BUSN20016 Research in Business: Training & Iveco Employee Performance

This project proposal investigates the effectiveness of training and development programs on employee performance within Iveco, a commercial vehicle manufacturer. It identifies the problem of decreased manufacturing and sales volume due to low employee productivity and aims to determine the training gaps causing this issue. The research objectives include examining suitable training sessions, analyzing the correlation between training programs and employee productivity, and providing recommendations for improvement. The study uses a conceptual framework based on literature review, exploring the impact of training on employee productivity, HRM functions within Iveco, and reasons for performance failures. The methodology relies on secondary data, and the proposal includes a project budget and schedule. The expected outcome is a better understanding of the need for effective training programs to enhance employee productivity and organizational performance at Iveco.

BUSN20016
RESEARCH IN BUSINESS: - ASSIGNMENT 3 (PROJECT
PROPOSAL)
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Statement of the Problem.................................................................................................................4
Research aim, objectives and research questions............................................................................5
Justification and potential output of the research project................................................................7
Conceptual Framework....................................................................................................................8
Methodology and presenting secondary data................................................................................15
Organisation of the study...............................................................................................................17
Project budget and schedule..........................................................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................22
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Topic of Project Study
“The effectiveness of training and development to increase employee’s performance within the
organisation- A case study of Iveco (commercial vehicle manufacturer)”
Introduction
The main aim and purpose of this assessment is to investigate about the respective research topic
and identifying the problems, research questions, objectives and others. The effective training
and development is the present need and requirement of most organizations in order to attain
specified goals and objectives (Iveco, 2018). The project study is objective to analyse the various
problems and issues that have been faced by the company through providing various concepts
and theories in the literature review section. Furthermore, the methodology section has also been
presented in this report study that emphasis on the secondary source of data. Moreover, the
project budget and schedule is also made in this report study. At the end, overall summary of
report has been derived (Trott, et. al., 2018).
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Statement of the Problem
The training and development of new and existing employees is a major challenge for
organization as it is directly linked with the organizational performance. The effective training
programs helps in increasing the employee productivity and thereby, helps in increasing
revenues and sales of company. This is so because the employees are considered to be most
valuable asset for company and are connected with the manufacturing and sales activity of
business. In the company, Iveco who is engaged in producing of light, medium and heavy
commercial vehicle has been evident with decreased manufacturing and sales volume. The major
cause behind this decrement is their employee’s low productivity which adversely impact on the
organizational performance (Wikhamn, 2018). The project study has been purposed to
investigate over the maximization of employee’s productivity so that organizational performance
can be maximized.
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Research aim, objectives and research questions
Research Aim
The main aim of this research study is to present need of effective training program and its
requirement to be developed by organization so as to lead maximum productivity and
performance (Kim, et. al., 2018). In addition to this, the aim of research study is to analyse the
effectiveness of training and development programs so as to maximize the productivity of
employees and performance of the Iveco.
Objectives
There are certain lists of objectives which are stated below:
 To determine the training and development gaps that caused low productivity of
employees.
 To examine the suitable and appropriate training sessions for employees so that they
can improve productivity (Yu & Li, 2018).
 To analyse the co-relation in between employee’s productivity and training programs
aiming at increasing organisational performance in context of Iveco.
Research Question
The research question describes about the overall issue and problem which has been addressed in
the project study. There are basically two types of research questions which are:
Primary Question
Question 1 – What is the role of training and development programs in increasing employee’s
productivity and organizational performance?
Secondary Question
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Question 1 – Does the effective training programs helps in increasing the productivity and
performance of employees and company?
Question 2 – Are the Iveco company is following of effective training programs to develop and
train its new employees?
Question 3 – Suggesting recommendations to improve the training and development need for
new employees within organization?
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Justification and potential output of the research project
The overall project study talks about the effectiveness of training as well as development
programs focused at employees in order to increase their efficiency and productivity within
organization (Del Baldo, 2018). The chosen project is comprehensively justified with both the
theoretical as well as practical concepts. The challenges and issues discussed in this report study
are directly addressing the current issues which have been faced by organizations nowadays.
