Business Research Assignment: Workplace Diversity at IBM

Question

Task: Choose an organization and write a business research assignment on the topic “Engaging several generations in the workplace” using relevant concepts and theories.

Answer

1. Introduction
In a workplace, it is possible to find different people who belong to generations who are working together. However, the process of engaging and attracting and making them work together in the same organization is not an easy job. The manager needs to be capable of finding the accurate method of doing so. This will bring diversity within the organization which will help in the development. In this project, the main focus is on IBM Australia. It is extremely crucial to specify all the challenges and explanations for dealing with the issues of the generation at the workplace.

2. Background of the Research
2.1 Problem Statement
The main intention of the management is to provide an organisational culture which will enable mixing up all the generations in the company. Thereby, it will be possible to maximise the engagement, strengths and talent as well(de Waal, Peters, &Broekhuizen, 2017). The understanding between two different generations and two characteristics of that will be leading diversity in the workplace (de Waal, Peters, &Broekhuizen, 2017). For achieving that, one needs to know the process of engaging two different generations in the same way. It is essential to recognize all the challenges as well as the solutions of dealing with generation issues at the workplace of IBM Australia. There is a transition in integrity as the people are getting old.

2.2 Research Objective

• To acknowledge and understand the notion of engaging people coming from several generations in a workplace.
• To specify the problems while engaging several generations in IBM Australia.
• To look for techniques and solution for engaging the employees of different generations in IBM Australia.

2.3 Research Questions
RQ1. What is the meaning of connect different generations in a workplace?

RQ2. What are the problems of connecting people of several generations in IBM Australia?

RQ3. What are the possible techniques and the solutions that are needed to be implemented at IBM Australia?

3. Literature Review
3.1 Concepts and theory of engagement
Employee engagement is one of the beneficial states for a company. It gives huge success as well as cooperation among the different employees. Engagement involves incorporation of many tactics that influence or encourage them to work together in the professional field. According to Lewis &Wescott (2017), engagement involves positive emotions and mental cooperativity in the working field that leads to the success in the organisation. As stated by Aziz et. al (2018) engagement is mostly concerned about engagement of work and efficiently they are performing their job in the organisation. Engagement can be stated as a strong or evolved state of mind that enhances the performances of individual candidates of the team by the engrossment. Engrossment can be defined as an important factor that is boosted by the cooperativity of the employees in individual and collective ways.

Engagement can be defined as one of the most powerful success parameters in every organisation and this promotes internal communication among the employees of that company. As opined by Andrade & Westover (2018), engagement of employees of different generations promotes or modifies the competitiveness and effectiveness of the company. Competitiveness of an organisation is an important indicator that indicates both inter-organizational and intra organisational competitive factors for that organization. Effectiveness is a multidimensional factor for every organisation that detects the effectiveness in different sectors of an organisation. Intergenerational cooperativity is an important and productive indicator for the company that directs the growth of every company.

Generational Cohort Theory
This theory defines the behaviour of individuals belonging to the same generation. According to Johnson (2017), generational cohort theory states that individuals born in the same time period or individuals of a particular age group have thoughts, beliefs and opinion. On the other hand Widénet. al (2017), stated that behaviour and opinions vary among the individuals belonging to different generations or age groups. As stated by Murray (2018), this difference of opinion appears due to the generational effect. Generation has a great impact over the employees of any organisation. This effect is observed due to several factors that are changing as the generations are going on or time flows. These factors shape the individuals of that particular generation in that way, thus in changing of generation these factors are also changed and individuals are shaped in different ways, and this is the main cause of differentiation. Standpoints and the expectations of employees also varies due to these factors inside an organisation. This can initiate a war talent among the employees of different generations. Proper management and flow of knowledge and experiences is the only way out for the company in such a situation. According to flow of knowledge and experiences among the employees of different generations brings a friendly environment and understanding among the employees.

3.2 Challenges in engaging with generations at the workplace
Several challenges appear inside a company due to engaging the individuals from different generations. In many cases these challenges bring many difficult situations for the managers of that organisation. Proper management and structural frameworks are required to deal with such challenges and establish a stable equilibrium inside that company. According to Sandhu & Kaur (2017), the first set of problems appears to the manager is age differences among the employees. It becomes hard for the management of the company to know about the traits of the employees belonging to different age groups. Without identifying the traits of the employees company may face many issues, flexibility issues are one of the principal issues among those. Next set of problems appears due to differences in values among the employees of a company. According to Crowe (2016), it has been found that employees vary in several influential events such as economic recessions, technological development and other types of influential activities. These types of asset differences are one of the principal causes of instability inside the organisation. On the other hand Woods (2019), stated that communication gap is another major problem that arises among the employees of that company.

