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Hi
My RAP topic is 6
I was not successful in the previous submission and hope to make a re-submission come May. Please could anyone assist me. I need helpThanks,
Is anyone doing this topic?? I’m thinking if doing this and would like to discuss ideas.
Hey guys, I need assistance for pursue my RAP topic 6.
Anyone who chose the same topic can give me some advice?
Except by method of interview and questionnaire, I dont have any other ideas for the information gathering part.
Please help. Thanks.Hello,
Go through the company website, search for third party information that relates to the industry…thats pretty much it.
The two sources you mentioned are primary sources. You need some secondary sources to back up your project.
All the best!
Hi, I am doing the same topic it is my first attempt and i am doing it alone. have you started?
@fausthel You should start by reading your feedback and analysing what went wrong. Spend some time reflecting on what the OBU marker said and try to identify how you can make the necessary improvements to remove the deficiencies and address the problems that the marker highlighted.
You will need to do a Resubmission statement so the above ‘exercise’ will form the basis of your resubmission statement.
Contributor @Brian82000 outlined the successful approach he took for this project in his post yesterday 24.04.2014 on Forum ‘What was your period 27 Oxford Brookes RAP result’ (about page 8 or 9) to which I also added a comment.
If you did a questionnaire – did you include all the protocols that make a questionnaire valid? Some people think that you just have to write a few questions and ask them and that’s all there is to it. In fact if you want to rely on a questionnaire, great care has to go into its design, the wording of the questions and the sampling frame, otherwise the results prove nothing! (The “garbage in, garbage out” concept).
A questionnaire is not a ‘soft’ option for Topic 6 as you can expect that the markers will look at the methods used and assess whether they are likely to be statistically reliable, so it needs to be done properly or not at all.
Footnote to my post above:
Here is where you will find the official OBU advice for Topic 6:
See the Information Pack 2013/14 pp33-34 where Phil Clarke of OBU explains the requirements if you use a questionnaire and also the current Resubmission Guide pp 8 -9 where Al Neilson OBU/ACCA marker and moderator addresses how Topic 6 is assessed. You need to use these to guide your work so that your RAP meets the criteria that they have highlighted and outlined.
Hi Trephena,
Most thankful to you for you response and advise. I grateful for your time and the resources you have directed me to and I am going to take them serious.
Best
My tip for Topic 6 if doing a questionnaire (and that is the normal way most students approach this topic) is to spend some time looking at how to produce really good questions that are clear, relate to the actual motivation theories, are unambiguous (re-read the questions and ask – could someone misunderstand this and interpret it differently?) and then decide how you are going to choose the respondents. Mention these steps in the section where you do your methodology.
Don’t forget to include (1) a copy of your questionnaire and a summary of your results in the appendices (2) graphs and charts to illustrate your findings in the evaluation section (Part 3) and (3) tie these findings back to the relevant motivation theory.
Good luck and if you have a specific query then please raise it here. 😀
Trephena,
You are the help I needed, you seem to be addressing my concerns and worry as to what I actually needed to do. I do get it clearer now. I will gladly contact you as I proceed with my RAP.
Best
please i need someone to put me through this project, i dont even know how to start the work, wish to choose topic 6, i will be grateful thx.
Dear All,
I have a couple of questions regarding the topic:1. ” Explain how your motivational theories have guided your data collection, particularly the design of the questionnaire”
Can someone explain this? How can I do this?2. The word limit of part 2 is 2000 words. Can we exceed this limit like to 3000 words but keeping the overall RAP to within 7500 words?
Regards
@yusha abidi. If you intend to use an employee questionnaire to show how motivational theories apply in your organisation you will need to have relevant questions that are worded unambiguously and any technical terms are avoided.
