Dissertation Proposal “Effectiveness of Employee Engagement Practices and Organisational Performance” Cardiff Metropolitan University Cardiff School of Management Advanced Entry MBA Program Student Name: Dissertation Proposal Index Contents Page No.  Section one 1. Working Title 3 2. Introduction 3 2.1 Rationale 3 2.2 Literature review 4 2.3 Research questions 7 2.4 Purpose 8 2.5 Scope 8  Section two 1. Research methodology 9 1.1 Research strategy 9 1.2 Sampling strategy 11 1.3 Data collection 12 1.4 Analysis methods 13 1.5 Validity and reliability 13 2. Access 14 3. Gantt chart 14  References 15 Section one 1. Working Title: “Effectiveness of employee engagement practices and organisational performance” 2. Introduction 2.1 Rationale I’ve chosen to propose and study the “Effectiveness of employee engagement practices and organisational performance” within XXXX for my MBA dissertation and I will elaborate on the rationale and the purpose of this choice! Also I will address my point of view, why this topic could be a good MBA dissertation! Based on the reviewed subject literatures Definitely, employees are considered as highly valuable asset for any organisation and they constitute a major part of any organisation’s resources. In fact, Employees are the main driver of any organisational success and performance as they are responsible to achieve the organisational strategic vision by bringing its mission into life which will reflect accordingly on its business performance represented in its financial position in the market place. Nowadays, Business environment is dramatically changing everywhere across the globe due to the constrained position of fluctuating world economy, unstable political situations everywhere with evolving regulations from governments and authorities beside many other reasons that lead to massive and unstoppable competition between organisations working in the same market place. So, it’s really crucial for any organisation to practice and keep its employees engaged, satisfied and productive with high positive moral in their corporate culture which will be very beneficial to achieve its strategic objectives that will lead to deliver sustainable business results with positive growth pattern and this will support the organisations to stand up firmly in front of the possible challenges that may arise within its business environment. However the employee engagement is crucial, but its effectiveness is even more critical. So the business organisations should ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of employee engagement practices in place to achieve it by building up highly performing engaged teams while managing the organisational business performance. So, it will be very beneficial to study, understand, explore measure and evaluate as well, how effective the employee engagement practices within the business organisations could be achieved and sustained. Also identifying the most effective tools and techniques beside any other factors that may be associated within the same context thus will help the organisation to allocate the most optimized resources to achieve it and this consequently will augment the organisation’s position to achieve sustainable business performance. From above previous elaboration focused on both rational and purpose of choosing this topic. I believe this will be a good MBA dissertation topic as it will reflect a real life experience as I am intending to study the “Effectiveness of employee engagement practices and organisational performance” within one of the global pharmaceutical leaders, GlaxoSmithKline in Saudi Arabia whom have adopted a lot of engagement programs and practices while managing the organisational performance at both local and global levels. This dissertation will be deductive and exploratory in nature and it will pay more attention to critically review previous abstracts, journal articles, books and papers within the same scope and it could help to further recommend any future research prospects that might be noted in the outcomes for other researchers who will be interested in the same context. (Salem, 2015) 2.2 Literature review I will elaborate on my point of view about the concepts, ideas, theories, key arguments and discussions of the reviewed subject literatures which could be related to the chosen title “Effectiveness of employee engagement practices and organisational performance” Key Words: Employee engagement, satisfaction, work engagement, engagement measures, organisational and individual performance, working environment, review 2.2.1 Employee engagement concept and theory This section will cover the key concepts and theories that have been researched in the review subject literatures. According to Bhuvanaiah and Raya (2014), the employee engagement concept has been thoroughly reviewed and the definition of employee engagement with regard to the organisational perspective has been evolved during the last three decades by many researchers in their literature reviews. It has been elaborated that Kahan (1990) was one of the early researchers who presented the employee engagement concept and its correlation to the psychological background (Jeung, 2011) Authors had reviewed and elaborated the employee engagement in different theoretical perspectives, by highlighting the employee commitment and its dimensions, also paying attention to the psychological aspects of employee’s involvement in their work emotionally, cognitively and physically, provided that the employees could be committed only in one of these three dimensions that lead to the release of their energy which will affect positively to achieve and exceed the business requirements (Brajer-Marczak, 2014). Another theory suggested the link between the learning organisation cultural aspects which impact directly the employee engagement and indirectly the team performance then highlighted the impact of employee engagement as a mediating role due to behavioural factors on the team performance (Hoon Song et al., 2014). Also it has been highlighted that there is significance between the employee ensnarement and positive emotions in the working environment which boost the engagement level (Hazelton, 2014) In other literatures, the employee engagement concept considered other determines and factors as major antecedents; job design, specifications, supervisor and co-worker relationships, work environment and HRD practices. And it could relate the employee engagement to three major organisational outcomes centred on the performance, turnover and behaviour (Rana et al., 2014). Within the same context, It has been claimed that other variables had major impact on the employee engagement as working environment, team and co-worker relationship that significantly impacted positively the employee performance and productivity (Anitha, 2014) Also, it has been developed a conceptual model trying to link between the organisational alignment-Employee engagement and their impact on the individual performance through elaborations on the elements associated with these variables as individual skills, Job specifications and the organisational systems and processes (Alagaraja and Shuck, 2015) Leadership styles and behaviours had been found and proven to positively impacts the employee engagement in the daily working environment especially the transformational leadership style compared to other styles as management-by-exception, so it could be support the effectiveness of the employee engagement in the workplace (Breevaart et al., 2014) 2.2.2 Effectiveness of employee engagement This section will cover the employee engagement strategies that have been researched in the review subject literatures. Clarity about the level of engagement in term of consistency and frequency beside the preset engagement strategies is very crucial to have sustainable employee engagement in place (Barnett, 2015). It has been concluded that performance management systems centred on performance and development settings, feedback reviews, regular appraisals beside the culture of trust and empowerment could help the organisations to enhance its employee’s performance and in the same time, it ensures successful desirable levels of employee engagement (Mone et al., 2011). Also it has been concluded that organisations should pay focus to develop sustainable strategies and to create a healthily culture for work environment to enhance the level of employee engagement with the proper allocation of resources (Bhuvanaiah and Raya, 2014) Successful organisations had identified and practiced some employee’s engagement programs as extensive communication, cross-team collaboration, attracting, supporting and enabling a diverse workforce, retaining the best staff and support for personal development which could have positive impact on employee retention and engagement in the workplace (Pollitt, 2014). Other key drivers of employee engagement has been highlighted and elaborated in their literatures as encouragement to develop skills, work-life balance, belief in the organisation’s direction and leadership, praise/recognition, culture of caring, compensation and benefits, clarity of job descriptions, performance management system and equity for development (Werner et al., 2011) It has been studied and identified the levels of employee engagement throughout the previous literatures to conclude five levels referring to the level of individual contribution toward the organisational accomplishments. these levels are; the engaged, Almost engaged, honeymooners and hamsters, crash burners and disengaged. It’s commonly well know and could be used and followed (Bhuvanaiah and Raya, 2014) Authors claimed that monitoring and measuring the levels of employee engagement is essential to assess and taking the appropriate actions accordingly, as it has direct positive impact on organisational outputs throughout managing the organisational human capital (Werner et al., 2011) Measurement of employee engagement has been identified, studied and proven through different tools and techniques; mainly surveys and questionnaires considered Kahn’s (1990) earlier concept, the Utrecht work engagement scale (Schaufeli et al., 2002) and Gallup Q12 which known as Gallup workplace audit (Gallup Organisation, 1993-1998). These tools have been developed earlier along with the progression of the academic studies and literature reviews by researchers of both the employee engagement and organisational performance (Jeung, 2011) 2.2.3 The employee engagement and organisational performance This section will cover the link and positive correlation between the employee engagement and organisational performance that have been researched in the reviewed subject literatures. Most of the reviewed subject literatures have been confirmed the significant and positive impact correlation between the employee engagement and perceived organisational effectiveness (Kataria et al., 2013) and the level of engagement could lead to impactful successful organisational outputs (Werner et al., 2011). The success of organisations could be predicted and expressed at both bottom- line and financial performance levels (Rana et al., 2014). Also it has been highlighted that the outcomes associated with employee engagement could reflect on both individuals and business. The individual outcomes defined and represented in term of Absenteeism, quality, job satisfaction, commitment and performance while the business outcomes has impact on the organisational financials and non financial elements (Bhuvanaiah and Raya, 2014). According to (Kataria et al., 2013) “Engagement is an expedient phenomenon that drifts organisational effectiveness” 2.2.4 Key arguments, discussions and