Differences in style, language, behaviour among individuals of different generations marked as the principal reason for such communication gaps. As a consequence of all these factors huge battles can be initiated inside that organisation among the individuals of different age groups ultimately effectivity and efficiency of their performance get reduced.

3.3 Strategies for engaging with different generations
In order to overcome the challenges that appear due to employees of several generations, certain strategies must be followed by the management of that organisation. According to ?ásek, &Suchanec, (2018), Business managers have several important roles to play in order to deal with the generational problems. Firstly, designing of the styles of departments is very much important as it has been effective to reduce the collision among employees and overall performance of the organisation gets boosted. As stated by Aylmer & Dias (2018), the behaviour of the managers is also marked as an important parameter for the company. Managers should be humble, kind and neutral in their position, that encourages the employees of the several generations to freely interact with them and he understands and finds out the real problem. Gathering knowledge and staying up to date is also important for the managers in order to understand the feeling and the opinions of the different age groups. Working framework should be flexible rather than rigid that helps to focus the employees. Managers should look after the expectations of different age groups and maintain different communication channels among employees in order to establish stability.

4. Research Design
4.1 Research Approach
The research approach is a particular way of doing research that needs to be considered prior to the moment of formulating the plans for executing the risky directions of the possible subheads being integrated into these portions. This approach helps in establishing a wholesome acknowledgement of the main aspects that are needed to be considered in the entire study (Cvetkoska&Savi?, 2017). The research approach assisted as a formation of the root for the whole study as it banks on the calculation and gathering up the information as per needs. It greatly relies on the accuracy of the research-based on the information (Bencsik, Horváth-Csikós&Juhász, 2016). The research approach of the specific research is distributed into three broad sectors that are deductive, adductive and inductive.

In this research, the deductive approach will be utilised. It will enable use in deducing the study. Although it will help deduce the data from the available sources, yet the time is very short. There is a risk, without them, the study would have been done easily.

4.2 Research Choice
There is an across-the-board strategy that can be selected by the researchers for incorporating the aspects of the research coherently and logically. The research style is aimed at making sure that the procedure of methodological insertions is being modified in the right way and according to the need of the problem (D?nçer2018). This furthermore enables the group pertained to in framing a construct for broadening the understanding of some specific characteristics that are of primary interest in the research. The research choice can be categorized into two different sectors that are conclusive and experimental research designs. Moreover, the definitive research approach can also be distinguished into descriptive and explanatory choices (Hunter, McCallum&Howes, 2019). Research design makes sure that the research issue is solvable in distinct and solvable ways.

For this research, the descriptive research method is going to be used. These research designs will be given to the researcher which will help them in living accuracy in the research questions as well as in the research itself.

4.3 Research Philosophy
Research philosophy helps in creating a structure which helps in developing a module for the research and directs in the right direction. It is near as a structural binding that lends the path to the several efforts that are being inclusively respected. This portion fulfils as a crucial phase to categorize the information that is being huddled from various resources. This section is useful to deduce the research principles for the whole research with reasonable and mandatory data (Muhammad, 2016). The research philosophy for doing various studies is being divided into four categories that are interpretivism, pragmatism, positivism, and realism. These several sectors are distinguished and accepted in different studies.

For this research positivism, philosophy will be the most appropriate. This researcher can only relate to the required viewpoint through this method by concentrating on the facts. In this method, well-structured large samples could be taken. That way the researcher will get quite opportunities for analysing all the different generations that have been required to understand in order to engage in a workplace.

4.4 Research Strategy
Analysing data is the assistant portion of the other methods that the integration of the amassed information is achieved by declaring the confirmation of the facts, the resources and pictures that are mainly extended by a thorough knowledge of the characteristics by instructing them to the prior recordings and other similar contexts for the examination of any particular theme. This can be contemplated as the most important and important fraction for the researchers to accomplish in the full research endeavour (Bukhvostov et al. 2017). After collecting all the research data it leads the path to the adequate arrangement and evaluation with the gathered data which will direct to the growth of the research work proving a conclusion.

This will be administered through arrangement and explicit discussion of both primary and second-best-suited best-suited methods for this analysis will be a primary quantitative analysis (Jünger, 2018).This research will be taking shelter under a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews, as the researcher, expects to comprehend the notions of a manager as well as the workers through interviews and examinations.

4.5 Type of Research
After the process of gathering the research data, this step directs to arranging the data and evaluation of that gathered data which tend to direct to the improvement of the research frame and concluding. The data will be analysed by arrangements and a detailed discussion of using both primary and secondary data. The well-suited technique is for this analysis mainly primarily quantitative analysis (Abdalla et al. 2018). The data analysis goes across several such crucial points that encompass inductive and deductive techniques. This phase enables in managing the whole bunch of compiled data and the growth of unique and partial consequences from this research which will assist as guidelines for further researches.

