Effect of Online Social Networking on Employee Productivity - Research Proposal Example

Research Design and Data Collection methods Introduction Theresearch design chosen by an author is will determine the accuracy of a research paper on the subject chosen. The aims and objectives also play role in determining the choice of research methodology and study design. Due to this fact, the choice of research methodology by the author is carefully done to suit the study while also making the research simple to conduct. The understanding here is that the different methodologies suit different forms of research and should be applied selectively in accordance with the type of study to be conducted (Kothari, 2011). The selection of the data collection technique and measurement of the data is a subject of the advantages or disadvantages associated with the method, the factors governing the use of the method and the characteristics of the method selected. The researcher will have to make a decision on which method best suits the type of research that they would wish to conduct (Lancaster, 2007). It states that the characteristics of the methodology should be within the knowledge base of the researcher in order for the researcher to make informed decisions of the method of research to be implemented in a study. In this paper, a critique of research papers is done. The basis of the critique is the methodology selected by the authors and their effectiveness in modeling the research problem. The paper also looks at a possibility of applying a different modality to the research that is applied by the different papers and the possibility of the new method fitting the same study. Summary of the papers Paper 1: Effect of online social networking on employee productivity In this research paper, the problem of study is the impact of social networks on the performance of employee of an organization. Preceding the research was a literature review on the various aspects of the online social networks. This included the different forms of online social networks, the emerging trend in the consumption of social networking, the impact of social networks on the ability of individuals and the definitions of capital and performance parameters in the modern economic set ups (Du Plessis and Ferreira, 2009). From this review, the authors came up with specific research problem that would be to determine the impact of the use of social networks on employee performance within tertiary learning institutions. The research further broke down the research problem into several sub problems that touched on specific issues that were raised in the literature review with an aim of determining the specific impact of each of the issues on the performance of employees. The research divides the methodology in to a three phase sequence in which the study first involving an exploration, then a quantitative study was conducted to measure the extent of impact and finally a qualitative analysis of the data. The data collection was done mainly through interviews and questionnaires that were administered to the employees with the aim of determining their level of knowledge and use of the social networks. A total of 183 faculty of management employees were targeted in this study and questionnaires availed to them. The analysis of the data was carried out by the statistics department of the university. From the study, it was established that the faculty had different types of employees that were either permanent, academic, temporary or management staff. The study then proceeded to survey the level of knowledge of the employees on the different social networks. The result was that a small number (12.4%) did not recognize any of the four social networks that were considered popular by the study. The popular social networking sites were identified as you tube, face book (82%), MySpace and LinkedIn both at 18%. Of the four social networking sites, the study unveiled the fact that face book was the most popular networking site. The next section was to determine whether the employees did visit the social networking sites or not and the frequency of their visit to this social networks while in the office, home or cyber cafes or in other locations via portable mobile devices. The result was that a greater percentage of the respondents did visit these networking sites (55.2%). A smaller percentage (48%) did not care to use the social networks anywhere. Of the group that did visit the social networks, the frequency of the visit to these sites from office was highest at (66.7%) followed by the use of these sites from home at (58.3%) the cyber at (10.4) and mobile devices like phones at 25% . Next the study purposed to find out whether the use of the social networks was to contribute to work related duties by the employees. The result was a strong majority using the networks for their personal purposes like finding old friends, uploading pictures and chatting and socializing with current friends. This was also closely linked with the question as to whether the employees felt that the social networks contributed to the positive development of the organizations human capital. The results were that most of the employees disagreeing with the notion that the social networks contribute to employees increased performance at work. In the end, the study concluded that the use of online social networks did expose the employees to potential dangers that were not needed at work place. The dangers included the risk of employees exposing their personal data to criminal element, malwares from the internet and even the possibility of the employee exhibiting a reduction in performance. It would be therefore essential for the employees to regulate the use of these social networks at work place. Paper 2: Impact of Training Practices on Employee Productivity: A Comparative Study (Singh and Mohanty, 2012) In this paper, the subject of research is the relationship that exists between the employees training needs and the level of productivity that is associated with the training. According to the study, the human capital in an organization can be a source of competitive advantage due to the uniqueness of the skill set and knowledge possessed by individuals. The study also identifies the fact it is only through training that the knowledge of the employees can be enhanced to produce flexible, proactive