Iveco has also been facing with the potential issue within organizational process and impact on
their overall growth and development. Training and development programs are performed both
on job as well as off-job that comprises of both theoretical integration and practical integration to
the employees so that they can develop themselves (Falola, et. al., 2014).
The potential output as well as outcome of research study is to gain sufficient knowledge and
understanding regarding the need of training for increasing employee’s productivity. In addition
to this, the outcome of research study will provide with various ways and measures which are
suggested to the company in order to increase their performance and productivity within
organization. Human resource management is a crucial element in any business organization and
it is important to understand the needs and demands of human resources so as to gain
competitiveness (Falola, et. al., 2014).
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Conceptual Framework
This section comprises of the literature review section in which views and thoughts of various
authors have been considered for analysing the respective research topic (Zhu, et. al., 2018). The
conceptual view of research topic has been collected in this section with the help of diagrams and
graphs.
The Impact of Employee Training and Development on Employee Productivity
According to the viewpoints and thoughts of Nda & Fard (2013), it is believed that in order to
sustain in the dynamic business environment there is a significant need of training and
development sessions to the new as well as existing employees. Training in the current scenario
has become a buzz word within the dynamic competitive market environment. In addition to this,
the author has researched on various variables and assessed their correlation with each other so
as to derive the relevancy and accuracy of subject matter. The human resource comprises of
intangible characteristics and features such as skills, attitudes, attributes and others which
motivates and demotivate the employees within their work culture (Nda & Fard, 2013).
Employee Training
In the words and ideas of Ji, et. al. (2012), it is assessed that training refers to as the process of
educating and providing organised way of learning to the employees regarding their work and
organisational goals. Training sessions and practices have been organised in such a way that it
leads to improving and enhancing the employee productivity and performance. There are a set of
activities and resources planned and organised by the organisation human resource manager with
the intension to face with stiff challenges and organisational competitions (Ji, et. al., 2012). Iveco
which has been planning for cross border expansion is steadily involved in training its employees
so that there is less impact on their growth and development.
Development of the Employee
As prescribed by the McDowall & Saunders (2010), the concept of development refers to as the
set of activities planned and executed with the motive of employee’s overall personal and
professional growth. Development can take place either through acquiring of new knowledge
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and skills with the aim of growth or equipping them with existing knowledge. The development
practices help in achieving the strategic practices within an organisation and also increases the
motivation within employees. It is directly dependent upon the overall success of organisation
and is success driver for company (McDowall & Saunders, 2010). In context of the company
Iveco which deals in manufacturing of industrial vehicles particularly has to develop its
employees constantly.
Employee Productivity
As per the mind-sets and ideas of Chang, et. al. (2010) the productivity refers to as the efficiency
of employees in order to produce and manufacturer the goods and services of company. The
employee productivity refers to as the measurement of output produced by employees. The
employee productivity can be determined through the level of output produced by them (Chang,
et. al., 2010).
Co-relation among employee training and employee productivity
Figure 1: Relationship cycle
Source: (Nda & Fard, 2013)
The above conceptual framework reflects over the role of training and development in business
organisation. It is evident from the above graph that training is a vital element in enhancing
productivity as well as performance of business. The training does not only focus on improving
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the organisational efficiency but also emphasis the employees in gaining competent position
within the business environment (Rajnoha, et. al., 2014). Training has a direct relation with
employee productivity and organisational performance. Training practices leads to impacting on
the behaviour of employees and enable enhanced working skills of employees which result in
achieving of organisational goals and objectives. Hence, it is reviewed from the research analysis
that there is a significant relationship in both the variables (Cardinal and Marle, 2006).
Figure 2: Proposed Study Model
Source: (Falola, et. al., 2014)
The figure reflects of training and development model which shows the relation of on the job
training and off the job training in regards to employee performance and thereby, gaining
competitive advantage (Choi, et. al., 2018).
