An example of item research task and extended item research task in Zone 1 (re: the agile literature review approach)

An example of item research task and extended item research task in Zone 1 (re: the agile literature review approach): 

key words: item research task, linkage research task, zone 1 associated linkage research task, extended research task, non-core-focused domain, theoretical framework zone 1 and 2.

Let us consider the following example of an item research task in Zone 1 (environmental drivers):

Zone 1 item research task:

To evaluate the labour market on admin. staff facing Summer Friends University campus (Hong Kong).

This item research task is linked to the following item research task in Zone 2 (organizational capabilities): 

To evaluate the administration management competence of Summer Friends University campus (Hong Kong).

As such the linkage between the zone 1 item research task and the zone 2 item research task is a linkage research task, which is formulated as follows:

To evaluate how the labour market on admin staff affects the administration management competence of Summer Friends University campus (Hong Kong).

In the theoretical framework Level-0, the three items are depicted as follows:

1. To evaluate the labour market on admin staff... --->2. To evaluate the admin mgt competence...

Our main discussion here is on the zone 1 item research task: 

To evaluate the labour market on admin. staff facing Summer Friends University campus (Hong Kong).

A number of sub-tasks can be associated with this item research task:

1. What is: the stock level of admin candidates in the larbour market, by age, experience, and district location, etc. over the last 2 years.

2. What are: the supply and demand of admin candidates in the labour market, by age, experience and district location, etc, over the last 2 years.

3. What are: the foreseeable supply and demand of admin candidates in the labour market by age, experience and district location, etc, over coming 2 years.

4. What are: the existing and evolving (i) life and career orientation and (ii) job expectation of the admin. candidates in the labour market by age, experience, and district location, etc.

The preliminary understanding by the researcher is that some of the research subtasks can be answer via Internet search (notably on the Government websites with regard to labour supply and demand statistics) while others can be answered via some brief interviews with the researcher's friends who possess the relevant admin candidates' profiles.

As this research task [To evaluate the labour market on admin. staff facing Summer Friends University campus (Hong Kong): zone 1] is not in the core-focus domain, the corresponding literature review and research method usage are to be quite light-weight. 

Next, to find out how the research finding of this item research task (zone 1) will help the researcher on the work of the research task in zone 2 [To evaluate the administration management competence of Summer Friends University campus (Hong Kong)], the researcher needs to carry out some research efforts to investigate the linkage research task of "To evaluate how the labour market on admin staff affects the administration management competence of Summer Friends University campus (Hong Kong)". For this, the researcher plans to carry out a few brief corridor interviews with 2 Summer Friends office staff with job responsibility on administration management competence in the Summer Friends University campus (Hong Kong). The main question to ask, in this case, is the following:

Does the university school admin management has difficulties to recruit, retain and motivate new and existing admin staff to work in the Hong Kong campus and maintain effective admin operation, in view of the present admin staff labour market situation in Hong Kong?

The findings from the item research task (zone 1) informs the researcher to examine this main research question of the linkage research task. And, the researching finding on the linkage research task provides useful knowledge for the researcher to study the next item research task of "To evaluate the administration management competence of Summer Friends University campus (Hong Kong)." in Zone 2.

This practice note provides an example of how the research finding of an item research task in Zone 1 is useful to inform the "dependent" item research task in Zone 2. The role of the linkage research task is quite vital in this regard. As such, when a researcher conduct an item research task in Zone 1, the researcher, by default, should also carry out the associated linkage research task. It can then be said that the Zone 1 item research task, plus the associated linkage research task constitutes an extended zone 1 item research task. In our example, the extended zone 1 item research task is:

To evaluate the labour market on admin. staff facing Summer Friends University campus (Hong Kong). [zone 1 item research task]

plus

To evaluate how the labour market on admin staff affects the administration management competence of Summer Friends University campus (Hong Kong). [zone 1 associated linkage research task]

A diagram on item research task and extended item research task: