WEEK 3

THEORETICAL

FRAMEWORK
The Components of the Theoretical Framework

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.

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.

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 organizationthat 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).

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unpublished work from secondary sources of data in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.

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

firms image and value?
What are the effects of downsizing on the long-range growth patterns of
companies?

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 situation being investigated.

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.

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 ifthen statements. The two formats can be
seen in the following two examples.
Examples
o Employees who are more healthy will take sick leave less
frequently.
o If employees are more healthy, then they will take sick
leave less frequently.

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:
o The greater the stress experienced in the job,
the lower the job satisfaction of employees.
o Women are more motivated than men.

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.

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,

Null and Alternate Hypotheses

The null hypothesis:

The alternate for the above example would

statistically be set as follows: