Emerging Technology's Impact on Vodafone UK Retail Employees

This dissertation proposal investigates the impact of emerging technology on the performance of employees, specifically focusing on Vodafone UK's retail department. The introduction outlines the research's overview, significance, aims, objectives, and research questions, emphasizing the dynamic business environment's shift towards technological advancements and its implications. Chapter 2 provides a literature review, examining the reasons behind emerging technology adoption, its positive effects on employee efficiency and communication, and the negative impacts, such as job security concerns. Chapter 3 details the research methodology, including the research philosophy, approach, method, data sources, and ethical considerations. The research aims to evaluate the influence of technology on employee performance, productivity, and morale within Vodafone UK, considering both the advantages and disadvantages of technological integration in the retail sector.

Dissertation proposal

Table of Contents
Topic:“Investigating the impact of emerging technology on performance of employees”, a case
study on Vodafone UK retail department. ......................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Overview of research..................................................................................................................1
Overview of organisations..........................................................................................................1
Significance of study...................................................................................................................2
Research Aims ..........................................................................................................................2
Research Objectives....................................................................................................................2
Research questions......................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................3
Main reasons and causes behind the emerging technology in organisations..............................3
Positive impacts created by emerging technology on performance and efficiency of
employees....................................................................................................................................5
Negative impacts lead by emerging technology on overall performance and morale of
employees....................................................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.............................................................................6
Research Philosophy...................................................................................................................6
Research approach .....................................................................................................................7
Research method .......................................................................................................................8
Source of data collection.............................................................................................................8
Research ethics .........................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................11
.......................................................................................................................................................12

Topic:“Investigating the impact of emerging technology on performance of
employees”, a case study on Vodafone UK retail department.
INTRODUCTION
Overview of research
As business environment has becoming more and more dynamic thus, every
organisations is having a move or shift towards technological development and implement
various emerging technology is its organisations to have better efficiency in operations and meet
economies of scale. Emerging technology is having both positive and negative impacts on the
employers at a workplace. The positive impacts includes the improvising of efficiency of
employees through making them free from burden of tedious work and repetitive task through
providing a more efficient and simply technology (Malik and Islam, 2019). Apart from this
effective communication system through making use of Internet and a better way to provide,
share and transfer relevant knowledges is a positive impact of emerging technology. Beside these
positive impacts various negative influences are also lead by emerging technology which
includes the threatening headlines of newspapers like “ Robots will take over the jobs”, etc. The
emerging technology has gave a boost to use of AI (Artificial intelligence) and other robotics and
computer based system that has created a negative implication on the minds of employees and
also reduce their moral and motivation level through creating a risk of job security in their mind.
Overview of organisations
To get better understanding and perception about the various negative and positive
impacts of emerging technology and other innovations on performance and efficiency of
employees, following research is conducted. The organisation for accomplishing this research is
Vodafone which is a which is a well known multinational British telecommunication company
having its headquartered in London, UK. A great efficiency and effective use of latest
technology is necessary for this organisation especially by its retail department as it business
operations are extended in more than 47 countries of world which include various locations of
Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania (Kim and Gatling, 2019). Thus, this research is mainly focused
on the impacts created by emerging and new technology on employees of Vodafone working in
its retail department.
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Significance of study
The topic of this research report is evaluation of impact created by emerging technology
on the mind set and performance of employees which is very significant to understand the
overall implications of technology advancement on success and growth of organisations. In
today's modern era, a business organisation or firm can not operate or work properly without
adequate use of technology and innovation in its operations. Thus, technological advancement
and innovations become a necessity for all organisations therefore to it also become essential to
have a deep understanding about affects and implication of these emerging technology on the
performance and work productivity of employees. Thus, this research is having a significant role
in developing understanding about this current phenomena i.e. impact of technology on
performance and efficiency of employees (Shujaat, Rashid and Muzaffar, 2019). Beside this, this
research will also enhance and boost the knowledge of researcher about the various aspects of
technology and its implications and influence on productivity and performance of employees.
