RESEARCHING
AND REPORTING
FOR BUSINESS
DECISIONS
Revised Edition
Barron Wells- Nelda Spinks
-
- The University of southwestern Louisiana
ISBN 0-87393-379
SUPPLEMENTS: - Study Guide
- (ISBN 0-87393- 510-1)
- and Instructor's Manual
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This text is designed to serve a
two-fold purpose. One purpose (researching) is to help future managers and present
managers to develop those skills that are necessary to gather valid information to serve
as a basis for managerial decisions. The other purpose (reporting) is to help these
managers to develop those skills that are necessary to transfer information gathered to
ultimate decision- makers in forms and formats that readily can be used by these
managerial decision-makers.
Managerial decisions are formed from three broad bases. The first basis is the training
held by these managers. The second basis is the previous experiences of these managers.
The third basis is valid information. No matter how good the training held by managers and
no matter how good the past experiences of managers, their decisions will not be as good
as they could be if they do not have access to good, valid information. Therefore, one
major focus of this book is on the collection of good, valid information that can be used
as a basis for managerial decisions.
Most persons who gather information are not the persons who make the ultimate decisions.
From the opposite point of view, most decision-makers do not gather their own information;
they delegate this tasks to others. For this reason, information must be transferred from
those who have gathered it to those who will use it to help make their decisions. In
addition, this information must be transferred in forms and formats that can be understood
easily and clearly by those who will make the decisions. Therefore, another major focus of
this book is on the preparation of business reports that can be used to transfer good,
valid information from those who have gathered it to those who can use it as a basis for
managerial decisions.
The distinctive feature of this text that sets it apart from others in the field is its
focus on gathering information to serve as a basis for managerial decisions and providing
this information to managers in forms and formats that they quickly and easily can
understand and use as a basis for their decisions.
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Contents Include
| 1. |
The Role and Nature of Business Reseaching and
Reporting |
| 2. |
Research Proposals/Research Design |
| 3. |
Gathering, Organizing and Presenting Secondary
Data |
| 4. |
Gathering Primary Data |
| 5. |
Refining and Administering Data Gathering
Instruments and Sampling Methods |
| 6. |
Tabulating and Presenting |
| 7. |
Analyzing Data, Drawing Conclusions, and Making
Recommendations |
| 8. |
Written Reporting |
| 9. |
Oral Reporting |
Appendix A: Informal Business Report
Appendix B: Formal Business Report |