Research, Scholarly, & Creative Activity Application: Research Presentation
During the Spring 2022 semester, I participated in the Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) hosted by MNSU’s Undergraduate Research Center. The RAP is meant to assist students who are interested in research but have had very little previous experience. To create this introduction, students are paired with a mentor with similar research interests and goals, and they work together on a research project. I was paired with Dr. Joseph Wohkittel, a psychology professor at MNSU with a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership, Policy & Development. Even though I am not a psychology major, Dr. Wohkittel and I were paired together due to our interest in workplace behaviors. Dr. Wohkittel had already begun working on a research project that was set to evaluate generational differences in the workplace. His expectations for me included adding my own thoughts and ideas into the project, evaluating the data we collected, and then presenting it at a psychology conference.
My first responsibility was to review recently published research on generational differences in the workplace. The purpose of this was to familiarize myself with the topic, inspire ideas on what to include in our research survey, and to update my professor on new research conclusions. I used MNSU’s library database search tool called MavScholar to find these articles. This tool allowed me to filter articles only published within the past two years and to search for specific keywords. Then, I chose to study articles based on good author reputation, such as their qualifications on the topic. Learning how to find and evaluate previously conducted research is a very important skill. No one can conduct a completely conclusive research study only using their own information. By assessing others’ research, I can not only develop a better understanding of that topic, but I can also expand and improve my own ideas and research methods.
Next, I collaborated with Dr. Wohkittel on what new questions should be added to the survey. I presented my interests to him (inspired by my literature readings), and he gave his advice on what would be easy to obtain and how to format such questions. We decided on attempting to answer the following question; does generation z hold different workplace values than other generations, specifically relating to diversity or technology? This collaboration taught me that brainstorming and cooperating with others on refining research questions is incredibly useful. In research, being able to relay information to and gather data from a wide variety of people is very important. Generally, a single researcher cannot do this as effectively as with a team since it is easy for an individual to only use a language/format familiar to them.
After completing our survey, it needed to be approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). This was the most frustrating part of the research process. It involves submitting our hard work in extreme detail to then receive a decision on approval or denial. We received many denials before our final approval. This was difficult because often small little details would require huge, time-consuming changes to our research proposal. These included ensuring that language was easy to read and understand by all and that they didn’t feel forced to participate. However, I am still thankful for the process, as I learned a lot about how even little mistakes in research can be a very big deal. When dealing with real people, researchers must be very careful so they can protect their subjects.
The next step was to produce the survey and recruit subjects. This was an interesting task. I chose to promote my survey on social media. However, as indicated previously, researchers need to be very careful about how their surveys are promoted. This can be difficult on social media, where most are used to very short and concise messages while research promotions are long and detailed. I still had a lot of success, though! I received over sixty responses. This confirmed my belief that social media can be a great outreach tool, a fact that can be useful when needing to collect data in any future career.
Once enough responses were collected, my professor and I analyzed the data to find the significant results. We found there were no significant differences between generation z and other generations in their workplace values. One misconception I had with research is that most surveys bring conclusive ‘true or false’ answers to hypotheses. This is far from reality most of the time. Most surveys bring insignificant results, meaning some hypotheses aren’t proven either true or false. However, it is important to note that this inconclusive answer is still an answer. This could mean that perhaps the two topics have no correlation at all. Knowing how to interpret research data is critical. This must be done to use the results to support new policies or procedures, like how I would when participating in human resources research in the future.
The final step was to present the survey findings to at the Midwestern Conference of Professional Psychology on March 24, 2022. I put together a PowerPoint presentation that included an explanation of the topic, the methods used, the results of the survey, visualization of the data, and a conclusion. I presented over zoom to about thirty people for 10 minutes, ensuring to leave room for answering any questions. It was a great experience and easier than I thought it would be. Presenting research is a step that is easily forgotten about, but it is one of the most important. Research is meant to be shared so others can learn more about the world around them and create better ideas using such data. I know that in the workplace, research would need to be presented to direct managers and or even top chiefs.
I would love to begin a research project of my own related to human resources. There are many topics that I think can be explored further to make the workplace better all around the world. It would be great if I could include my current workplace in my research so that I can make a direct impact there.