Performance Appraisal Methods Used by the Managers in the United Kingdom's Organizations - Research Proposal Example

HOW IS MOTIVATION AFFECTED BY APPRAISAL SYSTEM? goes here] [Your goes here] [Due the paper Working The working title for the research paper is, ‘How motivation can be affected by appraisal systems?’ 2. Background of the Research Motivation has always been one of most important factors that improve employees’ performance and their level of productivity. Managers have been using this success factor as a tool to encourage and inspire employees to make them achieve organizational goals. Managers of all small and large companies focus on increasing employee motivation because they understand the importance of building a highly motivated and dedicated workforce for a company. They know the fact that employee motivation improves the overall performance of employees, as well as raises the level of organizational productivity. Some of the main benefits that are usually associated with increasing employee motivation include improved organizational development, employee commitment, resource integration, and improvement in business processes. When employees feel valued by their companies and their motivation level is on a high end, they show more commitment and dedication to their job activities, which consequently improves their individual and organizational performances. As far as performance appraisal is concerned, companies have been using it has a way to know employees’ performances in order to bring required improvements in their performances. Appraisal is a continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the performance of employees in order to align those performances with the strategic goals of the organization. Without an effective appraisal system in practice, it becomes difficult to know whether there is a need to enhance personal development or to build a sense of value employees. This is the reason why managers make use of the most suitable appraisal methods to assess and evaluate performances. 3. Contribution of the Study This study will be about the way performance appraisals can be used to improve employees’ motivation level. The primary objective of the research will be to know whether motivation is affected by performance appraisals or not. The research will be new in a sense that it will focus the effects of performance appraisals in multinational organizations of the United Kingdom. Not much research has been done on this in the past which provides a base for the researcher to explore the effects of appraisals on the working and motivation of employees. The researcher aims to know how and in which ways appraisals can be used to improve employees’ performances. This research will be very helpful in that it will provide a good amount of knowledge in this field of research. This research will also be focused on knowing the methods of performance appraisals being widely practiced by the managers of multinational organizations. There exist some key performance appraisal methods that are helpful for employees, as well as for organizations as employees improve their job efficiency by analyzing their individual performance reviews, which consequently improves organizational efficiency and productivity. Previous researches have been focused on knowing the effects of appraisals on efficiency of employees. They have not done much in knowing the effects of appraisals on employee motivation level. This research will not only identify the most practiced methods of performance appraisals in the UK’s multinational organizations but also will work on knowing the way appraisals build employee motivation. Thus, this study will contribute some new dimensions and perspectives to the existing research. 4. Research Questions and Research Objectives The research question for this study will be: - What are the effects of performance appraisals on the motivation level of employees? The sub-research questions for this study will be: - What performance appraisal methods are mostly used by the managers in UK’s multinational organizations? - Which performance appraisal method is most lengthy in duration and most expensive to conduct? The research objective is to identify the way employee motivation is affected by performance appraisal systems. The researcher aims to know how appraisals can be effective in improving employee efficiency. The researcher also aims to know the most commonly practiced appraisal methods and their associated costs of implementation. 5. Literature Review Companies from all industries are at risk of facing a number of issues because of not having a motivated workforce. Some of those issues include poor employee performance, decreased employee productivity, decreased level of employee commitment, increased employee turnover, decreased income and profits, poor customer service, and increased employee absenteeism. Motivation plays a significant role in building interest for job activities in employees. Managers conduct performance appraisals at regular intervals to analyze whether their employees are working on their assigned job responsibilities using a professional approach or they need some improvement (Mani 2002). According to Oh and Lewis (2009, p. 158), through appraisals, managers can also know whether they need to motivate their employees to show improved job performances or not. Managers can motivate employees both intrinsically and extrinsically based on the results of appraisals. One of the main outcomes of extrinsic motivation is encouragement which is a very precious source of motivation for employees. Employees’ motivation increases when they are appreciated and they efforts are acknowledged by their managers (Oh & Lewis 2009). Both encouragement and acknowledgement are the signs of positive reception and approval that higher authorities provide to their subordinates. Both of these motivational tools are based on the results of performance appraisal and play a significant role in increasing the level of self-confidence in employees. Performance appraisals are the first step in building employee motivation which