Topic 6 - Motivation

@bishicumber 1. As this is just first names it does not seem a problem - particularly if you are relating this to your results. As well as using it to help with your multi-tasking aspect you can use this to 'personalise' your results if appropriate to differentiate between different categories of workers and it may make it easier for the reader to see the points you are making if your organisation chart is clear (in fact I quite like the idea!), e.g. Robert and Alphonse felt that being made senior managers had motivated them not just because of monetary rewards but because of the recognition of their efforts. This accords with the Theory of XXXXX; Poor working conditions were theorized by ZZZZZ as a demotivator and there is a high turnover of staff at the lower administrative level. Florence, a general administrator commented that poor working conditions, in particular long hours and/or no sick pay, was the reason that several of her colleagues had left and was likely to lead to her quitting soon too. This tends to indicate that employees in this organisation would value good working conditions and the absence of these is having a negative effect on lower grades. 2. I don't know who told you that "you have to include a financial statement" as this is fallacious in the context of Topic 6. However where a few financial facts might be useful is after you have analysed your results: you could see if there is any correlation between motivation and increasing revenue (over the last few years) or conversely a negative correlation if revenue is falling as employees seem to be demotivated or there is high staff turnover - but note - you can only say this is tentative as you have only conducted your survey this year and the financial statements were for a period(s) before you even did your survey but you could put suggesting monitoring this position in your recommendations (even you do not actually do it!). This is not totally necessary for a pass if you have done everything else well, just perhaps would be a useful 'add-on' if you have the time - but don't worry either way about it. (Possibly someone who is able to do this over a period of time and use it appropriately in their work might be heading towards a higher grade....)

Hi, Please help me with a resubmission statement format on topic 6 because its the only part remaining before I can resubmit my project.

@ernest - It is a shame that you have left this until now - that is not the purpose of the resubmission statement as I explain in my article called "The Resubmission Statement - how a Good One is your Key to Success!" available on our homepage www.opentuition.com/obu I suggest that you read it now and seriously consider if you have addressed all the issues raised by the marker.on your Feedback sheet - otherwise you will be wasting your time and money resubmitting. Again I would remind students it is in their best interests to start drafting their resubmission statement BEFORE they commence their resubmission.....

Thanks a million for the resourceful advice from you Joseph and Trephena. I am so grateful. Please i have some concerns 1. What are the obligatory inclusions on the title page of the RAP and SLS. Apart from the title, name ,ACCA number, word count and period. Any additions? 2. Please i need to have a detail step by step procedure from submission to payment of RAP fees, reasons being the person paying on my behalf is out of town and intends to travel. Can i pay before submission? how long do i have to pay after submission? Thanks very much for all and waiting !

@bishcumber 1. That sounds about right for the cover sheets 2. Unfortunately I am only familiar with basic Admin matters as they tend to change over time. The current submission fee of GBP 191 is payable at the time of uploading your work (according to p.51 of the Information Pack) I think there are various methods that are acceptable (bank transfer and credit card I think are the usual but there may be others however I don't think Paypal is available). Perhaps some students who have recent experience may be able to provide more details of the actual process for you. Whether you can pay in advance is something that you might need to contact OBU about if this is critical. The email address is [email protected]

@ bishicumber. 1.Below the Period ,you can as well include Oxford Brookes University otherwise thats about right 2.With regards to someone paying for you.i will suggest if its possible that they credit your account and then you pay yourself.The steps are the usual ones,once you long into the OBU account,you will be expected to upload all the necessary file including RAP,SLS andAppendix.After this step you will be directed to the payment method/options so that you can pay the required amounts.once that is done, you will receive the confirmation mail that you successfully submitted the RAP and it will indicate the date of the results.There different payment options ,but you only have to pick one which is appropriate to your circumstances. Joseph

Thanks very much for the advice. Am so blest with you all here at OT.

Hello, i am planning to do topic 6 for Nov session. can anyone provide me with some guidance as where to start and which company i could use. I dnt know any company with enough employees to get information for the survey part

@krol3 - as you do not have a suitable company this topic is not really appropriate for you. I suggest that you consider an alternative topic such as T20 and T17 (see the Topic 17 Forum where I talk through a Ugandan student, alfred and others on how to address this topic successfully). There are also many tips on T20 on our Topic 20 forum. Alternatively you can always do Topic 8. None of these topics require primary data collection

Congrants!!! Iam encouraged that is the topic iam doing also for Period 31 submission.

Which is the best method can I use, for topic 6, to come up with a sample size from a population size of 110 employees? If iam studying the organization I currently work for, should I declare in my report that i'm a practitioner-researcher and mention the risks involved with this?