Critical review This section will cover the key arguments and discussions of the reviewed subject literature; the employee engagement and organisational performance. In essence, the employee engagement as a standalone subject is well highlighted, discussed and studied at both qualitative and quantitative levels in most of the literatures. Conceptually, most of authors build up the hypothesis and the direct link between the employee engagement and organisational effectiveness and/or individual performance which confirmed in a lot of their exploratory literatures In the most of the reviewed subject literatures, there were more tendency into qualitative research rather than quantitative in cross sectional design which was obvious as they had explored the different insights, elements, ways, strategies, models and methods of the employee engagement from different perspectives however there was no clear cut end point and ambiguity to identify the level of impact of effectiveness of these elements in correlation to the organisational performance or effectiveness in general. And that’s could be an area where to pay attention if the research ideas could be needed or redefined, in other words; the evaluation of effectiveness of employee engagement tools in relation to the organisational effectiveness could be a topic that need further research and attention! By paying attention to evaluate and measure the level of impact of different tools that support the employee engagement concept to ensure the sustainable effectiveness and how it could be linked to the organisational effectiveness outputs in term of objective data as measures and indicators e.g. Profits and financials. Also, there were different hypothetical models that used with different elements with regard to the employee engagement that offered broader view of the engagement from different dimensions according to the research objectives of each subject literatures. Beside the fact of limitations of most of reviewed subject literatures into the longitudinal research method & study objectives Surveys, workplace audits, engagement scales and questionnaires were the key research methods to evaluate the effectiveness of the employee engagement in most of the reviewed subject literatures due to the nature of the reviewed topic that needs personal inputs which may allow the bias due to the personal inputs As a conclusion, I believe the effectiveness of employee engagement is an area that needs further research into evaluating and measuring the impact of effectiveness of different tools that could be used for the employee engagement in practice and how it could be linked to specific indicators of the organisational performance (Salem, 2015) 2.3 Research questions Two key research questions have been identified for this proposal: Research question one: What are the key employee engagement tools that have major impact in practice? Research question two: How to measure and correlate the employee engagement levels to the organisational effectiveness and performance? 2.4 Purpose In essence, the purpose of this research proposal is to explore critically the practical employee engagement techniques, to evaluate its impact and effectiveness linked to the organisational performance as per the following research objectives; 2.4.1 To investigate and identify the most practical employee engagement techniques and to explore other factors that may be associated while managing the organisational performance 2.4.2 To measure the level of impact and the correlation of the employee engagement techniques linked to specific organisational performance indicators 2.4.3 To build up explanatory concept to link between sustainable effective employee engagement practices and organisational performance 2.5 Scope: The scope of this research proposal will be focused on the employee engagement practices and how it’s linked to the organisational performance represented in term of organisational financial objectives e.g. sales data, market shares, bottom-line and topline value data The scope will be limited to the pharmaceutical organisation “GlaxoSmithKline” as a private employer and its employees in Saudi Arabia only who have joined the organisation with at least one year employment completion at the time of conduction of the research to ensure the trend and consistency. The scope of the employee sampling and representation will involve most of the crossfunction teams and departments for consistency and avoiding bias but it will remain focused on the commercial teams; both sales and marketing employees at different hierarchal levels, mainly the upfront field force teams and middle management layers. Section two 1. Research methodology 1.1 Research strategy This research proposal’s approach will follow a deductive approach as the main objective will be testing the conceptual framework and the link between the employee engagement and the organisational performance. Also it will be testing the employee engagement techniques and will evaluate its impact and effectiveness linked to the organisational performance (please refer to point no. 2.4 Purpose of this research proposal) which has been studied and confirmed in most of the reviewed subject literatures that already have concluded the significant positive correlation between these variables. This is could be obvious and clear if we looking into and applying the four main criteria; Logic, generalisability, use of data and theory that identifies the research approaches in general (Saunders et al., 2012: 145) as the following;  Logic: both hypothesis and conclusion are true with regard to the positive correlation between effectiveness of the employee engagement and the organisational performance as elaborated in most of the reviewed subject literatures  Generalisability: as this research proposal will funnel down the hypothesis