Essay On Administrative Research

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Administrative research can be understood as research that is conducted in order to gain information for assessment, management or improvement purposes such as surveys to ascertain customer needs. It is primarily used for market, electoral or management research and is tied to existing power structures (Smythe, 2006). According to Lazarsfeld, 1941, it is carried through in the service of some kind of administrative agency either of private or public character (Lazarsfeld, 1941:7). Administrative research is subject to a number of objections one of which is directed against the aims which prevail in the majority of current studies. According to Lazarsfeld, administrative research only solves minor problems, often of a business character, when the same method could be used alternatively to improve the quality of life for the community only if they were applied to prospect projects related to addressing the economic and social issues in which society is faced with(Lazarsfeld, 1941:7).
In his writings, Lazarsfeld, (1941) notes that the notion of critical research can be differentiated from administrative research in two respects, first, it develops a theory of the prevailing social trends of current times, general trends which yet require consideration in any concrete research problem, second, it implies ideas of basic human values according to which all actual or desired effects should be appraised (Lazarsfeld, 1941: 8). Administrative methods comprise neo-positivist, behavioral theory applied to individuals. Administrative research focuses on how to make organizations more efficient—for example, Company X aims to make brands relevant and cool for their target market which includes kids, teenagers and young adults.
The term ‘critica...

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...e, 2009: 34, children have a tendency to give “Yes” answers to questions more than they say “No”, therefore, he suggests that the questions be phased in a way that will encourage children to provide the most honest answer. Furthermore, in order to avoid misunderstandings, all the questions in a survey must be phrased in simple language that children can understand, in other words, this implies that researcher needs to reconstruct the survey questions in order to accommodate the level of understanding of the children which in turn can be time consuming (Riddle, 2009: 34).
There are far more considerations that researchers need to take into account when dealing with children in research. Researchers must take several steps before they can conduct research using children as participants which would normally not be the case with adult participants (Riddle, 2009: 34).

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