Masters Dissertation Proposal
Dissertation Preparation Module (NX0422)
1 Researchable Topic
This proposal clarifies the intention to examine how the performance of temporary staff working in a large company like NEXT plc warehouse can be improved. What will come under careful scrutiny is the mechanisms that can operate to motivate such staff to perform at their maximum potential and thereby increase the profitability of the company. I shall be particularly concerned to investigate the more complicated situation, from the perspective of motivating factors, where NEXT warehouse employee staff are employed for short periods of 2-4 weeks during the sale season. Of the greatest interest will be the comparison of those warehouse staff who are incited to complete their tasks within expected time spans with those who will attempt the same tasks in a desultory or less motivated way.
2 Aims and Objectives for the Research
The following points will feature as central issues for the investigation:
1) To examine the literature commentaries and current modes of thinking about Performance Management.
2) To explore the academic literature on motivation factors underpinning exceptional company performance.
3) To identify specific human resource management elements that are most important for motivating temporary staff.
4) To make recommendations on how warehouse companies can improve the performance of their temporary staff.
Currently people who are not employed on a full time or permanent basis demonstrate significant underperformance on the job. It is generally acknowledged that having a short term temporary contract is the main reason why there is such a relative underperformance when compared with those who are employed on long term or permanent contracts. There is evidence that short term staff avoid completing set tasks within appropriate time intervals. Hence one of the aims of this research is to determine the dynamics of such situations and to formulate a possible solution for the radical underperformance. Clearly, an effective solution will save the company money and reduce cost , thereby providing them with competitive advantage. In the first chapter I shall be seeking to explicate the notions of performance management that form the basis for assessing individual performance in the retail industry since that would be more relevant to the research area under scrutiny in this topic. We can take a performance management system to be the process whereby appropriate information is used to achieve superior corporate performance. In the case of retailers it means having the information to monitor corporate and store performance for the purposes of improving operational efficiency and taking urgent action where and when necessary. A key performance indicator (KPI) is critical to any performance management system. A KPI is the measure of performance of an activity that is critical to the success of an organization. KPI’s will differ depending on the nature and objective of an organization, so you must carefully select which ones to use. Poor performance by individuals who have been recruited to play important roles in the performance of the company will impact badly on the KPI. Any company who keeps regular checks on their KPI and who also recruit temporary staff into key positions will be able to monitor their impact very closely. Of course a company would not normally be expected to employ temporary staff in such key roles. Such an event would only happen where staff have been laid off due to an illness or sudden redundancies that have been ill thought out.
In the second chapter I shall be looking to
3 Literature Review
1 (2002), Employee Reward, 3rd Edition, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London.
Explains the conceptual framework-reward in context, economic theories, the psychological contract and motivation. Also gives brief view of reward process, analysing job and policy, pay structure, rewarding individual, team contribution, Performance Management, employee benefits and allowance and managing reward system.
2. (2005), Marketing temporary workers: work identify, diversity and operational HR choices, Human Resources Management Journal, Vol 15, No1, pages 76-92
This journal gives difference of employment model, supporting the strategic of HRM literature, leading to differences between core employee and various kinds of peripheral employees.
3. (2006), Key to motivating tomorrow’s workforce, Human Resources Management Vol 16, No1 pages181-198
This journal presents perspectives from the inside of what might or should be the motivational sources of tomorrows workforce. It also gives the history of research and theory on work motivation in the 20th century.
4. (1998), Human resource management and performance; proposition and test of casual model, Human System Management, Vol 17, No.3, page 183-193.
This journal clarifies the link which may exist between human resources practices and economic performance of firm.
5. (1996), Motivation and Leadrship at Work, 6th Edition, McGraw-Hill, USA.
This book looks at motivation and leadership at work. It explains different models of motivation and leadership. Throughout the book there is an examination of the interplay between motivation and leadership as they jointly determine work behaviour.
6 (1999), The Tao of Motivation: Inspiring yourself and others, Harper Collins Publishers, London.
This book explains simple but powerful techniques for motivating yourself and others.
4 Sources of data/information you anticipate using
I will be using various sources of data and information for the dissertation. On of the most important sources of information will be the direct interview with the management of the Next plc company. This will allow me to determine the issues faced by employers in their attempts to motivate their employees. I shal than attempt to either interview directly, or by indirectly providing a questionnaire to the Next permanent and temporary employees, to determine their practises and to elicit an insight about motivational issues. I will discuss the considerations from the view point of their human resources department through formal interviews with them. In this way I shall also be able to acquire useful knowledge about their selection and recruitment process. In addition I will be using secondary sources of information with regard to the company policy on any kind of a reward or merit system for rewarding their employees.
I will be looking to examine documents outlining other policies that may exist, or have existed for some time without being reviewed or updated.
One problem I may come to face will be to diagnose the veracity of the comments by the employees who have filled in the questionnaire. The question is: are they going to be telling the truth or will they be they be either lying or only offereing a distorted version of the real story? The other issue will be that this investigation will involve a considerable amount of travelling to the company site in addition to the availability of managers and whether they will be willing to allow sight of their policy documents. One of the major problems will be the time factor since temporary staff will only be available for 2-4 weeks for discussions or interviews.
5 Access/Research ethics (aprox 100 words):
I do not believe that I will face too much difficulty in having access to the workforce since I was previously employed by them and it will also help that my brother is an Operational Manager of the warehouse where I intend to complete my investigation . I have been told that the other managers are also willing to assist me in my project.
When I am interviewing the management and HR department, I will get written permission to include the relevant data into my dissertation.
For the staff I will tell them before hand that any information acquired by means of either a questionnaire, or an interview, will be used only in confidence and their name will not be mentioned anywhere in my project.
6 Possible techniques to be used for data/information analysis/interpretation
The techniques for the investigation will include:
Interviews
Questionnaire
Examination of company policies
The Interview will be semi structured, which will allow me the flexibility to follow up specific responses to aprticular questions. I will be interviewing them personally.
The questionnaire will be used for the puroses of statistical and content analysis. The questionnaire will bedirectly collected by me.
The data collected from company policies will be presented in my own words.
7 Potential Outcomes of your piece of research
The projected outcome is an understading of the factors that may be having debilitating effects on employee performance and in this way it would allow an edified consideration of the most effective way to motivate temporary employees within an organisation of this type and than to consider whether the findings are generalisable given the current thinking on the subject as underpinned by comments found in the literature on the subject.
I hope this research will give me better understanding of the motivational issues surrounding the working practices of employees working on temporary short term contracts. Also, I am hoping that this information will be a useful to the NEXT company for their future dealing with temporary employees and also have an impact on any retail industry where they employee temporary staff.
[8] Timetable for the research project milestones covering the time available.
Activity
Time Frame
Refine Research Objectives
May
Literature Review
June-September
Research methodology
August
Analyze secondary data
October
Design Data Collection strategy
October
Conduct Primary Research
November
Analyze primary research
November
Final writing up
January
9 References
See section 3
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment