Qualitative data analysis and research assignment sample

Qualitative data analysis and research assignment

Introduction

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Research skills play an important role in conducting the entire research by using suitable methods and approaches of data collection and analysis. Both the types of qualitative and quantitative data will be evaluated and interpreted. The primary and secondary research will be conducted on the chosen research topic of strategic human resource management in the business organizations. After collecting the reliable data and information, the research findings will be presented in the graphical forms. Managing human resources is a crucial topic which needs to be understood and broadly discussed for improving the business productivity and beating high competition. The strategic management of human resources helps the business managers to solve complex business problems and attaining long-term objectives of the organization.

Research model/ theory

A suitable research model has been adopted for conducting the immense research which is the onion research model and this model was presented by Saunders et al. (2007). The model describes all the relevant stages which are to be performed by the researchers for conducting the whole research in a systematic manner. It helps in providing the justifications for each decision being taken in respect of the research methodology. This model comprises of different layers that guide the researchers to go through each research stage and explore the favourable research findings of the chosen topic. The figure of onion research model is as follows:

Figure: Research onion framework

Source: By Saunders et al., 2007

Research philosophy

It involves a complete set of beliefs which helps in determining the nature of investigating the research topic deeply. For carrying this research, pragmatist philosophy of research was applied that has greatly helped in dealing with the actual facts. The practical results have been demonstrated and it gave the freedom to researchers to choose any research methodology. This philosophy has helped in choosing and applying any method, technique or procedure for collecting and analyzing the research data.

Research approaches

As the research involved the interpretation of both qualitative and quantitative data, therefore, inductive and deductive approaches have been applied as deductive approach involves the quantitative research and inductive approach relates to the qualitative research. The application of deductive approach has helped in determining some problems being faced by the managers while strategically managing the human resources of their business organizations. Some relevant facts have been gathered by deeply understanding the research topic (Purce, 2014). During the implementation of induction approach, some favourable theories and models of human resource management have been studied and it has helped in attaining the defined research aim and objectives.

Research strategy

The research strategies which have been used for collecting data were survey and interview which have helped in properly and deeply understanding the challenges or issues that can be faced by the business managers during the process of managing human resources. Another strategy of developing a critical literature review has also been followed which consumed less time and huge data has been gathered from different sources.

Research choices

As this research involved the application of various methods, approaches and strategies, hence, it is been said that t has followed a mixed research choice. For understanding the research topic in a broader context, multiple methods were used for collecting reliable information.

Data collection

It is essential to use the right methods for data collection and data analysis so that the research findings can be explored and determined in a transparent manner. The primary and secondary data sources have been applied along with the integration of qualitative and quantitative data. The primary data is also known as the fresh data which has been collected by the way of survey and interview sessions. Direct involvement has been ensured with the participants for collecting the fresh or new information about the strategic management of people within the business organizations (Pattanayak & Sahoo, 2017). The secondary data is already published data on the internet sources which has already been collected and researched by the researchers. For gathering secondary data, various authentic and recent sources have been accessed which have helped in determining some appropriate strategies through which human resources can be managed strategically according to the environment or situations of business organizations (Marler & Fisher, 2013).

Survey strategy was executed by developing a list of close-ended questionnaire that contained a series of questions and this list was then shared with a number of participants over the e-mails. The survey was conducted with the human resources who were selected by adopting the random method sampling as the employees were selected randomly from different business organizations (Theodoridis, 2017) . 50 employees were selected and all of them have participated well in answering all the survey questions. The developed list of questionnaire has been shown as below:

1. Are you fully aware of the strategic management policies and practices within your business organization?

• Yes
• No

1. Which of the following types of employee contract are being preferred by you?

• Permanent
• Temporary
• Full-time
• Part-time

1. Which of the following issues are being faced by you while working in your organization?

• Lack of efficiency
• Lack of guidance
• Lack of flexibility
• All of the above
• None of the above

1. Are you provided with the professional sessions of training in case of adopting new software within the Company?

• Yes
• No
• Sometimes

1. Do your business managers engage you during the process of developing effective and strategic plans for the business?

• No
• Yes
• Sometimes

1. Among all the human resource management techniques given below, which are adopted by your business?

• Personnel techniques such as hiring, rewarding and promoting employees
• Cultural techniques such as developing and maintaining the cultures of high-performance
• Structural techniques such as organizational design

