EXAMPLE F: Problem Identification Paper
(A failing paper)
I have often wondered why women have to work harder to
advance in organizations.
I feel that it is important to help
women improve there promotability in organizations.
This paper
attempts to find out how women can face this in the
organization.
How to help women get a fair chance for promotions is an
important problem in our society.
I feel this problem is
meaningful to solve because the way you communicate causes you
to be perceived differently.
In conclusion, how women are given their due is an
important communication problem.
EXAMPLE A: Problem Identification Paper
(A successful paper)
For some time communication scholars have been interested
in message effects from male and female sources (Schein, 1975;
Bunyi & Andrews, 1985).
As a field for applying these
interests, the impact of male and female communicator messages
in formal organizations may be an area of productive inquiry.
This paper suggests a research problem on this topic.
Among women's distinctive message behaviors, tag questions
have stimulated interest and study (Bradley, 1981).
When women
are observed in organizational settings, their use of tag
questions might be expected to influence such variables as their
rates of promotion and their work performance ratings.
Based on
such speculation, the following problem is advanced for
research:
Do women whose speech includes tag questions receive
fewer promotions in formal organizations than women whose speech
does not include tag questions?
This paper has isolated tag questions in women's speech as
a communication variable and asked a research question relating
it to rates of promotion in the organization.
This problem
suggests a potentially fruitful research area to guide future
investigation.
References
Bradley, P. H. (1981). The folk-linguistics of women's
speech: An empirical examination. Communication_Monographs, 48,
73-90.
Bunyi, J. M., & Andrews, P. H. (1985). Gender and
leadership emergence: An experimental study. Southern
Speech
Communication Journal, 50, 246-260.
Schein, V. E. (1975). Relationships between sex role
stereotypes and requisite management characteristics among
female managers. Journal_of_Applied_Psychology, 60, 340-344.
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