a way to systematically solve the research problem

Educational resources and simple solutions for your research journey

What is a Research Problem? Characteristics, Types, and Examples

A research problem is a gap in existing knowledge, a contradiction in an established theory, or a real-world challenge that a researcher aims to address in their research. It is at the heart of any scientific inquiry, directing the trajectory of an investigation. The statement of a problem orients the reader to the importance of the topic, sets the problem into a particular context, and defines the relevant parameters, providing the framework for reporting the findings. Therein lies the importance of research problem s.

The formulation of well-defined research questions is central to addressing a research problem . A research question is a statement made in a question form to provide focus, clarity, and structure to the research endeavor. This helps the researcher design methodologies, collect data, and analyze results in a systematic and coherent manner. A study may have one or more research questions depending on the nature of the study.

a way to systematically solve the research problem

Identifying and addressing a research problem is very important. By starting with a pertinent problem , a scholar can contribute to the accumulation of evidence-based insights, solutions, and scientific progress, thereby advancing the frontier of research. Moreover, the process of formulating research problems and posing pertinent research questions cultivates critical thinking and hones problem-solving skills.

Table of Contents

What is a Research Problem ?

Before you conceive of your project, you need to ask yourself “ What is a research problem ?” A research problem definition can be broadly put forward as the primary statement of a knowledge gap or a fundamental challenge in a field, which forms the foundation for research. Conversely, the findings from a research investigation provide solutions to the problem .

A research problem guides the selection of approaches and methodologies, data collection, and interpretation of results to find answers or solutions. A well-defined problem determines the generation of valuable insights and contributions to the broader intellectual discourse.

Characteristics of a Research Problem

Knowing the characteristics of a research problem is instrumental in formulating a research inquiry; take a look at the five key characteristics below:

Novel : An ideal research problem introduces a fresh perspective, offering something new to the existing body of knowledge. It should contribute original insights and address unresolved matters or essential knowledge.

Significant : A problem should hold significance in terms of its potential impact on theory, practice, policy, or the understanding of a particular phenomenon. It should be relevant to the field of study, addressing a gap in knowledge, a practical concern, or a theoretical dilemma that holds significance.

Feasible: A practical research problem allows for the formulation of hypotheses and the design of research methodologies. A feasible research problem is one that can realistically be investigated given the available resources, time, and expertise. It should not be too broad or too narrow to explore effectively, and should be measurable in terms of its variables and outcomes. It should be amenable to investigation through empirical research methods, such as data collection and analysis, to arrive at meaningful conclusions A practical research problem considers budgetary and time constraints, as well as limitations of the problem . These limitations may arise due to constraints in methodology, resources, or the complexity of the problem.

Clear and specific : A well-defined research problem is clear and specific, leaving no room for ambiguity; it should be easily understandable and precisely articulated. Ensuring specificity in the problem ensures that it is focused, addresses a distinct aspect of the broader topic and is not vague.

Rooted in evidence: A good research problem leans on trustworthy evidence and data, while dismissing unverifiable information. It must also consider ethical guidelines, ensuring the well-being and rights of any individuals or groups involved in the study.

Types of Research Problems

Across fields and disciplines, there are different types of research problems . We can broadly categorize them into three types.

Theoretical research problems

Theoretical research problems deal with conceptual and intellectual inquiries that may not involve empirical data collection but instead seek to advance our understanding of complex concepts, theories, and phenomena within their respective disciplines. For example, in the social sciences, research problem s may be casuist (relating to the determination of right and wrong in questions of conduct or conscience), difference (comparing or contrasting two or more phenomena), descriptive (aims to describe a situation or state), or relational (investigating characteristics that are related in some way).

Here are some theoretical research problem examples :

Ethical frameworks that can provide coherent justifications for artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, especially in contexts involving autonomous decision-making and moral agency.
Determining how mathematical models can elucidate the gradual development of complex traits, such as intricate anatomical structures or elaborate behaviors, through successive generations.
Applied research problems

Applied or practical research problems focus on addressing real-world challenges and generating practical solutions to improve various aspects of society, technology, health, and the environment.

Here are some applied research problem examples :

Studying the use of precision agriculture techniques to optimize crop yield and minimize resource waste.
Designing a more energy-efficient and sustainable transportation system for a city to reduce carbon emissions.
Action research problems

Action research problems aim to create positive change within specific contexts by involving stakeholders, implementing interventions, and evaluating outcomes in a collaborative manner.

Here are some action research problem examples :

Partnering with healthcare professionals to identify barriers to patient adherence to medication regimens and devising interventions to address them.
Collaborating with a nonprofit organization to evaluate the effectiveness of their programs aimed at providing job training for underserved populations.

These different types of research problems may give you some ideas when you plan on developing your own.

How to Define a Research Problem

You might now ask “ How to define a research problem ?” These are the general steps to follow:

Look for a broad problem area: Identify under-explored aspects or areas of concern, or a controversy in your topic of interest. Evaluate the significance of addressing the problem in terms of its potential contribution to the field, practical applications, or theoretical insights.
Learn more about the problem: Read the literature, starting from historical aspects to the current status and latest updates. Rely on reputable evidence and data. Be sure to consult researchers who work in the relevant field, mentors, and peers. Do not ignore the gray literature on the subject.
Identify the relevant variables and how they are related: Consider which variables are most important to the study and will help answer the research question. Once this is done, you will need to determine the relationships between these variables and how these relationships affect the research problem .
Think of practical aspects : Deliberate on ways that your study can be practical and feasible in terms of time and resources. Discuss practical aspects with researchers in the field and be open to revising the problem based on feedback. Refine the scope of the research problem to make it manageable and specific; consider the resources available, time constraints, and feasibility.
Formulate the problem statement: Craft a concise problem statement that outlines the specific issue, its relevance, and why it needs further investigation.
Stick to plans, but be flexible: When defining the problem , plan ahead but adhere to your budget and timeline. At the same time, consider all possibilities and ensure that the problem and question can be modified if needed.

Key Takeaways

A research problem concerns an area of interest, a situation necessitating improvement, an obstacle requiring eradication, or a challenge in theory or practical applications.
The importance of research problem is that it guides the research and helps advance human understanding and the development of practical solutions.
Research problem definition begins with identifying a broad problem area, followed by learning more about the problem, identifying the variables and how they are related, considering practical aspects, and finally developing the problem statement.
Different types of research problems include theoretical, applied, and action research problems , and these depend on the discipline and nature of the study.
An ideal problem is original, important, feasible, specific, and based on evidence.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it important to define a research problem?

Identifying potential issues and gaps as research problems is important for choosing a relevant topic and for determining a well-defined course of one’s research. Pinpointing a problem and formulating research questions can help researchers build their critical thinking, curiosity, and problem-solving abilities.

How do I identify a research problem?

Identifying a research problem involves recognizing gaps in existing knowledge, exploring areas of uncertainty, and assessing the significance of addressing these gaps within a specific field of study. This process often involves thorough literature review, discussions with experts, and considering practical implications.

Can a research problem change during the research process?

Yes, a research problem can change during the research process. During the course of an investigation a researcher might discover new perspectives, complexities, or insights that prompt a reevaluation of the initial problem. The scope of the problem, unforeseen or unexpected issues, or other limitations might prompt some tweaks. You should be able to adjust the problem to ensure that the study remains relevant and aligned with the evolving understanding of the subject matter.

How does a research problem relate to research questions or hypotheses?

A research problem sets the stage for the study. Next, research questions refine the direction of investigation by breaking down the broader research problem into manageable components. Research questions are formulated based on the problem , guiding the investigation’s scope and objectives. The hypothesis provides a testable statement to validate or refute within the research process. All three elements are interconnected and work together to guide the research.

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Simple Random Sampling: Definition, Methods, and Examples

What is a Case Study in Research? Definition, Methods, and Examples

Corpus ID: 223363715

Exploring Research Methodology: Review Article

Mimansha Patel , N. Patel
Published 2019
International Journal of Research

41 Citations

A qualitative review on research methodology: an overview, memo writing procedures in grounded theory research methodology, exploring barriers to measuring roi for training and development interventions, the impact of strategic awareness on organizational readiness: an analytic research of the opinions of the sample of top leaderships in private colleges in the provinces of the al-furat al-awsat in iraq, bibliometric analysis of research regarding citarum river in indonesia and its implication for government policy, technology adoption in franchising business: understanding factors and challenges, the art of quranic memorization: a meta-analysis, factors enabling the measurement of return on investment (roi) for academic staff training in south african public universities, teacher resilience and learning innovation measurement: exploring the moderating effects of knowledge sharing and openness to experience, impact of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards on managing employee motivation at workplace, 4 references, the romance of research, the national academies of sciences • engineering • medicine, the advanced learner\'s dictionary of current english / by a. s. hornby, e. v. gatenby, h. wakefield, related papers.

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Academic Experience

How to identify and resolve research problems

Updated July 12, 2023

In this article, we’re going to take you through one of the most pertinent parts of conducting research: a research problem (also known as a research problem statement).

When trying to formulate a good research statement, and understand how to solve it for complex projects, it can be difficult to know where to start.

Not only are there multiple perspectives (from stakeholders to project marketers who want answers), you have to consider the particular context of the research topic: is it timely, is it relevant and most importantly of all, is it valuable?

In other words: are you looking at a research worthy problem?

The fact is, a well-defined, precise, and goal-centric research problem will keep your researchers, stakeholders, and business-focused and your results actionable.

And when it works well, it's a powerful tool to identify practical solutions that can drive change and secure buy-in from your workforce.

Free eBook: The ultimate guide to market research

What is a research problem?

In social research methodology and behavioral sciences , a research problem establishes the direction of research, often relating to a specific topic or opportunity for discussion.

For example: climate change and sustainability, analyzing moral dilemmas or wage disparity amongst classes could all be areas that the research problem focuses on.

As well as outlining the topic and/or opportunity, a research problem will explain:

why the area/issue needs to be addressed,
why the area/issue is of importance,
the parameters of the research study
the research objective
the reporting framework for the results and
what the overall benefit of doing so will provide (whether to society as a whole or other researchers and projects).

Having identified the main topic or opportunity for discussion, you can then narrow it down into one or several specific questions that can be scrutinized and answered through the research process.

What are research questions?

Generating research questions underpinning your study usually starts with problems that require further research and understanding while fulfilling the objectives of the study.

A good problem statement begins by asking deeper questions to gain insights about a specific topic.

For example, using the problems above, our questions could be:

"How will climate change policies influence sustainability standards across specific geographies?"

"What measures can be taken to address wage disparity without increasing inflation?"

Developing a research worthy problem is the first step - and one of the most important - in any kind of research.

It’s also a task that will come up again and again because any business research process is cyclical. New questions arise as you iterate and progress through discovering, refining, and improving your products and processes. A research question can also be referred to as a "problem statement".

