WEEK 3 & 4

1. WEEK 3 & 4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The Components of the Theoretical Framework

3. BROAD PROBLEM AREA The broad problem area refers to the entire situation where one sees a possible need for research and problem solving. The specific issues that need to be researched within this situation may not be identified at this stage. Such issues might relate to: • Problems currently existing in an organizational setting that need to be solved, • Areas that a manager believes need to be improved in the organization, • A conceptual or theoretical issue that needs to be tightened up for the basic researcher to understand certain phenomena, and • Some research questions that a basic researcher wants to answer empirically.

4. Examples of broad problem areas • Training programs are perhaps not as effective as anticipated. • The sales volume of a product is not picking up. • The daily balancing of accounting ledgers is becoming a continuing concern. • The anticipated results of a recent merger have not been forthcoming. • Inventory control is not effective. • The installation of an MIS keeps getting stalled.

5. PRELIMINARY DATA COLLECTION The nature of information needed by the researcher for the purpose could be broadly classified under three headings: • Background information of the organization—that is, the contextual factors. • Managerial philosophy, company policies, and other structural aspects. • Perceptions, attitudes, and behavioral responses of organizational members and client systems (as applicable).

6. LITERATURE SURVEY • Literature survey is the documentation of a comprehensive review of the published and unpublished work from secondary sources of data in the areas of specific interest to the researcher.

7. PROBLEM DEFINITION • After the interviews and the literature review, the researcher is in a position to narrow down the problem from its original broad base and define the issues of concern more clearly. • A problem could simply indicate an interest in an 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. Examples • Does expansion of international operations result in an enhancement of the firm‘s image and value? • What are the effects of downsizing on the long-range growth patterns of companies?

8. Theoretical Framework • A theoretical framework is a conceptual model of how one theorizes or makes logical sense of the relationships among the several factors that have been identified as important to the problem. • The theoretical framework discusses the interrelationships among the variables that are deemed to be integral to the dynamics of the situ- ation being investigated.

9. Basic features of Theoretical Framework There are five basic features that should be incorporated in any theoretical framework. • The variables considered relevant to the study should be clearly identified and labeled in the discussions. • The discussions should state how two or more variables are related to one another. This should be done for the important relationships that are theorized to exist among the variables. • If the nature and direction of the relationships can be theorized on the basis of the findings of previous research, then there should be an indication in the discussions as to whether the relationships would be positive or negative. • There should be a clear explanation of why we would expect these relationships to exist. The arguments could be drawn from the previous research findings. • A schematic diagram of the theoretical framework should be given so that the reader can see and easily comprehend the theorized relationships.

10. HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT A hypothesis can be defined as a logically conjectured relationship between two or more variables expressed in the form of a testable statement. Statement of Hypotheses: Formats Hypotheses can be set either as propositions or in the form of if–then statements. The two formats can be seen in the following two examples. Examples • Employees who are more healthy will take sick leave less frequently. • If employees are more healthy, then they will take sick leave less frequently.

11. Directional and Nondirectional Hypotheses If, in stating the relationship between two variables or comparing two groups, terms such as positive, negative, more than, less than, and the like are used, then these hypotheses are directional Example: • The greater the stress experienced in the job, the lower the job satisfaction of employees. • Women are more motivated than men.

12. Directional and Nondirectional Hypotheses • On the other hand, nondirectional hypotheses are those that do postulate a relationship or difference, but offer no indication of the direction of these relationships or differences. • In other words, though it may be conjectured that there would be a significant relationship between two variables, we may not be able to say whether the relationship would be positive or negative. • EXAMPLE: There is a relationship between age and job satisfaction.

13. Null and Alternate Hypotheses • The null hypothesis is a proposition that states a definitive, exact relationship between two variables. That is, it states that the population correlation between two variables is equal to zero or that the difference in the means of two groups in the population is equal to zero (or some definite number). • In general, the null statement is expressed as no (significant) relationship between two variables or no (significant) difference between two groups,

14. Null and Alternate Hypotheses The null hypothesis: The alternate for the above example would statistically be set as follows: