PRESENTED BY:

Muh. Amsal Sahban, Ph.D

 INTRODUCTION

• A GOOD RESEARCH WORK, START WITH A GOOD RESEARCH

PROBLEM

• WHY YOUR TOPIC SO IMPORTANT TO BE STUDIED?

• WHAT YOU TRYING TO INVESTIGATE?
 PROBLEM STATEMENT
• A “PROBLEM” DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN THAT SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY
WRONG WITH A CURRENT SITUATION THAT NEEDS TO BE RECTIFIED IMMEDIATELY.

• A PROBLEM COULD ALSO 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.
WHAT CAN BE A PROBLEM AREA

Existing issues an Areas a person wants

organisation needs to to improve
address

Theoretical or Research questions a

conceptual issues that basic researcher
need more study to wants to answer
understand certain empirically
phenomena
 RESEARCH FUNNEL

Findings, Debates, Area of

focus: Supporting Issues on
Newspaper, Statistics, PROBLEM
Annual Report

Examples: Unanswered
questions, conflicting findings,
Mixed findings, weak findings, GAP
biases information, theories,
Methodology

Question
(Objective)
 HOW TO WRITE A GOOD ‘PS’
“3 SIMPLE STEPS”

• STEP 1: START WITH A GOOD BACKGROUND OF STUDY

• Should Not start with mentioning your DV

• Highlight the importance of the industry/sample

Should Highlight The Sample of The Study – Such As The Importance of Certain
Industry To The Economy of The Country
Statistics/annual report/previous findings on the importance of sample/respondent
Eg. “The establishment of the first semiconductor plant in Penang In 1972
has contributed to the significant development of Malaysian export
activities, especially the electric and electronic industry (Ref). Since then,
Malaysia has become a major global manufacturing hub for the electrical
and electronics industry (Ref)"
2ND EXAMPLE:
• Globally, railways are considered “hot topic” from ancient Greece to the present
day, and, particularly, in 1825, when the world’s first passenger service was
initiated. In the previous decades, the railways’ revival, in the national transport
system of a country, as the basic transport facility has always been an ongoing
process. In the world’s history, the role of the railway is considered important.

3rd example
• The role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in any country’s
exports cannot be neglected. The exports of any country heavily rely
on the participation of small and large firms in the export business.
• STEP 2: PROBLEM STATEMENT : “ISSUES TOWARDS THE
DEPENDENT VARIABLE”

FROM IMPORTANCE OF SAMPLE Directly move to ISSUES/PROBLEMS

TOWARDS DV

• WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?

Supporting Issues on Newspaper, Statistics, Finding on Annual

Report, Complaints
• EXAMPLE USING FINDINGS OF REPORTS/ISSUES IN NEWSPAPER
• The government’s initiatives on maintaining the Penang’s semiconductor
growth towards high value-added industries and the change of
Malaysian economy concentration towards industrial and high-
technology business have increased the demands of engineers in
Penang (..). However, skilled shortages and phenomenon of migration
among Penang’s skilled workers (..) had created intense competition
among companies, particularly semiconductor companies to employ
qualified engineers. This intense competition has resulted to high
turnover rates, as skilled engineer will move from one company to
another for better benefits.
Example: Employee turnover

The high turnover rates and job hopping phenomenon could directly
diminish the companies’ performance (..) and indirectly decrease
Malaysia’s economic outcome. Therefore, it is crucial for semiconductor
companies in Penang to retain their skilled employees, particularly
engineers for both companies’ and Malaysia’s economic performance.
• EXAMPLE USING RESEARCH FINDINGS:

SMES in Pakistan are facing many challenges such as shortage of skilled labour,
lack of finance, bribery, corruption, lack of knowledge, government interference,
low quality of raw material, lack of entrepreneurial skills, lack of training
programs, political instability, and energy crises.
• STEP 3: INTRODUCING THE VARIABLES THAT MIGHT BE RELATED TO DV
“Establishing Gaps”

ISSUES/PROBLEMS THEORY ON DV / PREVIOUS STUDY ON DV /

PRACTICAL GAP ON THE SAMPLE OF STUDY

“RESEARCH GAP IS DEFINED AS A TOPIC OR AREA THAT IS MISSING OR INSUFFICIENT

INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE”
• IN FINDING RESEARCH GAP, STUDENT WILL START TO INTRODUCE
THEIR IVS.

• IT COULD START WITH THE MODEL/THEORY OF THE DV.

• FOLLOW THE 70-30 STRATEGY.
 KEY ELEMENT TO INTRODUCE YOUR IVs AND THE
RESEARCH GAP

• 70 % THEORY/KNOWLEDGE

• 30% PRACTICAL ISSUES

 70 % THEORY/KNOWLEDGE

• EXAMPLE: IV’s  Organizational Factor and/or Individual Factor

• The basic model of employees’ turnover (Price, 1977; Mobley, 1982) has
revealed two major factors in retaining employees, namely organizational
factor and individual factor.

• Most study on employees’ turnover concentrated on organizational factor,

less been conducted in the area of individual context.
 30% PRACTICAL ISSUES
• EXAMPLE: IV’s  quality of education and/or creativity
• As far as employees’ retention in Penang is concerned, the problem of
diminishing quality of education and lack of creativity among individual
employees had become the reasons of migration among Malaysian,
especially Penang’s skilled workers.
• Companies in Penang need to make sure their employees match or fit
with the employment demands that could help them to effectively
perform their job. in this situation, employees’ knowledge, skills and
abilities that meet the work demands which is known as person-
environment fit (PEfit) is crucial for job implementation and retention.
• EXAMPLE OF LIMITED STUDY (GAP):
• As it is important to retain skilled employees for Malaysia’s semiconductor industry
benefit, however, there is still limited study on employees’ retention in the
Malaysian working environment

• EXAMPLE #2 (GAP)
• Most studies on PE fit, especially person-organization (PO) fit focused on
supplementary or complementary needs-supplies (ns) fit.
• EXAMPLE #3 (GAP) IV’s  Work engagement
• Work engagement is important for employees’ retention, however, there
were fewer empirical researches (..) reported on the effect of work
engagement on employees’ retention. This situation represents an empirical
gap in the current literature that had motivated the present study to be
conducted.
• EXAMPLE OF MIXED/CONFLICTING FINDING (GAP)
• Previous researches on PE fit revealed contradictory arguments and mixed
findings on the effects of da fit. For instance, Kristof-Brown et al. (2005a)
claimed that DA fit could affect employee’s work attitude. However, this
contradicts Munchinsky and Monahan’s (1987) argument as they claimed
that DA fit was only significant towards organizational outcomes such as job
and organizational performance (..), and not work attitude or behavior.
THANK YOU

Q&A