CHAPTER 2

THE RESEARCH PROCESS 1

a) The Broad Problem Area
b) Preliminary Data
c) Problem Definition
d) Literature Survey
A) BROAD PROBLEM AREA
• The broad problem area refers to the entire situation where
one sees a possible need for research and problem solving.
• Such issues might relate to:
i. problems currently existing in an organizational setting that
need to be solved (current problem)
ii.areas that a manager believes need to be improved in the
organization (improvement areas)
iii.a conceptual or theoretical issue that needs to be tightened
up for the basic researcher to understand certain
phenomena (knowledge understanding)
B) PRELIMINARY DATA
COLLECTION
• The nature of information needed by the
researcher for the purpose could be broadly
classified under three headings:
i. Organization background.
ii.Managerial philosophy, company policies and other
structural aspects.
iii.Perceptions, attitudes and behavioral responses of
organizational.
C) PROBLEM DEFINITION
1. Understand the situation

2. Identify the problems

3. Determine relevant variables

4. Write Research Objectives, Research Questions

and Hypothesis

5. Determine unit of analysis

 1. Understand The Situation
 Also known as a situation analysis.
 Gather background information about the industries to familiarize
researchers with decision-making process.
 Example:
The private higher learning institutions has been choose in
conducting this study because of fast development of educational
sector in competing with public higher learning institutions. Other
than that, the growing numbers of private higher learning
institutions
also look encouraging since it will enhance the population of tertiary
education in Malaysia generally.

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 2. IDENTIFY THE PROBLEMS

 A problem does not necessarily mean that something is seriously

wrong with a current situation that needs to be corrected
immediately.
 A problem could simply show an interest of any issue where
finding the right answers might help to improve an existing
situation.
 Thus, it is fruitful to define a problem as any situation where a gap
exists between the actual and the desired ideal states (called
situation analysis).
 This technique must have deeper understanding and more
elaboration from the discussion.

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 Examples of Problem Statement

1. The major problem that can be seen on employee attitudes and their
personality has affect the job and their workplace. For instance, some
of the employees are lack of social involvement and lack of self
discipline. When these happen, it has decreased the level of
commitment among them which has influence their job also.
2. The average customer service on-hold time for XYZ company
exceeds five minutes during both its busy and slow seasons.
3. Leaders at XYZ company want to increase net revenue for its
premium product line of widgets by 5% for the next fiscal year.
4. In the last three quarterly employee engagement surveys, less than
30% of employees at the XYZ company stated that they feel valued
by the company. This represents a 20% decline compared to the same
period in the year prior.
 3. Determine Relevant Variables
Dependent variable (DV): Main problem or main issue.

Independent variables (IV): Factors influence main issue.

Moderating variables (MV): Additional factors that influence

both DV & IV (demographic factors)

INDEPENDENT DEPENDENT VARIABLE

VARIABLES (DV)
(IV)

MODERATING
VARIABLES
(MV)
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 EXAMPL
E
Dependent variable (DV): Job Commitment

Independent variables (IV): Personality Types

Moderating variables (MV): Gender and Job Level

Personality Types
1.Extroversion Job Commitment
2.Agreeableness

1. Gender
2. Job Level

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 4. Writing Research Objectives, Research
Questions and Hypothesis

Research Objectives
• A research objective is a clear statement which provides
direction to investigate the variables.

Types of research objectives:

a) General objectives: general term.
b) Specific objectives: short & narrow.

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 Example of Writing Research
Objectives

General objectives:
a) The general objective is to gain understanding about the
importance of personality and job commitment (IV towards DV)

OR
Specific objectives:
a) To examine the relationship between personality that affect job
commitment (IV towards DV)
b) To determine whether the gender and job level will influence
job commitment. (MV towards DV)
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Research Questions
• Express the research objectives in terms of questions statement.

Example of Writing Research

Questions:
a) To examine what are the relationship between personality
and job commitment? (IV towards DV)
b) To determine what are the relationship between gender and
job level that could be related between personality and
job commitment? (MV towards IV & DV)

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D) LITERATURE SURVEY
• A literature review is a comprehensive summary and analysis of
the existing research and writings on a particular topic.
• It involves identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing relevant
literature from various sources such as books, journal articles,
conference papers, and online publications.
• A literature survey is not just a summary of existing research but
a critical analysis that demonstrates your understanding of the
topic and your ability to engage with literature in your field.
Guideline on how to conduct a
literature survey
1. Define your topic: Clearly define the scope and focus of your literature
survey.
2. Search for literature: Use academic databases, libraries, and online
resources to search for relevant literature. Use keywords to refine your
search and locate the most relevant sources.
3. Evaluate sources: Assess the credibility, relevance, and quality of the
sources you find. Consider factors such as author credentials,
publication date, methodology, and peer review status.
4. Organize your findings: Create a structured framework to organize
your literature review. You may choose to categorize sources based on
themes, theories, methodologies, or other relevant criteria.
5. Analyze and synthesize: Critically analyze the key findings,
arguments, and perspectives presented in the literature. Identify
common themes, trends, and gaps in the existing research. Compare
and contrast different viewpoints to develop a comprehensive
understanding of the topic.
6. Write your literature review: Begin by providing an introduction that
outlines the purpose and scope of your literature survey. Then,
systematically review and discuss the key findings from the literature.
Provide clear and concise summaries of each source, highlighting
their contributions to the topic. Finally, conclude by summarizing the
main findings, identifying areas for future research, and discussing
the broader implications of the literature.
7. Cite your sources: Ensure that you properly cite all the sources
referenced in your literature review using the appropriate citation
style (e.g. APA style).
 IV
DV
Personality Types
1.Extroversion Job Commitment
2.Agreeableness

