Research Strategy: HR Practices, Employee Commitment in IBM

This report examines the best Human Resource (HR) practices for fostering employee commitment within IBM, specifically in the IT service industry. It begins by identifying key research questions related to factors influencing employee commitment and the role of HR practices in enhancing it. A comprehensive literature review explores existing research on employee commitment, highlighting the significance of factors such as employee empowerment, reward systems, and training and development. The report then outlines the research methodology, including quantitative data techniques, research philosophy, approach, design, and strategy. It justifies the chosen methodology and addresses ethical considerations. The study's findings, including the analysis of research questionnaires, are presented, followed by a critical analysis of the results and a conclusion summarizing the key insights and recommendations. The report emphasizes the importance of HR practices in improving employee loyalty, organizational performance, and competitiveness within the IT sector.

Running head: Research Strategy1
Research Strategy
Best Practices of HR to Gain Employee Commitment in Context of IBM in IT Service
Industry

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Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................3
1.1: Select a research question.....................................................................................................3
Research aims and objectives......................................................................................................3
Research questions.......................................................................................................................4
1.2 Factors to the process of selection of the research questions.................................................4
1.3 justification of the research questions....................................................................................4
Chapter 2..........................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Research to find literature relevant to the research question.................................................5
2.2 critical review of the key literature........................................................................................6
Chapter 3 Research Methodology...................................................................................................8
3.1: Technique for quantitative data in a research proposal........................................................8
3.2: Techniques for quantitative data in a research proposal.......................................................8
Chapter 4......................................................................................................................................9
Introduction..................................................................................................................................9
4.1: Evaluate appropriate research methodologies......................................................................9
Research Philosophy....................................................................................................................9
Research Approach......................................................................................................................9
Questions of the research...........................................................................................................10

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Research Design.........................................................................................................................10
4.2 An appropriate methodology...............................................................................................10
Research Strategy.......................................................................................................................10
Data Collection Method.............................................................................................................11
4.3: Justify the methodology......................................................................................................11
Sampling Strategy......................................................................................................................11
Ethical consideration..................................................................................................................12
Data Analysis.............................................................................................................................12
Action Plan.................................................................................................................................12
Gantt chart.....................................................................................................................................14
Chapter 5........................................................................................................................................15
5.1 Record findings....................................................................................................................15
Research Questionnaires............................................................................................................15
5.3 suitable methods to analyze the data....................................................................................16
5.4 Critically analyse the findings..............................................................................................18
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................20
References......................................................................................................................................21

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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1: Select a research question
Background of the research
Employee commitment is considered as the significant tool that sustain the organizations for
bringing improvement in their performance along with the attaining the competitive advantages.
The concept of employee commitment is different in various organizations at each and every
stage of the life of the organization. It is required for the IBM Company to keep focus on the
employee commitment for the purpose of attaining the competitive advantages.
It has been found from the study of TJinsite that more than 40% of employees have strong belief
that the role of the good bonding between the employee commitment and HR practices is
necessary like employee orientation programs (TJinsite, 2012). It is necessary because with the
help of the employee commitment, IBM Company would be able to amplify the loyalty of the
employees which would be liable for increasing the attention of the employees towards
accomplishing the tasks.
Research aims and objectives
The main intend of this research study is to recognize the most excellent practices of HR for the
purpose of gaining employee commitment in IBM organization. The research objectives are
mentioned below:
 To decisively observe the aspects moving the level of the commitment of the employee to
give in the organizational achievement.

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 To analyze the best practices related to the gaining employee commitment in IBM
Company.
 To evaluate the influence of the best practices of human resource to amplify the
commitment of the employee.
 To provide the recommendation so that the issues of employee commitment can be
reduced.
Research questions
The research questions will be mentioned below which would be accomplished in order to attain
the research objectives.
 What are the issues that influence the commitment level of employee?
 What are the practices of HR to attain the employee commitment?
 How HR practices can support the organization to increase the level of the employee’
commitment?
1.2 Factors to the process of selection of the research questions
There are number of challenges faced by the organization regarding the working life because of
amplifying the time pressure and low social bonding which can put adverse effect on the
behaviour of the employees. It can be see that the commitment level of employees has increased
towards their work. For this purpose, the best practices of HR are required for the management in
order to increase the work life of the employee that constantly increases their commitment level
within the organization. The role of employee commitment is significant for any kind of business

