Business Research Method Research Proposal on Leadership at Woolworths

This research proposal investigates the critical role of leadership in human resource management, specifically within the context of Woolworths, Australia. The study aims to evaluate the impact of leadership on recruitment and selection processes, employee motivation, and organizational culture. The proposal outlines the research background, rationale, objectives, and questions, emphasizing the significance of effective leadership in enhancing productivity and fostering a positive work environment. The literature review explores the influence of leadership on recruitment, identifies challenges in human resource management, and examines its impact on organizational culture. The methodology section details the research philosophy, design, approach, data collection methods (primary and secondary), data analysis techniques, sample size, and ethical considerations. The proposal also includes a Gantt chart for project timeline and a comprehensive list of references. The research anticipates providing recommendations to improve leadership skills and optimize human resource management practices within Woolworths.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Business Research Method Research Proposal
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

1
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................3
1.0 Introduction............................................................................................................................3
1.1 Research background.............................................................................................................3
1.2 Rationale of research..............................................................................................................3
1.3 Research aim..........................................................................................................................4
1.4 Research objectives................................................................................................................4
1.5 Research questions.................................................................................................................4
Chapter 2: Literature review............................................................................................................5
2.0 Leadership impact on the processes of recruitment and selection.........................................5
2.1 Issues and challenges related to the human resource management........................................5
2.2 Leadership influence on the organizational culture...............................................................6
2.3 Conceptual framework...........................................................................................................7
Chapter 3: Research methodology...................................................................................................8
3.0 Research philosophy..............................................................................................................8
3.1 Research design......................................................................................................................8
3.2 Research approach.................................................................................................................8
3.3 Data collection.......................................................................................................................9
3.4 Data analysis..........................................................................................................................9
3.5 Sample size............................................................................................................................9

2
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD RESEARCH PROPOSAL
3.6 Ethical considerations............................................................................................................9
4.0 GNATT chart...........................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

3
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.0 Introduction
The research proposal focuses on the various important concepts of leadership and its
impact and development for the management of effective business strategies at Woolworths,
Australia. Maintaining proper leadership within the organisation can not only help in guiding the
organisation in the right direction but will also allow the company to strengthen its skills remain
competitive within the business environment. The research topic will shed light on the
importance of leadership and its impact on the processes of recruitment and selection of
employees (Brewster & Hegewisch, 2017). It will focus on how effective leadership can
enhance the productivity level and create a good culture where people can work efficiently
(Woolworths.com.au, 2017).
1.1 Research background
The background of research is to determine the impact of effective leadership on the
management of recruitment and selection processes. The research background also focuses on
how effective leadership can encourage motivation within the workplace, drive the performances
of employees, thereby enhancing the production level, and profit for Woolworths, Australia
(Choudhary, Akhtar & Zaheer, 2013).
1.2 Rationale of research
The rationale of the research depicts the problems which may be faced due to the lack of
effective leadership skills. Inappropriate leadership can also lead to the formation of an
inaccurate culture that can not only hinder the achievement of business aims and objectives but
will also result in degradation of organizational performance.

4
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD RESEARCH PROPOSAL
1.3 Research aim
The aim of the research is to evaluate the impacts of leadership on the management of human
resources such as processes of recruitment and selection along with encouraging motivation
within the workplace of Woolworths (Colak, Altinkurt & Yilmaz, 2014).
1.4 Research objectives
 To identify the probable impacts of leadership on the management of recruitment and
selection processes at Woolworths, Australia
 To evaluate various leadership issues that can lead to the degradation of recruitment and
selection processes
 To assess how maintaining a proper culture can lead to the formation of a good culture
and enhance productivity at Woolworths, Australia
 To recommend probable measures for enhancing the leadership skills and improve the
management of human resources to improve employee performance
1.5 Research questions
What is the impact of leadership on the management of good culture and production within the
organisation Woolworths, Australia?
How can the leadership issues hamper the processes of recruitment and selection of new and
existing employees?
Does the management of good leadership contribute to the formation of a good culture and
enhancement of organizational production level?
Why the inappropriate management of human resources leads to low performances by the
workers?