HRM at Iveco
Iveco has a comprehensive human resource management policies and procedures that play a vital
role in the growth and success of company. The graphical presentation has been shown below
which highlights over the HRM functions and the corresponding activities played by each and
every personnel at various hierarchy.
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Figure 3: Human Resource Management Functions and their Corresponding Activities.
Source: (Nassazi, 2013)
The human resource structure of Iveco also resembles like the above figure and has certain
number of HRM functions and their corresponding activities. There are a lot of functions which
has been played by organisation that includes staffing, compensation, benefits, training and
development, employee relation and others. Iveco also has different department and respective
executives placed at these departments in order to handle the human resource management. The
company has a structured format within which it operates and at the time of merger into other
economy it keeps on regulating at such practice and function so that the performance and
productivity of organisation and employee does not hamper (Zhang, et. al., 2018).
Reason behind failure of employee performance
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Figure 4: Reasons why performance appraisals fail
Source: (Nassazi, 2013)
Before, studying the need and significance of training and development practices followed
within an organisation it is crucial to understand the factors that lead to decreasing employee
performance. There are certain factors that negatively impacts on employee performance and is
the main reason behind its slow growth. Some of them are such as unclear language, lack of
appraisal skill, not considering the employee opinions and views and many others (Fisher, et. al.,
2018). All of these lead to creating stress among employees and effect on its overall development
and growth. In order to increase efficiency and effectiveness with organisational employees it is
important for the management to focus on these areas and make strategies that overcome such
issue.
Descriptive Statistics
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Figure 5: Descriptive statistics of respondents on Impact of behavioural and cognitive training
techniques on effectiveness
Source: (Nassazi, 2013)
On the basis of respective figure it has been revealed that there is a significant relation in
between both of these variables. The example of an industry has been taken into consideration
which shows that mean statistics of enhance employee capacity, enrich employees efficiency,
promote innovation and creativity for competitive advantage, developed employees skills and
knowledge and improves organisation performance is 4.417, 4.4619, 4.3857, 4.4350 and 4.1211
respectively. On the other hand, standard deviation is .163 of all variables that are positive and
indicates that there is a direct and positive relationship in between such variables.
Hypothesis
There are certain set of assumptions which have been taken into consideration in the following
project study. These are as follows:
 Training and development programs and techniques is been classified into
behavioural or On-the-job methods and cognitive or Off-the-job.
 There is a significant impact of training and development which leads to influencing
employees’ performance and organizational competitiveness.
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 There is no significant impact of behavioural on the employee performance and
organizational effectiveness.
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Methodology and presenting secondary data
Research Approach
The research approach describes the systematic way in which the overall project study has been
completed. For gaining of in-depth knowledge and facts it is significant to adopt of relevant
research tools and approaches so that accurate and reliable data can be obtained (Khan, et. al.,
2018). In this research Mixed Approach of research has been used. Mixed approach comprises of
both the qualitative as well as quantitative research methods. The qualitative data has been
collected with the help of literature review whereas the quantitative data is gathered from the
descriptive statistics gathered from journal articles and online websites. In case of knowing the
co-relation in between training and development and its impact of employee performance and
organisational productivity it is crucial to have both the quantitative and qualitative knowledge.
This will help in providing the theoretical and practical knowledge of subject matter.
Source of data collections
The data collection source refers to as the type from which the data is collected and analysed. In
this research study the data has been collected with the help of secondary data collection
technique as it is very useful for the researchers to collect and analyse data on the respective
topic. The secondary source of data has already been researched and analyses by various authors
and presented their views and thoughts on particular topic. The literature review is most effective
and efficient source of data collection. The data collected from secondary sources has been
represented with the help of conceptual framework and diagrammatic representation (Elnaga &
Imran, 2013).
