SOC 502A: Developing research questions
READINGS: John W. Creswell (1998), Chapter 5: Introducing & Focusing the
Study, in Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design (pp.101-115). London, UK:
Sage Publication.
Samuel J. Yeager (2008), Chapter 4: Where Do Research Questions Come From
section 4.6-4.8, in K. Yang & G. Miller (eds.), Handbook of Research Methods in
Public Administration (Second Edition, pp. 54-57). Boca Raton, FL: Auerbach
Publications.
 Research questions:
o emerge from topic areas or problems.
o give you control as a researcher. They let you set the
agenda.
o must be answerable – the question must have the
potential for being answered in the research project.
In formulating a research questions you must:
 Clearly define concepts and terms.
 Consider the scale of the question. Researchers usually refine an
initial broad objective or question or set of questions into a
manageable research question. Sometimes the initial research
question is too narrow, so the answer is already known or easy
to obtain. In this case the question needs to be expanded.
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Example
 Eg. What has been the impact of new information
technologies on small communities in Newfoundland?
o Need to first define each of the bolded words in order to
have a clear research question.
Can you define?
 Impact
 New information technologies
 Small towns in Newfoundland
Because these terms are so broad, it is very hard to define them
without more information.
What does impact mean? What sort of impacts are we
interested in? Health? Social? Economic? All of these?
Need to focus your question by narrowing down these terms. For
example:
For example:
What is the impact of teleconferencing technologies
on access to medical specialists in small communities
in Newfoundland?
See that:
information technologies is now teleconferencing
technologies.
impact is now impact on access to medical specialists
While this question is a lot more specific than the question we
started out with, there is still lots to define. What terms do we need
to define?
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You need to continue refining and narrowing your question until
the following criteria for a good research question are met:
 Research question is potentially answerable – the question has
the potential for being answered in the research project.
 The question actually requires research to be answered. The
answer is not already known or readily available.
 All terms and concepts are clearly defined
 The scope of the final question fits with the resources that are
available to devote to it and the timeline.
 The research question should correlate with the aim of the
project. That is, you should be able to restate the question as a
project aim.
Research question: How are sanctions applied at the street
level to Australian single mothers participating in new
Welfare to Work programs?
Aim: The aim of this project is to contribute to the literature
on welfare reform by examining how sanctions are applied at
the street level to Australia single mothers participating in
new Welfare to Work programs.
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Practice exercises
Example one: (refining a research question)
How can we increase employee participation using social media
tools that government currently has available?
Do we have:
 Clearly defined concepts and terms? If not, what do we need to
define?
 Consider the scale of the question? Is this a manageable research
question (given the time and resources you have)?
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Practice exercises
Example two: (refining a research question)
The Ministry of Children and Family Development is implementing a
developmental, strengths-based quality assurance and quality
improvement system for programs and services delivered by and on
behalf of the ministry. What is the role of third-party accreditation as
part of this system? How does it fit with a developmental, strengthsbased approach?
Do we have:
 Clearly defined concepts and terms? If not, what do we need to define?
 Consider the scale of the question? Is this a manageable research question
(given the time and resources you have)?
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Focusing on defining key words & scope
How are libraries adapting to the rise of digitial-only
information - ebooks, government reports, pdfs, information in
databases, etc. A few issues to consider: owning books vs
leasing ebooks; space planning for collections; electronic
formats over time (how to maintain access to old electronic
material); how best to make the material available to users;
what does the future hold for books and ebooks. Case studies
of successful libraries and programs
1) What are the key terms and concepts?
2) Define these terms and concepts?
3) Having defined them can we narrow these down?
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Developing questions from themes or topics
How could these be expressed as a research question?
Example one:
Research the success and challenges large unionized employers in
the public sector have had with incorporating Alternate Dispute
Resolution (ADR) methods into their existing rights-based
structures. This best practices research will also involve calling
organizations to inquire about what methods they currently use and
if ADR has been tried, obtaining feedback on their experiences of
it. What were some of the lessons learned, and do they still
continue to subscribe to that approach or have they chosen to go
back to more traditional methods or chosen something different.
1) How can this be restated as a question?
2) What are the key terms and concepts?
3) Define these terms and concepts?
4) Having defined them can we narrow these down?
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Developing questions from themes or topics
How could these be expressed as a research question?
Example two:
Topic: Climate Change Courses for the Public Sector, Business
Community, Journalists and General Public A Scoping Review
To examine ways in which various public sector institutions and
professional organizations (i.e. national, sub-national government
organizations, local governments), principally in Canada/BC, US,
and other jurisdictions learning programs or curricula address
issues of climate change.
To examine ways in which various colleges/universities, and notfor-profit sector in Canada, US and other jurisdictions curricula
address issues of climate change.
This probably needs a tiered approach.
1. Climate change is in the course title
2. Climate change is not in the title but in the course description as
a core topic.
3. Climate change is a topic of a module or section of the course.
There may be other courses that do not mention 'climate change' by
name, but focus on carbon or greenhouse gases (clean energy
technology, economics of carbon offsets, etc.), so these should be
included.
We would expect courses on sustainability/sustainable
development, natural hazards/disasters, etc., to be considered for
this list, but feel that their inclusion should depend on whether
'climate change' as a term is explicitly discussed in the course
outline.
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Refining multiple related research questions
Sometimes you do not have a single question but a number of
related questions.
Example:
Which public sector organizations/jurisdictions (including federal,
provincial and municipal levels of government) have developed or
implemented diversity strategies relative to their workforce?
Sub-questions
(a): What are the components of the strategies (i.e.: Is is just
the four designated equity groups (Women, Aboriginal,
Visible Minorities and People with Disabilities) or have they
also expanded to include the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual and
Transgendered (GLBT) group?
(b): What are their implementation strategies (overall and
with respect to each component) and how do they measure
their success?
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Steps to refining multiple related research questions
1) Are all questions equally important?
2) Or can you identify a primary research question,
contributing research questions and sub-research
questions
 The primary research question is the most important
research question.
 Contributing questions are questions that have to be
answered before the main research questions can be
answered.
 Sub-questions are questions that are less important than
the main research question/s, and the answers to them
gives a partial answer to the main research question.
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Steps to refining multiple related research questions
We are introducing a new internal consulting model in our organization and
would like the research team to identify international (including Canadian)
better/‟best‟ in-house HR business consulting practices. Research themes could
include: how in-house consulting services are marketed internally to maximize
customer use; identification of consulting systems and tools these organizations
are finding particularly valuable in delivering services; trends around service
level agreements and how internal consulting teams measure their own
performance; and, how these organizations are measuring the internal consulting
function’s affect (“return on investment”) on the business results (e.g. what
measures/formulas are being used to isolate the HR consulting function’s value
and contribution to business results).
Answers to the following questions would be within the scope of the research:
• What HR Business Consulting services are being delivered through in-house
HR teams?
• How do in-house HR consulting teams market their services to customers?
• What consulting systems and tools are these HR organizations finding
particularly valuable in delivering business consulting services internally?
• How do these leading organizations use service level agreements to increase
customer satisfaction?
 Identify the:
Contributing research question
Main research question
Sub question/s.
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