Factors affecting casual employment in retail service sector

This proposal reflects the association of some of the major lacking that is associated with the development of a crisis related situation in the retail industry. This crisis is related to the conditions that are associated with respective casual and part-time workers. Majority of the workforce that is employed in the casual and part-time category of the retail industry lacks adequate knowledge and skills required for a regular job profile. This proposal aims to evaluate the major issues and their respective causes related to part-time and casual employees of the retail sector.

Running head: Assessment 3
BUSN20016 RESEARCH IN BUSINESS, T1, 2018
ASSESSMENT 3
PROJECT TITLE:Factors affecting casual employment in retail service
sector
Student’s full name:
Student ID:
Tutor’s name:
Campus:
ASSESSMENT SHEET
Criteria Total
marks
Marks
obtained
Overall comments
A statement of the problem, research aim,
objectives and research questions
10
Justification and potential output of the research 10
Conceptual framework 10
Methodology, organisation of the study, project
budget and schedule
10
Accurate referencing, use of correct English and
logical sequences between sentences and
paragraphs and a good introduction
10
Total = 50
Mark reduction for Turnitin similarity (It's up to the
markers and unit coordinator's judgement)
Mark reduction for late submission(5% mark
reduction for each day of late submission)
Grand Total= 50
Key to grading and corresponding marking scale:
HD (42.5 and above out of 50 marks): Student demonstrates outstanding understanding and
interpretation of all aspects of the criteria.
D (37.25 to 42.24 out of 50 marks): Student demonstrates excellence in understanding and
interpretation of almost all aspects of the criteria with some minor corrections or additions
needed.
C (32.25 to 37.24 marks out of 50 marks): Student demonstrates very good understanding and

Assessment 32
interpretation of most aspects of the criteria with some need for additional work, additions or
improvement.
P (24.75% to 32.24% marks): Student demonstrates good understanding and interpretation of the
criteria to warrant the award of a Pass but requires considerable additional work, additions or
improvement.
F (below 24.7%): Student demonstrates an unsatisfactory understanding and interpretation of the
criteria and requires major additional work, additions or improvement to achieve a passing grade.
June 2018

Assessment 33
Table of contents
section 1.....................................................................................................................................4
introduction.............................................................................................................................4
problem statement...................................................................................................................4
research objectives/questions..................................................................................................5
Objectives...............................................................................................................................5
Questions................................................................................................................................5
justification of the project.......................................................................................................6
expected research output/outcome..........................................................................................8
section II.....................................................................................................................................9
conceptual framework and research hypothesis.....................................................................9
methodology.........................................................................................................................10
Research Philosophy.............................................................................................................10
Research Approach...............................................................................................................11
Research Design...................................................................................................................12
Sampling Size And Techniques............................................................................................13
Data Collection Methods......................................................................................................13
organization of the study.......................................................................................................13
Gantt Chart............................................................................................................................14
project budget and budget justification.................................................................................14
Reference list:.......................................................................................................................16
Appendix: Gantt chart...........................................................................................................19
Timeline for the proposal......................................................................................................19

Assessment 34
SECTION 1
INTRODUCTION
Casual employment is one of the most drastically developing areas that are related to modern
day retail business. Since its introduction, casual employment has been observed as a
significantly developing area of operation for majority of the employees all around the world.
It has significantly has a major section of employees working under it. In spite of huge
population of people working in this industry, the casual and part-time employment is also
associated with majority of issues. This proposal reflects the association of some of the major
lacking that is associated with the development of a crisis related situation in the retail
industry. This crisis is related to the conditions that are associated with respective casual and
part-time workers. Several aspects that implicate for the association and development of these
situations are largely discussed in this proposal in order to provide a relevant understanding
related to the respective subject. In addition to these factors, a major section of this proposal
is related to the association of all the major issues that are being faced in the current scenario
related to the retail employment structure.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
What is the issue?
The employement conditions of casual and part-time employees in present day retail industry
is highly incorporated with factors such as availability of insuffuicient opportunities, irregular
par structure and irrelevent working shifts. This is a major issue that is depicted in this
research proposal.
Why it is an issue?
It is an issue as the part-time and casual employees constitute a major section of the working
class that is related to a the retail industry. The irregularituies related to their working
structure is largely incorporated wuith some major advancements that is relatevely very
crucial for their development as well as the development of whole retail industry and this is a
amajor reason for this issue.
Why it is an issue now?

