Performance Management - Research Proposal Example

Executive Summary This proposal seeks to unveil the positive and negative effects performance management has on motivation of employees working in small as well as big companies like Microsoft Corporation. What will come under high scrutiny are the mechanisms and ways that can work to motivate the employees to perform to their best for optimum productivity therefore the profitability of the company and organizations. The research will be particularly concentrate on the various performance management practices and their contribution to employee motivation. Of the greatest interest to this study is the comparison of the employees who are incited to complete their tasks in specified time spans with those who will undertake the same tasks in a desultory or in a less motivated way. Interest is also directed at understanding the various motivational strategies the company uses as well as the strategic performance management practices carried out. This proposal will clearly highlight the research methods to be used by the researcher, data analysis criteria to be used as well as the historical background of performance management and the impact on the employees’ motivation. It will also clearly identify the performance management practices that really motivate the employees and those which demoralize the employees. This research will be explorative and will seek to show both the positives and negatives of performance management. The researcher will approach the topic with open mind in order to deduct the best results that are unbiased. Does Performance Management Motivate Staff? Performance management is one of the key goals of the human resource, management department. Performance management in the human resource department includes activities to ensure that the organizational goals are efficiently and effectively met. Performance management focuses on the output and performance of an organization, and processes to build a product or service, employees and departments among others. Performance management has been known to either motivate or demoralize the employees (Armstrong, 2000). Various performance management practices have positive impacts on the company employees while others negatively affect the employees’ performance. Sometimes the human resource management department personnel is not aware of the impact any performance management practice can have on the employees work morale of which it may be detrimental to the company or the organization. A performance management practice that was successful to another company may not work in the current one while that which did not work in another company may produce the best results for the current company. Therefore, the human resource department has the responsibility of clearly identifying the performance management practice applicable to particular situations, employees and companies. Aims and Objectives of the Research The main objective of the research is to investigate whether performance management practices has any effects on the working morale of the employees. The following issues will feature as the central issues for the investigation: 1. To examine the literature commentaries and the current modes of thinking in regard to performance management. 2. To explore the academic literature in relation to motivational factors underpinning exceptional company performance and output therefore its profitability 3. To clearly identify the specific human resource management practices most important for motivating the company employees. 4. To recommend on the ways and means that the human resource management staff may use to motivate the employees. 5. To determine the ways in which employees can be motivated for increased output Currently, people who are employed either on a permanent basis or temporary basis demonstrate underperformance when they are discharging their duties. It is acknowledged that having workable performance management practice may motivate the employees therefore improving their performance and increasing their output. This consequently increases the company’s output and hence profitability (Hall & Luecke, 2006). There is evidence that performance management practices on most of the occasions work towards motivating the employees but on rare occasions negatively affect the employees’ performance. Research Design This chapter will discuss the methodological procedures that will be employed in answering the research questions. A rationale is given for the chosen research philosophy, strategy, purpose, time horizon and approach. Selected data collection and sampling methods will be mentioned and described and issues relating to reliability, validity and triangulation will be considered. Consideration of ethical issues and limitations of the research methodology will be considered. The research methodology to be used is the research onion. Performance of one activity will lead to the commencement of the next. The research will commence with data collection, time frame and horizons, the research strategies, research approaches and finally end with research philosophy. The data to be used will include primary data sources as well as secondary data sources. The primary data sources will include questionnaires, interviews and observation of the employees in their areas of work. The researcher will interview the various groups of employees in order to unveil the performance management practices practiced by companies and organizations and the impact they have on the working morale of the employees. The primary sources will also include questionnaires to be completed by the senior human resource personnel. The questionnaires will aim at extracting information in regard to the performance management practices applied in organizations and companies and the impact they have in employee motivation. The interviews are semi structured allowing the researcher for the flexibility to follow up specific responses