Studying Assimilation Process Problems and Solutions - Research Proposal Example

Topic: A Detailed Qualitative Study of Assimilation Process Problems and Solutions ment of the Problem Assimilation is a long term exhaustive process in which psychological and social problems make the assimilation challenging and insurmountable. Without understanding the source of these problems, it will be very difficult to ascertain their subsequent effects on the newcomers, existing employees and on the overall workplace environment. Purpose of the Study In today’s workplace environment, assimilation has become an important issue and aspect for organizations. Office politics, grouping, stereotyping, discrimination, cultural gap, horizontal and vertical polarisation and communication gap are some of the major reasons that make assimilation insurmountable. Consequently, the organizations face different problems labour turnover cost, decreasing employees morale and productivity. Under this situation, it is highly significant that those causes must be highlighted and evaluated that are directly or indirectly responsible for creating difficulties for assimilation process. Additionally, as the assimilation has always been preferred by organizations because it provides productive contribution to overall organizational performance and productivity besides maintaining and stabilizing the workplace culture and environment, organizations and individuals are always looking for ways to improve their chances of compatibility and adjustment with the workplace culture through the process of assimilation. And this can only be done through evaluating hindrances and supporting factors that facilitate the process of assimilation. Research questions What are the psychological problems caused during the assimilation process? What are the social problems faced during the assimilation process? What are the effects of psychological and social problems on newcomers’ performance? What are the possible and available solutions for both psychological and social problems? Interview questions Open-ended questions 1- What are the psychological problems caused during the assimilation process? 2- What are the social problems faced during the assimilation process? 3- What are the effects of psychological and social problems on newcomers’ performance? 4- What are the possible and available solutions for both psychological and social problems? Close-ended questions: 1- In your personal opinion, which is one the most important cause making assimilation process difficult for any new comer? Please, select one answer from the following options: a- Gender-based Discrimination b- Age-based Discrimination c- Unclear job description d- Favouritism e- Discrimination 2- In your opinion, which social factor is considered to be the biggest hindrance for the assimilation process? Please, select one option from the following given options: a- Intolerance b- Misunderstanding c- Gossiping d- Bias 3- Which one is the best and effective strategy for increasing the process of assimilation? Please select one option from the given below choices: a- Incentives b- Conducive workplace environment c- Diversity d- Positive thinking 4- What should be the role of department head for improving the assimilation process? please select one option from the following: a- Friendly b- Critic c- Motivator d- Leader 5- Personally, which step should be taken by a newcomer for becoming an assimilated part of the organization? Please, select one option: a- Hard worker b- Trend follower (doing as other colleagues are doing) c- Culturally adjustable d- Socially workable Study’s Relation to Theory and Literature Jablin’s organizational assimilation theory is composed of four stages: vocational anticipatory socialization, anticipatory socialization, encounter and metamorphosis (Dainton and Zelley, 2011). In the first stage, newcomers develop certain beliefs and expectations relating to nature and type of work; in the second stage, the newcomers start to learn organizational matters and endeavour to obtain knowledge, skills required to meet job description; in the third stage, which is more related to the organizational culture, the newcomers try to ascertain type of organizational cultures and how communications and understanding among and between employees take place; in the fourth stage, the newcomers experience transition from outsider to insider (Dainton and Zelley, 2011). In other words, each stage has its own boundaries and requirements and they are sequenced as well. For example, in order to undergo this process, every newcomer is required to experience this process from first stage to the fourth stage. This study is based on Jablin’s organizational assimilation theory. Consequently, every aspect or stage mentioned in this theory is important for carrying out the search process in this study. More importantly, the study is primarily concerned with the process of assimilation in which more emphasis is given to the internal organizational factors that directly or indirectly affect the workplace environment and the employees as well. In other words, the study is mainly related to second and third stage of the organizational assimilation theory in which a newcomer learns about job description and service delivery along with developing understanding about the workplace culture in which interaction and communication with other departments and other department employees are carried out. Limitations of the Study Particular case study This study’s findings may not be generally applicable to other organizations. The collected firsthand information will be only related and specific to the targeted employees and organizations. Under this situation, the provided information primarily reflects the workplace situation and issues relating to the assimilation, discrimination and others. As a result, it would be very difficult to use the findings and recommendations on other organizations. Consequently, the subsequent findings will not be generally applicable. Secondary data It is difficult to rely on the authenticity of secondary data. The secondary data only reflects the information taken from the pre-existing sources. Under this situation, if any piece of information is incorrect and