Method of data analysis Essay Example
Method of data analysis Essay Example

Method of data analysis Essay Example

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  • Pages: 14 (3694 words)
  • Published: September 26, 2018
  • Type: Research Paper
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Thematic analysis was used to make meaningful deductions from the documented raw data. In thematic analysis, a concept is chosen for examination, and the analysis involves noting the frequency of its presence in the whole interview, and finding interrelations among the themes identified.

The focus is at the occurrence of selected terms within a text or texts, although the terms may be implicit as well as explicit. While explicit terms obviously are easy to identify, coding for implicit terms and deciding their level of implication is complicated by the need to base judgments on a somewhat subjective system (Patton 2002).Simply put, the researcher read the documented surveys, and analyzed the inter-linkages of these responses. When responses are not explicit, inter-judge validation was used, with another researcher agreeing on the category under which the response may be gr

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ouped. The meaning and interpretation of each response was noted, and related to the organization’s overall profile. In this sense and taken as a holistic approach, the data from the chosen institution may be considered as a case study.

The study also has methodological limitations. First, it did not make use of any other quantitative measure to study the phenomenon apart from qualitative procedure of thematic analysis (Patton 2002). Second, there was only one participant institution, Elfed and its responses may not be reflective of the population it represents (Zikmund 1997). It may be worth noting that the goal of the study is to generalize about the phenomenon within the hospitality firm; thus, the use of participants from a cross-section of different departments within the firm.Third, there were some time constraints on the part of both interviewer and interviewees, whic

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may be a factor in the length of their responses or the duration of the interview.

Had there been more time, more probing questions and more data may have been gathered. Moreover, since the study has been limited to a single hospitality firm, its conclusions may not be able to create a comprehensive generalization to other countries or regions. This is especially true when cultural and economic factors are taken into consideration.Biases in the responses may have occurred since the only source of primary data is the knowledge and perception of the interviewee. The respondent may not be so honest with their answers and express only what is socially desirable, especially because they were ‘carrying’ the name of the hospitality firm. Logically, they would not want to put the firm in a bad light.

In addition, since the interviews were conducted at the place of work, the respondents may not be at ease in answering the questions. In effect, their responses may not be as candid or as honest (Denzin & Lincoln 2000).Results and Discussion For this part of the study, the results gathered from both the interview and the focus group discussions will be presented in this part of the study. In addition to this, the results will be evaluated and examined with the literature presented in the review of related literature to gather any existing relationships or occurrences within the data gathered.

For the first part of this section, the results of the focus group discussion will be presented and will be discussed. Focus Group DiscussionThe research utilized two focus groups to represent the entire workforce of the hospitality firm being evaluated. Each

focus group is comprised of four employees with one moderator in charge of the discussion and although it was mentioned that the target number of employees for the focus group would be seven, only four employees from each group attended the session. The employees that were sampled had all previously used or had the necessary experience with motivational initiatives and had been involved in motivational initiatives being applied to them in their workplaces.For the first part of the discussion, the group focused on introductory remarks particular on how they had encountered or utilized motivational initiatives within the hospitality firm.

Both groups were asked the question (as a discussion opener) on what they know about motivational initiatives. According to group 1, half of the group indicated that they had very limited knowledge to motivational initiatives being conducted in their area and some had indicated that they had very little time to involve themselves in motivational initiatives because of their budgetary constraints and with the pressing demand of work.Because of this, they are more apt to be intrinsically motivated and have less need for motivational initiatives because of their state. On the other hand, the other half of the group expressed their fondness of being able to enjoy motivational initiatives and expressed that they are able participate in motivational initiatives. One common trait for all the participants of the first group is their interest in the concept of motivation being applied to the hospitality firm and being used in achieving the objectives of the organization.

It is interesting to note that, previously they had mentioned that they were utilizing previous traditional means of influencing the workforce to work

harder and achieve the organizational objectives. In addition, with the use of more interactive and focused motivational initiatives, the employees are more receptive to it and have begun to affect the overall performance of the organization on a positive note.For the second group, it was indicated that the members of the group with the same background utilize motivational initiatives in order to influence their co-employees in achieving certain objectives set for the team. They are able to share their experiences with different motivational initiatives and its incremental effect with the employees of the hospitality firm.