I suggest that you read Phil Clarke’s section in the Information Pack thoroughly and ensure you understand the underlying principles behind primary research. Then look at aspects of motivation and really think how you can ask clear questions that people can answer that avoid any specialist phrases e.g. if you ask people if the are motivated by self- actualization I would think the average person’s response would be ‘what on earth is self- actualization’? !!!! (Unless they have heard of Maslow)
So you would need to discuss how you designed the questions and chose your sample in Part 2 of the RAP
The section word counts are merely a guide (see the FAQs on our home page) – just don’t exceed the 7,500 total 🙂
Hi,
Please, could I get some info on the following?1. How does one go about the analysis of the data the have acquired from their Questionnaires?
2. Is one allowed to use more than one Motivational theories?First I’ll answer point (2) – yes in fact you are expected to consider more than one theory as the different theories have different takes on some of the aspects so no one theory on its own is appropriate for this topic
The most important thing is that before you even do any analysis you should have read the section in the Information Pack about collecting Primary data (p36-38 I think it is). Clear questions are necessary – you have to include a copy of your questionnaire and the markers will pick it to pieces if your question are ambiguous, vague and badly worded on the basis that, if the questions are not clear how can the answers be relied on? So you need to research and think what would demonstrate the various aspects of the various theories and compose your questions accordingly. I suggest that you ask a few people to read through them initially to ensure that the meaning is clear (avoid specialist terms like ‘self-actualisation’ as if people do not understand the terms used in the questions they cannot answer accurately) before you actually do the full survey.
You need to tabulate your results and include these in the appendices – again if you do not supply the raw data and/or your workings are not clear you will be penalised (fail for Application)
The data collection (doing good appropriate questions and tabulating it) is the hard bit as if you get this wrong your evaluation and conclusions will not be valid. Actually doing the evaluation with sound data is not a big problem as you look at what the answers showed you and relate the main results back to the theory. However if your questionnaire is poor the answers will be unreliable and any conclusions drawn from invalid
Thank you for your reply.
I read the Phil Clarke portion in the info pack as you recommended. I am a bit confused about the following extract from that:
“the questionnaire or interview design must clearly relate to
one or more business models. Theory must be used to structure the
questionnaire or interview, and should clearly influence the wording of the
questions.”How can I clearly relate the questionnaire to one or more motivational theories while keeping it in simple English so that the employees can understand it.
How can I use theory to design the questionnaire?
Regards
@yusha abidi
By models for T 6 they mean theories
Look at Maslow, Herzberg, Vroom, Adams, McClelland, Alderfer or any other theories (limit yourself to about 4 in view of the word count). Think about the various factors that are supposed to motivate and use them as the basis for formulating questions. Choose simple words and compose questions that are not ambiguous – normally ones that require an answer that can fall in the category of ‘strongly agree/agree/do not agree/ strongly disagree’ e.g ‘Routine work does not interest me.’ – if I strongly agree with this it shows that the work content is important to me and implies that I am demotivated by boring jobs. You can then use this Likert scale responses to analyse the data and see if there are trends.I made it finally, thanks be to God and OT and all who supported especially on the forum headed “topic 6 advice”. Thanks to Trephena. God richly bless you all
Hello,
As I asked you earlier about the design of the questionnaire. I want to clarify something about it.
The questions are quite general and the answers are analysed in the light of different motivational theories. For example,
Q3. Which of the following factors motivates you the most?
A) Option 1
B) Option 2
C) Option 3Q4. Which of the following motivational factors are present in ABC?
A) Option 1
B) Option 2
C) Option 3These are not any theory specific questions. I used the answers to these questions and analysed the results according to the theories like Maslow and McCelland. Like Q3. option 1 can be categorized as a social need in the Need Hierarchy theory and how many employees answered Option 1 shows …..
Can you please provide me with some feedback on this and if possible some examples of the questions you used.
Regards
Feedback
Hi,
I must say the your questions are to general therefore you need to ask specific question s.Your questions should be clear in their context.They should also be based on motivational theories othewise you are likely to have problems in information gathering, evaluation and Analysis of information. You can not categorized a factor like Social needs. If you look at Esteem needs you have 1 self esteem.2 confidence .3 Achievements 4,Respect for others. How will you assess whether how many respondants are talking about self esteem or confidence or better Achievement. You questions have to be precise and straight to the Point. Do not generalise.
