DNP 815 Define the process of theory building

Define the process of theory building. Discuss the differences in approach based on inductive versus deductive reasoning. Describe how you would build and test theory in your practice area.

A Sample Answer For the Assignment: DNP 815 Define the process of theory building

Title: DNP 815 Define the process of theory building

The building of theory occurs in two major stages – the descriptive stage and the
normative stage. Within each of these stages, theory builders proceed through three steps. The
the theory-building process iterates through these stages again and again.1
In the past,
management researchers have quite carelessly applied the term theory to research activities that
pertain to only one of these steps. Terms such “utility theory” in economics, and “contingency
theory” in organization design, for example, actually refer only to an individual stage in the theory-building process in their respective fields. We propose that it is more useful to think of the term “theory” as a body of understanding that researchers build cumulatively as they work
through each of the three steps in the descriptive and normative stages. In many ways, the term
“theory” might better be framed as a verb, as much as it is a noun – because the body of
understanding is continuously changing as scholars who follow this process work to improve it.

The Building of Descriptive Theory

The descriptive stage of theory building ia a preliminary stage because researchers must
pass through it in order to develop normative theory. Researchers who are building descriptive
theory proceed through three steps: observation, categorization, and association.

Step 1: Observation

In the first step researchers observe phenomena and carefully describe and measure what
they see. Careful observation, documentation and measurement of the phenomena in words and
numbers is important at this stage because if subsequent researchers cannot agree upon the
descriptions of phenomena, then improving theory will prove difficult. Early management
research such as The Functions of the Executive (Barnard, 1939) and Harvard Business School
cases written in the 1940s and 50s was primarily descriptive work of this genre – and was very
valuable. This stage of research is depicted in Figure 1 as the base of a pyramid because it is a
necessary foundation for the work that follows. The phenomena being explored in this stage
includes not just things such as people, organizations and technologies, but processes as well.
Without insightful description to subsequently build upon, researchers can find themselves
optimizing misleading concepts. As an example: For years, many scholars of inventory policy
and supply chain systems used the tools of operations research to derive ever-more-sophisticated
optimizing algorithms for inventory replenishment.

Most were based on an assumption that
managers know what their levels of inventory are. Ananth Raman’s pathbreaking research of the
phenomena, however, obviated much of this research when he showed that most firms’
computerized inventory records were broadly inaccurate – even when they used state-of-the-art
automated tracking systems (Raman 199X). He and his colleagues have carefully described how
inventory replenishment systems work, and what variables affect the accuracy of those processes.
Having laid this foundation, supply chain scholars have now begun to build a body of theories and
policies that reflect the real and different situations that managers and companies face.

1
This model is a synthesis of models that have been developed by scholars of this process in a range of fields and
scholars: Kuhn (1962) and Popper (1959) in the natural sciences; Kaplan (1964), Stinchcombe (1968), Roethlisberger
(1977) Simon (1976), Kaplan (1986), Weick (1989),Eisenhardt (1989) and Van de Ven (2000) in the social sciences.
3
Researchers in this step often develop abstractions from the messy detail of phenomena
that we term constructs. Constructs help us understand and visualize what the phenomena are,
and how they operate. Joseph Bower’s Managing the Resource Allocation Process (1970) is an
outstanding example of this. His constructs of impetus and context, explaining how momentum
builds behind certain investment proposals and fails to coalesce behind others, have helped a
generation of policy and strategy researchers understand how strategic investment decisions get
made. Economists’ concepts of “utility” and “transactions cost” are constructs – abstractions
developed to help us understand a class of phenomena they have observed. We would not label
the constructs of utility and transactions cost as theories, however. They are part of theories –
building blocks upon which bodies of understanding about consumer behavior and organizational
interaction have been built.

Step 2: Classification

With the phenomena observed and described, researchers in the second stage then classify
the phenomena into categories. In the descriptive stage of theory building, the classification
schemes that scholars propose typically are defined by the attributes of the phenomena.
Diversified vs. focused firms, and vertically integrated vs. specialist firms are categorization
examples from the study of strategy. Publicly traded vs. privately held companies is a
categorization scheme often used in research on financial performance. Such categorization
schemes attempt to simplify and organize the world in ways that highlight possibly consequential
relationships between the phenomena and the outcomes of interest.
Management researchers often refer to these descriptive categorization schemes as
frameworks or typologies. Burgelman (1986), for example, built upon Bower’s (1970) construct
of context by identifying two different types of context – organizational and strategic.

Step 3: Defining Relationships

In the third step, researchers explore the association between the category-defining
attributes and the outcomes observed. In the stage of descriptive theory building, researchers
recognize and make explicit what differences in attributes, and differences in the magnitude of
those attributes, correlate most strongly with the patterns in the outcomes of interest. Techniques
such as regression analysis typically are useful in defining these correlations. Often we refer to
the output of studies at this step as models.

Click here to ORDER an A++ paper from our Verified MASTERS and DOCTORATE WRITERS: DNP 815 Week 2 Discussion Question Two

Lopes Write Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to Lopes Write, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.

Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.

Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?

Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:

Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• Student paper example
• Citing Sources
• The Writing Center is a great resource