Assignment on Management Research Methods

Identify the six most important characteristics of a small-scale management research project -

Be attainable

A good management must set goals and aims that can be realistically achieved in a specified period of time. Keeping unfair deadlines will only cause more stress among the workers and will lead to mistakes and problems which will directly hurt the efficiency of the project. Therefore, it is absolutely vital that the management set specific targets that can be achieved by the team as this will foster a competitive spirit among the workers and will help in improving the efficiency of the work done by the project. A good management must communicate properly to the employees about specific targets to be achieved and should check out the possibilities from their side whether they will be able to achieve the business objectives within the given time frame and whether they require any help from the management side with regard to the requirements of requisite training, tools, and other resources to achieve the objectives (Ernest Dale, 1973). This will create the spirit of commitment from their side, and they will strive to achieve the goals with sincerity and dedication.

Set a vision statement

A good management must set a vision and mission statement before any work is started on the project. This is important as the statement will state the objectives and final aims that the project is trying to achieve. By setting up a vision statement, the management will also provide guidelines to the workers that will help them to organize and work together. Outcomes which are more than a decade away are described by the ideal statements of vision for result areas. The desirable outcome of the objectives at its completion date should be focused on the vision statement for goals and projects (Steve Banhegyi, 2007). For the purpose of writing influential and convincing statements of vision, there are some important procedures. Compared to the statements of mission, vision statements could be of longer duration. In order to motivate, stimulate and inspiring your entire team.

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Be clear

A good management must also ensure that it is always clear and just in nature. The management will in the course of the project have to face a lot of issues that will require clarification, in those instances, it is vital that the management gives clear and precise instructions that the workers can follow without any doubt. This will result in the work getting done much more quickly and efficiently. There is always a need on the part of the management to be clear and concise with regard to its goals, objectives and time frames set to achieve the business targets. Poor communication is often the root cause for lack of clarity (Philip L. Hunsaker, 1986), Lack of proper rapport and channels of communication leads to ambiguity in clarity which may be detrimental to the organization in the long run in achieving the objectives. Management must be first of all clear in its strategies and goals before they give instructions down the line in the hierarchy

Relevance

One of the characteristics of good management is its ability to be relevant. It must always keep the objective in sight. It is important that the project does not become irrelevant due to time wastage or costs spiraling out of control or due to any other factors. The management must keep in mind the reality of the environment in which the project is being worked on. It is very crucial on the part of any organization to give specific importance to relevance during the course of business venture. For the purpose of acting as effectiveness and organization must have the capability to make sense of situations of complexity and thereby act accordingly (B.S. Dhillon, 2002). Giving high priority to relevance or significance relating to any decisions which affect the business operations or the employee interests of the organization to a larger degree reflects the organization intelligence of any organization.

Cost efficient

The hallmark of any good management is its ability to keep the costs as low as possible. A good management must always keep trying to be more cost efficient. There should not be a single wastage in the financial resources as they are usually hard to come by. Therefore, a management must strive to curtail unnecessary wastage and costs at all levels and at the same time identify the costs which are necessary and relevant and see that they are not affected in any way.

Organizational skills

One of the key characteristics of good management is its ability to organize the various different kinds of work involved in the project and keeping the project on schedule and budget. Organizational skills go hand in hand with planning, and good management cannot achieve its goals without properly organizing its workload. The ability to assign resources, prioritize tasks and keep tabs on the budget will ensure quality and impact the project’s success (Harold Kerzner, 2009). Since they aid us to operate in a better manner in daily activities, essential and meaningful organizational skills are very much necessary.

Review your first "Research Scoping Document" and your tutor's feedback on this document. In view of your review and your tutor's feedback and the characteristics you have identified for task 1, critically evaluate your original document (what were its strengths and what were its weaknesses).

This article was primarily focused on giving more insights upon the current debate involving the relationship between performance-related pay and public service motivation. In order to collect data for analyzing the researchers used a survey based methodology in order to gather the relevant data and then analyzed it. The study is thorough enough, and the different theories on both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are clearly detailed in this paper. However the study does not explain nor does it give more insight into how exactly does the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations influence employee behavior and thereby influence the performance of the organization as well. It also does not offer any insights into the interactions between intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors and how they drive and control human behavior.

Additionally, another serious limitation of this study is that it only considers the association between financial or monetary benefits and rewards and public service motivation for heads of departments, city managers, and their assistants. Meaning only low-level employees were considered for this study and upper-level management employees were not considered. This may lead to a partial view towards variable pay systems. Also, the study does not include certain factors that may have proven useful and influential in the overall results of this study such as the time frame that such a system has been used, the exact nature of the rewards and benefits used and where and how such rewards are given.

Also, another limitation stems from the fact that this analysis could have been conducted by using more data and other research methodologies like qualitative research methodologies since it would have been more effective in gaining a deeper insight that includes the implications, shortcomings, and benefits of such a system. The results conclude that employees with low public service motivations tend to prefer a pay for performance system. Also, it was also concluded that generally, employees do prefer pay over performance systems. The study also pointed out that the employee turnover rates was low in places where pay over performance systems was not used.

Ultimately this study would add more material to further studies and researches that look into the other motivational factors over variable pay systems. Therefore, more light would have been thrown on this study if all relevant factors had been included. Sufficient focus on relationships, causes and implications have not been laid by this study and would give better results if all the factors affecting the employees of the organization have been identified and introspected properly.

References

Dhillon, B.S (2002), Engineering and Technology Management Tools and Applications, Artech House, Inc, Norwood, pp 2-5

Dale, E (1973), Management: Theory and Practice, Tata McGraw-hill, New York, pp 340-342

Kerzner, H (2009), Project Management, A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling, John Wiley & Sons, Canada, pp- 15-20

Hunsaker, P.L. (1986), Managing Organizational Behavior, Addison-Wesley, p 437

Banhegyi, S (2007), Management: Fresh perspectives, Pearson Education, South Africa, pp 310-315