With this they are able to achieve the objectives faster as they are able to see the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards accorded by achieving the objectives of the study.In addition, because of the effectiveness of certain motivational initiatives, they are able to utilize their spare time in achieving the organizational objectives. Being that they are also previously acquainted with each other, they are able to share insights as to the effectiveness of specific motivational initiatives that has been applied to the group. According to them, the majority of the group suggested that they are more motivated to achieve the organizational objectives and share this motivation to their co-employees during breaks while they group together in communities, etc.

As a follow up to the first question, every member of the two focus groups was asked of their level of familiarity with respect to motivational initiatives. Level of familiarity is defined as the ability of these employees being evaluated to first identify with motivational initiatives, their level of being able to be affected by such motivational initiatives and their capacity to use such

tools in aspects of their daily lives such as interaction with their co-employees, at work, and with the organization in general.The first group explained that there are familiar with the most common motivational initiatives. Noted motivational initiatives grounded on highlighting intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, rewards and incentives, secondary goals, coercion, and self-control motivational initiatives were identified the most by the users.

The respondents in group one generally expressed their feelings that motivational initiatives have been already been there in our daily lives even before it was formalized as motivational initiatives by the hospitality firm.As one respondent explains, motivational initiatives such as highlighting what are the rewards of doing a particular task or objective have been present for a considerable amount of time already and have been used as a means of providing a means of attaining the organizational objectives of the company. However, with the formal induction of motivational initiatives as part of the organizational management strategy of the company, further improvement and interest was accorded to it, thus the influx of the positive trend in development accorded to motivational initiative.Activities to further encourage motivational initiatives for example have existed for a considerable amount of time yet only recently has it been given so much interest and improvement that it has started to occupy a considerable amount of the organizational development’s palette for improvement. For the second group, they had indicated what motivational initiatives are but have little or no idea of it whatsoever.

The employees on the other hand are aware of such motivational concepts as intrinsic and extrinsic motivational concepts, stress inductive systems, and persuasion tools but had not identified these elements to be

under one umbrella such as motivational concepts. Employees under this group were able to identify that they had used motivational concepts and moulded it into systems as a tool to influence the organization to achieve the objectives of the organization but they had not considered it to be motivational initiatives when it was shared to them.On the other hand, one of the employees under this group had expressed that she had a rough understanding of what motivational initiatives is however had not taken into consideration the there are other motivational initiatives existing. As part of the study, the moderator then decided to explore further both the group’s utilization of motivational initiatives and how they apply it to their daily lives and to their professions as well.For the first part the moderator focused on intrinsic and extrinsic motivational concepts.

For the first group, they had indicated that they know what intrinsic and extrinsic motivational concepts are, however most if not all of the respondents are rank and file employees thus they rarely contribute to the creation of motivational initiatives based on intrinsic and extrinsic motivational concepts.Most of the time, they identify with intrinsic motivation as a means to achieve their goals and objectives, as was mentioned above most of the respondents in group one utilize intrinsic motivational concepts to achieve the organizational objectives to do what they need in work and if possible in their non-work lives. For the second group, the same sentiment was expressed by most of the respondents. They had very rarely contributed to the creation of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational initiatives within the hospitality firm.Since they are all coming from the same

organizational level, they had mainly participated in such motivational initiatives that were common to them and that has been prescribed to them by organizational development.

One thing that should be noted is that they share with each other information on how these initiatives where able to affect the way they are able to look at work, what they do in the office, and how they are able to utilize motivational initiatives within their organizations in order to achieve the goals and aspirations of the group.Most if not all the time, the respondents in the group to utilize motivational initiatives in order to acquire the necessary commitment from the team in order to acquire the necessary commitment from the team in order to achieve the organizational objectives of the company. They use such concepts such as incentives, even stresses to acquire the desired output from the employees. In addition, they utilize motivational concepts and initiatives as a means to acquire the opinion of other people with respect to their department or in accordance to the current stance of the company.Because they are motivated in order to provide information, employees are more than eager to provide vital information with regards to the company with their overall enjoyment in the company. Another part of the study focused on the interest of the groups pertaining to punishment and aggression as motivational initiative.

