Project title: Soft on the inside?

The emotion work of managers

Project summary: Sometimes managers have to 'act tough' in order to convey a sense of urgency to
their subordinates, to motivate behavioural changes and performance improvements. Yet acting too
tough or 'losing it' can demotivate and disengage subordinates. This research focuses on the
emotional 'control moves' that managers use to change employee behaviour. We will explore the
challenges that managers experience when they try to walk the emotional tight rope and act 'just
tough enough'. The research project will involve interviewing managers about their emotional control
moves - why they use control moves, when they work, and when they backfire
Project title: Emotional exhaustion and engagement in in new and small businesses
Project summary: Owners of young and small businesses often experience high levels of exhaustion
and also great deal of engagement with their work. What kind of stress do small business owners
experience? How does that affect the wellbeing of owner-managers? How do the work and family
demands and resources affect the exhaustion and engagement? Using theoretically grounded HR
frameworks, we try to address the questions pertaining to exhaustion and engagement among small
business owners.
Project title: Skills behind the 'service with a smile'
Project summary: Customer service workers constitute a major segment of the working population in
developed countries. Service workers are frequently required to express certain emotions (e.g., to
provide 'service with a smile'). Service workers use a broad repertoire of skills in performing emotion
work. They use 'control moves' to influence behaviours of customers/clients; and they use 'emotion
strategies' to regulate their own emotions. This project's goal is to identify and measure the full set of
skills needed for successful emotion work performance. The first activities will involve a literature
search and the development of a survey to assess the emotion work skills of customer service
employees.
Project title: Succession planning in family businesses
Project summary: Succession planning is critical for family businesses, and lack of succession planning
often results in unsuccessful successions, organizational failures, and even organizational exit. Such
negative results represent loss of value not just for the individual or the family, but also at the social
level, as business knowledge is wasted. Over 97% percent of Australian firms are family and privately
owned and 81% of owners would like to retire in next 10 years. Using qualitative techniques, this
project attempts to explore issues such as how does the aging of owners-managers affect succession
planning activities? How does it affect strategic orientation, and exit planning in family businesses?
Project title: Student job search preparation : Can students prepare themselves for job search?
Project summary: Many students spend third year anxious about lie after graduation, worrying about
how to find a suitable job. There are a range of approaches used by students intentionally and
unintentionally to prepare themselves for competing in the job market. Some volunteer. Some
invest in extra-curricular activities. Some increase their credentials, others network, while others
agonise in silence. What approaches are used ? Who uses them? Are some approaches more effective
than others? Is it really about who you know? Do these approaches pay off? This two-stage project
looks at students while they study, and then, after they graduate, to see if there is a connection
between their job search preparation and their job search experience.

Project title: Does employer brand count? Investigating the power of employer branding in attracting
new graduates
Project summary: The war for talent is increasing around the globe. In response, employers are
attempting to attract talent by branding themselves as "employers of choice". Some organisations
seek to differentiate themselves as leaders in the employment of diverse groups; others position
themselves as leaders in Corporate Social Responsibility, while others market themselves as
champions of environmental sustainability. Just how much does employer branding really influence the
job seeking behaviour and job choices of new university graduates? The results of this study will feed
into a larger international study, allowing us to compare Australian graduates' responses with those of
new graduates in the USA. Students will help conduct focus groups, and review the literature to
develop a questionnaire.
Project title: Absent employees cost most organizations

Every year companies large and small are faced with the problem of workers not
coming in to do their job. A business or MBA research paper on absenteeism of
workers presents evidence that absenteeism has many negative effects on the
companies themselves. Depending on the type of industry each company is in, the
effects of an absent worker is more or less a problem. For instance, if a sales clerk
at a department store calls in sick the store may or may not see an affect for that
specific day. If it is a busy day at the store, then the store could be suffering from a
loss of clientele due to lack of service on that particular day. On the other hand, if
an assembly line worker is absent without a replacement, then productivity is lost.
The loss in productivity then comes back to cost the company money. Another
aspect of absenteeism to look at is the cost a company pays for a replacement. Not
all businesses can afford to go without a worker, therefore the company could be
found paying for the sick day of the absent employee on top of paying the wages for
the replacement worker. With all the problems that absenteeism can cause a
company or business, it is important to realize how it is affected by an employees
motivation and satisfaction with their job.
Project title: Workplace Bullying and Harassment
Workplace bullying and harassment is a timely topic due to recent legislation that
has come about to prevent bullying in schools. A research paper on bullying in the
workplace can be a fascinating study on what can be done to end harassment at
this level. Statistical data can be used to illustrate the far-reaching scope of the
problem. Your research paper can include quite a bit of empirical research that finds
and explains why this type of behavior occurs in the workplace. This is not the only
course that you can take when doing a research paper on workplace bullying and
harassment. You can also examine who are the victims of bullying or why bullying is
allowed in the workplace. There are numerous theories that have been proposed to
explain bullying in the workplace and each of these theories can be explicated to
provide some insight into the issue.
Project title: Employee Motivation

