This chapter contains the research approach, research framework, research procedure, research participants, data collection and data analysis. This chapter explains the research framework and the research approach applied in this study to answer the questions for this study, and also explains how the data was collected and analyzed.
Research Approach
The purposes of this study aim to the relations between the background of workers before joining the company and their performance, find out the factors affecting their performance, and then develop a model for performance improvement and also provide the countermeasures for improving the performance gaps. In accordance with the research purposes mentioned above, the case-study research method was used in this research.
The research adopted a qualitative research method. Since the research put specifically emphasis on the case company from consumer electronics industry, the case-study approach was applied to answer the research questions. The case-study approach is typically used to answer the questions like “how” or “why” and also can gain more in-depth findings in real-life context (Yin, 2009); Yeh (2001) concluded that the purposes of applying case-study research method are:
1. Identify the causes of the problems 2. Propose the solutions for the problems 3. Provide preventive measures
4. Help to fully develop the potential of the case 5. Enhance the performance of the organization
Besides, the case-study research approach is also well-known for the diversity in data collection and the types of data; there can be observations, interviews, and document review.
Based on the characteristics of the case-study research approach, it was applied in this study by reviewing the documents provided by a consumer electronics Company and semi-structured interviews designed to obtain more detailed information from the HR practitioners in the this Company.
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In order to find out the relations between the background of workers before joining the company and their performance, the research collected the data from the Human Resource department in the company to review the how their performance changed in the past four years.
The data collected from the HR department included the basic information about the employees and their performance evaluation results from 2010 to 2013.
The in-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the data for this research. Each interview conducted by the researcher lasted for 30 minutes, and the guidelines for the interview were provided to the interviewee before the interview. In-depth interviews allow the researcher to understand the interviewees’ real opinions and thoughts. Semi-structured interviews were designed to prevent misleading the direction of the interviews.
Research Framework
According to the purposes of this study and the literature review, the research framework was formed as Figure 3.1. The first part of the framework contains four parts of information:
performance in schools, educational levels, IQ tests result, English proficiency test results.
Educational levels, IQ test results and English proficiency test results were the information from the recruitment department, in order to find out the correlations between the employees background information and their performance in service. In order to find out the factors that can affect the performance and how to improve performance, performance in schools, orientation training, and on-the-job training were discussed.
After data collection, the researcher categorized the consolidated the results from the interviews, and then generalized the data into conclusions. Finally, the research developed a model for performance improvement model based on the findings.
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in schools
Educational levels
IQ test results
English proficiency test
results
Orientation Training
On-the Job Training
Organizational Communication
Performance Appraisal
In-service Performance
A Model for Performance Improvement
Figure 3.1. Research Framework
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Research Procedure
The researcher followed the research procedure shown in the Figure 3.2., and after searching the direction of topic by literature review, confirmed the topic for the thesis; thus, helped by experts, decided the research method, and reviewed existing relevant literature for finding the gaps and more valuable information for the study; then, helped by experts, set the research framework, research purpose and research questions for the study. The next step followed by the researcher was to collect data from the case company, and helped by experts and colleagues designed the questionnaire, posteriorly conducted the interviews; and after transcribing the data, the author was able to analyze the information collected, to provide research findings, and to purpose conclusions and recommendations.
Figure 3.2. Research Procedure
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Research Participants
This research conducted interviews with the interviewees come from different departments in the consumer electronics Company, there were 33 engineers from different functions in the company, such as industrial design and mechanical design engineering. In order to be granted access to potential respondents, the researcher agreed not to disclose the name of the company.
The research selected 33 participants with or without administrative positions though purposive sampling. In order to get the critical information and make the research process effectively, the interviewees were asked to have sufficient understanding in the process of performance appraisal and the training courses provided by the company. Therefore, the interviewees from the selected department accorded with the following two criteria. (The detailed background information of these 33 engineers was presented in table 3.2.)
1. Interviewees who started working in this consumer electronics company since 2010. Since the researcher had to have four years performance evaluation results to track the change of their performance, the interviewee had to be hired and started working in 2010.
