ORR 5100 Module 2 Application Exercise: Problem Statement, Questions and a Short Literature Review Example

Reviewed by Edgar Pennington, MBA Thomas Edison State University Updated October 2026

This ORR 5100 Module 2 example works an application exercise on the research problem and literature review in Qualitative Methods for Organizational Research, from TESU's Master of Science in Healthcare Management and other M.S. programs. ORR-5100 asks in this module how researchers turn a workplace concern into a researchable problem, frame open-ended questions and use literature to map what is already known and where it stops. The exercise continues the study begun in Module 1 at a composite Camden hospital, where more than a third of newly hired registration staff quit before their first anniversary. It drafts the problem and purpose statements and three research questions, then reviews research on turnover, emotional labor and onboarding to locate the gap the study will fill.

CourseORR-5100 Qualitative Methods for Organizational Research
ModuleModule 2
Paper typeModule 2 application exercise: research problem, purpose, questions and literature review
LengthAbout 684 words, 5 pages
FormatAPA 7 student paper
SchoolThomas Edison State University
ProgramMaster of Science in Healthcare Management
UpdatedOctober 2026

Free sample paper for ORR 5100 Module 2

1

What Is Known About Why New Hires Leave, and What Is Not Known About Registration Staff

Student Name

Master of Science in Healthcare Management, Thomas Edison State University

ORR-5100: Qualitative Methods for Organizational Research

Mentor Name

Month Day, Year

What this page is doingThe title states the literature review's finding, that general turnover research leaves this group's experience unexplained.
2

What Is Known About Why New Hires Leave, and What Is Not Known About Registration Staff

Problem Statement

At a Camden hospital, 38 percent of newly hired patient access representatives leave within their first year, costing about $9,000 per departure and lengthening emergency department wait times. Exit surveys show that representatives leave but not why; their structured ratings of pay, schedule and supervision are unremarkable, and most free-text responses cite unspecified personal reasons. Without understanding how representatives experience their first year, the hospital cannot design changes that would keep them. Little research has examined the first-year experience of frontline revenue cycle staff, who combine customer service, financial collection and exposure to patients in distress.

Purpose Statement

This qualitative study sets out to learn, in representatives' own words, what the first year in patient access at an urban hospital is like and what pushes some to stay and others to quit.

Research Questions

Creswell and Poth (2018) recommend a central question that is broad and open, using words such as "how" and "what," followed by a small number of subquestions.

The questions avoid assuming the answer; none asks about pay or schedule specifically, though participants may raise them.

QuestionWording
Central questionHow do patient access representatives describe their experience of their first year at the hospital?
Subquestion 1What aspects of the work do representatives find most demanding, and how do they cope with them?
Subquestion 2How do representatives describe the support they received during onboarding and afterward?
Subquestion 3How do current and former representatives explain their decisions to stay or leave?

Literature Review

Turnover Research

Research on employee turnover is extensive. Mitchell et al. (2001) proposed job embeddedness, the links, fit and sacrifice that bind people to their jobs and communities, and found that it predicted staying beyond job satisfaction and commitment. A new hire has few ties and little to give up by leaving, which helps explain why so many leave in the first year. But embeddedness research is largely survey based and does not describe how embeddedness forms or fails for particular groups.

Emotional Labor

Hochschild (1983) introduced emotional labor, the management of feeling to create a publicly observable display required by the job, and argued that it can exact a personal cost. Registration staff display calm and empathy while asking patients, sometimes in pain or fear, for insurance details and payment. Grandey (2000) proposed a model of emotional labor as emotion regulation and linked surface acting, faking an expression, to stress and burnout. These studies suggest that emotional labor may matter for registration staff, but they have not examined this role.

Onboarding

A meta-analysis by Bauer et al. (2007) showed that newcomer adjustment, meaning role clarity, confidence in one's ability and acceptance by coworkers, mediated the relationship between socialization tactics and outcomes such as performance and turnover intentions. Our onboarding consists of two weeks of system training; it addresses role clarity but not social acceptance or coping with difficult patients.