is a need of every organization to achieve competitive edge in today’s highly competitive world (Mani 2002). Without a highly motivated and enthusiastic workforce, a company cannot prosper in a competitive market. Therefore, it is essential for the managers of every company to conduct performance appraisals at least once a year in order to know how and to what they extent they should motivate employees to reap maximum benefits associated with motivation (Addison & Belfield 2008, p. 521). A correctly designed and implemented performance appraisal system forces employees to think about their actual job responsibilities, as well as enables them to make required improvements in their performances (Mani 2002). Although previous researches have stressed on the importance of performance appraisal for organizations, but there is still some gaps that need to be filled. For example, how appraisals can be used to increase employee motivation and efficiency and which are the best appraisal methods that can be used for this purpose still require some more research. Similarly, previous researches have come out with the conclusion that performance appraisals not only increase the efficiency and performance of employees but also help companies in achieving organizational goals and objectives. However, they have focused less on the responsibility of the managers in designing an appropriate appraisal system for the organizations that should impact positively and largely on the motivation level of employees. This study will fill all of these gaps and will come out with a good amount of information on the association between employee performance and performance appraisals. 6. Research Philosophy The researcher will use deductive approach to conduct this study. The researcher aims to use a questionnaire to get the data for this study. The researcher will move from general to specific results, therefore, the use of deductive approach will be more feasible. The deductive approach will also help the researcher in confirming whether the hypothesis for the research turns true or not. Moreover, it will also help in disseminating the findings of the research. This will be a quantitative research because the aim is to generate the results in the form of tables and charts. The aims and objectives of the research match well with quantitative research type. Doing quantitative study, the researcher will be able to identify the relationships that exist between independent and dependent variables. The independent variable for the research will be appraisal systems, whereas dependent variable will be employee motivation. It will also help the researcher in knowing the effect of one variable on the other. As we know that in quantitative studies, the researchers are independent of the research and they can analyze different variables to identify the relationships between them by doing a proper statistical analysis. The aim of the researcher in this study is also to do make use of statistical models to compile the results for the study. 7. Research Methods As far as research methods are concerned, in the proposed study, the researcher will study the responses of 400 to 500 participants which will include the managers and employees of nearly 10 to 15 multinational organization of the United Kingdom. The researcher will use a questionnaire as the primary tool to gather information for the research. For getting information through secondary sources, the researcher will make use of a wide range of scholarly journals (employee psychology and business management related journals), books, and some internet articles. For this research, the researcher will use two questionnaires. One questionnaire will be for the managers of the companies, whereas the second one will be designed to get the responses of the employees of those companies. There will be no bias in any of the questionnaires. The questionnaires will be distributed in the companies with the consent of the top management of those companies. The study will include participants based on following criteria: (a) age limit of 22 to 40 for employees (this is the when a person is fully motivated as an employee to excel in his/her professional career), (b) age limit of 30 to 55 for managers, and (c) have at least two years of experience of working in some multinational organization. The ethical consideration for this particular research topic will be privacy of the information that will be provided by the participants. The researcher will take all participants in confidence by ensuring them that their personal information will not be used elsewhere. For this reason, there will be a separate confidential form along with the questionnaire signed by the researcher to ensure the participants that their responses will be used only for this particular research. 8. Resources/Timescale The equipments needed for the research will be a computer and a printer to design and print the questionnaires. The computer will also be used to store the data gathered for the research, as well as to do statistical analysis of data. Activity Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Proposal ---------- Work Start – Questionnaire design ----------- Visiting companies for questionnaire distribution ---- ------------ ---- Visiting companies to get the filled questionnaires ---- ----------- ------ Storing and analyzing data ----------- ---- Preparing tables and charts (overall report) ------ ----------- References Addison, J & Belfield, C 2008, ‘The Determinants of Performance Appraisal Systems: A Note (Do Brown and Heywood’s Results for Australia Hold Up for Britain?)’, British Journal of Industrial Relation, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 521-531. Mani, B 2002, ‘Performance Appraisal Systems, Productivity, and Motivation: A Case Study’, Public Personnel Management, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 141-159. Oh, S & Lewis, G 2009, ‘Can Performance Appraisal Systems Inspire Intrinsically Motivated Employees?’, Review of Public Personal Administration, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 158-167. Read More