Topic 6 - Motivation

same here

Yes planning now for May 2018 should give you plenty of time. You do need to have a clear methodology and explain this in Part 2 and understand how to conduct valid operational research so read up on these (most basics statistics books usually will contain a chapter on this). Secondary data will normally consist of staff handbooks, staff policies on promotion and training, and statistics produced by the company on absenteeism, staff turnover, staff productivity. If you can get the average number of employees for the last few years you will be able to calculate profit per employee by dividing operating profit for each year by the relevant number of employees. You will have to have a letter from a senior manager in the company authorising your research as this has to be included in your appendices.

Hi Trephena, Thank you for your reply. With regard the secondary data, I am not sure if the company will provide the statistics on absenteeism, staff turnover as well as the staff handbooks, staff policies on promotion and training ect. as I believe being very confidential information which might not willing to share. If it is the case that my company will only authorized me to carry out the survey but not use any source of secondary date (as above), would it be too limiting hence I should consider a different topic? However, being a public company I might be able to get revenue per employee as well as other employee ratio. I have already submitted the request to carry out the survey and the authorization has been asked Thanks Gabriella

I think you will have to see what you can get. However you should avoid making sweeping statements that are unsupported by secondary data. For example this was some feedback to a failed student on this topic (I think what the marker was getting at was that the analysis had to be put into some sort of appropriate context and that to a certain extent the analysis lacked depth and reliability in this respect) : "What would be better given this topic, would be for you to show evidence that you have identified and read company documents on elements such as official HR policies as you yourself have included comments to the effect that poorly formulated company policies can lead to demotivation. So here are some examples of the types of policies you should be reviewing: for recruitment, retention, training, salaries and benefits, welfare issues; board papers or other management reports which discuss motivation or retention and salary issues; interviews with HR or the most senior person responsible for HR issues/employment issues; and some evidence of your looking outside the organisation to similar sized and/or type of companies/organisations to obtain details of their recruitment and HR policies with which to compare and challenge your respondents views or the views of management in your chosen organisation. Please ensure you include details of those internal company documents that you read and use in your report by way of appropriate citation and inclusion in your list of references."

Hi Trephena, Thank you very much for your clarification. I have submitted the request to the management of my company in order to be authorized to access to either first or secondary information. As soon as I have their feedback I can decide on the final topic. Gabriella

Hi guys I've a quick question. When referencing survey results can i reference directly to the excel worksheet (appendix) which has all the results. This is to correlate information as it is difficult to do combination graphs without getting them too complicated.

Apologies for the delay in responding. Yes refer the reader to the appropriate part of your appendix. Ensure your (e.as PhD are clearly labelled etc. The rule of thumb is that you should ensure the reader can follow everything as once the marker has to hunt about because something is not clear they will become frustrated and a very frustrated marker will just click on the fail button! (I have actually seen feedback for fails that have said something like 'your role is to guide the reader through your work whereas I have been forced to try to find where information has come from and often could not find it because you do not have any systematic numbering system just a mass of tables and graphs.' The fact is markers have a lot of marking and a student who slows them up is not going to get any Brownie points!)

Hi helpers, I just wanted to confirm while taking permission from organisation to let me allow to distribute questionnaires and get the employees feedback. Is it ok if they write on their letter head that: We are allowing Muhammad Ahsan Jawaid, ACCA reg no. Xxx to distribute questionnaires to our company employees and get their feedback. The information collected will solely be used for his project submission to Oxford Brookes University. Signed from HR senior manager. Will this do? Or do I need to ask for something more?

Yes that should be fine as long as it is on the official letterhead and the HR manager is named. (I have known that occasionally they do check up on things to ensure that the data / company hasn't all been made up).

Thanks Trephena for your prompt response. Can you please let me know that is it ok if the company that has given me authorization is a private limited company but a multinational. Can i write RAP on this topic taking such a company?

Comapny's name is Herbion Naturals.

As long as you have a properly authorised letter and there is some publically available information i.e. something reasonable (its website and web pages of information) comes up on the internet search that proves the organisation exists it should be fine. (There have been issues in the past where students or their mentors have not only made up data but also invented organisations. Falsification is a breach of the University Academic Regulations and such students have been found guilty of Misconduct. Not only is their work given a zero grade [a fail for everything] it still counts as one of their submissions and furthermore the resubmission is subject to a penalty resubmission fee of GBP 600)

Thanks Trephena for your response. Yes I have a properly authorized letter and there is publicly available information on their website which can be searched on the internet.

Hi friends, A quick question in primary research, are questionnaires and the feeback from employees of questionnaires enough or do we have to conduct interviews as well.

Depends how conclusive and reliable the survey was. Interviews with key personnel (HR Manager and line managers) can be useful additions to clarify points e.g. annual appraisal and reward systems; policies on flexible hours, training and sick (or maternity pay). Your report should focus on whether there was evidence that the motivation theories were applicable to your case study (having stated some of the limitations of these). In the 21st century I feel for a good grade you have to move beyond these theories (which in some cases are 50 - 60 years old) and consider modern working practices too. Depending on the country these could include stress and the long working hours culture, 'hot-desking' and zero hours contracts.

Thank you for the response. But what if the selected company is ok with the fact that I am submitting questionnaires and getting feedback from employees but reluctant with letting me have an interview with HR manager because of: 1. They are very busy and can hardly take out time for interview. 2. The question relating to interview such as Companies policies on promotions, staffs productivity and absenteeism are confidential information which they are not willing to speak on. Please guide me if I have enough feedback on questionnaires which are linked to theories and if I also include latest practices such as long working hours, work life balance etc. Do I stand a chance of scoring a pass grade? Though I'll try to get secondary data which I had to ask in the interview section.

Sorry about the delay in responding -I have been very busy with the day job. As I said previously clarification from HR is useful -however it is not essential. I suggest you red through the last few pages of this thread as you may find some useful tips. You could try to question in your results whether the classic theories, developed mostly in the USA half a century ago, are still relevant in the 21st century (e.g. with different working practices in the global giga economy ) or culturally comparable and compatible with the working environment in your country. Introducing critical thought (alongside the conventional analysis) may give you a better grade.

A quick response will be very much helpful. Please can anyone guide me that whether do I have to refer analysis (done with questionnaire survey) via Harvard referencing or manual referencing. My referencing title is e.g. "Writer Research survey, Question # 14, 2018". If done with Harvard referencing than what will be the type of source?

You do not use Harvard when referring to your own research so your referencing 'title' is correct. If you find you are running out of words you can where appropriate, refer the reader to your questionnaire or appendix - which ever is applicable (assuming that you have the data set out in clear appendices and workings etc)

An urgent response as i am submitting tomorrow. I am actually running out of few words. Can you please guide me that in the analysis section can i refer to any questionnaire reference as e.g. ( Appendix 1, Q4, 2018) Please also tell me that should I write 2018 or not in the above reference.

Appendix 1, Q4 will be fine -no year is needed

While submitting report, I am not getting separate field for uploading research report in the OBU portal dashboard. What should I do? Should i upload "Research Report" in Appendices section? I am getting separate fields for all other files i.e. SLS, Presentation, List of Reference, etc. Just project report field is missing. I have to submit report today so quick response will be helpful. Thanks

Secondly can I submit request for letter of consent and consent letter as pdf.

