Research Proposal Regarding Low Employee Morale-Myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about the Research proposal regarding low Employee Morale. Answer: Introduction: This research proposal revolves around a company that goes by the name Verbeek Export. Hans Verbreek established it in the year 1975. The company was initially setup for distributing flowers. Its range of operations includes Europe and Scandinavia. The research proposal will identify key reasons that lead to decrease in profit for the company. Following identification of key reasons, the proposal will develop a methodology for collecting and assessing data. After assessment, the proposal would be able to provide a recommendation. Decrease in profit is a business problem, this inhibits growth, and viability of the business is put under scanner. It was established that due to low morale of employees, productivity of the company was hit and this resulted in reduction of profit. Additionally, the proposal would help in providing recommendation that would help to mitigate the business problem identified. Background: By internal research, it was established that workload in the company is unbalanced. Employees were showing signs of fatigue by working long hours in the company. This resulted in poor quality of work. Based on internal feedback, the company decided to introduce a break of 15 minutes. This solution was not enough as the company faced employee retention issues. Prior investigation also revealed that a rival company of Verbeek Export paid higher rates to workers and this contributed to retention issues in the company. Research aim and objectives: The research aims to find out contributing factors that leads to low morale among employees. The research also aims to find out underlying causes that leads to lower productivity. To identify the factors that leads to low morale of employees. To identify the factors that leads to lower productivity. To provide recommendation to mitigate the business problem. Research questions: Q1. What are the factors that lead to low morale? Q2. What are the contributing factors that lead to low productivity in a company? Q3. What can be done to solve the business problem? Literature review: A problem within a business might lead lowering of profit. This can stem from internal issues such as low morale. Morale of employees is difficult to manage. For any organization, it is critical to maintain high employee retention rate and this puts focus on how to increase employee morale (Qureshi et al., 2015). The process of determining employee satisfaction level for the company is difficult since it is hard to get a read on employees feelings. It is widespread believe among top managers that the leading cause of low morale is money but that is not the case always (Kocakulah, et al., 2016). Lack of development of the employee, reduced employee morale, and a feeling of detachment from company objectives leads to lower employee retention rates. It was also established that employees wants to feel that they are part of something bigger, which actually means their role, has an impact on the business conducted by the organization (Grissom, Viano Selin, 2016). This literature review w ill provide some top reasons that lead to decrease in employee morale. Morale issues arise from poor treatment of employees by managers. Employees will not feel motivated if their managers do not treat them with respect (Fast, Burris Bartel, 2014). Employees become increasingly frustrated when goals keep changing. This happens when previous work fades away because old goals contradict with new goals. The third factor that reduces employee morale is lack of clarity about expectations. For employees of an organization, it is particularly discouraging to know nothing about goals (Morrison, See Pan, 2015). Goals must be clear for every employee. For an organization, there can be certain set of criteria by which a performance of employee is measured. Employees are bound to feel frustrated if they are not able to know the criterias by which they are being judged. Lack in communication among employee and a supervisor will lead to lower morale. Resentment and hatred arises among employees when they feel they are sidelined. It is critical for a company to have proper communication channels in the hierarchy. Employee morale will also decrease if their hard work is not recognized by the organization. Each employee wishes that his or her hard work were recognized. A simple praise by a supervisor can do a trick. The sixth point will highlight the lack of employee development plan. If there are no clear development plans available, then employees will not be able to realize their full potential. Morale can also be lowered from lack of trust. An employee would not be able to perform his/her abilities to the fullest if his/her every move is being scrutinized. One of the most important factors that lead to low employee morale is immense workload. A company should review workload of employees at regular interval to keep a check on employee morale. Employee morale is decreased when they are not compensated adequately. If the compensation does not reflect the amount of work done by the employee then resentment among the employees will be on the rise (Judge et al., 2017). Productivity of the company is very important and thus, few points will be discussed. Cash incentives and non-cash incentives such as trips and gifts can b e introduced to increase productivity of the company. Office picnics are a great way to rejuvenate for the employees. This type of activities helps the employees to unwind and releases stress which further results in increase