Of the group, one indicated a serious disliking with punishment as a means of being motivated to do his tasks in the hospitality firm. The motivational initiative of punishment as the main proponent for motivating an individual was generally disliked by most of the group.In addition to

what was mentioned above, the respondents of the focus group indicated that they are usually being in the receiving end of such motivational initiatives based on aggression and punishment at times. This is because of delinquent behaviour as cited by members of management in the focus group discussion. Most of the respondents liked the idea of being the recipient of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational initiatives because of its easy-to-use interface with employees and how it considers the emotions and personality of individuals.Although they indicated that they don’t like the constant bombardment of aggressive and punishment oriented motivational initiatives sent at times by management in order to solicit their support in achieving the organizational objectives.

Two of the respondents indicated that they shared the same sentiment as that with their mates and one of them had their opinion known to the superior using punishment and aggression as the key motivational factors. The moderator then continued on to discuss how they see punishment and aggression as a motivation tool.According to the respondents, they feel that motivational tools such as punishment and aggression can be effective tools in order to communicate with other employees. But these tools provides for the opportunity of creating rifts between organizations, broken interests and experiences with co-employees and at the same time be a venue to actually disrupt potential feedback from the employees because of these rifts caused by such negative enforcers. The second group had expressed interest in other motivational tools aside from what was identified above.

The other respondents, particularly the Chinese people indicated that they are not familiar with such motivational tools as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation when initially explained,

however they are familiar with such motivational tools as stress and secondary goals. They utilize stress being forwarded from the management down to the rank and file employees as a means of influencing the organization to achieve its goals and objectives. They had indicated that they used stress and secondary goals as a means of being able to move the team into achieving the objectives of the group.In addition to this, the good thing about using stress, particularly eustress – the good kind of stress, is that they are able to continue and keep the relationship between employees intact without giving undue lax. In addition to this, they are able to acquire an incremental increase in organizational achievement very much the same as what the first group had encountered. In summary, both groups generally have the same uses for motivational initiatives but utilize varying motivational tools and initiatives.

Going into another part of the discussion, the study focused on coercion - another type of motivational tool. According to the first group, all members of the group weren’t really utilizing coercion as a means of being able to achieve the organizational goals and create collaborative teams. With this, they could not provide any substantial comments particular to coercion. Some of the group shares their motivation to their co-employees with the other motivational tools cited above since it would be easier only to maintain to utilize these positive tools instead of coercion.

Employees indicated that their current needs only require them to conduct a certain amount of influence thus the need to utilize a minimal amount of motivational tool and because of this even secondary goals can be utilized

in order to respond to the task adequately. Group 2 had the same response as that of the first group when asked about such motivational tools as coercion. They mainly utilize this tool as a means of being able to encourage the most hardened partners in order to achieve the organizational goals and acquire incremental positive growth within the company.One thing that was noted by the moderator is the sentiment of many of those that use this kind of motivational tools is the capacity of this tool to break or destroy relationships or bonds existing within the company. Other than that, they indicated no intention of utilizing coercion in the near future, unless there may be related tasks that would create for the utilization of such a negative motivational tool in order to achieve the goals set. The next part of the focus group discussion focused on another motivational concept and that is self-control.

