Research Methods Report: Business Performance and Motivation

This report, focusing on Research Methods 1, explores the critical link between employee motivation, job satisfaction, and business performance. It begins by outlining the process of selecting a research question, identifying both primary and secondary questions related to the impact of motivation and job satisfaction on organizational profitability. The report then delves into conducting a literature review, examining relevant research papers and studies to support the investigation. It covers quantitative and qualitative data interpretation techniques and justifies the choice of research methodology. The report emphasizes the importance of human resource efficiency and its correlation with business outcomes, including productivity and profitability. The report also highlights the significance of employee motivation in utilizing technological resources effectively, thereby contributing to overall organizational success. Finally, the report presents the findings of the research, including a critical analysis, and draws conclusions based on the collected data and literature review.

Research Methods
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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
1. Understanding how to select a research question..................................................................4
1.1 Select a research question.................................................................................................4
1.2 Factors that contribute to process of successful research question selection...................5
1.3 Justify their choice of Research question.........................................................................5
2. To be able to conduct literature review..................................................................................7
2.1 Conduct research to find literature relevant to the research questions.............................7
2.2 Undertaker critical review of key literature for inclusion in research proposal...............8
3. Understand technique used to interpret data in a research proposal....................................12
3.1 Quantitative data interpretation technique......................................................................12
3.2 Qualitative data interpretation technique........................................................................13
4. Be able to choose the appropriate methodology to research the question...........................14
4.2. Choosing an appropriate methodology in term of research question............................15
4.3. Justification for the research methodology undertaken in this report...........................17
5. Be able to present the findings of a research proposal.........................................................18
5.1. Record findings on a research question, literature review and research methodology. 18
5.2 ad 5.4- Summarisation and presentation of findings using suitable method..................19
5.4. Critical analysis of findings...........................................................................................23
Conclusion................................................................................................................................25
References................................................................................................................................26
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Introduction
Research methodology is one of the most essential part of business management as a business
organizations undertake different type of research for making internal decisions in the
organization. In addition to that research is also important for analysing different stakeholders
in the organization. For example management of the company has to conduct regular research
on target customers in order to identify their needs and requirements from their organization.
This type of research helps in estimating the demand of a product and services which will
help in deciding the level of production required in business. In addition to that it will also
help in improving the quality of product and services offered by the company. This report
will be focused on different aspects of business research. Main objective of this research
would be to identify a particular research question and trying to find solution for such
question with the help of different methodologies used in business research. Research in this
report will be based on the level of impact that motivation and job satisfaction has on overall
profitability of the organization. First of all research question will be developed with the help
of subject matter under consideration (Kumar, 2019). Primary data as well as secondary data
will be used in this report to evaluate different aspects of subject matter under consideration.
At last conclusions will be made after analysing the results identified from literature review
and analysis of primary data collected specifically for the purpose of this report. It is expected
that this report will help in understanding different aspects of business research process and
methodology.
Main objective of this report is to evaluate different issues that might be faced by local
industries/ factories in need of serious redress". Majority of business operations in a factory
are undertaken by human resources and efficiency of other resources are also dependent on
efficiency of human resources to use such resources in the best interest of business
organisation. This report is focused on a particular issue i.e. "motivation issues and on the job
satisfaction" among employees working in a business organisation. For this purpose
relationship is required to be identified between motivation level of employee and efficiency
of business organisation. Efficiency of business organisation will be evaluated on the basis of
impact that human resource efficiency has on profitability and productivity of business
operations.
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1. Understanding how to select a research question
Research question can be defined as an answerable enquiry that will help in providing
specific direction to the research process with regard to a particular concern or subject matter.
Analysing and deciding a research question is a first step undertaken by researcher in the
research process.
1.1 Select a research question
First of all it is very important for researcher to identify primary and secondary questions
underlying the subject matter under consideration. Identification of research questions helps
in giving a direction to research activities so that overall goals and objectives of the research
can be completed. There are two type of research questions i.e. secondary questions and
primary question. Generally there is only one primary question whereas there can be
numerous secondary research questions. primary research questions is directly related to
subject matter under consideration whereas secondary questions helps in identification of
substantial support to conclusions made with the help of a primary question(Mackey and
Gass, 2015). It is already decided that the subject matter under consideration is the impact
that job satisfaction level and motivation has on financial performance of the company. On
the basis of this subject matter following will be the secondary and primary questions-
Primary question-
 Is there any relationship between financial performance of the company and
motivation and job satisfaction level of employees?
Secondary questions-
 What are the factors that can contribute to job satisfaction level among employees of
the organization?
 Can leaders of the organization contribute to providing a job satisfaction level and
motivation in employees (Silverman, 2016)?
 Can overall productivity of business organization be increased with the help of
motivated employees?
 What is the relevance of human resources efficiency for a business organization?
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It is expected that these primary and secondary research questions will help in identifying
efficient is relationship between organizational profitability and motivation level among
employees. This research questions will be answered with the help of secondary and primary
data. Online survey will be used for conducting primary research whereas literature review
will be used for secondary research.
