Research Methadology

Research Topic Linking enhanced employee performance to the achievement of the company’s goals and objectives so as to generate increased productivity: The case of â€Å"SUBWAY†, Rathbone Place. Submitted by LOKEMAN HOSAIN MOLLAH ID – 0385VLVL0209 MBA-A Submitted to DR. BERNADETTE WARNER Submission date 26 august 2009 Acknowledgement First of all, I would like to take an opportunity to say thanks to Dr. Bernadette Warner who has vast knowledge about business strategy and international business, which is helpful to complete this proposal. Also I would like to say thanks to Mr Hmant Dixit, the operational director of â€Å"SONISH LTD† who helped me a lot to get information about subway and the employees of Subway in Rathbon Place, London. And I would like to give special thanks to Mr. Mamunur Roshed, area Manager,Sonish Ltd and Mr. Arifur Rahaman, Store Manager, Rathbonr Place for their cordial support. Table of contents Introduction Topic area Problem statement Background and purpose of the research Literature review Aims and Objectives of the research Research Questions Research Design and Methodology Sources and acquisition of data Data analysis Timetable About Subway Conclusion 1. Introduction In today’s business become more globalize, and competitive, for this reason it is very essential to find out a ways to make our organizational resources more creative and productive. In many organizations, the most important and exclusive resource is employee and as a result, a lot of time is spent on creating processes and conditions that drive and motivate our employees. And if we can motivate and encourage our employee then their performance will be good which is very important for an organization. Increasing employee performance can achieve maximum business performance, for this reason every individual employee has to work at their optimal level and be focused on the correct tasks. Effective Employee Performance Management (EPM) adoption empowers employees to take responsibility for their own productivity, and allows a business to fully align goals, activities and tasks to support the direction of the company. Employee Performance Management helps organizations improve both the processes and the productivity of managing a workforce. In most service organizations, attrition is critical to consistent performance and success. Employee Performance Management strategies can help your organization make dramatic business performance improvements and yield tremendous benefits beyond cost reductions. 2. Topic area The topic area is to cover the employee performance at Subway to achieve the company’s objectives and productivity This research will conduct correlate the gaps in individual performance and organizational productivity, with the environment that exists in Subway. 3. Problem statement To stay in a global market, organization need to have very high performing, productive, and motivated workforce ( Madhok & Phene , 2001 ) . However , the problem is that organization have not been able to effectively tap into and leverage the full potential of individuals, to enable them to operate at their peak / optimized level of performance. Consequently, most employees are under performing in organizations. The inability of an organization to use the full potential of an employee’s capacity has had a negative impact on the overall productivity and competitiveness organizations in a global market. (Check land, 1999). 4. Background and purpose of the research The purpose of this research is to determine how organization could become more productive, and thus competitive, by enabling their employees to raise their overall level of performance and productivity, and assist employees to operate at high level of capacity by adopting the best practices of top performing employees in the organization. Building on the work on Pratt and Foreman (2000), the author was interest in determining, in a systematic and holistic manner, the impact of any interrelated organizational factors or entities that had a positive or negative impact on individual performance. The present research initiated to address a key organizational issue and leveraged a number of fundamental questions – First, how can organization become capable of sustained high performance? Second, can organizations leverage the full potential of their employees? Third why do most employees in organizations work at 60% of the full capacity? Finally, why most employees about 90% of the total workforce, considered to be typical employees? (Boyett & Conn, 1995). We need a comprehensive approach to a style of management that enables every employee to aspire to excellence. Now only a few employees are excellent. Most employees are performing below their capacity and our piecemeal efforts to improve performance aren’t working. (Boyett & Conn, 1995) 5. Literature review In the literature review will provide a comprehensive review of the existing literature on individual performance, organizational productivity, and connection that may exist between these two. This overview will include a review and analysis of the seminal books and articles as well as many of the most current books and articles on the subject. In a general and broad sense, this review revealed that individual performance and organizational productivity can be affected by five key factors: leadership /management, the nature of the job itself, the environment of the job, personal drivers or factors and the individual’s emotional intelligence. When observed in isolation, each of these factors can have a positive or negative impact on individual performance. However, when combined and observed holistically it quickly becomes apparent to this that the leadership/ management factor can have a positive or negative impact on how the other four factors are shaped . The section that immediately follows will briefly introduce each of these five factors followed by a section that is devoted to exploring these five factors in greater detail. 5. 