Along with this, this research is related with a current topic and also signifiant for the
educational background of researcher thus, it will lead to a boost in career and personal
development of researcher which further add on to the significance of this research.
Research Aims
the aim of this research is, “to evaluate and investigate the impact of emerging
technology on performance of employees”, a case study on Vodafone UK retail department.
The main aim and focus of this research is on understanding the impact created by
changing technology and other innovations over the performance of employees so that a better
evaluation can be made by an organisation to keep a balance and coordination among the
positive and negative impacts of technological changes to have better success and efficiency in
its operations. With the help of this investigation, a more clear picture is provided to reader and
researcher about the impacts and influence of technology on overall performance, success and
growth prospective of a company which is the main aim of every organisation (Kok and Munir,
2019).
Research Objectives
it basically defines of describes concisely that what research is trying to achieve. It
summarize the accomplishments that a researcher wishes to achieve thus, provides a directions
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and guidance for project and set a target for measurement and evaluation of research success.
The main targets and objectives of this research conducted on Vodafone are as follows:
 To study the factors that are the main reasons and causes behind the emerging technology
in organisations.
 To evaluate the positive impacts created by emerging technology on performance and
efficiency of employees.
 To investigate the negative impacts lead by emerging technology on overall performance
and morale of employees (Jain and Gupta, 2019).
Research questions
 What are the main reasons and causes behind the emerging technology in organisations?
 What are the possible positive impacts created by emerging technology on performance
and efficiency of employees?
 What are the negative impacts lead by emerging technology on overall performance and
morale of employees?
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
It is that part of the research or report that yield a discussion and provide a critical
evaluation of various published sources or all other available literature for a particular or specific
research topic (Sahakiants and Festing, 2019). The literature review is one of the important and
crucial part of a research report as it provide a comprehensive summary and detail about the
specific topic on the basis of various books, scholarly articles, online websites and also includes
analysis of all other relevant sources of literature the is associated and related with that particular
research. The following literature review and analysis is made for current research topic that is
associated with, “Investigating the impact of emerging technology on performance of
employees”, a case study on Vodafone UK retail department.
Main reasons and causes behind the emerging technology in organisations
The main factors and reasons that are causing pressure on organisation to adopt and
implement emerging technology within the organisations are the competition, rapid changes and
improvisation in technology and meeting objective for increasing productivity and efficiency of
an organisations to achieve and meeting the objective of cost efficiency and economies of scale.
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As per the view point of Seth Robinson, 2019 the main reason of emerging technology in
organisations is related with maintenance of high level of quality as the product manufactured
and created with the help of technology are more concise and properly build with better features
and reduced chances any loopholes. Use of machines and automated technology ensures that all
the products are identical and chances of errors are also minimised. Thus, organisation are
encouraged to adopt latest and emerging technology to attain and maintain high standards of
quality which has influenced criteria of job design and product development. Beside this the
another important factor that lead to implementation of emerging technology in an organisation
is recent increasing concern for workplace safety and occupational health thus, this obligation
has lead to adoption of better and new technology (Belkhamza and Abdullah, 2019). Machine
guards, good lighting and air quality, and concerns about protection from noise, lifting and
stretching, fatigue and attention span, and legibility of signs and displays are all long-standing
human factors issues which can be solved only through adopting a better and more innovative
technology to ensure proper control and check on health and safety of employees working in a
business premises.
