Project Brief
It is a known fact that our society and workplace is always changing, however as we speak there are managers out there that still believe all employees are motivated just by “Money”. Whilst in fact there are other factors that have an impact for example employee’s value about their job were existence of opportunities for advancement, training and clear career path are available. There are also some employees that just appreciate challenging work, recognition for one’s achievement, responsibility, opportunity to do something meaningful again these are all factors that motivate employees. Job satisfaction is increasingly becoming important in the workplace. Employers should now recognise that the “happier” their employees are, the better their attitudes towards the work, the higher their motivation and the better their performance at work.
Therefore, it is necessary to find out what drives productivity and research how job satisfaction, play a role in creating a productive workplace.
Project Title
An investigation into the factors which influence job satisfaction and the way it impacts productivity at [Restaurant] Chinese Cuisine.
Objectives of Project
The aim of this paper is to analyse the various factors that contribute to job satisfaction and the way it influences productivity at [Restaurant] Chinese Cuisine, to be complete by April 2018.
1. Research background information on restaurant competition by the 27th November
2. Investigate the factors which influence employees and research motivation and theories by the 5th December
3. Investigate the various factors which influence job satisfaction and the way it impacts productivity by having employees complete a survey by the 20th December 2018
4. Analyse the results gathered and draw a conclusion on the various factors that contribute to job satisfaction and the way it influences productivity at [Restaurant] Chinese Cuisine by the 28th December 2018
Issue being investigated
[Restaurant] Chinese Cuisine is a restaurant situated in [CITY]. It is well known for their quality food, great customer service and friendly staff however recently [Restaurant] Chinese Cuisine has experienced some difficulties when it’s came to employee morale and their productivity at work. Despite an increase in wages for all employee’s at the start of year which was introduced by [MANAGER] who is the manager, there are still some cases of employee morale being low and poor productivity at work.
Employees with low job satisfaction can negatively affect a company because they typically lack motivation, perform poorly and possess negative attitudes. These symptoms can directly affect a company’s bottom line. For example it’s affecting the company because low job satisfaction, coupled with low employee morale equals a lack of productivity in the workplace. When someone is unhappy, they don’t focus well and they don’t pay attention to their tasks. They find hundreds of other things to do that do make them happy, all the while ignoring the job they should be doing. When one member of a team displays low productivity, it is only natural for other members of the team to feel dissatisfied as a result, and their productivity will begin to decline as well. Therefore this leads to tasks not being completed which could affect the company’s brand image and profits.
Another affect this has on [Restaurant] Chinese Cuisine is that low job satisfaction also creates high turnover rates with employees. Sooner or later, the employee are going to quit so that they can find a job they actually enjoy doing. So therefore many industries such as food service suffer from high turnover rates and the inability to retain qualified workers. This clearly than affects [Restaurant] Chinese Cuisines profits because due to high turnover rates with employees the company will then have to look for new employees and then spend money, time and resources in order to fully train them to standards.
As stated earlier, there are other factors that influence employee morale so therefore this indicates it’s not just financial factors that motivates employee to work harder and be more productive. According to theorists known as Herzberg, he argued that there were certain factors that a business could introduce that would directly motivate employees to work harder (motivators). However there were also factors that would de-motivate an employee if not present but would not in themselves actually motivate employees to work harder (hygiene factors).
Based on this, he developed the theory that people’s job satisfaction depends on two kinds of factors. Factors for satisfaction (motivators) and factors for dissatisfaction (hygiene factors). Performance, recognition, job status, responsibility and opportunities for growth all fall under motivators. Hygiene factors are about salary, secondary working conditions, the relationship with colleagues, physical work place and the relationship between supervisor and employee. In his theory, Herzberg claims these factors function on the same plane. Taking away an employee’s dissatisfaction for example by offering a higher salary doesn’t necessarily mean the employee will then be satisfied. The employee is just no longer dissatisfied.
Herzberg also had close links with Maslow therefore, it is necessary to dive into both of their theories and research and gain a better understanding to what actual motivates employees to be more productive at work.
Reason for choice of issue
This issue was chosen due to an interest in Behavioral Skills [Behavioral Skills for Business (F84L35-HNDBUSNS-F2A-C)] and how managers are able to control some factors that can influence employees to be more productive at work. My aim is to analyses the various factors that contribute to job satisfaction and the way it influences productivity at [Restaurant] Chinese Cuisine. It also allows me to link the issue which has been identified with the course [Behavioral Skills for Business (F84L35-HNDBUSNS-F2A-C)] therefore it allows me to gain a better understanding of the theories highlighted in Behavioral Skills, it also gives me a better understanding of what factors that can be used to actual influence employees to be more productive at work and how managers can apply these theories to practice.
Justification for choice of business
Justification of choice of each source
Both primary and secondary data are used for the research. Primary information are collected by using a survey and an interview. Secondary information are collected from books, journals, internet, and informal talk with the managers and the employees.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Primary information:
Survey
A survey was used to gather primary information for my research. The survey method used to collect primary information is preferred by many researchers due to its various advantages and strengths so therefore that is why it was chosen as a method for primary information for my research. However surveys also have their disadvantages and weak points that must be considered.
Benefits of using a survey is that surveys can produce a large amount of data in a short time. Researchers can therefore set a finite time-span for a project, which can assist in planning and delivering end results. Therefore using a survey is beneficial for my research because it’s quick and easy to collect large amount of data in a short period of time, this then allows me to meet my objective goals.
Survey limitation is that sometimes questions in surveys are always standardized before administering them to participants. The researcher is therefore forced to create questions that are general enough to accommodate the general population. However these general questions may not be as appropriate for all the participants as they should be. An example of this situation would be administering a survey which focuses on affective variables or variables that deal with emotions. Therefore a survey is a limitation for my research because since every person is different physically, socially and mentally the emotion factor will vary from person to person meaning that the participants doing the surveys all have different emotions and feelings towards the topic therefore reaching to a proper conclusion for my research becomes difficult since people tend to give different answers in accordance with their own emotions and feelings.