has also been included in this study, in that case, the subsequent findings, results and recommendations will be affected. Reliance on respondents Bias cannot be avoided. While collecting firsthand information from the respondents, it is possible that some respondents may be biased against the organization or employer or they prefer to give partial and biased opinion instead of providing impartial opinion about the issue or the question. Under this situation, that bias will not be helpful for assessing the factual or ground situation impartially and construct some valid and real conclusions based on the collected information provided by the respondents in the interviews. Significance of the Study Major issue Assimilation is a major issue for many organizations. Globally, efforts are being taken to reduce the gap between employee, workplace environment and employer as well. For this purpose, organizations use different approaches and incentives. For example, some introduce attractive financial and non-financial incentives for attracting and retaining employees while others prefer to provide different workplace facilities including offering relaxed working hours and less pressure work so as to new comers and existing employees become an integral part of the organizational culture. Through this gap minimization process, employee try to ascertain organizational culture, behaviours and attitudes of colleagues, trends and methods of communications across the organization are some of the way that are carried out for reducing the gap minimization and increasing assimilation process. for example, some employees prefer to work with a group whereas others find it hard to accommodate themselves with the group instead they are more inclined to work individually as they want to employ their personal freedom for providing their best efforts and become a productive employee for the organization. In the former case, Factors identification Assimilation is not a simple process but a complex one. Cost is the most important factor for various organizations especially in the services industries where goods or products are not produced but only services of human resources or employees are employed to satisfy the organizational needs. In this kind of industry, labour turnover, employee satisfaction, workplace hindrances, workplace congenial factors, internal and external communications and personality compatible with the type of job, are some of those factors that either facilitate or hinder the process of assimilation. For example, if a company continues to experience higher labour turnover rate, which means frequently employees leave organisation and switch to other organizations, in that case, if the causes of labour turnover rate are not identified on time and it is allowed to increase the cost for the organization, there are higher chances that the company would find it challenging to sustain the growing pressure of labour turnover rate cost. As a result, it is highly essential that the company should identify those factors that discourage them to continue providing their services to the organisation besides searching out those factors that encourage employees to remain part of the organization. Most importantly, organisations always endeavour to lower their business cost. For this purpose, they are less willing to experience a rising labour turnover rate. Within this context, the use of assimilation process is of crucial and critical significance for the organizations as it has every possible way through which organizations can evaluate their current methods of assimilation besides highlighting the existing loopholes in their current human resource and workplace integration strategy. After knowing the loopholes through the use of assimilation theory, they will be in a better position to adjust or revamp their strategy. Methodology Hypothesis will also be tested. Hypotheses are assumptions which are constructed before going to test them. For this purpose, the researcher develops them through knowing the previous knowledge relating to the topic and about the current issues. The main objective behind testing the hypotheses is to prove or disapprove certain factors having attachment with other issues. While constructing hypotheses, it is highly essential that the researcher should link them with the topic on which research is carried out. H1: Discrimination discourages the assimilation process in an organization. H2: Respect for diverse culture is a key for solidifying the assimilation process. Research Design Interview will be used as a way to obtain the firsthand information from the interviewees. Interview is considered to be an effective way to collect data as it provides an opportunity to come directly into interaction with the respondents. And this through this interaction, the respondents are considerably comfortable to answer the questions. Both closed-ended and open-ended questions will be asked. In the close-ended questions, the respondents will be required to provide answer from a list of options informed to them. In this type of question, the respondents do not give their opinion instead they only choose one option whereas in the open-ended questions the respondents are allowed to share their opinion about the asked question. The purpose of using both question types is that it enables the researcher to appropriately gather the relevant information and answer the research questions in a professional manner. Using interview for collecting data is more productive than any other way to collect data. For example, when the interview method is compared with the questionnaire method, in which a questionnaire is emailed to the respondents and they are required to select and answer the questions, it can be deduced that the interview method is more appropriate as it provides congenial and relevant environment, time and place where both (the researcher and the respondents) sit together and provide their reply. On the other hand, in the questionnaire method, the respondents and the researcher seldom come into face to face interaction and the researcher only sends an email and the respondents are required to fill out the questionnaire and send back the email to the researcher. In this entire process, it