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Running head: 2B EDUCATIONAL
Objective Number 2: Data
XYZ Salon Research Proposal
Melissa Hawkins
McDaniel College
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2B EDUCATIONAL
XYZ Salon Research Proposal
Human resource (HR) professionals wear many hats in the workplace and McDaniel
College’s Human Resource Development (HRD) graduate program recognizes that in order to be
successful, their students must be competent in several areas. In order to guarantee student
success in the work world, McDaniel College has incorporated six objectives into their HRD
master’s program. These six objectives focus on techniques and tools ranging from assessments,
organizational culture, strategic planning, and change agents. Objective number two of
McDaniel’s HRD program specifically states that students will be able to identify, evaluate, and
summarize relevant data to assist organizations and individual employees. To demonstrate my
competency of objective number two, I am submitting a research proposal that I developed for
the Advanced Research Methods course taught by Kathy Bovard.
For the Advanced Research Methods course I was tasked with designing a research
proposal for a real or fictitious company focusing on a relevant HRD topic. The project put me in
the role as a human resources consultant for a business, and as a human resources consultant, I
was to develop a research proposal to help combat or fix a challenge, the lack of customers prebooking their next salon appointments. Failure to pre-book appointments was one of the main
reason’s clients failed to return for another appointment. Clients who were escorted to checkout
by their stylist were significantly more likely to book a future appointment before leaving but the
stylists had begun to not do this. All of the salon’s employees who performed services were paid
on a commission rate meaning they were only paid for services they actually performed.
Knowing that a pre-booked appointment equaled a guaranteed future paycheck had management
baffled as to why stylists were not trying to get their clients to book another appointment prior to
leaving the business.
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In order to combat this problem for XYZ Salon, I focused on motivation and rewards as
an indicator of employee performance. The research study I developed tested motivation by
comparing three treatments: no treatment, praise only, and praise with a monetary reward. I
chose to conduct a cross-sectional, communication study because I was only performing the
study once and I was collecting subject responses to determine outcomes (Cooper & Schindler,
2011). Additionally I recommended using true experimental design with a posttest-only control
group. I designed the experiment this way because I wanted to see how my independent (no
treatment, praise only, and praise with a monetary reward) affected the dependent variable (client
pre-bookings). By setting up the experiment this way, I was able to see a direct relationship
between the reward system and the employee’s motivation to receive the reward. Ramlall (2004)
states that motivation is the result of fulfilling needs and the in my experiment I was using the
reward to fulfill a need. Comparing three methods allowed me to see which of the three rewards
had more motivating powers amongst the employees of XYZ Salon.
Another reason I choose to use a true experimental design was because it increased the
internal validity of the experiment, meaning, that I was able to say with more confidence that my
variables were influencing outcomes and that I was measuring what I was trying to measure
(Cooper & Schindler, 2011). For the purpose of the study I chose to use a non-probability
convenience sample. XYZ Salon had 60 employees and by recommending using the whole salon
it enabled me to enabled me to test my variables on three equal sized sample groups. Had the
business had a larger group of employees, I would have used a simple random sample method
where each participant had an equal chance of being selected to participate because this would
have been more time and cost efficient while giving results that could have been generalized to
the entire XYZ employee population.
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Two types of data were to be collected for this experiment: nominal and ratio. Gender
served as the nominal data to compare whether motivation varied between men and women. The
ratio data was the amount of client pre-books because it was possible to have an absolute zero.
Ratio data is also the most powerful data and plays a significant role business research as it can
help show a return on investment. “Return on Investment (ROI) is an important business tool
because it can be used to assess a company’s performance in terms of asset use (Yen-Hsin, 2011,
p. 443). The Pearson correlation coefficient is the statistical test that I chose to analyze the data
with because it specifically determines whether or not there is a relationship of association
between the variables that are being tested (Cooper & Schindler, 2011). By using this test for the
research, I am validating that the variables that I recommended testing have an effect on
motivation.
The purpose of the research proposal project for XYZ Salon was to help them find ways
to increase their salon revenues by getting clients to pre-book their next hair services. XYZ Salon
knew that if stylists escorted customers to checkout that they were more likely to pre-book their
next hair service which guaranteed revenue for both the salon and the commission based stylists.
However, a guaranteed paycheck was not a motivating factor for the XYZ stylists. The
experiment I developed helped to combat this issue by helping XYZ Salon find a reward system
that motivated employees to encourage their clients to pre-book future services. In general,
human resources (HR) has had challenges demonstrating the ROI on traditional HR approaches
(Gardner, McGranahan, & Wolf, 2011). By being able to develop research proposals that can
accurately measure data, HR departments have the ability to show how what they do brings value
to a business.
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I am competent in my ability to identify, evaluate, and summarize relevant data to assist
organizations and individual employees. Like Gardner, McGranahan, and Wolf (2011), I
understand that HR professionals need to work hand in hand with business leaders to determine
where problems lie and how to resolve them. Looking at the research proposal I created for XYZ
Salon, I was able to do two things. First, I was able to develop a test that taught XYZ Salon what
motivated their employees. Second, I was able to align the project with XYZ Salon’s strategic
plan which was to increase sales revenue. By combining HR research and practices with an
organization’s strategic goals, “HR executives demonstrate the impact of their work and …
create value for the enterprise” (Gardner, McGranahan, & Wolf, 2011, p.121).
While I never had the opportunity to implement this project, I was able to take the
knowledge I gained from the Advanced Research methods course to develop a job observation
study for my practicum. Having the knowledge from this course enabled me to determine what
kind of data to record and what other data collection methods I needed in order to accurately
conduct a job analysis of all the positions offered by my current employer. Using this
methodology enabled me to update 22 job descriptions that directly reflected employee duties
and responsibilities.
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References
Cooper, D. R. & Schindler, P. S.(2011). Business research methods. New York, NY: McGrawHill Irwin.
Gardner, N., McGranahan, D., & Wolf, W. (2011). Question for your HR chief: Are we using
our 'people data' to create value?. Mckinsey Quarterly, (2), 117-121. Retrieved from
Business Source Premier.
Ramlall, S. (2004). A review of employee motivation theories and their implications for
employee retention within organizations. Journal of American Academy of Business,
Cambridge, 5 (1/2), 52-63. Retrieved from Business Source Premier.
Yen-Hsin, H. (2011). Assessment of Return on Human Resource Investments: Phillips, Stone
and Phillips's ROI Process Model Perspective. European Journal Of Social Science,
20(3), 443-451. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier.