Research Proposal in Tqm free essay sample

There are increasing number of organisations which are adopting quality measures such as Total Quality Management as their management strategies are not only for meeting increasing demands for quality services from their customers and regulatory bodies but also for a distinct and strategic competitive advantage. This chapter will concentrate on the research design and methodology relevant to identify the Total Quality Management system of Sainsbury’s. It will also focus on the research methods used to fulfil the purpose of the thesis. A description of the problems associated with the research together with an assessment of their implication on this research will also be highlighted in this chapter. â€Å"Research can be defined as something that people undertake in order to find out things in a systematic way, thereby increasing their knowledge†(Saunders et al. , 2002). A research design is a master plan specifying the methods and procedures for collecting and analysing the needed information. We will write a custom essay sample on Research Proposal in Tqm or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It is a framework of the research plan of action. The objectives of the study determined at the early stages of the research are included in the design to ensure that the information collected is appropriate to solve the problem. The researcher faces a number of crucial design choices. These can be summarised in a categorisation of research design types. Some major ones are: ? Experiment ? Survey ? Case study ? Grounded theory ? Ethnography ? Action research ? Cross section and longitudinal studies ? Exploratory, descriptive studies. Source- Saunders et al. , 2003 Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill (2003) state that there is no one best research design for all situations. There are no hard and fast rules for good research. It means that the researcher has many alternative methods for solving the research problem. â€Å"There is never a single, standard, correct method of carrying out a piece of research. Do not wait to start your research until you find out the proper approach, because there are many ways to tackle a problem. † Source- Zikmund, 1994. In this research multi method approach will be used for the data collection. This approach and strategy obviously do not exist in isolation, and therefore can be mixed and matched. It is quite useful for a single study to combine and use primary and secondary data. Based on the past study on the research design it can be said that there are two major advantages to employ multi methods in the same study (Saunders et al. , 2003). Firstly, different methods can be used for different purposes in a study. As in this research for example, interviews will be conducted to get a feeling for the key before embarking on the most important issues. The second advantage of using this method is that it enables triangulation to take place. Triangulation refers to the use of different data collection methods in one study in order to ensure that the data is backing up the aims and objectives of the research. For example as in this case the semi structured interviews may be a valuable way of triangulating data collected by questionnaires. 4. 3 DATA COLLECTION Once the research design has been formalised, the process of gathering data from respondents can begin. In this dissertation the multi method research technique will be used. There are four basic methods for data collection namely, observation, focus group and depth interview, survey and experiments (Kotler, 2001). The use of data collection method is dependent on the nature of research topics and there is no absolute answer. Secondary data are data gathered by someone else prior to the current needs of the researcher. These data are usually historic, already assembled and do not require access to respondents or subjects. Secondary data include both qualitative and quantitative data and they can be used in both descriptive and explanatory research (Saunders et al. , 2003). Secondary data can provide a background to primary research. Even if it does not fulfil exactly what is needed, it might help to determine key variables that any subsequent primary research will have to investigate; it may help determine sampling methods or sample sizes. The secondary data is used in this dissertation for a literature survey of published article, newspaper, internet and books discussing theories. Most of the secondary data will be taken from text books, journals, newspaper and internet. Some facts and figures will be extracted from the quality records of Sainsbury’s. 4. 3. 2 PRIMARY DATA Primary data is data that is collected at source. It is collected to fulfil the demands of the current research project. Primary data is collected through experiments, observations, interviews, survey etc. In practice there were various methods, which could have been adopted for gathering the primary data for this particular research. Through careful examination the author decided to use structured questionnaires and personal interview methods to gather primary data. 4. 