and qualified employees. It is due to this reason that the different organizations spend huge amounts of money and time in the training of their employees to achieve the required competencies to deliver on the jobs assigned to them. The impact of such training should be commensurate to the investment on the same through the ability of the employees to deliver to the organization. The study also acknowledges the fact that most organizations do not conduct the training of employees due to the inadequate research in to the impact of such training exercise or the inability to fund the training of employees while remaining fairly liquid to finance operations. For some organizations, the effectiveness of training adults is the main concern. It is from this perspective that the paper seeks to analyze the impact and importance of training on the productivity of employees of different industries. First the paper involved a literature review of the available information regarding employee training and productivity. It indicated that training could be essential in improving the performance of employees which in turn affects the productivity of the employees. It also identified the parameter for measuring the productivity in an organization is based on the log of output for every level of input that the firm employs. The need for effective training is also expressed in the review of literature. It states that the success of the training exercise depends on the appropriate design of the training program and identification of the training needs of the employees. The empirical research involved a sample of employees with more than a thousand employees in the previous financial year and covered a wide range of employees within different sectors and industries. The data collection was in two parts primary data collected from the respondents directly through interviews and questionnaires. The secondary data was collected by reviewing the contents of the sales and employees data that was available from Capitaline plus database. The capitaline database, which offers a wide variety of information on Indian companies across a wide range of industries, uses analytic tools to determine the performance of different companies. The questioners used in the survey had continuous questions with a scale of 1to 5. The study then performed a correlation of the data from the questionnaires and classified the result according to industry of the company that the respondent came from. The study mainly compared the impact of training with different market forces of the macroeconomic environment of the industry. From this comparison, it was discovered that the productivity was affected by training in basic industries with mature market like the producers and manufacturing industries. For the high risk and profit industries like the banking sector, the impact of training was more minimal than the macroeconomic forces. The luxury industry was found to be immune to the effects of training on productivity and the service industry that had a well organized training framework was not easy to determine the impact of training due to the diverse nature. Review of methodology Paper 1 Research approach and problem identification This paper uses a mix of qualitative and quantitative research approaches in the methodology for obtaining the solution to the problem of research. The general research question is determined as the impact of the use of social media on the performance of the employees of a tertiary institution of learning. From this research question, the authors develop sub question which are investigated by separate sets of questionnaires and interviews. The interviews and questionnaire are then administered to the stratified random sample of members of the identified faculty. The identification of the research problem is quite clear and exhaustive by the author. This since the author is very specific about the main objective that they wish to develop their problem about. The study further breaks down the main aim of the study in to sub objectives that can be evaluated conclusively by an empirical study. The smaller objectives that are identified support the main problem and support the correlation of the main attributes of the research. The authors chose to use a survey in determining the outcomes of the research problem. In this case, a survey would be the most appropriate modality to determine the outcome of the research. In the field of social research, the application of a survey is common due to the fact that the survey is simple. In this case, the considerations that the authors selected for the research were based on the social issues of the target sample. These include the level of education, the sample size, administrative costs, and the content of the information to be gathered by the survey. The authors had chosen to implement the survey method of interviews and questionnaires. The main issues that are underlying in this choice is the social aspect of the sample to be interviewed or given the questionnaires. Measurement method Regarding the sampling method, stratified random sampling would be the most appropriate as members of the faculty can be easily divided in groups based on the difference in departments or any other form of division. This would save the time required to conduct the research and limit the escalation of costs (Black, 2011). The use of questionnaires by this research however is not well done by the authors of this research. There is no indication of the procedure of the administration of the questionnaires being followed by the research. As a basic requirement, the administration of the required the sample to be given screen s and warm ups to determine whether the targeted sample can answer the questions or not and improve the effectiveness of the questionnaires. This will eliminate the chances of the questions posed on a questionnaire being answered incorrectly by the respondents. Warm-ups could be linked to the subject of the questions or could not be linked to it. The main intention of warm-ups is to improve the interest of the targeted group on the questionnaires. The issues that are raised about the aspect of reliability and validity of the research mainly cover the aspect of reliability of the interviewer’s observations, the effect of the location of a particular question within the form of the questionnaire