Hi@josuns, Probability sampling Simple sampling Random sampling Stratified sampling Cluster sampling systematics sampling Non Probability Quota Convenience Purposive sampling You can as well make reference to the work of Reid Reid, S. (1987). Working with statistics: An introduction to quantitative methods for Social scientists. London: Polity. Please look through on the suitable method and understand how to use it. Yes you can use the Company you work for but you need to consider ethical issues and you need to obtain permission from the Manager.You also need to consider the response rate as this will help you determine the sample size Joseph

Thanks a lot @Joseph. I will consider that. Follow question, I chosen 4 theories to use in evaluation my finding for the organization I have selected, Now when formulating questions, is it ok for each theory to have specific set of question? example section 1 questions related to Maslows theory, Section 2, related to Adam Equity theory? Please help on this one, as iam at the stage of design of formulation of questionnaire and interview form. Advise also if there is a tool to use to design questionnaires.

@josnus .Firstly ,am not sure if i have got your questions right. It appears the data has been mixed up. Evaluation of data comes after data Collection .You can use even 3 theorist and other related Studies in your data Collection .Again you need to set up everything in your overall research approach. With regards to the setting up of question, I think it does not matter so much as long as you are able to get the data you want. The most important thing in setting up your objectives is using SMART. The objectives set should be able to help you answer the Research questions. Instead of using both the Questionnaire and interview, a questionnaire alone is sufficient. You should not indicate that question one is Maslow and question two is e.g Vroome. The questions have to be simple but straight to the Point. i hope I have answered your queries. You are free to make further enquiries Joseph

Dear OP Re concern I had, I was unable to convince my mentor to add more theorists to my RAP. However, I made a valiant attempt at writing based on the one theorist. I passed!!! woohoo!!!. I got a 'B', maybe if I did as you all suggested, I would have gotten an 'A', I guess if you want to achieve at the highest levels, the grade will matter. I tried really hard to analyse from varying perspectives along with the expected routine methods, I did a graph for each question (16) and I included a few financial ratios, company's growth, liquidity, expenses relating to employees etc., all supported with graphs as well. I included a few charts to emphasize certain points, no harm there, no big impact on word count. I related the financial ratios to the company's goals, employees performance and responses to questions. I ensured that the analysis, conclusion , recommendations, tied in with all the data written in the report. It worked. Thanks guys!

Hi Jenique, Congrats Joseph

Hello OP, Is it ok to administer two questionniare. One targeting the Senior Management to find out which motivational factors and processes they have put in place for the staff and the other to target the rest of the staff to find out which factors and processes motivate them. At first i considered to use the interview form for the Senior management, but this is tricky as they quite busy for me to fix time with them for an interview. I will appreciate you quick comments as always. Thank You.

Useful insights 1. How to relate the theories to the Questionnaire and then to the Analysis Part? This is analysis part of the research. Firstly look at the responses from your questionnaire in the presentation, triangulate your findings to what the theories says in your literature review and then evaluate your findings. This will help you determine whether your conclusions are in line with the findings from the theories or not and then make conclusions. You can relate your findings to any other relevant data you have gathered to support your findings. You need to make meaning/judgement of your findings. 2. Do you analyse each factor through a separate chart or put them all in a common one. Yes , you need to analyse each factor separate from the other factors. Similarly when making presentation of facts, each factor needs to be looked at independently and you need to make histograms for each factor 3 HOW TO TACKLE EVALUATION & ANALYSIS IN THE RAP – Part I- Available on Open Tuition Website “In order to produce a successful RAP you have to evaluate and / or analyse information from a range of sources. This means creating some meaning of what you have found, or making a judgment or coming to a conclusion. If you only report the information that you have found or generated, you will not pass the RAP. The ability to evaluate and / or analyse information is a very important graduate attribute and the grade that you are awarded for your RAP will be significantly influenced by ‘how well’ you demonstrate your evaluative and/or analytical skills in your RAP”.

Dear Topic 6 Students, Ref:Appendix 1-Research and Analysis Project assessment Criteria. Usually students have a tendency of wanting to show reliance on an individual i.e. a workmate, friends, line managers or even perhaps mentors for them to determine their assessment Criteria in the RAP. The OBU pack clear shows what you need to do in order to score well.in this case you need to re look on Appendix 1 page 59 and 60. I will take some time to discuss each assessment criteria in details; therefore you can as well participate in my discussion Understanding of accountancy /business models There are thousands if not billions of business models/concepts available. The choices you make is very important. You need to choose an appropriate business concept that is relevant to the Objectives set. You also need to show evidence of wide reading by including other relevant evidence such as articles, newspapers, Magazines etc. Your ability to determine the right data will help determine the Pass Grade you are likely to be awarded. You need to demonstrate that you understand what you are doing. Similarly, the understanding of the accounting concept is vital and its relevance to the topic in discussion. Irrelevant Business models/concepts, poor choice of theory, limited understanding and reliance on narrow range of materials will cost you a fail grade in the understanding of accountancy/business model. This is a key Technical and professional skill The next skill I will look at will be application of accountancy/business models-look out

Dear Joseph, Your contributions are invaluable and helpful. Thanks alot. Joseph.

