Identification of research problems

The first thing to consider is the level where one wants to look for the problem. This can either be limited to one’s own team, function or department, or one may have the opportunity to address something that is pan-organisational or strategic. One might feel that a strategic problem is somehow more interesting or more appropriate, but there is often no specific advantage to either. A localised problem may mean that one is better able to collect relevant data about the issue because one is more directly involved. A strategic problem may mean that one can make a wider impact across the organisation, but it may also require a broader data set to address this and this could be hard to achieve within a critical time frame. The second consideration in identifying a problem is the extent which one should take pre-existing knowledge into account. Ideally, one should choose a problem he/she is familiar with because this will help one understand the parameters of the research. However, the more one knows about the problem the more one will have the opportunity to manage the pre-conceptions and biases. The best way to manage this conflict is to think about something where one understands the problem but not the solutions, or where one knows that something isn’t working but doesn’t know why. In short, one should be identifying a problem where there is uncertainty. For example, one might know that the business has a very small proportion of women in senior roles whereas there is more equality at other levels of management, and so the uncertainty is around why this is the case.