and conceptual frame work of the employee engagement and organisational performance and it will pay more focus and specifically study, identify and measures the employee engagement practices and its level of impact of the organisational performance  Use of data: as this research proposal will consider collecting, analysing and evaluating the data to test the existing theory of the effectiveness employee engagement and its impact on the organisational performance  Theory: as this research proposal will consider to falsify or verify the existing hypothesis and correlation between the effectiveness employee engagement and its impact on the organisational performance The research design will be the key pillar to be able to answer the proposed research questions and it will define the way forward of the research proposal’s next steps (Saunders et al., 2012: 159). The hereunder diagram shows the initial research design of this research proposal as the following; Research variables Research purpose Research questions Research strategy So from previous elaboration on research design, It’s obvious that the research proposal’s methodology choice will follow quantitative way in general especially it will examine the statistical correlation between the predefined variables; employee engagement and organisational performance, it could be considered as mutimethod quantitative study based on the research proposal’s question and purpose however some qualitative inputs will be considered for better clarification and explanation of the research question in cross-sectional time frame due to time limitations. Also it could be defined as a combination of exploratory, descriptive and explanatory in nature (please refer to both points no. 2.3 and 2.4 Research questions and purpose of this research proposal). So this will ensure and lead to the coherence of the overall research design (Saunders et al., 2012: 159) This research proposal’s strategy will consider using primarily the surveys in term of questionnaires due to their standardisation approach plus the control over the research process and structured interviews to identify the general patterns that will enable to test the statistical propositions for data collection (quantitative mutimethod) to ensure generalisability through sampling probability techniques and to enhance the data collection, analysis and interpretations (Saunders et al., 2012: 163-164, 377). Also this research proposal’s strategy will use the organisational secondary data which could be considered in indicating the overall organisational performance. ‐ Survey/ questionnaire ‐ Structured interview Secondary data: ‐ Company reports ‐ Financial reports ‐ Sales reports Employee engagement Organisational performance What are the key employee engagement tools that have major impact in practice? How to measure and correlate the employee engagement levels to the organisational effectiveness and performance (Specific Key performance indicators)? Investigate/ identify the employee Engagement tools Explore any other factors associated with the variables Measure impact and correlation between the variables Build Explanatory concept to link between the Variables 1.2 Sampling strategy This research proposal’s sampling strategy will consider getting valid samples from the entire population of GlaxoSmithKline Saudi Arabia for better time, cost and access management perspectives (Saunders et al., 2012: 260) to be able to answer the proposed research’s question. So based on the indentified research strategy; quantitative mutimethod as the surveys and questionnaires beside the structured interviews will be used, the best fit will be the probability or representative sampling technique will be considered and used as the chance to get the research’s questions answered by respondents being selected from the population are equal and it will achieve the objectives for further statistical analysis (Saunders et al., 2012: 261) The sampling frame will consider all the organisational hierarchy at XXXX Saudi Arabia as long as they will be able to answer the research question due to its relevance, also for accuracy and valid representation with at least one year employment completion with GlaxoSmithKline Saudi Arabia at the time of conduction of this research to ensure the quality inputs, practice, trend and consistency by avoiding the irrelevance which may occur by considering the inputs of the new employees due to their inability to input as they lack the history and background with XXXX Saudi Arabia then this will enable to generalise the finding to the total population of GlaxoSmithKline in Saudi Arabia (Saunders et al., 2012: 264) The sampling size approach will be stratified sampling technique to represent all population’s categories then random sampling technique within each category or stratum which consider all aspects and factors that may lead and enhance the confidence level of 95% of the collected data, also by avoiding and reducing the marginal errors to acceptable level of 5-10%, the intended analysis approach, the estimated likely response rate to reach 50% and the total population’s size as well. Also it has been highlighted that the larger sample size, the higher statistical significance (Saunders et al., 2012: 265-278). So based on the above elaboration and highlighted rationale, the hereunder table shows the overall XXXX hierarchy, total population and target sample size: - XXXX total population size: 321 - Total target sample size: 139 which represent 43% of total population size. - Calculated marginal error of 5-10%. - Confidence level 95%. - Estimated likely response rate 50%. - Target sample size for survey: 70% of total sample size. - Target sample size for structured interviews: 30% of total sample size. XXXX Hierarchy levels Population per hierarchy Total target sample size Target