Triangulation of data Triangulation involves using multiple data sources in an investigation to produce understanding. ideally, get your finding from each and every data sources you have used.eg newspaper ,article, magazines, strategic document etc and tie it up to the outcomes from one of the variables ie the motivation issue in question e.g surpervision.do this for each and every variable and then produce a meaning in other words, how many theorist talk about the same factor of motivation ,and how does it relate to your findings.is your findings supported by other researchers or not, then make a conclusion. Joseph

Hi Topic 6 Students, I know this is a Crucial time for you in terms of Preparation of the RAP and i believe you are trying to review some concepts. Are you having some glitches and seems to be geting stuck somewhere,please feel free to bring them out so that the Open tuition team can help you in resolving those problem areas. Joseph

Hi Joseph, Hope you are good, Iam doing my data analysis, the questionnaire was divided into 4 sections and each sections had questions designed to address a specific motivational theory. My concerns is that when iam analysing the data can i compare the results with other theories or i should only stick to the one i used to come up with the questions. I have also included other peoples research findings to compare with my research results, please clarify on this, if i"m in the right direction? Thanks. Josuns.

Hello Everyone, First of all let me thank you all for your detailed assistance that you have provided in this thread. I would like to direct my questions towards @trephena and @batala, as i'm to resubmit my thesis i would like a few clarifications on the marker's comment Firstly he said there is insufficient linking of questionnaire results to the theories being tested in RAP, and later on he recommended that i could have countered this issue by putting in a point after each graph and discussion of the result found that whether a part or the theories as in whole are being verified or not. To cater this issue i outlined my questionnaire results heading wise for e.g in case of Maslow's theory i made four headings for each hierarchical layer with multiple questions falling under each heading, and after the end of any head i would sum up whether that part confirms or goes against the theory.(is there a better way to do it?) Secondly I held an meeting with the HR executive in the relevant organisation before conducting my survey, though i did not use any information from the meeting but the marker said to reference what was used because i disclosed about the meeting being held in my RAP, now if i am to use any of that information which section should i incorporate into, while analyzing the results or while discussing the theories or should i use it in both? and it was an informal meet and all i have are the notes i took which are brief, how am i supposed to reference the interview do i have to give the complete details on question too question basis or just a summarized version? Your help would mean the world to me Thanking you Hamad

Hi Hamad, From my understanding you are not addressing the markers feed back.your presentation is separate from the analysis part.if i were you ,i will could tackle it like this Presentation. In the presentation ,you need to show the results of your findings in graphs,pie charts, and construct a frequency distribution of data on each and every motivation variable that you have used.You are merely presenting facts as they are? The facts in discussion should be related to the research questions.this is not the analysis stage Analysis,evaluation stage At this stage you need to relate your findings to the motivation theories,articles,newspaper articles,financial statements and see to what extend you have achieved your objectives and then draw conclusions based on your findings.i have written an article on triangulation ,please refer to it. Joseph

Hi Josnus, You can only use the data sources that is in the literature review.Yes that is the right direction.use different data sources to support your findings as long as it is included in the literature review Joseph

@hamadhameed - with the interview the marker wanted to see how this connected to the work you produced. Did it influence anything? If not, no point in mentioning it at all! If it did assist a little in helping you design your sample or any of the questions then you should mention this. Notes from meetings if the info is used in the RAP should then be included in appendices and also the meeting can be included in answering SLS Q3. The name of the person, position and date of interview should then appear in the Ref list. In your case,as the marker mentioned it you need to address this point in the resubmission statement. (One of the reasons the marker probably homed in on this was that mentors in Pakistan kept telling students they had to have primary data in T8 and management interviews and the markers became very sceptical that such interviews with managers ever took place. So they decided to demand details and also tried to point out that there was no reason to fabricate a meeting anyway)

@batala the markers comment was "insufficient linking of questionnaire results to the theories being discussed earlier. Possibly after each graph, and discussion of the result found, you could consider whether results support or not one of the theories" now as to over come this can i just put in a brief discussion after each question or a series of questions covering a theory whether they confirm it or not? @trephena I have cleared my SLS already and I'll just put in a brief discussion of my interview in my RAP as my sampling techniques was influenced by the relevant person.

Hi, Please I really do need your assistance/advice in respect of my RAP. I have submitted twice but yet to get a pass. In accordance with OBU report, the presentation of research findings has been the major reason for failure. Any suggestion will be appreciated as I have just one more opportunity to obtain the OBU degree. Thank you all.

i am also writting my research and its a matter of life and death right now. my mentor advised me to state business models but can someone please give me an example of business model/techniques to use. can i state which model ill be using to design my questionnaire or that goes in the analysis of results?