Description
Please read and digest the attachment for guide.
The purpose of the Research Project is to address a current real-world business problem in your field and propose a meaningful solution. This involves identifying an unresolved problem, explaining why it’s essential to address it, and outlining how your research will benefit both practitioners and scholars in your field.
The DRP is made up of five sections, and we will focus on section one now and continue until completion
DRP 801: Foundation of the Study and Research Proposal:
DRP 801 focuses on the foundational aspects of the study and the development of the research proposal. This section requires providing an overview of the context and background of the researched problem. It involves refining both the general and specific problem statements, articulating the purpose statement, emphasizing the significance of the study, and formulating research questions. The culmination of this section is the comprehensive research proposal for committee approval.
Please identify a Research topic that is relevant to healthcare and leadership afterwards write a one page overview of this including all that have been mentione above. Include at least 8 relevant scholarly citations and references
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A Guide to Crafting Effective Problem
Statements and Research Questions
Crafting Effective Problem Statements and Research Questions
Page 2 of 10
Overview
This paper aims to give the researcher an overview of how to develop Problem Statements,
and Research Questions that will get them moving quickly and in the right direction. The Problem
Statement can be considered the cornerstone of the research proposal. It is responsible for
establishing broadly what area will be studied with the general problem and narrowly focusing on
a section of that broad area with the specific problem. The Problem Statement also provides clear
and direct support from the current literature demonstrating that the problem exists. Research
Questions, on the other hand provide the basis of inquiry for your study. They are broad questions
that will be used to guide the research in addressing the Problem Statement. The simple rule for
developing Research Questions is to ask questions that address all the factual assertions made in
the Problem Statement, but none that ask questions outside of the Problem Statement. Research
Questions also guide the study’s choice of methodology, as will be seen below.
The Problem Statement
All good business research begins with a clearly articulated and focused Problem Statement!
To build a strong and focused problem statement related to the research project’s field of
study, just follow the method discussed below. This method is based upon a simple three-part
presentation; the beginning – the general problem, the middle – supporting statements, the end – the
specific problem. The Problem Statement example below is based on a business research study in
the field of Leadership. None of the citations provided are real and are only intended to illustrate
the process.
The First sentence
The general problem to be addressed is ______________ resulting in _____________.
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The general problem sentence must be an overarching problem related to the field of study
that can be proven to exist based on current (last five years) literature. It is also important to note
what a general problem sentence is not:
•
A general problem sentence is not a question – The general problem to be addressed is why
leaders are ineffective resulting in …
•
A general problem sentence is not a simple declarative – The general problem to be
addressed is leaders are ineffective resulting in …
A good general problem sentence addresses a specific issue in a clear, descriptive, and self-
explanatory way. Another way to think about a problem statement is that it generally describes a
situation we don’t want to happen, a situation that is not happening that we do want, or a situation
that is happening but not to the desired level. As can be seen from both of the examples below,
there is no confusion about what the broad focus of the study is intended to be:
•
The general problem to be addressed is the failure of leaders to gain employee support for
new initiatives resulting in ….
•
The general problem to be addressed is the lack of formal leadership training in for new
managers resulting in …..
The consequences (resulting in …) should provide a broad but clear statement regarding the
negative outcomes that result from the existence of the general problem:
•
… resulting in the inability of organizations to make critical changes.
•
… resulting in the reduction of organizational performance.
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Crafting Effective Problem Statements and Research Questions
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Putting all of that together, we could get: The general problem to be addressed is the
failure of leaders to gain employee support for new initiatives resulting in the inability of
organizations to make critical changes.
Next three or four sentences
In this middle section, the researcher must provide current literature support for the
assertions made in the general problem sentence. In the example above, the assertion was that
leaders are failing to gain employee support for new initiatives. Current literature sources would
be scholarly articles or monographs published in the last five years. If the source is older than that
the problem might not be prevalent or it might have been solved. So, develop active voice
declarative statements from current literature that support the assertions made in the first sentence
like the fictitious ones below:
•
Johnson (2020) stated that many high-level leaders struggle with effectively projecting an
engaging vision for a new initiative, making it difficult to gain employee buy-in.
•
In a recent study, Davis (2019) found that employee buy-in was the most critical
determining factor in projecting the future success of organizational change.
•
Henry (2022) supported these views by explaining that the ability of an organization to
make critical strategic changes is directly related to the leader’s ability to foster
organization-wide support of the initiative.
Last sentence
The specific problem to be addressed is ______________ within the _____________ resulting in
____________.
The specific problem must be a narrowly focused subset of the general problem that is
practical to study within the constraints of the program. In our example, the researcher is not trying
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to study the entire world of organizations and leaders, just a subset that will give insight into the
entire world. In the examples below, the specific problem starts with the same words as the general
problem, like the first one or a subset of the problem like the last two:
•
The specific problem to be addressed is the failure of leaders to gain employee support for
new initiatives…
•
The specific problem to be addressed is the failure of leaders to gain executive-level
support for new initiatives…
•
The specific problem to be addressed is the failure of leaders to gain executive-level
support for new product development initiatives…
The focus (within the…) could be based upon an industry, a region, an industry within a
region, etc. The determining factor is making it narrow enough to study but broad enough to
provide enough data for the study:
•
… within the high-tech electronics industry resulting in…
•
… within the southwestern United States resulting in…
•
… within the retail clothing industry in the southeastern United States resulting in…
The last part of the specific problem should restate the results from the general problem or
a subset of the results from the general problem:
•
… resulting in the inability of organizations to make critical changes.