sample size for Survey (70%) Target sample size for Structured interview (30%) VP GM& Leadership team Second line managers& First line managers 53 23 16 7 Commercial sales/ Field force teams 150 65 46 19 Marketing team 15 6 4 2 Medical/ Regulatory teams 18 8 6 2 HR/ Legal/ Finance/ IT/ Logistics teams 35 15 10 5 GMS team 50 22 15 7 Total 321 139 97 42 1.3 Data collection As highlighted in section two, point 1.1: both research proposal’s strategy & the research design have identified and rationalised the data collection method as the following; Primary data: - Questionnaires: it will represent 70% of the total target sample size due to their standardisation approach plus the control over the research process. And survey link could be sent over email for easy access, cost and time management purposes. - Structured interviews: it will represent 30% of the total target sample size to identify the general patterns that will enable to test the statistical propositions for data collection (quantitative mutimethod) to ensure generalisability through sampling probability techniques and to enhance the data collection, analysis and interpretations (Saunders et al., 2012: 163-164, 377). And this could be conducted face-to-face for insuring the quality inputs and to avoid bias. Secondary data: - Use the organisational secondary data, mainly quantitative which could be considered in indicating the overall organisational performance as XXXX sales and financial local reports in Saudi Arabia after evaluation and validation. - Continuous search for updated literature reviews of the working title through different abstracts, papers, and journal articles beside textbooks sources. 1.4 Analysis methods After the collection of the primary and secondary data as per the research design, definitely it will be processed for further quantitative analysis to be able to answer the identified research question and to investigate the statistical correlation between the predefined variables; employee engagement and organisational performance So the analysis of the data will follow the deductive approach analytical strategies in general after defining the type of primary and secondary data collected which could be defined as the following: Variable 1: Employee engagement, the data will be defined as categorical and ranked Variable 2: Organisational performance, it will be defined as Numerical data Also for analysing the questionnaires and the structured interviews which will present variable 1 and after preparing the data, it will be appropriate to use the SPSS and spreadsheets with coding for further statistical analysis and linking the outcomes into the variable 2 at given time that may draw the linear relationship and regression analysis between the variables to spot significance. Also it will of value to consider initially the exploratory data analysis (EDA) approach which may guide to select the appropriate analysis techniques (Saunders et al., 2012: 472-487) Different analytical approaches will be adopted according to the need to establish the relationship between the two predefined variables; as frequency distribution, pattern matching, template analysis, data display& time series analysis 1.5 Validity and reliability This research proposal will consider the validity and reliability as key element for consistent accurate outcomes. Certain measure will be considered to achieve it by avoiding bias and common errors while collecting the primary data both questionnaires and structured interviewsc(Saunders et al., 2012) beside the secondary data as the following; - Test re-test: this approach will allow refining the questionnaires for more clarity among participants - Pilot testing: it will give good idea how the research and data collected would look like and the fine tuning would be achieved if adjustment and correction is needed which will reflect positively on the reliability of the collected data - External validity: ensure reliable, suitable, potential and creditable sources for the literature review & secondary data - Internal validity: one year employment completion at XXXX Saudi Arabia to ensure quality inputs - Sample size& frame: this will ensure the desired confidence level - Data analysis techniques and verification: this will allow validity and consistency of the outcomes by making sure that all data captured and entered correctly into the computer. 2. Access: During the first week of Jan. 16, I have met and briefed some of the key stakeholders at XXXX Saudi Arabia; Head of Commercial Excellence, Human Resources Director and the Country Compliance Manager to negotiate the access for the conduction of study, questionnaires and structured interviews for XXXX employees in Saudi Arabia beside the use of the relevant company data. The stakeholders at XXXX Saudi Arabia have appreciated the idea and I’ve got positive signals however the Country Compliance Manager has some concerns to conduct such type of questionnaires especially XXXX Saudi facing currently a lot of cultural and values challenges especially there were some surveys already conducted through the global teams on last November 15 and we’ve just received the results. He asked me to send a brief description over mail (Attached for reference: double click to open) as he is going to check it out with other stakeholders at above country level and to check if any further requirements might be needed. So I will keep following up the matter with him to ensure getting the access approval in time. Mail Grant Access.pdf 3. Gantt chart The hereunder Gantt chart shows a clear, defined and time lined road map of the dissertation proposal’s key actions and tasks (Attached for reference: double click to open) GANTT Chart.xlsx Gantt Chart: Dissertation Proposal Working Title: “Effectiveness of Employee Engagement Practices and Organisational Performance” W2 10/1/16 