DISCUSSION You are a senior consultant brought in to support a mid-sized organization facing a critical business decision (e.g., declining customer retention, rising operational costs, underperforming

DISCUSSION

You are a senior consultant brought in to support a mid-sized organization facing a critical business decision (e.g., declining customer retention, rising operational costs, underperforming product lines, or low employee engagement). As part of your consultancy, you are required to propose a quantitative research plan to investigate the issue and guide decision-making.

Write a 500-600 word post that addresses the following:

1.     Define the Business Problem: Identify a real-world organizational challenge (based on your experience, observation, or current industry trends). Clearly state the problem and justify why it needs to be investigated quantitatively.

2.     Quantitative Research Design: Describe the research objective, propose an appropriate hypothesis, and outline a quantitative research method (e.g., survey, experiment, secondary data analysis). Justify your choice based on its alignment with the problem.

3.     Scientific Method Application: Demonstrate how you would apply the scientific method to conduct this study—from identifying the problem to forming a hypothesis, collecting and analyzing data, and interpreting results.

4.     Differentiating Approaches: Briefly contrast why a quantitative approach is more appropriate for this situation compared to qualitative or mixed-methods approaches.

To earn full credit, you must post at least 500-600 words and cite two outside scholarly resources and your textbook (at least three sources) 

ASSIGNMENT

You are presented with a real or hypothetical business case involving a critical organizational challenge such as:

·       A drop in employee morale and performance after a corporate merger

·       A customer backlash against a new pricing strategy

·       Supply chain inefficiencies affecting delivery performance

·       High turnover among newly recruited mid-level managers

·       Negative online reviews impacting brand trust

(You may choose one of the scenarios above or identify a relevant case from your own professional experience or public domain.)

Write a case analysis (2000–3000 words) that demonstrates how both quantitative and qualitative research methods could be used to understand and address the issue in the case.

Structure of the Assignment:

1. Case Description (200–300 words):

·       Briefly describe the organization, the challenge it is facing, and why it is significant.

·       Include relevant business context (e.g., industry trends, organizational structure, market conditions).

2. Application of Quantitative Methods (300–400 words):

·       Identify what quantitative data could be collected to understand or solve the problem.

·       Discuss how the data would be collected (e.g., surveys, KPIs, customer ratings, performance metrics).

·       Suggest which statistical techniques (e.g., correlation, trend analysis, regression) might be useful and why.

·       Explain what kind of insights or patterns could be revealed through quantitative analysis.

3. Application of Qualitative Methods (300–400 words):

·       Identify what qualitative information would add value to understanding the case.

·       Describe how it would be collected (e.g., interviews, focus groups, document reviews).

·       Discuss what kind of rich, contextual insights qualitative methods could provide that numbers alone cannot.

·       Highlight any specific stakeholder perspectives (e.g., employees, customers, managers) that would be important.

4. Integrated Reflection (200–300 words):

·       Discuss how the combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches would provide a more complete understanding of the problem.

·       Reflect on potential challenges or limitations in using both methods in real business settings.

·       Conclude with how the integrated findings might influence strategic decisions.

Evaluation Criteria:

·       Relevance and clarity of the case description

·       Appropriateness and depth in explaining quantitative and qualitative methods

·       Ability to connect research methods with actionable business insights

·       Critical reflection on method integration

·       Writing clarity, structure, APA citations (if applicable), and originality