Proposal for Original Business Research
1.0. Introduction
Human resource management has always been integrally attached to the business and its activities, as the degree of success or failure of a business largely relies on the effectiveness of HRM practices in an organization. One of the core areas to be pondered by human resource managers is performance appraisal when it comes to people management (Tooksoon, 2011).
1.1. Problem Statement
High employee turnover is one of the most critical side-effects of growing dynamism of modern business climate. Employees are switching from company to company basing their decision of quitting for many good reasons. However, it is raising huge challenges for companies, because, according to the most recently made studies, employee turnover cost is ranging between 30% and 400%. The difference between employee turnover cost depends on the position, role, and experience of the employee, but it is understandably critical in financial terms as well (Borysenko, 2015).
Furthermore, it is found that one of the potential reasons for low level of employee retention is the absence of proper performance assessment or appraisal system. In other words, the majority of employee wish to receive feedbacks for the assignments or tasks accomplished by them. However, any lack of response on the part of human resource management, in this context, is likely to tell upon their loyalty, and they may look for workplaces with a better mechanism for appraising their performance (Tooksoon, 2011). This generalized perception about the relationship between performance appraisal and employee turnover provides a base for the proposed study.
1.2. Management’s Dilemma
The researcher has been working as a marketing executive for two years in a real estate marketing organization that deals in diverse types of residential and commercial projects. During his employment, he could observe the organization being plagued by the issue of low employee retention. He could also identify the lack of a proper system for appraising employee performance and providing critical feedback. Therefore, there was a general belief within the organization that poor appraisal system is causing that negative tendency among employees. Even the researcher himself resigned based on this critical gap in understanding employee motivational needs by the company. These observations and findings from the real life have urged the researcher to dig further into this dimension of management’s dilemma to assess its application on a universal level.
1.3. Research Question
As a matter of fact, the management’s policies relating to employee benefit plan including salaries, commissions, and bonuses towards workforce were quite comprehensive. Therefore, this aspect of people management can hardly provide a base for low employee retention. Keeping this fact and the findings discussed above in view, given below is the ultimate research question:
“To what extent and how is the absence of a proper performance appraisal system at the underlying marketing company contributing to high turnover?”
1.4. Hypothesis
Unparalleled to the findings and observations, it is assumed that high employee turnover at the company in question was the result of some other factors than poor performance appraisal system. This assumption provides base for the null hypothesis as stated below:
Here, the null hypothesis will be tested for its average or mean value through ‘Two Chi-Square Goodness of Fit Test/Independence Test’, because the sampling of data is aimed to be performed in a random way and research involves a test of dependency between two variables that include employee turnover and performance appraisal. It will be tested on a confidence interval of 95%, which means that 0.05 percent is the level of probability of being wrong. Any p value below this level (0.05) will provide the rationale to reject the null hypothesis and approve the alternative hypothesis given below (explained in a later part of the proposal):
Ha: “Performance appraisal system is in a significant relationship with employee turnover.”
2.0. Background
Scholars, critics, business analysts, and authors around the global taking keen interest in business and organizational activities have always been paying special attention to employee turnover and possible influential factors with a special focus on employee performance assessment. Current literature abounds with studies directed towards that issue extending into different dimensions. For instance, Bambacas and Kulik (2013), belong to the school of thought that strongly advocates the importance of performance appraisal. According to the authors, on one hand, positive remarks for good performance in some areas, and identification of weak areas along with suggestions for improvement serve as a great source of learning for employees. Nonetheless, Peretz & Fried (2012), hold a different opinion on the same matter. These authors extend the debate in a psychological realm overlooking any of cognitive impact of the feedback system. They also view it as a source of enhancing employee motivation, but this positive behavior, according to them, is influenced by the impact of appraisal on employee psyche. Furthermore, the concept under discussion also has a vast theoretical background. For example, Maslow, in his hierarchy, Herzberg in his two factor theory, and Victor Vroom in his ‘expectancy theory’ retain special focus on appraisal and consider it a booster for employee motivation that subsequently reflects a higher level of retention (or lower level of employee turnover) (Lauby, 2005). Then, there are also critics like Cho and Lewis (2013), who consider all the emphasis on the appraisal to be an exaggeration and hold other factors than feedbacks to be more important in this regard. To sum up, existing literature in the case of the study provides evidence of its importance. Furthermore, it also gives the researcher a solid platform for the synthesis of his key findings.