1Management / Leadership Elements and impact Numerous studies have shown that management and leadership style, practices and approach can have an influence on individual performance and motivation. (Khaliq, 2001) Leader ship has been defined as, the ability to influence or inspire others to do something that needs to be done. It is instilling in each employee a sense of belonging and commitment towards the achievement of the goals and objectives of the organization and leaders are the catalysts that stimulate employees to develop their potential to the full. This section will provide Comprehensive review of the role, the significance, and the effect of management and / or leadership practices on individual performance, motivation and their overall development in organizations. A comprehensive review of the current literature includes recent books and articles that deal with this subject . Finally this review will include the various leadership and management styles approaches and characteristics that have a profound impact on individual motivation and performance. (Khaliq, 2001, p. 5) Khaliq (2001), compared the motivational and performance factors of the workforce in the United States to that of the Malay, Chinese and Indian workers employed by the Malaysian companies. He concluded many of the leadership approaches that dealt with the concepts of openness, direct confrontation nd / or challenging the process were in direct opposition to many of eastern cultures values and behaviours. In sense khaliq points out that many ethnic and cultural parameters may also have a significant effect on how individuals are motivated, committed and become productive in organizations. Motivation is closely related to leading nurturing a willingness to achieve the above mentioned vision and mission of the organization. Leaders can motivate their employees by creating an environment wh ere work is seen as enriching and fulfilling, thus encouraging employees to contribute ideas and effort in order to enhance productivity. Khaliq, 2000, p. 2. ) 5. 2 Job specific elements and impact The leadership / management factors and the kind of positive or negative effect it had on performance and organizational productivity. The section that follows will review the significance and impact of the job itself and the type of day to day tasks performed by the individuals on their performance, motivation and energy level and overall organizational productivity. The nature of the job, the daily tasks performed by an employee and the manner in which tasks assigned to the individual can also influence performance. , motivational level and organizational productivity Some jobs have lot of beginnings and endings during the day with the opportunity for employees to win or lose. ( positive or negative consequences ). But unfortunately the prevailing situation is that most jobs are just doing this hour what you did the last hour without any immediate consequence for performance . And few workers are running around complimenting other workers for the good they are doing. That leaves the managers as the only source of positive consequence (positive reinforcement) to employees for performing well any day. ( Fournies , 2000, p. 78) . The degree of motivational potential of any specific job, then, dramatically influenced by how a person views the job he or she is given, including how assignments are organized, structured and managed. Even a high pressure situation, IT professionals report that work is exciting when they are having fun doing it. In some sense, then, highly motivating work assignments should be similar the kind of activities people might chose to do for fun on their own. (Kartz, 1998, p. 1) 5. 3 Environmental elements and impact The stability or volatility of the work environment ( e. g the degree of office conflicts , power place ) can have a negative influence on the individuals anxiety level, performance and their overall motivation to perform well at work. We used to think we could separate the soft stuff from the hard stuff – the soft staffs was our commitment to the work force. The hard stuff – what really mattered. Now we know you can’t get the staff out the door unless your employees are 100 percent committed and free of home life distraction. And the way get them there is simple. You do every thing you can to help them those life issues, so work and family can coexist successfully. ( Mechelen , 1998 , p. 6) . 5. 4 Personal / internal Elements and impact Personal factors or elements are internal and often silent motivational variables that can drive human behavior to act in certain way. For example a cultural or religious motivator (e. . Work being equal) may cause an employee to give it their all, deliver more quality work relative to their peers, and become creative. As second example an employee who is seeking promotion is more likely to work an and communicate better, establish better relationship and work harder compared to another co worker who was just recently promoted. Weiss (1936) points out that individual are driven on the basis of five categories of human needs that he refers to as Murray’s categories. These categories were named after Henry A. Murray). Murray (1938 )named five specific categories of needs self fulfillment (achievement and endurance) , social needs ( affiliation and love) , ego needs ( exhibitionism and independence), safety needs ( avoidance of harm) , and power needs ( control). These needs indicate that many individuals are often motivated by strong desires and factors. Thus we trying to enhance or raise individual performance, manager’s needs to be sensitive to these human needs and understand that individuals are typically goal oriented and strive to concurrently satisfy many internal needs. There fore managers needs to search for internal drivers and try to ensure that they provide appropriate motivators and inceptives that will address these needs. (Murray , 1938) 5. 