Assessment 35
It is an issue now as in the current business structure, employees are considered as one of the
majorfragment that implicated every important aplication in order to sustain business
development and prosperiety and their satisfaction is of major value. In order to facilitate an
overall deveklopment of each and every aspect related to the retail industry, this issue needs
to be taken into consideration in the current scenario.
What light does this research shade on?
A major portion of this research shade light on the availability of proper job orientation and
availability of equal opportunities that are related to each and every perspective of the current
business operations relatd to the retail industry.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES/QUESTIONS
This research aims to evaluate the major issues and their respective causes related to part-
time and casual employees of the retail sector. These issues are effectively elaborated in order
to understand their relative impact and origin factors.
OBJECTIVES
 To identify the various issues related to part-time and casual employees in retail
industry
 To discover the impact of factors such as irregular working structure and lack of
opportunities in context of retail sector
 To critically analyses the aspects related to development of these issues
 To define the challenges related to development of respective solutions related to
these issues
 To recommend ways in order to facilitate employment feasibility for part-time and
casual employees in retail sector
QUESTIONS
 What are the various issues related to part-time and casual employees in retail
industry?
 What is the impact of impact of factors such as irregular working structure and lack of
opportunities in context of retail sector?
 What are the aspects related to development of these issues?

Assessment 36
 What are the possible challenges related to development of respective solutions
related to these issues?
 What are the possible suggestions in order to facilitate employment feasibility for
part-time and casual employees in retail sector
JUSTIFICATION OF THE PROJECT
 Lack of economic advantages
Availability of economic opportunities is one of the core requirements that are related to any
job opportunity. It is the basic requirement that needs to be analyzed in order to justify the
feasibility of an employment service. In the current perspective almost all of the major retail
organizations lack to provide appropriate economic possibilities related to the employee
working as part-time and casual basis (Price, 2016). This is treated as a major concern as it
has drastically changed the perspective related to employment opportunities at the retail
industry. The part-time and casual employees are highly discriminated from the regular
workforce in this industry in terms of the pay scale and structure related to it. This leads to
development of major unsatisfactory perspective for the employees working in this industry
and relatively influences their social as well as economic perspectives of life. In addition to
this, the unavailability of economic association in the job that is demanding a majority of
time from these casual and part-time workers also works as a major factor in order to
facilitate the underdevelopment of their emotional and behavioral perspectives that largely
account for their overall development (Bamidele, 2017). In the current scenario, part-time
and casual workforce present in the retail industry is not at all able to carry out their basic
requirement facilities from the nature and structure of work they are carrying out. This
develops a major disadvantage for both the employee section as well as the retail
organizations. According to the views of Grimmer, Miles & Grimmer (2016), availability of a
sound economic and financial support system in the form of salary is one of the most
important factor in developing employee productivity and association with respective
organization. This fact is also observed in the present scenario as the inefficient salary
structure that is related to the retail organization is a major reason of the lacking possibilities
in terms of employee motivation and support for the organizational development.
 Irregular working structures

