This document discusses various methods for collecting primary data for research purposes. It describes questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, observation, case studies, diaries, critical incidents, and portfolios as the main methods. For each method, it provides details on what they are, their advantages and disadvantages, and examples of how they are used to collect original data for research.

1. REPORT ON METHODS OF PRIMARY
DATA COLLECTION
MBA-001
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF -
PROF.SALINI NIGAM AND SUBMITTED BY-
PROF.AKSHAY KUMAR SATSANGI BIMAL YADAV
DEPARMENT OF MANAGEMENT ROLL-NO -117611
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE MBA-3 SEMESTER

2. INTRODUCTION-
The Primary Data are those which are collected
afresh and for the first time and thus happen to be
original in character. Primary data are first-hand
information collected through various methods
such as observation, interviewing, mailing etc.
We collect primary data during the course of doing
experiments in an experimental research. The
primary data are to be originally collected.

3. METHODS OF PRIMARY DATA
COLLETION
There are many methods of collecting primary data
and the main methods are:
 Questionnaires
 Interviews
 Focus Group Interviews
 Observation
 Case studies
 Diaries
 Critical incidents
 Portfolios

4. Questionnaires-
Questionnaires are a popular means of collecting
data, but are difficult to design and often require
many rewrites before an acceptable questionnaire is
produced.
Advantage-
 Can cover a large number of people or
organizations.
 Wide Geographic coverage
 Relatively cheap etc.
Disadvantage-
● Design problems
● Time delay etc

5. Interviews-
 Interviewing is a technique that is primarily used to
gain an understanding of the underlying reasons and
motivations for people’s attitudes, preferences or
behaviour.
 It involves not only conversation, but also learning
from the respondents’ gestures, facial expressions
and pauses, and his environment. Interviewing
requires face-to-face contact or contact over
telephone and calls for interviewing skills.

6. Types of interview-
 Structured- Based on a carefully worded interview
schedule. Frequently require short answers.
 Semi-structured-
The interview is focused by asking certain
questions but with scope for the respondent to
express him or herself at length.
 Unstructured-
This also called an in-depth interview. The
interviewer begins by asking a general question. The
interviewer uses an unstructured format

7. Focus group interviews-
A focus group is an interview conducted by a trained
moderator in a non-structured and natural manner
with a small group of respondents. The moderator
leads the discussion. The main purpose of focus
groups is to gain insights by listening to a group of
people from the appropriate target market talk about
specific issues of interest.

8. Observation-
Observation involves recording the behavioural
patterns of people, objects and events in a systematic
manner. Observation means viewing or seeing. We
go on observing some thing or other while we are
awake. Most of such observations are just casual and
have no specific purpose. But observation as a
method of data collection is different from such
casual viewing.

9. Case-studies-
 The term case-study usually refers to a fairly intensive
examination of a single unit such as a person, a small
group of people, or a single company. Case-studies
involve measuring what is there and how it got there.
 The case-study method has three steps-
1- Determine the present situation.
2- Gather background information about the past and key
variables.
3-Test hypotheses. The background information collected
will have been analysed for possible hypotheses.

10. Critical incidents-
The critical incident technique is an attempt to
identify the more ‘noteworthy’ aspects of job
behaviour and is based on the assumption that jobs
are composed of critical and non-critical tasks. For
example, a critical task might be defined as one that
makes the difference between success and failure in
carrying out important parts of the job. The idea is to
collect reports about what people do that is
particularly effective in contributing to good
performance.

11. Diaries-
 A diary is a way of gathering information about the way
individuals spend their time on professional activities.
Diaries can record either quantitative or qualitative
data, and in management research can provide
information about work patterns and activities.
Advantages-
 Allows the researcher freedom to move from one
organisation to another.
 Useful for collecting information from employees.
Disadvantages-
 Progress needs checking from time-to-time.
 Confidentiality is required as content may be critical.

12. Portfolios-
 A measure of a manager’s ability may be expressed in terms of
the number and duration of ‘issues’ or problems being tackled
at any one time. The compilation of problem portfolios is
recording information about how each problem arose,
methods used to solve it, difficulties encountered, etc.
 ACTIVITY:-
Sampling-
Collecting data is time consuming and expensive, even for
relatively small amounts of data.
 EXAMPLES:
The theory of sampling is based on random samples – where
all items in the population have the same chance of being
selected as sample units.

13. REFERENCES:-
● Various sites-
 www.dmstudy.info/dmstudy.info
 www.ptsyst.com/
 www.datasheetarchive.com/datasheetarchive.com
 www.google.com
 www.yahoo.com.
● Various Books-

 C.R. Kothari Research Methodology
 Sharma, B.A.V. et al., Research Methods in Social Sciences, New Delhi:
 Sterling Publishers Pvt.Ltd., 1983.
 Tandon, B.C. Research Methodology in Social Sciences, Allahabad:
 Chaitanya Publishing House, 1979.
 Denzin, Norman, The Research Act, Chicago: Aldine, 1973
 Oppenheim,A.N.. Questionnaire Design and Attitude Measurement, New York:
Basic Books 1966