4 INTERVIEW Interviewing is a method of collecting data in which selected participants are asked questions in order to find out what they do, think or feel. An interview is a powerful discussion between two or more people (Ghauri Gronhaug, 2002). The use of interviews can help to gather valid and reliable data that are relevant to the research objectives. Interviews can be highly formalised and structured, using standardised questions for each respondent or they may be informal and unstructured conversations. Interviews can be classified as following types: †¢ Structured interviews †¢ Semi- structured interviews †¢ Unstructured interviews Source- Saunders et al. , 2003 Structured interviews use questionnaires based on a predetermined and standardised or identical set of questions. Each question will be read out and then the response will be recorded on a standardised schedule. By comparison semi- structured and unstructured interviews are non-standardised. In semi- structured interviews the researcher will have a list of themes and questions to be covered although these may vary from interview to interview. One aspect of semi structured interviews is that the issues discussed, the questions raised, and the maters explored, change from one interview to the next as different aspects of the topic are revealed. This process of open discovery is the strength of such interviews, but it is important to recognise that emphasis and balance of the emerging issues might depend on the order in which interviewer and interviewee participate. The author has selected semi structured interview method because it is the best way to know the view of the managers of Sainsbury’s about TQM. In semi structured interview method the interviewer have the chance to introduce different questions in different situations. As the researcher is not aware about the TQM of Sainsbury’s this type of interview method will help him to evaluate the present situation. 4. 5 QUESTIONNAIRE A questionnaire is a list of carefully structured questions, chosen after considerable testing, with a view to eliciting reliable responses from a chosen sample. ( Hussey Hussey, 1997 ). Typically a questionnaire is only one element of a data collection package that includes fieldwork procedures, such as instructions for selecting, approaching and questioning respondents. The aim of questionnaire is to find out what a selected group of participants do, think or feel. Questionnaires are the most popular data collection method in business research. The majority of the questionnaires are descriptive and analytical. The descriptive questionnaires are used to gather information related to attitude and opinion. This will enable the author to identify and describe the variability in different phenomena. Although questionnaires can be used as only a method of data collection, they are usually linked to other methods. This research questionnaire can be used to discover employee opinion and attitudes, and can be supplemented by in depth interviews to explore and understand those attitudes. In addition questionnaires normally require less skill and sensitivity to administer than semi- structured or in depth interviews (Saunders et al. , 2003). 4. 5. 1 Questionnaire design For this research the researcher has decided to prepare two sets of questionnaire: one for the employees of the Sainsbury’s and the other for the customers. The questionnaire for the employees will target to assess the awareness of the employees towards TQM, job satisfaction, and understanding of their duties and responsibilities. The questionnaire of the customer will concentrate on the expectation of the customer, their experience about shopping at Sainsbury’s and the quality of service they get. The questions will be designed in such a way that every respondent will understand it properly as it is very important to get a reliable data. The questions will not be open ended and there will be multiple choice of answers which will enable the respondents to select the answer close to their opinion. . 5. 2 REASONS OF CHOOSING QUESTIONNAIRE As per Jill Hussey and Roger Hussey (1997) state, a questionnaire survey is cheaper and less time consuming than conducting interviews, and large samples can be taken (Hussey Hussey, 1997). Open ended questions offer the advantage that the respondents are able to give their opinions as precisely a s possible in their own words but they can be difficult to analyse. Open questions may deter busy people from responding to the questionnaire. Closed questions are very convenient for collecting factual data and are usually easy to analyse, as the range of answers is limited. The drawback of multiple choice answer questionnaires is that it does not reflect the opinion of the respondents in their own words. So the researcher cannot be certain about how closely it matches their opinion. However it can sometimes be useful for dealing with sensitive issues, since it identifies different responses. It can also be useful as a means of cross checking other questions by presenting the situation in a different way. 4. 6 DATA ANALYSIS This research will contain both qualitative and quantitative data. Once data collection has been completed the phase of data analysis begins. All the quantitative data will be analyzed by using tabulation and statistical analysis. For this all the data need to be coded and entered into a standard form. Coding involves the assigning of numerical codes to responses so that they can be stored in the data field, interpreted and manipulated for statistical and tabular purpose (Wilson, 2003). After coding and data entry frequency of each question will be calculated. Frequency distribution shows the number of respondents who gave each possible answer to each question. The author will use cross tabulations as well to analyze the data as it examines the responses of one question relative to the responses of one or more questions. The qualitative data will be analyzed by using the annotation method. The annotation method involves the researcher reading through the transcripts and annotating the margins with codes or comments to categorise the points being made by respondents (Wilson, 2003). 4. 