HR assignment comparing topics of interest to HR academic and HR professionals
Question
Task: The HR assignmenttests your ability to produce a viable and justifiable research project for your dissertation including the design of an appropriate approach to the research methodology.Identify a suitable range of topics from which to choose. Construct a coherent argument for the research topic. Evaluate a range of primary research options from which to choose and justify the most appropriate research methods identified for the completion of the dissertation
Answer
Background to the research
Human Resource is the building block of any organisation which not only ensures the running of operational procedure but also determines the performance of the organisation in the competitive market environment. HR management plays an essential role in recruiting employees, developing employee skills, and managing all work-related responsibilities effectively (McGinty and Lylova, 2020). Tesco is one of the leading retail organizations in the UK operating their business in different international countries. Management is important for Tesco manage its large workforce and organizational performance to gain market advantages (Kumar et al. 2019). The present HR assignmentresearch mainly aims to discuss the importance of HR management and HR professionals in managing the workforce and business performance of Tesco.
Background to the organization discussed in the HR assignment
TescoPlcis one of the largest supermarket chains in the UK and offers a wide range of products such as clothing, grocery, books, financial services, food beverages, and home appliances (tesco.com, 2022). Tesco has around 4,074 stores in the UK that help management to provide better customer services (statista.com, 2021).
Figure 1: “Number of the store of Tesco in the UK”
(Source: statista.com, 2021)
It is seen from the HR assignmentthat the financial growth of Tesco is increasing gradually in this country indicating greater brand values and customer base. Tesco generates around 56 million British pounds in the UK in the 2020-2021 financial year. Tesco has a large number of employees around 354,000 to operate their business operations across the world (statista.com, 2021). HR management plays an important role for Tesco to manage these large numbers of employees for managing financial performance. The HR management of Tesco designed an effective training and skill development program for their employees that will improve their skills and manage organizational performance(Mousa and Othman., 2020).
Rationale of the research
Organizations like Tesco faced several HR challenges in their business that directly impacted organizational productivity and organizational culture. Many times organizations have failed to build a workforce and manage workforce conflicts(Zaid et al., 2018). The present HR assignmentresearch mainly discusses HR practices to develop an organizational workforce and improve business performance. The management of Tesco will benefit from this present research by getting a deep understanding of the HR practices, and HR professionals in managing an organizational workforce.
HR assignmentResearch Aim
The aim of this HR assignmentresearch is to investigate the HR interest and HR professionals and practices in managing the organizational workforce to improve business performance and gain competitive advantages.
Research Objectives
To analyse the relationship between HR interest and HR practices in managing an organizational workforce of Tesco
To investigate the factors affecting the development of HR practices within the organization
To find out potential challenges in the development of HR professionals, practices in Tesco
To discuss appropriate strategies in developing HR practices of Tesco
Research questions for the HR assignment
1. What is the relationship between HR interest and HR practices in managing an organizational workforce of Tesco?
2. What are the factors affecting the development of HR practices within the organization?
3. What are the challenges in the development of HR professionals, and practices at Tesco?
4. What are the strategies for developing the HR practices of Tesco?
Research Hypothesis
H0: There is no significant relationship between HR professionals and HR interest in managing the organizational workforce
H1: There is a strong relationship between HR interest and HR professionals in managing the workforce
Literature review
Analysed HR practices within the business organization
HR professionals looks after the workforce need of an organisation by recruiting employees as vacancies, arranging training and development programs and looking after the employee benefit aspects and so on(Pham et al., 2019). The HR assignmentresearch stated that the HR department of Tesco has maintained its recruitment process to meet the need of the customers (Brannenet al. 2020). As one of the largest supermarkets in UK, Tesco must maintain its HR management process effective and up-to-date considering the changing need of the workforce as well as the organisation.
Figure 1: “number of employees at Tesco in the United Kingdom (UK)* from 2012 to 2022”
(Source: statista.com, 2022)
The statistics data in the HR assignmentshow that almost 354,000 employees are currently working under Tesco. HR management of Tesco has been implementing new policies in order to retain their employees (statista.com, 2022).
Strategies to improve HR practices in the business organisation
According to Armstrongand Taylor (2020), improving the selection and recruitment process can help in improving HR practices within the business organisation. As per the HR assignmentin addition to employees, compensation can be also referred to as one of the other processes for improving HR management practices. It is also necessary to provide training and development within the workforce of the company. It will help the employees in improving their skills and attributes (Mahmood et al. 2019). On the other hand; Tesco must align its business requirement with HR recommendations. Implementing the open communication process within the workforce of the company will also help in improving HR practices in Tesco.