Assessment 37
Another factor that is of major consideration in order to understand the employee orientation
and developmental perspective is related to the availability of irregularity in basic operational
structure of casual and part-time workers. The part-time workers have a major issue in order
to coordinate with their respective work schedule as there is uncertainty availability all the
time (Preston & Yu, 2015). For example, a casual employee has irregular number of working
hours in a retail store that is based on the availability of regular workforce and customer
traffic. For a busy season they are asked to work for as long as 10 to 12 hours but in case of
lean seasons they are not even able to get a regular shift. This explains the huge amount of
irregularity that is available in the retail sector in terms of casual and part-time employment.
In addition to this, the irregular working hours also have a major impact over the health as it
affects the various important activities like food and sleeping habits. These factors add up to
the under development of living values related to these employees. In spite of these factors
the part-time and casual workforce is still not able to carry out sound standard of living in
terms of social as well as economic context. According to the views of Le, De
Haan&Dietzenbacher (2018), the increasing irregularities in basic operational structure of
working ships for casual and part-time employees have led to a major drawback that
drastically decreases the overall human values among the relative workforce.
 Lack of future possibilities
In addition to the economic instability and irregular working patterns, the current retail
industry also fails to provide adequate future possibilities to casual and part-time workface
employed within the industry. The amount of possible conversion of this uncertain natured
work into certain and regular work structure is very scarce. The reports generated through
various workplace surveys depict that an average employee who has served for a time period
of 3 to 5 years has a mere possibility of 35% to get a permanent position in the retail
industry(Bailey, Price, Pyman& Parker, 2015). This statistic shows the amount of uncertainty
that is associated with the future possibilities related to the development of casual and part-
time employees. In addition to this, the facilities that are related to a regular employee are
also a major factor that is associated with the reflection of huge underdevelopment in the
context of part-time and casual workforce of retail industry. According to the views of De
Vries (2017), the amount of uncertainty that is available in the retail is very high and its
worse impact can be seen among the non-regular workforces who are employed over need
basis. In addition to this, the association of various similarities in terms of the responsibilities
and work objectives for both the regular as well as casual employment in the retail sector is

Assessment 38
also largely influenced by the lack of future opportunities. A major association of this factor
can be observed from this fact that none of the casual employee is ever assigned to any of the
superior positions in a retail organization. In addition to this, the availability of regular
employees for each and every positive position in an organization is also a major factor for
consideration (Fagan, Norman, Smith& Menéndez, 2014). The casual workforce is
largelyexemptedfrom these factors and thus remains underdeveloped. In addition to this, the
lack of future opportunities also have a major possibility that is related to the lack of basic
skills and knowledge related to the industry and its related operations. The casual and part-
time workforce is also discriminated in terms of the available skill development opportunities
inside an organization as they are considered vas a temporary service system. This implicates
with the major lack in their skills set and industry specific knowledge development (Tang,
Liu, Oh &Weitz, 2014).
EXPECTED RESEARCH OUTPUT/OUTCOME
 High turnover rates among casual and part-time employees in retail industry
Employee turnover is a major fact that is related to any industry. Similarly, in the retail sector
also the unavailability of casual workforce in times of need is a major factor that influences
the overall working structures related to the casual and part-time employees. Due to the
availability of major factors such as extreme work load and less payout most of the
employees are constantly changing their casual jobs and this lead to an increase in the
uncertainty factor related to employment of this nature (Mac-Vicar,Ferrer,
Muñoz&Henao2015). The retail originations are not at all able to facilitate a permanent status
to the casual or part-time workers. This is a major issue that is related to development of a
more organized and opportunity oriented development of the casual workforce related to the
retail industry.
 Unemployment
Unemployment accounts for the majority of issues and under-development of employee
related to casual working industry is one of them. Due to the lack of regular employment
opportunities, majority of the people who are in need of jobs get involved in the casual
section of retail industry. In addition to this, the nature of work that is related to casual and
part-time opportunity never lets these individual employees to acquire adequate knowledge
and skill sets so that they can fit into a regular profile of work (Price, 2016). This process is a