Note: good research supports multiple perspectives through empirical data. It’s focused on key concepts rather than a broad area, providing readily actionable insight and areas for further research.

Research question or research problem?

As we've highlighted, the terms “research question” and “research problem” are often used interchangeably, becoming a vague or broad proposition for many.

The term "problem statement" is far more representative, but finds little use among academics.

Instead, some researchers think in terms of a single research problem and several research questions that arise from it.

As mentioned above, the questions are lines of inquiry to explore in trying to solve the overarching research problem.

Ultimately, this provides a more meaningful understanding of a topic area.

It may be useful to think of questions and problems as coming out of your business data – that’s the O-data (otherwise known as operational data) like sales figures and website metrics.

What's an example of a research problem?

Your overall research problem could be: "How do we improve sales across EMEA and reduce lost deals?"

This research problem then has a subset of questions, such as:

"Why do sales peak at certain times of the day?"

"Why are customers abandoning their online carts at the point of sale?"

As well as helping you to solve business problems, research problems (and associated questions) help you to think critically about topics and/or issues (business or otherwise). You can also use your old research to aid future research -- a good example is laying the foundation for comparative trend reports or a complex research project.

(Also, if you want to see the bigger picture when it comes to research problems, why not check out our ultimate guide to market research? In it you'll find out: what effective market research looks like, the use cases for market research, carrying out a research study, and how to examine and action research findings).

The research process: why are research problems important?

A research problem has two essential roles in setting your research project on a course for success.

1. They set the scope

The research problem defines what problem or opportunity you’re looking at and what your research goals are. It stops you from getting side-tracked or allowing the scope of research to creep off-course .

Without a strong research problem or problem statement, your team could end up spending resources unnecessarily, or coming up with results that aren’t actionable - or worse, harmful to your business - because the field of study is too broad.

2. They tie your work to business goals and actions

To formulate a research problem in terms of business decisions means you always have clarity on what’s needed to make those decisions. You can show the effects of what you’ve studied using real outcomes.

Then, by focusing your research problem statement on a series of questions tied to business objectives, you can reduce the risk of the research being unactionable or inaccurate.

It's also worth examining research or other scholarly literature (you’ll find plenty of similar, pertinent research online) to see how others have explored specific topics and noting implications that could have for your research.

Four steps to defining your research problem

Image credit: http://myfreeschooltanzania.blogspot.com/2014/11/defining-research-problem.html

1. Observe and identify

Businesses today have so much data that it can be difficult to know which problems to address first. Researchers also have business stakeholders who come to them with problems they would like to have explored. A researcher’s job is to sift through these inputs and discover exactly what higher-level trends and key concepts are worth investing in.

This often means asking questions and doing some initial investigation to decide which avenues to pursue. This could mean gathering interdisciplinary perspectives identifying additional expertise and contextual information.

Sometimes, a small-scale preliminary study might be worth doing to help get a more comprehensive understanding of the business context and needs, and to make sure your research problem addresses the most critical questions.

This could take the form of qualitative research using a few in-depth interviews , an environmental scan, or reviewing relevant literature.

The sales manager of a sportswear company has a problem: sales of trail running shoes are down year-on-year and she isn’t sure why. She approaches the company’s research team for input and they begin asking questions within the company and reviewing their knowledge of the wider market.

2. Review the key factors involved

As a marketing researcher, you must work closely with your team of researchers to define and test the influencing factors and the wider context involved in your study. These might include demographic and economic trends or the business environment affecting the question at hand. This is referred to as a relational research problem.

To do this, you have to identify the factors that will affect the research and begin formulating different methods to control them.

You also need to consider the relationships between factors and the degree of control you have over them. For example, you may be able to control the loading speed of your website but you can’t control the fluctuations of the stock market.

Doing this will help you determine whether the findings of your project will produce enough information to be worth the cost.

You need to determine:

which factors affect the solution to the research proposal.
which ones can be controlled and used for the purposes of the company, and to what extent.
the functional relationships between the factors.
which ones are critical to the solution of the research study.

The research team at the running shoe company is hard at work. They explore the factors involved and the context of why YoY sales are down for trail shoes, including things like what the company’s competitors are doing, what the weather has been like – affecting outdoor exercise – and the relative spend on marketing for the brand from year to year.

The final factor is within the company’s control, although the first two are not. They check the figures and determine marketing spend has a significant impact on the company.

3. Prioritize

Once you and your research team have a few observations, prioritize them based on their business impact and importance. It may be that you can answer more than one question with a single study, but don’t do it at the risk of losing focus on your overarching research problem.

Questions to ask:

Who? Who are the people with the problem? Are they end-users, stakeholders, teams within your business? Have you validated the information to see what the scale of the problem is?
What? What is its nature and what is the supporting evidence?
Why? What is the business case for solving the problem? How will it help?
Where? How does the problem manifest and where is it observed?

To help you understand all dimensions, you might want to consider focus groups or preliminary interviews with external (including consumers and existing customers) and internal (salespeople, managers, and other stakeholders) parties to provide what is sometimes much-needed insight into a particular set of questions or problems.

After observing and investigating, the running shoe researchers come up with a few candidate questions, including:

What is the relationship between US average temperatures and sales of our products year on year?
At present, how does our customer base rank Competitor X and Competitor Y’s trail running shoe compared to our brand?
What is the relationship between marketing spend and trail shoe product sales over the last 12 months?

They opt for the final question, because the variables involved are fully within the company’s control, and based on their initial research and stakeholder input, seem the most likely cause of the dive in sales. The research question is specific enough to keep the work on course towards an actionable result, but it allows for a few different avenues to be explored, such as the different budget allocations of offline and online marketing and the kinds of messaging used.

Get feedback from the key teams within your business to make sure everyone is aligned and has the same understanding of the research problem and questions, and the actions you hope to take based on the results. Now is also a good time to demonstrate the ROI of your research and lay out its potential benefits to your stakeholders.

Different groups may have different goals and perspectives on the issue. This step is vital for getting the necessary buy-in and pushing the project forward.

The running shoe company researchers now have everything they need to begin. They call a meeting with the sales manager and consult with the product team, marketing team, and C-suite to make sure everyone is aligned and has bought into the direction of the research topic. They identify and agree that the likely course of action will be a rethink of how marketing resources are allocated, and potentially testing out some new channels and messaging strategies .

Can you explore a broad area and is it practical to do so?

A broader research problem or report can be a great way to bring attention to prevalent issues, societal or otherwise, but are often undertaken by those with the resources to do so.

Take a typical government cybersecurity breach survey, for example. Most of these reports raise awareness of cybercrime, from the day-to-day threats businesses face to what security measures some organizations are taking. What these reports don't do, however, is provide actionable advice - mostly because every organization is different.

The point here is that while some researchers will explore a very complex issue in detail, others will provide only a snapshot to maintain interest and encourage further investigation. The "value" of the data is wholly determined by the recipients of it - and what information you choose to include.

To summarize, it can be practical to undertake a broader research problem, certainly, but it may not be possible to cover everything or provide the detail your audience needs. Likewise, a more systematic investigation of an issue or topic will be more valuable, but you may also find that you cover far less ground.

It's important to think about your research objectives and expected findings before going ahead.

Ensuring your research project is a success

A complex research project can be made significantly easier with clear research objectives, a descriptive research problem, and a central focus. All of which we've outlined in this article.

If you have previous research, even better. Use it as a benchmark

Remember: what separates a good research paper from an average one is actually very simple: valuable, empirical data that explores a prevalent societal or business issue and provides actionable insights.

And we can help.

Sophisticated research made simple with Qualtrics

Trusted by the world's best brands, our platform enables researchers from academic to corporate to tackle the hardest challenges and deliver the results that matter.

Our CoreXM platform supports the methods that define superior research and delivers insights in real-time. It's easy to use (thanks to drag-and-drop functionality) and requires no coding, meaning you'll be capturing data and gleaning insights in no time.

It also excels in flexibility; you can track consumer behavior across segments , benchmark your company versus competitors , carry out complex academic research, and do much more, all from one system.

It's one platform with endless applications, so no matter your research problem, we've got the tools to help you solve it. And if you don't have a team of research experts in-house, our market research team has the practical knowledge and tools to help design the surveys and find the respondents you need.

Of course, you may want to know where to begin with your own market research . If you're struggling, make sure to download our ultimate guide using the link below.

It's got everything you need and there’s always information in our research methods knowledge base.

Scott Smith

Scott Smith, Ph.D. is a contributor to the Qualtrics blog.

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QuickTips: The Blog @ Evidence Explained

How To Solve a Research Problem

Elizabeth Shown Mills

It’s doable. Really. All it takes are two nevers and three always.

1. Never rely on a single document for any point, even when it tells you exactly what you want to know. Records often err and we won’t know it until and unless we test their assertions against other records. With any piece of research our goal should be to use all relevant records and to make certain that anything we use to “corroborate” something else has totally independent origins.

2. Never assume any type of record is reliable. Record types are like people. Some are totally dependable. Some make us cringe or roll our eyeballs. Most are a mixture. We love what’s good about them. We’re wise to look warily at the flaws.

3. Always test each finding—no matter how small it may be—against the Evidence Analysis Process Map . The ultimate “fact” in all projects is this: Our conclusion can never be better than the evidence on which we base it.

4. Always use each finding to lead you to something else. No fact is an absolute. No record is an end to itself. Facts and records are always part of something much bigger. To understand the fragment we’ve found and interpret it correctly, we need the rest of what went on.

5. Always contrast, compare, and challenge. Each new piece of information needs to be scrutinized rigorously. We study not just the details in a record but the construction of the record and the record set. We watch for anomalies in the records and discrepancies between them.

We study the behavior of the people who created each record. We study the laws that governed the record—and the degree to which participants and their communities c omplied with those laws. We constantly look for ways to measure differences and similarities—and ways to quantify actions. We watch for behavior that is aberrant to community norms—which means we may also have to study the community and its records deeply enough to define those norms.

Yes. It’s doable. I didn’t say it’s quick 'n easy. But it’s doable. The issue now is this: How badly do you want to solve that research problem?

PHOTO CREDITS: "5 Star Solution," CanStockPhoto (http://www.canstockphoto.com/images-photos/solution.html#file_view.php?id=16887728 : downloaded 7 April 2015), image csp16887728, uploaded by drcmarx, 20 November 2013; used under license.

Posted 8 April 2015

Corroboration
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Review Article

Year: 2019 | Month: March | Volume: 6 | Issue: 3 | Pages: 48-55

Exploring Research Methodology: Review Article

Mimansha patel 1 , nitin patel 2.

