Research Proposal Assignment Analysing How Technology Affects Australian Work Culture?

Question

Task: Prepare a research proposal assignment on “Analysis of how the technology affects the work culture in Australia: Smartphones”.

Answer

1. Introduction
This report is a research proposal assignment on the analysis of technologies that are impacting the work culture in Australia. These days’ technologies are providing a lot of facilities to people but along with it, there are many negative impacts that need to be faced. Most of the organisations felt that technologies are a boon in today’s world (Deady et al., 2017). However, they forget that everything is not always having positive effects. The industrial revolution changed the ways of working all over the world. There are many common devices that a person may possess like a Smartphone. This provides access to all the applications of social media. Hence, this provides a high level of distraction. This is not only hampering the personal life but the professional one too. This research proposal assignment is having a single aim of looking at the effects in the workplace of Australia. It will further be looking at some policies that are made by the companies so that Smartphone use can be controlled during working hours.

It is being seen that the new generation of people is highly inclined towards technologies. This is leading to a high level of stress and tension. It is impacting mental health also. The new generation of people are leading double lives (Jenkins & Harvey, 2019). This research on research proposal assignment will be looking at the mindset of the new generation of people. They will also try to understand how companies are managing their work process without taking any botheration of phones in the working hours. There will be some scope of making new strategies so that the works in the companies are done properly.

2. Problem Statement
Technologies are advancing a very high speed and so is the usage. However, huge problems are arising in the companies of developing countries like Australia. It is seen that people are not concentrating on their work because they are busy surfing the social media sites on mobile phones. According to some statistics, 8.4 per cent of women has aches and pains (Engelen et al., 2017). In the case of men, it is 7.9 per cent. It is important to see that there are many security issues and hence people should not store their personal information there. Just like Australia, there are many other countries where similar issues are being faced. Hence, all these need to be addressed within this research proposal assignment properly.

3. What are the aim and objectives/research questions of this research proposal assignment?
The aim of this research is to find out the level at which the companies are affected because of the overuse of technologies like Smartphone in Australia. It will be looking at the methods method through which this situation can be curbed.

Research Objectives

• To understand the effects of the working culture due to mobile phone usage
• To know the role of technology in the workplace of Australia
• To understand the technological needs of the working generation and to devise some strategies so that Smartphone use is dropped
• To know how developing nations like Australia is facing in their working environment due to advancement in technologies

Research Questions outlined in research proposal assignment
RQ1. What are the effects of mobile phone in the workplace in Australia?

RQ2. What strategies can be devised to reduce the need for Smartphone’s in the workplace?

RQ3. What are the technological needs of the working generation of people?

RQ4. What are the issues being created in the organisation due to high usage of Smartphone’s?

4. Justification and potential output of the research
This research proposal assignment is looking at the negative impact of mobile phones in the workplace. This research will be going through many articles and theories. A set of objectives and research questions have been made so that some potential output of the research can be seen. The research will be focusing on the view-point of the companies that are located in Australia. It will also be looking at some ways through which this issue can be handled effectively. There is a conceptual framework along with the hypothesis. There will also be some further scope in the topic so the view of the employees can also be understood.

5. Conceptual Framework and Hypothesis Development
5.1 Concept of workplace culture
 The personalities and the characters of organisations shape the culture of any workplace. There are a few factors that sum up the culture of an organization making it unique in nature. They are the traditions, values, beliefs, behaviours, interactions and attitudes of the employees working in the workspace (Alas & Mousa, 2016). The work culture mentioned in this research proposal assignment plays a vital role in setting the tone of the workplace. In a positive work culture set up, people are driven to engagement, talents are attracted, and happiness is impacted with being satisfied with the work which directly results in performance (do Carmo Silva & Gomes, 2015). It has an important impact on everything in the workplace. Hence, letting the workplace culture grow on its own without a proper predefined way which is significant, is not suggested.