• Absence of adequate knowledge and
skills required for a regular job profile in
retail industry
• High turnover rates among casual and
part-time employees in retail industry
• Unemployment
CASUAL OR
PART-TIME
EMPLOYE
MENT
RETAIL
INDUSTRY
Assessment 39
major reason for the association of a huge amount of workforce availability in the casual and
part-time category of the retail industry.
 Absence of adequate knowledge and skills required for a regular job profile in retail
industry
Majority of the workforce that is employed into the casual form of retail industry is largely
associated with the respective lack in skill sets and adequate knowledge of the relevant
industry. It is a major factor that instigates the development of a huge number of unemployed
workforces in retail industry as any sector requires a considerable amount of skills and prior
knowledge in order to facilitate the development factors. These skills and informative
knowledge is largely absent in the casual workforce and thus it restricts their further
developments (Bamidele, 2017). The requirement of these skill sets and informative
knowledge is not only limited to the development of casual and part-time workforce in
external environment but is of major use in order to develop within the industry itself. In the
present times, these skills are considered as major driving forces that are related to internal as
well organizational development.
SECTION II
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
Conceptual Framework

Assessment 310
Research hypothesis
The research hypothesis in this case reflects various possibleprejudgements that can be made
in order to assess the employment feasibility for part-time and casual employees in retail
sector. In this case the research hypothesis is given as:
H0: The employement conditions related to part-time and casual employees in retail sector
has no major issues
H1: The employement conditions related to part-time and casual employees in retail sector
has major issues
METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY
This researcher will be using positivism phylosophy in order to provide better concluding
analysis for the respective topic. A major reason for the selection of positivism research
phylosophy in this research is the fact that it is related to application and understanding of
operational and current possibilities related to the subject. In addition to this, the positivism
philosophy is also helpful ibn order to facilitate the overall understanfing related to the
concerned subject (Ali &Chowdhury, 2015).

Assessment 311
Fig
ure1: Research philosophy
(Source: Ali &Chowdhury, 2015, p.421)
RESEARCH APPROACH
This research will be using deductive approach in order to facilitate the detailed
understanding of various theories and models that are related to understanding of this subject.
This approach will also help assessing of any prior knowledge, hypothesis and information
that signifies developmental perspectives of employee oriented development at the retail
industry (Pearl, 2014).

Assessment 312
Fi
gure 2: Deductive Approaches
(Source: Pearl, 2014, p.198)
RESEARCH DESIGN
Descriptive research designwill beused by the researcher in order to provide a real time based
analysis of the subject in addition to the fulfilment of objectives related to data collection
perspective in this research. In addition to this, the descriptive design will also help in
TheoryHypothesisObservation/TestConfirmation/Rejection

Assessment 313
covering a wider impacted area in terms of casual and part-time workforce analysis related to
the retail industry. (Burns, Bush &Sinha, 2014).
SAMPLING SIZE AND TECHNIQUES
Surveys and questions from individual employees will be majorly used throughout this
research in order to faciliate the development of an overall responsce from various areas of
impacted audience. There will be 6 to 10 questions that will be based on employee
expeirences, job expectations and requirements that must be included in order to facilitate the
overall developmnet of the employee related concerns in retail industry (Singh&Masuku,
2014). In addiotion to this, the survey will be involving 69 respondennts, including present
employees who are currently working as part-time or casual basis and also the management
of different retail organsiations. In addition to this, parsonal interviews will be also a major
process that will be employed by the researcher in order to faciliate the recording pof
individuial considerations with the main issue in focus.
DATA COLLECTION METHODS
Primary quantitative methods must be used by the researcher in order to gather information
related to specification, types and impacted groups from this research perspective.This
method of data collection is highly recomendable in terms of assessing organsational
developments and issues. In addition to this, the researcher will also be using data collecftion
methods involving secondary sources like journals and ewebsites in order to gater relevent
information (Hussein, 2015).
ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
The data collected during this research is highly related to the assessment of some of the
major conclusions related to the presented issue. Major important aspects such as time, cost
and research area are largely taken into consideration in order to facilitate the overall
development of a major understanding related to the issues and possibilities that are related to
the development of focused area. The surveys and employee questions are constructed largely
in accordance with the purpose to get an in-depth knowledge related to the concerned
industry and process of its operations. The reports from these surveys and employee
responses in accordance with the respective questions reflect the impact of economic and
social irregularities that are in practice throughout the retail industry in consideration of the