1.2 Factors that contribute to process of successful research question selection
It is very important for a researcher to ensure that proper factors are considered while
selecting a particular Research question. For this purpose it is important to form an effective
and efficient to process for selection of a research question. In the given scenario following
processes was helpful in selecting primary and secondary research questions-
Step 1- First of all researcher is required to conduct a brainstorming session for identification
of different ideas. All the ideas under consideration should be in relation to the subject matter
for evaluation of questions.
Second step in this method would be to analyse the background of the subject matter under
consideration in detailed manner. This type of analysis will help in understanding the
different aspects of subject matter and Research question can be developed in effective
manner. In addition to that mean objective of the researcher should also be considered while
development of research question (Flick, 2018).
In third step, researcher is required to identify the methodology that will be used for the
purpose of the report. There are two type of methodologies that can be used i.e. quantitative
analysis and qualitative analysis. Both of these methodologies should be analysed before
development of Research question.
With the help of to this process researcher can easily identify research questions in effective
manner (Halcomb and Hickman, 2015).
1.3 Justify their choice of Research question
It is important to make sure that the research question under consideration is in accordance
with research topic. Following questions will help in justification of research questions
decided in this report-
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 First of all it should be considered that this research is undertaken for evaluating
whether the job satisfaction level will have any impact on profitability of the
company. Therefore it can be said to that this research is undertaken for different
business organization so that can improve their profitability by identifying
relationship between these two factors (McNabb, 2015).
 Management of an organization would be able to increase their productivity and
profitability by identifying relationship.
 Answers provided by secondary and primary research will be able to identify the
relationship between job satisfaction level and profitability (Dawson, 2015).
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2. To be able to conduct literature review
It is already discussed that this report will use a combination of primary data and secondary
data for answering the research questions developed in the previous section. One of the
primary source of secondary research is different research papers issued by different Scholars
and authors in the subject under consideration (Hart, 2018). Main focus of section would be
to identify different literature reviews published by different authors in identification of
relationship between job satisfaction and productivity of the company. For this purpose it is
very important to select relevant research papers that are already issued by reputed authors.
2.1 Conduct research to find literature relevant to the research questions
Following are some of the literature review that will be helpful in identification of
relationship between motivation level and productivity in a business organization-
Maduka, C.E. and Okafor, O., 2014. Effect of motivation on employee productivity: A study
of manufacturing companies in Nnewi. International Journal of Managerial Studies and
Research (IJMSR), 2(7), pp.137-147.
Faisal Ahammad, M., Mook Lee, S., Malul, M. and Shoham, A., 2015. Behavioral
ambidexterity: The impact of incentive schemes on productivity, motivation, and
performance of employees in commercial banks. Human Resource Management, 54(S1),
pp.s45-s62.
Herzberg, F., 2017. Motivation to work. Routledge.
Hauser, L., 2014. Work motivation in organizational behavior. Economics, Management, and
Financial Markets, 9(4), pp.239-246.
Bakotić, D., 2016. Relationship between job satisfaction and organisational
performance. Economic research-Ekonomska istraživanja, 29(1), pp.118-130.
Farooqui, M.S. and Nagendra, A., 2014. The impact of person organization fit on job
satisfaction and performance of the employees. Procedia economics and Finance, 11,
pp.122-129.
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Bin, A.S., 2015. The relationship between job satisfaction, job performance and employee
engagement: An explorative study. Issues in Business Management and Economics, 4(1),
pp.1-8.
Anitha, J., 2014. Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee
performance. International journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3),
p.308.
Saeidi, S.P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S.P. and Saaeidi, S.A., 2015. How does corporate
social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of
competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. Journal of business
research, 68(2), pp.341-350.
Upadhaya, B., Munir, R. and Blount, Y., 2014. Association between performance
measurement systems and organisational effectiveness. International Journal of Operations
& Production Management, 34(7), pp.853-875.
2.2 Undertaker critical review of key literature for inclusion in research proposal
In this section of the report a literature review will be conducted on the basis of literature as
identified in the section.
According to the views presented by Hauser, there is a direct relationship between
profitability of the organization and job satisfaction level among employees. There are
different type of resources used by business organization for undertaking business operations
and it is important to make sure that each and every source is operating at its full potential
(Machi and McEvoy, 2016). Majority of functions in any business organization are conducted
by human resources. Therefore it can be said that productivity of business organization is a
totally dependent on efficiency and effectiveness of Human Resource capital. If management
of the company is not operating with skilled and experience employees then there is a
probability that profitability of the company will decrease significantly.
Majority of business organizations are using integrated Information Technology software for
conducting different type of business operations. Different business activities such as
accounting, supply chain management, inventory management, Human Resource
Management, sales and advertisement etc. are all conducted with the use of information
technology in business organization (Maduka and Okafor, 2014).
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Efficiency and effectiveness of any technological resources is dependent on its use in
business organization. Technology cannot be assembled on their own as it is important for an
employee to use such technology for advantage of the company. for example if management
of the company has developed ERP system for accounting purposes the they will be required
to hire employees that are expert in the field of using ERP system. Employees that are
working on manual system cannot use ERP system as they do not have sufficient knowledge
and skills to perform accounting functions (Faisal Ahammad et.al, 2015). It can be said that
use of technological resources is also dependent on human resources employed by the
organization.