3.0. Research Design
Fundamentally, research design can be divided into two categories i.e. qualitative and quantitative. A qualitative method is used to deal with the data that is not numerically measurable. This allows for good room for critical discussion but lacks precision. On the other hand, quantitative research design satisfies the criteria of exaction, as most of the findings are analyzed in an exact and quantifiable way. However, lack of critical evaluation is one of the major drawbacks associated with that (Kothari, 2004).
In order to achieve the objectives of the research in the most comprehensive manner, aligning to the nature of research, and keeping the available resources in view, the researcher intends to utilize the mixed (qualitative and quantitative) research design in the present case. Primary research (except one open ended question), will mainly be focused on quantitative analysis while it will be synthesized and critically analyzed in a qualitative manner to achieve the perfect mixture of critical comprehensiveness and exaction.
4.0. Data Collection
Again, there are two commonly known and practiced methods when it comes to data collection. These include primary and secondary data collection. Primary sources in this context refer to offline surveys, online questionnaire, focus group discussion, and all other firsthand means of collecting information. On the contrary, the secondary sources, as the name suggests, refer to already made contributions towards a case of the study by researchers. It is the sum of all past and present studies made on any subject matter (Kothari, 2004).
As for the study being proposed, secondary as well as primary channels of data collection will be sourced by the author. Target audience or sample population for primary data collection stands100 employees working in 10 different private companies. The researcher will take consent from the sampled respondents on a phone call, and will send in a ‘fully structured’ questionnaire via email. The questionnaire will consist of seven questions (six close-ended and one open-ended) in total. Questionnaire designed for this purpose is provided below:
What is your age?
18-30 years
31-50 years
Above 50 years
2. What is your gender?
Male
Female
3. Do you have proper performance appraisal system in your organization?
Agree
Strongly Agree
Indifferent
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
4. Do you think there is any relationship between employee turnover rate and performance appraisal?
Agree
Strongly Agree
Indifferent
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
5. How does an appraisal system usually affect employee turnover?
6. Which aspect of the employee is mostly affected by appraisal system?
VII. What recommendation will you give your HRM to improve their approach to employee appraisal system (open-ended question)?
The researcher’s preference for online questionnaire over offline or face to face survey is based on two factors. On one hand, limited resources (especially ‘time’) specified for this purpose do not allow for an offline mode of a survey that is characterized by massive time and money consumption. Then, employees will feel more at ease in giving an honest opinion without disclosing their identity (as in the case of the online questionnaire) than in the event of being in direct conversation with an interviewer on such a sensitive issue as associated with the study being proposed.
5.0. Measurement Scale
Out of three widely used measurement scales (i.e. nominal, ordinal, and interval), the researcher has decided to utilize interval measurement scale as the preferred tool for measuring the collected data. Since, six close-ended questions are aimed to be analyzed in a statistical manner, and the matter in contention is the study of a relationship (between employee performance appraisal and employee turnover rate), the interval is the seen as the most suitable option in this scenario. Indeed, the scale aimed to be used provides exact value of the difference between any two variables (Kothari, 2004).
In the present case, there are two variables under discussion including performance appraisal and employee turnover. Performance appraisal, here, stands an independent variable the impact of which needs to be determined on a dependent variable that is employee turnover. The significance of the research model will be assessed on the confidence interval of 95%, which implies that p value <0.005 will lead to the rejection of null hypothesis proving it to be false. That will automatically support the alternative hypothesis according to which there is a significant impact of performance appraisal on employee turnover.
It is important to mention that the researcher is aiming to test a ‘mean'. In other words, the ultimate objective of the study is to determine the average turnover in the world of business caused by poor performance appraisal. Test of independence or ‘two chi-square test’ will be conducted that applies when the level of dependency between two variables is aimed to be determined. Since the proposed research involves two variables i.e. employee turnover (independent variable) and employee performance appraisal (dependent variable), selected tool aligns with the objective and nature of the study. The level of dependency will be judged on a confidence interval of 95%, which implies that there is 5% probability of being wrong. In other words, if p value exceeds 0.005%, it will support the null hypothesis, but as it falls below this level, it will provide a base for the rejection of null hypothesis and acceptance of the alternative hypothesis. In other words, p value below 0.005 will confirm the significance of the relationship between employee turnover and employee performance appraisal (Black, 2011).