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but HR department of IT industry is not up to the level which increases the dissatisfaction among
employees in their starting phase of job.
1.3 justification of the research questions
At the present time, it is complicated for the organizations and HR managers to keep hold of
employees for the long period because of the competition, along with the providing various kinds
of advantages and compensation that is given by the competitors organization to the employee.
The role of the best practices of HR in such scene keeps huge importance as it helps employee to
be with organization for the long run. The main factors of the research question are the employee
commitment, role of the HR in the growth of the organization and to identify the concerns that
impact the employee commitment level. These factors are justified as it can support to the IBM
Company to develop the commitment level of the employee in the IT service industry.

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Chapter 2
This chapter seeks to reflect literature review related to the research questions which are
addressed with the help of research. The literature review is conducted on the best practices of
the HR which are essential to gain the commitment of the employees in related to the IBM
organisation that deals in the IT service industry.
2.1 Literature to the question
According to the Irefin and Mechanic (2014), commitment is the feeling of being loyal and
oneness that an employee feels towards the organisation where they perform their work.
Employee’s commitment is totally dependent on the experience that an employee has with an
organisation with the support of the policies and procedure of the organisation. This reflects that
the commitment of the employees gets affected due to different factors. The researcher believes
that it is essential to talk about the issues that control the commitment level of employees that
affect the performance of IBM organisation in IT service Industry.
Considering the views of Goetsch and Davis (2014), this has been found that employee
empowerment is one of the factors that influence the commitment of the personnel within the
IBM organisation. In the current era, it is essential to give employee’s a certain level of authority
and responsibility. These responsibilities help them to develop skills and knowledge which helps
them to contribute in achieving the goals of an organisation. Supporting the view,Choi, Goh,
Adam and Tan, (2016), stated that empowerment of the employees work as the transformational
leadership which helps them to contribute in accomplishing the goals of IBM organisation. The
lack of employee's empowerment will make the employees search for better opportunities in the
market.

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Contracting the above views, Armstrong and Taylor (2014) stated that apart from the
empowerment of employees there are many other factors that affect the commitment of the
employees. One of the emerging factors is the reward system that affects the employees. The
reward system includes the different compensation, incentives and many other. The additional
benefits to the employees in terms of the rewards will help the employees to stay with the
company for the longer period of time because they are able to accomplish their personal as well
as the professional needs. This leads to the employees of IBM to remain committed with the
company to achieve the long-run success in the IT service industry. Contrasting this, Newman
and Sheikh(2012)exhibit that sometimes the rewards in the form of attractive promotion and the
compensation seems like the unfair practice that is conducted by the company to enforce their
employees to remain committed. The rewards should be offered in such a way that it seems like
that the IBM knows the value of their employees due to which they are offering the benefits to
the employees.
According to the Dhar (2015), this has been found that the level of training and development is
one of the emerging factors that are influencing the commitment of employees. The commitment
of the employees comes when they will be able to enhance their knowledge and skills for which
they need some training and personal development (Fugate, Prussia and Kinicki, 2012). This has
been found that training and development will help them in upraising their knowledge through
which they can contribute to the decisions of the IBM organisation.
2.2 critical review of the key literature
In the current era, the HR of the IBM is adopting different practices through which they can
make the employees remain committed to the company. According to the Bratton and Gold
(2017), the HR of the company applies the high commitment management model. This model