7 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY Validity is the extent to which the research findings, accurately represents what is really happening in the situation (Ghauri Gronhaug, 2002). An effect or test is valid if it demonstrates or measures what the researcher thinks or claims it does. Research errors, such as faulty research procedure, poor samples and inaccurate or misleading measurement can undermine validity. There are a number of different ways in which the validity of research can be assessed. The most common is face validity which simply involves ensuring that the test or measures used by the researcher do actually measure or represent what they are supposed to measure (Hussey Hussey, 1997). Another form of validity, which is important in business research, is internal and external validity. Internal validity refers to the extent to which the researcher can infer that a casual relationship exits between two or more variables (Ghauri Gronhaug, 2002). External validity relates to what extent the findings can be generalized to particular persons, settings and times, as well as across types of persons, settings and times (Ghauri Gronhaug, 2002). For example when conducting an election poll, external validity is usually used as a basis for generalizing the number of voters. In this research questionnaire will be sent to those employees who work in Sainsbury’s. Precautions will be taken during the preparation of the questions so that everybody understands the questions clearly. To get a valid data following precautions will be taken: †¢ Interview will be carried out by the researcher himself. †¢ Those people who meet the requirement of the survey will be interviewed. †¢ The interview will be conducted in correct location and manner as these factors might affect the response. †¢ All the questions will be asked to the interviewee. †¢ Precaution will be taken to find out if the respondent is unhappy about anything. Reliability refers to the consistency in reaching the same results when the measurement is made over and over again (Proctor, 2000). On the contrary, validity is the extent to which any measuring instrument measures what it intends to measure. In this dissertation no tests or experiments were taken. Hence reliability of the measurement employed to collect the data is irrelevant. Since the dissertation is of descriptive nature, the data that has been collected from secondary source need to be accurate and valid. In accordance with this principle all data will be taken from recent publications. 4. 8 CONCLUSION This chapter has given an idea about the research methodology the researcher is going to adopt in this thesis. It also critically analyses the reasons of selecting any particular method for collecting data. The researcher has decided to carry out two types of questionnaires; one for the customers and one for the employees of Sainsbury’s to collect primary data. The author will conduct semi-structured interviews with the managers of Sainsbury’s to gather primary data about the management policy of the organization. The next chapter will analyse the collected data and concentrate on individual consequence. CHAPTER FIVE DATA ANALYSIS 5. 1 INTRODUCTION Previous chapter analysed the research design and the reasons of choosing questionnaire and semi structured interview for this research. This chapter will contain an intensive analysis of the acquired data. This chapter will be divided into three parts. In the first part there is an analysis based on staff questionnaire, each questionnaire findings will be analysed in this part based on previous related theory of literature review. In the second part findings of customer questionnaire will be analysed in the same process and finally the interviews will be evaluated based on recent academic theory . . 2 ANALYSIS OF QUESTIONNAIRES Data analysis is the process of bringing order, structure and meaning to the mass of collected data (Ghauri Gronhaug, 2002). Descriptive statistics is used to analyse the data because it helps to summarise the characteristics of large sets of data using only a few numbers and it is also useful in analysing data with more than one variable (Wilson, 2003). Frequency distribution is used to show the number of respondents. In addition to frequency distribution the author has calculated the percentage of those responding who selected each response. Cross tabulations are another powerful analysis technique as they examine the responses to one question relative to the responses to one or more other questions (Wilson, 2003). In addition to cross tabulation (Refer to appendix-1 2 for details) the researcher has presented the data in a variety of graphical formats using pie charts, bar charts, these can help in the communication of results and patterns in data. Two software are used to complete this analysis, firstly Microsoft XL, secondly Microsoft word. |Sample type |Total no. of questionnaires sent |No. f responses |Response rate | |Customer |100 |65 |65% | |Employee |75 |60 |80% | Table: 2. Response of questionnaires 5. 3 ANALYSIS OF STAFF QUESTIONNAIRES (Refer to appendix- 1) Question no. 1- Sex [pic] Fig. 10- Male/ female ratio The sample is biased towards male with 59. 5% response. It is very difficult to make any conclusion based on sex, because sample size is very small. But there are some significant changes found between men and women analyzed the question 4 and question 12. (Please see appendix). From there it is clear that men do change frequently for example, they are using Sainsbury as their platform of experience, so after one or two years they are switching to a new job, on the other hand women are not very frequent to change their existing job. After analysing question 12 it can be said that women like to choose easy method but men mostly prefer difficult than women to use TQM as a system. Question no. 2- Age [pic] Fig. 1- Age group/ employees percentage chart The respond to this question shows a clear skew towards younger people with 25% aged less than 25 years, 50% between 25 to 35 years, 15. 5% between 36 to 45 years and 9. 