W3 17/1/16 W4 24/1/16 W1 01/2/16 W2 08/2/16 W3 15/2/16 W4 22/2/16 W5 01/3/16 W6 08/3/16 W7 15/3/16 W8 22/3/16 W9 01/4/16 W10 08/4/16 W11 15/4/16 W12 22/4/16 W13 01/5/16 W14 08/5/16 W15 15/5/16 W16 22/5/16 Submit the dissertation proposal onto Moodle Get the dissertation proposal's feedback Work on proposal's feedback& literature review/ reading Skype first meeting with Supervisor Work on dissertation: Start to draft the literature review& research methodology Work on Ethics form & finalize/ submit Skype second meeting with Supervisor Check updates of the access status/ negotiate & Grant access Build the survey/ Questionnaire & develop structured interview Pilot testing and amend the Questionnaire/structured interview if needed Conduct the survey & structured interviews Collect the surveys and questionnaires Collect and review the relevant company data (secondary data) Face‐to‐face Meeting with Supervisor at RAK (TBC) Data analysis Draft and incorporate the outcomes and findings into the dissertation Submit the dissertation Draft to the supervisor for review and feedback Skype meeting with supervisor: finalization& comments for submission Consolidation and final submission onto Moodle/ Send portfolio of evidence Key actions/ Tasks/ Activities Jan‐16 Feb‐16 Mar‐16 Apr‐16 May‐16 References Alagaraja, M. & Shuck, B. 2015, "Exploring Organizational Alignment-Employee Engagement Linkages and Impact on Individual Performance: A Conceptual Model", Human Resource Development Review, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 17-37. Barnett, J. 2015, "Employee engagement effectiveness: answering four questions will help you evaluate your employee engagement strategy", TD Magazine, vol. 69, no. 11, pp. 92. Bhuvanaiah, T. & Raya, R.P. 2014, "Employee Engagement: Key to Organizational Success", SCMS Journal of Indian Management, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 61. Brajer-Marczak, R. 2014, "Employee engagement in continuous improvement of processes", Management, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 88-103. Breevaart, K., Bakker, A., Hetland, J., Demerouti, E., Olsen, O.K. & Espevik, R. 2014, "Daily transactional and transformational leadership and daily employee engagement", Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, vol. 87, no. 1, pp. 138-157. Gallup Organization (1993–1998). Gallup workplace audit. Princeton, NJ: Gallup Organization. Hazelton, S. 2014, "Positive emotions boost employee engagement: Making work fun brings individual and organizational success", Human Resource Management International Digest, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 34-37. Hoon Song, J., Hun Lim, D., Gu Kang, I. & Kim, W. 2014, "Team performance in learning organizations: mediating effect of employee engagement", The Learning Organization, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 290-309. J, A. 2014, "Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. 63, no. 3, pp. 308-323. Jeung, C. 2011, "The concept of employee engagement: a comprehensive review from a positive organizational behavior perspective", Performance Improvement Quarterly, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 49-69. Kataria, A., Rastogi, R. & Garg, P. 2013, "Organizational Effectiveness as a Function of Employee Engagement", South Asian Journal of Management, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 56. Kahn,W.A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 692–724. Mone, E., Eisinger, C., Guggenheim, K., Price, B. & Stine, C. 2011, "Performance Management at the Wheel: Driving Employee Engagement in Organizations", Journal of Business and Psychology, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 205-212. Rana, S., Ardichvili, A. & Tkachenko, O. 2014, "A theoretical model of the antecedents and outcomes of employee engagement: Dubin's method", Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 26, no. 3/4, pp. 249-266. Salem, M. 2015, "Effectiveness of employee engagement techniques within change management processes: Can Do Attitude", Cardiff Metropolitan university, Advanced Entry MBA, Assessment 2 Literature review document, pp. 3-5. Saunders, Mark N.K.;Lewis, Philip;Thornhill, Adrian. 2012., Research Methods for Business Students. [online]. Financial Times/ Prentice Hall. Available from: 1 January 2016 Schaufeli,W. B., Salanova, M., Gonzalez-Roma, V., & Bakker, A. B. (2002). The measurement of engagement and burnout: A two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. Journal of Happiness Studies, 3, 71–92. Pollitt, D. 2014, "VocaLink wins gold for outstanding people practices: Employee engagement smoothes the way for organizational change", 2014, Human Resource Management International Digest, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 4-7. Werner, H., Karel, S., Jan, V. & Wait, K. 2011, "Evaluating the difference in employee engagement before and after business and cultural transformation interventions", African Journal of Business Management, vol. 5, no. 22, pp. 8804. 1 MBA Advanced Entry Course 10698_15 Dissertation Proposal Cardiff Metropolitan University 2 Dissertation Proposal Contents 1. Working Title ......................................................................................................................... 3 Section A: Introduction including rationale, conceptual underpinnings, purpose, questions and scope: 3 2. Rationale ............................................................................................................................... 3 3. Literature Review................................................................................................................... 4 4. Research Questions ................................................................................................................ 