and the effect generated by the formal aspects of the questions used in the survey (Alwin, 2007). The source of reliability is always the quality of the information that is gathered from the survey. This is usually measured in terms of the consistency of the information and the ability of the same respondent to reliably reproduce the same results if the interview was repeated. In this case reliability issues that could be raised regard the data that is obtained from the interviews and the reliability of the information that the interviewer can derive through observation. Intuitively, the interviewer is in a position to determine the accuracy of the information given by the respondent for any aspect of irrelevance or inconsistent information. Due to this fact, the aspect of error based on the validity of the data and the reliability of the information should be factored in while evaluating and analyzing the results of a survey. Alternative methods to the survey The study observes several attributes that could be implemented using a correlation research instead of the survey implemented by the authors. By adapting the correlation research method, the number of attributes that were researched could be reduced to three or less saving the time and other resources that were involved in determining the effect of several sub attributes of the study. It should be noted that the study involve the identification of several sub-problems that built on or related to the main research problem identified by the authors. Due to this the research contained several parts that could be investigated by a study on their own. However, through a direct correlation, the scope of the research could be more focused and limited to the initial intention of the author. Limitation and error control The researches do not seem to address the issues of error control for the study. It would also be appropriate to include the limitations especially on the fact that the use of social networks during office hours is majorly not for work related issues. The possibility of error in the responses that are intentionally included by the respondents and the possibility of the questionnaires being inaccurately answered by the respondent for any particular reason are also conspicuously missing from the research. The issues that are raised about the aspect of reliability and validity of the research mainly cover the aspect of reliability of the interviewer’s observations, the effect of the location of a particular question within the form of the questionnaire and the effect generated by the formal aspects of the questions used in the survey (Alwin, 2007). The source of reliability is always the quality of the information that is gathered from the survey. This is usually measured in terms of the consistency of the information and the ability of the same respondent to reliably reproduce the same results if the interview was repeated. In this case reliability issues that could be raised regard the data that is obtained from the interviews and the reliability of the information that the interviewer can derive through observation. Intuitively, the interviewer is in a position to determine the accuracy of the information given by the respondent for any aspect of irrelevance or inconsistent information. Due to this fact, the aspect of error based on the validity of the data and the reliability of the information should be factored in while evaluating and analyzing the results of a survey. Paper 2 Research approach and problem identification In this paper, the statement of the problem is has not been properly developed. The authors give too much background information on the problem area which is the productivity of employees and their training but fails to give the proper statement of the intention of the study. Even though the two attributes that are to be researched are given in this introduction, the large amount of information that precedes the identification of attributes uncovers little or no relation to the problem of the study. An appropriate method would be a well formulated research question or hypothesis to be investigated which is then explained and the major attributes defined for the study. The research approach taken is a quantitative survey which is quiet appropriate method in dealing with a generalization. The sample size taken is also large enough to make the generalization about the attributes that are being studied. The study also carries out a secondary study to accompany the primary data retrieved from questionnaires Measurement method The study identifies a sample size on the criterion of the number of employees. The explanations on the sample details are just limited to the number of employees and the justification about the same are not included in the paper. The location and nature of the companies that were used to perform the generalization is missing and as such one would find it difficult to explain the economic zone or location of the companies that were chosen for the research. The training trends of the companies were measures on a continuous scale and the data for performance retrieved from the sales data. The turnover of sales output and the input of the company on training was the co-relation used to determine the effeteness of the training. The study however falls short again on the explanation of the co-relation that was done on the data of training practices from the questionnaires and the productivity index of the different industry sectors. The author refers to it as a correlation that was done appropriately and the analysis of the results done through the use of MS Excel. Limitation and error control The authors do not indicate the assumptions that the study takes into consideration. In ordinary circumstance, it would be appropriate to indicate the assumptions taken into consideration in determining the measures of data retrieved in the study. For instance, this study identifies the turnover of sales as the modality of measuring the employee performance. The study does not indicate the justification for this selection and the possible errors that might result on blanketing the entire turnover of a company as an indicator of employee productivity. Alternative methods to the survey The multi-strategy approach (qualitative and quantitative) taken by the study is a great approach in to conduct the survey. However, the