Charles Handy’s model of workplace culture
To analyse the workplace culture, there are two main approaches discussed in this research proposal assignment that can be considered to understand the basic views. They are – interpretive views and structural views. According to the interpretive view, it is to be said that in the shaping and continuity of the culture is done through the organisational environment (Blattner & Walter, 2015). And on the other hand, the structural views give the entire focus on the structure of the positions within a workplace. This view was well explained by Charles Hardy. In the Charles Hardy model discussed in this research proposal assignment, there are in total of four types of organisational culture. They are –

• Power culture - In this culture, the power-oriented people are focused on who sits on the top level to enjoy their power in the workplace along with driving people with a similar mindset towards them.
• Role culture – This is role oriented culture believes in supporting the whole organisation by carrying out their own specific role.
• Task culture – The project or job oriented people mentioned in this research proposal assignment create this culture in an organisation aiming at creating a workplace excelling in task-oriented culture for the betterment of the organisation.
• Person culture – Mostly marked as an unusual culture type, person culture is used rarely in an organisational for its primary focus on the assistance of an individual which lacks any further objective that overrides the individual’s interest.

5.2 Factors that shape the culture of a workplace
The workplace culture is shaped with the actions of the employees working in the workspace. However, there are a few factors which help in shaping the culture of the workplace. They are:

Principles of leadership – The business policies mentioned in this research proposal assignment along with the rules and procedures set for the employees always get affected by the way how the leader operates the business (Nordbäck, Myers & McPhee, 2017). It is the leader who sets the tone in the workplace which directly impacts the actions of the employees in the workspace.

Work ambience, values and policies of the company – All the employees are bound to follow the values and the policies of the company they are working for (Upchurch & Grassman, 2016). This shapes the characterization of the employees in a workspace emphasizing values depending on the policies.

Clients – It is discussed in this research proposal assignment that employees working together creating a work ambience also include the one whom they work for. Clients are the one who is most overlooked in a work culture but in reality, serves an important purpose in creating the culture in a workplace for being the direct reason for the well-being of the employees.

Selection and recruitment process – This is the most important step discussed in this research proposal assignment to build the work culture in an organization as it determines the types of employees that will be recruited and in the long run framing the work culture of the organisation.

5.3 Technologies which impact the workplace culture
Technology has a great impact on the workplace culture of any organisation. According to research done in this research proposal assignment, this has been found that a millennial-aged under 25 years sends 110 text messages every day on an average count (Pallud, 2017). In the workplace, people need to be focused on their jobs. However, the little they get in the intervals, are the scopes where they can interact with their co-workers. A single ping of a notification can distract them from their work as well as kills the scope of creating bonds between the employees. As the number of millennial is high in any organization, to maintain the workplace culture, managers might have to rule out a different set of rules to limit the usage of the Smartphone in the workplace to maintain the efficiency in work. However, the usage of the Smartphone’s in a workspace can make certain approaches flexible as well allowing people from different time zone to connect through telecommunication which will also provide a scope of making the workplace culturally diverse.

5.4 Negative Impact of Smartphone in the workplace of Australia
The Smartphone is creating a lot of issues in the workplace of Australia. People are highly busy in using the latest technologies like Smartphone’s and hence they are sleeping less (Van Laethem, Van Vianen & Derks, 2018). This is directly affecting the productivity of the organisation. According to some researches, there are 709 mobile users between the ages of 18 to 83 in the year 2018. Although technologies are helpful in the day to day tasks of the organisation but employees are using this unnecessarily. Among men, the productivity decline is around 12.6 per cent and in the case of women, it is 14 per cent. It has also been seen in this research proposal assignment that people are copying each other’s ideas and hence the companies are unable to get hold of the new projects. The smartphone is leading to health and safety issues among the employees. The behaviour of employees is changing and negativity is increasing (Duke & Montag, 2017). There are some positive impacts of Smartphones in the workplace. There is a high level of addiction and hence connectivity among the employees is reducing. It is leading to stress and some diseases which are again not good for the organisation. There are some securities issues mentioned in this research proposal assignment which are leading to data leakage due to usage of technologies. Hence, certain rules are being made for the employees and their involvement in Smartphones.

5.5 Hypothesis Development
This study of research proposal assignment will be testing a certain hypothesis in light of the literature review.

6. Methodology
6.1 Research design
Research design mentioned in this research proposal assignment is stated as the framework constituting different methods as well as techniques which a researcher usually chooses for combining various research components under a reasonable logic. Thus the combination is done in such a manner that research problem is answered and executed efficiently. It is a set of methods which is used for the collection of the data and thus makes use of varied methods for Analysation of the data. 