5
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Chapter 2: Literature review
2.0 Leadership impact on the processes of recruitment and selection
By having a strong leader, it becomes easy for the human resources manager to make
effective decisions and make sure that the right candidates are selected for being part of the
organisation within the retail industry of Australia. Leadership is one of the most important
aspects of human resource management and it shows that that the leadership skills are necessary
for guiding the employees in the right direction as well as select the right candidates and assign
them with the perfect roles and responsibilities (Daley, 2012). When an organisation suffers from
downfall, it is the responsibility of the leader to train the HR managers and then assess the
candidates during an interview for gaining confidence as well as make a smart hiring decision. In
case of high turnover of employees and low performances by the workers, the leader must assess
the entire situation and make the HR managers understand the essentiality of recruiting the right
individuals and then train the respective HR managers properly to ensure that the processes of
recruitment and selection is successful and noteworthy (Erkutlu, 2012). There could be various
problems resulting from the lack of leadership skills among a person, which might even
deteriorate the process of recruitment and harm the organizational productivity. The strong
leaders could support the hiring managers and discuss with them about how interviews should be
conducted (Jiang et al., 2012).
2.1 Issues and challenges related to the human resource management
The issues are caused due to the inflexibility of managing the human resources and lack
of proper leadership skills. Change management is not the point of focus for the training and
development of HR professionals. Thus it could be a major challenge not only for moving in the
right direction but could also prevent focusing on the important aspects of leadership. Without

6
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD RESEARCH PROPOSAL
proper leadership, it could get difficult for the business organisation to keep its employees
motivated and encouraged, because of which, the performances of theirs would deteriorate and
the business performance might also go through certain complexities (Laschinger, Wong &
Grau, 2012). If leadership is not maintained properly, then a healthy work culture will not be
established that can lead to lack of communication and misunderstandings between the workers
as well. Another major issue that emerged while managing the human resources was the inability
to retain the existing workers who might have left the job long time back. There might be
discrimination issues and complexities related to outsourcing activities that might further lead to
inappropriate management of human resources (Ogunfowora, 2014). To deal with such issues
and problems, it would be important to maintain proper leadership within the organisation and
maintain a stable culture where people could work as an unit and deliver the best for gaining
positive business outcomes.
2.2 Leadership influence on the organizational culture
The leaders are responsible for setting the agenda and shape the way by which people can
behave as well as think from own perspective. Leaders are considered as role models for the
employees, which can not only set behaviours for maintaining good values and beliefs but will
also create positive impact on the organizational culture. This would make the organizational
workers try hard to excel in their work roles and work in coordination, as an unit, for
accomplishing the business goals and objectives with ease and effectiveness. Culture is
maintained by managing various actions and behaviours of the leaders and by ensuring the
allocation and utilization of resources properly (Reilly & Williams, 2012). Leadership creates an
impact on the organizational behaviour by enabling the organizations reflect the values and
ethics and create good working conditions for making people perform to their potential. The

7
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD RESEARCH PROPOSAL
ethics in leader play an important role in the organizational culture to overcome the obstacles and
make the company resistant to changes. The employees are often inspired by vision and they
follow the leader to promote effective values to create positive impact on the culture (Renwick,
Redman & Maguire, 2013).
The leader could set a vision that should be followed by the staffs of the organisation and
facilitate the culture of engagement. This would make them know where they had been moving
and the vision would be achieved within quick time. Leadership promotes ethics that can support
the values as well as take decision actions for managing the human resources properly.
Therefore, the issues faced in human resource management would be overcome with the help of
effective leadership maintained within the organisation (Shao, Feng & Liu, 2012). When the HR
issues were overcome, leaders would be able to empower people and make effective decisions
that could make them act perfectly and ensure successful business functioning too
(Woolworths.com.au, 2017).
2.3 Conceptual framework

