. This is based on the assumption that certain critical questions related to this particular topic can be further developed via a field observation, leading to in-depth questions being answered by qualified participants. The overall objective, then, if for the participants themselves to provide meaningful and thoughtful responses to each question asked, leading to valid and reliable conclusion that can then prove useful within a professional workplace environment (Leedy & Ormrod, 2010). Population To demonstrate the purpose behind the choice of this particular research design, one must first understand and internalize the importance that this approach lends to the overall study itself. Namely, the qualitative design, in this case, will afford the researcher the opportunity to analyze the unique insight and perspective of professionals working in a group environment and how this impacts stress in the workplace (Shank, 2006). The individual participants in this study will be selected based upon their professional qualifications, and they will be invited to participate in an in-depth personal interview with the researcher. Such interview will be semi-structured and allow for the drafting of open ended question in an effort to enable the researcher to probe participant responses a bit deeper based upon the information generated during the interview process itself. Throughout this process, the unique insight and perceptions provided by each participant will b compiled into a narrative that will enable the researcher to go back and look for any commonalities that exist amongst the participants. This will be uncovered during the data collection and analysis portion of the study (Black, 1999). The population that will be focused upon for this particular study is comprised of various professionals that work in a variety of workplace settings in which a group or team environment is present. Each participant will have a minimum of five years of experience in their field, and between twenty and fifty participants will end up being chosen to take part in the in-depth interview part of the study. This particular population is chosen because they are the people most commonly affected by stress in the workplace,and they can provide substantive comments related to the impact that group support can have on this phenomenon. These are the professionals that can also help determine how group support impacts the level of stress inherent in the workplace environment and provide honest feedback about ways that this can be impacted moving forward. Sampling Frame Many scholars advocate for the use of the random sampling method when completing a qualitative research study as a way to reduce the amount of errors the inevitably creep into any project of this scope and magnitude (Neuman, 2006). As a result of this knowledge, random sampling will be utilized in this project as well. This will be accomplished primarily by remained focused on the notion that only those people with the requisite knowledge and experience in providing group support within the workplace will be invited to take part in the interview portion of the project. In addition, non-probability sampling is to be used exclusively within the scope of this qualitative study as a way to account for the reality that each participant in the study will represent the average working professional currently involved in an environment that offers group support. All of the participants to be involved in this project, and the corresponding in-depth interview, will belong to the common category of workplace professional. In deciding which people would be able to approach to take part in the interview process for this study, it was crucially important that only individuals who met the stipulated parameters for the project be sought after. Eggers and Jones (1998) discuss the importance of just this concept by writing: Experts are persons who have sufficient knowledge and experience to have mastered the advanced skills of a particular domain of knowledge or experience. not only do experts have a special skill, they are proficient in their actions and they have special ways of applying their knowledge to a task in their area of expertise. Experts are proficient at identifying problems in their areas and then being able to tell if the problems are solvable. When the problems are solvable, the experts then work to solve them (p. 2). Using the requirements previously mentioned within the sampling frame, , between twenty and fifty participants within the sample population will be approached to take part in the interview. These individual participants will be critical to this qualitative study, as it will be their insight and perceptions that will eventually to the conclusions drawn at the end of the study. These are the very people that will be looked to in order to help solve the dilemma stated in the research questions related to the extent to which group support impacts stress in the workplace. Data Collection There are several different methods of data collection possible when conducting this study. The researcher has chosen to conduct face-to-face personal interviews, however, as a way to quickly gain the necessary knowledge to make informed and reliable decisions related to the efficacy of the conclusions that are formed. An important fact to take under consideration is the number of participants that are choses to take part. Pollard and Tomlin (1995) suggest that a minimum of 20, and a maximum of 50, participants be interviewed in order to assure a statistically reasonable and accurate conclusion. The purpose of the interview itself must be looked at from the perspective of gaining the knowledge necessary in order to answer the research questions that form the foundation for the study. Taking into account the suggestion made by Pollard and Tomlin will help to ensure that this goal is more easily attained. To begin, an introductory email letter will be sent to all randomly selected participants within the sample group. This letter will contain the parameters and rationale for the study, what the participant is being asked to do, measures to be implemented to ensure the confidentiality of all interview responses, and instructions about how to proceed. After a reasonable amount of time has elapsed to receive responses from participants related to the first email, a followup email will be sent to any individual who has not yet contacted the researcher regarding his or her intent to participate. Once a suitable research panel has been assembled, the next stage of the project can begin. All individuals participating in the interview will be asked a series of open ended interview questions. All questions will be answered in private and responses will remain completely anonymous, with no one individual being personally associated with any of the findings contained in the report itself. The questions for the interview are defined to make use of germinal research already in existence, and will contain certain prompts that engage the participants in a discussion about the topic with the researcher. There researcher can then use narrative responses from each of the responses to correlate back to the findings contained in the literature review in an effort to determine any commonalities that exist. It will be these commonalities upon which the conclusions to the study are based upon. References Cresswell, J. W. (2008). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluation quantitative and qualitative research (3rd ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson Education. Eggers, R. and Jones, C. (1998). Practical considerations for conducting Delphi studies: The oracle enters a new age. Educational Research Quarterly, 21(3), 52-66. Leedy, P. D. and Ormrod, J. E. (2010). Practical research: Planning and design (9th ed). Pearson Education. Read More