Project Proposal On Factors Influencing Employee Engagement And Impact On Organizational Productivity Of Starbucks Corporation Essay.

Detailed Statement of Research Problem

Discuss about the Project Proposal On Factors Influencing Employee Engagement And Impact On Organizational Productivity Of Starbucks Corporation.

Management of human capital has become very significant in the modern corporate world due to increased changes in business operations. Many organizations and especially those facing massive competition in various markets have discovered the significance of ensuring their employees work in line with the organizational objectives (Anitha, 2014). It is the goal of every organization to maximize their productivity, and their productivity is measured by the ability of the organizations or business to meet their objectives. One of the most significant determinants of increased organizational performance or productivity is employee engagement since it initiates a direct impact on the organizational performance and therefore it is viewed as the central aspect of corporate or business productivity (Breevaart, 2014). However, different factors influence the levels of employee engagement in an organization and consequently impact on organizational productivity. It is the function of the human resource management to develop effective strategies for facilitating increased or improved employee engagement. Therefore, analysis of the factors influencing employee engagement and impact on organizational performance is a critical role for the human resource management as well as to the leadership or management of every business (Mishra, Boynton, & Mishra, 2014). This study, therefore, aims at developing a business project proposal that aims at providing an understanding of the factors influencing organizational employee engagement and their impact on organizational productivity or performance of the Starbucks Corporation.

The organization of the business project proposal will comprise of different sections aimed at providing detailed analysis of the research proposal. Section 1 of the project will provide a brief introduction of key research issue under analysis. Section 2 provides a detailed analysis of the project statement of problem while section 3 provides a statement of the research aims objectives and research questions. Section 4 provides a justification and potential output of the research project while section 4 of the proposal provides a detailed conceptual framework of the study. Section 5 provides the research methodology and detailed analysis of the presentation of secondary data. Lastly, section 6 provides an understanding of the organization of the research project, the project budget as well as the planned research time frame schedule.

Employee engagement describes the extent to which the employee personal goals and interests in the job align with the company vision and goals at the organization or the company they are employed. The workplace approach aims at providing enabling conditions for all staff of the company to allow them brings out their best efforts and commitment towards the success of the company as well as to enhance the sense of employee wellbeing. This means that better employee engagement contributes to better or improved organizational productivity (Saks & Gruman, 2014). Therefore, organizations or companies with high levels of employee engagement perform better compared to organizations with low levels of employee engagement. Different scholars have developed various research studies to establish the impact of employee engagement or the relationship between employee engagement with organizational productivity or performance. However, there is a literature gap in trying to understand the various factors influencing employee engagement and their impact on organizational productivity (Albdour & Altarawneh, 2014). This research project proposal therefore aims at providing the understanding of these factors and their influences in improving organizational productivity with a special reference to Starbucks Corporation. The reason for development of the study is because employee engagement has not only been found to contribute to increased organizational performance but also as a new business competitive strategy in the modern corporate world.

Research aims/objectives and questions

 The aim of this research project is to investigate the factors influencing employee engagement and their impact on organizational productivity. It also seeks to investigate the relationship between employee engagement and organizational productivity in a move to help the management as well as the human resource management of the company develop effective human capital development strategies which will contribute to increased organizational productivity.

The development of this research project will be guided by various research objectives designed to help us provide a detailed analysis of our problem statement. The first objective of the project is to determine the multiple factors influencing employee engagement. The second objective of the research will be to determine how these factors impact on employee alignment to organizational goals (Albrecht, Bakker, Gruman, Macey & Saks 2015). The study will also focus on establishing the various human resource management practices and their contribution to increased employee engagement. Lastly, the research will focus on understanding the impact of employee engagement on organizational productivity.

RQ1; does employee engagement contribute to increased organizational productivity?

RQ2: Does the current organizational human resource practices impact promote the development of employee engagement in the organization?

RQ3; does employee motivation and excellent salary packages contribute to increased employee engagement?

RQ4; does the level of employee engagement influence the levels of business competitiveness in the various markets?

RQ5; Does employee engagement contribute to alignment of individual or employee personal goals and interests with the organizational goals and objectives?

Many scholars have developed their studies in understanding the impact of employee engagement on organizational productivity (Othman, Mahmud, Noranee, & Noordin 2018). The significant findings of their research show that there is a direct relationship between employee engagement and organizational productivity with organizations with high levels of employee engagement being very competitive and productive in their operating markets. Therefore the critical agenda of employee engagement is to contribute to increased organizational productivity as well as enhance employee wellbeing (Mone & London, 2018). The development of effective employee engagement policies and strategies contributes to increased understanding between the business and organizational management team with the employees towards the realization of the goals or the vision of the business or organization. The Starbucks Company is a leading American Coffee and Snack Company operating a service provision company in the restaurant industry (Mete, Davies, & Whelan, 2018). Therefore, the engagement of the company employees in service provision is critical to the success of the company. Understanding of the factors influencing the company employee engagement is essential to enhancing the productivity of the company in the restaurant industry not only in America but also globally, where the company is offering their services. Limited studies have been developed to provide an understanding of the factors influencing employee engagement and their impact on organizational productivity (Anthony?McMann et al., 2017). This research will, therefore, be crucial in helping us understand these factors and their influence on the productivity of Starbucks Corporation in their local and international markets. It will, thus, improve the management of the company to develop effective employee engagement strategies which will contribute to increased productivity. It will also help in enhancing learning by filling the existing literature gap concerning the scope of employee engagement.

