RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter explains the research approach, primary and secondary data collection methods and sampling techniques used for the purpose of this research. It then goes on into explaining the data analysis procedure and limitations of the study.

3.1: STUDY ORGANISATIONS

Two organisations were selected as the study site, currently working in Pakistan. They are: Unilever (Lever Pakistan) InstaPhone (a subsidiary of Millicom International Cellular)

In order to conduct the research, a formal request was made on telephone, and the senior members of the organisations gave permission to conduct the study at Unilever production plant (Karachi) and InstaPhone branch offices and franchises in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Both the organisations supported the research and it was agreed that participation of the employees in the study would be on a voluntary basis and the collected data would be used only for this research.

3.2: RESEARCH APPROACH

There are many research methods that can be used in a research study according to Sekaran (2000). The two of them relevant to this research are

Exploratory

Study

and

Hypothesis

Testing.

An

exploratory

study

is

undertaken when not much is known about the situation in hand, or when no information is available on how similar problems or research issues have been solved in the past. Exploratory studies are undertaken to better comprehend the nature of the problem and since very few studies might have been conducted in the past, extensive research is done through interviews or questionnaires to obtain a better understanding of the problem (Sekaran 2000). On the other hand, studies that engage in hypothesis testing usually explain the nature of certain relationships, or establish the differences among groups or the independence of two or more factors in a situation. Hypothesis testing is undertaken to explain the variance in the dependent variable or to predict organisational outcomes (Sekaran 2000). It must be noted that these two different approaches are not mutually exclusive and these two can be combined for the purpose of this research. As not much data in the literature is available about HRM practices in Pakistan, and not much of the studies in the past have focussed on HR and motivational aspects of multinational organisations working in Pakistan and how they are customizing their management practices in order to manage the Pakistani labour workforce. Therefore it is not wrong to say that this study is exploratory in nature, as this gives an opportunity to explore management problems at a new place and to understand the problems of middle and low level employees. Also from the review of the literature, hypotheses have been developed, which are to be tested from the primary

data collection, therefore a combination of these two approaches is used and it seems to be better suited to the nature of research. This research gives an opportunity to gain a better understanding of the complex relationships between superiors and employees and at the same time highlights the nature of management practices in Pakistani culture.

3.3: SOURCES OF DATA

The data for this study (including primary and secondary data) was gathered in these phases. The companys websites were carefully reviewed to get background information about companies and their products. Questionnaire was prepared in order to collect primary data. Research articles and management books were carefully reviewed in order to collect secondary data.

3.4: DATA COLLECTION METHODS

Data can be collected in a variety of ways, in different settings and from different sources. Data collection methods include interviews and

questionnaires that are personally administered, sent through email or electronically administered. Another way is observation of individuals and events with or without video taping or audio recording (Sekaran 2000). The data collected in this research is both primary and secondary in nature. Primary data collection is of main importance in this study. The data

gathered though questionnaires helped in critically analysing the hypotheses and the individual level of motivation of the employees. Questionnaires were sent to middle level managers of the selected organisations by email. Secondly, most of the low level employees do not have access to internet is Pakistan, therefore personal visits were paid to Unilever production plant and InstaPhone branch offices and franchises in order to personally get the questionnaires filled. Another advantage of personal visits was that, an opportunity was given to see what exactly is happening in the organisations, as this was helpful in analysing the data in a proper way and to give recommendations at the end of the dissertation. Therefore the primary data collected in the above mentioned ways makes the basic foundation of this research. Secondary data was also collected that include company websites and research articles. The websites helped to find out some basic background information about the companies and the research articles played a crucial role in the development of research objectives, literature review and hypotheses that helped a great deal to relate theory with practice and practice with theory.

3.4.1: Questionnaire:
A questionnaire (appendix 1) was developed so as to find out the information regarding management practices. The questionnaires were distributed

between three different categories of employees including middle managers, supervisors and shop floor workers. Most of the questionnaires were personally administered. This gave an advantage that the data was collected in a short period of time and any doubts about the answers were cleared on the spot. However some of the questionnaires were sent by email especially to middle managers and supervisors and a considerable amount of these were returned uncompleted and some of them were not returned at all. The questionnaire consisted of about 18 closed ended questions and the questions were kept as short and simple so that they are easily understood. Three types of ranking scales were used in the questionnaire. Dichotomous scale, Ratio scale and Nominal scale (Sekaran 2000). Dichotomous scale was used to elicit a Yes or No answer from the respondents in most of the questions. Ratio scale was used in the question No. 3 of the questionnaire to get exact numbers about the working experience of employees working in the organisations. Lastly, Nominal scale was used in about four questions that allowed assigning subjects to certain categories or groups of the respondents. (Sekaran 2000) The language of the questions used was appropriate to the level of the respondents, however, a considerable amount of shop floor workers in Pakistan are illiterate or very less educated and they do not have understanding with English language. For those employees, questions were translated in the national language i.e. Urdu. Each participant was asked the

same questions and was made sure that the information provided by them would be totally confidential. The total numbers of questionnaires sent or personally taken to both the organisations were 90 and out of them 67 were returned fully completed. This included 35 completed questionnaires from Unilever and 32 from InstaPhone. Therefore a total number of 67 questionnaires have been used in this research.

3.4.2: Personal Observations:

It is also possible to gather data without asking questions from respondents. People can be observed in their natural work environment and their activities or other items of interest can be recorded (Sekaran 2000). Apart from questionnaires, attitude of workers at their workplaces was also observed and this gave an opportunity to analyse what exactly happens to them at their jobs. The observations included attitude of supervisors with their co-workers and the working relations of the workers with each other. This gave a clear idea about overall culture of the organisations and the data gathered from these observations was more reliable.

3.5: SAMPLING

Sampling is the process of selecting sufficient number of elements from the population so that by studying the sample, and understanding the properties or the characteristics of the sample subjects, it would be possible to generalize the properties or characteristics of the population elements (Sekaran 2000). The sampling method selected for this research is simple random sampling. It is defined by Sekaran (2000) as a sampling method in which the population has a known and equal chance of being selected as a subject. As this research aims to explore the concept of motivation among the employees working in Pakistani environment, therefore a pre-determined population group was used. All the participants were low or middle level employees including both males and females. Among the participants, a simple random sampling method was used to pick up the individuals to answer the questions. A total of 67 sample size has been taken and its distribution is as follows. InstaPhone: Middle Managers Supervisors Operational Workers Total Unilever: Middle Managers Supervisors Operational Workers Total 4 10 21 35 3 9 20 32

3.7. Statistical Tools The data were entered by the researcher herself in the statistical software (SPSS) to ensure proper entry and confidentiality of data. The analysis was performed by the researcher herself. In this study the SPSS, Regression Model was run for evaluating results. SPSS is a computer program used for statistical analysis. SPSS is among the most widely used program for statistical analysis in social sciences. It is used by market researcher, health researchers, survey companies, and government and education researchers. Regression analysis was conducted for this research(Sekaran 2000). Regression: Regression analysis helps researcher understanding how the typical value of dependent variable changes when one of the independent variable is varied. while the other independent variables are held field. Most commonly, regression analysis estimates the conditional expectations of dependent variable given the independent variables that is the average value of the dependent variable when the dependent variable held content. Regression analysis is also used to understand which among the independent variable are related to the dependent variable, and to explore the forms of these relationships. In restricted circumstances, regression analysis can be used to infer casual relationship between the independent and dependent variables.(Sekaran, 2000) Correlation: In this study also use correlation statistical technique that can show whether and how strongly pairs of variables are related. There are several different correlation techniques. Statistics Module includes the most common type, called the Pearson or product-moment correlation. The module also includes a variation on this type called partial correlation.

Like all statistical techniques, correlation is only appropriate for certain kinds of data. Correlation works for quantifiable data in which numbers are meaningful, usually quantities of some sort. It cannot be used for purely categorical data, such as gender, brands purchased, or favorite color. Correlation Coefficient: The main result of a correlation is called the correlation coefficient (or "r"). It ranges from -1.0 to +1.0. The closer r is to +1 or -1, the more closely the two variables are related. If r is close to 0, it means there is no relationship between the variables. If r is positive, it means that as one variable gets larger the other gets larger. If r is negative it means that as one gets larger, the other gets smaller (often called an "inverse" correlation). While correlation coefficients are normally reported as r = (a value between -1 and +1), squaring them makes then easier to understand. The square of the coefficient (or r square) is equal to the percent of the variation in one variable that is related to the variation in the other. After squaring r, ignore the decimal point. An r of .5 means 25% of the variation is related (.5 squared =.25). An r value of .7 means 49% of the variance is related (.7 squared = .49).(Sekaran 2000).

3.6: PROTECTION OF PRIVACY

All possible precautions were taken to protect the privacy of the

respondents. Because of the sensitive nature of this research, data collection was conducted in a way that equal opportunities were given to all. The employees were well informed about the nature of work and they were assured that all the information obtained from this study will only be used for

the purpose of this research and finally, all the survey questions were asked individually to maintain the privacy of each respondent.

3.7: LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The first limitation of this study is the relatively small sample size as it is difficult to understand the individual needs of employees and overall management respondents. Secondly, no interviews were conducted because of time constraints and busy schedule of managers. This factor limits the scope of this study as actual practices and views of the middle managers can be better known with the help of face-to-face interviews. Thirdly, to have a clear understanding of motivation and job satisfaction problems of Pakistani employees, five independent variables are not enough because many other external factors like labour market situation, Govt. legislations, role of customers and suppliers etc can have an indirect impact on employee motivation and internal factors like employee relationships, recognition and achievement can play an important role in determining job satisfaction level of the employees. Therefore these factors should also be taken into account to have a broader view of motivational problems faced by the employees. So the limited number of independent variables is also a limitation of this study. practices of multinationals from a small number of