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Vincent AcostaKatrina MaranonTeam Report 3Group J – Mulat Diwa

A. Research design: Focus Group Discussion

Not much research has been done on AGSB students’ awareness of the

Mulat Diwa Program. The main intent of this paper is to investigate the extent of the

students’ consciousness and explore other methods of implementing the program in the

AGSB curriculum. Based on the initial literature search carried out by the group, a

Focus Group Discussion was identified as the research type that would be used

throughout the study.

A.1 Research design

The Focus Group Discussion is essentially a qualitative research methodology. It

offers qualitative researchers the opportunity to interview several respondents

systematically and simultaneously.1

A Focus Group is a group of people (typically 6 to 10 participants), led by a

trained moderator, who meet for 90 minutes to 2 hours. The facilitator or moderator

uses group dynamics principles to focus or guide the group in an exchange of ideas,

feelings, and experiences on a specific topic.2

FGD is applauded and widely used in recent times mainly because of its strength

of convenience, economic advantage, high face validity, and speedy results (Krueger,

1988). It is the use of social interaction which distinguishes it from other qualitative

research methodologies (Merton et al. 1990).

A.2 Reason for research design, advantages and disadvantages

The reason why an FGD was chosen as the research design for this study is 1 Babbie, E. (2011). The Basics of Research, 5th Edition (p.78). WADSWORTH CENCAGE Learning.2 Cooper, Donald R. and Schindler, Pamela S. (2008). Business Research Methods, 11th Ed. (p.147). McGraw Hill.

Vincent AcostaKatrina MaranonTeam Report 3Group J – Mulat Diwabecause it can provide the researchers with important information that cannot be

obtained from other research designs. The information that we can be obtained from the

free-flowing conversations of the participants will help the researchers get more

accurate opinions and reactions from the participants. An FGD would provide the

researcher with the most data with high validity based on social interaction.

Two significant points of an FGD on this research:

1. The first is that the topic be narrowly focused. A narrowly focused question will

encourage focus-group participants to give specific answers and more detailed

opinions on particular experiences with past immersion programs.

2. Secondly, the emphasis in a focus group should be on the interaction among the

group members, so as to elicit the most detailed, vivid, and valid responses from

the participants

Advantages:

The Authority Role Of The Moderator

The Ability Of Group Participants To Interact With Each Other

The Dynamic Nature Of The Methodology

The Ability To Involve The Client Personnel In The Research Process

The Capability To Utilize Non-Verbal Behavior As A Research Input

The Greater Security Associated With Traditional Focus Group Research

Disadvantages:

Less control to researchers in the interview process

There can be disagreements and irrelevant discussion which distract from

the main focus; Participants may be hard to manage

They can be difficult to encourage a range of people to participate

May be subject to groupthink which can significantly impact the output of

the research study


Focus Groups Tend To Become Influenced By One or Two Dominant

People

Focus Groups Are Not As Effective In Dealing With Sensitive Topics

Focus Group Output Is Not Projectable

Focus Groups Are A Very Artificial Environment Which Can Influence The

Responses That Are Generated

B. Construct Validity

B.1 Definition

Validity is the extent to which a test measures what we actually wish to

measure.3

A construct validity is a design test in establishing correct operational measures

for the concepts being studied.4 It is the degree to which a research instrument is able

to provide evidence based on theory.5

A Focus Group Discussion was identified as the research type that would be

used throughout the study as it would provide the researcher with the most data with

high validity based on social interaction among the participants.

B.2 How to achieve construct validity

The program will be introduced to the FGD participants as such:

The program will be called “AGSB Praxis Immersion Program”, a required

course for all students of the AGSB MBA Standard Program.

3 Cooper. Business Research Methods. p. 282.4 Yin, Robert K. (1994). Case Study Research: Designs and Method (Applied Social Research Methods), 4th Ed. (p.132) Thousand Oaks California: Sage Publications. 5 Cooper. Business Research Methods. p. 731.


Students will be working in pairs for the entire course which will consist of

three main parts:

The course will require students to look for SMEs which will be the subject

of their project. The students will study the SME and come up with the

following papers:

o Profile Report

o Marketing Plan

o Advertising Strategy

o Financial Solutions

o Total Quality Management Seminar

o Process Flow Improvement

The second part of the course will be the actual immersion where the

students will actively engage in the day-to-day activities of the business. This

will give the students a first-hand view of the different issues that the SMEs

face and be able to come up with solutions that will address them.

The final part of the course will be a report detailing their experience,

quantitative data showing the profit or loss of the business during that period,

the output of their proposed action plans, and further recommendation to

improve the business.