Setting up a questionnaire differs from one person to another .Look at Page 27- 33 of the information pack. The way you set up a question will help in the understanding of the importance of the overall research approach and the framework you are going to adopt. if you are doing ACCA You can adopt the ACCA style question from their surveys. Other types are Open ended, close ended,mixed questionnaire and Pictorial questionnaire BROWSE THE INTERNET.Examples 1
You can set a questionnaire as follows,
1. On a Scale from 1 to 5,how strongly do you agree with the following statements with motivation at Small Company?
1
2
3
4
5Examples 2
2 How satisfied are you with the level of Training and Development at Small Company?
5.Very satisfied 4.satisfied.3 Nuetral 2. Unsatisfied.1 very unsatisfiedExamples 3
3.Is interesting work a factor of employees motivation at SMALL CO which will influenc e performance?
3 YES 2.NEUTRAL .1 NOThe above questions are very simple but straight to the Point. TheN you can DEVISE a methodology under the framewok adopted on how you will analyse the responses.
I hope this information will be usefulRgds
@yusha abidi – yes they sound on the right track. You possibly need to ensure that everyone understands the term ‘motivation’. I know it sounds obvious to you and me but it is not always obvious to everyone else. Maybe ‘what factors motivate you to do a good job’ or ‘what motivational factors encourage you to perform better or work harder in the work place?’ put them in the right context. Just make sure that your questions are clearly worded and avoid specialist terms
As long as you have designed your questions around the motivation theories that’s fine. The point about the analysis is that you should be able to demonstrate any points where the theories seem to hold true.
Please read the Info section on doing primary research as you need to show that you have thought about who you are sampling. Don’t be tempted to fiddle the results – bogus results are easy to detect and although they won’t probably say you have obviously made them up, they will point out all the reasons why the survey, the results and conclusions don’t hang together.
You can use the Likert scale for some answers as @joseph suggests. Don’t try though to do sophisticated statistical analysis – it is not required.
Am free to offer free advise on Topic 6 in case you have issues in understanding the moderators feedback up to end of October 2014.
Thank you Joseph and Trephena for your feedback.
“Explain how your motivational theories have guided your data collection, particularly the design of the questionnaire”.
This was one of the comment from the marker when I unfortunately failed my first attempt.
Now the marker wants me to change the questionnaire? or he wants me to explain how I designed the questionnaire? or something else?
The questions I mentioned in my comment above were the part of my questionnaire. I can mention the options as well if it is help in analyzing what the marker wants.
“You have the basis here of a successful RAP if you address the issues indicated above”
The marker also wrote this. Is this a usual comment mentioned in every failed RAP to encourage the student to resubmit the RAP or it really means that I only have to do minor changes he/she mentioned to pass?
Regards
@yusha abidi I think possibly the marker felt a lot of your questions were too generalised and had nothing much to do with motivation theories e.g. gender of respondents, age, and educational achievement and wanted more questions that related specifically to the topic. So it may be advisable to change your questionnaire so that you can show you have taken the marker feedback on board.
I found this on Google scholar it will help you with the first part of your work (if there was a problem there) as it discusses the sampling technique and the amount of detail regarding the background is about right. Please do not copy it – it is meant to give you some ideas on how to ensure you include the background to your own particular research methodology and introduce your discussion of findings
https://www.joe.org/joe/1998june/rb3.php/index.php
and this following paper in Table 1 has some questions that you could use for designing questions on the Likert scale as suggested by @joseph . Look at your theories and pick out those types of questions (or word you own!) that seem to deal with the aspects your theories cover. That way you can then talk about how you put in certain questions to test various parts of named theories and see if they held up in your organisation. I think you may need to include Herzberg as his dissatisfiers / hygiene factors are fairly important in terms of motivation theory
https://eisenberger.psych.udel.edu/files/22_Perceived_Organizational_Support.pdf
Use plenty of clear graphs to show your results and then talk about the significant findings relating them back to the relevant theory. If that was the main problem this may help rectify what the marker felt was missing 🙂
Overall Approach for Topic 6:
This topic solely focuses on motivation in employees. Employees motivation describes an employee’s basic enthusiasm about work and incentives given to accomplish work. Motivating employees about work is the blend of satisfying the employee’s requirements and prospect from work and workplace factors that facilitate employee motivation.