According to the discussion, most of participates in Group 1 are quite fond about this kind of motivational concept, and they think that the benefit of self-control is the venue it provides for people to continually control themselves regardless of the kind of situation they are in. Self-control programs being developed within the hospitality firm can be thought of being able to further share this kind of motivational concept throughout the organization.A person in the group pointed out that the good thing about self-control is that they contain a variety of methods that are categorized in how they are used in what particular situation and which can help them while the workforce continues to pursue the organizational objectives. On one note, it

can be approximated as intrinsic motivation as people can make focus on their inner capacity in order to achieve the desired organizational output and maintain a sense of professional integrity.Similarly, management personnel can utilize this to present motivational tools that are otherwise very difficult to be implemented if your concern is also to consider the emotional aspect of the employee management wishes to motivate in order to gain a positive trend in organizational development and achievement. One person from the group prefers to utilize negative motivational tools instead of the usual positive motivational tools being accorded to them.

In focusing on the supposed future of self-control as a motivational tool as seen by the eyes of the respondents, they generally believe that this tool would in the not too distant future remain a very popular cultural tool in the future, especially if there are more and more practitioners in the field that would develop and enhance such motivational tools in order to become more efficient in order to properly motivate people and achieve organizational goals and objectives. The second group on the other hand, did not give the moderator too much feedback on it.On the other hand, they believe it would help them if there are existing motivational tools based on self-control. On the other hand, one respondent in the group indicated another motivational tool that is similar to self-control and that is intrinsic motivation. Similar to what was mentioned above, intrinsic motivation is solely based on the inner capacity of a person to accomplish a particular task.

This implies a sense of self-control and determination, both evident in intrinsic motivation.The second part of the focus

group discussion focused on how to use motivational tools in co-employee support styles and the groups were given the opportunity to provide overall assessments and last statements pertaining to motivational tools and its effects on the hospitality firm. The first section to be presented is the utilization of motivational tools. According to both group’s 1 and 2, all participants agreed that the abovementioned motivational tools have become a popular choice within the hospitality firm in order to access the necessary motivational spirit needed in order to achieve organizational objectives.It was also identified by most of the respondents that in most cases where they would utilize in order to achieve the necessary objectives, they would just have to utilize the different motivational tools and concepts in order to motivate themselves and the groups they are part of. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation according to the respondents, though a very contribution to the achievement of the objectives, has a flaw induced because it creates a culture that people mainly have to rely on external factors in order to achieve a certain objective as compared to intrinsic motivation.

Because of being so big, it takes quite a lot of time in order for extrinsic motivation to sink in as compared to intrinsic motivation when dealing with employees finishing a particular task or objective. The second topic focused on employee-employee support. For both the groups, they had indicated that very few employees do not use motivational tools in order to communicate the needed tasks and in the end achieving them. Though these kinds of motivational tools are heavily used, they had indicated that there is a need for improvement.Because

of the current developments towards motivational initiatives by social researchers in this field, most people agree that if time and effort would be given into this, there can be an increase in organizational growth and positive development within interaction between co-employees, administrators, and senior management with the effective utilization of motivational initiatives within the office. In accordance to the study, the next topic discussed was how motivational initiatives contributed to the development of the group.

According to the groups, they believe that motivational initiatives should be used in order to facilitate communication between the co-employees in being able to further achieve the goals and aspirations of the group. There was a person that has given an idea about motivational initiatives to be used to help management communicate with the their teams and had suggested that these tools can be used in order to encourage their employees to further their achievements in the workplace, always maintain an objective perspective on things, and continually focus on competitive sustainable development within the company.On the other hand, others viewed this as a non-revolutionary step but an improvement on the organizational development and experience. Lastly, the assessment portion of the study was ushered in by the moderator in being able to extrapolate the group’s views on motivational initiatives. Most if not all had presented that the best possible feedback and assessment is the one done person-to-person, face-to-face but agreed that in time, there would be an increase in motivational initiatives being heavily used by companies in encouraging their employees to work harder.On one end, 2 respondents in group 1 and 3 in group 2 had not been yet that accustomed to

such concrete and explicit motivational initiatives.

As one person puts it, it is believed that face to face interaction is still considerably the best way to motivate an individual. However, they agree to the point that motivational initiatives had increased considerably the way people work but currently, there is still a lot of improvement posed for this kind of organizational development method. As the focus group discussion turns to a close, the study then focuses now on the results of the interview created for this study.

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