Theoretical perspective provided in the HR assignment
Human relation theory
This theory mentioned in the HR assignmenthas been promoting organizational thought that can enhance business productivity. Work satisfaction, employee engagement, and so on. Implementing the human relations model within the HR practices of the business organization will help them retain a higher employee engagement rate and job satisfaction rate (Serra et al. 2019). Besides that; it will also help the company in improving its competitive advantage
Research Methodology
Research philosophy
Research philosophy is the belief developed by the researcher regarding the process of development of knowledge in the undertaken research. The researcher of the HR assignmentwill use positivism research philosophy after understanding the research aims and objectives. Positivism philosophy holds the perspective that only factual knowledge leads a research to the actual events(Zangirolami-Raimundo et al., 2018). It will help the researchers with several information regarding Tesco’s HR practices.
Research approach
The term "research approach" refers to the process of creating a plan and procedure for data gathering, analysis, and interpretation. The deductive, Inductive, and Abductive research approaches are the three techniques that are chosen based on the research's needs (Runco and Beghetto, 2019). In this research in order to gather information regarding HR professional practices at Tesco ‘the researcher for theHR assignmentwill be used a deductive approach, which enable the researcher to conclude the research context, by interpreting the collected data with reference to the already existing principles and policies.
Research strategy
The propose HR assignmentresearch aims to investigate the HR interest and HR professionals and practices in managing the organizational workforce to improve business performance and gain competitive advantages. Considering the aim of the study and also the derived research questions, the research strategy of survey found the most appropriate. The survey will be conducted among customer of Tesco plc. In order to carry out the survey a self-administrated, close-ended questionnaire will be prepared. For the HR assignmentthe survey will be conducted in the online platform. The questionnaire will be sent to the participant via e-mail.
Sampling framework
The focused population group for the survey will be customers of Tesco plc, as they have experience the customer service of the organisation. In order to select the sample population, the method of random sampling will be used, which the risk of biasness in selection(PandeyandPandey., 2021). In the HR assignmentthe sample size will be kept 50.
Data collection and analysis
The research for the HR assignmentwill be relied on the primary method of data collection and the quantitative data will be extracted through the method of survey from the selected group of population. The SPSS technique will be to analyse the data and derive the answers of the research questions. However, to support the result of the quantitative data, secondary sources of information will also be used, which will be gathered from peer-reviewed journals and articles. To select the appropriate secondary sources the strategy of keyword search will be applied in the HR assignmentalong with implementing the effectively defined inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Validity and reliability of the HR assignment
Every researcher must choose an accurate strategy of data collection to gather information since data sources and types are closely related to maintaining the validity and reliability of the study findings. Primary and secondary data are two separate forms of data that are related to various methodologies (Shields et al. 2021). The data gathered using secondary and primary methods for the HR assignmentcan improve the validity and dependability of the conclusions. However; the researcher will also maintain ethical considerations in order to enhance the quality of the research study(Mohajan., 2018).
Research time plan
Conclusion
Based on the above HR assignmentresearch it has been concluded that HR professionals and HR interests both are important for developing organizational workforce and performance in achieving better business advantages. Tesco plc is one of the leading business organisations in UK, to maintain its huge of operation it has to effectively maintain its large workforce and there comes the role of HR professional. However, there sometimes lies certain conflict of interest between HR professional and workforce. In this proposed HR assignmentresearch an attempt has been made to identify the area of conflict of HR professionals and the workforce considering the case scenario of Tesco Plc.
References
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Kumar, A., Brar, V. and Wadajkar, V., 2019. Significance of effective HRM practices in organized retail sector-A literature review. International Journal of Enhanced Research in Educational Development, 7(1), pp.22-26.
Mahmood, A., Akhtar, M.N., Talat, U., Shuai, C. and Hyatt, J.C., 2019. Specific HR practices and employee commitment: the mediating role of job satisfaction. Employee Relations: The International Journal.
McGinty, N.A. and Lylova, E.V., 2020, February.Transformation of the HR Management in Modern Organizations.In 1st International Conference on Emerging Trends and Challenges in the Management Theory and Practice (ETCMTP 2019) (pp. 18-21).Atlantis Press.
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statista.com, 2021, number of store tesco, Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/490947/tesco-group-stores-united-kingdom-uk/#:~:text=Tesco%20operates%204%2C074%20stores%20in,of%20Ireland%20including%20franchise%20stores. [Available at: 14th November, 2022]
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