Yes

Yes, just ensure it is uploaded somewhere! Also check your submission confirmation statement which lists out the files (and retain it in case of any future problems about exactly which files were uploaded). If any file is missing from the statement then email it as an attachment to [email protected] TODAY before the p36 submission closes otherwise it will NOT be accepted

Hi all, Im looking to go with Topic 6 for a November 18 submission. Firstly am I giving myself enough time??? Can anyone provide any tips or good reference places? Also with regards to the questionnaire and sample size I'm thinking of basing this on a company I know well who will give me approval but they only have a small number of employees (about 20) would this be a sufficient sample size? and if not...is it still usable and a good point to note about the selection? Thanks TP

You are doing a very sensible thing - allowing yourself plenty of time to do a good piece of work (so many students leave it until 4-6 weeks before submission and then wonder why they fail!) First off you need to understand some of the classic motivation theories (as you will subsequently in your analysis and evaluation have to apply them). So you could start by reading up on some of these: Maslow, Herzberg, Vroom, Alderfer, McClelland, McGregor. (A good search engine will bring them up using these key names and motivation) It is usually better once you understand the theories (I suggest that you make brief notes on each) then to whittle it down to focusing mainly on about 3 (although you could briefly refer to any others if during the course of your research they seem appropriate, however remember overall it is better to apply 3 theories well rather than attempt to apply them all very superficially). As you have already chosen your company think about which theories may mainly be applicable to them (without trying to pre-empt the outcome of the questionnaire too much) for example (and forgive the generalisations) are the workers mainly low skilled - in which case Maslow and McGregor would possibly be appropriate together with either Herzberg or Alderfer; if on the other hand you are dealing with high achievers then Herzberg, McClelland and Vroom may be more appropriate (although as a general theory Maslow seems to fit just about some of every scenario!) Using Google scholar as the search engine is a good place to try to look for academic papers if you want to bring in a deeper layer of research (unfortunately though many of the papers require a subscription but if you have access to a good library you may be able to benefit from their group subscription to access some of these sources - ask the librarian) A sample of 20 can be valid it depends on how representative it potentially is of the organisation - something you will be expected to discuss in Part 2 of your report. One of the pitfalls of this topic is that students do poor surveys and therefore the subsequent analysis is weak. Spend time designing your questionnaire (read up on how to produce an objective survey) and remember that you need to discuss why and how you chose your sample, mentioning any limitations (so again before you start read up on operational research and how do a questionnaire if you have not studied this area before) Map the questions to the theories (often it is appropriate to use a Likert scale e.g. ranging from 'very important' on a scale down to 'not important at all' for a question like 'How important is it to you that you feel you are contributing to the achievement of departmental /organisation goals?' You will also need to include a letter of authority from a senior manager permitting you to do the research so organise this asap. You should mention some practices in the workplace e.g. are appraisals annual or more frequent? does the company ever conduct its own questionnaires, is there a staff handbook (these days more likely to be in the form of HR webpages) and consider referring to these in your analysis. Absenteeism and staff turnover figures if available can also be useful statistics. If you are seeking a higher grade you should also consider modern aspects of workplace motivation (which are too modern for most of the classic theories) e.g. what is the effect of the long hours culture, does the company provide flexible working practices; and does it demonstrate a caring attitude towards employees (any zero-hours contracts and what about sicknees -some organisations these days are very harsh about sick pay and time-off for illness and the like) For help with actual referencing (a common cause of failure) there is both Appendix 3 of the Official Information Pack and the OT Ultimate Guide (written by Trephena, the OBU forum moderator) on the homepage - which sets out a list of rules which is useful for you to check against when doing your list and reviewing your work. As you can see there is a lot to think about in these early stages however the more you plan and think about things now the better the likelihood of a good quality end report. Good luck! Regards Gillian

Hi i really need help in passing this topic. i just got enrolled for internship and i want to use the opportunity. i just do not know how to approach this. regards, nuru.

whats the approach?

@nurumustapha - you can help yourself for a start by reading the Information Pack and looking at how do data gathering and the principles behind primary data collection. There is also a lot of good information on this forum thread so I suggest that you spend some time reading through it (start at the beginning) as unfortunately we really do not have the resources to repeat everything. For example immediately above your question another moderator has set out quite a detailed response to a student which sets out an approach - so most of the answer to your question is on this page already. When you have read through and got specific questions that have not been answered before, then please post them here and we shall try to help. However remember that like a lot of things in life, a degree is about trying to work things out for yourself first, with some guidance. There is lots of guidance on this thread so you need to the preliminary reading first.