In an attempt to discover what motivates employees, employee motivation research

papers report that what motivates workers today is primarily linked to the values
and goals of the individual. Beginning in the 1970's, it seems that there was a
dramatic shift in the values and priorities of the everyday worker. As people
became more educated and the economy witnessed a sharp decline of the
Protestant work ethics, what employees wanted from their employers changed as
well. The values that formerly characterized most employees in most organizations
were as follows:
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loyalty to the company for which they worked.

motivation for money and status.
motivation for promotion in the organization.
need for job stability and security.
identification with work roles rather than with personal roles off the job.

Today, it seems that many of these values and needs have changed and as a result,
the values of todays employee focus on self and emphasize characteristics that
lead to self-development and self-fulfillment. These include the following:
Little loyalty or commitment to an organization.
A need for recognition of ones accomplishments.
Little concern with job security and stability.
Leisure considered more important than work.
Desire for work that is challenging, that provides opportunities for personal
growth and development, and that calls for creativity.
Desire to participate in decisions that affect ones job.
A stronger identification with ones personal role in all facets of life rather
that with ones work role.
Shultz and Shultz continue by noting that the values and needs of the individual
when met translate into job satisfaction and a high level of job satisfaction is
directly related to positive behavior on the job, specifically to high performance, low
turnover, and low absenteeism. Employee motivation research papers further this
point by stating that, For any effective work to occur, there must be a certain
amount of consensus on basic values. Therefore it is important to select
individuals whose values and goals match those of the organization. This will
ultimately produce satisfied employees, a productive workforce and hence a more
successful organization.
Project title: Employee Empowerment
A key factor that sets effective organizations apart from less-effective organizations
is a concentrated and enduring focus on employee empowerment. Empowering
employees within the organization means sharing the power base. In leaner
organizations with few layers of hierarchy, employee motivation often emerges as a
normal part of the corporate culture.

Encouraging Employees-Managers and leaders in creating effective organizations

empower employees by spending time in coaching and mentoring roles. Coaching
encourages two-way communication and helps build confidence and motivation on
the part of the employee. Through the process of delegation, followers become
empowered by possessing the ability to make needed decisions on their own.
Effective Employee Empowerment- Employee empowerment occurs when they work
for an organization that treats them with dignity and respect. Effective
empowerment includes fostering employees sense of well being by way of not
demanding more than can be reasonably accomplished, expressing appreciation for
a job well done and by showing concern for the personal needs of individual
members of the group. Employees who are provided with a means of expressing
their opinion are more likely to fill empowered than those who are not. Successful
leaders acknowledge others within the organization and allow them to make
decisions on their own when necessary. Employees who are allowed an opinion will
have a greater stake in the organization.
Project title: Impact of motivational factors on Employee performance.
This study is aimed at looking at possible areas workers can be motivated to
increase their level of performance and high productivity.
No matter how good any organization is, it does not get any thing done properly
until people who make the organization do it.
Workers in the past were satisfied with money management they though when that
money could boost the workers and their level of performance and efficiency.
The basic salary of the lowest cadre of employees in the labour market has been
increased frequently but they still perform very much below the normal level
expected of them.
Even with the best strategy in place an appropriate organizational architecture, an
organization will be effective only if its members are motivated to perform at a high
level. A key challenge for managers or organization both large and small is to
encourage employees to perform at a high level.
The objective of this study is aims at describing what motivation is, where it comes
from and why managers need to promote high levels of it for an organization to be
effective and achieve its goals.
Project title: Effect of Financial and Non Financial Incentives on staff productivity.
All organizations are concerned with what should be done to achieve high level of
productivity through staff motivation using the right kind of incentive. Consequently
the effect of financial and non financial incentive becomes a burning issue in human
resource management.
As such a lot of theoretical concept, principles and techniques of management have
evolved in response to these challenges/ but most scholars suggest that more
conceptual and empirical work is required to show the link between financial and
non financial incentive and staff productivity is still vague but some studies have
documented in their work that financial incentive is readily perceived as having a

high instrumental value that makes putting forth extra effort worthwhile and its has
a long term effect in terms of labour turnover rate because of comparative value for
alternative employment while non financial incentive has less initial impact as the
pragmatics of financial gain, they seem to have a steady, sustainable impact.
Despite the growing body of literature and empirical study on the effect of financial
and non financial incentive on workers productivity, the subject matter still remains
complex. Hence, the need to undertake a survey on the effect of financial and non
financial incentives on staff productivity