Enggita Nurrachma Setyaning
041611333025
Accounting - EC
Chapter 3
THE RESEARCH PROCESS: THE BROAD PROBLEM AREA AND
DEFINING THE PROBLEM STATEMENT
Broad problem area
Examples of broad problem areas that a manager could observe at the workplace are as
follows:
1. Training programs are perhaps not as effective as anticipated.
2. The sales volume of a product is not picking up.
3. Minority group members in organizations are not advancing in their careers.
4. The newly installed information system is not being used by the managers for whom
it was primarily designed.
5. The introduction of flexible work hours has created more problems than it has solved
in many companies.
Preliminary information gathering
•Nature of information to be gathered
classified under two headings:
1. Background information on the organization – that is, the contextual factors.
2. Prevailing knowledge on the topic – that is, relevant findings from previous
research.
•Literature review
A literature review is a step-by-step process that involves the identification of
published and unpublished work from secondary data sources on the topic of interest,
the evaluation of this work in relation to the problem, and the documentation of this
work. a good literature review ensures that:
1. Important variables that are likely to influence the problem situation are not
left out of the study.
2. A clearer idea emerges as to what variables will be most important to consider
(parsimony), why they are considered important, and how they should be
investigated to solve the problem. Thus, the literature survey helps the
development of the theoretical framework and hypotheses for testing.
3. The problem statement can be made with precision and clarity.
