Business Research Methods and Applications

This assignment delves into the realm of business research methods. It encompasses an exploration of different methodologies used to gather, analyze, and interpret data relevant to business decisions. The focus extends to understanding how these methods can be applied to real-world scenarios, highlighting their contributions to informed and strategic decision-making processes within organizations.

BUSINESS
ADMINISTRATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Use of various problem solving techniques..........................................................................1
1.2 Organisational and legal constraints related to problem solving..........................................2
1.3 Role of stakeholders in problem solving...............................................................................2
1.4 Steps in business decision making process...........................................................................3
1.5 Implications of adopting decisions and implementing recommendations............................3
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Purpose and benefits of continuous benefits.........................................................................4
2.2 Features and use of continuous improvement techniques and models.................................5
2.3 Scope and scale of the problem.............................................................................................5
2.4 Importance of feedback from customers in continuous improvement..................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
3.1 Nature and implication of problem.......................................................................................6
3.2 Scope and scale of the issue..................................................................................................6
3.3: Analyse the possible courses of action that can be taken in response to a problem............7
3.4: Use evidence to justify the approach to problem-solving....................................................7
3.5: Develop a plan and success criteria that are appropriate to the nature and scale of a
problem.......................................................................................................................................7
3.6: Obtain approval to implement a solution to a problem........................................................8
3.7: Take action to resolve or mitigate a problem.......................................................................8
3.8: Evaluate the degree of success and scale of the implications of a solved problem.............8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
4.1: Identify the nature, scope and scale of possible contributions to continuous improvement
activities......................................................................................................................................9

4.2: Measure changes achieved against existing baseline data...................................................9
4.3: Calculate performance measures relating to cost, quality and delivery...............................9
4.4: Justify the case for adopting improvements identified with evidence...............................10
4.5: Develop standard operating procedures and resource plans that are capable of
implementing agreed changes...................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Business administration is a quite vast and important aspect which is relatively present in
all business concerns. It also infuses a number of management positions and roles. Business
administration refers to a study that deals with managing and administering various business
practices by taking various sectors or fields of business such as accounts, finance, marketing etc.
It also refers to a process that involves organising business managers and personnels so that they
can meet both goals as well as objectives of a business concern (Bailey and et. al., 2017). This
report is framed on Marks and Spencer which is a UK based business concern with its
headquarters in Westminster, London. This report deals with many important key factors that
affect administering a business concern such as use of problem solving techniques as well as
organisational and legal constraints faced by companies. This report also focusses on nature and
implications of problems along with scope of problems faced by any business entity. Lastly,
standard operating measures have also been mentioned in this report.
TASK 1
1.1 Use of various problem solving techniques.
Problem solving refers to a process which enables people to work and focus in almost all
areas of an issue so that problems can be easily resolved and individuals can reach towards
effective solutions. There are various ways in which problem solving techniques are useful.
These ways have been mentioned as under:
Uses of Problem solving techniques:
 Problem solving is an important aspect that raises efficiency level of an individual.
 This process helps in maximising profitability and well as productivity standards of a
business concern (Bernstein, 2015).
 By meeting conflicts and needs of employees it is stated that morale and motivation level
of employees enhances. This further results in growth of a business and expansion of its
operations.
1.2 Organisational and legal constraints related to problem solving.
There are a number of legal as well as organisational constraints which any business
comes across while solving issues. Some major organisational and legal constraints have been
mentioned as under:
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Perspective – It is an important constraint or factor which generally occurs whenever
there is a change in views and opinions of managers . Perspective refers to ways in which an
individual looks at issues.
Cultural – Cultural constraints is something that occurs or varies due to culture
variances. It is basically divided into 3 broad categories namely behaviour, biasness as well as
expectations of individuals.
Legal – It also provide some barriers in the perfect functioning of business operations so
that the problem is create in the workplace (Fuentes‐Fuentes and et. al., 2017). Every firm has to
follow the legislations which are formulated by the government of a specific nation. If firm will
not followed them they have to pay penalties and fine which will not be suitable for resolving the
problems.
1.3 Role of stakeholders in problem solving.
In terms of business, a stakeholder is a name given to an investor whose actions are quite
responsible or affect outcomes of key business decisions. Stakeholders can sometimes even be
employees who have some sort of a stake in a business concern. Stakeholders perform various
roles while problem solving which have further be stated as under:
Role of stakeholders in problem solving:
Decision making: In corporate sector firms most common gathering of stakeholders is
generally in form of board of directors who are main decision making authority in a business
concern. Stakeholders have an absolute authority where they can modify changes in decision
making or even introduce new innovative ideas for completion of activities.
Direct management: Stakeholders have two options from which they can select best
possible way of performing problem solving or decision making. Stakeholders can either choose
hands off or hands on approach while controlling business operations (Goffee and Scase, 2015).
