Requirement: Construct a research proposal
Topic: Desk Sharing and the impact on the job satisfaction / psychological contract of employee´s (working title, please feel free to adjust that it sounds more professional, impact on either job satisfaction or psychological contract, please have a look what makes more sense also based on available literature in order to get the best result)
Harvard referencing to be used.
References: approx. 60 -80 (please focus on high quality publications, papers in good journals etc.; for some general points which need to be covered, I will provide at the end of the document the reference list with the essential readings which should be included if need be…example for the research philosophy etc it makes sense)
Instruction from myside: Please focus on the details und answer each of the 7 points from the grading scheme to achieve a great score. In case there is something not clear or you want to know something else please drop me a message via the portal.
Grading as per following criteria (in detail what needs to be done, please carefully have a look, I provide my comments to each point in blue)
1. (Carries 6% of the marks available for this Coursework)
An account of the background to and rationale for your research proposal which should:
a) Explain the nature of your research topic, expressing your research topic in the form of a problem which needs solving, a question that needs answering or something which you find exciting and has aroused your curiosity and you wish to find out more about.
b) Provide a brief description of the background/context and state why your research is worth the effort of undertaking research into.
Note:
i. If your focus relates to an organisational area, emphasise the significance of the research to the organisation.
Comment: The topic is very important as more and more organisation change to Desk Sharing office layouts. Please put something reasonable based on what you find in the literature review.
2. (Carries 22% of the marks available for this Coursework)
A literature review, which should:
a) Draw on relevant literature to show why your study is important, and
b) Articulate the relevance and significance of existing research literature in the chosen field.
Note:
This component (2) should link back to component 1 immediately above as well as component 3 immediately below.
Comment: Please include as many quality references as possible and reasonable. Good balance please.
3. (Carries 5% of the marks available for this Coursework)
Statement(s) of your research aims and objectives, and associated hypotheses or questions.
Note:
These statement(s) should leave the person reading and assessing your research
proposal in no doubt as to precisely what it is your research seeks to achieve.
The statement(s) should be informed by your considerations in components 1
and 2 immediately above.
Comment: Please use relevant hypotheses on that.
4. (Carries 20% of the marks available for this Coursework)
The selection of an appropriate research philosophy, supported by discussion and justification of your selection.
Note:
Within your justification you should ensure that you explain why alternative philosophies are inappropriate.
Comment: research philosophes being: Positivism, Realism, Interpretivism, Pragmatism. I will at the end provide the relevant reference, please take the most relevant and have a critical view / justification on your choice.
5. (Carries 33% of the marks available for this Coursework)
The selection of an appropriate research design, with an accompanying description, supported by a justification of that research design. In this part of the proposal you should set out and justify:
a) your approach: whether deductive and/or inductive;
b) your type of study: whether exploratory or descriptive or explanatory
c) your strategy, justifying your selection in the context of how it is suited to enabling you to answer your particular research questions and meet your research objectives; here you should refer specifically to the case(s) and/or setting(s) and/or population(s) that will be the focus for data collection;
d) the nature of the data – primary and/or secondary – you intend to collect;
e) how you intend to, if necessary, successfully negotiate access to data from institutions and/or organisations and/or individuals;
f) your sampling strategy, where relevant/appropriate/if not, why not;
g) techniques, be they qualitative or quantitative or mixed, you intend to use to collect and analyse your data.
Within this component (5) and specifically in relation to item 5g) in the context of item 5d), if you intend to use secondary or primary data or both types, use your knowledge about the nature and characteristics of such data to not only identify appropriate techniques for analysis but to also justify why those techniques are appropriate and others are not appropriate.
Comment: Please address each point on the list above and justify the decision. For the strategy, a mixed approach of quantitate and qualitative data collection should make most sense. First we could say that we do a short qualitative study to explore a bit more the feelings of the employee´s and to generate a first feeling. Based on the results and in combination with the literature review we then start to collect quantitative data view a survey we distribute inside of a selected organization and target the full population. Please adjust and propose as you think most appropriate, as long the whole picture makes sense and gets the distinction 😉
6. (Carries 4% of the marks available for this Coursework)
Identification and consideration of any ethical issues that might arise in the course of the research and how you intend to address them.
Consideration of this area is an important part of any proposal and indeed study. Even if you feel there are less ‘ethical’ issues to consider, this should be explicit and also provide the rationale as to why you feel this is the case.
Comment: Please feel free to propose something meaningful.
7. (Carries 10% of the marks available for this Coursework)
Relating to structure, clarity and communication of content, up to 10% of the marks are available for the thrust, flow, integration and cohesion of the research proposal, and will be awarded by the marker on the basis of overall academic judgement.
Comment: Please make sure the content is properly presented in a nice flow, with a table of content giving a clear structure in order to fully score.
A relevant reference list. This should link to any references drawn upon in components 1 through to 6 immediately above. (There are no specific marks available for this list but it must link to references drawn upon in your considerations. The marking scheme relating to points 1 through to 6 includes marks for identification and appropriate consideration of relevant and appropriate references. That said, where a relevant reference list is not provided marks will be reduced by 10 percentage points i.e. 10 marks.)