1. Are you satisfied with the employee retention program and strategies being framed by your business organizations?

• Highly satisfied
• Satisfied
• Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
• Dissatisfied
• Highly dissatisfied

1. According to you, which of the following benefits can be observed of strategic HR planning within your businesses?

• Key issues can be addressed timely and crises can be avoided
• Employees' productivity can be enhanced and organizational success can be achieved
• A positive sense of direction can be provided to all the employees
• All of the above

1. In your views, which one among the following is the core aim of ensuring strategic management of human resources?

• Improving overall business performance
• Leading towards flexibility, competitive advantage and innovation
• Developing right fit for the organizational culture
• None of the above

1. Because of which of the following reasons you feel that the concept of strategic management of human resources must be followed by your respective companies?

• Increased job satisfaction
• Enhanced customers' satisfaction
• Effective and efficient management of business resources
• Proactive approach of employees' management
• All of the above

This survey contained close-ended questions so that it could be easy for the participants to respond quickly and effectively. An interview session which was organized with 2 business managers has been analyzed in the next section. Online interview was conducted and the discussions with the managers were made on the video call.

The qualitative and quantitative information and data was collected by accessing multiple sources. The qualitative data has been collected from interview and survey which has been analyzed and discussed in the section of data analysis. The qualitative data involved the experiences of employees while performing various tasks and activities in the business organizations and some challenges which are being faced by the business managers while strategically managing their employees and guiding them towards the right direction (Marler & Fisher, 2013). The quantitative figures have been presented in the form of graphical presentations and percentages of all the answers to the survey questions. In addition to this, the quantitative data have been gathered and demonstrated in the section of secondary data analysis.

Data analysis

Primary data analysis

The survey was conducted in a well manner and the mails were received from all total number of participants. The results of survey questionnaire have been analyzed as below:

The graph reflected that 70 % of the employees are fully aware about the policies and practices of their respective businesses, but remaining 30 % are not aware of their business' policies due to lack of awareness.

Maximum employees have shown their interest in working as a full-time employee, 15 employees desire to work as a part-time employee, 10 employees believe in getting the permanent employee contract and remaining 5 employees feel that temporary employee contract is flexible for them.

The issue of lack of flexibility is the biggest issue which is being faced by 20 employees in their business organizations, 15 employees feel that they are not being guided properly towards their assigned tasks and duties, 5 participants face the issue of inappropriate efficiency, other 5 employees have said that they have been facing all the listed issues, while the remaining 5 employees said that they do not face any of the listed issues (Sikora & Ferris, 2014).

50 % of the participants are provided with the professional sessions of training so that they can adopt and use new technical software easily and effectively. 30 % of them are not provided with the training sessions and remaining 20 % have said that in some situations, training sessions are organized for them.

This line graph indicates that 30 employees are not being involved in the process of making strategic decisions and pans for their business organizations, 15 employees have answered yes confidently as they are always being involved into the decision making process and 5 employees have said that sometimes they are allowed to get engage in making decisions for their companies.

More than half of the participants that is 30 employees' business organizations follow the personnel techniques of HRM and other 20 employees' organizations adopt the cultural and structural techniques in an equal proportion.

The graph reflects that 10 employees are highly satisfied with the retention programs being adopted by the businesses, 15 out of 50 employees are satisfied with those programs, 10 employees were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied as they lack the knowledge about those retention programs, 10 of them were not satisfied with those programs and remaining 5 employees were highly dissatisfied.

This graph involved the percentages of the benefits to be perceived after the application of strategic HRM processes and planning within the business organizations. 20 employees realize that strategic HRM planning helps them to improve their level of productivity and improve overall success of the business organization. 15 employees responded that some complex issues can be tracked and eliminated properly, 10 employees feel that strategic process of HRM provides them with the clear direction and remaining 5 employees have felt all the listed benefits from strategic management of human resources.

40 % of the business employees consider the greater flexibility, innovation and competitive advantage as the core aim of strategic HRM, 20 % view the development of organizational culture as the main aim of it, 30 % of them realize that its aim is to improve the organizational performance and 10 % have felt that none of the options is the aim of strategic process of managing human resources.

