Research proposal LBSRE2002 Research Methods for Business Literature review

Research proposal LBSRE2002 Research Methods for Business - Literature review Example This study will venture to assess the qualifications of three candidates for branch manager in a new office being set up in UK Company using the 360-degree feedback. Specifically, the following research questions will be addressed: 1. What is the profile of the three candidates in terms of the variables: gender, age, civil status, educational attainment, and experience as manager? 2. What is the profile of the raters in terms of the variables: gender, age, civil status, educational attainment, position, and years of service with the company? 3. What is the level of qualification of each candidate in each of the following behavioural areas of management: leading change, leading people, results-driven characteristics, business acumen, and building coalitions / communications? 4. Are there significant differences in the assessment of the manager qualifications in each area of the three candidates when the respondents are grouped according to each profile variable? 5. Is there a signific ant difference in the assessment of the manager qualifications among the three candidates? 6. Did the personal rating of each candidate significantly differ with the overall assessment of the raters? 7. What are the greatest strengths and weaknesses of each candidate? 2.0. Justification for Research Topic and Background (300) The primary justification for the research topic are the emerging issues in the UK company where management believes that they do not have sufficient evidence to come up with a sound judgment regarding the choice for the best candidate. To further confound their woes, a meeting among top level management and the middle level managers ended in a deadlock as to which candidate is best qualified to take the helm as manager of the new branch office being set up within a year’s time. A look at each candidate’s profile and track record in the company showed that the candidates’ qualifications are comparable. Top management believes that candidate s 1 or 3 would be an ideal choice, whereas the middle managers thought that candidate 2 will be the best choice. Top level management is, however, honest enough to admit that they based their nod for candidate 1 or 3 on gut feel. Middle managers confessed that they do not really know candidate 2 very well, but have experienced several altercations with both candidates 1 and 3 on separate instances. Hence, their choice for candidate 2 might have been somehow affected by bias against the other two. Being known to be a business student, one top level manager requested this researcher for some suggestions regarding the aforementioned issues. Without hesitation, and driven by the fact that the new branch office entail management development, 360-degree feedback was the first thing that crossed this researcher’s mind. The suggestion was well-taken and this researcher was asked to help in the conduct of the procedure. The researcher obliged to accept the challenge as an opportunity to put to use a concept learned in business school and to assist a friend who is immersed in the industry. This researcher lost no time in gathering preliminary information. It was learned that the three candidates currently hold middle manager positions in three departments with a comparable number of subordinates, but candidate three handles more employees in the supervisory positions. All three candidates usually deal with many of the company’