1 Executive QA, Department of Quality Assurance, Mylan Laboratories Ltd. Sarigam, 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Government Engineering College Valsad, India

Corresponding Author: Mimansha Patel

Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. In it we study the various steps that are generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic behind them. It is necessary for the researcher to know not only the research methods/techniques but also the methodology. Researchers not only need to know how to develop certain indices or tests, how to calculate the mean, the mode, the median or the standard deviation or chi-square, how to apply particular research techniques, but they also need to know which of these methods or techniques, are relevant and which are not, and what would they mean and indicate and why. Researchers also need to understand the assumptions underlying various techniques and they need to know the criteria by which they can decide that certain techniques and procedures will be applicable to certain problems and others will not. All this means that it is necessary for the researcher to design his methodology for his problem as the same may differ from problem to problem.

Key words: Research, Methodology, Research Methodology, Research Techniques, Qualitative research, Quantitative Research

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Research Methodology: Design, Method, and Techniques

2017, Scholarly Communication and the Publish or Perish Pressures of Academia A volume in the Advances in Knowledge Acquisition, Transfer, and Management (AKATM) Book Series

The most important of research methodology in research study it is necessary for a researcher to design a methodology for the problem chosen and systematically solves the problem. Formulation of the research problem is to decide on a broad subject area on which has thorough knowledge and second important responsibility in research is to compare findings, it is literature review plays an extremely important role. The literature review is part of the research process and makes a valuable contribution to almost every operational step. A good research design provides information concerning with the selection of the sample population treatments and controls to be imposed and research work cannot be undertaken without sampling. Collecting the data and create data structure as organizing the data, analyzing the data help of different statistical method, summarizing the analysis, and using these results for making judgments, decisions and predictions. Keywords: Research Problem, Economical Plan, Developing Ideas, Research Strategy, Sampling Design, Theoretical Procedures, Experimental Studies, Numerical Schemes, Statistical Techniques.

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Research Writing and Analysis

NVivo Group and Study Sessions
SPSS This link opens in a new window
Statistical Analysis Group sessions
Using Qualtrics
Dissertation and Data Analysis Group Sessions
Defense Schedule - Commons Calendar This link opens in a new window
Research Process Flow Chart
Research Alignment Chapter 1 This link opens in a new window
Step 1: Seek Out Evidence
Step 2: Explain
Step 3: The Big Picture
Step 4: Own It
Step 5: Illustrate
Annotated Bibliography
Literature Review This link opens in a new window
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
How to Synthesize and Analyze
Synthesis and Analysis Practice
Synthesis and Analysis Group Sessions
Problem Statement
Purpose Statement
Conceptual Framework
Theoretical Framework
Locating Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks This link opens in a new window
Quantitative Research Questions
Qualitative Research Questions
Trustworthiness of Qualitative Data
Analysis and Coding Example- Qualitative Data
Thematic Data Analysis in Qualitative Design
Dissertation to Journal Article This link opens in a new window
International Journal of Online Graduate Education (IJOGE) This link opens in a new window
Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching & Learning (JRIT&L) This link opens in a new window

Jump to DSE Guide

Problem statement overview.

The dissertation problem needs to be very focused because everything else from the dissertation research logically flows from the problem. You may say that the problem statement is the very core of a dissertation research study. If the problem is too big or too vague, it will be difficult to scope out a purpose that is manageable for one person, given the time available to execute and finish the dissertation research study.

Through your research, your aim is to obtain information that helps address a problem so it can be resolved. Note that the researcher does not actually solve the problem themselves by conducting research but provides new knowledge that can be used toward a resolution. Typically, the problem is solved (or partially solved) by practitioners in the field, using input from researchers.

Given the above, the problem statement should do three things :

Specify and describe the problem (with appropriate citations)
Explain the consequences of NOT solving the problem
Explain the knowledge needed to solve the problem (i.e., what is currently unknown about the problem and its resolution – also referred to as a gap )

What is a problem?

The world is full of problems! Not all problems make good dissertation research problems, however, because they are either too big, complex, or risky for doctorate candidates to solve. A proper research problem can be defined as a specific, evidence-based, real-life issue faced by certain people or organizations that have significant negative implications to the involved parties.

Example of a proper, specific, evidence-based, real-life dissertation research problem:

“Only 6% of CEOs in Fortune 500 companies are women” (Center for Leadership Studies, 2019).

Specific refers to the scope of the problem, which should be sufficiently manageable and focused to address with dissertation research. For example, the problem “terrorism kills thousands of people each year” is probably not specific enough in terms of who gets killed by which terrorists, to work for a doctorate candidate; or “Social media use among call-center employees may be problematic because it could reduce productivity,” which contains speculations about the magnitude of the problem and the possible negative effects.

Evidence-based here means that the problem is well-documented by recent research findings and/or statistics from credible sources. Anecdotal evidence does not qualify in this regard. Quantitative evidence is generally preferred over qualitative ditto when establishing a problem because quantitative evidence (from a credible source) usually reflects generalizable facts, whereas qualitative evidence in the form of research conclusions tend to only apply to the study sample and may not be generalizable to a larger population. Example of a problem that isn’t evidence-based: “Based on the researcher’s experience, the problem is that people don’t accept female leaders;” which is an opinion-based statement based on personal (anecdotal) experience.

Real-life means that a problem exists regardless of whether research is conducted or not. This means that “lack of knowledge” or “lack of research” cannot be used as the problem for a dissertation study because it’s an academic issue or a gap; and not a real-life problem experienced by people or organizations. Example of a problem that doesn’t exist in real life: “There is not enough research on the reasons why people distrust minority healthcare workers.” This type of statement also reveals the assumption that people actually do mistrust minority healthcare workers; something that needs to be supported by actual, credible evidence to potentially work as an underlying research problem.

What are consequences?

Consequences are negative implications experienced by a group of people or organizations, as a result of the problem. The negative effects should be of a certain magnitude to warrant research. For example, if fewer than 1% of the stakeholders experience a negative consequence of a problem and that consequence only constitutes a minor inconvenience, research is probably not warranted. Negative consequences that can be measured weigh stronger than those that cannot be put on some kind of scale.

In the example above, a significant negative consequence is that women face much larger barriers than men when attempting to get promoted to executive jobs; or are 94% less likely than men to get to that level in Corporate America.

What is a gap?

To establish a complete basis for a dissertation research study, the problem has to be accompanied by a gap . A gap is missing knowledge or insights about a particular issue that contributes to the persistence of the problem. We use gaps to “situate” new research in the existing literature by adding to the knowledge base in the business research field, in a specific manner (determined by the purpose of the research). Identifying gaps requires you to review the literature in a thorough fashion, to establish a complete understanding of what is known and what isn’t known about a certain problem. In the example from above about the underrepresentation of female CEOs, a gap may be that male-dominated boards have not been studied extensively in terms of their CEO hiring decisions, which might then warrant a study of such boards, to uncover implicit biases and discriminatory practices against female candidates.

How to Write a Problem Statement

How to write a problem statement.

Here is one way to construct a problem section (keep in mind you have a 250-300 word limit, but you can write first and edit later):

It is helpful to begin the problem statement with a sentence : “The problem to be addressed through this study is… ” Then, fill out the rest of the paragraph with elaboration of that specific problem, making sure to “document” it, as NU reviewers will look for research-based evidence that it is indeed a problem (emphasis also on timeliness of the problem, supported by citations within the last 5 years).

Next, write a paragraph explaining the consequences of NOT solving the problem. Who will be affected? How will they be affected? How important is it to fix the problem? Again, NU reviewers will want to see research-based citations and statistics that indicate the negative implications are significant.

In the final paragraph, you will explain what information (research) is needed in order to fix the problem. This paragraph shows that the problem is worthy of doctoral-level research. What isn’t known about the problem? Ie, what is the gap? Presumably, if your problem and purpose are aligned, your research will try to close or minimize this gap by investigating the problem. Have other researchers investigated the issue? What has their research left unanswered?

Another way to tackle the Statement of the Problem:

The Statement of the Problem section is a very clear, concise identification of the problem. It must stay within the template guidelines of 250-300 words but more importantly, must contain four elements as outlined below. A dissertation worthy problem should be able to address all of the following points:

-->identification of the problem itself--what is "going wrong" (Ellis & Levy, 2008)

-->who is affected by the problem

-->the consequences that will result from a continuation of the problem

-->a brief discussion of 1) at least 3 authors’ research related to the problem; and 2) their stated suggestion/recommendation for further research related to the problem

Use the following to work on the Statement of the Problem by first outlining the section as follows:

1. One clear, concise statement that tells the reader what is not working, what is “going wrong”. Be specific and support it with current studies.

2. Tell who is affected by the problem identified in #1.

3. Briefly tell what will happen if the problem isn’t addressed.

4. Find at least 3 current studies and write a sentence or two for each study that

i. briefly discusses the author(s)’ work, what they studied, and

ii. state their recommendation for further research about the problem

Finally, you can follow this simple 3-part outline when writing the statement of the problem section:

Your problem statement is a short (250-300 words), 3 paragraph section, in which you

Explain context and state problem (“the problem is XYZ”), supported by statistics and/or recent research findings
Explain the negative consequences of the problem to stakeholders, supported by statistics and/or recent research findings
Explain the gap in the literature.

Example of a problem statement that follows the 3-part outline (295 words):

The problem to be addressed by this study is the decline of employee well-being for followers of novice mid-level managers and the corresponding rise in employee turnover faced by business leaders across the financial services industry (Oh et al., 2014). Low levels of employee well-being are toxic for morale and result in expensive turnover costs, dysfunctional work environments, anemic corporate cultures, and poor customer service (Compdata, 2018; Oh et al., 2014). According to Ufer (2017), the financial services industry suffers from one of the highest turnover rates among millennial-aged employees in all industries in the developed world, at 18.6% annually. Starkman (2015) reported that 50% of those surveyed in financial services were not satisfied with a single one of the four key workplace aspects: job, firm, pay or career path.

Low levels of employee well-being interrupt a financial services’ company’s ability to deliver outstanding customer service in a world increasingly dependent on that commodity (Wladawsky-Berger, 2018).Mid-level managers play an essential role in support of the success of many of top businesses today (Anicich & Hirsh, 2017).

The current body of literature does not adequately address the well-being issue in the financial services industry from the follower’s perspective (Uhl-Bien, Riggio, Lowe, & Carsten, 2014). Strategic direction flows top-down from senior executives and passes through mid-level leadership to individual contributors at more junior grades. The mid-level managers’ teams are tasked with the achievement of core tasks and the managers themselves are expected to maintain the workforce’s morale, motivation and welfare (Anicich & Hirsh, 2017). Unless industry leaders better understand the phenomenon of employee well-being from the follower perspective and its role in positioning employees to provide a premium client experience, they may be handicapped from preserving their most significant principal market differentiator: customer service (Wladawsky-Berger, 2018).

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Last Updated: May 29, 2024 8:05 AM
URL: https://resources.nu.edu/researchtools

Research Methodology – Introduction

Research Definition – Research is a careful investigation or inquiry specifically through a search for new facts in any branch of knowledge. It is an original contribution to the existing stock of knowledge making for its advancement.

