What is a descriptive study?
A descriptive study is undertaken in order to ascertain and be able to describe the characteristics of the variables of interest in a situation. For instance a study of a class in terms of the percentage of members who are in their senior and junior years, sex composition, age grouping, number of semester left until graduation and number of business courses taken can be considered as descriptive in nature. Quite frequently descriptive studies are undertaken in organizations to learn about and describe the characteristics of a group of employees. Descriptive studies are also undertaken to understand the characteristics of organizations that follow certain common practice. For example one might want to know and be able to describe the characteristics of the organizations that implement flexible manufacturing system or that has a certain debt-to-equity ratio. The goal of descriptive study is to offer to the researcher a profile or to describe relevant aspects of the phenomena of interest
