Investigating A Business Issue - Research Portfolio Assignment

This assignment simulates key aspects of doing the management research report.

CASE STUDY - The following mini-case study or scenario provides the context for this assignment. Read the scenario, and respond to the questions below working your way through the sections.

The new Division Head in your company has found a number of problems. These include high levels of sickness absence, missed deadlines, and low morale and energy levels. In addition, staff turnover is high, and exit interviews reveal perception of a rather autocratic style of management. The recent 'engagement' survey showed that engagement levels were lower in this Division than elsewhere in the company. As a result the new Division Head believes she has a problem of 'engagement' to deal with.

What do you think all these symptoms might indicate? Is the Division Head right, or has she jumped to a conclusion without considering the evidence? Is one thing (lack of 'engagement') likely to be the cause of all these problems?

We know that people often jump to conclusions, and managers in particular are sometimes expected to provide instant answers. They can also be strongly influenced by widespread ideas, such as that lack of 'engagement' is the cause of the kinds of problems mentioned above.

However, visible problems are often the symptoms of something else. Use your knowledge, experience and diagnostic skills to think about what might be causing some or all these problems.

1. DESCRIBE YOUR VARIABLES OF INTEREST:

Your tasks -

Choose one predictor variable, and one predicted variable. Choose whatever interests you. Write down why you think knowing about the predictor variable will help you understand the predicted variable. For example, suppose you think that knowing about person-job fit would help to predict job performance, choose person-job fit, and job performance - and write down your initial thoughts about how and why person-job fit might predict job performance.

Second, find some research articles where these variables have been discussed and used. Describe the two variables, and sum up what you have found about their relationship based on research literature. You should use at least three research-based papers.

Finally, reflect briefly on what you have learned about the relationship between these variables. Present your original ideas, your literature based discussion, and reflective thoughts, below (about 350 words). Give the references at the end of this section.

2. HYPOTHESIS:

Now you need to formulate a hypothesis about the relationship between your chosen variables.

A hypothesis is a testable statement about the relationship between the two variables you have chosen.

Formulate a hypothesis connecting the two variables that you have chosen to focus on. Explain how your hypothesis stems from empirical findings or theories in the research papers you have found, and is relevant in the case study context.

You can specify the direction of the relationship between your variables if the literature enables you to but it is not mandatory.

Use at least three references, and give the references at the end of this section. (250 words)

3. MAKING THE CASE TO YOUR CLIENT:

Now that you have done some background research, and formulated your ideas about possible causes of the Division's symptoms you are ready to begin your research. In real life you would also have to choose appropriate methods of collecting data - here, assume you have decided to do both a survey, and some interviews.

At this stage it is acceptable to outline your ideas in generic terms. However, you should be able to indicate clearly what you plan to do, and what you estimate the costs, and potential benefits, of doing the research will be.

It is important that you write a convincing argument in language the Board is familiar with. Word count: about 500 words.

4. MEASURING THE VARIABLES:

This part is related to doing a survey as part of data collection.

In this section please provide:

• A description of the scales or measure in few words (e.g., number of sub-concepts measured, number of items) and comment on their quality (e.g., face validity, content validity, internal reliability).
• The full list of questions and the answer response format (e.g., 5 point Likert scale - describe the end-points of the response scale).
• A reference to an academic paper in which each scale is used - hence two references at least.

Please note - we do not expect you to identify scales that are the same as those used to collect the data you will analyse (next section).

There is much more to doing a survey than identifying scales for measuring variables. However, this is a very important task, and here we do not have time to continue with developing the questionnaire, choosing the sample, administering the survey, and collecting the data. Please give the references at the end of this section (About 250 words).

5. STATISTICAL DATA ANALYSIS:

For each hypothesis, please follow this standard procedure:

1. Describe the two key variables of the hypothesis

• Have you manipulated the variables to obtain new measures? If yes, how?
• What is the range of values that your measure can take?
• What do the values represent? (higher scores mean more...?)
• Are your data normally distributed?

2. Provide basic descriptive statistics for your two variables. Describe the statistical information in words and, if appropriate, with relevant data displays.

3. Provide the results of the statistical test that you have used to test the hypothesis, and interpret the findings.

Present your data, and a short report explaining what you have found (About 250 words).

6. INTERVIEW (TEXTUAL DATA) ANALYSIS

It is common practice to combine a survey with interviewing, for a variety of reasons.

Here we have provided you with a sample of interviews. The research questions you plan to answer through the analysis are:

• What does this sample of interviews tell you about employees' perceptions of management style in the Division?
• What seems to be the impact of the perceived management style (apart from intention to leave the company)?

Analyse the interviews using Excel. There is no total word count here.

To complete this section of your portfolio, you should submit:

1. The coded interview scripts

2. Your codebook

3. The matrices you created to summarise the data needed to answer the questions.

4. A brief description of the findings for your client. (about 350 words).

7. EVIDENCE-BASED AND COSTED RECOMMENDATION

Now you have done your research and analysis, you have the evidence on which to base recommendations for your client. When making recommendations it is very important to consider practical implications, likely costs, and potential benefits, to help your client decide whether to accept your recommendations or not.

In this section, you should:

1. Provide one recommendation.

2. Describe the evidence (what your research shows are the problems) that led you to make your recommendation.

3. Indicate the steps required to implement your recommendation.

4. Explain why you think implementing your recommendation will help to improve matters.

5. Identify the risks involved in implementing your recommendation

6. Identify the benefits you expect to come from implementing your recommendation, and show how the benefits can be tracked.

7. Outline your implementation budget showing:

a. Resources needed (e.g., number of hours needed, materials, and so on ...).

b. An expense flow forecast to indicate costs and benefits phased over the period.

c. A list of costing assumptions. (e.g., all costs are approximate, cost of employees per hour, does the technology cost include licences? And so on ...).

d. Contingency expenses or time and rationale for the amount of contingency (i.e. if it is 50%, why?).

e. Reference to any other costs you might not be able to quantify (e.g. organisational stress, individual burn-out...) and if anything should be put in place to mitigate, track, monitor these.

You can present your recommendation and other information required in a table if you prefer. (about 400 words for this section).

8. INDIVIDUAL REFLECTIVE NOTE

What have you learned about managing yourself, and about doing a research project, through this assignment? Use this section to reflect on your learning journey during this assignment, and on how you plan to develop your research skills in the next 12 months (350 words).

WORD LIMIT: 3000 Words and REFERENCING STYLE: Harvard.

Attachment:- Assignment Files.rar