Research can simply be defined as a task of searching from available data to modify a certain result or theory.

Research Methodology refers to

– A systematic study

– Defining a problem

– Formulating a Hypothesis

– Collecting and Analyzing data

– Deductions and Conclusions

Objectives of Research –

♦ To gain familiarity or achieve a new insight towards a certain topic.

♦ To verify and test important facts

♦ To analyze an event, process or phenomenon

♦ To identify the cause and effect relationship

♦ To find solutions to scientific, non-scientific and social problems

♦ To determine the frequency at which something occurs

What makes people do research?

♦ Desire to get a research degree

♦ Desire to solve unsolved and challenging problems

♦ Desire to get the intellectual joy of doing creative work

♦ Desire to be of service to the society

♦ The desire for innovation and recognition

If you need expert help with writing a methodology section of your research paper, you can pay a team of professional academic paper writers here to have a research paper written for you.

Types of Research

It can be broadly categorized into two categories –

→ Pure or Fundamental Research – It is based on the Question ‘Why things happen?’

→ Action or Applied Research – It is based on the Question ‘How things happen?’

Research Methods Vs Research Methodology

Research methods are all those methods and techniques that are used for the conduction of research. It refers to the methods the researchers use in performing research operations. It can be put under three groups –

Methods concerned with the collection of data
Statistical techniques used for establishing a relationship between variables.
Methods to evaluate the accuracy of the results.

Research Methodology – is a way to systematically solve a research problem. It is a science of studying how research is done scientifically. Essentially it is the procedure by which the researchers go about their work of describing, evaluating and predicting phenomenon. It aims to give the work plan of research. It provides training in choosing methods materials, scientific tools and techniques relevant to the solution of the problem.

Research Process

It consists of a logical sequence of steps or actions that are necessary to effectively solve a research problem.

(i) Formulating the Research Problem – The researcher must choose the problem he wants to study and decide the area of interest and subject matter he would inquire about.

(ii) Extensive Literature Survey – After choosing the research problem an extensive literature survey is done and a brief summary of the problem is written down.

(iii) Development of working hypothesis – A working hypothesis must be stated in clear terms. It can be developed through the following approaches:-

Finding about the origin of the problem and studying its objectives

By discussing the problem with colleagues and experts

By examining past data and records

By review of similar studies and similar problems

(iv) Preparing the research design – The research is designed depending upon its utility and appropriateness for a particular research problem. It involves consideration of the following:-

The means of obtaining the information

The availability and skills of a researcher

Accuracy, Reliability, and Validity of the data

The time available for research and the costs related to the research

(v) Determining the sample design – Sampling can either be probability sampling or non-probability sampling. The researcher must carefully choose the sampling procedure and sample size and must also look out for sampling errors.

(vi) Collecting the Data – There is a need for reliable and accurate data to carry out effective research. Data collection may be done by any of the following methods:-

Observation

Telephonic Interviews

Questionnaire

Other Methods

(vii) Execution of research – The research must be systematically executed in order to collect correct and accurate data.

(viii) Analysis of Data – Analysis of data involves the application of many tools and techniques to the raw data to make meaningful and useful interpretations. The main task includes the establishment of categories, tabulation of data and drawing out statistical inferences.

(ix) Hypothesis testing – After analyzing the data the researcher tests the hypothesis formulated by him in the earlier stages.

(x) Generalizations and Interpretations – The hypothesis testing may be favourable or unfavourable . The researcher arrives at generalizations based on the result of the hypothesis testing.

(xi) Preparation of the research report – The layout for a research report should be in the order:-

Preliminary Pages – The research report must contain the full title, foreword and acknowledgment in the preliminary pages.

Main body or text – The main text must contain an introduction, summary of findings, main report and conclusion.

End Matter – The end matter of the report must contain appendices in respect of all technical terms and data used in the report and must end with a bibliography.

Features of a Good Research Study

♦ It should be Systematic – A research must be structured with specified steps in a specified sequence, according to well-defined set of rules.

♦ It should be Logical – A research must be guided by logic reasoning and the logical process of induction and deduction.

♦ It should be Empirical – The research must be related to one or more aspects of real-life situations.

♦ It should be Replicable – Other people must be able to verify and replicate the original research report.

♦ The purpose of the research should be clearly defined and common concepts used.

♦ The research procedure should be well described in detail to permit replication.

♦ The Design should be planned to yield results that are objective.

♦ The researcher must report with complete frankness and flaws.

♦ The analysis of data must be adequate and the method of analysis should be appropriate.

♦ Conclusions must be confined to those justified by the data and limited to those for which data is not adequate.

♦ The Researcher is experienced, has a good reputation and is a person of integrity.

Importance of Research Methodology

♦ Research inculcates scientific and inductive thinking and promotes the development of logical habits of thinking and organization.

♦ Research plays a dynamic role in several fields and it has increased significantly in recent times, it can be related to small businesses and also to the economy as a whole.

♦ Most of the Government Regulations and Policies are based on and are a result of intensive research.

♦ Its significance lies in solving various planning and operational problems.

♦ It aids in decision making.

♦ It involves the study of cause and effect relationships between various variables and helps to identify behaviour/patterns/trends in certain variables.

A REVIEW ON: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY – I

About Authors: Chaudhari Rahul B. Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, University Institute of Chemical Technology (UICT), North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon - 425 001 (M.S.) India [email protected]

Abstract: Research is a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a specific topic. Research is a process of manipulation of things, concepts or symbols for the purpose of generalizing to extend, correct or verify knowledge, whether that knowledge aids in the construction of theory or in the practice of an art. Research Methodology comprises types of research, criteria, objective, and significance of research. The research process various steps, at times, the first step determines the nature of the last step to be undertaken. Here we only discuss about first to three steps they are defining the research problem, review of literature, formulation of hypothesis. This various steps of research process are discussed in brief here.

Reference Id: PHARMATUTOR-ART-1989

Defining Research: Research refers to a search for knowledge. A scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a specific topic. In fact, research is an art of scientific investigation. “ A careful investigation or inquiry especially through search for new facts in any branch of knowledge .” The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English “ Systematized effort to gain new knowledge ” Redman and Mory. [1, 2] Research is a process of manipulation of things, concepts or symbols for the purpose of generalizing to extend, correct or verify knowledge, whether that knowledge aids in the construction of theory or in the practice of an art” Slesinger and Stephenson in Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences. The search for knowledge through objective and systematic method of finding solution to a problem is “ research” . [1, 6]

Research comprises the following: Defining and redefining the problem Formulating hypothesis collecting, organizing and evaluating data Making deductions and reaching conclusions. Carefully testing the conclusions to determine whether they fit the hypothesis

Types of Research:

Descriptive
Fundamental
Quantitative
Qualitative

Defining Research Methodology:

Research methods: All those methods/techniques that are used for conduction of research. Research methods or techniques, thus, refer to the methods the researchers use in performing research operations.

Research methodology: It is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. [1]

Objectives of Research: 1. To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights into it (studies with this object in view are termed as exploratory or formulative research studies ).

2. To portray accurately the characteristics of a particular individual, situation or a group (studies with this object in view are known as descriptive research studies ).

3. To determine the frequency with which something occurs or with which it is associated with something else (studies with this object in view are known as diagnostic research studies).

4. To test a hypothesis of a causal relationship between variables (such studies are known as hypothesis testing research studies ). [1, 2]

Research Process: The research process comprises of 1. Formulating the research problem 2. Extensive literature survey 3. Developing the hypothesis 4. Preparing the research design 5. Determining sample design 6. Collecting the data 7. Execution of the project 8. Analysis of data 9. Hypothesis testing; 10. Generalizations and interpretation 11. Preparation of the report or presentation of the results, i.e. formal write-up of conclusions reached. [1, 5]

Significance / Relevance of Research: “All progress is born of inquiry. Doubt is often better than overconfidence, for it leads to inquiry, and inquiry leads to invention” Hudson Increased amounts of research make progress possible. Research inculcates scientific and inductive thinking and it promotes the development of logical habits of thinking and organization. To students who are to write a master’s or Ph.D. thesis, research may mean a careerism or a way to attain a high position in the social structure; To professionals in research methodology, research may mean a source of livelihood; To philosophers and thinkers, research may mean the outlet for new ideas and insights; To literary men and women, research may mean the development of new styles and creative work; To analysts and intellectuals, research may mean the generalizations of new theories. [1, 2]

Criteria of Good Research:

1. Purpose should be clearly defined.

2. Research Process (source of data etc.) should be described in sufficient detail (except when secrecy is required).

3. There is a clear statement of research aims, which defines the research question. [5]

4. Design (Sampling, questionnaire, observation etc) should be thoroughly planned so as to yield objective results.

5. High ethical standards.

6. Limitations should be frankly revealed (e.g. flaws in design) so that the decision maker is made aware.

7. Analysis of data should be adequate and methods of analysis appropriate. Should check for reliabilityand validity, and probability of error

8. Unambiguous presentation

9. Conclusions should be confined to those justified by the data of the research.

A good research is,

Research process:

Fig. 1. Research Process

The chart indicates that the research process consists of a number of closely related activities, as shown through I to VII. But such activities overlap continuously rather than following a strictly prescribed sequence. At times, the first step determines the nature of the last step to be undertaken. If subsequent procedures have not been taken into account in the early stages, serious difficulties may arise which may even prevent the completion of the study. One should remember that the various steps involved in a research process are not mutually exclusive; nor are they separate and distinct.

Defining the research problem:

What is a research problem?

The term ‘problem’ means a question or issue to be examined.

Research Problem refers to some difficulty /need which a researcher experiences in the context of either theoretical or practical situation and wants to obtain a solution for the same.

The first step in the research process – definition of the problem involves two activities:

Identification / Selection of the Problem
Formulation of the Problem [1, 2, 4]

How do we know we have a research problem?

Customer complaints
Conversation with company employees
Observation of inappropriate behaviour or conditions in the firm
Deviation from the business plan
Success of the firm’s competitor’s
Relevant reading of published material (trends, regulations)
Company records and reports.

Identification / selection of the research problem: This step involves identification of a few problems and selection of one out of them, after evaluating the alternatives against certain selection criteria.

Sources of problems:

Academic Experience
Daily Experience
Exposure to Field Situations
Consultations
Brainstorming
Intuition [1]

Definition / formulation of the research problem: Formulation is the process of refining the research ideas into research questions and objectives. Formulation means translating and transforming the selected research problem/topic/idea into a scientifically researchable question. It is concerned with specifying exactly what the research problem is.

Process involved in defining the problem: The selection of one appropriate research able problem out of the identified problems requires evaluation of those alternatives against certain criteria. They are:

Internal / Personal criteria – Researcher’s Interest, Researcher’s Competence, Researcher’s own Resource: finance and time.
External Criteria or Factors – Research ability of the problem, Importance and Urgency, Novelty of the Problem, Feasibility, Facilities, Usefulness and Social Relevance, Research Personnel.