8
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Chapter 3: Research methodology
3.0 Research philosophy
Based on the research topic, the generation of new ideas, theories and concepts has been
possible, which has helped in gaining an in-depth analysis and conduct the research properly.
Among the three different kinds of research philosophies including the positivism, post
positivism and interpretivism, the positivism research philosophy is the most suitable because the
hidden truths are identified. This has further assisted in obtaining relevant knowledge and
information and furthermore enhanced the scopes for making research observations with ease
and efficacy (Snell, Morris & Bohlander, 2015).
3.1 Research design
The three different kinds of research designs are exploratory, explanatory and descriptive
research designs. The most important aspects of the research are identified with the use of
variables and it has provided a thorough understanding of the research topic. Without maing any
predictions at earlier stages, the data and information are collected, which overcomes the issues
of exploratory research design such as uncertainty and unpredictability. Therefore, the
descriptive research design was found to be the most suitable for making the independent
variable create positive impact on the dependent variable and this improved the efficacy of
research conduction as well (Zaharie & Osoian, 2013).
3.2 Research approach
The two different types of approaches of research are inductive and deductive. The
assumptions were validated with the use of deductive research approach whereas the new
theories and generalization of data was possible by utilizing the inductive research approach. The

9
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD RESEARCH PROPOSAL
research aims and objectives along with the research hypothesis were the main focus of the
research, which enabled the researcher to use the inductive research approach.
3.3 Data collection
The collection of data included both primary and secondary data collection. The primary
data constitutes of qualitative and quantitative data where the responses of managers and higher
officials were considered as qualitative data (Woolworths.com.au, 2017). The quantitative data
were the responses and opinions of the customers who had been provided with survey
questionnaires while conducting the research. The secondary data was collected by assessing the
secondary sources such as relevant journals, articles, documents, blogs and websites that
included the HR management issues along with the leadership impact on the business
performance and processes of recruitment and selection (Brewster & Hegewisch, 2017).
3.4 Data analysis
The analysis of data was done by using the SPSS tool, which presented the data in
graphical and table formats for easy understanding. The Likert scale was used too for analyzing
the data more prominently.
3.5 Sample size
The sample size was chosen as 50 customers and 5 managers of the organisation. Thus,
the qualitative samples were 5 and the quantitative samples were 50 (Daley, 2012).
3.6 Ethical considerations
Ethics were maintained by making sure that privacy had been maintained to prevent
disclosure of information of the respondents who were part of the research. The validity of the
research was maintained by searching for authenticated articles so that the research conduction

10
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD RESEARCH PROPOSAL
could bring positive outcomes. None of the respondents were forced to take part in the research
as well (Jiang et al., 2012).
4.0 GNATT chart
Main activities/ stages Month
February
Month
March
Month
April
Month
May
Month
June
Month
July
Selection of topic 
Collecting data from
secondary sources
 
Constructing the research
layout

Literature review   
Development of research
Plan
 
Selection of Appropriate
Research Techniques
 
Primary data collection  
Analysis & Interpretation of
Data which are collected
 
Conclusion 
Development of Draft 
Final Work submission 

11
BUSINESS RESEARCH METHOD RESEARCH PROPOSAL
References
Brewster, C., & Hegewisch, A. (Eds.). (2017). Policy and Practice in European Human
Resource Management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield Survey. Taylor & Francis.
Choudhary, A. I., Akhtar, S. A., & Zaheer, A. (2013). Impact of transformational and servant
leadership on organizational performance: A comparative analysis. Journal of Business
Ethics, 116(2), 433-440.
Colak, I., Altinkurt, Y., & Yilmaz, K. (2014). The relationship between teachers’ teacher
leadership roles and organizational commitment levels. Educational Process:
International Journal, 3(1-2), 35-51.
Daley, D. M. (2012). Strategic human resources management. Public Personnel Management,
120-125.
Erkutlu, H. (2012). The impact of organizational culture on the relationship between shared
leadership and team proactivity. Team Performance Management: An International
Journal, 18(1/2), 102-119.
Jiang, K., Lepak, D. P., Han, K., Hong, Y., Kim, A., & Winkler, A. L. (2012). Clarifying the
construct of human resource systems: Relating human resource management to employee
performance. Human Resource Management Review, 22(2), 73-85.
Laschinger, H. K. S., Wong, C. A., & Grau, A. L. (2012). The influence of authentic leadership
on newly graduated nurses’ experiences of workplace bullying, burnout and retention
outcomes: A cross-sectional study. International journal of nursing studies, 49(10),
1266-1276.