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EXAMPLES OF PROBLEMS

1.

Long and frequent delays lead to much frustration among airline passengers.

These feelings may eventually lead to switching behavior, negative wordof

mouth communication, and customer complaints.

2.

Staff turnover is higher than anticipated.

3.

The current instrument for the assessment of potential employees for

management positions is imperfect.

4.

Minority group members in organizations are not advancing in their careers.

5.

The newly installed information system is not being used by the managers for

whom it was primarily designed.

6.

The introduction of flexible work hours has created more problems than it has

solved.

7.

Young workers in the organization show low levels of commitment to the

organization.

Problems versus symptoms of problems

It is very important that symptoms of problems are not defined as the real

problem. For instance, a manager might have tried to decrease employee

turnover (the best people are leaving the organization) by increasing wages, but

with little success. Here the real problem may be something else such as the low

motivation of employees who feel they do not have enough control over their

work. The high turnover rate may merely be a symptom of the deeprooted

motivational problem.

Under these conditions, in the long run, a higher salary will not affect employees

intentions to leave. Thus, finding the right answer to the wrong problem

definition will not help. Hence, it should be recognized that correct problem

identification is extremely critical for finding solutions to vexing issues.

Frequently, managers tend to describe the problem in terms of symptoms. Rather

than accepting it as such, the researcher needs to identify the problem

more accurately. One way of determining that the problem, rather than the

symptom, is being addressed is a technique called 5 Whys or 5 Times Why. 5

Whys is a fairly straightforward approach that will help you

to get to the root

cause (the most basic cause) of a problem (via preliminary research).

INSPECTION OF THE LITERATURE ON THE ANTECEDENTS OF CUSTOMER

ANGER

Customer anger has been found to lead to negative wordofmouth

communication and switching, above and beyond customer dissatisfaction

(Bougie, Pieters & Zeelenberg, 2003 ; Dube & Maute, 1996; Nyer, 1997 ; Taylor,

1994 ). Since it is also a common emotional response to failed services, it may

have strong implications for the performance and profitability of service firms. For

these reasons it is critical that service firms try to avoid customer anger. To be

able to avoid customer anger, service providers need to understand what events

typically instigate this emotion in customers. Surprisingly, to date, we do not

know much about instigations of customer anger. Although we know that core

service failures (Dube and Maute, 1996) and waiting for service (Folkes, Koletsky

& Graham, 1987 ; Taylor, 1994 ) give rise to anger, systematic research on the

precipitating events of this emotion in service settings is absent. Therefore, this

exploratory study investigates and categorizes events that typically instigate

customer anger to fill this void. Thus it provides a conceptual model of anger

instigation in services and guidelines for service firms on how to avoid customer

anger.

Examples of research objectives

To find out what motivates consumers to buy a product online.

To study the effect of leadership style on employees job satisfaction.

To investigate the relationship between capital structure and profitability of the

firm.

To establish success factors regarding the adoption and use of information

systems.

To determine the optimal price for a product.

To investigate the influence of the instore shopping environment on impulse

buying.

To establish the determinants of employee involvement.

To understand the causes of employee absence.

EXAMPLE OF A PROBLEM STATEMENT

CAA Airlines carries out charter and regular flights to mediumhaul destinations

such as the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Red Sea and to longhaul

destinations such as the Caribbean.

Today, CAA s fleet consists of three (new) Boeing 737800s and four (outdated)

Boeing 767300s. Because the Boeing 767s are rather outdated they need more

maintenance than the average airplane. Despite an intensive maintenance

program, these planes have a lot of technical problems. Consequently, the long

haul fleet of CAA has needed to deal with a lot of delays recently. New longhaul

planes have been ordered, but these planes will not be delivered before 2016.

This means that more delays will inevitably occur. This may translate into much

frustration among airline passengers, to switching behavior, and to negative

wordof

mouth communication. These feelings and behaviors of consumers may

eventually have negative effects on the performance and the profitability of the

firm.

Prior research has claimed that service waits can be controlled by two techniques:

operations management and management of perceptions. For CAA Airlines it is

very difficult to obtain zero defects (no delays). Hence, this project will focus on

managing the perceptions of the wait experience: because CAA Airlines cannot

control the actual amount of delays and the duration, the company must focus on

managing the customers perception of the waiting experience. The purpose of

this study is twofold:

(1) to identify the factors that influence the passengers waiting experience and

(2) to investigate the possible impact of waiting on customer satisfaction and

service evaluations.

Therefore, this project focuses on the following research questions:

1.

What are the factors that affect the perceived waiting experience of airline

passengers and to what extent do these factors affect the perception of waiting

times?

2.

What are the affective consequences of waiting and how does affect mediate

the relationship between

waiting and service evaluations?

3.

How do situational variables (such as filled time) influence customer reactions

to the waiting experience?

Drawing from prior research in the areas of waiting, service evaluations, and

mood theory, hypotheses are generated regarding the relationships among a

delay, the waiting experience, affect, and service evaluations.

The hypothesized relationships are tested in a field setting involving delayed CAA

airline passeng