1. Questions

The two main objectives of the study are:

I. To know if the students will agree to the implementation of the “AGSB Praxis

Immersion Program” as a required course for all graduating students of the

AGSB MBA Standard Program.


Questions to ask the participants:

1. Mulat Diwa is a program that attempts to instill a culture that connects

business to a higher purpose. A product of this is what is now known as

AGSB’s battlecry: “Our nation is our business.” How do you think the “AGSB

Praxis Immersion Program”, as a required course, will be able to help achieve

this objective?

Reason/s for asking: This question is aimed at discovering whether or not the

participants are keen to accept the idea of an “AGSB Praxis Immersion

Program” as a required course. Do the students think that the “AGSB Praxis

Immersion Program” will be beneficial to AGSB’s Mulat Diwa Program? How

much do the participants know about Mulat Diwa and are they familiar with

the concept of an immersion program? (Respondents may share previous

experiences and cite examples of previous programs that they took.)

2. If the “AGSB Praxis Immersion Program” will be implemented as a required

course in the curriculum, under what subject should it be a part of?

Reason/s for asking: The researchers would like to know if the students are

open to the suggestion of creating the “AGSB Praxis Immersion Program” as

an independent course to itself, or if not, what subjects could they suggest

that would be best suited in adopting the program.

3. How many units should be required of the course?

Reason/s for asking: This question aims to know how much weight in the

curriculum, in the students’ opinions, should be given to the program.

Consequently, how much value will the students put on the program.

4. Should the students be given the chance to choose an SME (to be subject for

approval of the professor) or assigned by the professor? What should be the

criteria for SME selection or assignment?


Reason/s for asking: The researchers would like to know if the students are

willing to take an active part in selecting the SME that they will be working with,

and if they think there should be a particular set criteria for the selection.

II. To know if the students of the AGSB MBA Standard Program will agree to an

actual immersion where they will actively engage in real-life day-to-day activities of

SMEs.

Questions to ask the participants:

1. How do you think the “AGSB Praxis Immersion Program”, through actual

immersion, will be able to develop and nurture business leaders and managers

who realize their role in building a sustainable, and profitable nation?

Reason/s for asking: This question aims to discover whether or not the students are

open to the idea of the “AGSB Praxis Immersion Program” involving actual

immersion. Do the students think that an actual immersion would be an effective way

of learning the values of Mulat Diwa?

2. How long should the actual immersion take place?

Reason/s for asking: The researchers would like to know how much time the

students are willing to invest in the immersion part of the program. What are

respondents ideas of an actual immersion?

2. Content Analysis

Content analysis is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain

words or concepts within texts or sets of texts. It measures the semantic content or the

what aspect of a message. Content analysis has been described as “a research

Vincent AcostaKatrina MaranonTeam Report 3Group J – Mulat Diwatechnique for the objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the manifest

content of a communication.”6

Essentially content analysis is the method of categorizing content to find critical

information within the language. It can be done with data reduction, questionnaires, by

using a checklist, coding or other form of qualitative or quantitative data analysis.

Researchers quantify and analyze the presence, meanings and relationships of

such words and concepts, then make inferences about the messages within the texts,

the writer(s), the audience, and even the culture and time of which these are a part.

There are two general categories of content analysis: conceptual analysis and

relational analysis. This study will be adapting the conceptual analysis in analyzing the

data gathered. Conceptual analysis can be thought of as establishing the existence

and frequency of concepts in a text.7

An example of a conceptual analysis would be to examine a text and to code it

for the existence of certain words. In looking at this text, the research question might

involve examining the number of positive words used to describe an argument, as

opposed to the number of negative words used to describe a current status or opposing

argument. The researcher would be interested only in quantifying these words, not in

examining how they are related, which is a function of relational analysis. In conceptual

analysis, the researcher simply wants to examine presence with respect to his/her

research question, i.e. whether there is a stronger presence of positive or negative

words used with respect to a specific argument or respective arguments.

One's options include either deleting or skipping over unwanted material, or

viewing all information as relevant and important and using it to reexamine, reassess

and perhaps even alter one's coding scheme.6 Cooper. Business Research Methods. p. 409-410.7 “Content Analysis.” (n.d.) In The University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved March 17, 2013, from https://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~palmquis/courses/content.html.


Establishing reliability is easy and straightforward. Of all the research methods,

content analysis scores highest with regard to ease of replication. Usually the materials

can be made available for others to use.

