The Key Elements That Make up Not Just Good Jobs but Smart Jobs - Research Proposal Example

Working Title: The Key Elements that make up not just ‘Good Jobs’ but ‘Smart Jobs’ Student’s Name: Course: Tutor’s Name: Background The concept of smart jobs is comprehensively discussed by Hall and Heras (2010, pp. 448-462), who argue that such jobs would ‘stimulate learning, growth, and employability on the part of the incumbent’ (p. 448). The two authors argue that the concept of smart jobs should be embraced by organisations as a way of designing jobs that not only create a learning environment for the employees, but also jobs that are satisfactory. Hall and Heras (2010, pp. 448-462) further observe that smart jobs would be expected to increase efficiency in the organisation since a satisfied workforce is likely to produce better results – something that would ultimately lead to increased profitability and/or competitiveness by the organisation. The authors specifically observe that smart jobs ‘liberate human excitement, involvement, and creativity’ and by so doing, increase the lessons and meanings that employees derive from their jobs (p. 458). The proposed research wishes to identify just how prevalent the smart jobs concept is among organisations. Since the term ‘smart jobs’ may vary in meaning among the sample respondents, the project proposes to gauge the three elements identified by Hall and Heras (2010) as being core to the smart jobs concept (i.e. the learning environment; the productive nature of the job(s); and the fulfilment level of the jobs). As such, this project proposes to conduct a research among 20 medium to large scale organisations for purposes of identifying the learning environment therein, and other aspects that would enhance employees’ level of fulfilment or satisfaction while working in such organisations. The HR departments of the 20 medium-to-large scale business organisations will be engaged in order to provide the employers’ perspective on the three elements of ‘smart jobs’ as identified above. For objectivity’s sake and in order to ensure that there is no bias against employees, 5 employees from each of the identified 20 organisations (preferably from different departments) will be sampled as respondents. Such an approach to the project will enable the researcher to correlate the information provided by the organisations against the employees’ views, hence determining whether strategies put in place by the employers indeed have any effect on employees. Significance to knowledge The idea that contemporary workers need to be motivated, valued, and appreciated by the employer is widely debated in literature (Chiu, Luk & Tang 2002, p. 402; Douglas 1999, pp. 622-623; Tietjen & Myers 1998; Wiley 1997, p. 263). In most of these studies the different aspects of what makes ‘smart jobs’ as illustrated by Hall and Heras (2010) are investigated separately. As such, this proposal seeks to investigate the three main aspects that Hall and Heras (2010) identify as components of smart jobs, and by so doing, the researcher hopes to contribute to the knowledge related to designing constructive ‘smart jobs’ for the contemporary business organisations. Research questions The proposed research will seek to answer the following questions: Do contemporary business organisations design jobs that enhance employee satisfaction? Is the learning environment concept persistent in contemporary business environments? Are employees working in organisations that claim to have employee-friendly workplaces more satisfied or fulfilled by their jobs? The latter question is especially important since it will shed light on whether efforts by employing organisations have an effect on the employees’ perception of enhanced job fulfilment, learning environment, and productivity – all elements identified by Hall and Heras (2010, pp. 448-462) as being vital to the composition of smart jobs. Literature review People derive meaning from work (Wrzesniewski 2002, p. 230). It is such meaning or lack thereof that determines whether they will stay on or leave, should they be faced with challenges, or receive better job offers from elsewhere. Apart from the general motivators (i.e. good salaries, allowances, and/or flexible working hours) that attract people to a job, Wrzesniewski (2002, p. 232) found out that some social occurrences like terrorism incline people to re-evaluate the meaning they derive from their jobs. Seemingly, some people ‘view their work as drudging necessity, whereas others experience their work as a source of joy’ (Wrzesniewski 2002, p. 232). Whatever an employee’s view regarding his/her job is, Wrzesniewski and Dutton (2001, p. 179) hold the view that organisations that allow the employees to be ‘active crafters of their work’ have high chances of establishing and maintaining a human resource that enjoys their job experiences. In other words, Wrzesniewski and Dutton (2001, p. 179) propose that employees are more satisfied if and when the employers give them the flexibility of interacting and handling their work tasks. From such an argument, it appears that the role of job design should not be handled by the employer organisation alone; rather, the employees need to be involved in the same. Vough and Parker (2007, p. 2) reiterate the importance of involving employees in job design arguing that they affect ‘how work is designed’ in addition to the fact that the job design influences them. Notably, Vough and Parker (2007, p. 2) observe that ‘work design theory and practice must keep pace with ... a knowledge based economy with increased competition over human resources, and other changes’. They also observe that job designs can be at an individual level (pp. 3-5), or group level (pp. 5-7). Further, job designs can adopt motivational approaches (promoting