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helps the IBM organisation in achieving the high commitment of employees. The model helps
the HR in offering the flexible work practices with the effective and improved reward practices
which enable the personnel of the company to remain committed. These practices help the HR
informing the high trust and commitment of employees with the IBM organisation. This has been
found that in the IT service industry there is the presence of the high labour fluctuating market
due to which it is difficult for HR to make the employee committed towards IBM.
Agreeing to same, Marchington, Wilkinson, Donnelly and Kynighou (2016), stated that flexible
working practice allow the employees of IBM organisation to make their employees committed.
The flexible shift time, short working hours and the effective rotation helps the HR of IBM to
make the employees remain committed. This commitment of the employees also contributes to
the positive and effective performance of the company. This will help the IBM Company to
achieve their goals and objectives in the competitive IT service industry.
On the other hand, contrasting this, Ahmad, Iqbal, Javed and Hamad (2014) stated that HR
should adopt the practice of selective and sensitive hiring which works effectively for IBM
organisation. The selective and sensitive hiring of the employees includes the ways through
which the HR can pool the best candidate for their organisation. In which the recruitment and
selection are done on the basis of job responsibilities. This practice of the HR will make the
employees committed towards the operations of the company and ultimately leads to the
effective performance of the IBM in the IT service industry. In addition to this, Hanaysha,
(2016), stated that training is also an HR practice which can be adopted by the HR of the IBM
organisation that contributes in gaining more commitment from the employees of the company.
The training will help the employees to gain the knowledge which will be utilized by the
employees to work effectively in the organisation.

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It is essential to apply the HR practices as these practices offer the benefit to the employees as
well as to the IBM organisation. Albrecht, et al (2015) presented that there is need to bring the
changes in the policies of the organisation by HR which include the flexibilities that offer the
comfort and meet the goals of the company. This will help the employees to remain committed
towards the company and leads to productivity.
According to the Irefin and Mechanic (2014), HR practice can be applied which include the
application of the changes in the policies of the HR for hiring and selecting the employees. IBM
HR needs to bring the method of selective and sensitive hiring which will help them to bring the
employees that can contribute effectively to the productivity of the employees. Agreeing to
Bratton and Gold (2017), the author presented that HR is the one who remains responsible for
hiring an employee within an organisation. The effective hiring and selection of the employees
will help the organisation in less training and development of the activities.
Contrasting this, Armstrong and Taylor (2014) said HR can effectively develop the knowledge
and skills of the employees by organizing the training and development programs. These
programs need to be related to the Job responsibility of the IBM Company in the IT service
Industry. In addition, the HR needs to appoint the trainer who can provide effective training and
make the personnel expert in their subject. This is the way through which the employee remains
committed to the work and organisation.

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Chapter 3 Research Methodology
3.1: Technique for quantitative data in a research proposal
The role of the quantitative approach is effective as it helps in using the post positive claims for
enhancing the knowledge that employs techniques of exploring the inquiry such as yield
statistical data and experiments and surveys.
Data can be shown in tables, as texts, in graphs and charts. The research should not be put into
text if there is no more than two or three numbers (Blumberg, Cooper and Schindler, 2014).
Tables are considered as the best way to elaborate the numeric information in an efficient
manner, on the other hand the graph or chart is used, and it is genera to involve the table to
represent the data from which it was fetched. The quantitative research uses various statistical
tables in order to elaborate the information on which the researcher will be able to apply different
kinds of techniques within the border of the quantitative data
3.2: Techniques for qualitative data in a research proposal
Evaluation is refereed as the developed acquisitions and review of information which gives
effective answers regarding the objectives. There are various kinds of research evaluation
techniques which are taking by the researcher for the purpose of accomplishing the participant
orientation technique and scientific experimental technique.
The role of the Scientific experimental research technique in the research is huge which shows
that the results are taken by the researcher or not. The systematically observation, experiment

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and measurements are used by the researcher. This part is effective to protect from the range of
the biases of the research.
Qualitative techniques included the opinion of various kinds of authors to focus on the quality of
the information. This technique is entirely based on the subjective manner that is why this is
considered as the effective approach of the researcher to evaluate the research assessment
procedure. Along with that the participants’ orientation technique is the part of this process that
involves the opinion of the people in the evaluation procedure (Stanwick and Stanwick, 2015).
The use of summative evaluation is considered for this research as it is based on the involvement
of the candidates for the purpose of accomplishing the results. Moreover, the data is collected
from the qualitative research evaluation technique (Smith, 2015). This kind of evaluation
techniques will be helpful for the researcher to evaluate the data in more efficient manner.