Category Definition Example Coding RulesPositive words - words that are

explicitly stated and express conviction and affirmation that the “AGSB Praxis Immersion Program” is a good idea

- confident in opinion or assertion that the program would be beneficial to AGSB students

“That’s true”, “motivate”, ”best”, “help”

All aspects of the definition point to "Positive response" and confidence in the proposed program

Neutral words - words that express uncertainty, not aligned with or supporting any side or position, not

“might”, “unsure”, “maybe”

If not all aspects of definition point to "Positive" or "Negative"

Negative words - words that express a negative, pessimistic feeling about the proposed immersion program

“don’t”,“hesitant”, “hassle”

All aspects of the definition point to "Negative response" and no confidence in the proposed program

Conceptual/Frequency Analysis:

The table below displays the data comparison between frequency of positive, neutral and negative words in the responses that were given per question.


POSITIVE NEUTRAL NEGATIVEQ1 16 1 8Q2 10 0 4Q3 5 0 3Q4 10 0 5Q5 17 0 6Q6 15 1 6

Below is the same data displayed as a chart.

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q60

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

PositiveNegativeNeutral

Based on the data gathered, it appears there is a greater emphasis on the

positive words towards the idea of an “AGSB Praxis Immersion Program” as opposed to

negative or negative words.

B.3 Limitations of Construct Validity


1. The questions that will be asked regarding Mulat-Diwa will only revolve around

two objectives, namely:

a. To know if the students will agree to the implementation of the “AGSB Praxis

Immersion Program” as a required course for all graduating students of the

AGSB MBA Standard Program.

b. To know if the students of the AGSB MBA Standard Program will agree to an

actual immersion where they will actively engage in real-life day-to-day activities

of SMEs.

This means that other subject matters other the implementation of the Immersion

Program as a required course will not be included.

Participants might find some of the longer questions loaded and difficult to

understand, this may cause confusion and affect their responses.

Other factors such as opinion differences and temporary variations in mood that

may already be present among the participants prior to the study may limit the

respondents ability to answer properly.

The location and setting of the FGD may provide distraction to the participants as

they may find themselves in an unfamiliar environment, some participants may even be

thinking of the distance of the location from their destinations as soon as the FGD is

completed.

Paraphrasing, rewording or use of complex words beyond participant

comprehension by the moderator may affect the participants’ interpretations of the

different questions, therefore distorting the responses.

2. Content analysis used in this study, in particular, conceptual or frequency

analysis, would not include the relationship between responses and would not be able

to provide a higher level of interpretation of the data gathered. Since it is only concerned

Vincent AcostaKatrina MaranonTeam Report 3Group J – Mulat Diwaabout word counts, it disregards the context of the responses given as well as the

overall idea of the response.

Content analysis is a purely descriptive method. It describes what is, but may not

reveal the underlying motives for the observed pattern, “why”.

C. Reliability

C.1 Definition

Reliability is demonstrating that the operations of a study such as the data

collection procedures can be repeated, with the same results.

A measure is reliable to the degree that it supplies consistent results.8

1. Criteria for selecting your respondents

The respondents should be currently enrolled in the AGSB MBA

Standard Program.

The respondents should be a graduate of Ateneo de Manila University.

2. Definition of sampling design

Target population are those people, events, or records that contain the desired

information and can answer the measurement questions.9

A sample examines a portion of the target population, and the portion must be

carefully selected to represent that population.10

8 Cooper. Business Research Methods. p.283.9 Cooper. Business Research Methods. p. 28310 Cooper. Business Research Methods. p. 283


Nonprobability sampling is a sampling technique where the samples are

gathered in a process that does not give all the individuals in the population equal

chances of being selected. It an arbitrary and subjective procedure and no attmept is

made to generate a statisticallu representative sample.11

This study will be using the purposive or judgmental sampling technique

wherein the sample is one that is selected based on the knowledge of a population and

the purpose of the study. In purposive sampling, researchers choose participants for

their unique characteristics or their experiences, attitudes, or perceptions.12

The respondents chosen for the study are students who are currently enrolled in

the AGSB MBA Standard Program and have graduated from the Ateneo de Manila

University. The second criteria has been established so that the respondents will be

able to provide a comparison of the Praxis Immersion Program that they took in college

and the proposed AGSB Praxis Immersion Program.

Who:

Participants: 6 students of AGSB MBA Standard Program who are graduates of

Ateneo de Manila University, 3 males and 3 females aged from 22-30

Moderator: Katrina Angelica Marañon

What: Focus Group Discussion

Where: Closed discussion room

When: Saturday, March 16, 2013

4:30 – 5:30 pm

11 Cooper. Business Research Methods. p. 72312 Cooper. Business Research Methods. p. 726


How: One FGD session was conducted. Six participants (3 males and 3 females)

who are current AGSB MBA Standard Program students and who have

graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University were asked to sign a consent

form to be subjects of the FGD. They received a free meal and a non-monetary

token to be part of the study. Participation was completely voluntary and

participants were told that they may withdraw from the study at any time without

penalty.