Organisation can boost employees’ morale by rewarding and acknowledging their work. There are various ways for motivating employees such as giving them support, monetary rewards, and good working conditions among others.
Employees are organisation’s livelihood. How they feel about the work they are doing and the results received from that work directly impact an organization’s performance and, ultimately, its stability. For instance, if an organization’s employees are highly motivated and proactive, they will do whatever is necessary to achieve the goals of the organization as well as keep track of industry performance to address any potential challenges.
An important aspect that student should consider under this topic is that he/she should have broader level understanding (indirectly) of various factors that motivates students to perform specific tasks within an organisation but student must understand that they need to apply their overall understanding with respect to motivation of employees through proper usage of particular theories (e.g. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Herzberg’s two-factor theory, Vroom’s expectancy theory, Locke’s goal theory etc.) and describe all aspect of selected theories in context of selected organisation. Keeping on rite track without providing irreverent information during application of particular theory in the RAP is essential to get good grades in RAP.
Key features / requirements:
Assessment of key factors that actually motivate employee.
Application of various employees’ motivational theories on selected organisation.
Assessment of performance of selected organisation in the light of employees’ motivational theories.
Provide some quantitative and qualitative analysis (wherever applicable) to substantiate above mentioned aspects in proper manner.
Maintain proper balance in explanation / analysis of different aspects that required under this topic.
*Feedback from project mentor is essential to get good grades in RAP.Key Success Factors:
Proper application of key aspects of various employees’ motivational theories.
Avoidance to provide irrelevant information other than required in selected theories.
Proper linkage of various aspect of employees’ motivational theories on selected organisation.
Proper application of all selected aims and objectives (that decided in inception of RAP) in appropriate sections of RAP.
Proper answering of all research questions (that decided in inception of RAP) in appropriate sections of RAP.
Usage of proper research methodology to achieve good result against all selected aims and objectives (that decided in inception of RAP).
Maintain proper sequence of all discussion in logical manner by keeping all requirements of the topic.
Logically conclude all performed work at the end of Research Report by keeping in consideration of all requirements of the topic.
*Feedback from project mentor is essential to get good grades in RAP.Major benefits for choosing this topic:
Student will practically apply his/her bookish knowledge into real life.
Student will aware off various employees’ motivational theories.
Student will learn about different factors that motivate employees.
Various techniques learned under this topic will substantially help student in his/her professional life.
Major possible limitations faced by student under this topic:
Students may not entertain well by the management of selected organisation in provision of required information due to various issues (e.g. confidentiality aspects, non availability of authorized person to disseminate information to student for research work, etc.)
Student may not find good stuff from internet or other sources (due to weak research approach) to bring ideas for improvement in the project.
Student may be confused due to variation in actual information (verbal or documented) provided from primary sources with the result that he/she actually derive from his/her research work as per requirement of the topic.
*Feedback from project mentor is essential to get good grades in RAP.Suitable organisation under this topic:
The most suitable organisation under this topic is that for which student have access to management of the company and moreover management of the company is willingly provide all required information to student as required under the topic. Selection of most appropriate organisation is very essential as student must have better understanding of overall operations of the organisation and moreover he/she also have enough knowledge of the sector in which his/her selected organisation actually operates. Based on better knowledge of the organisation and respective sector , student will be able to interlink various aspect of overall operations of the selected organisation with all requirements of the topic that ultimately help him/her in getting good grades.In short student need to assess following aspects in selection of organisation for RAP.
Student’s own interest related to overall business of the organisation;
Accessibility of information from primary sources (extremely important in topic 6);
Accessibility of information from secondary sources;
Knowledge of overall operations of the organisation (extremely important in topic 6);
Knowledge of overall associated sector of the organisation;
Availability of time from concerned officials of selected organisation (extremely important in topic 6);
Basic idea of requirements of selected topic and their applications on proposed organisation in inception of RAP.