6.0. Plans for Data Analysis
Planning the data analysis is one of the most integral parts of the research, and researcher has to reserve special part of attention for this consideration in order to ensure the reliability and validity of his study. In order to reach highly reliable and comprehensive findings, the underlying process is broken down into two different phases. The initial phase involves plainly describing the results. Description of data will provide various significant clues as it enlightens the researcher on possible t trends relating to a research topic as well as helps him determine the response rate. Furthermore, it will also provide in-depth understanding and comprehension to the findings of the study and their direction. Not only this, but it will also help the researcher to synthesize the findings relating to primary research with the data collected from existing literature in order to adopt a comparatively more critical approach to the study (Asadoorian and Kantarelis, 2005).
After serving all these initial needs, the researcher will enter the second phase of data analysis. In this section, the researcher will dig deep into the level of dependency in the relationship between the variables under discussion (employee turnover and performance appraisal). Key findings with regard to the relationship between employee turnover and performance assessment in the existing literature will be synthesized with the primary findings. Hence, the second phase of data analysis involves the regression of the collected data. This regression will not only assess the existence of the relationship but will also help determine the level of dependency between both. Apart from evaluating the strength of the relationship between dependent and independent variable, the study also involves assessing the direction of this relationship through statistical analysis in its second part.
7.0. Plans for Presentation of Results
As discussed, the process of data analysis will be divided into two different phases. The researcher aims to follow the same pattern when it comes to the presentation of the findings. It is critically important to perform this part of the study (presentation) in cautious, refined, and careful manner, as it is directed towards readers. And, the success or failure in this regard determines how far readers are able to understand the findings and their alignment with the core objectives of the research. In other words, poorly presented results can put a question mark on all the struggle made by a researcher howsoever well-directed it may be (Tonidandel, King, and Cortina, 2015).
The researcher will use the software namely ‘MS Word’ for the presentation of key the research findings. In the first part, the description of the findings in the first section of the data analysis (as discussed earlier) will be presented in the tabular and graphical form. Sleek tabular presentation, at this stage, will give the readers accurate understanding to the underlying trends and direction of findings. Furthermore, in order to enable the readers to comprehend the major findings in one glimpse, the researcher will complement the tabular presentation perfectly with a graphical display (Tonidandel, King, and Cortina, 2015).
It will be followed by the phase wherein the researcher will develop equations aligning to the findings of the regressed data. These equations will also be presented through MS Word. Then, there will be a discussion part preceded by the both phases of the presentation. Findings of the firsthand research will be studied in the light of existing literature on the case of the study in this part of the study. Certainly, it will help readers have deep critical insight into the subject matter and establish a final opinion or verdict in a reliable manner.
8.0. Ethical Considerations
The researcher will comply with the following code of conduct throughout the life of his research project:
All the participants will respond at their own will i.e. without any insistence on the part of the researcher.
The researcher will take full care of the respondents’ privacy and will avoid disclosure of their identity at any stage of the research.
All the secondary channels of data collection sourced by the researcher will duly be referenced to avoid deliberate or unconscious intellectual property theft.
The researcher will collect and present data in its original form and in a straightforward way with no incorporation of bias.
The researcher reserves no right to use the collected data for any other purpose than the purpose of the study in hand.
References
Asadoorian, M. O., & Kantarelis, D. (2005). Essentials of Inferential Statistics. University Press of America.
Bambacas, M., & Kulik, T. C. (2013). Job embeddedness in China: how HR practices impact turnover intentions. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(10), 1933-1952. doi:10.1080/09585192.2012.725074
Black, K. (2011). Business Statistics: For Contemporary Decision Making. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Borysenko, K. (2015). What Was Management Thinking? The High Cost Of Employee Turnover. TLNT. 264-277. Retrieved April 6, from http://www.eremedia.com/tlnt/what-was-leadership-thinking-the-shockingly-high-cost-of-employee-turnover/
Cho, Y. J., & Lewis, G. B. (2013). Turnover Intention and Turnover Behavior: Implications for Retaining Federal Employees. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 32(1), 4-23. doi:10.1177/0734371x11408701
Kothari, C. R. (2004). Research Methodology: Methods & techniques. New Delhi: New Age International (P) Ltd.
Lauby, S. J. (2005). Motivating Employees. Alexandria: ASTD Press
Peretz, H., & Fried, Y. (2012). National cultures, performance appraisal practices, and organizational absenteeism and turnover: A study across 21 countries. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(2), 448-459. doi:10.1037/a0026011
Tonidandel, S., King, E., & Cortina, J. (Eds.). (2015). Big Data at Work: The Data Science Revolution and Organizational Psychology. Routledge.
Tooksoon, H. M. P. (2011). Conceptual framework on the relationship between human resource management practices, job satisfaction, and turnover. Journal of economic and behaviors studies, 2, 41-49.