5 Emotional intelligence elements and impact An individual emotional intelligence can contribute to how he or she performs at work, how the individuals relate to others and the overall productivity of the organization. ( Johnson & Indvik, 1999; mason , 1999;)A person with high emotional intelligence has the ability to understood and relate to people. In fact this skill is now considered to have greater impact on individual and group performance. That traditional measures of intelligence such as IQ. when emotional intelligence is present , there is a increased employee cooperation , increased motivation , increased productivity and increased profits . (Johnson & Indvik ,1999 , p. 1) . People wit well developed emotional skills are also more likely to be content and effective on their lives, mastering the habits of mind that foster their own productivity. People who cannot marshal some control over their emotional life fight inner battles that sabotage their ability for focused work and clear thought. (Goldman, 1994, p36) 6. Aims and Objectives of the research It is expected that this research will have a direct impact on the management community by defining methods of developing top performing employees . This work will address the significant issues of individual performance , organizational productivity , and the link between two. As a long term objective, this research will provides a number solid answer to age old problems of productivity and employee motivation, and establish a set of principles that will be applicable to most work groups in organizations. In the interim, this study intends to provide a report in the form of a process for improvement that can be applied in the field by management. Especially this study has some major benefits. First it will identify and document any common factors that have a positive impact on individual performance. Second, by identifying and documenting the common variables or factors that may exist among low performers in an organizations , it is expected that management can be assisted in identifying areas of deficiency and consequently develop employees to improve low performance, raise morale, and reduce the potential for burnout in their organizations. And also it is expected that the result of this research will be translated into a corporate training program that will enable a typical or average employee to raise his or her performance by adopting the best practices used by the top or star performers in the organization. Finally researcher expectation that the aforementioned concepts and findings will be applicable to the Subway. It is further expected that the findings of this research will be the subject of the future study. 7. Research Questions This study is to address a fundamental question: What are the common factors or best practices used by the top performing employees in organizations? Examples of these common factors were perceived employee- manager working relationships, Leadership or management, top individual motivators or de-motivators, environmental elements and any best known practices. For further clarification this fundamental question can be further broken down into a number of sub questions: Were the identified common factors between high performers the same factors that the low performers were deficient and lacking? From the perspective of individual motivational factors, what would be the management perspective compared to that of the employee perception? Finally are there any discrepancies or gaps between the manager and top performer perceptions or beliefs? 9. Research Design and Methodology Concepts of this research individual performance, organizational productivity and the connection between two. A major objective of this study to explore and discover the common factors that distinguish the top performers in an organization. These factors are: any key perceived employee manager working relationships, top three motivators or de- motivators, and any best practices. The identification of these factors is intended to generate one or more grounded theories to explain why only a small percentage of the employees in an organizations ( e. g. 5 % ) are considered to be more effective or productive performers. Relative to the peers in the same or similar work environment. The study is going to be on a qualitative research approach . It will use an iterative data gathering process, the use of inductive data analysis techniques, and a constant comparative and classification process of data to develop one or more grounded theories that could explain this phenomenon. The design of this research study is interpretive and systematic. It will attempt to uncover fundamental patterns and commonalities (e. g. employee manager working relationship) that exist in the research data. It will attempt to discover the common factors that characterize the top performers, both managers and employees, in organizations. As a systematic study it will compare and contrast the data. To achieve this data will be collected from the high, medium, low, performers. Using techniques: 1. through the use of an elaborate organizational survey. 2. A series of one to one interviews. 3. Personal observation. Each phase the data collection and analysis process will be built upon the learning obtained from the previous stages in an iterative process. To construct the organizational survey literature review and analysis process will undertaken. 4. Finally to generate the grounded theories, the results of the organizational survey, and analysis of the one to one and group interviews. At each stage data will be collected, compared, contrasted, classified and any commonalities that existed will documented. (Glaser & Strauss, 1999) 10. Sources and acquisition of data To begin with, organization Subway, Researcher has been working there since four years as a senior sales assistant. And have a good cooperation with the management and the employee who are willing to anticipate with the interviews. Primary data will be gathered by conducting one to one interviews with key managers or individuals. Before executing such research activities it is ensured that research will be carried out with the permission of the senior management to interview the respective senior members of such organization. More concerns will be shown to select the appropriate senior members for such interviews. Finally, secondary data the possible available reviews, books, articles, suggestions, journals, electronic based information such as internet will be taken in to account for obtaining relevant information for the research, however strong weight will be given to acquire data from reliable source to make sure research content solid track of information. 