Problem definition or Problem statement is a clear, precise and succinct statement of the question or issue that is to be investigated with the goal of finding an answer or solution.

There are two ways of stating a problem: 1) Posting question / questions 2) Making declarative statement / statements [1]

Understanding the nature of problem:

Surveying the available literature
Understanding the nature of problem
Developing ideas through discussions
Rephrasing the research problem

Defining Problem, Results in Clear Cut Research Objectives.

Review of literature: Literature Review is the documentation of a comprehensive review of the published and unpublished work from secondary sources of data in the areas of specific interest to the researcher. The main aim is to find out problems that are already investigated and those that need further investigation. It is an extensive survey of all available past studies relevant to the field of investigation. It gives us knowledge about what others have found out in the related field of study and how they have done so. [3]

Purpose of review:

To gain a background knowledge of the research topic.
To identify the concepts relating to it, potential relationships between them and to formulate researchable hypothesis.
To identify appropriate methodology, research design, methods of measuring concepts and techniques of analysis.
To identify data sources used by other.

Sources of literature:

Books and Journals
Electronic Databases
Bibliographic Databases
Abstract Databases
Full-Text Databases
Govt. and Industry Reports
Research Dissertations / Thesis

How to write the review?

1. There are several ways of presenting the ideas of others within the body of the paper.

2. For Example; If you are referring the majorinfluencing factors in the Sheth’s model of Industrial Buying Behaviour, it can be written as,

1) Sheth (1973, p-50) has suggested that, there are a number of influencing factors …….. 2) According to Sheth (1973) model of industrial buying behaviour. 3) In some models of industrial buying behaviour, there are a number of influencing factors (Sheth, 1973). 4) In some models of industrial buying behaviour, there are a number of influencing factors1. 1. Sheth J.N (1973), A Model of Industrial Buying Behaviour, Journal of Marketing, 37(4), 50-56.

Points to be kept in mind while reviewing literature:

Read relevant literature.
Refer original works.
Read with comprehension.
Read in time.
Index the literature.

Formulation of hypothesis: A hypothesis is an assumption about relations between variables.

Hypothesis can be defined as a logically conjectured relationship between two or more variables expressed in the form of a testable statement. Relationships are conjectured on the basis of the network of associations established in the theoretical framework formulated for the research study. Research Hypothesis is a predictive statement that relates an independent variable to a dependant variable. Hypothesis must contain at least one independent variable and one dependant variable. Hypothesis is tentative, intelligent guesses as to the solution of the problem.
Hypothesis is a specific statement of prediction. It describes in concrete terms what you expect to happen in the study.
Hypothesis is an assumption about the population of the study.
It delimits the area of research and keeps the researcher on the right track. [7]

Problem (VS) hypothesis:

Hypothesis is an assumption, that can be tested and can be proved to be right or wrong.
A problem is a broad question which cannot be directly tested. A problem can be scientifically investigated after converting it into a form of hypothesis.

Characteristics of hypothesis:

1. Conceptual Clarity - It should be clear and precise.

2. Specificity - It should be specific and limited in scope.

3. Consistency - It should be consistent with the objectives of research.

4. Testability - It should be capable of being tested.

5. Expectancy - It should state the expected relationships between variables.

Simplicity - It should be stated as far as possible in simple terms.
Objectivity - It should not include value judgments, relative terms or any moral preaching.
Theoretical Relevance - It should be consistent with a substantial body of established or known facts or existing theory.
Availability of Techniques – Statistical methods should be available for testing the proposed hypothesis.

Sources of hypothesis:

Discussions with colleagues and experts about the problem, its origin and objectives in seeking a solution.
Examination of data and records for possible trends, peculiarities.
Review of similar studies.
Exploratory personal investigation / Observation.
Logical deduction from the existing theory.
Continuity of research.
Intuition and personal experience. [8]

Types of hypothesis:

1. Descriptive Hypothesis: These are assumptions that describe the characteristics (such as size, form or distribution) of a variable. The variable may be an object, person, organisation, situation or event.

Examples: “Public enterprises are more amenable for centralized planning”.

2. Relational Hypothesis [Explanatory Hypothesis]: These are assumptions that describe the relationship between two variables. The relationship suggested may be positive, negative or causal relationship.

Examples: “Families with higher incomes spend more for recreation”. Causal Hypothesis state that the existence of or change in one variable causes or leads to an effect on another variable. The first variable is called the independent variable and the latter is the dependant variable.

3. Null Hypothesis: When a hypothesis is stated negatively, it is called null hypothesis. It is a ‘no difference’, ‘no relationship’ hypothesis. ie., It states that, no difference exists between the parameter and statistic being compared to or no relationship exists between the variables being compared. It is usually represented as HO or H0.

Example: H0: There is no relationship between a family’s income and expenditure on recreation.

4. Alternate Hypothesis: It is the hypothesis that describes the researcher’s prediction that, there exist a relationship between two variables or it is the opposite of null hypothesis. It is represented as HA or H1.

Example: HA: There is a definite relationship between family’s income and expenditure on recreation.

Functions or role of hypothesis: 1. It gives a definite point to the investigation and provides direction to the study. 2. It determines the data needs. 3. It specifies the sources of data. 4. It suggests which type of research is likely to be more appropriate. 5. It determines the most appropriate technique of analysis. 6. It contributes to the development of theory. [1]

Conflict Of Interest: “No conflict of interest”

Reference: 1. C.R. Kothari, Research Methodology- Methods and techniques, 2nd revised edition, New age international publishers, page no.1-54. 2. John W. Best, James V. Kahn, Research in Education, 7th edition ,1995, Prentice hall of India, Page no. 1-61. 3. Sandra Poncet, Research Methodology 2: Writing a good research paper, Semester 1, Academic year, 2012-2013. 4. Getu DeguTegbar Yigzaw, Research Methodology, In collaboration with the Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative, The Carter Center, the Ethiopia Ministry of Health, and the Ethiopia Ministry of Education, 2006. 5. Principles of good research and research proposal guide, Prepared by the Policy, Performance and Quality Assurance Unit (Adults) Tamsin White, March 2006. 6. Prof. Marzuki B. Khalid, Research Methodology-Module 1-Overview of Research and its Methodologies. 7. Nicola Boyd, A Creative Writing Research Methodology: new directions, Strange Loops and tornados, Margins and Mainstreams: Refereed conference papers of the 14th Annual AAWP Conference, 2009. 8. Panas, A. and Pantouvakis, J. P., Evaluating Research Methodology in Construction Productivity Studies, The Built & Human Environment Review, Volume 3, Special Issue 1, 2010.

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A Systematic Approach to Solving Just About Any Problem

Problems can be difficult to solve when we only know the issue and none of the steps to fix it. Sometimes it's even more daunting to figure out what those steps are at all. This guide will help you take just about any problem and figure out a plan to solve it and stay motivated when handling long-term issues.

Some problems, such as fixing a broken computer, can be pretty easy to solve if you have the right knowledge. Others, such as figuring out what you want to do with your life, can be very overwhelming because that answer is unique to you and takes time and experience to resolve—not to mention several other complications. Nonetheless, you can find solutions to simple and difficult problems alike by approaching them a particular way. While this approach to problem-solving isn't the only way, it's one way I've found particularly effective. Here are the basic steps you need to take to go from problem to solution:

Understand the Problem , so you know you're actually focusing on the the real issue at hand.

Create a Plan , so you have a series of actionable steps to follow.

Keep Yourself Motivated , so you don't give up or get frustrated when it takes a while to successfully resolve the problem.

In this guide we'll go over each step in detail and use each steps to solve a bizarre dilemma.

Understand the Problem

Understanding the problem you're trying to solve is often the most difficult step because it's easy to focus on the wrong part of the problem, or look at the problem too broadly. For example, if you're sick you may see the problem as being sick. You may be able to get more specific and say that you feel congested. The problem of congestion is more specific and therefore a bit better than knowing your sick, but it's a symptom that applies to many different illnesses and can't reveal the exact problem. You may have a cold, the flu, seasonal allergies, etc., but this one piece of information won't tell you enough to be sure. The problem is, both illness and congestion seem like the problems you want to solve because they're the things that are bothering you, but by seeking to solve either issue you're essentially taking shots in the dark. In order to properly understand the problem you have and make a real effort to solve it, you need to figure out what the problem really is. You need to break the problem down into its simplest form.

Let's look at another example.

The Case of the Stolen Leg: Part I

Pretend for a moment that you lost your leg in a horrible accident and have been living with a prosthetic leg for the past few years. One day you're visited by a traveling salesman who takes a liking to your fake leg and offers to buy it. You don't want to sell it, so he takes advantage of your disability, knocks you on the ground, and steals your leg. The obvious problem is that you're now missing a leg, but that's a problem with little specificity. Fortunately, this is an easy problem to understand because you know the cause: the traveling salesman stole it. That provides a simple solution as well: you need to find the salesman to retrieve your missing prosthetic leg.

That is an easy problem to distill because the cause is obvious, but let's say it's not. What if your leg went missing, suddenly, while you were asleep? You'd look for clues. Perhaps the culprit dropped an item or two along the way. Maybe someone saw him running out with the leg late at night and would be able to identify him. Maybe the tire treads on his car were unusual and could lead to more information. Regardless of what the clues are, when you're trying to solve any kind of problem you need to look for as much information as possible so you know you're focusing on the right things. If you wake up with a missing leg, you might quickly realize that someone stole it but that clue isn't specific enough to be very helpful. It's only enough to help you look for the right kinds of clues.

This is very similar to solving the problem of your congestion. It may seem silly to draw correlations between figuring out an illness and solving the mystery of a stolen prosthetic—and in some ways it is—but the process is pretty much the same. If you're trying to figure out the root cause of illness, you simply search for clues and gather information based on what you find. You might ask what other symptoms you have until those symptoms point to a particular illness. (Or you might just go see a doctor, because you don't want to mess around with your health.)

Regardless of the type of problem, the first thing you need to do is reduce it to its simplest and purest form so you know exactly what you're dealing with. While you're doing this, you need to ask yourself questions to make sure you're focusing on the right things. Once you have your correct and simplified problem, you can move on and put together a plan to actually solve it.

Create a Plan

A problem is just a problem if you don't have any means of finding the solution. You may know the result you're looking for, but if you don't have steps to get there it'll be too far to reach. To get from point A to point B, you need a plan with actionable steps. To figure out those steps, you need to ask yourself what's barring you from moving forward and make that step one. Step one will open doors to other steps. Consider which steps will open more doors, add them to the plan, and keep doing that until you get to your solution. Things will change as you act on the plan and you'll need to adapt, so it's best to keep your plan somewhat open-ended and try to include steps that involve preparing for trouble you can foresee. Obviously this is a bit vague, so let's get back to our story.

The Case of the Stolen Leg: Part II

The problem that needs solving is pretty clear: you've lost your prosthetic leg and you want to get it back. But then you stop—mentally, of course, as you're not going very far with one leg. How are you going to get your leg back? You know the result you want, but achieving it seems impossible. This is not because the traveling salesman has a leg up on you, so to speak, but because you're looking at point A—your missing leg—and point B—catching the salesman and getting your leg back. There's a lot of distance between those two points, and you're not going to get there without some actionable steps in between. What you need is a plan.

How do you put together a plan to recover your leg? You need to avoid thinking about the ultimate outcome and more about the most urgent issue at hand. If your leg has been stolen and you're lying on the ground, what's the first thing you need to do? Get up off the ground. After that? Call for help, as you can't give chase too easily in your condition. So, solving the case of the stolen leg might look something like this:

Use the chair you were sitting on to help you move yourself inside so you can reach a telephone.

Call the police and report the theft.

Call a friend to help you track down the salesman/leg thief.

Get your friend to take you to local hotels and motels to try and find out where the salesman/leg thief is staying while in town. He's traveling after all, so he must be staying somewhere temporary.

Wait for the salesman/leg thief at his temporary residence and retrieve the leg.

This plan has steps that work nicely if you know the exact outcome. When you know your outcome, you can outline steps like these because you know exactly where you're going to end up. Technical problems are uniformly simple in this way, but when you're dealing with people you don't have this type of predictability. Generally there's a variable level of capriciousness you have to account for when outlining your solutions. If you do not account for the unexpected, your plan will eventually render itself useless. Obviously, this is something you do not want to happen.

Keep Yourself Motivated

If you end up with a useless plan, it's hard to stay motivated because you might think you've failed. You haven't, but you've just fallen into a common trap of creating a plan that isn't flexible enough to account for surprises along the way. You not only need to make your plans flexible, but you want to try and plan for surprises as well. You won't always know what they are, but you can make educated guesses and be a little more prepared to deal with issues when they arise. This will help keep you motivated when solving problems that take more time, as these surprises won't be so devastating if you're ready for them. Again, this is a bit vague. Let's take a look at how we can use these strategies to get our stolen leg back.

The Case of the Stolen Leg: Part III

Suppose you check every hotel and motel in town but do not locate the salesman. Assuming you've received 100% honest information and he's truly not patronizing any of the local accommodations, your plan becomes useless. This is fine, as most problems you'll encounter will throw you a few surprises and your plan will have to change. The important thing is that you recognize these surprises. In the case of the leg thief salesman, your first instinct failed you and you need more information. At this point you might be kicking yourself—figuratively, of course—because you could've asked everyone you met at the hotels for more information instead of just trying to find out if he'd purchased a room. If you'd collected that information, you might have found out that someone saw him frequenting their favorite coffee shop. You'd then be able to easily change your plan to visit the coffee shop, talk to the baristas, and learn that he's staying with his old aunt who lives on the outskirts of town. With this information, you'd be able to visit his old aunt and catch him before he departed into the sunset with your prosthetic leg.

That's a happy ending to the story, but let's say things didn't work out so well. Let's say you do actually fail and don't get your leg back. Having a plan doesn't mean you eventually get what you want and always succeed. For that reason, it helps to account for failure as well. In a case like this, you can buy another prosthetic leg. It might not be an ideal outcome, but at least you'll be able to get a replacement—even if it's at your own expense. Knowing you won't be legless for too long can reduce the anxiety that comes with taking a chance. You know that if you fail, you'll still be okay.

Let's take a look at what we just did:

First, we figured out the problem: we're missing a leg, it was stolen by a traveling salesman, and we need to get that leg back.

Second, we created an initial plan, starting with the most urgent step that would open doors to new steps. We did not know the outcome, so we needed to speculate.

Finally, because the outcome in our initial plan wasn't assured, we modified the plan to account for potential surprises so we could adapt to any new information we encountered along the way. We also planned for failure so we knew we'd be okay no matter what.

Following those steps is generally the easiest way to solve a problem. Of course, a stolen prosthetic leg is not a situation most of us are going to encounter during our lives. Before we wrap things up, let's take a look at a couple of practical examples and how this process applies to them.

A Couple of More Practical Examples

Since you're unlikely to find yourself hunting down prosthetic leg thieves, we're going to take a quick look at breaking down and solving a simple technical problem as well as a complicated life problem.

Breaking Down a Technical Problem

Consider a broken computer that needs to be fixed. All you know is that the computer turns on and makes a strange noise, but it refuses to boot up. You don't know anything more than this, but you still want to fix the computer. With most problems, you have to do a little research to figure out what's truly wrong. This is a lot more fun if you look at it like solving a mystery and use the clues you have to find new clues until you have the answer you're looking for. In the case of the broken computer, consider what you already know: the computer won't boot up and it's making a strange noise. In this case, you're not necessarily being detailed enough. What does the noise sound like? For the purposes of this example, it sounds like clicking—almost like a ticking clock. From here you can easily search online for more information about a broken computer making a clicking noise and you'll discover that the broken component is likely the hard drive. Now you know the actual problem: your hard drive is dead. The solution: it needs to be replaced.

From here you can move forward and plan how to solve it. Your plan might look something like this:

Search online for instructions on how to replace the hard drive.

Purchase a replacement hard drive.

Install replacement hard drive.

Restore data to the new drive using a backup (because you're so responsible and set up a great automated backup plan before you drive died).

Breaking Down a Complicated Life Problem

Life problems, or problems that less technical and uniform in their solutions, can be a little more difficult to pin down but the process is nonetheless the same. Let's say you've been working as a real estate agent for several years but your real dream in life is to become a painter. That's a particularly big shift in careers, but your happiness is important to you and you're ready to try.

In the worst case scenario, your problem is likely that you want to become a painter but you don't know how. This is about as vague as you can get, but it's not a bad clue to start with. If you don't know how to do something, just ask someone who does. While it's unlikely that you won't be able to ask the advice of another painter, or read their advice in a book or on the internet, let's pretend those options don't exist. If all you have is yourself and need another clue, you can always look to a similar problem you've solved in the past, even if you didn't intend to solve it. Even though your experience as a real estate agent seems irrelevant, it's not. You still had to get that job, somehow, and maintain your position for several years. How did you do that? You had some knowledge that made you seem somewhat attractive to an employer and you convinced them to take a chance on you. Throughout the years you gained experience and success, making it easy to find work and make money as a real estate agent. If you want to work as a painter, which is also a job, you need those same basic things. The problem, in the worst case, is that you are unemployable as a painter because you have no talent or experience. That's the real problem you need to solve.

How can we create a plan to make your dream of becoming a painter come true? We know he the problem is that you don't have the requisite experience or talent to become a painter, so what is the most urgent need? You need to gain experience and talent. Once you have those things, you need to use that experience and talent to find work and become more and more successful. Your plan might look like this:

Take a night class on painting ( our learn digital painting for free on Lifehacker ).

Save money in case of a problem.

Practice until enough good paintings exist to create a portfolio.

Use real estate contacts to find already happy customers who might be interested in a painting or a wall mural.

Gain enough customers to quit working as a real estate agent.

Try to earn a living as a freelance painter. If things don't work out, live off of savings until they do or until another job can be found.

This is a pretty basic plan, but that's the idea. When you're breaking down a problem into a plan, you only want to get as specific as is necessary to move forward. If you get too specific, surprises will often trip you up. If you're not specific enough, you won't know what to do next. The goal is to create steps that keep you moving but don't trap you when the situation changes. Being too narrow-minded with your goals can make it easy to miss the right choices .

All you really need to do to solve any problem is distill it into its simplest form, create a plan that consists of actionable steps to solve the problem, and make that plan flexible enough so that you don't become discouraged. Doing these things won't necessarily make the problem easier to solve, but it will clarify the unknown and provide a means of actually achieving the solution.

Got any great tricks you use to make problem-solving an easier task? Let's hear ‘em in the comments.

Photos by Francesco Pappalardo , Aviya Serfaty , F Delventhal , Monica Arellano-Ongpin , keith011764 , Dan Previte , and Stephanie Watson .

You can follow Adam Dachis, the author of this post, on Twitter and Facebook . If you'd like to contact him, Twitter is the most effective means of doing so.

Effective Problem-Solving Techniques in Business

Problem solving is an increasingly important soft skill for those in business. The Future of Jobs Survey by the World Economic Forum drives this point home. According to this report, complex problem solving is identified as one of the top 15 skills that will be sought by employers in 2025, along with other soft skills such as analytical thinking, creativity and leadership.

Dr. Amy David , clinical associate professor of management for supply chain and operations management, spoke about business problem-solving methods and how the Purdue University Online MBA program prepares students to be business decision-makers.

Why Are Problem-Solving Skills Essential in Leadership Roles?

Every business will face challenges at some point. Those that are successful will have people in place who can identify and solve problems before the damage is done.

“The business world is constantly changing, and companies need to be able to adapt well in order to produce good results and meet the needs of their customers,” David says. “They also need to keep in mind the triple bottom line of ‘people, profit and planet.’ And these priorities are constantly evolving.”

To that end, David says people in management or leadership need to be able to handle new situations, something that may be outside the scope of their everyday work.

“The name of the game these days is change—and the speed of change—and that means solving new problems on a daily basis,” she says.

The pace of information and technology has also empowered the customer in a new way that provides challenges—or opportunities—for businesses to respond.

“Our customers have a lot more information and a lot more power,” she says. “If you think about somebody having an unhappy experience and tweeting about it, that’s very different from maybe 15 years ago. Back then, if you had a bad experience with a product, you might grumble about it to one or two people.”

David says that this reality changes how quickly organizations need to react and respond to their customers. And taking prompt and decisive action requires solid problem-solving skills.

What Are Some of the Most Effective Problem-Solving Methods?

David says there are a few things to consider when encountering a challenge in business.

“When faced with a problem, are we talking about something that is broad and affects a lot of people? Or is it something that affects a select few? Depending on the issue and situation, you’ll need to use different types of problem-solving strategies,” she says.

Using Techniques

There are a number of techniques that businesses use to problem solve. These can include:

Five Whys : This approach is helpful when the problem at hand is clear but the underlying causes are less so. By asking “Why?” five times, the final answer should get at the potential root of the problem and perhaps yield a solution.
Gap Analysis : Companies use gap analyses to compare current performance with expected or desired performance, which will help a company determine how to use its resources differently or adjust expectations.
Gemba Walk : The name, which is derived from a Japanese word meaning “the real place,” refers to a commonly used technique that allows managers to see what works (and what doesn’t) from the ground up. This is an opportunity for managers to focus on the fundamental elements of the process, identify where the value stream is and determine areas that could use improvement.
Porter’s Five Forces : Developed by Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter, applying the Five Forces is a way for companies to identify competitors for their business or services, and determine how the organization can adjust to stay ahead of the game.
Six Thinking Hats : In his book of the same name, Dr. Edward de Bono details this method that encourages parallel thinking and attempting to solve a problem by trying on different “thinking hats.” Each color hat signifies a different approach that can be utilized in the problem-solving process, ranging from logic to feelings to creativity and beyond. This method allows organizations to view problems from different angles and perspectives.
SWOT Analysis : This common strategic planning and management tool helps businesses identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT).