According to Oneil Williams, 2019, adoption of emerging technology is necessary for an
organisation to have more efficiency in operations and to achieve the target of better productivity
so that the demand of customers can be meet on time. Use of technology has improve the way of
doing business and also provides a mush easier way to interact with customers and also simplify
the distribution and supply network thus, encourages various organisation to adopt emerging
technology. Vodafone is a multinational organisations that operates in various countries of world
thus, for its retail department it become necessary to adopt and make use of latest technology to
ensure proper supply to its customers (Zhao and Zhang, 2019). Beside this the main reason
behind the adoption of emerging technology by Vodafone is it facilitates easy way of shopping
through providing facility of online shopping which has provided a convenient and simplest form
of buying and selling a product. Latest technology also provide better technology for marketing
and promotion of products thus, provide a unique and identical positions in the market. Thus,
organisations are ensured to have adoption of emerging technology to have better marketing
positions and remain ahead of its customers through providing better quality product and also
helps in maintaining cost efficiency through keeping check on production process and is helpful
in reducing wastage of resources.
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Positive impacts created by emerging technology on performance and efficiency of employees
The emerging technology has created many positive impacts on performance of
employees through enhancing their efficiency and productivity. Technology also facilitates an
easy way to provide timely training and information which sharpen their skills and talents also
provide a greater level of motivation to employees which further enhance the performance of
employees. As per the view point of Grant, 2019, the biggest positive impact of emerging
technology on performance of employees is that it enhance speed and efficiency of workers. This
positive impact of technology is seen on employees of every sector and function of organisation
from manufacturing to effective communication. In Vodafone also, emerging technology gas
improved the rate of production and also enhance the speed of communication. Use of
technology has improve the efficiency of employees as the work which takes hours to perform
now can be done or complete in just minutes. For retailer department of Vodafone,
communication with various clients, suppliers and other related party has become easy and
speedy as messages and mail can be sent instantly to colleagues, clients and customers across the
world and apart from this payments and proposal can be transferred more easily and almost
immediately in seconds of time.
Apart from this, on the basis of opinion of John-Carlos Lozano, 2018, incorporating
emerging technology is improving the way of learning and development of employees through
transforming the nature of learning and training and providing efficient tools for facilitating
better learning experience (Kamble, Gunasekaran and Dhone, 2019). Emerging technology has
paved the way for more dynamic learning opportunities as the traditional Learning Management
Systems was more complemented thus, emerging technology provides a range of tools that more
effectively support performance and improvement of skills and creativity of employees. Thus,
emerging technology lead to better transformation of employees through providing a design
cutting edge learning experience to employees thus, improve skills and efficiency and
productivity of employees and also motivates them through providing continued professional
growth.
Negative impacts lead by emerging technology on overall performance and morale of employees
Emerging technology provide a pool of better opportunity and ensure better performance
of organisation but beside its positive impacts certain negative influence is also created by
emerging technology on moral and performance of employees which includes lacking of desired
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level of skills required for mangling that and using that technology apart from thus risk of job
security is also a negative influence that hamper the performance and motivation level of
employees. As per the view point of Paul Mason, 2015, emerging technology has lead to many
challenges and issues which include higher costs for organisation to keep a phase with random
technological changes going on in business environment. Beside this lack of significant skills
and talents in employees to manage the new technology is also a hinder which is adversely
affecting performance and efficiency of employees. In Vodafone organisations also some issues
are faced by its employees in managing latest technology which hammer their moral.
Beside this, Ivan V. Danilin, 2019 is having a view point that with emerging technology
challenges related with maintaining security of data and issues related with increasing frequency
in cyber crimes are also increased. Thus, emerging technology has created a mush more pressure
on employees to maintain the safety of data related with personal information of employees and
customers. Some issues are also faced by employees regarding the safety of personal information
of customers related with their credit card, debit card, etc. made at the time of online shopping
and online payment which has created an extra pressures on employees to ensure safety of their
information which has lead to reduction in their moral thus, crested a negative impact on
performance of employees.
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A set of specific techniques and procedure are provided by research mythology which are
used by a researcher to effectively achieve and meet the research objectives. Research
methodology provides an effective means to researcher to determine, identify, procure, select,
process, analysis and evaluate a set of information and data required for developing an
understanding about a research topic so that an effective decision can be made. Basically
research methodology provide a description that how data and informations is gathered and
interpreted by researcher to reach a conclusion and outcomes of research (Malik and Islam,
2019).
