The motivation of Employees in the Reliance Industries Limited Company - Research Proposal Example

Employee Job Satisfaction and Motivation: Impact on Organisational Performance and Efficiency: The Case of Reliance Industries Limited Introduction Reliance Industries Limited was founded in 1966 by Dhirubhai Ambani, the Indian industrialist and was the pioneer in the introduction of financial instruments such as fully convertible debentures into the Indian stock markets (Forbes 2010). It is alleged by critics that the success of Reliance Industries Limited at the top position in terms of market capitalisation is the ability of the founder to manipulate the levers of a controlled economy to its advantage. The major subsidiaries and associates of Reliance Industries Limited include Reliance Petroleum Limited (RPL); Reliance Life Sciences; Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited (RIIL); Reliance Institute of Life Sciences (Rils); Relicord; Reliance Solar; Reliance Clinical Research Services (RCRS); Reliance Logistics (P) Limited (Cable News Network 2010). Reliance Industries Limited has 3 million shareholders and 1 out of every 4 investors in India is a Reliance shareholder (Cable News Network 2010). This makes it the company the organisation in which most stock is widely held in the whole world. According to Forbes (2010), the subsidiaries and associates of Reliance Industries Limited are the best performers in the Indian stock market. By market value, Reliance Industries Limited is the largest private sector company in India with an annual turnover of US$ 44 billion and profit of US$ 3.6 billion for the year ending in March 2010 and assets valued at US$ 43.61 (Forbes 2010). The company is ranked at 264th position in the Fortune Global 500 list in 2009 and at the 126th position in the Forbes Global 2000 list in 2010 (Cable News Network 2010; Forbes 2010). Reliance Industries Limited is one of the main players in the oil and petrochemicals industry in India. Although the company’s main focus is oil, it has diversified its operations in recent times as a result of severe differences between the founder’s sons, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani after the company was divided between them in 2006 (Cable News Network 2010). Research Objectives The objectives of the study will be: i. To examine the strategies that organisations use to motivate their employees ii. To explore the relationship between employee motivation and job satisfaction. iii. To examine organisational performance and efficiency. iv. To examine organisational performance and efficiency entails. v. To examine the impact of employee job satisfaction and motivation on organisational performance and efficiency. Research Questions The study will seek to answer the following questions: i. What are the strategies that organisations use to motivate their employees? ii. What is the correlation between employee motivation and job satisfaction? iii. What is organisational performance and efficiency? iv. What does organisational performance and efficiency entail? v. What is the impact of employee job satisfaction and motivation on organisational performance and efficiency? Research Methodology and Philosophy Data collection will be carried out by use of questionnaires. Descriptive research design will then be used where qualitative analysis will be made basing on the variables that aim at examining the impact of employee job satisfaction and motivation on organisational performance and efficiency. This is because descriptive methods are quite effective in identifying concrete socio-economic issues such as the impact of employee job satisfaction and motivation on organisational performance and efficiency (Silverman 1993; Beverley 1998; Strauss and Corbin 1990). To compliment the qualitative techniques, quantitative techniques will be applied because they come in handy in supporting the same. The research philosophy will be post-positivist which is mainly concerned with qualitative research. As suggested by most researchers post positivism is concerned with establishment of and searching for evidence that is valid and sound and proof for the existence of a certain phenomena. However, the quantitative approach will be used to compliment the qualitative approach but the latter will be dominant. The study will apply deductive and inductive approaches. This is because in both approaches, arguments are based on laws, rules, accepted principles and observations all of which are applicable to the research topic for a comprehensive study. Inductive approach is associated with qualitative method while deductive approach is associated with quantitative method and this prompts blending of the two approaches. Literature Review According to Judge et al. (2001, pp. 376-407) the happier people are in the workplace, the more satisfied they are. Weiss (2002, pp. 173-194) and Rain et al. (1991) concur with this argument that employee job satisfaction and employee motivation are clearly linked. Rain et al. (1991) and Fried and Ferris (1987, pp. 287-322) agree with Porter (1997) that human resources are the most important assets that any organisation can boast to own and to maintain because people utilise and turn the organisation’s resources into products that the organisation needs in order to perform and to efficiently and effectively meet the needs of its customers. Porter (1997) asserts that job satisfaction is a key indicator of how employees feel about their jobs and a predictor of work behaviours such as organisational loyalty, absenteeism and employee turnover. Fried and Ferris (1987, pp. 287-322) concur with Porter’s view that job satisfaction can partially mediate the relationship of personality variables and deviant work behaviours. According to Weiss (2002, pp. 173-194) and Porter (1997), there exists a huge correlation between job satisfaction and productivity. Job satisfaction amongst employees of Reliance Industries as a result of effective motivation packages has increased growth due to the commitment that workers exercise. According to Reliance Industries Limited (2010), this has come as a result of various motivation packages such as competitive compensation packages and world-class exposures that offer employees opportunities to learn and experience the world. Porter (1997) states that one source of an organisation’s competitive advantage is job satisfaction. Reliance Industries Limited recognises this and that is the reason why the company walks an extra mile to ensure that employees are satisfied on the job and this has enabled it to attract and retain excellent talent that places the company at a more competitive position that has enabled it to invest in innovative and lucrative ventures in areas such as Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), bio-technology-led research, life sciences and many more (Forbes 2010; Reliance Industries Limited 2010). References Beverly, H 1998, An Introduction to Qualitative Research, Trent Focus Group for Research and Development in Primary Health Care, University of Nottingham. Cable News Network 2010, Global 500, Retrieved September 23, 2010 from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2009/full_list/201_300.html. Forbes 2010, Global 2000, Retrieved September 23, 2010 from http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/18/global-2000-10_The-Global-2000_Rank_2.html. Fried, Y & Ferris, GR 1987, “The Validity of the Job Characteristics Model: A Review and Meta-analysis.” Personnel Psychology, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 287-322. Judge, TA Thoresen, CJ Bono, JE Patton, GK 2001, “The Job Satisfaction-Job Performance Relationship: A Qualitative and Quantitative Review.” Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 127, No. 3, pp. 376-407. Porter, ME 1997, “Competitive Strategy.” Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 12-17. Rain, JS, Lane, IM & Steiner, DD 1991, “A Current Look at the Job Satisfaction/Life Satisfaction Relationship: Review and Future Considerations.” Human Relations, Vol. 44, pp. 287-307. Reliance Industries Limited 2010, Growth through challenges, Retrieved September 23, 2010 from http://www.ril.com/html/careers/lifeatreliance.html. Silverman, D 1993, Interpreting Qualitative Data: Methods for Analysing Talk, Text and Interaction, London, Sage. Strauss, A & Corbin, J 1990, Basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques, London, Sage. Weiss, HM 2002, “Deconstructing Job Satisfaction: Separating Evaluations, Beliefs and Effective Experiences.” Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 12, pp. 173-194. Read More