*Feedback from project mentor is essential to get good grades in RAP.Suggested approach for this topic:
Under this topic, student must plan properly from inception so that he/she can complete all tasks effectively in proper manners. First of all, student must gain excellent understanding of major requirements of this topic and he/she need to critically assess all aspects of requirement by defining detailed strategy. Student need to assess that what process that he/she actually follow to meet all requirements that only possible through detailed planning in inception of RAP.Student need to prepare overall content of RAP under topic 6 that describes logical sequence of all tasks that need to adhere by the student. This content will also help student to keep on right track from inception and at the same time student can also assess time factor against planned vs. actual tasks through considering his allocated time for complete preparation of RAP.
After finalization of overall content of RAP under topic 6, student need to start working logically from gathering of information as per requirement of topic. Student need to assess all gathered information very critically through consultation from mentor. Mentor feedback on key areas of RAP is very essential so student should share his/her thoughts with project mentor regularly to get efficient guidance in time accordingly.
In short, there is no 100% suggested approach for topic 6 as keeping broader level approach (described above) , detailed approach under topic 6 varies due to student’s perception that he conceived from requirements of the topic along with available information of selected organisation. Whatever, the approach you will follow , keep getting guidance from project mentor at every step so that you can meet all requirements of topic and get good grades.
*Feedback from project mentor is essential to get good grades in RAP.
Availability of Information:
Student have to complete his/her RAP based on provision of information directly from management of the organisation (i.e. primary sources of information) along with vast information available through different mediums (internet, newspaper, books, etc.) under secondary sources of information. Availability of information from primary sources under topic number 6 is very essential as this topic cannot complete at all without getting specific information of the selected organisation. Student need to ensure that he has access of vast information from management of the selected organisation and there is no confidentiality concerns by them as well.In short, student need to assess very critically before opting this topic for RAP as all requirements of this topic only meet if student have enough information about selected organisation. If there is any doubt on provision of required information during perpetration of RAP then student should not select this topic for RAP as it impact on overall evaluation of information and overall grades of RAP.
*Feedback from project mentor is essential to get good grades in RAP.
In short the key to passing this topic is to
1. Pick good motive theories and summarise key points
2. Design good reliable survey questions that are linked to the theories
3. Set out the research approach well (see Phil Clarke’s article in the Info Pack)
4. Have clear graphs
5. Discuss significant findings from the graphs/analysis
6. Relate them back to the theories
7. For a higher grade – consider the impact of recent developments on motivation in the workplace e.g. long hours culture and/ or other factors specific to the organisation you have chosen
@yusha. Follow the directions provided by Trephena and the Ahmad – OBU Mentor. They are very helpful.
In addition to that, what I did was gather information about the motivational packages and others, such as salaries and benefits, employee job satisfaction, performance appraisal, recognition and involvement in decision making etc, from my chosen organization. This guided the setting of my questionnaire. The questionnaire were well structure with opened and closed questionnaires which made it easy for analyzes backed by the required motivational theories. My questionnaire settings also made room for recommendations from employees which equally was easy applying motivational theories.
Wish you the best
Morning All,
Referencing,
Today i want to talk about referencing? Why bother to reference your work?is it necessary ?if so why?
Well from my understanding ,its very important to reference your work in any research assignment as this provides evidence and credibility of your assignment. Not only that, you are able to recognise the work of others who have studied the same or similar works before you. Undoubtedly this is key graduate skill. In referencing, you are also able to show clear evidence of a range of relevant information .Please refer to Appendix 3 –a guide to citing and referencing for Business Faculty students on page 57 of the info Pack .You can also read together with an Article by Phil Clarke june 20111 on pg 35 of the info. pack .
Most students find that they have produced a very good piece of a report assignment but unfortunately ,they are always failing on the information gathering and referencing.
Next time i shall talk about Citing , reference lisk and bibiography
My advise is that you need to spend quality time on referencing as it one of the common causes of failure of research Projects by many students.I hope this piece of will be useful to you.
Best wishes
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