Research Philosophy
It provides a belief about the way and phenomenon in which data should be gathered,
analysed and used by a researcher. The two most commonly used research philosophy are as
follows:
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Positivism- This philosophy of research believes that reality is stable and can be easily
described form an objective viewpoint. Under this research philosophy predictions are made on
the basis on some previously explained and observed realities and interrelationships thus,
Positivism is having a long and rich historical traditions. Positivism philosophy is also
considered as a scientific method as it is not much influenced and impacted by behaviour and
values of researcher thus, it is a highly structured method (Kim and Gatling, 2019).
Interpretivism- This research philosophy is concerned with subjective interpretation and
intervention of reality through study of a phenomena in their natural environment. Use of this
philosophy is made by those investigator who are more concerned with gathering and collecting
in depth, rich insight, subjective and detailed information and data for having a better
generalisations of research.
For this research work use of Interpretivism philosophy is made as it provide better and
in-depth information thus, facilitates effective understanding and also enables researcher to meet
and counter changes going on the environment.
Research approach
These are the plans and the procedures used for conducting research and involve the span
and steps from broad assumptions to detailed methods of data collection, analysis, and
interpretation. Research approach are basically of two types which are explained as follows:
Deductive- A deductive approach basically involves resining from the particular to
general. This approach includes developing a hypothesis based on some existing theory and after
that designing a research strategy to test and analysis that hypothesis. Therefore, the main focus
of deductive approach is on testing a set theory or approach (Shujaat, Rashid and Muzaffar,
2019).
Inductive- The main focus of this approach is towards search for pattern from
observation and the development of explanations theories for those patterns through series of
hypotheses thus, it doses not involve applying of theory whether it is focused on generation of a
new theory on the basis of evaluation of collected data. Inductive theory provide a logical
process for conducting research and includes multiple premises and assumptions combined with
drawing a specific conclusion.
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For this research use of deductive approach is made as it ensures to measures concepts
quantitatively and also explain casual relationship between concepts and variables thus, provide
better generalisations to research findings.
Research method
It basically provides a systematic plan for conducting a research and meeting the targets
and objective of research in a proper and more efficient way. The most commonly used research
methods are as follows:
Qualitative research- Use of this research is made by an investigator when a in-depth,
detailed and a subjective form of data is required to have a better understanding and evaluation
of attitude, nature and behaviour of respondents to meet the complex objectives of research.
Quantitative research- It is a research method in which data is collected in for a
numbers and statistical or arithmetical form is collected with the aim of getting a perception or
thought about the behaviour of respondents in brief (Kok and Munir, 2019).
For this research use of Quantitative data is made as it provide a data in terms of
numerical or statical form that can be easily and effectively present in form of frequency charts,
tables, graphs, etc. thus, provide better presentation of collected data.
Source of data collection
There are two main sources of data which are as follows:
Primary source- It provide a first hand data collected by researcher through making its
own efforts and mainly use of surveys, polls, questionnaire, experiments, etc. are made to collet
data from this source.
Secondary source- it represent the pre exists and already recorded and gathered data
which can be collected by researcher from newspapers, literature, books, old records and other
online sites and sources (Jain and Gupta, 2019).
For this research use of both primary and secondary sources of data is made as primary
data provides most authentic data while secondary source provide a support for findings of
primary research. Use of questionnaire is made to collect primary data while secondary data is
collected through various authentic online website.
Sampling is a method which is used by researcher to achieve cost efficiency in its work
through selecting a pre determine number of units from a large population. For this research
work use of random sampling method is made to eliminate the Biasness in work.
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Gantt chart
it is basically a horizontal bar graph that facilities distribution of time among various task
thus, facilities timely completion of work and lead to effectively achieve the objectives.
Following Gantt chart is prepared for this research (Sahakiants and Festing, 2019).
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