Steps to Follow When Conducting Research

The specific steps to follow when conducting research depend, in part, on the topic of
investigation, where the researchers are in their overall program of research, and other
factors. Nonetheless, it is accurate to say that much research in the social sciences follows
a systematic course of action that begins with the statement of a research question and
ends with the researcher drawing conclusions about a null hypothesis. This section
describes the research process as a planned sequence that consists of the following six
steps:
1. Developing a statement of the research question
2. Developing a statement of the research hypothesis
3. Defining the instrument (questionnaire, unobtrusive measures)
4. Gathering the data
5. Analyzing the data
6. Drawing conclusions regarding the hypothesis.

The preceding steps reference a fictitious research problem. Imagine that you have been
hired by a large insurance company to find ways of improving the productivity of its
insurance agents. Specifically, the company would like you to find ways to increase the
dollar amount of insurance policies sold by the average agent. You begin a program of
research to identify the determinants of agent productivity.