to particular responses. The interviews will be carried out personally by the researcher. The questionnaire will be used for the statistical and content analysis purposes. The researcher will present the data collected from the company policies in his own words. The researcher will also visit various organizations and companies to observe the employees at work. This will be aimed at unveiling what the employees and human resource personnel may have tried to conceal while answering the questions. Observation is efficient in that it does not give a biased result of the employees and employers, and the researcher is able to capture what he/she would not have captured through questionnaires. The secondary data sources will include information from previously carried out projects closely related to the topic. In order to realize the aims and objectives of a project it is always wise to reference previous project work done by other researchers so as to ensure consistency and correct the errors that maybe have been committed in the past. The secondary sources will also include acts of parliaments, government reports, public records, surveys/census and research work carried out by companies and organizations in relation to the topic. However in use of the secondary data the researcher will ensure that only the correct, reliable information will be used for analysis. The researcher will use his charisma to select the sample of data to be used for the analysis work and subsequent interpretation. One problem the researcher may face during his research work and especially data collection will be to diagnose the veracity of the collected data, that is, comments by human resource personnel when answering questionnaires and employees answers when answering interview questions. The main dilemma is will they be telling the truth or will they be lying? Still they may tell the distorted version of the real story. The other issue is that this research will involve several personalities ranging from the highly ranked to the lowly in ranking. Some of the high ranking officials may not be available for the research purposes. The investigation will also involve a lot of traveling to the company’s premises and access to the premises is not guaranteed. They may deny the researcher access to vital documents like the policy documents. The other factor is the time factor as the research has to be carried out within the shortest time possible. The research will be carried out within certain duration with various tasks and activities having a definite time to be carried out. In regard to this the researcher will ensure that all the research activities are carried out within the stipulated time and in accordance of the required correctness and accuracy levels. Data collection will be done within the first two weeks. The data collected will be analyzed using statistical packages in particular statistical package for social sciences version seventeen. Only the relevant data will be subjected to statistical analysis. The data analysis will aim at revealing how various strategic management practices influence the employees’ motivation level. The analysis will reveal the strategies detrimental to an employee’s morale at work and those that are beneficial to an employee motivation therefore the company performance. In terms of research philosophy, the researcher will use an interpretivist approach which emphasizes on the necessity for the researcher to appreciate humans variation and diversity and the interpretation of their human role. Aspects of positivist philosophy will also be incorporated including quantitative methods and statistical analysis for generalization purposes. The research approach to be will used the combined inductive and deductive elements. Incorporating the deductive approach will enhance the generalisability of the research. The researcher will use a holistic case study research strategy and survey methods to investigate the research question and aims. Surveys will allow the researcher to collect large amounts of data efficiently and economically. The strategy will allow for the data collection and analysis using descriptive and inferential statistics. The quantitative data to be collected will be used for the formulation of reasons for the relationships between variables. The mixed method will be used as it allows for the use of both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques and thus triangulation can take place. The research purpose is to investigate if the performance management practices really influences the levels of motivation of the employees. Common to exploratory research approach, an explanatory approach will also be adopted to explain the relationship between variables. Conclusion Performance management can be termed as a core factor contributing to the motivation in workers. Well applied performance management practices leads to motivation of workers. This leads to increased company production and employees output subsequently leading to increased profitability of the company. Before the human resource manager can implement any performance management practice, he/she should study his workers well so that he/she may know the impact the practice may have on the employees (Rolstadas, 1995). It is not a wise idea for a human resource manager to apply a method that had been applied by a particular company and was successful without having analyzed its impacts on the working morale of his employees. As mentioned earlier, not every strategy is universally beneficial to companies. References Armstrong M. (2000) Performance management: Key strategies and practical guidelines(2, illustrated), London, Kogan Page Publishers. Hall B. J., Luecke R. (2006) Performance management: measure and improve the effectiveness of your employees (illustrated), London, Harvard Business Press. Rolstadas A. (1995) Performance management: A business process benchmarking approach, New York, Springer publishers. Read More