selection of secondary sources could be expanded to sources that pinpoint specific departments in order to improve the accuracy of the measurement. It is wrong to generalize that the overall productivity of a company could be affected solely affected by the training of employees. Due to this fact, the study could have been alternatively implemented by case studies. In this approach, a number of companies would have been selected and the training that they implement determined in correlation to the productivity of employees. To achieve this, the efficiency of each department would help in determining the efficiency imparted by training. The sampling of individuals could be done in a stratified manner by department and the level of training determined by the hours training has been conducted. The efficiency and productivity of the employee would then be determined by the performance appraisal reports of the selected employees. Comparison of the methodological approaches The two research papers have a significant number of similarities and differences that are evident from the definition of problem of research to methodology of achieving the results and the conclusions that are drawn. Singh and Mohanty (2012), provide a body of information on the subject of discussion in the introductory phases that sets the stage for the research attributes. The problem is not identified but the intention of the study is well defined by the authors. Du Plessis and Ferreira (2009), introduce their research idea and then proceed to give an elaborate problem definition. The problem of research is further broken down into sub-problems that indicate the smaller objectives of the study. By breaking down the research question into several parts like this, the scope of the research is easy to design and implement the study. Singh and Mohanty (2012), employs a multi-strategy approach in the methodology of the study. In this approach, both the qualitative and quantitative approaches have been applied at different levels of the study. In the collection of the data, the questioners used a continuous data scale to determine the training practices of the selected companies. This implied the quantitative analysis. To relate the data to the productivity, the use and application of non statistical correlation method implied the use of qualitative approaches to surveys. Du Plessis and Ferreira (2009), employ majorly the use of quantitative approaches in determining the results of the research question. Most of the sub-questions of research that have been identified in this study are mainly investigated by means of statistical approaches. That is, the data availed are analyzed through the use of statistical software and the presentation of the data is based on the tabulation of the data in graph format. Both the studies use questionnaires and interviews in collecting and measurement of the data. In (Du Plessis and Ferreira, 2009), the indication on the type of questions is not given. However, it is possible to derive the fact that the questions were either Ordinal-polytomous, or nominal polytomous. This is due to the fact that the questions presented options that were to be selected according to the preference of the respondents (Denscombe, 2007). It also indicates that the choice of questionnaires is ideal for surveys due to their administrative benefits which include the limits in administrative costs, the ability to serve a large population through mail and the speed of administering the questions. Singh and Mohanty (2012), includes the aspect of secondary research in its methodology. It relies on the use of secondary data that has been processed to gauge the productivity of employees in different companies and industrial sectors. Even though both papers offer a significant similarity on the methodology of the research, the variations are significant on the modalities employed on the actual data collection and analysis. Both the researches also rely on the use of surveys as the recommended approach to performing the research. The main reason behind this motivation is the fact that both researches are based on social research. Conclusion Different forms of research are best carried out in different ways. The implication of this statement is that the choice of methods that are used in a research are in the discretion of the author to make the best selection of the methods to collect the data, perform the measurement of the data and analysis to produce the results intended in a research. The selection of a research methodology will determine the effectiveness of the results that the authors of a research intend to model. This implies that for different areas of research like in social research, the research methodology will make the results have limited errors and generally produce reliable results. It is important to note here that the research methodology implemented can be varied by the researcher in order to model the problem of research in different ways. In some cases, the choice of modality can be considered generally favorable but the research can be replicated in different methods and still yield the same results as the other methodology implemented initially or even more efficient results. It is important then to make choices of methods that will limit the level of errors in a result of a research and improve the reliability and validity of the data that is obtained from a research. Words : 3983 References Alwin, D. F. (2007). Margins of error: A study of reliability in survey measurement. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley-Interscience. Black, K. (2011). Business statistics: For contemporary decision making. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Denscombe, M. (2007). The good research guide: For small-scale social research projects. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Du Plessis and Ferreira (2009). Effect of online social networking on employee productivity. Johannesburg, university of Johannesburg printing press. Kothari, C. R. (2011). Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. New Delhi: New Age International Ltd. Lancaster, G. (2007). Research Methods in Management. London, Routlege. Singh, R. and Mohanty, M. (2012). Impact of Training Practices on Employee Productivity: A Comparative Study. Interscience Management Review (IMR) ISSN: 2231-1513 Volume-2, Issue-2. Read More