5% more than 45 years. There is a higher level of support for TQM in younger staffs but the older age group are against any technical change. Question no. 3- Work category The graph shows that higher number of people r esponded this question were from shop floor replenishment and customer service. The reason could be that there are more employees in these two categories compared to others. The trend identified in this group, are as follows- †¢ Management and office worker show higher level of acceptance to TQM than shop floor replenishment and customer service employees. †¢ In respond to question no. 12 shop floor replenishment and customer service employees have selected the method which is easy to use but the other two groups were biased in their respond. †¢ Management and office employees showed their acceptance towards higher level of communication. [pic] Fig. 12- Work category/ employee percentage Question no. 4- Service duration This graph is showing that after six months experience most of the employee want to switch their job. Before six months they are very much efficient but if they get any opportunities they want to quite the job, even when they are quite matured they want to leave the job but percentage is lower than previous three levels. So it is very important for Sainsbury’s to find the reason why employees tend to leave, as senior employees are motivated and participate fully in different programmes lead by the management. It is expensive for an organisation to train up an employee (Refer to appendix- 1). pic] Fig. 13- Service duration/ percentage of employee Question no. 5- Part time/fulltime [pic] Fig. 14- Part time/ full time Among the employees 64. 2% are part time workers, where about 29. 8% are full time workers. From the research it has revealed that part time employees are less motivated to work than full time employees, but there is a time provision for part time workers when they are really motivated. Question 4 is showing that most of the workers want to leave the job after six months or one year job experience. There could be some reasons behind taking their decision. . Part time employees also don’t participate fully in different programmes introduced by top management to increase customer satisfaction. 2. They feel less motivated as they know they cannot take any decision for the company. 3. They don’t have any stability, they know at any time they can lose their jobs. In respond to question number six about understanding of responsibility they show a skew from ignorant to confident. They also tend to work properly if supervised; this is revealed in the answer to question number seven (Refer to appendix- 1). Question no. 6- Understanding of responsibility [pic] Fig. 15- Understanding of responsibility The answer to this question is very important in the understanding of the responsibilities of employees. Sainsbury’s will have to make sure that all the employees understand their basic responsibilities, which will help them to perform their duties properly. Question no. 7- Dedication to responsibility From the graph it is clear that most of the employees are dedicated to their responsibilities. 35. 30% employees perform their duties properly if they are supervised. But half of the employees do believe that they can do better in their field they get freedom to do their into their own ways. People do not like supervision especially if they are matured in the job. But good performance only came from high level of supervision so Sainsbury will get a good customer service if employees are dedicated enough and be supervised. [pic] Fig. 16- Dedication to duty Question no. 8- Attitude towards change. Change is the key factor to get competitive advantages than other super markets. People don’t like changes especially those are old aged. Research showing that men are accepting changes better than women. From this survey it can be said that employees from Sainsbury are enthusiastic about changes and they are not hostile. [pic] Fig. 17- Attitude towards change Question no. 9- Attitude to TQM 80. 80% employee do believe that TQM system is an effective and planned way to improve customer service so need to use them for increasing job efficiency. In respond to question number 9. b. 90. 20% of the employees believe that training can help them to do better job. So training will enable them to understand their responsibility and enjoy their job. So this attitude surely help Sainsbury to make any changes into their TQM. On the response of the question no 9. c. 77. 9% employees strongly believe that TQM system will make their job easier and 74. 60% employees believe that introduction of new TQM system might change the organizational structure and may provide more opportunities for them. So after analysing question no. 9 it can be said that employees of Sainsbury will warmly accept any changes because they are enthusiastic enough to accept any changes as a result new TQM can be really effective from the employees point of view. pic] 9. a Fig. 18- Attitude towards TQM [pic] 9. b Fig. 18- Attitude towards TQM [pic] 9. c Fig. 19- Attitude towards TQM [pic] 9. d Fig. 20- Attitude towards TQM Question no. 10- Resistance to TQM This question aimed to identify how the employees will express their resistance if they are not satisfied with the TQM system of the company. The graph shows that most of the employees do not tend to express t heir resistance openly. In this situation it will be difficult for the management to know the view of the employees about any changes introduced by them. For this type of attitude the employees will not participate fully with changes and the organisation will not achieve its target. [pic] Fig. 21- Resistance to TQM Question no. 11- Change in work [pic] Fig. 22- Change in work The aim of this question was to find out the extent of changes the employees will accept in their work place regarding their responsibility and mobility. In the graph 1 represents a little change and 5 for lot of changes. From the graph it is clear that most of the employees do not expect lots of changes in the way they work. The answer to this question will help the management to decide the extent of changes they can introduce in the organisation. Question no. 12- Expectation from TQM From the research carried by the author it is revealed that about 60. 2% of the employees expect TQM method to be easy and which will fulfil their basic needs. Mainly part time workers and women are against any technical change, they always prefer the method which is easy to use. But young employees and full time employees have chosen the method which fulfils every need (Refer to appendix- 1). pic] Fig. 23 – Expectation from TQM Question no.