5.Data
5.1 Population
The researcher will examine the perspective of IBM Australia employees about the engagement with different generations. 100 employees are being considered for the survey, from the age 20 to 50. In this way, the researcher will prepareto cover the notions of all the generations that are presented in IBM.

5.2 Sample and sampling technique
This procedure essentially accentuates the likelihoods of several sectors of sampling that are imposed to perform a strategic research through a standardized method. Moreover, it arise the reliefs that can be raised from the investigation in future through particular inferring references problems by other collaborators while evaluating in this field. There are two primary sampling methods are probability and non-probability. Both of these are being applied here.

In this interview, the researchers are going to conduct a semi-structured interview with 8 quarries, which will be asked by 3 managers of IBM Australia based on generation engagement. All the data will be non-numerical; therefore non-probability sampling is going to be followed.

5.3 Data collection tool
The data collection is the important aspect for a primary investigation of the practical projects through thorough examination of all the facts and figures being undertaken to accomplish a logical assumption on the problems arising in the research (Dincer, 2019). This study mainly is based on the primary data, as researchers take a survey on the general population.

6.Analytic approach
This research is going to follow both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Qualitative research method depends on personal judgments and it cannot be quantified, but the investigation can disclose precious data because to its open collection procedure that enables researchers to formulate hypotheses. Quantitative research can be utilized to verify hypotheses (Farghaly, 2018). In this research the tools that are being used are, interview and survey.

Interview
Interview is an exclusive part qualitative research device that delivers information about a person’s behaviour and attitude. Interviews can be performed face to face or on the digital devices, and can be scripted or natural (Veys et al. 2020). This device is utilized by investigators to look for the personal approach to their study.

Survey
The tools of survey are phone, mail and online surveys are very much prominent as a research tool. They generally borrow numeric scales with demographic evidence. One of the most prominent tools for quantitative research that are available survey, as is very much quantifiable, affordable and quick (Basias, &Pollalis, 2018). The advantages of the technology are that it has improved the process of with software, which can calculate conclusions within minutes.

7. Ethical considerations
Pilot testing
Pilot testing is a kind of software testing that deals with a component of a particular system or the entire process under a real-time operating condition. Pilot testing is one of the most essential stages in a particular project and is a very important measure that is used to ensure the ethical collection of data in a particular organization.

Ensure transparency
Transparency of the data is another measure that should be ensured so that the ethical collection of data happens. Transparency should be maintained not only about how the data is collected but also on how the data will be used by the particular organization. Another factor that falls in here is if the process of collection is unethical which will make the organisation fraudulent and can pose a legal conundrum for the organisation.

Protocol ensuring privacy
Security protocols is an important measure that it can be used by an organisation to ensure privacy of data collected by the particular organisation. it is used while collecting data so that only the important data can be extracted while maintaining the privacy of the user.

Respect for anonymity and confidentiality
An organisation while collecting data should respect the anonymity and confidentiality of the user as the privacy of the user should always be protected. This measure should be taken by organization to ensure the ethical collection of data.

8. Strength and Weaknesses of The Research
Strength
Sufficient amount of data - Sufficient amount of data for the research could be collected that posed as a big strength for the research.

Data has been properly arranged - All the data that has been collected for the research could be properly arranged in a systematic way that also became a big strength for the research. Data based on the research is basically arranged based on actual values under different value labels.

Weaknesses
Lack of budget - A lack of budget has been identified in the following research that posed as a big weakness. The following limitation can be improved by creating a strategic plan that can be used to meet the budget goals.

Lack of collaboration - Lack of collaboration is another limitation or weakness that has been identified in the following research. The following weakness can be improved by promoting and fostering honest and open communication amongst the members.

All the weaknesses that have been identified above will be mitigated while doing research. To do so few strategies will be implemented into the research that will be used to improve the following weaknesses.

9. Validity and Reliability
This research is concerned about one of the major and important issues of the organisational working environment. This study will provide an effective guideline for the future researchers to design the company guidelines. This research would provide some effective strategies to understand the mentality and the behaviour of employees of different age groups. The effectiveness of this research will be very high as it helps to understand the demands and expectations of employees. This research will be marked as an important strategy to find out the reasons of collisions among the employees and finally the future researchers will get some solid frameworks to reduce these collisions as much as possible.

10. Conclusion
From the following study it can be concluded that the concept of employee engagement is one of the most beneficial states of the company that is IBM Australia. Here many tactics of engagement are incorporated that motivates the employees in an organization to work together harmoniously in a professional field. In the particular organisation that is IBM Australia ethical collection of data should be ensured with the help of different measures such as respect for anonymity and confidentiality, ensuring transparency, pilot testing, and protocol ensuring privacy. Weaknesses that have been identified in the following study should be solved while conducting the research.?

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