Justification and Potential Output of the Research

The potential output of the research proposal will be determined by the findings of our research questions. All the research questions will therefore be answered from the data collected regarding our problem statement. The results should help us understanding not only the relationship between organizational employee engagements but also the factors influencing employee engagement and whether they have contributed to the current success of the company (Gawke et al., 2017).  The findings of the research will help us fill a literature gap by helping the students develop or increased their knowledge scope on the subject of employee engagement and its contribution to organizational performance. The research will contribute significantly to the development of effective employee engagement policies and strategies by many organizations with the aim of enhancing organizational productivity.

Brief Overview of Starbucks Corporations and their employee engagement policies

Starbuck Corporation is an American Coffee Company and Coffeehouse chain founded in the year 1971 in Seattle Washington. The company has a global experience and is one the leading coffee offering companies globally with over 24000 retail stores in 70 countries. Its success it’s attributed to the contributions of their employees in providing exceptional service to their clients and their commitment to organizational goals, vision and mission. Its mission is to inspire and nurture human spirit of one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time (Starbucks Corporation Website). The company employees are viewed as partners in the business and are at the heart of the company experience. The employees are treated with respect and dignity, and the company has focused on improving the social well-being of their employees. One of the strategies developed by the company to enhance their sense of wellbeing has been the provision of comprehensive health coverage for the eligible full and part-time employees as well as the provision of an equity share in the company through a bean stock strategy (Whittington et al., 2017). Starbucks believes in the importance of building a great company that is focused on striking a balance between profitability or organizational productivity and social conscience. The understanding of the factors influencing employee engagement and their impact on organization productivity will therefore be critical in helping the company through the human resource management to develop effective employee engagement strategies and contribute to increased organizational productivity (Alias et al., 2017). It will also help them improve their competitiveness in their local and international markets.

In most cases the concept of employee engagement has been misunderstood with similar concepts such as job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior or even organizational commitment. However, the idea entails more understanding than such constructs despite been viewed to be the same concepts (Roy & Samaddar, 2017). The nature of diverse workforce in the modern corporate world has made the implementation of employee engagement strategies or efforts more complex and challenging for most organizations. However, it is important to note that engagement is an individual construct and has to first impact on personal level outcomes before changing the business productivity. One of the underlying factors for employee engagement has been the internal locus control where an individual or an employee in an organization believes that whatever thing they achieve in their life is as a result of their efforts and ability (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017). For instance, this type of employee believes that for them to receive a reward or even a promotion in the organization will be a result of their hard work or their contribution to the organizations and that they have to work hard. Employee engagement in this case will therefore be influenced by an individual internal locus control. The productivity of the company will thus be determined by the employee’s levels of internal locus control.

Career development has been arguably one of the contributing factors to increased employee engagement. Most employees will be more committed to an organization in which they can develop regarding their career from one level of experience to the other (Hakanen et al., 2018). The development of career development programs through training and mentoring of the young employees by the senior’s one or the low and middle managers by the senior’s managers contributes to increased employee engagement and consequently contribute to increased organizational productivity. Employee benefits and salaries is also a contributing factor to increased employee engagement and even on improved organizational productivity (Reader et al., 2017). It is argued that employees are motivated by monetary rewards, but we cannot dispute the fact that not every employee is driven by financial rewards or by competitive salary packages. This can also be used to deduce that fact that competitive salary packages do not translate to improve organizational productivity. However, research provides that organizations which offer competitive salaries and benefits to their employees can engage their employees more to the organization's goals and objectives.

Job characteristics also define the levels of employee engagement and also impacts on the organization productivity. Job characteristics such as job clarity, job autonomy as well as job significance contribute to increased employee engagement as they help the employees identify to the requirements and goals attached to their jobs (Joo & Jo, 2017). The employees are then capable of meeting the job requirements which contributes to increased organizational performance. Lastly, positive organization citizenship behavior contributes to improving employee engagement and also helps to increased organizational productivity. However, the negative organizational behavior is harmful to the organization as it adds negatively to employee engagement due to lack of motivation.

Proposed Research Approach and sources of data

Active development of this research proposal will be enhanced by the use of both qualitative and quantitative approaches (Härdle et al., 2017). The reason for both methods is due to the reliance of both non-numerical and numerical data in our analysis for both primary and secondary data. The primary data will be obtained from the interviews conducted on the employees of Starbucks Cooperation as well as the management of the company from senior, upper middle and lower middle management group. The secondary data will be collected from the company growth and performance articles, journals, and reports published on the company websites and other literature sources. Data analysis for will be done through the use of both qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques.