in productivity. Team building exercise can be undertaken to make the employees socialize with one another. This will also result in increasing productivity among the employees. Low employee morale will decrease collaboration between teams, negatively impact culture of the team and this will affect the way customers are treated. The main problem lies with the environment. The environment that is created through attitudes, biases and faulty policies will lead to decrease in morale. Some of the main causes of low employee morale are lack of clarity, lack of growth, leadership changes and issues with leadership. To deal with low employee morale the organization must practice transparency, give recognition to employees, must train managers, must offer growth, should collect feedback and have extensive team building exercise. The above points mentioned will mitigate the risk of having low employee morale in the organization. Research Methodology: Data collection method: Before starting this data collection process, the need for qualitative and explorative study will be established. Data collection method for this research will be in-depth interviews. Semi structured and long interview method will be followed. Long interview method will be followed since the area is relatively new for the research to be conducted upon. Semi structured interviews will be followed when the interview questions will be varied according to the answers provided by the respondent. Additionally, the long interview method will provide opportunity to see the world from respondents perspective. A research process is completed with the help of primary and secondary data. Data that is collected by surveys, interviews and questionnaire is termed as primary data (Hewson Stewart, 2016). Secondary data refers to data collected from books and journals that already contains researched material (Stage Manning, 2015). Primary data will be collected from the workers working in similar i ndustry such as flower delivery service. The main data will be collected from employees of similar industry who are willing to resign because of low employee morale. Additionally, feedback will be collected from them which will point out their frustrations and what they want the organization to do in order to eliminate the resentment in them. Data analysis Method: Interview transcripts will be compiled and analyzed using a computer aided data analysis software ATLAS.ti (Friese, 2014). Data analysis plan is of two types- first one is quantitative data analysis and the second one is qualitative data analysis (Graue, 2015). Data analysis method chosen will be qualitative data analysis since the data gathered from interviews and transcripts will be evaluated in a qualitative manner. Qualitative analysis of data is useful when there is no need to conduct mathematical and statistical analysis of an entire survey. Sampling Method: Two types of sampling method are there for a research process. First one is probability and the second one is non- probability. For the probability sample method, respondents and sample are selected on a random basis. It is used to know the complete response of a group for a given topic. The second one is non-probability method where the selections of respondents randomly are not allowed. For this specific type of sampling method, the research focuses on a target group, which is apt for the research (Palinkas et al., 2015). Non- probability sampling method will be chosen for the research since the target group is known for the research. The main target groups are the employees on the verge of resigning because of low employee morale. Ethical issues: Here ethical considerations relates to participants and steps undertaken to protect their interest and privacy. Participants chosen will be mainly English speaking and for those who are not English speaking translator will be provided. Special care will be taken to see that the translator must not alter information provided by the participants (Olteanu, K?c?man Castillo, 2018). Ethical issues may also arise from the fact that limited options are provided for a question and this indicates biasness. A consent form will be provided to every participant so that they can withdraw if they feel obligated to do so. Time Horizon: The first month shall be utilized in selecting the topic and researching about relevant information from research journals and books. The second month will be utilized in researching about the topic. Plan of research and the manner in which it will be conducted will be researched in the third month. Primary data will be collected in the fourth month. Data will be analyzed by the fifth month. By the end of sixth month, the research proposal will be drafted. Expected outcome: Interviews that will be performed as a part of this research will provide insights into the employee morale. This research will also be able to pin point the reasons that leads to lower productivity in the company. It can be said that the primary objective of this research proposal is to identify the factors that leads to low employee morale. Extensive research will also identify suggestions that will mitigate the risk of low employee morale in similar industry. References Fast, N. J., Burris, E. R., Bartel, C. A. (2014). Managing to stay in the dark: Managerial self-efficacy, ego defensiveness, and the aversion to employee voice.Academy of Management Journal,57(4), 1013-1034. Friese, S. (2014).Qualitative data analysis with ATLAS. ti. Sage. Graue, C. (2015). Qualitative data analysis.International Journal Of Sales, Retailing Marketing,4(9), 5-14. Grissom, J. 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