The research design that will be chosen within this research proposal assignment is “Exploratory research design”. It is a design which is conducted for a particular research problem which will be needed to get studied more clearly. It will help in the determination of research design; find an appropriate method for data collection and also a subject final collection of data subjects (Arpaci et al., 2015). Exploratory will determine the problem nature, but will not provide any conclusive facts, instead, it will help the researcher to enable better thinking and understanding related to the problem. Herewith exploratory research design within this research proposal assignment determine that the researcher will know about the research issue and questions related to smart phones technology affecting work culture

6.2 Research Approach and sources of data
Research approach - It is considered to be a procedure or a plan which consists of different steps related to board assumptions for the detailed steps of data collection. It consists of a detailed procedure for how the data is to be collected, analysed and interpreted for a positive outcome. It is based on ideas and nature of the problem and once the problem is addressed, the data approach and collection analysis are conducted. 

For the current study of research proposal assignment, “Deductive research approach” will be taken into conduct. In this case, when facts and data premises are true, the conclusive representation will also be true. The data collection is used for evaluation of the propositions and hypothesis which is related to the theory. Thus the deductive approach will be conducted. 

Data sources- The collection of the data is one of the major parts for any research proposal. It is very important that data are being collected from varied sources. For the current research, the data will be collected from both primary as well as secondary sources. Different information related to how smart phones have affected work centre in Australia is collected from academic papers, articles and journals (Li & Yuan, 2018). The data are also collected from different Australian operating industries for understanding varied policies that are used by the industry. Even with the help of qualitative approach, data is also collected. The data has also been collected from newspapers, online articles where they are analysed and collaborated.

Source for collecting the data for research proposal assignment is the observation and interview process. Data is collected by conducting interviews of many employees that daily make use of Smartphone technology in the workplace. Sources of Data here are articles, journals, academic papers and primarily interview of employees in Australian operating industries.

6.3 Proposed data collection and analysis techniques
Population - The target population for this research study of research proposal assignment will be the employees that are obsessed with using Smartphone technologies in the workplace. Researchers have also targeted Australian operating industries and analysed the varied policies that are been used by them (Román et al. 2018). Employees are been targeted here because in today's digital society and with the rapid increase of advance technology, the workplace has tended to increase in use of smart phones. Often it is seen that employees are using Smartphones during working hours which can interrupt their working concentrating and distract their focus. Some of the industries do have rules of not using mobiles while working hours. The targeted population here are interviewed for the research proposal assignment to understand the impact that smart phones have done on their working attitude.

Sampling - The method of sampling that will be used here is "Non-probability sampling". The researcher will be categorising samples that are selected which are based on subjective identification. Thus here researchers will have gone through varied Australian operating industries where various employees will be noticed and observed (Bautista et al., 2018). It will also be seen that a research interview is conducted for the employees that are obsessed by using Smartphone’s. The sample size here within this research proposal assignment will be 5. The researchers will be interviewing 5 employees Qualitatively from Australian operating industry that is obsessed with the Smartphone technology in their working place.

Variable and analysis - The objective of the research is to understand the impact that Smartphone’s and their technology are prevailing over employees. It is the concern of the researcher to identify the effect of Smartphone’s on the employees is how companies are going to prevent it.

The whole research is based on qualitative data analysis.The qualitative data analysis within this research proposal assignment will mainly be conducted by applying different methods of observation and interview questions. Through qualitative analysis, the employees will be asked several questions so that a clear understanding and insight will be gained regarding how much technology affects work culture. The qualitative analysis will be conducted in such a process that every question will be covering different aspects of the company employees (Derks et al., 2016).

6.4 Organisation of the study
The organization of the study of research proposal assignment is as follows:-

Chapter one- The first chapter will outline the research idea and proposal for the current assignment. The introduction briefly explains the research aim and objectives. It also explains about the research question and implements a proper justification for it. it will also include hypothesis understand and rationale statement. 

Chapter two- The second chapter will outline a brief introduction for the literature review where various conceptual ideas and theories will be portrayed. 

Chapter three- It will depict a clear understanding regarding the research Methodology where Research philosophy, research design and approach are written. It also includes data collection, analysis and sampling test for it.

Chapter four- It will include a clear understanding regarding findings and analysis where data analysis will do along with Qualitative data test and statistics. 

Chapter Five- It will summarize all the points and thus present a factual conclusion.

6.5 Budget, Project Activities and Gantt chart
The budget here within this research proposal assignment generated for the proposed research is about $5000. The whole amount is required for full completion of the research within a stipulated period. The approx. time which is required for completion of the research is 56 days. Thus a Gantt chart is also being created which will make the understanding much more clear.