Population

Our population sample will be targeted on the employees of Starbucks Corporation as well as the management of the company. The sample characteristics will include both junior and senior employees as well as the top and junior management officers. The population will help us by providing their insights on the factors influencing employee engagement and their impact on organizational productivity. The total population sample will be made of 100 participants comprising of 60 percent employees and 40 percent of company management group.

Sampling

The project will be developed through the use of cluster sampling technique since it will be useful in categorizing the population sample based on their different characteristics for practical data analysis. The outcomes of study from each cluster group will be analyzed and compared to the results of the other cluster groups. This will help in enhancing the reliability of our project findings.

Variables and analysis

The research projects will involve a multivariate analysis since we have more than two variables to be analyzed. The first variable is the factors, the second variable will be employee engagement and the second variable will be organization productivity. In this case, the factors influencing employee engagement will be our independent variable while dependent variables will be formed by employee engagement as well as Starbucks Corporation productivity. The qualitative data will be analyzed through the use of exploratory qualitative techniques while the quantitative data will be examined through the use of linear regression analysis.

Section one; used to the outline the detailed analysis of the research problem as provided in this assignment

Section two; a description of the employee engagement practices and their impact on organizational productivity.

Section Three; will include the details of methodology – literature review, data series and surveys (data collection methods), observing critical indicators of regression and data analysis methods.

Section Four; Provides a report of Findings and Analysis of the proposed research.

Section Five: provides a summary of the essential findings and a discussion of their potential implications developing effective strategies to improve the current employee engagement practices of Starbucks Corporation.

For active research process, we have also identified the budget required to facilitate a smooth process. The budget will be used for conducting the research literature review, for data collection and for performing data analysis. Below is a summary of the proposed research project budget;

References

Albdour, A. A., & Altarawneh, I. I. (2014). Employee engagement and organizational commitment: Evidence from Jordan. International Journal of Business, 19(2), 192.

Albrecht, S. L., Bakker, A. B., Gruman, J. A., Macey, W. H., & Saks, A. M. (2015). Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1), 7-35.

Alias, N. E., Othman, R., Loon, K. W., Ridzuan, A. R., & Krishnan, R. (2017). Towards Effective Employee Retention Strategy: Implementation of Talent Management in Information, Communication and Technology Companies. Advanced Science Letters, 23(8), 7857-7860.

Anitha, J. (2014). Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance. International journal of productivity and performance management, 63(3), 308.

Anthony?McMann, P. E., Ellinger, A. D., Astakhova, M., & Halbesleben, J. R. (2017). Exploring different operationalizations of employee engagement and their relationships with workplace stress and burnout. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 28(2), 163-195.

Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2017). Job demands–resources theory: Taking stock and looking forward. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(3), 273.

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, 87(1), 138-157.

Gawke, J. C., Gorgievski, M. J., & Bakker, A. B. (2017). Employee intrapreneurship and work engagement: A latent change score approach. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 100, 88-100.

Hakanen, J. J., Peeters, M. C., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2018). Different types of employee well-being across time and their relationships with job crafting. Journal of occupational health psychology, 23(2), 289.

Hakanen, J. J., Peeters, M. C., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2018). Different types of employee well-being across time and their relationships with job crafting. Journal of occupational health psychology, 23(2), 289.

Härdle, W. K., Okhrin, O., & Okhrin, Y. (2017). Multivariate Statistical Analysis. In Basic Elements of Computational Statistics (pp. 219-241). Springer, Cham.

Joo, B. K., & Jo, S. J. (2017). The effects of perceived authentic leadership and core self-evaluations on organizational citizenship behavior: The role of psychological empowerment as a partial mediator. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 38(3), 463-481.

Mete, M., Davies, G., & Whelan, S. (2018). Employer Brand Image and Employee Engagement: An Exploratory Study in Britain. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Economics and Management Engineering, 5(2).

Mishra, K., Boynton, L., & Mishra, A. (2014). Driving employee engagement: The expanded role of internal communications. International Journal of Business Communication, 51(2), 183-202.

Mone, E. M., & London, M. (2018). Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.

Othman, A. K., Mahmud, Z., Noranee, S., & Noordin, F. (2018, March). Measuring Employee Happiness: Analyzing the Dimensionality of Employee Engagement. In International Conference on Kansei Engineering & Emotion Research (pp. 863-869). Springer, Singapore.

Reader, T. W., Mearns, K., Lopes, C., & Kuha, J. (2017). Organizational support for the workforce and employee safety citizenship behaviors: A social exchange relationship. Human Relations, 70(3), 362-385.

Roy, S. B., & Samaddar, S. (2017). EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION AND WORK ENVIRONMENT-AN INDIAN SCENARIO. Center for Quality.

Saks, A. M., & Gruman, J. A. (2014). What do we really know about employee engagement?. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 25(2), 155-182.

Whittington, J. L., Meskelis, S., Asare, E., & Beldona, S. (2017). Enhancing employee engagement: An evidence-based approach. Springer.