Also stakeholders have power that they can take over functioning of few departments such as
human resource, finance, HR etc.
All these measures will further help in solving major issues that may arise in a business
concern.
1.4 Steps in business decision making process.
Decision making process is an important aspect that helps managers of a business
concern so that they can effectively examine alternative and important choices. Also it helps
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managers in deciding which route is best suitable for them (McKeever, 2016). Decision making
process comprises of 7 major steps which have been specified as under:
Steps in decision making process:
 Identifying the decision: First step in decision making process is identification of the
issue and accordingly taking correct decision that is suitable for the organisation.
 Gathering or collecting information: Second step after identification of issues is
generally gathering or collecting information so that decisions can be effectively made
based upon important data and facts (Loebnitz, Schuitema and Grunert, 2015).
 Recognising alternative solutions: Once issues that need to be solved are clear, it is
important that managers evaluate ways in which problems can be solved at a quite faster
pace.
 Weighing evidences: This is an important step in solutions are evaluated based on three
factors namely feasibility, acceptability and desirability. This helps in examining best
possible solution that is available for solving problems.
 Choose among alternatives: After weighing and examining alternatives it becomes easy
for managers to pick one best alternative out of all alternatives available.
 Take actions: After picking one alternative a plan needs to be created that can be
implemented . This implementing requires resources as well as cooperation form
employees as well as stakeholders.
 Review decisions: Last step of decision making process is evaluating decisions and
checking whether they are effective or not. Also it further helps in determining what
improvements need to be considered the next time (Oinas, 2017).
1.5 Implications of adopting decisions and implementing recommendations.
Decision making refers to a process which involves making or adopting choices. This is
usually done by recognising a decision, gathering information and also assessing alternative
solutions to it. When a step by step decision making process is used in any organisation, it
greatly helps in making more rationale and thoughtful decisions that will prove helpful for the
company. This is usually done by collecting and organising relative and key information and also
effectively defining alternatives. For example, for motivating employees, managers earlier
adopted a strategy where employees were given recognition based on their performance and also
evaluating it. But after critically examining the morale situation it was found out employees
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gained more satisfaction when they were provided monetary benefits rather than non monetary
recognition. Hence it is recommended that managers should have used monetary benefits for
motivating their employees (Rice, 2015).
TASK 2
2.1 Purpose and benefits of continuous benefits.
A continuous improvement is a planned process which includes a set of various activities
that have been designed to ensure bringing a gradual process that deals with ongoing or
continuous improvement of products and services. This is usually done by constant review,
measurement as well as action. Continuous improvement is done due to following reasons which
have further been stated as under:
Purpose of continuous improvement:
 Main aim of continuous improvement is to enable individuals within an organisation so
that they can easily and freely share their improvement learnings with each other. It also helps in promoting and streamlining flow of work and work culture spo that
learning becomes easy.
Benefits of continuous improvement: Continuously improving something has a number of
benefits that have been stated as under:
 By adopting a continuous development or improvement plan managers of an organisation
can easily engage and motivate their employees thereby leading to higher level of
satisfaction (Shmueli, Bruce and et. al., 2017).
 Quality of products and services tend to improve thereby producing more competitive
products and services. It will also lead to enhancing the customer base for an
organisation.
2.2 Features and use of continuous improvement techniques and models.
Continuous improvement models are basic structures that aim towards waste elimination
and efficiency improvement of a process. Two important improvement models have been
specified as under:
Six sigma: Six sigma is an important statistical approach whose main focus is basically
on eliminating or removing any sort of variances or errors that may occur while production of
goods and services. Two major classifications of six sigma technique are DMAIC and DMADV.
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Kaizen: Kaizen is basically a Japanese term that states changes are for good. It can also
be treated as a synonym of improvement (Rice, 2015). Kaizen system aims at developing a
continuous improvement model which works for enhancing both flow of production as well as
process of production. It helps employees of a business concern so that they can effectively
enhance their working style thereby promoting efficiency.
Uses of continuous improvement techniques:
 It helps in eliminating any sort of wastes that may occur while undertaking production
process in an organisation.
 These techniques maintain an effective way of maintaining efficiency of single
individuals as well as entire team.
2.3 Scope and scale of the problem.
Problems are a part and parcel of every business concern and its overall working culture.
In present context there are a number of problems that are being faced by Marks and Spencer in
their regular day to day business operations. Problems that are being faced by Marks and Spencer
are getting back in the league and attain a loyal sustainable position along with maintaining an
excellent position at e commerce platforms such as Flip-kart, Amazon etc. All these e-commerce
platforms have created a number of issues for Marks and Spencer such as when ZARA launched
a website for online trading, it greatly affected sales ratio of Marks and Spencer and resulted in
around 8.1% drop in the year 2014 (Skärvad and Bruzelius, 2017). Also one more issue faced by
Marks and Spencer's customers was that they were not able to check out from online apps while
shopping and also their items from baskets went missing all of a sudden.