is possible that the respondents may not give due and required time and attention to the questions mentioned in the questionnaire instead they may fill it out as a compulsion or formality. In this situation, it is probable that they may not provide relevant and effective answers and that may not be helpful to collect the correct data. Hence, the collected data are not relevant in answering to the research questions and the whole research activity fails to meet the expected target. The Role of the Researcher Data collection through interviews will be the role of the researcher. In this data collection process, the researcher will come in direct contact with the potential interviewees and the process of data collection will be initiated from that point. In the first, the researcher will contact with the potential interviewees and will provide them the prime objective of interview and afterwards their subsequent consent will be obtained. At the same time, before going to formally interview them, it is the responsibility of the researcher to share certain important points. First, they will be assured that their information and their opinion will not be shared with anyone else besides the collected information will be confidential and will be preserved as well. Second, after this information, the researcher will request them to give time and place for the interview. This information is important because waste of time, energy and cost will be avoided if interview is pre-planned and interview venue is selected as well. Third, the researcher will record interview and this recording process will also be informed to the potential interviewees. Through addressing their potential concerns regarding interview recording, the researcher will try to mitigate their probable apprehensions relating to the interview process and their personal opinion. Data collection Primary data will be collected from the interviews. Primary data refers to collecting firsthand information and through question (Salkind, 2010). And for collecting the primary data, the research instrument (interview) will be applied. This type of information is of pivotal importance for this study as it provides an opportunity to access the information that never existed before and through collecting the first hand information, the researcher will be in a position to understand the real organizational issues and problems that directly or indirectly influence on the process of assimilation. In this regard, it is important to mention that the interviewees are those individuals who have firsthand experience, understanding and opinion pertaining to the assimilation process in organization; they are fully conversant with the cultural hindrances, discriminatory issues, introvert and extrovert issues and their challenges for complying with the requirements relating to assimilation are those issues that can only be shared by individuals who witness such issues. Keeping this view in mind, it is intent of this endeavour to mainly rely on the primary data. For this purpose, the research questions and interview questions have been constructed and developed in a way to obtain this objective. Secondary data Secondary data is past information which is collected through books, journals, magazines and websites and sources such as newspapers. Secondary data has its usefulness as it provides and highlights the historical trend relating to topic and enable the researcher to understand them and know the different aspects and implications relating the topic. In the secondary data, basic information, supporting and opposite analysis, views, opinions and assessments are provided by the related authors on the topic. In the current research, the authors will access secondary data through mainly using two basic sources: books and journals. It is an established fact that books are more reliable and authentic source of providing secondary information as the reliability and authenticity are mainly provided by the process through which a book is published in which a range of reviews is conducted by scholars, academicians and renowned authors relating to the topic. As a result, the researcher will be mainly focusing on the books as an important source for providing secondary data. At the same time, when the usefulness of primary data is compared with the secondary data, it can easily be deduced that the primary data is more relevant and effective especially in matters relating to organizations. On the other hand, the secondary data do not provide the present information instead it reflects the past experience and events relating to the case study. In contrast, the primary data represents the present ground realities and issues which are being currently experienced by the information providers. At the same time, based on the current trends relating to assimilation and other issues, the primary data can be utilized to provide the future possible trends; in other words, the primary data has more chances to predict and improve chances of accuracy in the future trends whereas the past data, which is provided by the secondary data, has a limited usefulness for predicting the future trend. Data analysis Descriptive analysis will be used as a way to carry out the process of data analysis. In this process, the researcher will collect all data and try to ascertain the main threads and themes commonly found in all interviews and they all will be collected and subsequently they will be analysed by keeping in view the historical development on the issue mentioned in the literature review part. For example, if majority of the respondents reply that discrimination is one of those causes that discourage the assimilation process within the organizations, in that case, the researcher will discuss discrimination and the further supporting and opposite aspects mentioned in the literature review part will be used to carry out the data analysis process. In this regard, it is important to mention that the descriptive analysis is a part of qualitative analysis in which subjective understanding is employed for carrying out the process of analysis. Validation strategy Creswell has identified 8 validation strategies: prolonged engagement and persistent observation in the field, negative