optimal motivation among employees), a mechanistic perspective (designed to increase performance through employee facilitation and training), a biological model (designed to enhance the physical health and comfort among employees), or the perceptual-motor model (which considers the attention and information demand that employees need to handle work) (Vough & Parker, 2007, p. 7). The sense of fulfilment by employees is arguably closely related to the concept of attitude as discussed by Tietjen and Myers (1998, p. 226). Drawing their analysis from the work of Herzberg et al. (1959), Tietjen and Myers (1998, p. 226) cite work, responsibility, advancement, possibility of growth, achievement and recognition as the motivators that determine the attitudes that employees develop towards their jobs. The two writers also observe that extrinsic factors such as working conditions, job security and the relations that one has with his peers or co-workers also determine his level of job satisfaction and hence fulfilment (Tietjen & Myers 1998, p. 226-227). The attitudes are according to Griffin (1991, p. 434) shaped by work experiences, which can be enhanced using work redesign. According to Griffin (1991, p. 425) redesigning jobs affects the employees’ ‘perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours’ and is thus a good strategy of renewing or enhancing their job experiences and providing them with new meanings of work. On their part, Slack, Chambers and Johnston (2004, n.pag) have identified quality, speed, dependability, flexibility, cost, health and safety, and the ‘quality of working life’ as the relevant objectives of job design. Slack et al (2004, n.pag) also underscore the importance of behavioural approaches in job design arguing that such enables the human resource department to understand the links between job design and empowerment, teamwork and flexibility. In regard to the latter, Slack et al. (2004, n.pag) note that it can occur in skills, location and time. Teamwork on the other hand means that instead of designing jobs for individuals, HRM departments can design jobs for teams or groups. On its part, empowerment is used in reference to the extent to which employees have autonomy over their jobs. Specifically, a job can be designed in a manner that allows the employees to decide which approach to use in order to meet set objectives, the sequence and schedule of activities, and the appropriate work methods to use (Slack et al. 2004, n.pag). Research design As indicated in the background section above, this project proposes to use 20 middle-to-large scale business organisations, and 100 employee respondents. Each of the targeted 20 targeted organisations will be requested to avail 5 respondents. Since job design is often a prerogative of the human resource department as indicated by Slack et al (2004, n.pag), it will be expected that organisational respondents will be drawn from the HR department. To reduce the time spent researching the topic, both the organisational and employee-targeted project research will be carried out concurrently. A qualitative approach will be adopted for use in the proposed project, with questionnaires as the main tools for investigating the different aspects of job design and employees’ perceptions regarding the same in different organisations. The qualitative approach was chosen because of its usefulness in exploration, the opportunity it gives researchers to describe their subjects, its sensitive nature especially when exploring people’s emotions and experiences; its potential of yielding findings that would benefit the substantive field (in this case HR); and it flexible nature hence meaning that changes in the targeted respondent samples can be well accommodated (Boeije 2002, p. 32-33). As Miles and Huberman (1994 cited by Lehman 2008, p. 4) indicate, qualitative research further allows the researcher to adopt a subjective position, hence acting as a ‘measurement device’ through ‘viewing the phenomena from inside’. Applied in context, the qualitative approach will build on existing knowledge (through a review of literature), but will also be receptive to new ideas or relationships that will emerge in how employers and employees interact in designing jobs. In relation to organisations, the project will seek to find out what the HR departments do or don’t do in regard to job design, and their perceptions regarding their job designs’ contributions to enhanced learning environments, fulfilling, and productive aspects of the jobs. In regard to the employees, the project will be designed to capture the description of what employees think of their employer’s job designs, and whether or not they actively participate in job designs. At the end of the project therefore, the researcher will have a near-accurate picture of what the organisations and the employees think about job designs in their respective organisational settings, what specific job designs look like, and what job design-related activities look like. An extensive review of existing literature will also be carried out for purposes of understanding the ‘current social science theory’ as indicated by Boeije (2002, p. 21). Through the literature review, the writer will thus build a coherent framework through which the different aspects of job design as reflected in the surveys held in the 20 organisations and 100 employees will be analysed. Another reason why an extensive literature review will be important for the proposed project is because by so doing, the researcher will avoid re-inventing existing knowledge, which ultimately means that time and costs related to the research will be saved as has been implied by Boeije (2002, p. 21). Additionally, a review of the literature will facilitate analysis through the provision of a ‘skeletal framework’ (Boeije 2002, p. 23). Data analysis Data analysis is defined as the process of differentiating, combining and reflecting on data gathered in a research project (Miles & Huberman 1994, p. 56 cited by Lehman 2008, p. 111). Typically, data analysis involves assigning inferential and descriptive codes or tags to the collected data. At this stage, the researcher may need to use simple computer-assisted data analysis techniques such as spreadsheets, but may also use more targeted analytical computer programmes such as SPSS. Overall, data analysis for the proposed research project will follow the three steps suggested by Miles and Huberman (1994 cited by Folkestad 2008, p. 7). The three steps include data reduction; data display; and conclusion. In data reduction, the concepts and methods will be developed, and subjects developed, while data display will involve the researcher’s quest to attain meaning from collected data. At this stage, the researcher will most likely use diagrams, summaries or text matrices as suggested by Folkestad (2008, p. 7). In the conclusion part, the researcher will compare, contrast and search for patterns in the displayed data, thus forming an informed theory or opinion regarding the subject of the project. Ethics The ethics aspect of this project will be guided by Frankel and Devers’ (2000, p. 260) observation that ‘dealing with the hearts, lives and minds of other human beings ...requires the utmost in professionalism, respect and integrity’. Following the cited observation, this researcher will therefore seek to act professionally, respectfully and with integrity towards the organisations and the individual employees targeted by the project. The researcher’s position is further informed by Maierhofer and Colley (2004, p. 7, citing Thomas et al. 2004, p. 61), who state that ethics creates ethical mindfulness, which ‘becomes a form of self-regulation that causes one to behave with an ethical consciousness’. Following the above observations, the researcher to this project consider the different ethical implications that the proposed research would have on the targeted research sample and realises that posing questions in an organisational setting may influence ‘people’s core beliefs of what is important’ (Maierhofer & Colley (2004, p. 2). In asking employees whether the management ever involves them in job designing processes, this project may create the impression among the respondents that their involvement in such activities is a necessity to job satisfaction. To avoid such pitfalls, this project will seek to minimise the use of yes/no (close-ended questions), and instead adopt the use of open-ended questions, which will be constructed with the need to remain ethical in mind. The principle of justice will also need to be considered during the research especially because the findings of the project will likely benefit employers more. As indicated by Lindorff (2007, p. 22): The principle of justice may be applied to employees, and requires that they are not exploited because of membership in any organisation under study. They should not be required to bear the burdens of research in terms of time, energy, or disclosure of personal information while other groups, such as employers and researchers reap the benefits. To minimise the possibility of acting unethically towards the employees as implied in the above cited statement, this project will select respondents who volunteer for the same. Additionally, the researcher will avoid getting any sensitive nature from the respondents, and where such information ought to be gathered, the researcher will uphold the confidentiality of the respondents. The ethical principle of beneficence will also need to be considered especially in regard to the employee samples. According to Lindorff (2007, p. 24) beneficence ‘requires that researchers should make efforts to secure the wellbeing of participants’. As such the researcher will need to employ cautionary measures to avoid risking the wellbeing of the employees or the respondent organisation especially if information that is sensitive will be revealed to the researcher in the course of the data gathering. Another ethical issue relates to respecting the targeted respondents through what Lindorff (2007, p. 25) expounds as preserving and protecting ‘the privacy, dignity, wellbeing and freedom of research participants’. This researcher will therefore strive to explain the purpose of the project to targeted respondents to enable them make an informed consent about whether or not to participate in the same. Despite the intended efforts to respect respondents, the researcher acknowledges that different cultures in organisations and among employees may produce different meanings of the respect concept, thus presenting the risk that even without a premeditated intention of being disrespectful, the researcher’s action may interpreted as being so. Objectivity may also be an ethical issue especially since the researcher would have no way of ensuring that the organisations do not ask the employee respondents to ‘bend the truth’ to favour the organisation. This may present a research bias which the researcher will try to mitigate by asking respondent employees to be truthful especially considering that the responses will not be linked back to them. The self-reported responses by the organisations may also present an ethical challenge that may make the objectivity of the findings questionable (Pronin, Gilovich & Ross 2004, p. 781). To reduce such biases, the researcher will not reveal the names of the organisations involved in order to avoid the respondents perceiving the research as an avenue they can utilise for public relations purposes. Timeline Activity Start Date (DD/MM/YR) Duration (days) Finish Date (DD/MM/YR) Primary Research 14 days Writing