Privacy in the Workplace - Assignment Example

The paper "Privacy in the Workplace" is a great example of an assignment on management. The most important part of any research is the understanding and interpretation of data and information relevant to the research. This is because excellent research is devoid of the biases and personal opinions of the researchers. Even so, the data gathered in researches are not always as objective as they should be, like qualitative data for example. Qualitative research is one of the two approaches to scientific research, the other one is quantitative research. Any discussion on qualitative research starts with the discussion of the nature, function, and purpose of scientific research.

Scientific Research

In the simplest sense, scientific research is an investigation that aims to provide answers to questions through the systematic use of predefined, usually reliable, and internally valid procedures in answering the questions (Babbie, 2004). In order to answer the questions, scientific researches collect evidence and subject this evidences to a series of tests to yield impartial results.

Scientific research is performed for three major reasons. First, research is performed to understand (pure research); second, research is performed to solve problems (applied research); lastly, research is performed to provide solutions (usually performed by practitioners). Pure research is designed to provide understanding and explanation of select phenomena through the use of data and information (Charters, 1925). Because pure research seeks to understand the principles involved in phenomena, it places a strong emphasis on the fundamental process of the research. Pure research is motivated by the curiosity of any given phenomenon. It also gives a strong emphasis on how various elements of a given phenomenon relate to each other (Babbie & Benaquisto, 2002). This makes pure research for research’s sake. The results of pure researches often become the baseline of all other researches especially if such results are established as theories or laws.