Assessment 314
casual and part-time workforces. These answers also specifically help the researcher to
analyze different issues that are being faced by this huge segment of working population. The
conduction of interviews also facilitated a proper one to one conversation in which it was
recovered that majority of the opportunities related to the retail sector are largely
accompanied by the employees who are designated as regular. The responses gathered
through the personal employee interviews reflect the association of inequality and
disorientation among different sections of the working groups in retail industry. This also
helps in understanding major objectives that are recorded by these individual employees in
order to consider their working system or structure less effective than that of the regular
employee. In addition to this, another major prospect that is equally involved in this issue is
related to the retail organization management teams and groups. The interviews from the
management authorities at various major retail organizations depicted that availability of
opportunities in the respective field largely requires a considerable amount of skills and
knowledge and the casual employee groups are often unable to demonstrate that and thus lag
behind the mainframe of development in retail sector. Consideration of these factors
relatively helps in analyzing the situation in a better manner and also helps in drawing
respective conclusions in relation with the applied research practices. The overall analysis
process depicts that the lack of opportunities are more of a self-made issue for majority of the
casual workforce as they fail to develop relevant skills and knowledge sets.
GANTT CHART
(Refer to appendix)
PROJECT BUDGET AND BUDGET JUSTIFICATION
Purpose Estimated cost to be Spent
Literature Review $500
Data Collection $1000
Data Analysis $1000
Total Budget Estimated $2500
The table above provides adequate information related to the overall budgeting of this
proposal. This budget is related to the cost specificities spending that are carried out in
different sections of the overall researching and proposing work.

Assessment 315
In order to conclude this research proposal it can be said that the present employment
conditions related to casual and part-time workers in the retail sector is highly disturbed due
to unavailability of basic social and economic development opportunities. This research
proposal provides a major understanding related to the development of casual and part-time
employees in retail industry. The issues and factors responsible for development of these
issues are also adequately presented in this report in order to facilitate the overall
understanding of concerned subject. A respective timeline is also included in order to specify
the time oriented developments that are relatively required in this employee assessment
development proposal.

Assessment 316
REFERENCE LIST:
Ali, H., &Chowdhury, M. F. (2015). Positivism in understanding the contemporary social
world: A critical discussion. Retrieved on: 25 September 2017, retrieved from:
Journal of Studies in Social
Sciences, 11(2).).http://infinitypress.info/index.php/jsss/article/download/
1086/507
Bailey, J., Price, R., Pyman, A., & Parker, J. (2015). Union power in retail: Contrasting cases
in Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Employment
Relations, 40(1), 1. Retrieved on: 27 September 2017, retrieved
from:http://eprints.qut.edu.au/75923/2/75923.pdf
Bamidele, R. (2017). Casual Employment: its Ambiguity, Heterogeneity and Causes in
Nigerian Manufacturing Sector. Social Crimonol, 5(157), 2. Retrieved on: 27
September 2017, retrieved
from:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rasak_Bamidele/publication/
308902718_Casual_Employment_its_Ambiguity_Heterogeneity_and_Causes_
in_Nigerian_Manufacturing_Sector/links/59dd1a680f7e9b53c196e074/
Casual-Employment-its-Ambiguity-Heterogeneity-and-Causes-in-Nigerian-
Manufacturing-Sector.pdf
Burns, A. C., Bush, R. F., &Sinha, N. (2014). Marketing research (Vol. 7). Harlow:
Pearson.Retrieved on: 25 September 2017, retrieved from:
https://www.fgcu.edu/cob/syllabi/2017su/50195__MAR4613__2017.pdf
De Vries, H. (2017). The Minimum Wage and the National Living Wage in New Zealand:
Case Study Evidence from Small Owner-operators and Employees in the
Food, Clothing and Hospitality Sectors. Research Report for the Low Pay
Commission. October.(University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New
Zealand.). Retrieved on: 27 September 2017, retrieved
from:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/
uploads/attachment_data/file/660567/
Devries_New_Zealand_FINAL_2017_Report.pdf