2.4 Importance of feedback from customers in continuous improvement.
Feedback is a quite complicated process which deals with effect of output of any given
action that is returned or exchanged in order to further modify next actions. Feedbacks are an
important part which help in working as well as survival of various regulatory mechanisms.
Feedback plays a quite important role in improving performance level of employees. Feedback
can either be positive or negative and yet both play a quite significant role in performance
enhancement of people.
Importance of feedbacks in Marks and Spencer:
 Feedbacks play an important role in motivating employees. It helps employees of M&S
so that they can eradicate all sorts of variances from their overall performance.
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 Feedbacks act as energising and motivating tool thereby leading to improved employee
satisfaction as well as productivity (Wang, Wang and et. al., 2016).
TASK 3
3.1 Nature and implication of problem.
Problems have a significant role in organisational working culture. In context of Marks
and Spencer managers and owners faced few issues such as falling sales ratio due to innovations
brought by its rival firms and also they faced quite critical situations while maintaining market
image. In this case, both the problems had a huge impact and hampered brand value of Marks
and Spencer due to which it faced huge amount of losses. Likely cause behind these problems
was that senior management of M&S faced a shuffling so there was a lot of chaos and confusion
as to who is guiding authority and who is to report to whom. This confusion and
miscommunication had quite a toll on management and also lowered their overall market share.
3.2 Scope and scale of the issue.
Scope and scale of problems that are being faced by M&S need to be critically evaluated
so that they can further be eliminated by using proper and effective strategies and policies. It has
also been noticed that if managers do not deal with issues at their earlier initial stage and they
may face reduction in profit, sales as well as revenue of a firm (Bell, Bryman and Harley,
2018). Hence managers are trained in such a way that they further focus on issues and also
develop effective solutions to it. For analysing scope and scale of issues it is important that
performance of employees as well as market position of a company is effectively assessed. By
doing so management can handle any critical situations thereby promoting growth and
sustainability of a firm.
3.3: Analyse the possible courses of action that can be taken in response to a problem.
In this context, managers of Marks and Spencer will have to effectively identify or
recognise the problem along with its influence on production processes as well as employees
working in a business concern. After this identification, it is necessary that managers receive or
ask for feedbacks and any sort of recommendations if given by employees. This helps in coming
to an effective and appropriate solution. Also managers will have to critically evaluate all the
recommendations given so that decision making can be effectively functioned as per needs and
nature size and scope of issues (Burns and Dewhurst eds., 2016). The solution of the problem
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should be discuss by the managers with their employees so that the solution can be evaluated by
taking support of the employees. The above method can be used by the managers in easy manner
through which they will easily eliminate the origin of problem.
3.4: Use evidence to justify the approach to problem-solving
In this scenario, creative problem solving is most preferred approach which is helpful in
resolving issues in a smaller period of time. It is a significant way in which managers can analyse
origin pointy of problem and accordingly develop effective solutions if any. This approach plays
an important role in enhancing skills as well as confidence of employees and managers. The
users of this approach firstly analysing the problem then make better solution by using their
creative mind. The solutions are based on their past experience and creative mind. The main
benefit of this approach is that the managers can take support from external sources of the firm
for getting better solutions of risk. Whereas, the main disadvantage of this approach is that, if the
problem is based on a limited time period then it can not be solved in the given time period.
3.5: Develop a plan and success criteria that are appropriate to the nature and scale of a problem.
Success plan is an important tool which helps managers in evaluating or examining
success of a solution (Christensen, Bartman and Van Bever, 2016). Success plan is further
divided into 4 steps that have been mentioned as under:
 Understanding the solution: For making sure that effective solutions are derived, it is
important that managers develop an understanding of nature as well as scale of problems.
 Plan and apply a strategy: Second step in this this process is formulating a strategy so
that effective solutions can be achieved.
 Analyse outcomes: After planning managers need to determine or examine future
opportunities and also analyse impact of performance of business concerns.
 Reflect on solution: Last step in this process is reflecting on solutions and checking
whether they are effective or not.
3.6: Obtain approval to implement a solution to a problem.
For fetching approval of solutions, it is important that managers take feedbacks from their
employees and also motivate them for providing any new and innovative ideas (Cooke and
Alcadipani, 2015). This will further help in forming effective solutions to problems thereby
providing an effective solution to problems at quite faster pace. It is an important process as
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managers have to analyse issues at first and then accordingly take feedbacks from employees as
well as stakeholders. This will greatly help them in effective decision making and also new and
innovative ways of doing tasks will be found out. After identifying and determining the
feedbacks the management have to implement best solutions for removing the problem and
communicate it with the employees and managers.
