Abstract:

Research is an intellectual activity which brings to light new knowledge or corrects previous errors and misconceptions and adds in a systematic way to the existing corpus of knowledge. In other words research is to find out the truth which is hidden and which has not been discovered as yet and to achieve these goals, research methods are used. Why a research study has been undertaken? How the research problem has been defined? In what way and why the hypothesis has been formulated? What data has been collected and what particular method has been adopted? What are the positive and negative aspects of any method? There are so many similar questions which are usually answered when we talk of research methodology concerning a research problem. In research methodology we not only talk of research methods but also the logic behind the methods, we use in context of our research. In this paper we are going to give an overview of different qualitative and quantitative research methodologies available and deal with the situations under which qualitative approach is to be used or vice-versa. In quanitative research, we have to plan research methods at an early stage, whereas in qualitative research, it may be difficult to define methods specifically at initial stage. There may be need of other methods as the research progresses. After describing pros and cons of both types of methodologies, we are going to derive which type of methodologies will be suitable in Operation Management. Taking into account operation management research from the past decades we conclude that quantitative research methodologies offer a great opportunity to the researchers of this field for further advance research.

Keywords:

Research Methods, Operational Management, Qualitative, Quantitative Methodologies.