The budget thus is specified by the following reasons-

1. The literature review has been undertaken within this research proposal assignment which requires varied use of academic papers, journals, articles and online data which is not free of cost. Thus there an amount of AUD 1200 was required.
2. The data which are purchased from the secondary sources required an amount of AUD 2000
3. The structuring and data analysis will require an amount of AUD 1800.

Thus summarizing,

Project Activities mentioned in this research proposal assignment -

Gantt chart -

Figure 1: The Gantt char
(Source: Self-Developed)

Reference List

Alas, R., & Mousa, M. (2016). Research proposal assignment Organizational culture and workplace spirituality. International journal of emerging research in management and technology, 5(3), 285-314.

Arpaci, I., Yardimci Cetin, Y., & Turetken, O. (2015). Impact of perceived security on organizational adoption of smartphones. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(10), 602-608.

Bautista, J. R., Rosenthal, S., Lin, T. T., & Theng, Y. L. (2018). Predictors and outcomes of nurses’ use of smartphones for work purposes. Computers in Human Behavior, 84, 360-374.

Blattner, J., & Walter, T. J. (2015). Creating and sustaining a highly engaged company culture in a multigenerational workplace. Strategic HR Review, 14(4), 124-130.

Deady, M., Johnston, D. A., Glozier, N., Milne, D., Choi, I., Mackinnon, A., & Christensen, H. (2018). Research proposal assignment A smartphone application for treating depressive symptoms: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial. BMC psychiatry, 18(1), 166.

Derks, D., Bakker, A. B., Peters, P., & van Wingerden, P. (2016). Work-related smartphone use, work-family conflict and family role performance: The role of segmentation preference. Human Relations, 69(5), 1045-1068.

Do Carmo Silva, M., & Gomes, C. F. S. (2015). Practices in project management according to Charles Handy's organizational culture typologies. Procedia Computer Science, 55, 678-687.

Duke, É., & Montag, C. (2017). Smartphone addiction, daily interruptions and self-reported productivity. Addictive behaviors reports, 6, 90-95.

Engelen, L., Chau, J. Y., Burks-Young, S., & Bauman, A. (2017). Application of ecological momentary assessment in workplace health evaluation. Research proposal assignment Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 27(3), 259-263.

Fletcher, A. J. (2017). Research proposal assignment Applying critical realism in qualitative research: methodology meets method. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 20(2), 181-194.

Jenkins, K., & Harvey, S. B. (2019). Australian Experiences. In Mental Health in the Workplace (pp. 49-66). Springer, Cham.

Li, J., & Yuan, B. (2018). Smartphone Intrusion: Has Social Interaction Online Blurred the Work-Life Boundary of Employees?. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 59(4), 411-427.

Nordbäck, E. S., Myers, K. K., & McPhee, R. D. (2017). Workplace flexibility and communication flows a structuration view. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 45(4), 397-412.

Pallud, J. (2017). Impact of interactive technologies on stimulating learning experiences in a museum. Research proposal assignment Information & Management, 54(4), 465-478.

Román, S., Rodríguez, R., & Jaramillo, J. F. (2018). Are mobile devices a blessing or a curse? Effects of mobile technology use on salesperson role stress and job satisfaction. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 33(5), 651-664.

Upchurch, M., & Grassman, R. (2016). Striking with social media: The contested (online) terrain of workplace conflict. The organization, 23(5), 639-656.

Van Laethem, M., Van Vianen, A. E., & Derks, D. (2018). Daily fluctuations in smartphone use, psychological detachment, and work engagement: The role of workplace telepressure. Research proposal assignment Frontiers in psychology, 9.

Appendix-

Appendix 1-Interview Questions for research proposal assignment

1. In what way do you think Smartphone’s are affecting working employees?
2. What are the various policies that Australian industries are using to reduce smart phone usage during working hours?
3. What is causing employees to depend on smart phone technology more?
4. Is Smartphone use being a major cause for employee distraction?
5. What are various problems that companies face due to high use of Smartphone’s?
6. How does it affect employee productivity?
7. Is the use of Smartphone technology needed to be reduced in the workplace?
8. How can effects Smartphone’s on working culture be identified?
9. What is the role of technology in Australian business?
10.  What is the requirement need for newer generating working in the industry? 
11. Why the new working generation is obsessed with new mobile technologies?

Appendix

Interview Questionnaire