What this page is doingShowing that each body of research explains part of the problem but none studies this group positions the gap precisely, which is what a literature review must do.
3

The Gap

Turnover, emotional labor and onboarding research each illuminate part of the problem, but none describes how frontline revenue cycle staff experience the first year. Most studies of healthcare turnover focus on nurses and physicians. The proposed study fills that gap with the representatives' own accounts.

How the Literature Shapes the Study

The literature suggests sensitizing concepts, embeddedness, emotional labor and newcomer adjustment, that I will keep in mind during interviews and analysis without forcing the data into them. The interview guide in Module 3 will include open questions that allow these themes to emerge, along with others the literature has not anticipated. The review also shaped what the study will not do. Because turnover research already offers validated survey measures, this study will not try to measure embeddedness or burnout; it will ask representatives to describe their experience and leave measurement to a possible later phase. The search drew on the Business Source Complete and CINAHL databases, combining turnover, retention, onboarding and emotional labor with patient access, registration and revenue cycle; the scarcity of results for the last three terms is itself evidence of the gap.

References

Bauer, T. N., Bodner, T., Erdogan, B., Truxillo, D. M., & Tucker, J. S. (2007). Newcomer adjustment during organizational socialization: A meta-analytic review of antecedents, outcomes, and methods. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(3), 707-721. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.3.707

Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). Sage.

Grandey, A. A. (2000). Emotion regulation in the workplace: A new way to conceptualize emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5(1), 95-110. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.1.95

Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press.

Mitchell, T. R., Holtom, B. C., Lee, T. W., Sablynski, C. J., & Erez, M. (2001). Why people stay: Using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 44(6), 1102-1121. https://doi.org/10.5465/3069391

ORR 5100 Module 2 instructions, in plain terms

ORR-5100 includes two application exercises, worth 15 percent of the grade together, that develop components of the final research proposal. This one develops the research problem and literature review. Expect to write a problem statement that names the problem, its importance and the gap; a purpose statement; open-ended research questions; and a literature review organized by theme that ends by locating the gap. Write the questions so they do not assume the answer, and show how the literature will inform, without dictating, your study. Search at least two databases and note your search terms, since how you searched shows whether the gap is real. Keep each research question open enough that participants can surprise you.

How the ORR 5100 Module 2 example is put together

The exercise states the problem with its costs and the limits of current data. A purpose statement and a table of a central question and three subquestions follow. The literature review covers turnover, emotional labor and onboarding under separate headings, ending each with what the research leaves unexplained, and a gap section draws them together. A closing section explains how the literature will sensitize the study without constraining it. The closing section also explains what the study will leave to later measurement and reports the databases and terms used in the search, so the claimed gap can be checked. Each theme ends with its limits.

Where the marks sit in the ORR 5100 Module 2 rubric

Mentors grade application exercises on a clear, well-justified problem statement, purpose and questions consistent with qualitative inquiry, a literature review organized by theme that identifies a gap, and clear APA writing. Papers whose questions are open and neutral show understanding of qualitative design. A review that ends each theme with its limits, and then names the gap precisely, shows the synthesis the course expects. Explaining how literature will be used during analysis demonstrates methodological awareness. Reporting the search strategy, and noting where results were scarce, gives the claimed gap credibility. Questions that leave room for unexpected answers show the openness qualitative work requires. A purpose statement that names the participants and site shows precision.

ORR 5100 Module 2 help: mistakes that cost marks

Points are lost for research questions with yes or no answers, by reviewing literature as a list of summaries or by failing to state a gap. Others write purpose statements that predict results. Use how and what questions. Organize the review by theme. End each theme with its limits. State the gap your study fills. Report how you searched, and use thin results for your population as evidence of the gap you plan to fill. Check that your purpose statement names the phenomenon, the participants and the site in a single statement. A free first sample on your own ORR-5100 application exercise is available on request.

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ORR 5100 Module 2 questions, answered

Where can I find a free ORR 5100 Module 2 sample paper?

A problem statement, research questions and literature review on hospital registration staff turnover are in the exercise above.

How should qualitative research questions be worded?

As open how or what questions that do not assume the answer.

What does a qualitative purpose statement include?

The intent to explore a central phenomenon with specific participants at a specific site.

What is emotional labor?

The management of feeling to create the emotional display a job requires, which can carry a personal cost.

What is a research gap?

What existing studies have not examined, which a new study is designed to address.