“We have a lot of these different tools,” David says. “Which one to use when is going to be dependent on the problem itself, the level of the stakeholders, the number of different stakeholder groups and so on.”

Each of the techniques outlined above uses the same core steps of problem solving:

Identify and define the problem
Consider possible solutions
Evaluate options
Choose the best solution
Implement the solution
Evaluate the outcome

Data drives a lot of daily decisions in business and beyond. Analytics have also been deployed to problem solve.

“We have specific classes around storytelling with data and how you convince your audience to understand what the data is,” David says. “Your audience has to trust the data, and only then can you use it for real decision-making.”

Data can be a powerful tool for identifying larger trends and making informed decisions when it’s clearly understood and communicated. It’s also vital for performance monitoring and optimization.

How Is Problem Solving Prioritized in Purdue’s Online MBA?

The courses in the Purdue Online MBA program teach problem-solving methods to students, keeping them up to date with the latest techniques and allowing them to apply their knowledge to business-related scenarios.

“I can give you a model or a tool, but most of the time, a real-world situation is going to be a lot messier and more valuable than what we’ve seen in a textbook,” David says. “Asking students to take what they know and apply it to a case where there’s not one single correct answer is a big part of the learning experience.”

Make Your Own Decision to Further Your Career

An online MBA from Purdue University can help advance your career by teaching you problem-solving skills, decision-making strategies and more. Reach out today to learn more about earning an online MBA with Purdue University .

If you would like to receive more information about pursuing a business master’s at the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, please fill out the form and a program specialist will be in touch!

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Title: Applying micro-curriculum and university's social responsibility program to activate suburb farmsteads

Authors : Shiang-Shiang Chen; Tsung-Hsi Chen; Shao-Wen Su; Chien-Shiun Huang; Yi-Rou Chi; Wen-Pei Sung

Addresses : Integrated Research Center for Green Living Technologies, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, No. 57, Sec. 2, Zhongshan Rd., Taiping Dist., Taichung 41170, Taiwan ' Integrated Research Center for Green Living Technologies, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, No. 57, Sec. 2, Zhongshan Rd., Taiping Dist., Taichung 41170, Taiwan ' Integrated Research Center for Green Living Technologies, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, No. 57, Sec. 2, Zhongshan Rd., Taiping Dist., Taichung 41170, Taiwan ' Department of Digital Design, Hsing Wu University, New Taipei, Taiwan ' Integrated Research Center for Green Living Technologies, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, No. 57, Sec. 2, Zhongshan Rd., Taiping Dist., Taichung 41170, Taiwan ' Integrated Research Center for Green Living Technologies, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, No. 57, Sec. 2, Zhongshan Rd., Taiping Dist., Taichung 41170, Taiwan

Abstract : The phenomenon of over-urbanisation in Taiwan has resulted in an over-concentration of the population in urban areas and a widening gap between urban and rural areas. In order to solve this problem, this study selects urban-rural border settlements and uses the sustainable development goals (SDGs) as a basis to conduct cultural landscape, urban-rural disturbance, and cultural education. Through the university's social responsibility program, problem/project-based learning and local needs were developed into practical courses; this addresses urban-rural disparities by engaging faculty and students in the community, identifying problems, solving them, preserving heritage and cultural assets, and assisting in community development. The results found that: 1) systematically preserve tangible and intangible local cultural relics and histories in a digital way and in a timeline; 2) discover and preserve local popular music; 3) compile an audio-visual introduction manual of cultural relics for a wide circulation; 4) promote local linkages, community care, talent cultivation and cultural revitalisation among the university, the government and civic organisations in the region. The objectives of SDGs-11.4, 11.6, 11.7 and 11.a were effectively achieved.

Keywords : urban diseases; sustainable development goals; SDGs; problem/project-based learning; cultural relics preservation; teaching practice.

DOI : 10.1504/IJGE.2024.139278

International Journal of Green Economics, 2024 Vol.18 No.2, pp.200 - 225

Received: 01 Mar 2023 Accepted: 20 Nov 2023 Published online: 28 Jun 2024 *

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If we’re all so busy, why isn’t anything getting done?

Have you ever asked why it’s so difficult to get things done in business today—despite seemingly endless meetings and emails? Why it takes so long to make decisions—and even then not necessarily the right ones? You’re not the first to think there must be a better way. Many organizations address these problems by redesigning boxes and lines: who does what and who reports to whom. This exercise tends to focus almost obsessively on vertical command relationships and rarely solves for what, in our experience, is the underlying disease: the poor design and execution of collaborative interactions.

About the authors

This article is a collaborative effort by Aaron De Smet , Caitlin Hewes, Mengwei Luo, J.R. Maxwell , and Patrick Simon , representing views from McKinsey’s People & Organizational Performance Practice.

In our efforts to connect across our organizations, we’re drowning in real-time virtual interaction technology, from Zoom to Slack to Teams, plus group texting, WeChat, WhatsApp, and everything in between. There’s seemingly no excuse to not collaborate. The problem? Interacting is easier than ever, but true, productive, value-creating collaboration is not. And what’s more, where engagement is occurring, its quality is deteriorating. This wastes valuable resources, because every minute spent on a low-value interaction eats into time that could be used for important, creative, and powerful activities.

It’s no wonder a recent McKinsey survey found 80 percent of executives were considering or already implementing changes in meeting structure and cadence in response to the evolution in how people work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, most executives say they frequently find themselves spending way too much time on pointless interactions that drain their energy and produce information overload.

Most executives say they frequently find themselves spending way too much time on pointless interactions.

Three critical collaborative interactions

What can be done? We’ve found it’s possible to quickly improve collaborative interactions by categorizing them by type and making a few shifts accordingly. We’ve observed three broad categories of collaborative interactions (exhibit):

Decision making, including complex or uncertain decisions (for example, investment decisions) and cross-cutting routine decisions (such as quarterly business reviews)
Creative solutions and coordination, including innovation sessions (for example, developing new products) and routine working sessions (such as daily check-ins)
Information sharing, including one-way communication (video, for instance) and two-way communication (such as town halls with Q&As)

Below we describe the key shifts required to improve each category of collaborative interaction, as well as tools you can use to pinpoint problems in the moment and take corrective action.

Decision making: Determining decision rights

When you’re told you’re “responsible” for a decision, does that mean you get to decide? What if you’re told you’re “accountable”? Do you cast the deciding vote, or does the person responsible? What about those who must be “consulted”? Sometimes they are told their input will be reflected in the final answer—can they veto a decision if they feel their input was not fully considered?

It’s no wonder one of the key factors for fast, high-quality decisions is to clarify exactly who makes them. Consider a success story at a renewable-energy company. To foster accountability and transparency, the company developed a 30-minute “role card” conversation for managers to have with their direct reports. As part of this conversation, managers explicitly laid out the decision rights and accountability metrics for each direct report. The result? Role clarity enabled easier navigation for employees, sped up decision making, and resulted in decisions that were much more customer focused.

How to define decision rights

We recommend a simple yet comprehensive approach for defining decision rights. We call it DARE, which stands for deciders, advisers, recommenders, and executors:

Deciders are the only ones with a vote (unlike the RACI model, which helps determine who is responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed). If the deciders get stuck, they should jointly agree on how to escalate the decision or figure out a way to move the process along, even if it means agreeing to “disagree and commit.”

Advisers have input and help shape the decision. They have an outsize voice in setting the context of the decision and have a big stake in its outcome—for example, it may affect their profit-and-loss statements—but they don’t get a vote.

Recommenders conduct the analyses, explore the alternatives, illuminate the pros and cons, and ultimately recommend a course of action to advisers and deciders. They see the day-to-day implications of the decision but also have no vote. Best-in-class recommenders offer multiple options and sometimes invite others to suggest more if doing so may lead to better outcomes. A common mistake of recommenders, though, is coming in with only one recommendation (often the status quo) and trying to convince everyone it’s the best path forward. In general, the more recommenders, the better the process—but not in the decision meeting itself.

Executers don’t give input but are deeply involved in implementing the decision. For speed, clarity, and alignment, executers need to be in the room when the decision is made so they can ask clarifying questions and spot flaws that might hinder implementation. Notably, the number of executers doesn’t necessarily depend on the importance of the decision. An M&A decision, for example, might have just two executors: the CFO and a business-unit head.

To make this shift, ensure everyone is crystal clear about who has a voice but no vote or veto. Our research indicates while it is often helpful to involve more people in decision making, not all of them should be deciders—in many cases, just one individual should be the decider (see sidebar “How to define decision rights”). Don’t underestimate the difficulty of implementing this. It often goes against our risk-averse instinct to ensure everyone is “happy” with a decision, particularly our superiors and major stakeholders. Executing and sustaining this change takes real courage and leadership.

Creative solutions and coordination: Open innovation

Routine working sessions are fairly straightforward. What many organizations struggle with is finding innovative ways to identify and drive toward solutions. How often do you tell your teams what to do versus empowering them to come up with solutions? While they may solve the immediate need to “get stuff done,” bureaucracies and micromanagement are a recipe for disaster. They slow down the organizational response to the market and customers, prevent leaders from focusing on strategic priorities, and harm employee engagement. Our research suggests key success factors in winning organizations are empowering employees and spending more time on high-quality coaching interactions.

How microenterprises empower employees to drive innovative solutions

Haier, a Chinese appliance maker, created more than 4,000 microenterprises (MEs) that share common approaches but operate independently. Haier has three types of microenterprises:

Market-facing MEs have roots in Haier’s legacy appliance business, reinvented for today’s customer-centric, web-enabled world. They are expected to grow revenue and profit ten times faster than the industry average.
Incubating MEs focus on emerging markets such as e-gaming or wrapping new business models around familiar products. They currently account for more than 10 percent of Haier’s market capitalization.
“Node” MEs sell market-facing ME products and services such as design, manufacturing, and human-resources support.

Take Haier. The Chinese appliance maker divided itself into more than 4,000 microenterprises with ten to 15 employees each, organized in an open ecosystem of users, inventors, and partners (see sidebar “How microenterprises empower employees to drive innovative solutions”). This shift turned employees into energetic entrepreneurs who were directly accountable for customers. Haier’s microenterprises are free to form and evolve with little central direction, but they share the same approach to target setting, internal contracting, and cross-unit coordination. Empowering employees to drive innovative solutions has taken the company from innovation-phobic to entrepreneurial at scale. Since 2015, revenue from Haier Smart Home, the company’s listed home-appliance business, has grown by more than 18 percent a year, topping 209 billion renminbi ($32 billion) in 2020. The company has also made a string of acquisitions, including the 2016 purchase of GE Appliances, with new ventures creating more than $2 billion in market value.

