Industrial and organization research is mostly relevant in applied research because it seeks to answer specific problems facing an organization or business. Industrial and organization research is increasingly being adopted by organizations and businesses today in order to understand and improve human mental processes and behavior in organizations and businesses. In order to remain relevant in the dynamic business environment organization have to invest in research and/or development in a bid to adapt to the changing environment. The success of any research depends on its planning. While planning, the researcher must clearly identify the research problem in order to determine the purpose of the research, develop research questions and then develop research hypothesis basing on the research questions.
A well organized research should contain research problem statement, purpose statement, research questions and research hypothesis. Research problem is what a research seeks to find out or solve. In industrial or organizational research, it is determined from the circumstances facing an organization or business. Purpose statement is a statement that shows the overall direction or focus of a research. Research questions, on the other hand, seek to narrow down the purpose statement to specific questions which the researcher wants to answer. Hypotheses are statements that provide the researcher’s prediction of answers to the research questions. The research seeks to prove or reject the hypotheses formulated by the researcher. This paper seeks to analyze the four companies the lwamoto.Crews.Coe firm has contracted to solve by describing each problem, identifying the purpose and developing research questions and hypothesis. The four companies are; Riordan Manufacturing, Benedek Medical Technologies, Inc., Haynes Medical Distribution, LLC, and Loehr Equipment Company.
Riordan Manufacturing
Riordan Manufacturing is a firm whose business is molding plastic injections. The strategic objective of the firm is to be a high-performing organization. The firm management believes that in order to achieve this strategy, Riordan Manufacturing need to ensure that they need to hire people with the ability to be effective leaders into sales leadership positions. In the past, Riordian Manufacturing promoted internal employees to be sales leaders basing their performance in their current roles. However, the management of Riordan Manufacturing changed the selection process to hiring externally by comparing candidates and picking the best. The management feels that the new selection process does not result in high performing leaders. The management wants to know which selection problem will result in the selecting high performing leaders. It is apparent that the problem Riordan Manufacturing seeks to solve is to determine whether the leaders selected using the revised selection process demonstrate higher performance competencies so as to abolish it.
The problem statement will be; to evaluate whether leaders selected using the revised selection process demonstrate lower critical performance competencies. The research question will be; do leaders selected using the revised selection process demonstrates lower critical performance competencies? While the hypothesis will be; Leaders selected using the revised selection process demonstrates lower critical performance competencies.
Benedek Medical Technologies, Inc.
Benedek Medical Technologies, Inc. is a firm involved in the business of designing, developing, and distributing surgical equipments that are used for invasive endoscopic surgeries. The firm has expanded rapidly in the last five years, and it is an emerging global leader in the business. The tremendous growth has made the firm to focus on recruiting and developing an effective direct sales team to distribute its products. Benedek has recruited seven people which are dependent on successful completion of a three-days training program basing on the participants scores on a series of multiple choice questions. Iwamoto.Crews.Coe has been contracted to design the test, administer it and report the results. It is apparent that the problem that Benedek Medical Technologies, Inc. seeks to answer is to determine who among the seven will qualify to be included in the direct sales team.
The purpose statement will be; to evaluate who among the seven will qualify to be included in the direct sales team. The research question will be; who among the seven will qualify to be included in the direct sales team? While the research hypothesis will be; all the seven individuals will qualify to join the direct sales team.
Haynes Medical Distribution, LLC
Haynes Medical Distribution, LLC is a firm involved in the business of distributing medical devices. The firm recruits consultants from the best schools, pays them high salaries, and after four years as a distributor, an employee is considered for the position of vice president. The promotion results in a large salary increase as well as authority and responsibility. Despite this, the firm has been experiencing high turnover rates of its best performing consultants. A research by Iwamoto.Crews.Coe revealed that it was due to poor management. Iwamoto.Crews.Coe presented two options of improving management; coaching and participation in workshops. Haynes Medical Distribution, LLC wants to determine which of the two methods of training, coaching and participation in workshops, will have the greatest impact on lowering the turnover rate. It is apparent that the research problem is determine which training, between coaching and participation in workshops, has a greater effect on reducing turnover in order to decide on which method of training to adopt.
The purpose statement will be; to evaluate which method of training between coaching and participation in workshops has a greater effect on reducing turnover. The research question will be; does coaching has a greater effect on reducing turnover as compared participation in workshops as a training method?
Loehr Equipment Company
Loehr Equipment Company is a firm that is involved in the business of manufacturing construction equipment. The company has offices and construction equipment dealership both in the USA and abroad. The company offers employees numerous training opportunities to improve their skills at LEC University. There are different classes that are accessible at different locations and times all year round. However, LEC University has experienced a decrease in employee participation in the availed training programs. Managers claim that they are reluctant to send employees to training programs because of the prohibitive travelling costs and loss of manpower time away from work. This has made LEC University to consider adopting e-learning platform which will not only reduce costs but also loss of manpower time from the workplace will be minimized. The firm wants to know whether e-learning affects learning. It is therefore apparent that the research problem will be; want wants to determine whether learning is affected by e-learning in order to determine whether to adopt it.
The purpose statement for this research will be; to evaluate whether e-learning affects studying. The research question to this study will be; does e-learning affect studying? Lastly, the research hypothesis to this study will be; e-learning affects learning.
Conclusion
A well planned research should contain problem statement, purpose statement, research questions and hypothesis statement. From this paper, it is clear that the four elements are important if defining and structuring the research.
References
Apollo Group, Inc. (2011, June 20). Iwamoto.Crews.Coe. Retrieved April 30, 2012, from https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/cist/vop/Business/IC2: https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/cist/vop/Business/IC2/intranet/index.asp
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