For this reason, it is imperative that employees are assured of absolute anonymity. This will also encourage honest answers and be the most likely to result in discovering the root causes of the problem. Employees will be able to respond anonymously by dropping their folded responses into a box by human resources.
Those that feel good about their job may be more eager to respond to a survey than those that are unhappy. A voluntary response would be more likely to result in a biased sample population. It is important that the sample is representative of the entire plant, rather than a small, select group. Therefore, employees will be told that the survey is mandatory. Although, there will be no real way to identify the employees that responded from those that did not respond, if the employees feel that it is mandatory they will be more likely to respond than if they feel that it is voluntary.
The importance of the survey in improving plant conditions will be stressed. The cooperative nature of the survey will be stressed. It is expected that these survey techniques will result in a minimal 85% response rate. Employees will be assured that their responses will be confidential and that their responses will only be used in aggregate. This will encourage honesty in their answers.
The survey instrument will be brief and will consist of open-ended questions. The survey instrument will not contain any information that could be use to decipher which employee is represented by a particular response. The instrument will use qualitative methods that will allow the employee to expand on their responses and to speak freely about their concerns. This method was chosen, as opposed to quantitative methods, as a more in-depth analysis is desired. Quantitative survey methods are appropriate when the data can be easily reduced to numerical form. However, this type of survey methods will allow the researcher to answer research questions, but it will not allow for much detail in the responses....
Quantitative will answer the question of whether something is happening, but it is difficult to discern why something is happening. Qualitative methods are much more suitable when the researcher wishes to discover the root cause for why something happens. A qualitative research instrument is much more suitable for the type of research being conducted.
The survey will be devised based on assumptions obtained through observing individual employees in the plant. However, there may be items that are not known to the researcher at the time of instrument design. Therefore, the survey will reserve the last question to allow the employee to expand and add any comments that they wish to make. The survey will be designed and administered as soon as possible due to the dire nature of the situation with the Honda contract.
The situation facing CYT is of highest priority. Resolving issues concerning employee retention, absenteeism, productivity and quality are essential to the continued operation of the plant. Human resource theory suggests that social factors, as well as intrinsic motivational factors are at the root of the problem. The survey method chosen will provide the insight needed to develop solutions to the current problems facing CYT and the Human Resources Department it is believed that this situation is resolvable, provided that management can get to the root of the problem.
References
Gibson, S. (2004). Social Learning (Cognitive) Theory and Implications for Human Resource Development. Advances in Developing Human Resources. 6 (2): 193-210.
Manta Company Intelligence.(2008)Cardington Yutaka Technologies, Inc. (CYT). Retrieved May 28, 2008 at http://www.manta.com/comsite5/bin/manta_tt_page.pl?page=uecp_help_sidebar&mf=coms2/dnbcompany_cc305sq
Zimmerman, M. (2007). Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic value. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved May 28, 2008 at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/value-intrinsic-extrinsic
