Example of literature review on research objectives and data collection plan

Research Objectives

The principal objectives of this research project are to:
Find the source of the problem that discourages employees from staying within the organization
Determining the different issues faced by employees that are leading to the high turnover observed at the organization
Data collection plan
In order to address the research objectives outlined above, a mixed methodology will be employed. This implies that both primary and secondary data will be collected in order to address this objectives.

Exit interviews:

The first source of primary data for the research will be exist interviews. Exit interviews will provide both qualitative and quantitative data that can be in drawing conclusions on the employee turnover observed at the organization. Furthermore, using the data collected from the exit interviews it is possible to determine the different issues that employees are facing at the organization that may explain the high turnover witnessed.

Literature review:

Secondary data for the research will be collected through the use a literature review. Using the available resources and databases such as the PSU online library and Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) a number of peer review scholarly articles that relate to the topic will be searched. For this research, five articles from the PSU online library were selected. The relevant theories and evidence collected from the articles have been discussed below. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) website will provide a vast amount of data and information on employee turnover, the risks of turnover, reasons for turnover and avoiding employee turnover. This information will provide the required background information for the study. It will also help in developing recommendations.

Mission statement and job satisfaction:

According to a study conducted by Brown & Yoshioka, (2003), nonprofit organizations rely on their mission statement to attract and retain employees. According to the article, a nonprofit organization’s mission helps in creating the right attitude among employees and increases job satisfaction, which in turn reduces employee turnover. PFC’s mission is to enhance the individuals’ quality of life by providing them opportunities for growth and self-independence. It seems that PFC has been experiencing a high rate of turnover for the last couple of years. The researchers also cited the mission statement as a powerful tool to motivate the employees, however, pay also plays an important role in employee retention (Brown & Yoshioka, 2003).
People First Corporation used many resources during recruitment to train their employees, honing their skills and keeping them happy in the organization. Staff turnover is then seen as a failure and an extra expense to the organization. Many aspects have contributed to initiate employee turnover over the years, as the article by Hom & Kinicki (2001) explains. There needs to be a change in the scenery at work as well as tangible solutions for managers to combat employee turnover. Employees make the organization, and most of the products consumed and enjoyed by those served by the organization are the brainchild of these employees. People First Corporation is one of the important nonprofit organizations because of the work they do in helping people living with intellectual and development disability. It also has one of the highest staff turnovers (Hom & Kinick, 2001)

Employee support

In their article, Maertz, Griffeth, Campbell, & Allen (2007), studied the effects of perceived organizational support and perceived supervisor support on employee turnover. Their study was done in a sample population of 225 workers. Model tests also show that Perceived Organizational Support had real effect on staff turnover deliberated through normative commitment, as well as affective organizational commitment (Maertz, Griffeth, Campbell, & Allen, 2007).

Economic attachment:

In another study conducted by Borzaga & Tortia (2006), the research conducted tests whether motivation and incentives offered affect employee’s attitude towards their job. According to the results of the study, intrinsic and relational attachment towards work derives better satisfaction than working for economic gain. It also found that the most loyal customers are the ones who had economic attachment and were more interested in the activities related to the job (Borzaga & Tortia, 2006).

Results and employee attitude:

The study by Koys (2001), addresses whether employees react better when results go their way or that employees attitudes determine the outcome and productivity. Using a cross lagged regression model, there is a relationship between employee behavior at one point and organization’s effectiveness on the other hand. When additional cross-lagged regression tests are done, they do not show a significant relationship between the effectiveness of an organization at one time and the employee attitudes at the other point of the spectrum. This proves that the decisions of management; and how they treat their employees influence the results and attitudes of the employees and not vice versa (Koys, 2001).
According to a study carried out by SHRM Foundation Research (2014), employee turnover has a negative impact on organizations. The research examines employee turnover as a human resource risk to any organization. This is attributable to the fact that it leads to losses being incurred. According to the results of the research, it is clear that a single manager and employee turnover may reduce performance by 6% and 5% respectively. Therefore, there is a need to research into the topic in order to address the problems leading to employee turnover. All the studies examined above are accurate and the results can be verified since the research methods used was sound. However, all the studies show different outcomes since they were examining different scenarios causing staff turnover.

Interviews and surveys:

Additional data for this research will also be collected using interviews and surveys. For this purpose, three years’ worth of data will be collected through interviews, surveys of stakeholders, and serve as the basis for the research study. Appropriate interview and survey tools will be developed in order to aid with the research. These tools will contain questions that are relevant to the research topic and will be administered to the selected participants. Both male and female respondents will be selected for the study, as it will help in comparing the differences between male and female respondents. The respondents of the interviews and surveys will be selected using random sampling. This will help in eliminating any bias.
A Likert scale would be used as the response option in the surveys. This will provide excellent oversight into the feelings of the respondents over the issues raised in the surveys. Data collected using the likert scale will be converted to SPSS software for further analysis. Qualitative data from interviews will be collected and sent for further analysis in order to draw conclusions of the research study. Further analysis will involve coding, classifying and carrying out statistical analysis on the data in order to provide information that can be used to draw conclusions and provide recommendations.

Is your data collection and analysis consistent with the size and extent of the business challenge you are examining?

As stated earlier, data will be sourced from both primary and secondary sources. This implies that a vast amount of data will be collected. Data to address the business problem will be collected from exit interviews, interviews, surveys, and literature review. The data collected will be analyzed further in order to identify specific themes and subthemes evident in the data. This will be consistent with the size and extent of the business challenge under study.

Visual tool showing the data collection process

Figure 1: Flowchart showing the data collection process for the study
Does your data collection section serve the purpose of informing you relative to the formulation of alternative potential solutions and a recommended solution?
Yes, the data collection section serves the purpose of informing relative to the formulation of alternative potential solutions and a recommended solution. This is mainly because it provides a detailed methodology on how the research objectives identified above can be addressed. Furthermore, the section clearly describes that method that will be used in addressing the business problem identified. Using the methodology discussed above it is possible to come up with effective solutions and recommendations on employee turnover since the different issues that employees face in the workplace will be addressed.

References

Borzaga, C., & Tortia, E. (2006). Worker motivations, job satisfaction, and loyalty in public and nonprofit social services. Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly, 35(2), 225-248.
Brown, W. A., & Yoshioka, C. F. (2003). Mission attachment and satisfaction as factors in employee retention. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 14(1), 5-18.
Hom, P. W., & Kinicki, A. J. (2001). Toward a greater understanding of how dissatisfaction drives employee turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 44(5), 975-987.
Koys, D. J. (2001). The effects of employee satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, and turnover on organizational effectiveness: A unit‐level, longitudinal study. Personnel psychology, 54(1), 101-114.
Maertz, C. P., Griffeth, R. W., Campbell, N. S., & Allen, D. G. (2007). The effects of perceived organizational support and perceived supervisor support on employee turnover. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 28(8), 1059-1075.
SHRM Foundation Research (2014). Turnover as Human Resource Risk: The Effect of Turnover Events on Unit Financial Performance. Retrieved June 19, 2015, from http://www. shrm. org/about/foundation/research/pages/fdnresearchployhart. aspx