the literature review 14 days Designing questionnaires 14 days Identifying respondents and sending questionnaires 28 days Writing progress report 14 days Collecting feedback & conducting follow-up 42 days Analysing the findings 28 days Writing a comprehensive report 28 days The Budget Particulars Total cost Payments (salary) for a research assistance (approximately 42 days) AUD 50/day x 42 days 2100 Travel expenses for the researcher 1800 Telephone costs 2000 Printing and correspondence charges 1500 Data Processing (SPSS) 145 Report writing, printing, photocopying and binding 500 Contingency 1000 Total estimated budget 9045 Further clarification The elements that make ‘smart jobs’ as identified by Hall and Heras (2010) may need to be investigated further before the researcher commences the actual research. Specifically, the three elements will need to be defined comprehensively and understood clearly in order to enable the researcher to carry out the project from an informed position. For example, while writing this research proposal, this writer got the impression that the learning environment element is diverse and closely linked to the concept of the learning organisation. The latter is defined as ‘an organisation skilled at creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behaviour to reflect new knowledge and insight’ (Merit Training Corp 2005, p. 1). Mitleton-Kelly (n.d, p. 1) on her part defines the learning organisation as ‘one that is able to change its behaviours and mind-sets as a result of experience’. The differentials in the two definitions, and the different meaning that can be adduced to the two other elements of smart jobs (i.e. the productive nature of the job(s); and the fulfilment level of the jobs), indicate that the researcher may need to adopt working definitions for some of the key terms that will be used in the project. Conclusion As indicated in the introductory part of this proposal, the ‘smart jobs’ concept among organisations is mainly discussed by Hall and Heras (2010, pp. 448-462). However, discovering whether the concept is indeed prevalent in real organisations and discovering whether in deed its has any effect on how the same organisations engage the job designing function of their human resource functions, can only be established through real research. This proposed research therefore seeks to live up to the objective of scholarly research which according to Geursen and Ehrenreich (1998) seeks to ‘develop subject knowledge which provides a basis for extending knowledge’, and by so doing, this research hopes to extend the understanding of the smart jobs concept as well as enhance organisational job design-related decision-making. References Boeije, H R 2009, Analysis in qualitative research, Sage, London. Chiu, R K, Luk, V & Tang, T 2002, ‘Retaining and motivating employees: Compensation preferences in Hong Kong and China’, Personnel Review, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 402 – 431. Douglas, C 1999, ‘Organization redesign: The current state and projected trends’, Management Decision, vol. 37, no. 8, pp. 621 – 628. Frankel, R M & Devers, K J 2000, ‘Study design in qualitative research-1: Developing questions and assessing resource needs’, Education for Health, vol. 13, no.2, pp. 251-261. Geursen, G S & Ehrenreich, K B 1998, ‘A new strategy for improving business research’, pp. 85-96. Griffin, R W 1991, ‘Effects of work redesign on employee perceptions, behaviours, attitudes, and behaviours: A long-term investigation’, Academy of Management Journal, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 425-435. Hall, D T & Heras, M L 2010, ‘Reintegrating job design and career theory: Creating not just good jobs but smart jobs’, Journal of Organisational Behaviour, vol. 31, pp. 448-462. Lehman, K F 2008, ‘Chapter 5 Research methodology and design’, UTas ePrints, pp. 97-120. Lindorff, M 2007, ‘The ethical impact of business and organisational research: The forgotten methodological issue?’ The Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 21-28. Maierhofer, N I 2004, ‘Ethical considerations for using values to manage in the workplace’, Paper Presented to the Social Change in the 21st Century Conference, pp. 1-14. Merit Training Corp 2005, ‘The learning environment’, pp. 1-78, viewed 13 Oct. 2012, Mitleton-Kelly, E n.d., ‘What are the characteristics of a learning organisation?’ GEMI Metrics Navigator, pp. 1-2, viewed 13 Oct. 2012, Slack, N, Chambers, S & Johnston, R 2004, ‘Job design and work organisation’, In Operations Management fourth edition, viewed 13 Oct. 2012, Olkestad, B 2008, ‘Analysing interview data: possibilities and challenges’, Eurospehere Working Paper Series, no. 13, pp. 1-16. Pronin, E, Gilovich, T & Ross, L 2004, ‘Objectivity in the eye of the beholder: Divergent perceptions of bias in self versus others’, Psychological Review, vol. 111, no. 3, pp. 781-799. Tietjen, M A & Myers, R M 1998, Motivation and job satisfaction’, Management Decision, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 226 – 231. Vough, H C & Parker, S K 2008, ‘Work design research: still going strong’, In C L Cooper & J Barling, Handbook of organisational behaviour, Sage Publications, London, pp. 1-32. Wiley, C 1997, ‘What motivates employees according to over 40 years of motivation surveys’, International Journal of Manpower, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 263-280. Wrzesniewski, A 2002, ‘“It’s not just a job”: Shifting work meanings of work in the wake of 9/11’, Journal of Management Inquiry, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 230-234. Wrzesniewski, A & Dutton, J E 2001, ‘Crafting a job: Revisioning employees as active crafters of their work’, Academy of Management Review, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 179-201. Read More