The FGD began with a welcome from the moderator and a short personal

introduction of each participant. The moderator explained the subject and the

purpose of the study to the participants. The participants were asked a total of six

main questions and some follow up questions and free discussion took place.

The discussion lasted about one hour and took place in a simple closed

discussion room around a large table. Audio recording was used as a means of

documentation. One other observer recorded significant reactions and facial

expressions that occurred during the FGD.

3. Limitations:

1. Criteria for selecting respondents

The target population of the study will only include all students of the AGSB

MBA Standard Program who are graduates of Ateneo de Manila University. It will not

cover other graduate programs of the AGSB such as the Middle Managers Program,

Regis Program, MBA in Health and Master in Entrepreneurships since these programs

require a different approach in their specific curriculums. It will also not cover potential

ideas from students who are currently enrolled in the AGSB MBA Standard Program but

are not graduates of the Ateneo de Manila University.

2. Specific type of sampling design


Results of the research may not be representative. As participants were chosen

by purposive sampling, distortion of results is fairly possible. Participants of the FGD are

students of the AGSB MBA Standard Program who are graduates of Ateneo de Manila

University, therefore, unbiased anwers of a random sample coming from a population

composed of the entire student body of the AGSB MBA Standard Program will not be

obtained.

Another limitation of the FGD is that the moderator has a central position and can

have an influence on the conduction and the results of the discussion.

Dominant participants or other participants with a strong impact can also

influence the direction of the discussion during the FGD.

3) FGD

The FGD will be conducted between 4:30 to 5:30 in the afternoon. Since it will

run for only an hour, there may not be enough to ask additional questions that may be

relevant to research. Similarly, not all respondents may be given enough time to

articulate their opinions completely. Other activities that the participants may have prior

to or after the FGD may also preoccupy their attention.

Since the target population is a small one, chosen respondents who know each

other may have an idea of the participation of other participants prior to the FGD. This

could hinder the social interaction or lead to directed answers and may result to

distortion of results.

The moderator will have to keep the session focused and sometimes may

deliberately have to steer the conversation to get back on course. The moderator's skill

in phrasing questions along with the setting can also affect responses and skew results.

D. Ethical Issues


Voluntary participation is the principal requires that people not be coerced into

participating research. Any student of the AGSB who are graduates of ADMU could be

a subject of this research and some may not want to participate.

When selecting and involving participants, the researchers will ensure that full

information about the purpose and uses of participants’ contributions will be given. The

participants will also be asked to sign a consent form that states that their participation

is completely voluntary.

Confidentiality is commonly understood as akin to the principles of privacy and respect

for autonomy and is taken to mean that information given to another person will not be

repeated without their permission.

Given that there will be more than one participant in the group, at the onset, the

moderator will establish that each of the participant’s inputs will be shared with the

others in the group as well as with the moderator. All of the participants will be

encouraged to keep everything that happens in the FGD strictly confidential

Anonymity refers to concealing the identities of participants in all documents resulting

from the research.

In the research presented, no names and other data that may lead to thee participants’

identification will be mentioned. Only general terms such as “respondent”, “student”,

“participant”, “male”, “female” will be used in referring to them.

Bibliography:

Vincent AcostaKatrina MaranonTeam Report 3Group J – Mulat DiwaBabbie, E. (2011). The Basics of Research, 5th Edition (p.78). WADSWORTH

CENCAGE Learning.

Cooper, Donald R. and Schindler, Pamela S. (2008). Business Research Methods, 11th

Edition International Edition, McGraw Hill.

Mitty, E. L. (2001). Assisted living. In M. D. Mezey (Ed.), The encyclopedia of elder

care: The comprehensive resource on geriatric and social care. New York: Springer

Publishing Company.

Kirk, Roger E. 1994. Experimental Design: Procedures for Behavioral Sciences, 3rd

Ed. Wadsworth Publishing.

Krueger, R. A. 1988. Focus Groups. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Merton R.K., Fiske M. & Kendall P.L. 1990. The Focused Interview: A Manual of

Problems and Procedures, 2nd Ed. Free Press, New York.

Yin, Robert K. (1994). Case Study Research: Designs and Method (Applied Social

Research Methods), 4th Ed. Thousand Oaks California: Sage Publications.

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