•
… resulting in the inability of the organization to make critical product line changes.
Putting all of the pieces above together into a single sentence:
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The specific problem to be addressed is the failure of leaders within the retail clothing
industry in the southeastern United States to gain executive-level support for new product
development initiatives resulting in the inability of organizations to carry out critical product line
changes.
Assembling the Final Product
What has been developed is a strong and focused problem statement that is supported by
the current literature and is 250 words or less. This provides a solid foundation for the study and
clearly defines the subject and focus of the study.
Example Problem Statement
General Problem Statement
The general problem to be addressed is the failure of leaders to gain employee support for
new initiatives resulting in the inability of organizations to make critical changes.
Supporting Sentences
Johnson (2020) stated that many high-level leaders struggle with effectively projecting an
engaging vision for a new initiative, making it difficult to gain employee buy-in. In a recent study,
Davis (2019) found that employee buy-in was the most critical determining factor in projecting
future success of organizational change. Henry (2022) supported these views by explaining that
the ability of an organization to make critical strategic changes is directly related to the leader’s
ability to foster organization-wide support of the initiative. Williams (2017) found that the inability
to gain employee support for new initiatives was a particular challenge in the retail clothing
industry.
Specific Problem Statement
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Crafting Effective Problem Statements and Research Questions
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The specific problem to be addressed is the failure of leaders within the retail clothing
industry in the southeastern United States to gain executive-level support for new product
development initiatives resulting in the inability of organizations to carry out critical product line
changes.
The Research Questions
All good business research is guided by a comprehensive and clear set of Research Questions!
As previously stated, Research Questions are the basis of inquiry for the study and are
broad questions that will guide the researcher in addressing the Problem Statement.
Research Questions also guide the choice of methodology for the study. Qualitative Research
Questions seek to understand or explain. Research Questions are the questions the researcher seeks
to answer and should not be confused with Interview Questions or Survey Questions directed
towards participants as a part of data collection during the field study.
Here are some examples:
•
Qualitative Research Question: What is the role of leadership in employee retention in the
manufacturing industry?
•
Interview Questions: Please describe your experience with your organizational leadership.
What role has organizational leadership played in your decision-making process to
continue with or leave the organization?
•
Survey Question: Transformational leaders inspire employees leading to better employee
retention (Answer 1 – 5). Scale 1 – Highly Disagree, 2 – Disagree, 3 – Neutral, 4 – Agree, 5
– Strongly Agree
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The first question is open-ended and allows for the discovery (understanding) of reasons
(factors behind) why employees might leave the industry. This is exploratory rather than
measureable; therefore, no statistical test can be employed and no testable hypothesis can be
developed. Taken together, that is what makes it a solid qualitative research question.
The second question seeks to extract rich information from a research participant and might
be used in a study based on the Qualitative Research Question above. This is not a research
question!
The third question seeks to quantify a participant’s feelings about a specific topic to provide
measureable data. This would be a great survey question to support a study based upon the
Quantitative Research Question above. This is not a research question!
Developing a solid set of Research Questions
As stated above, the research questions should inform the problem statement. The
researcher should start with the specific problem and take it apart to discover what areas need to
be explored. Using the Problem Statement example above, the following need to be addressed:
•
The failure of leaders to gain executive-level support for new product development
initiatives.
•
The failure of product line changes
•
The retail clothing industry
That’s it. The southeast United States is a boundary for the study to narrow the focus,
although you could ask about this region of the country if there are relevant differences. With this
list established, the researcher can develop the Research Questions. For qualitative studies, this
will typically be between three and four broad questions and sub-questions (as appropriate) that
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dig into what you need to know. For quantitative studies, this will typically be up to three questions
that dig into relationships or measurements.
Qualitative Research Question Examples
1. Why do leaders fail to gain executive-level support for new product development initiatives?
1.a. What leadership actions or behaviors contribute to failure to gain support?
1 b. What leadership actions or behaviors contribute to success in gaining support?
2. In what way are new product development initiatives different than other change initiatives?
2.a. How do those differences manifest themselves in the ability of the leader to gain support?
3. What cultural elements in the retail clothing industry position organizations for success in
implementing change initiatives?
You will note that the first research question looks at the reasons for failure and success. It
is important to always come at a topic from both perspectives. Questions two and three are open
and will gain information about successes and failures by asking how. It should also be noted that
the open-ended nature of the inquiry can generate rich data that is not bounded by preconceived
notions regarding the topic.
Summary
As stated earlier, all good business research begins with a clearly articulated and focused
Problem Statement and is guided by a comprehensive and clear set of Research Questions. Keep
in mind that the goal here is not to develop a literary masterpiece; instead, the goal is to establish
clearly stated foundation upon which the rest of the research project can be built. Only with the
Problem Statement and Research Questions in place can it be possible to develop the conceptual /
theoretical framework, methodology, and topical outline for the literature review. The critical
nature of these first two steps in the research journey cannot be overstated. It is essential that the
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Crafting Effective Problem Statements and Research Questions
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researcher take the necessary time here to get this right, or the research project will flounder or not
develop at all.
Enjoy your research!
December 2023
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