One of the primary business function performed by management of the company is managing
different type of resources for resource integration. Management functions cannot be
performed by technological resources or any other kind of resources in the business
organization as employees working at leadership position strategic knowledge to conduct
management function. There are various management software available in market that can
help in providing primary data for conducting management functions but they cannot be
performed efficiently if skill and experience of managers is not sufficient (Herzberg, 2017).
On an overall analysis it can be said that all the management functions performed by a
business organization are also dependent on human resources.
Overall efficiency of productivity and profitability in a business organization is dependent on
a different type of resources are employed by the company and it is identified with the help of
a above literature review that human resources are responsible for ensuring efficiency of each
and every resource in the organization. It can be said that it is important that human resources
are operating at their full potential for making product productivity and profitability in
business organization is maintained.
Another important factor that required to attention in accordance with the secondary different
questions developed in this report is the method that can be used by management of a
particular company for increasing motivation level in employees (Hauser, 2014). Therefore it
is important that was literature review on to evaluate different kind of strategies that can be
used by business organization for increasing satisfaction level.
There are various type of strategies that are generally used by managers of the company to
make sure that employees are working at their full potential. These strategies can be divided
into two major categories i.e. monetary Strategies and non-monetary strategies.
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Management of the company is required to analyse characteristics of a particular employee so
that appropriate strategy can be prepared for such employee. For example, monetary
strategies in might not work for employees that are working at top level management as they
are already paid significant amount of strategy for their services in the company (Bakotić,
2016). For such employees level of job satisfaction can be increased by using non-monetary
incentives such as promotions and recognition.
Employees working at a leadership roles in the organization plays a very important role in
maintaining job satisfaction level among employees. One of the primary function of each and
every manager working for an organization is to make sure that all the employees are
satisfied with their roles and responsibilities in the company. Leaders act as role model for
employees in a company and it is responsibility of leaders to make sure that efforts put by
employees are directed towards right direction i.e. overall goals and objectives of the
company (Farooqui and Nagendra, 2014). One of the primary factors that contribute to the
expectation level is personal growth and development of employee. Managers and leaders are
required to make sure that overall goals and objective of a company are in line with rose and
objectives of individual employees.
Leaders and managers are also required to have effective and efficient relationship with the
employees in order to make for that employee is able to communicate any kind of
dissatisfaction with respect to his or her role in the organization. Lack of communication
among leaders and employees will definitely result in higher staff turnover ratio. Effective
and efficient communication between employees and details will also help leaders to
understand the characteristics of each and every employee working under them. Distribution
of roles and responsibilities among employees is dependent on skills knowledge and
characteristics of employees (Bin, 2015). if a particular employee has expertise in the field of
accounting then management of the company cannot expected such employee to work with
full potential and advertisement and sales department. Analysing characteristics and skills of
a particular record it is one of the primary functions performed by leaders and it will
definitely help in increasing moral of employees. Employees in the organization will be able
to achieve their personal goals and objective if they are provided with responsibilities in
which they have expertise knowledge. Some of the most common new strategies that can be
used to buy business managers and leaders for increasing level of satisfaction among
employees are as follows-
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Salary and commission- one of the most commonly used this strategy for increasing the
satisfaction level is increasing salary of employees on a regular basis. After conducting the
literature review it can be said that importance of human resources is very significant for any
business organization and there is a lack of skilled and experience workforce in business
environment (Anitha, 2014). Therefore it can be said that demand of skilled and experience to
human resources in business environment is higher as compared to its supply. If a particular
business organization is not providing sufficient compensation in form of salary and
commission to employees then there is a probability that such employee will move to other
business organizations that are providing such facilities.
Management of the company should make sure that to compensation paid to a particular
employee is in accordance with market standards. In addition to that management should also
considered factor to like in skill, knowledge and experience of a particular employee file
deciding his/ her compensation.
Recognition in business organization is also an important factor that should be considered
while developing motivational and job satisfaction strategies. It might not be possible for a
business organization to provide regular increase in salaries and commissions as financial
resources available with any business organization is limited (Saeidi et.al, 2015). In this case
management can make sure that work done by a particular employee is recognised on a
certain level that job satisfaction can be provided. Effective and efficient working
environment is also an essential contributor to job satisfaction and motivation of employees.
Significant amount of time is spent by an employee in offices as working hours is generally
varies from 6-10 hours per day. Therefore it is important to make sure that working
environment in offices is in accordance with needs and requirements of the employee.
Additional facilities provided to an employee is also an important contributor to job
satisfaction level such as medical insurance, Insurance of family, rent allowance etc.
Conducting recreational activities for employees such as occasional parties and office retreats
can also contribute to providing effective and efficient working environment.
On the basis of this literature review it can be said that there is a direct relationship between
job satisfaction level and productivity of different resources employed on production of
product and services (Upadhaya, Munir and Blount, 2014). Profitability of a business
organization is totally dependent on efficiency of resources as profits will increase if
difference between total revenue and cost is higher. In conclusion it can be said that this
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