Project Proposal – Your first thoughts

Dear Student,

A supervisor cannot and must not decide what you are going to examine. It is your project and
therefore, your responsibility to tell your supervisor which area you are going to investigate and
give reasons why you have chosen the area. Your supervisor cannot lead you in any specific
direction because this is your project and your problem identification skills need to be assessed.
S/he can merely support and guide you to conduct your project successfully. Please answer the
questions below before the first or second meeting at the most. Make an attempt to answer all the
questions as fully as possible.

Please Complete Your Student ID Number: u1946267

1. Which subject area do you want to study in your project? e.g., (This should be within your
field of study. For example, if you are completing BA (Hons.) in Marketing then your project
area of study should be something within the marketing subject).

Accounting [ ] Please Tick one of the following:

Business Management - International Business [ ]
- Marketing [ ]
Finance [ ]
Economics [ ]
Human Resource Management []
THEM - Events Management [ ]
- Hospitality Management [ ]
-Tourism [ ]
- Music Industry Management [ ]

2. List your: Title, Aim, and Research Questions or Objectives (below). Research objectives
need to be SMART and state actions such as examine, investigate, or identify.

Project Title:
Talent Management: Does Power-Distance Matter?
Project Aim:
This research will investigate whether a manager’s beliefs about talent management
predicts workforce differentiation and whether this relationship is mediated by an
organization’s talent management approach. Furthermore, it will be studied whether power
distance moderates the relationship between a manager’s belief that talent is rare and an
organization’s talent management approach.
Questions / Objectives (No more than 3):
Objectives
 To assess whether power-distance dynamics with regards to talent management.
 To investigate whether workforce differentiation is caused by manager’s belief.

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  To investigate relationship between organization’s talent management and the belief
that talent is rare
Questions
 Does a talent manager’s belief that talent is rare predict workforce differentiation and is
this relationship mediated by an organization’s talent management approach?
 is the relationship between a talent manager’s belief that talent is rare and an
organization’s talent management approach moderated by power distance?
3. Have you identified a gap or an under-researched area in the literature? Please State
what the gap is and what is it you will be researching.

In the specific area of talent management little research is available on the issue of how
power-distance moderates the relationship between a manager’s belief that talent is rare
and an organization’s talent management approach. Therefore, this study will focus on
this area and try to analyse and ascertain the type of relationship that exists.

4. Which Research Methods are you going to use to answer the Research Questions /
Objectives? Justify your chosen method/s with at least two academic references.

The research methods are designed by considering the objectives of the study. Since
the objectives do not carry any statistical data, the methods involve the inductive
approach and interpretivism philosophy as both direct to qualitative analysis (Terrel,
2012).

Another reason as to why this methodology has been used is that it allows to analyse
already available data and in order to save time and costs and also due to pragmatic
reasons secondary research will be conducted (Bertrand and Fransco, 2002).

5. How might you go about Analysing your Research Data

For the purposes of this research thematic analysis will be used. The primary reason is
that since secondary research is being conducted and qualitative data will be gathered,
therefore thematic analysis will be used to analyse the already available information.

6. What do you hope to find? (The purpose of the Project)

The purpose of the project is to find whether a manager’s beliefs about talent
management predicts workforce differentiation and whether this relationship is mediated
by an organization’s talent management approach

7. Why is it worth knowing what you have found?

It is important to know what the study aims to find because this is an area where there is
little research available and if more research is done in this area it will be beneficial for
the organizations to understand how dynamics of power-distance work.

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8. List the Limitations of your research.

The study could be limited because of common-source bias and common method bias.
Common source bias can be defined as a non-random measurement error or as
Richardson, Simmering, and Sturman (2009) state “a systematic error variance shared
among variables measured with and introduced as a function of the same method
and/or source” Moreover, since the data was collected online using the snowball effect,
it cannot be said that a so-called dominant coalition was established. Participating HR
managers cannot take leadership within the organization. Therefore, participants in this
study may not be eligible. Selective recruitment of participants can enhance the current
credibility of HR managers under study. However, the sample may contain a large
number of HR decision makers, as the mandatory requirements for participants were
determined by searching for respondents.

9. How are you going to deal with the Limitations which you have identified?

One of the ways in which the limitations of the study will be dealt with is adequate
sample size. It has been decided that sampling will be conducted thoroughly to collect
information from research papers. This is important because if sampling is not adequate
and relevant, then this will lead to erroneous collection of data and thus erroneous
results. Secondly, it has been decided that in order to deal with any other biases the
research would involve rigorous inclusion and exclusion criteria so that right type of data
can be gathered.

10. List 10 Academic sources that you identified for your literature review (e.g. Specialised
books and Academic journals – Please do not list any websites)

Arnott, D. (2006). Cognitive biases and decision support systems development: a design
science approach. Information Systems Journal, 16, 55-78.

Aycan, Z., Kanungo, R., Mendonca, M., Yu, K., Deller, J., Stahl, G. , & Kurshid, A.
(2000), Impact of Culture on Human Resource Management Practices: A 10-Country
Comparison. Applied Psychology:An International Review, 49, 192–221.

Baron, R.M., & Kenny, D.A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social
psychological research: conceptual, strategic and statistical considerations. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.

Becker, B. E., & Gerhart, B. (1996) The impact of human resource management on
organizational performance: Progress and prospects. The Academy of Management
Journal, 39, 779-801.

Becker, B. E., Huselid, M. A., & Beatty, R. W. (2009). The differentiated workforce:
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 Transforming talent into strategic impact. Boston: Harvard Business Press.

Berry, J.W., Poortinga, Y.H., Segall, M.H. & Dasen, R. (1991). Cross-cultural
psychology. Research and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Boxall, P. (2012). High-performance systems: What, why, how and for whom? Asia
Pacifi Journal of Human Resources, 50, 169-186.

Boxall, P., & Macky, K. (2009). Research and theory on high-performance work systems
Progressing the high-involvement stream. Human Resource Management Journal, 19,
3-23.

Buckingham, M., & Vosburgh, R. M. (2001). The 21st century human resources
function: It's the talent, stupid! Human Resource Planning, 24, 17-23 by implementing
Workforce-Differentiation? Journal of Applied Leadership and Management, 1, 53-76.

Signed: Suganya. R Date: 13.07.20

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References

Terrell, S.R., 2012. Mixed-methods research methodologies. Qualitative report, 17(1),

pp.254-280.

Bertrand, J.W.M. and Fransoo, J.C., 2002. Operations management research

methodologies using quantitative modeling. International Journal of Operations &
Production Management.