Sampling and Population
Sampling refers to as the technique which is aimed at drawing samples out of population. In
order to test the market trends and responses of people some samples of respondents have been
taken from population that represents of same category. In the respective project study, the data
of Iveco employee have been considered and other raw data that signifies over the training and
development needs of employees and its influence on the overall growth of company.
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Variables
The variables refer to as the research element which is framed in order to test the significant
connection in both. There are two types of variables basically which are such as:
Dependent variable - Employee’s performance and organizational productivity
Independent variable - Training and development
Analysis
The above stated variables have been tested using qualitative as well as quantitative analysis in
which both the theoretical and mathematical approach of research has been used. Descriptive
statistics is used to explain about the quantitative data using study of various tests and models.
Mean, standard deviation, Skewness, Kurtosis and others test have been presented in this project
study that shows the significant relationship in between both the variables.
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Organisation of the study
This section describes about the specifications of each and every chapter which have been
considered in this research study. The organization of study is as follows:
 Chapter One – The first section project study describes about the key outline and
specifications of research proposal. The issues and problem relating to research topic has
been discussed in this section. It also comprises of the research aims, objectives,
questions and justification which is needed to be addressed in the overall project study.
 Chapter Two – The second chapter states the conceptual framework of the research
topic with the help of literature review. The view and thoughts of various authors have
been considered in this section that describes about the likely consequences of training
and development and employee performance.
 Chapter Three – This chapter includes the details of research methodology which has
been used in the particular study so as to justify the valid and reliable arguments. The
data collection method and sources have been mentioned in this chapter.
 Chapter 4 – Findings and analysis of data collected and gathered.
 Chapter 5 – It includes overall summary and report of proposed research project.
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Project budget and schedule
For conducting of proposed research study there is a requirement of budget and financial
resources so that it can be completed effectively and efficiently. The budget estimated for
research study is $5000 so that project can be completed within stipulated time frame. In addition
to this, the action plan along with Gantt chart has been stated below which highlights over the
research activities with its time duration.
The budget allocations are as follows:
Purpose Estimated Amount to be Spent Description
1. Literature Review $2000 It is so because the majority of
research has been focused on
collecting secondary data that
is with the help of journals,
books, online websites and
others.
2. Sources of Data Collection $1000 The accesses to various
authenticate and reliable sites
require high amount. For that
a sufficient budget is required.
3. Data Analysis $2000 The data analysis will incur
nearly $2000 cost because of
statistical tools and packages
used to analyse the data.
Total Budget Estimated $5000
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Project Activities and Schedule
It includes the action plan or schedule of research activities according to time frame. The action
plan has been prepared for 16 weeks starting from 1st May 2018 to 20th August 2018. The tabular
presentation has been shown below:
Research Activities Time Duration Start Date End Date
Identifying the
research problems
1 week 1st May 2018 7th May 2018
Establishing of
research aims and
objectives
1 week 8th May 2018 14th May 2018
Analysing literature
review and conceptual
thinking
3 weeks 15th May 2018 4th June 2018
Secondary source of
data collection
2 weeks 5th June 2018 18th June 2018
Critical analysis of
data collected
3 weeks 19th June 2018 9th July 2018
Research report 2 weeks 10th July 2018 23rd July 2018
First report
Submission
1 week 24th July 2018 30th July 2018
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Analysing data
through statistical
packages
1 week 31st July 2018 6th August 2018
Report writing 1 week 7th August 2018 13th August 2018
Final submission 1 week 14th August 2018 20th August 2018
Gantt Chart
Research
activities Time Duration (in weeks)
1 week
2 week
3 week
4 week
5 week
6 week
7 week
8 week
9 week
10 week
11 week
12 week
13 week
14 week
15 week
16 week
Identifying
the research
problems
Establishing
of research
aims and
objectives
Analysing
literature
review and
conceptual
thinking
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Secondary
source of
data
collection
Critical
analysis of
data
collected
Research
report
First report
Submission
Analysing
data
through
statistical
packages
Report
writing
Final
submission
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