Empowering others doesn’t mean leaving them alone. Successful empowerment, counterintuitively, doesn’t mean leaving employees alone. Empowerment requires leaders to give employees both the tools and the right level of guidance and involvement. Leaders should play what we call the coach role: coaches don’t tell people what to do but instead provide guidance and guardrails and ensure accountability, while stepping back and allowing others to come up with solutions.

Haier was able to use a variety of tools—including objectives and key results (OKRs) and common problem statements—to foster an agile way of working across the enterprise that focuses innovative organizational energy on the most important topics. Not all companies can do this, and some will never be ready for enterprise agility. But every organization can take steps to improve the speed and quality of decisions made by empowered individuals.

Managers who are great coaches, for example, have typically benefited from years of investment by mentors, sponsors, and organizations. We think all organizations should do more to improve the coaching skills of managers and help them to create the space and time to coach teams, as opposed to filling out reports, presenting in meetings, and other activities that take time away from driving impact through the work of their teams.

But while great coaches take time to develop, something as simple as a daily stand-up or check-in can drive horizontal connectivity, creating the space for teams to understand what others are doing and where they need help to drive work forward without having to specifically task anyone in a hierarchical way. You may also consider how you are driving a focus on outcomes over activities on a near-term and long-term basis. Whether it’s OKRs or something else, how is your organization proactively communicating a focus on impact and results over tasks and activities? What do you measure? How is it tracked? How is the performance of your people and your teams managed against it? Over what time horizons?

The importance of psychological safety. As you start this journey, be sure to take a close look at psychological safety. If employees don’t feel psychologically safe, it will be nearly impossible for leaders and managers to break through disempowering behaviors like constant escalation, hiding problems or risks, and being afraid to ask questions—no matter how skilled they are as coaches.

Employers should be on the lookout for common problems indicating that significant challenges to psychological safety lurk underneath the surface. Consider asking yourself and your teams questions to test the degree of psychological safety you have cultivated: Do employees have space to bring up concerns or dissent? Do they feel that if they make a mistake it will be held against them? Do they feel they can take risks or ask for help? Do they feel others may undermine them? Do employees feel valued for their unique skills and talents? If the answer to any of these is not a clear-cut “yes,” the organization likely has room for improvement on psychological safety and relatedness as a foundation to high-quality interactions within and between teams.

Information sharing: Fit-for-purpose interactions

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar? You spend a significant amount of time in meetings every day but feel like nothing has been accomplished. You jump from one meeting to another and don’t get to think on your own until 7 p.m. You wonder why you need to attend a series of meetings where the same materials are presented over and over again. You’re exhausted.

An increasing number of organizations have begun to realize the urgency of driving ruthless meeting efficiency and of questioning whether meetings are truly required at all to share information. Live interactions can be useful for information sharing, particularly when there is an interpretive lens required to understand the information, when that information is particularly sensitive, or when leaders want to ensure there’s ample time to process it and ask questions. That said, most of us would say that most meetings are not particularly useful and often don’t accomplish their intended objective.

We have observed that many companies are moving to shorter meetings (15 to 30 minutes) rather than the standard default of one-hour meetings in an effort to drive focus and productivity. For example, Netflix launched a redesign effort to drastically improve meeting efficiency, resulting in a tightly controlled meeting protocol. Meetings cannot go beyond 30 minutes. Meetings for one-way information sharing must be canceled in favor of other mechanisms such as a memo, podcast, or vlog. Two-way information sharing during meetings is limited by having attendees review materials in advance, replacing presentations with Q&As. Early data show Netflix has been able to reduce the number of meetings by more than 65 percent, and more than 85 percent of employees favor the approach.

Making meeting time a scarce resource is another strategy organizations are using to improve the quality of information sharing and other types of interactions occurring in a meeting setting. Some companies have implemented no-meeting days. In Japan, Microsoft’s “Work Life Choice Challenge” adopted a four-day workweek, reduced the time employees spend in meetings—and boosted productivity by 40 percent. 1 Bill Chappell, “4-day workweek boosted workers’ productivity by 40%, Microsoft Japan says,” NPR, November 4, 2019, npr.org. Similarly, Shopify uses “No Meeting Wednesdays” to enable employees to devote time to projects they are passionate about and to promote creative thinking. 2 Amy Elisa Jackson, “Feedback & meeting-free Wednesdays: How Shopify beats the competition,” Glassdoor, December 5, 2018, glassdoor.com. And Moveline’s product team dedicates every Tuesday to “Maker Day,” an opportunity to create and solve complex problems without the distraction of meetings. 3 Rebecca Greenfield, “Why your office needs a maker day,” Fast Company , April 17, 2014, fastcompany.com.

Finally, no meeting could be considered well scoped without considering who should participate, as there are real financial and transaction costs to meeting participation. Leaders should treat time spent in meetings as seriously as companies treat financial capital. Every leader in every organization should ask the following questions before attending any meeting: What’s this meeting for? What’s my role? Can I shorten this meeting by limiting live information sharing and focusing on discussion and decision making? We encourage you to excuse yourself from meetings if you don’t have a role in influencing the outcome and to instead get a quick update over email. If you are not essential, the meeting will still be successful (possibly more so!) without your presence. Try it and see what happens.

High-quality, focused interactions can improve productivity, speed, and innovation within any organization—and drive better business performance. We hope the above insights have inspired you to try some new techniques to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of collaboration within your organization.

Aaron De Smet is a senior partner in McKinsey’s New Jersey office; Caitlin Hewes is a consultant in the Atlanta office; Mengwei Luo is an associate partner in the New York office; J.R. Maxwell is a partner in the Washington, DC, office; and Patrick Simon is a partner in the Munich office.

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PDF Review Article Exploring Research Methodology: Review Article
Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. In it we study the various steps that are generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic behind them.
What is a Research Problem? Characteristics, Types, and Examples
A research problem is a gap in existing knowledge, a contradiction in an established theory, or a real-world challenge that a researcher aims to address in their research. It is at the heart of any scientific inquiry, directing the trajectory of an investigation. The statement of a problem orients the reader to the importance of the topic, sets ...
[PDF] Exploring Research Methodology: Review Article
Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem by studying the various steps that are generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic behind them. Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically.
Research Problems: How to Identify & Resolve
A research problem has two essential roles in setting your research project on a course for success. 1. They set the scope. The research problem defines what problem or opportunity you're looking at and what your research goals are. It stops you from getting side-tracked or allowing the scope of research to creep off-course.
(PDF) Chapter 3
Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of st udying how res earch is done sci entifically.
PDF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methods, thus refer to the methods the researcher use in performing the research operations. In other words all those methods which are used by the researcher during the course of his research problem are termed as as research methods. Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be
How To Solve a Research Problem
3. Always test each finding—no matter how small it may be—against the Evidence Analysis Process Map. The ultimate "fact" in all projects is this: Our conclusion can never be better than the evidence on which we base it. 4. Always use each finding to lead you to something else. No fact is an absolute.
Exploring Research Methodology: Review Article
ABSTRACT. Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. In it we study the various steps that are generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic behind them. It is necessary for the researcher ...
Exploring Research Methodology: Review Article
Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. In it we study the various steps that are generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic behind them.
What Is Research Methodology? (Why It's Important and Types)
A research methodology gives research legitimacy and provides scientifically sound findings. It also provides a detailed plan that helps to keep researchers on track, making the process smooth, effective and manageable. A researcher's methodology allows the reader to understand the approach and methods used to reach conclusions.
CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 1.0. Introduction
1.0. Introduction. Research methodology by its definition means "the systematic way to solve the research. problems" this is defined by Kothari 2004. This chapter details the research ...
PDF Chapter-3 Research Methodology
Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction: Research Methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problems. It is a science of various tools and techniques to be followed for collecting and analysing the data, information and material for the solution of problems identified for investigation. It is necessary to plan a study and know
Research Methodology: Design, Method, and Techniques
Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. In it we study the various steps that are generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic behind them. It is necessary for the researcher to know ...
LibGuides: Research Writing and Analysis: Problem Statement
Here is one way to construct a problem section (keep in mind you have a 250-300 word limit, but you can write first and edit later): It is helpful to begin the problem statement with a sentence: "The problem to be addressed through this study is…". Then, fill out the rest of the paragraph with elaboration of that specific problem, making ...
Research Methodology
Research Methodology - is a way to systematically solve a research problem. It is a science of studying how research is done scientifically. Essentially it is the procedure by which the researchers go about their work of describing, evaluating and predicting phenomenon. It aims to give the work plan of research.
PDF Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the
is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as. ience of studying how research is done scientifically. In it we study the various steps that are generally adopted by a researcher in study. his research problem along with the logic behind them. It is necessary for the researcher to know not only. research methods ...
PDF Research Methodology: An Introduction Meaning Of Research
the analytical tools of research. Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. In it we study the various steps that are generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic behind them.
(PDF) Identifying and Formulating the Research Problem
identify and determine the problem to study. Identifying a research problem is important. because, as the issue or concern in a particular setting that motivates and guides the need. Parlindungan ...
A REVIEW ON: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
It is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. [1] Objectives of Research: 1. To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights into it (studies with this object in view are termed as exploratory or formulative research studies). 2.
Module 5
Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. Skip to document. University; ... Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. Course: LLB (303) 336 Documents. Students shared 336 documents in this course ...
A Novel Approach to Study the Research Methodology
" Research methodology " is a way to systematically solve the research problem. I t may be understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically.
A Systematic Approach to Solving Just About Any Problem
April 25, 2011. Problems can be difficult to solve when we only know the issue and none of the steps to fix it. Sometimes it's even more daunting to figure out what those steps are at all. This ...
Effective Problem-Solving Techniques in Business
Problem solving is an increasingly important soft skill for those in business. The Future of Jobs Survey by the World Economic Forum drives this point home. According to this report, complex problem solving is identified as one of the top 15 skills that will be sought by employers in 2025, along with other soft skills such as analytical thinking, creativity and leadership.
Article: Applying micro-curriculum and university's social
The results found that: 1) systematically preserve tangible and intangible local cultural relics and histories in a digital way and in a timeline; 2) discover and preserve local popular music; 3) compile an audio-visual introduction manual of cultural relics for a wide circulation; 4) promote local linkages, community care, talent cultivation ...
(PDF) Research Methodology in the Built Environment: A Selection of
Choosing a particular research methodology is an important step to systematically solve the research problem (Kothari, 2004) and to execute a plan that describes the collection, measurement, and ...
If we're so busy, why isn't anything getting done?
Information sharing, including one-way communication (video, for instance) and two-way communication (such as town halls with Q&As) Below we describe the key shifts required to improve each category of collaborative interaction, as well as tools you can use to pinpoint problems in the moment and take corrective action.

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