1. Data analysis The theory construction will be based upon the literature review process, the survey results and feedback received from one to one make to the organization survey. as pointed earlier the desired out come of this study will to develop one or more grounded theories that could explain the top performing ( or low performing ) employee in o rganizations. To achieve this- First, theories will be developed based on the data collected, analyzed and the common pattern identified. The data will take from the literature review process, a comprehensive organizational survey, one to one interviews and observation. And each phase findings will be classified into specific categories: management / leadership, job, environment of the job, individual motivators and emotional intelligence. Second all identifiable performance factors will categorized according to the five major factors identified during the literature review. A matrix consisting of number of variable performance factors and the frequency of each result will construct. Further a set of definitions for each term or variable used in the study will formulate. 12. Timetable ACTIVITIESWEEKS1234567891011121Initializing Appointments 2Literature review 3Follow Up Meetings & Obtaining Information 4Obtaining Historical information 5Critical analysis 6Deriving a Conclusion 7Developing a Draft 8Editing & preparing final Draft 9Final Report Ready 13. About Subway Fred DeLuca founded the SUBWAY ® chain in Connecticut, USA, in 1965. The company has since grown into a multi-billion pound business, with more than 25,000 outlets in over 80 countries. In a world full of â€Å"Super Size It† messages that prompt people to eat too much and eat high fat items, SUBWAY ® bucks the trend with a healthy message – 7 subs with under 6 grams of fat – as a major part of their advertising strategy. 14. Conclusion Optimizing individual performance, raising the bar of organizational productivity, and being able to accomplish organizational objectives. A growing body research indicates that a productive, efficient and healthy learning organization is a necessary and key ingredient for global competition . The present study will be explored, analyzed and documented how an organization could become more productive and competitive by enabling its employees to raise their overall level of work performance. The results of this effort will indented to assist employees to operate at a higher level of their capacity by enabling them to leverage many of the common factors or best practices used by the top performing employees in their organizations. These factors include: perceive good employee manager working relationship, top individual motivating, and any other best practices. This study attempted the best way managers and employees can partner to nature a work environment where they can grow, develop, and maximize their full potential. This study has benefits. It identifies and documents the most common factors that have positive or negative impact on employee performance and productivity. It attempts to capture the attributes and practices of high performing employees in an organization and perform this analysis on low and medium performers as well. In conclusion, this study provided evidence that organizational productivity, effectiveness and creativity flow from flow naturally from individual productivity, effectiveness and creativity. (Loehr , 2001) Reference Loehr , J . (2001 , January ) , The making of a corporate athlete , Harvard Business Review , 79 , Issue 1 , 120 , 9p , 1 . Glaser , B . & Strauss , A . (1999) , The discovery of grounded theory : Strategies for Qualitative research , Chicago ; Aldline . Madhok , A . & Phene , A . 2001) , The Co evolution Advantage : Strategic management theory and the electic paradigm , International Journal of the Economics of Business , 8 , No, 2, 243 – 256. Boyett , J . H . & Conn , H . P . (1995) , Maximum performance management : how to manage and compensate people to meet world competition, Glenbridge Publishing : Lakewood , Colorado. Checkland , P . (1999) , Systems thinking , systems practice . john Wiley & Sons , Ltd : New York , NY. Pratt , M . G & Foreman , P . O . (20 00) , Classifying managerial response to multiple organizational identities . The Academy of management Review . MississippiState. Khaliq , A . (2001) , Corporate leadership and workplace motivation in Malaysia. International Journal of Commerce & Management . 11 . 1, 82 (Fournies , 2000) . Fournies , F . F . (2000) , Coaching for improvement work performance , McGraw-Hill: New York , NY . Katz , R . ( 1998) , Motivation leads to innovation – IT professionals who are excited about their jobs will be more creative and productive , Information Week , September , 14 , 1998 , n. 700, 294 (1). Mechelen , R. V. 1998, spring) , Work/life programs as management programs , The public manager : The new bureaucrat , 27 , n 1 , 31 (4) . Murray , H . A , (1938) , Exploration in personality : A clinical an expremental study of fifty men of college age , oxford University Press : New York . Johnson , P . R . & Invik , J . (1999) , Organizational benefits of having emotionally intelligent managers and employee , Journal of Workplace Learning , 1999 , 11 , issue 3 , 84 , 5p Goldman , D . (1994) , Emotional Intelligence : Why it can matter more than IQ , Bantam Books : New York , NY . www. subway. com