In addition to providing a more grounded and quantifiable way to understand our society and the future of vast societal movements and changes, social research offers us the ability to look at large issues in a more focused, carefully-presented, and hopefully, completely objective manner.
While having dissent among works of research is valuable as it communicates alternate ways of approaching problems, questions, or topics, there is equal value in contributing to a larger body of scholarship that supports certain commonly-held or hypothetically viable ideas. Furthermore, the universal body of social research, particularly as it accumulates and branches out across sectors and subject areas, provides us with a wealth of opportunity to ask “the big questions” such as what our driving forces are as societies, what propels us to make certain decisions and distinctions, and most generally, who we are not just as individuals, but as part of the collective—humanity.
While the focus of my research (or any research, for that matter) is incapable on its own of achieving the wide goals stated above, it will provide data and analysis that can be implemented within a practical scenario. While it is only one contribution among an existing wealth of related data, insight, and observation, it examines an important interaction that can be of benefit to employers, employees, human resources personnel, and anyone else concerned with personal and interpersonal dynamics, especially as they relate to hierarchal structures of hierarchy and subordination in the workplace. This research will not only aid in helping readers to understand this aspect of society (as it exists in our professional lives) but will allow for suggestions of possible future trends in the area of supervisory issues as they relate to employee morale.
To be more specific and less “global” in response to this question, this answer is suggesting that in a desire to achieve the greater overarching needs as a piece of social research, a synthesis of information and conclusions about how morale is directly related to the supervisory relationship (on both sides) can be formed and can provide informed speculation on the future of the trends analyzed while also indirectly suggesting certain truisms about our society at large. For instance, when reading in the literature that there is an observed lack of correlation between incentives and morale when compared to morale and a positive supervisory relationship, I need to consider the larger societal context, which is gleaned from valuable social research in other fields, as well as that specific to my topic. This collection of information can be absorbed and compared to conflicting data, as well as that which I have gathered on my own to form a singular conclusion that simultaneously refutes, corresponds with, and hopefully blazes some new ground. If I am able to do this effectively, I have achieved some of the most valuable targets in social research.
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