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114 THE RESEARCH PROCESS

Its investment in R & D is over $600 million per year, and it employs 1,500 Ph.Ds.
Unlike companies that finance both applied and basic research, EM demands work
that produces a measurable impact and competitive advantage. Dissemination of
findings among scientists is thus high.
EM is also getting payoffs from older technologies, like increasing the recovery
rate from existing deposits. An example is the so-called reservoir analysis that has
enabled EM to boost reserves and improve recovery from fields.
The merger of the two companies, Exxon and Mobil was remarkable, given their
two divergent philosophies and cultures. Exxon had top efficiency born out of com-
mand and control, while Mobil was loose and informal, but the elaborate restruc-
turing worked out well.
The return on capital deployed was 21% in the year 2000, more than double the
level of the past 2 years and the best among big oil companies.

6. Develop a theoretical framework for the following case.

Once given, perks are extraordinarily hard to take away without sapping employee
morale. The adverse effects of these cuts far outweigh the anticipated savings in
dollars. Research has shown that when the reason behind the cuts is explained to
employees, morale does not drop.

7. For the following scenario described in Fortune dated October 29, 2001, develop a the-
oretical framework.

Hiring decisions are made without much thought to several aspects pertaining to
the candidate. For instance, Schlager, whose resumé did not mention anything at
all about attempting to murder his wife and spending 6 years in prison, was hired
for a medical director position in one of the largest medical device companies. A
simple Googling would have turned up one of the 24 articles in this case, com-
ments Fortune magazine. Thirty percent of resumés contain misstatements of facts,
according to industry experts. The most common resumé fudge is to expand the
dates of employment. When people are fired, it does not feature in the resumé. Dis-
covering crimes committed under an alias and getting information from overseas
are practically impossible.

PRACTICE PROJECT

For the topic you chose to work on for the project in the previous chapter, do the
following:
1. Go through the computer-generated bibliography again.
2. Define a problem statement that, in your opinion, would be most useful for researchers
to investigate.