I need a topic for my dissertation - Essay Example

Research Proposal: Human Resource Practices of Selected High-Tech Firms at the Birmingham Science Park (This page intentionally left blank) Birmingham Science Park (2009, “Park Tenant Directory”) presents an impressive list of tenants and this impressive research oriented park has links with other clusters of innovation in the region. The firms located in the Birmingham Science Park want their employees to brainstorm and to innovate at the leading edge to try to maintain innovation and competitiveness in the British industry.

However, if the most brilliant of selected employees are to innovate to excel in an era of global competition, they have their demands. This means that the human resource practices of the high-tech firms must cater to the special needs of employees working with innovation at the leading edge and it should be possible to groom promising employees. According to Ting-Hua (2006, Pp. IV – V) the Human Resource Department of a firm involved with innovation does make a contribution to the overall success of the firm and the practices implemented should satisfy and act to groom brilliant employees.

The previously mentioned study suggests that policy related to recruitment and selection, firm attitudes towards continuing professional development, salary and benefits, training and performance evaluation are a few examples of human resource practices that make a difference in motivating employees and helping with the success of firms involved with innovation. Jemielniak (2009, Pp. 402 – 403) suggests that capability it is important for organisations associated with innovation to identify capability and to develop this capability further.

It is important to provide those involved with innovation and research with the right environment, which motivates and it is fitting to handle these employees differently from others. Jemielniak (2009, Pp. 402 – 403) suggests that individuals matter and as an example, tensions between knowledge creation and knowledge sharing should be properly mediated by firm policies. Thus, the right human resource policies make the difference for the success of firms involved with innovation and the national economy.

Managing and developing human resources in firms involved with innovation makes the difference, but not much is available about the selection and adoption of human resource practices at high-tech firms located in the Birmingham Science Park. Thus, it is likely to be useful to carry out a research study of human resource practices of selected high-tech firms at Birmingham Science Park and to investigate their merits or shortcomings. Any suggestions for improvements will be of benefit for innovation in the region.

It is important to decide about a proper philosophy for research to enable a researcher to maximise the knowledge gained for a project. Qualitative and quantitative research techniques dominate research methods and triangulation is possible by using a combination of semi-structured interviews, a survey to glean information from a large number of firms and a literature review for high-tech human resource management for the topic of research. A grounded theory approach for the analysis of semi-structured interviews, coupled with the use of statistical analysis for survey of employees and the preparation of a literature review that includes relevant and pertinent literature selected through Internet and library database search is likely to provide useful insights that will benefit.

(This page intentionally left blank)Bibliography/ ReferencesBirmingham Science Park, Aston. 2009. Park Tenant Directory. Birmingham Science Park, Aston. Retrieved: October 16, 2009, from: http://www.bsp-a.com/partnership/tenants Jemielniak, Dariusz and Kociatkiewicz, Jerzy (Editors). 2009. Handbook of Research on Knowledge-Intensive Organizations. Information Science Reference, IGI Global. Ting-Hua, Yang. 2006. The Study of Professional Human Resource Management Practice in IC Design House. Zhongshan University.

Retrieved: October 16, 2009, from: http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0626106-113344