40 % of the total participants have experienced that strategic HRM must be applied for the main reason of managing the business resources, effectively and efficiently. 30 % of employees have chosen the reason of effectively managing the human resources of the business, 10 % of 50 employees believe that satisfaction of customers get enhanced, other 10 % observe that their job satisfaction gets improved and remaining 10 % consider all the options as the main reasons for adopting and implementing the concept of strategic HRM.

During the interview round, the interaction with both the managers were made on a group video call and its results have also been disclosed and analyzed as follows:

Secondary data analysis

According to the views of Kramar (2014) SHRM mainly focuses on tracking and solving the complex issues or problems which are associated with the management of human resources. Instead of focusing only on the internal issues of HR, this concept addresses all the factors at the global level that influence the employees' productivity, job performance and management of all the business employees. It also helps in increasing the skills and capabilities among business employees by enhancing their level of engagement and involvement in the process of making and developing strategic decisions for the business organization (Khatoon et al., 2013).

In accordance to the perspectives of Jackson et al. (2014) 79 % of the employers struggles with the main problem of retaining and engaging employees for longer duration. 70 % of the employees tend to leave the organizations for the purpose of leading forward towards their career advancements. Over one-fourth of employees lie under the category of high-retention-risk and usually the top performers who possess the critical skills leave the business organization in the search for new jobs carrying high growth opportunities.

On the other hand, Cania (2014) researched that employees do not assume in the switching their jobs rapidly as they feel that this way might restrict their growth and promotion and therefore, most of the companies adopt the employee engagement practices which can help the employers to retain employees for longer duration. The concept of SHRM also helps in eliminating the big concern of employers which is retaining the new hires because 46 % of the new hires got fail in getting retained with the business for longer period and let go all the assigned tasks and duties. Out of 5 employees, 1 employee think that his boss does not even think about his appraisal and 30 % of the employees' performance reviews have indicated that their performances have been reducing at the constant pace (Delery & Roumpi, 2017).

Conclusion

All the research findings and discussions conclude that SHRM is an important and critical concept which must not be neglected by the business managers. Primary and secondary sources were used for gathering both the types of qualitative and quantitative data. The findings of survey and interview have been shown in graphical forms. The research was carried on over the internet as the survey and interview session were organized over video call and mail. The secondary data was also gathered from various online websites which were relevant and authentic.

References

Bradbury, T., & Sayers, J. G. (2019) 'The role of story-sharing in enacting values-based strategic human resource management', New Zealand Journal of Human Resources Management, 19(1).

Cania, L. (2014) 'The impact of strategic human resource management on organizational performance', Economia. Seria Management, 17(2), 373-383.

Delery, J. E., & Roumpi, D. (2017) 'Strategic human resource management, human capital and competitive advantage: is the field going in circles?', Human Resource Management Journal, 27(1), 1-21.

Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S., & Jiang, K. (2014) 'An aspirational framework for strategic human resource management', Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), 1-56.

Khatoon, T., Amin, M. R., & Hossain, M. M. (2013) 'Strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices and its effect on financial performance: evidence from some selected scheduled private commercial banks in Bangladesh', International Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences, 1(3), 151-158.

Kramar, R. (2014) 'Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human resource management the next approach?', The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), 1069-1089.

Marler, J. H., & Fisher, S. L. (2013) 'An evidence-based review of e-HRM and strategic human resource management', Human resource management review, 23(1), 18-36.

Pattanayak, T. K., & Sahoo, K. (2017) 'Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) initiatives for organisational effectiveness: A case study of a process unit', Siddhant-A Journal of Decision Making, 17(4), 343-350.

 Purce, J. (2014) 'The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management', New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67.

Sikora, D. M., & Ferris, G. R. (2014) 'Strategic human resource practice implementation: The critical role of line management', Human Resource Management Review, 24(3), 271-281.

Stone, D. L., & Deadrick, D. L. (2015) 'Challenges and opportunities affecting the future of human resource management', Human Resource Management Review, 25(2), 139-145.

Theodoridis, D. T. (2017) 'Workforce Diversity as a Guiding Light towards SHRM: Exploring managers' views regarding workforce diversity, its impact on Recruitment and Selection Practices, and the role of Sustainable HRM within Organizations', (Master's thesis, University of Stavanger, Norway).