Q: Can you provide any tips on how to write the literature review with regard to theoretical and empirical studies?
In my topic ('The effects of supporting employee's personal growth and development on the organization's performance'), I am struggling to find the empirical literature that talks about how supporting the employee's personal development could improve the organization's performance. Any tips on how to overcome this?On the same lines, would a statistics report such as the one alongside be an example of an empirical study? '83 percent of workers participating in a mentoring program admitted that their experience positively influenced their desire to stay at their organization (River's 2018 research).'
Firstly, based on the topic title, we understand this is a follow-up question to this one: What would be the right sampling technique for a research involving multiple case studies?
Also, you seem to be primarily seeking tips and clarifications. So, we'll provide pointers and then include relevant links for you to explore more. Let's then take your various queries or concerns in sequence.
Tips on writing a literature review
For this, you may refer to these couple of articles:
- A young researcher's guide to writing a literature review
- Secondary research – the basics of narrative reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analysis
Help with finding relevant literature
You’ll need to make your literature search more focused/impactful, for which you should find the following articles useful:
- Tips for effective literature searching
- 8 Winning hacks to use Google Scholar for your research paper
Identifying empirical studies
Including (more of) empirical studies is essential for a topic such as yours, which talks of the effects of an X on a Y. Coming to the information you have provided, it's a citation and secondary data. However, we were not able to find the original report or article from which this seems to be taken. In the case of secondary data, you need to be a bit more cautious. In this specific example, you may need to check whether this was part of a study (done through a questionnaire or survey) or simply from a feedback form collected at the end of the said program.
For more help with secondary data collection and utilization, you may refer to the following resources:
- What are the limitations of secondary data collection?
- Is it necessary to describe the sampling technique and sample size when I'm dealing with secondary data in my research?
Hope that helps. All the best for your review!