Assessment 317
Fagan, C., Norman, H., Smith, M., & Menéndez, M. C. G. (2014). In search of good quality
part-time employment. Geneva: ILO Retrieved on: 27 September 2017,
retrieved
from:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mark_Smith21/publication/
262181237_In_search_of_good_quality_part-
time_employment_an_international_review/links/
54b643300cf26833efd36a49/In-search-of-good-quality-part-time-
employment-an-international-review.pdf
Grimmer, L., Miles, M. P., & Grimmer, M. (2016).The performance advantage of business
planning for small and social retail enterprises in an economically
disadvantaged region. European Journal of International Management, 10(4),
403-421. Retrieved on: 27 September 2017, retrieved
from:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303520010_The_performance_
advantage_of_business_planning_for_small_and_social_retail_enterprises_in_
an_economically_disadvantaged_region
Hussein, A. (2015). The use of triangulation in social sciences research: Can qualitative and
quantitative methods be combined?. Journal of comparative social
work, 4(1).Retrieved on: 25 September 2017, retrieved from:
http://journal.uia.no/index.php/JCSW/article/viewFile/212/147
Le, V. H., De Haan, J., &Dietzenbacher, E. (2018). Industry Wages Across Countries and
Over Time: A New Database of Micro Survey Data. Review of Income and
Wealth, 64(1), 1-25. Retrieved on: 27 September 2017, retrieved
from:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/roiw.12264
Mac-Vicar, M., Ferrer, J. C., Muñoz, J. C., &Henao, C. A. (2017).Real-time recovering
strategies on personnel scheduling in the retail industry. Computers &
Industrial Engineering, 113, 589-601. Retrieved on: 27 September 2017,
retrieved
from:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cesar_Henao_Botero/publication/
320087577_Real-
time_recovering_strategies_on_personnel_scheduling_in_the_retail_industry/
links/59cd7c23aca272b0ec14fed6/Real-time-recovering-strategies-on-
personnel-scheduling-in-the-retail-industry.pdf

Assessment 318
Pearl, J. (2014). The deductive approach to causal inference. Journal of Causal
Inference, 2(2), 115-129. Retrieved on: 25 September 2017, retrieved from:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4b17/9d4cb06bbe86e9f433c6485a477ae4909
a12.pdf
Preston, A., & Yu, S. (2015). Is there a part-time/full-time pay differential in
Australia?. Journal of Industrial Relations, 57(1), 24-47. Retrieved on: 27
September 2017, retrieved
from:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?
doi=10.1.1.832.6904&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Price, R. (2016). Controlling routine front line service workers: an Australian retail
supermarket case. Work, employment and society, 30(6), 915-931. Retrieved
on: 27 September 2017, retrieved
from:http://eprints.qut.edu.au/89052/1/89052.pdf
Singh, A. S., &Masuku, M. B. (2014).Sampling techniques & determination of sample size in
applied statistics research: An overview. International Journal of Economics,
Commerce and Management, 2(11), 1-22. Retrieved on: 25 September 2017,
retrieved from: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/messages/downloadsexceeded.html
Tang, C., Liu, Y., Oh, H., &Weitz, B. (2014). Socialization tactics of new retail employees:
A pathway to organizational commitment. Journal of Retailing, 90(1), 62-73.
Retrieved on: 27 September 2017, retrieved
from:https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/55a2/2c32165957fd0f16db669a0c1ebb8
ee98f83.pdf

Assessment 319
APPENDIX: GANTT CHART
TIMELINE FOR THE PROPOSAL
Task We
ek 1
We
ek 2
We
ek 3
We
ek 4
We
ek 5
We
ek 6
We
ek 7
We
ek 8
We
ek 9
We
ek
10
We
ek
11
We
ek
12
Topic
identificat
ion
Design
literature
review
Data
collection
(Primary)
Analysis
Accessibil
ity of
sources
Data
analysis
submision