2. Interviewees need to have the experiences of taking the training programs or courses provided by this company, including the orientation training and on-the-job training.
The 33 engineers were divided into two groups: the superior performance group and the normal performance group; twelve of them were chosen to be the interviewees for in-depth interviews. Six of them were from the superior performance group and the other six engineers were from the normal performance group. The following contents and table 3.1., are the background information of these 12 interviewees. A1 to A6 are from the superior performance group and B1 to B6 are from the normal performance group.
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Background Information of the 12 Selected Interviewees
Department Highest
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Background Information of the 33 Engineers Selected for this Research
Sample English
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Data Collections
This study collected data from HR department and also from semi-structured interviews.
Since this study was required to have the data from recruitment & selection and the employees’
performance, the researcher asked the relative information from the in-house HR practitioners, so the researcher could analyze the data and give a sketchy picture for the semi-structured interviews.
Data from the Human Resource department
Since this study aimed to find the correlations between the recruitment & selection and employees’ performance, and also find out the factors that can affect the performance, it was required to collect specific data from the HR department so that the researcher could analyze.
The data needed for this study would be the basic profile of the employees when they provided during the hiring process and the detailed performance data after appraisal and the engineers’
performance evaluation results from 2010 to 2013. The data collected included the educational background provided from their resumes, the IQ test scores and English proficiency test scores they got when applying for the job positions and the result of their year-end performance evaluation from 2010 to 2013. Since the IQ test and the English proficiency test were required in the selection process as the indicators for evaluating the candidates who applied for the job positions, the results of the IQ test and the English proficiency test were collected.
The full scores for the IQ test were 100; the full scores for the English proficiency test were 990, which was very similar to TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication), including listening test and reading test. There were four levels for the results of performance evaluation, from level 1 to level 4, like the table shown below (table 3.3.).
Table 3.3.
Levels for Performance Evaluation Results
Level Explanations for the performance evaluation levels 1 Outstanding performance
2 Fully achieves and occasionally exceeds expectations 3 Almost achieves expectations
4 Rarely achieves expectations
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Interview
In order to get more in-depth information than just numbers, the semi-structured interviews would be conducted. Before the interview, the researcher would make sure that the interviewees receive the outline of the interview so they could have better idea about what kind of topic and issues would be discussed. The interview outline would be developed in accordance with the literature review and research questions, and then invited two experts who have doctor degrees and rich experiences in qualitative research to check the rationality of interview questions.
During the interview, all contents were recorded after the permission of the interviewees.
After each interview, the records were transcribed to verbatim scripts. All the interviews were conducted from March to May in 2014. The interviews questions are presented in Appendix A.
Data Analysis
In accordance with data collections, there were two ways of analyzing the data because of the difference between two approaches of collecting. The data collected from HR department were the basic profile of the employees when they provided during the hiring process and the detailed performance data after performance evaluation. In order to find the relationships between different variables, to see whether the relationship is positive or negative and the strength of the relationship, document review was applied to achieve the research purposes and answer the research questions.
Another approach applied to analyze the data in this research was categorizing analysis. In the process of analyzing the data collected from the interviews, researcher first would draw the important concepts from transcripts and then categorized them into different categories which belong to different research topics. Finally, the findings and discussion would be written based on literature reviews and the coding system. The following figure 3.3., shows the categorizing analysis process. The example of the coding process is presented in Appendix B.
In order to enhance the reliability and validity of the data collection and the data analysis, the research followed some steps in the research process. First, the guideline of the interview and the skills were discussed by advisor and researcher before the interviews were conducted.
Second, the researcher kept discussing with advisor and experts in human resource to make sure that the research was not biased by the researcher’s own perception or opinions.
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Figure 3.3. The categorizing analysis process. Adapted from “Analyzing Qualitative Data”, by Renner, M., 2003.
Step 1 Get to know your data.
Step 2 Focus the analysis.
Step 3 Categorize the information.
Step 4 Identify patterns and connections between categories.
Step 5 Interpretation- Bring it all together.
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