BUSN20016 Research In Business

Topic: Maintaining Performance During Organisational Change.

Task Description

Please provide an outline of a research project t. You should briefly write:

• Title of the project
• A brief statement of the problem that you would like to investigate; and research aim and objectives that can solve the problem you have identified.
• A brief methodology: Provide details about what type of methodology you will choose such as quantitative or qualitative or mixed methodology;
• Clearly identify secondary data source(s) and datathat require for your research; also identify the methods and tools that you will use to analyse the collected data.

This is an individual research task. As a Masters student, you are required to engage in research and demonstrate your understanding of the relevant body of works that have discussed recent developments in a discipline and/or area of professional practice. You are also required to demonstrate knowledge of research methods applicable to a real-life business research.

Answer:

Problem Statement

Ideally, the performance of employees enhances as a result of implementation and improvement of the change management by most of the enterprises. This is mainly because change in management affects largely on the employees and thus if proper change is implemented, it outcomes in enhanced employees performance (Jacobs, van Witteloostuijn & Christe-Zeyse, 2013). This is because there are forces for as well as forces against change in each change proposal. The past studies have mixed outcome on the research topic that aligns with maintaining performance during change of organization (Huczynski, Buchanan & Huczynski, 2013).

Battilana and Casciaro (2012) found out that there is direct relationship on organizational change factors and enterprise performance. Recent studies reflect that as employees are the main resource of the organization, improvement in employee’s performance directly influences the organizational performance. As per Cameron and Green (2015), there is positive relationship between certain areas of organization change such as- (technology, enterprise structure, individuals) and the employees performance. This means that employee’s performance improves owing to organization change. Owing to dynamic changes in the business environment, the leaders and managers of the organizations are facing several difficulties in adopting new processes, business strategies within the organization. However, maintaining performance during organization change has been one of the main problems that the leaders are facing in today’s world (Doppelt, 2017). Now-a –days, most of the enterprises are facing several challenges in maintaining performance during adopting any change in the business.

Aims And Objectives Of Research

The research study aims to explore about how the enterprise maintains performance during any change in certain areas of business (Santos-Vijande, López-Sánchez & Trespalacios, 2012). The objectives of this research study are-

• To examine the factors that help the leaders of an enterprise to maintain performance during organizational change
• To investigate whether employees engagement during organizational change helps to maintain performance
• To explore the strategies that the leaders of an enterprise adopts for maintaining performance during change in enterprise.

Brief Methodology

In order to accurately examine the variables influencing performance during enterprise change, this study has used mixed methodology for conducting the research (Terrell, 2012). For achieving the predetermined objectives of the study, descriptive research design will be used in this research study. This research design will be used in this study as it will help to describe characteristics of specific group or individuals (Hair et al., 2015). The positivism philosophy will also be used in this study as it helps to interpret information with proper logic and reason.

• Literature review- To assess the problems faced by the enterprise to maintain performance during implementing change in few areas, which includes- technology, organization structure and so on (Wu, Straub & Liang, 2015). The sources that will be used for reviewing the literature includes- academic journals, reports on the enterprise change available in websites and interviews taken from employees.
• Collection of data-The secondary data will be gathered from different organizations, industry sources, journals and websites. The primary data will be collected through interviews conducted for employees and managers of the enterprise.
• Interviews- For supporting the secondary data findings, the employees and stakeholders’ interview will be conducted in few enterprises.  In combination with vital findings, the data will help in discussion about the strategies adopted by the leaders of an organization to maintain performance during organization change. (Hornstein, 2015)

Secondary Data And Data Analysis Methods

This research study will use secondary data collection method as the data will be available easily in online. Specifically, the data regarding change in organization structure, integration of new technologies, adoption of business strategies are obtained from the company’s websites and their annual report. After gathering all information, the data will be analyzed in the Excel sheet and then correlation analysis will be conducted for finding relationship between performance and organization change.

References

Battilana, J., & Casciaro, T. (2012). Change agents, networks, and institutions: A contingency theory of organizational change. Academy of Management Journal, 55(2), 381-398.

Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2015). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers,4(2),67-89.

Doppelt, B. (2017). Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for business, government and civil society. Routledge. 13(2), 23-45.

Hair Jr, J. F., Wolfinbarger, M., Money, A. H., Samouel, P., & Page, M. J. (2015). Essentials of business research methods. Routledge.

Hornstein, H. A. (2015). The integration of project management and organizational change management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), 291-298.

Huczynski, A., Buchanan, D. A., & Huczynski, A. A. (2013). Organizational behaviour (p. 82). London: Pearson.

Jacobs, G., van Witteloostuijn, A., & Christe-Zeyse, J. (2013). A theoretical framework of organizational change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 26(5), 772-792.

Santos-Vijande, M. L., López-Sánchez, J. Á., & Trespalacios, J. A. (2012). How organizational learning affects a firm’s flexibility, competitive strategy, and performance. Journal of Business Research, 65(8), 1079-1089.

Terrell, S. R. (2012). Mixed-methods research methodologies. The qualitative report, 17(1), 254-280.

Wu, S. P. J., Straub, D. W., & Liang, T. P. (2015). How information technology governance mechanisms and strategic alignment influence organizational performance: Insights from a matched survey of business and IT managers. Mis Quarterly, 39(2), 497-518.