Planning Business Research and Reports

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Planning Business Research and Reports

• AOS 272

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What is a business report?

• An orderly and objective communication of factual
  information
• that serves a business purpose.

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What is the purpose of a business report?

• Used for problem solving.
• Develop procedures
• Report test results
• Improve products or service
• Gather opinions
• Explore markets

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• Business reports are used for decision making.

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Research Methods Your report is only as good as
your research.

• Plan your research
• Statement of problem
• Clarifies your focus
• Serves as a permanent record
• Can be reviewed by others
• May require preliminary research
• May be phrased as a question or a statement
• Statement of purpose
• Why the report is needed
• What will happen as a result of the report

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Problem Statement

• Question
• What are the causes of the increase in employee
  absenteeism?
• Statement
• Absenteeism is increasing and management wants to
  know why.

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Purpose Statement

• Reduce absenteeism by
• Identifying possible causes of absenteeism
• And proposing solutions to the problem

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Limiting the Scope

• What factors do you want to investigate?
• Epidemic patterns
• Weather patterns
• Employee attitudes re sick leave
• Employee morale
• School days off
• Patterns of absence
• Business literature on absenteeism

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Limiting the Scope, cont.

• How much time do you have?
• What are the costs and budget of the research?

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Who is your audience?

• Formal
• Length
• Parts
• Formal Language
• Informal
• Memo or letter
• No abstract or transmittal
• Common language

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Research Types

• Secondary someone elses information
• Books
• Articles
• Internet
• Newspapers
• Primary your data and conclusions
• Surveys
• Interviews
• Observations
• Experiments

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What Resources Are Available?

• Company Records
• Experts
• Support Staff
• Analytical Tools
• Excel
• Access
• Specialized software

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Research and Critical Thinking Avoiding Human
Error

• Report the facts as they are.
• Do not interpret lack of evidence as proof to the
  contrary.
• Do not compare non-comparable data.
• Do not oversimplify.

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Analyzing your data

• Do not draw illogical cause-effect conclusions
• Beware of unreliable or unrepresentative data
• Do not think that conclusions are always
  necessary

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Preliminary Outline

• Why is absenteeism increasing?
• Is morale poor?
• Are employees looking for other jobs?
• Are personal issues getting in the way of work?
• Family problems
• Daycare problems
• Transportation problems

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Parallel Structure

• Call meeting to order
• Review and approve minutes
• Report on cost overruns Site Director
• Discuss anticipation and prevention
• Call to order
• Approval of minutes
• Report on cost overruns Site Director
• Discussion of anticipating and preventing
  overruns

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Work Plan

• State problem
• State purpose and scope
• What you will and will not cover
• List tasks to accomplish
• Gather research
• Identify sources of information

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Proposals

• Solicited response to advertised need
• RFP Request for Proposal specifies when and how
  work must be done
• Unsolicited offers services or products to fill
  a need the recipient may or may not be aware of

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• Internal request for change within
  organization
• Policy
• Procedure
• Resources
• External persuade current or potential
  customers or government agencies of the need for
  change or action

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External Proposals

• More formal
• Legally binding
• Reflects the proposing organizations competence
  and integrity

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Problem Factoring Analysis and Planning

• Defining the problem
• What needs to be determined?
• Why is this issue important?
• Who is involved?
• Where is the problem located?
• How did it start?
• When did it start?

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• Hypothesis theory about causes of a problem
  derived from observation of effects or symptoms
• Leads to statement of problem
• Followed by statement of purpose

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• http//members.dca.net/areid/proposal.htm