7 5. Purpose .................................................................................................................................. 7 6. Scope ..................................................................................................................................... 7 Section B: Research methodology including research strategy, sampling strategy, data collection and analysis methods and validity and reliability: ................................................................................................. 9 7. Research Approach & Strategy .............................................................................................. 9 8. Sampling Procedure ............................................................................................................. 10 9. Data Collection Points ......................................................................................................... 10 10. Data Analysis Procedure ...................................................................................................... 10 11. Validity and Reliability ........................................................................................................ 11 12. Access ................................................................................................................................. 12 13. Gantt Chart ........................................................................................................................... 12 14. References ............................................................................................................................ 14 APPENDIX 1 .................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Research Diary: ............................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. APPENDIX 2 .................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Access ............................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. APPENDIX 3 .................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. Gantt Chart ...................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 3 1. Working Title I am proposing that the title of my MBA dissertation will be:- “To critically evaluate the impact of digital payments1 on supply chain stability within Dubai: With specific reference to SMEs2.” In the Research Methods Assessments One and Two the title of my dissertation project included “the UAE” rather than “Dubai”. As a result of initial research, my decision to now limit the dissertation to Dubai has been based on a) the number of SMEs in the UAE is estimated at 230,000 which would be too large for the scope of this dissertation and a quantitative research questionnaire, b) Dubai is more advanced than the rest of the UAE in pursuing digital payment strategies and implementing a vision for SMEs (Dubai Government, 2015). The government and organisations located in Dubai are extremely focussed and are demonstrating leadership in digitisation, payment technology and supply chain strategy. I therefore believe that the title will lead to more focussed and advanced outcomes focussing on Dubai. Whilst I cannot yet comment on the outcome of the various research methodologies that I will implement, the broader population of SME’s remains an extremely interesting topic and could form a basis for a subsequent research project. I am also limiting the scope of digital payments to Commercial Cards (Credit Cards) and Mobile Wallets (see Section 6 – Scope). Section A: Introduction including rationale, conceptual underpinnings, purpose, questions and scope: 2. Rationale My 28 years of experience working for global financial institutions, primarily engaged with global multinational corporations and public sector entities as customers, has exposed me to a wide variety of environmental factors and organisational challenges. In today’s global environment, one cannot ignore the impact of megatrends and the various environmental factors that organisations are facing. As an example, the decline of the oil price to under $40 and increasing geo-political tensions places significant stress on supply chains. The effective management of supply chains has therefore become critical business objective for senior managers. Advances in payment technology, disruptive innovation and new entrants (e.g. Fintech, Bitcoin and Blockchain) are increasingly impacting the global payment industry. Dodgson et al. (2015) openly discuss the economic impact of this innovation and the benefits to organisations in more efficient managing their end to end supply chain. In my experience, organisations are looking to become more efficient, leverage technology and innovate end-to-end processes to mitigate risk, maximise working capital and to become as automated as possible so as to control and/or reduce cost. Digital payments have the potential to accelerate the speed of settlement of payments and ultimately benefit the broader supply chain. Globalisation is stretching supply chains and increasing the risk of doing business. This is influencing the strategies of global corporations and governments as they conduct business with their suppliers (SMEs). The Dubai SME 2021 strategy (Department of Economic Development, Dubai, 2015) has a clear focus on supporting SMEs as they represent 95% of the registered organisations and are viewed as critical to the economic prospects of the emirate. Ensuring that the SME’s thrive, are efficient and can manage their supply chains is an extremely interesting area to research especially given the desire of the Government of Dubai to leverage innovation and digitisation to become the smartest city in the world (Government of Dubai, 2016). 1 Digital Payments – A method of payment which has a cash equivalent but is held in an electronic form (Dodgson et al., 2015) 2 SME – Small to Medium Sized Enterprises. Employees <250. Turnover