case analysis, triangulation, peer review or debriefing, clarifying, member checking, rick, thick description and external audits (Creswell, 2003). Each one has its own implications for study. However, it has been recommended that the researcher should combine at least two validation strategies in order to ensure validity and authenticity in the researched area (Creswell, 2003). In the triangulation process, the researcher uses different sources including methods, investigations and theories for corroborating evidence relating to the topic and attempt to put light on the topic along with theories and methods (Creswell, 2003). Similarly, the use of member checking employs data searching and data collection, interpretation and analysis; and this entire process is related to every aspect mentioned in the member checking strategy (Creswell, 2003). For this study, the researcher intends to use both triangulation and member checking. For the triangulation, the researcher will use multiple sources in the literature review in which previous topic-related information and research will be included from multiple resources. And, in the discussion and analysis chapter, the researcher will employ member checking in which interview and threads and main themes from interviews will be collected and they will be subsequently analysed by taking into account the use of respondents’ opinion and their assessment pertaining issues mentioned in the research questions. Ethical considerations Free consent Free consent will be obtained from the potential interviewees. Every interview has right to give or not to give interview; some find it difficult to share their personal opinion and current observations and experiences within the organization; and it is possible that some classified or important information may create problem for the interviewees. And in order to avoid this situation, they refrain from giving interviews. Keeping this view in mind and attaching significance to personal liberty rights, the researcher will first attempt to seek their free consent and if they are not willing to give interview, the researcher will not coerce them. At the same time, it is important to highlight that the researcher will not use any other unfair means, including the use of money, for convincing them to give interviews. As the researcher is fully aware of the effects of using unfair research methods, the researcher will only rely on the fair and professional methods for collecting the firsthand information. At the same time, it is the intent of the researcher that it will not use any kind of external pressure to the potential interviewees instead more professional and consent-based agreement will be used for collecting the firsthand information. Information confidentiality Information confidentiality is a major concern for interviewees. Many interviewees simply do not entertain an interview request as find it hard to trust that their provided information will not be used for illegitimate purposes and it will not be handed over the third person who is not authorised to collect that information. In the recent times, information confidentiality has become the most important and sensitive issue for many organizations and individuals as well, the researcher will put every possible attempt to convince the potential interviewees regarding the safety of their provided information. For this purpose, the researcher will ensure that all the relevant parameters which are used for protecting and safeguarding such confidential and information will be accessed and employed as well. And for this purpose, the potential interviewees will be informed and all parameters and its efficacy will also be shared with the interviewees. And all these steps are mainly taken to ensure that the interviewees trust and rely on the process for securing and safeguarding the information provided and shared by the interviewees. Plagiarism avoidance Plagiarism is an academic offence in which other’s idea is represented as one’s own. Academically, plagiarism is a serious and punishable academic offence (Carroll, 2014). For avoiding this offence, the researcher will use two strategies: first, it will not use other’s idea as one’s own and source and author name and year will be provided along with the piece of information obtained from any other source. For example, if a piece of information is accessed and obtained from a book, the researcher will use that information along with author name and year and in the reference list, full details will be included; second, if a quotation is included, in that case, the quoted information will be in inverted commas besides including author name, year and page number as well. In this regard, it is important to mention that fact and opinion should not be mixed and a clear distinction should be made. It is a common academic mistake that researchers avoid or do not know a difference between fact and opinion. Consequently, they use opinion on the place of fact and vice versa. In order to avoid this mistake, the researcher will use opinion where it is required and the same is also applicable to fact as well besides incorporating their author name and year as well. Additionally, in the literature review and analysis chapter, writer carries out the analysis and discussion process. In this process, it is a challenge to separate personal analysis and assessment from the one provided by the authors quoted in the passage. Within this context, it is the academic responsibility of the writer to ensure that difference personal analysis and referenced analysis should not remain the same. And the best way to avoid this situation can be the application of separating the referenced analysis from the personal analysis through providing them separate passages as it will clearly demarcate a line between them. References Carroll, D. (2014). Skill for Academic and Career Success. New South Wales: Pearson. Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). California, CA: Sage Publications Dainton, M., & Zelley, E.D. (Eds.). (2011). Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life: A Practical Introduction (2nd ed.). London: SAGE. Salkind, N.J. (Ed.). (2010). Encyclopedia of Research Design Volume 1. London: SAGE Read More