Another limitation of using a survey to collect primary information is that the respondents may not feel encouraged to provide accurate and honest answers. This is a limitation because it makes my research an accurate due to false information, thus giving rise to a huge amount of false information that may harm the overall reason why the survey was created therefore making it difficult for me to analyse and evaluate the survey results.
Interview
Interviews has always widely been used as a method of data collection in recent research. There are some advantages and disadvantages of using this method of collecting primary information.
One of the benefits of interviews is that you are able to abstract loads of information from personal interaction and it’s also great to obtain detailed information about personal feelings, perceptions and opinions. For example if you use open ended questions then there is the increased opportunity for respondents to share their points of view therefore allowing you to gather lots of information.
The most obvious disadvantage of conducting any type of research interview is that they are time consuming, personal interviews are not usually time-bounded, so the gathering of data from the respondents can take a longer time. Another reason why this method is time-consuming is when there is a need to travel and meet the respondents at either single or different locations. For example due to busy work schedules of the employee & manager a lot of rescheduling to meet can occur because there too busy with work or other responsibility outside of work. This is a drawback because it means I’m not meeting my objectives goals for my investigation and I’ll have to keep changing them.
Secondary information
Internet
The internet is a wealth of information and very advantageous in various reasons, for example there are lots of very useful academic information contained on the internet that can be used for academic research.
Having mentioned the advantages of the internet for academic research it is worthy to mention some its disadvantages. One of the disadvantages of the internet is that it provides a huge amount of information thereby causing information overloads, therefore this can lead to confusion and perhaps even false information therefore jeopardizing my research.
Journals/Journal Articles
The advantage of using journals/journal articles is that they contain authoritative information and this can include comprehensive accounts of research or scholarship, historical data, overviews, expert’s views on themes/topics.
However the disadvantage of using journals is that the information may not include up-to-the minute news or current event information, so therefore it’s no longer relevant. For example having journals that was written 20 years ago isn’t going to be relevant in today situation because society and people change all the time.
How the investigation will be conducted- Methodology
Interview and survey: Employees
• Sample size- 20 Employees from [Restaurant] Chinese Cuisine
• Sample unit- [Restaurant] Chinese Cuisine: Floor Staff, [Restaurant] Chinese Cuisine: Bar Staff
• Method of contact- contacting each employee to take part in a survey and an interview during their free time when not at work
Interview and survey: Managers
• Sample size- 2 Mangers from [Restaurant] Chinese Cuisine
• Sample unit- [Restaurant] Chinese Cuisine: Floor Staff Manger, [Restaurant] Chinese Cuisine: Bar Staff Manger
• Method of contact- contacting each employee to take part in a survey and an interview during their free time
Personal SWOT analysis
Strengths
Being open to new ideas is an extremely good way to be adaptive to new situations. Adaptation is an essential skill in a world that is constantly changing and forming. Open-mindedness is critical to any job or any life situation because people want to know that you have a willingness to learn new things and consider alternative approaches to problem-solving. This will be useful for the development stage because there will be obstacles along the way and I will have to adapt to the situation and find alternative approaches.
Being able to stay motivated and consistent with my work. The key is to be able to work hard and keep moving forward when encountering obstacles, because determination is the essences of increasing the chances of being successful in achieving a particular goal. This will be extremely useful skill for me because for me, having great determination skills keeps me in control and motivated to continue along the path of achieving my long term goal which is to complete my research.
Weaknesses
I lack the confident of knowing what to say and how to say it. This could be an issue during the interview stage of my report, were I will I have to conduct an interview and a survey asking several questions to the employees. This highlights that communication is a crucial factor for success, the consequences of failing to communicate can be catastrophic because it could lead to miss-understanding and confusion therefore sabotaging my research.
Time management has always been something I’ve struggled with for example there have been many times when I was just about to miss a deadline and trying to finish it last minute. This could be an issue throughout the whole research because time is limited there are only 24 hours in a day so I’ll need make sure that I’m taking control of my time because I will have to meet mandatory deadlines so it’s important that I meet them.
Opportunities
There is the opportunity for me to get to know how people work together, how things get done and how work differs from school or college. I’ll also help me to build a network of professional contacts because when investigating the company I’ll gain a head start by meeting relevant professionals which could be useful for me in the future. For example if I ever wished to apply for a job as a manager I would have the correct knowledge and I would have the relevant contacts to get me the job.
Another opportunity is that I’ll give me something to talk about in interviews, it will also give me something to put on my CV and personal statement for example for a job or course applications. This is an opportunity because it will also give me the skills and experience that will allow me to stand out to potential employers.
Threats
Some topics are trickier than others. Issues like how much people earn, if they’re motivated by money or asking them factors that contribute to job satisfaction can quickly shake things up because it reveals uncomfortable biases, perceptions, or personality traits about the person. The topic can then been seen as a rather sensitive subject so therefore it is a threat because people might not be willing to be honest about topic or discuss the issue so therefore this affects my research for example when conducting interviews or doing the survey because the answers are not 100% accurate.
It can be very difficult getting in touch with the manger & employees because the majority of time there occupied doing other stuff. For example managers are sometimes busy doing interviews and managing the overall operational. Therefore sometimes they don’t have the time to speak to you. Again same goes for the employees because they are too busy completing their daily tasks at work, some of them could be absent such as on holiday. This a threat because it makes difficult for me to schedule a time that suits both of us so therefore this is a setback to my research because a lot of rescheduling could happen meaning that I’ll have to change the time for reaching my goals and aim.
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