3.7: Take action to resolve or mitigate a problem.
Any issue or problem can be effectively solved if they are identified at their initial stage,
Outcomes of these issues will be easily solved by managers of Marks and Spencer. An example
of such a situation is managers are facing an issue which can only be addressed when new and
innovative ways of doing production are adopted. When upgraded technology will be
implemented in production process the risk will be automatically reduced. For removing such
problems from the workplace management have to provide effective training to their employees
so that they can provide more efficiency on the given task (Hakansson, 2015).
3.8: Evaluate the degree of success and scale of the implications of a solved problem.
Issues relating to quality can be easily resolved if managers undertake effective changes
in their workplace for example updating current technology, implementation of new plant and
machinery and also providing training sessions to employees sop that they can further develop
their area of expertise. By undertaking all above stated measures managers will be able to
enhance quality of goods and services provided by them . These actions play a quite significant
role in supplying customers with better quality goods and services.
TASK 4
4.1: Identify the nature, scope and scale of possible contributions to continuous improvement
activities.
Continuous improvement plays a quite important role in business operations as it helps in
enhancing quality of products along with growth in sales ratio as well as profitability (Kayl and
et. al., 2017). It also helps in improving efficiency level of employees which further leads to
enhancement in performance level of employees as well. This further helps in improving quality
of products and services . Also it leads to sustainable development of a firm in competitive
market. Continuous improvement has a quite wide scope as it guides managers through which
effective strategy formulation can occur.
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4.2: Measure changes achieved against existing baseline data.
Baseline data is an information which is predetermined and gathered for developing a new
product. Furthermore, It is a set of procedures in which various measures are included such as
quality, health benefits, manpower etc. These are the measures which should be adopted by the
managers for developing the new food product which is cookies. After the development of such
product, managers have to ensure the quality and quantity of this product so that the customers
can be easily attracted towards the new product (Sison, Beabout and Ferrero, eds., 2017). In
present time the sales figures of the product are lowering because the cost of production are
higher so that the sales figures of this product can't provide profitability to the firm. The
employees who are working for developing the product are providing sufficient for developing
the product.
4.3: Calculate performance measures relating to cost, quality and delivery
The quality of the new product is good and attractive in nature because it attracts a large number
of customers towards it as per expectation. On the other hand, the cost of production was
expected for the amount of 70000$ and the cost after development is expected of $75000 which
have to decreased for improving the product (Storey, 2016). The delivery time of the new
product is estimated for 2 month in which the production manager have to monitor all the
activities so that the new product will be delivered as expected. The cost of product has to be
maintained so that the funds can be saved for promotion of the product. As the company wants to
make new food products so that they can use an ingredient which fulfils the demand of wheat
through this, cost will be reduced and company will easily save funds for future.
4.4: Justify the case for adopting improvements identified with evidence
The quality of new food goods can be improved by using a best substitute ingredient of wheat.
Through adopting new technologies the quality of product will be improved and cost will also
decreases by optimum utilisation of resources in the production process. Production managers of
M&S can also decrease the weight of new food product through this they will easily reduce the
cost of product. They can provide training programmes to their employees so that their efficiency
can be improve and they can get knowledge about the new and advanced technologies. By using
this measures, company will easily make new product along with reducing the cost of it. With
the help of this, company will achieve their predetermined goals and objective in predetermined
period.
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4.5: Develop standard operating procedures and resource plans that are capable of implementing
agreed changes
Managers of M&S have to make a standard for making new food product so that the product can
be delivered on time in the market. The standard of operating procedure is given as under:
 Costs – Cost that are to be incurred while producing and innovating a new food product is
estimated to be pound 75000. Production manager should further utilise these funds in an
effective way so that profitability of firm can be ensured (Storey, 2016.).
 Raw material – Managers of Marks and Spencer wish to enhance quality of products they
use as raw materials so that quality of their products can get enhanced.
 Employees – In context of employees 50 people need to take part in producing a new
food product. In this case, M&S does not need to hire employees as thery have ample of
employees available.
 Technology – Firm have to buy advance technology and implement it in their production
process so that the company can easily produce new food products. The cost of new
machinery are expected by the managers are around 21000 pounds.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that managers are whole and
soul authority who are capable of critically analysing problem and providing solutions for such
problems. Also they will need to identify the issue so that problems do not arise again in future.
Also, they will have to further determine scale and nature of the issue so that effective solution
can be given for eliminating the problem for solving the problem. Further, they will also have to
stet standards for employees so that performance level of employees can be increased along
with estimation of costs that will be incurred while forming new goods and services.
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