1. Gender
2. Job Level

MV

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 WAYS TO WRITE LITERATURE
REVIEW
Job Commitment (Dependent Variable)
Aremu & Adeyoju (2003) define job commitment as the degree of
commitment to one’s profession or occupation and it can be as individual
motivation to work towards personal advancement in their profession.
Commitment can also be defined as a relative strength of individual’s
identification and involvement in organizations (Vakola & Nikolaou, 2005). Here
means, the employee will contribute more in organization’s activity. They will have
a strong attachment to the organization.
To establish this commitment, people need communication, training
programs, education and initiative to increase the involvement and ownership and
the development of performance and reward management system (Tella et. al.,
2007).
From the entire above concept, the researcher defines commitment as a
broader view and tends to continue as temporary aspects of an employees’ job. In
addition, it is possible to be dissatisfied with a feature of a job while retaining a
high level of commitment to the organization as a whole.

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Extroversion (Independent Variable 1)
According to Niehoff (2006), extroversion can be describe as
individual who is comfortable with social relationship such as warm,
outgoing, assertive, active, and showing positive emotions. It shows
that, people under this trait will seek new relationship and volunteer in
helping others.
Apart from that, according to Bozionelos (2004), employees
who have high scores on extroversion must likely to engage in central
position of work.
However, the other literature suggested that extroversion has
distinguishes by the affiliation and positive affection. It explains that
individuals with high extroversion will harmonize the interpersonal
communication through the positive emotion (Matzler et. al., 2006).
The researcher has defined extroversion as people who are
outgoing, active and explorative. It shows that people who possess this
trait normally are people oriented by focusing more on relationship
with others.
Agreeableness (Independent Variable 2)
As mention by previous study, agreeableness is defines
when the individuals takes norms for appropriate behavior such
as trustworthy, modest, compliant and altruistic (Niehoff,
2006).
On the other point of view, agreeableness refers to the
nature of trust the others, be friendly and sensitive (Leung &
Bozionelos, 2004).
On the other hand, agreeableness could be considered
as the enhancement of personal worth and esteem (Bozionelos,
2004).
From the above concept, the researcher is decided to
refer this term as being empathetic, kind and concerned of
other people.
Job Level (Moderating Variable 1)
As mentions by Singh et. al., (2004), the importance of the job in
an individual’s life and the degree to which the person identifies with the
job in terms of position are both integral parts that lead to the
commitment.
The other job level in organization is the first line managers
which refer to the lowest level of organization that manage the work of
non managerial employees (Robbins & Coulter, 2002).

Gender (Moderating Variable 2)

Women possess feminine traits such warmth, kindness, selflessness, sensitivity,
nurturance, interdependence and sympathetic. Compare to men, they tend to be
independent, autonomous, aggressive, forceful, rational, competitive, decisive,
strong, self confident and superior (Kundu & Rani, 2007).
 5. UNIT OF ANALYSIS

• Unit of analysis refers to the specific entity that is the

subject of study or observation.
• The choice of unit of analysis depends on the nature of the
research and the objectives of the study.
• Here are some common units of analysis in research
methodology:
i. Individuals
ii.Groups or Organizations
iii.Events or Processes
iv.Geographical Units
v.Artifacts or Texts

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• Individuals: This unit of analysis involves studying characteristics,
behaviors, attitudes, or outcomes of individual people. For
example, researchers might study the effects of a particular
intervention on the mental health of individual patients.
• Groups or Organizations: Researchers may choose to focus on
groups or organizations as the unit of analysis, studying
characteristics or behaviors of entities such as companies,
schools, communities, or social groups. For instance, researchers
might analyze the impact of organizational culture on employee
productivity within a company.
• Events or Processes: This unit of analysis involves examining
specific events or processes over time. Researchers may analyze
trends, patterns, or causal relationships within a particular event
or process. For example, researchers might study the causes and
consequences of a specific historical event, such as a war or a
revolution.
• Geographical Units: Researchers may also choose
geographical units, such as regions, countries, or
neighborhoods, as the focus of their analysis. This allows
them to study geographic variations in phenomena of
interest. For example, researchers might analyze regional
differences in disease prevalence or healthcare access.
• Artifacts or Texts: Some research focuses on analyzing
artifacts, documents, texts, or other forms of cultural or
historical evidence as the unit of analysis. This approach is
common in fields such as archaeology, literary studies, and
cultural studies.
THE END
ATTENDANCE FORM