RESEARCH METHODS

LECTURE 02: DEFINING & FORMULATING THE

RESEARCH PROBLEM

Dr. Hemantha Premarathne,

B.A. Econ & Stat (Hons) Pera, M.A. & Ph.D. (Saga, Japan)

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 Observation
• Research begins with observations in the work setting
of broad problem area
• Observations may be;
– A problem currently existing
– Feeling a need for improvements
– Want to find some answers empirically
– Requiring a theory to understand certain phenomena

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 Examples
• Some broad problem areas that are observed;
– Training programs are not effective as expected
– The sales volume of a product is not picking up
– Inventory control is not effective

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 Cont…….
• Give examples from your observation.

• Observation motivates or drives your research

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 Cont…….
How to convert your observation into a problem?.
• Preliminary data gathering (also known as literature survey)
will help you to do this.
• For this purpose unstructured/structured interviews, library
search can be used
• Nature of main categories of data required
1. Background information of the organization.
2. Managerial philosophy, company policies, and other structural aspects.
3. Perception, attitudes, etc. of organizational members.
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 Cont….
1. Background information can be obtained from
– Available published records
– Web site of the company
– Archives
2. Company policies, philosophy can be found from
– Organizational records
– Manual of procedures
3. Perception, attitudes, etc. can be obtained by
– Talking to people, and questionnaire
– Observing events, people
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 Primary and Secondary Data
• Data coming from already available sources are called
secondary data
• Data gathered from actual site of occurrence and experiments
are called primary data
• Preliminary data collection also include both because
– Background and company data are secondary data
– Perception, attitudes, etc. are primary data

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Examples – Secondary Data Sources
• Statistical bulletin
• Government publications
• Data from previous research
• Case studies
• Books
• Proceedings of conferences
• Journals
• Library records
• Online publications
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Exercise 01- List the secondary data sources for your
tentative research.

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 What is a “research problem”?.
• A good research problem is the key to better research.
• A research problem is not just a question.
• A research problem is a “problem” the exploration, or
investigation of which can potentially contribute to the
production of new knowledge (Uyangoda, 2010:14).
• As found in the social sciences and humanities research literature,
there are two ways of formulating a research problem.
1. A conceptual / theoretical puzzle
2. A substantive question / a set of questions
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1. Research Problem as a Conceptual / Theoretical Puzzle

• Researches who are trained in the American traditions of

research have a general tendency to formulate research
problems in the form of puzzles.
• A puzzle (as children who play with puzzles for fun know)
would contain a problem that does not have an easy or
ready-made answer.
• In order to simplify the idea of a research puzzle, let us
begin by getting to know what a puzzle would mean in
over everyday social world.

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Example 01 – Puzzle (the behaviour of motorists in
Sri Lanka)
• We often see motorists on the road violating traffic rules.
They do things like driving fast, crossing double lines, driving
through red lights, driving after consuming liquor and so on.
They continue with this behavior even though they know that
there are laws against such practices and that violation of
those laws are punishable offenses.
• For an observer of human behavior, this constitutes an interesting
puzzle.
• Why is it that certain motorists in Sri Lanka continue to violate
traffic laws, despite their knowledge that traffic offences carry
penalties?. Unio/RM/2018 Part Time/2021 12
Example 02 – Puzzle (admission of children to elite schools in
Sri Lanka)
• Many of us in our society hate bribery and corruption. We feel anger
when we hear about politicians, or government servants, accepting
bribes. We condemn corruption as an immoral social practice. Yet,
some of those very same people who hate and reject bribery and
corruption in public life would engage in bribery and corruption when
they have to admit their own children to elite schools in Colombo.
• There is a puzzle in this human behavior which can be formulated as
follows.
• Why do some people, who in their normal life hate bribery and
corruption, engage in corruption practices in situations of their
own self-interest?.
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Example 03 – Puzzle (agricultural credit in Sri Lanka)
• Sri Lanka has a well-established banking system to enable
people to obtain commercial credit at fairly reasonable and
non-exploitable interest rates. Both government and private
sector banks cater to the agricultural credit market. However,
very often farmers in the dry zone obtain loans from private
money lenders who charge high and usurious interest rates.
• a puzzle can be formulated as follows.

• Why do farmers turn to exploitative private money-lenders when

there is a formal banking sector that provides loans at much
lower interest rates?.
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Exercise 02- Turn your observations into puzzle type of
research problem.

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2. Research Problem as a Substantive Question/ a Set of
Questions

• It is also possible to ask a few more questions, all of

which taken together should constitute the larger
problem.
• It requires two main preconditions: a fairly good familiarity
with the scholarly literature relevant to the theme under
inquiry, and the skill to ask social scientific questions.
• Let us examine a few examples.

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Example 01 – ( voter behaviour in Sri Lanka)
• “In this research on the electoral behavior of Sri Lanka voters,
it is expected to investigate why a significant proportion of
voters, nearly 8-10 percent, refrain from voting at every
election? This study will examine the following issues as well:
Do these ‘non-voting’ electors make their decision not to vote
on the election-day, or do they do it as a habit? What are the
factors that determine voters’ decisions to vote or not to
vote? Are political parties not concerned with non-voting
citizens? What does the persistence of a non-voting
electorate tell us about the voter-party relationship in Sri
Lanka?”
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Example 02 – ( young marriage in Sri Lanka)
• A social demographer might be interested in formulating a
research problem as a substantive question in the following
manner.
• “In this research, I am interested in exploring the following
questions: Why do young women in Sri Lanka’s rural society
have a greater propensity to marry earlier than their urban
counterparts? Are there any social, cultural, gender and /or
ideological factors that influence their decisions?”.

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Example 03 – ( rural development programmes in Sri Lanka)

• This research focusses on the following questions: Does the

theory of social capital tell us anything new about why rural
development programmes in Sri Lanka fail or succeed? Are
there alternative theoretical explanations to account for
varied experiences in rural development, or lack of it, in Sri
Lanka.

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Exercise 03- Turn your research problem as a set of
questions.

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