Scenario 2
Research Needed In the Multi-Month Study To Determine the Future of the Lewisburg P& D Facility and Its Workforce
The P&G Company applies strategic management to increase output, cooperation, and accessibility to P&G resources. More so, transformation and value creation rely on the management and processing of external partnerships which will then generate strategic innovation (Brown, & Anthony, 2011). Increasingly, in the past ten years, P&G Company brought on board the model of co-creation of an exceptional group of consumers and other stakeholders within the innovation ventures.
Exploratory Research and Innovation
P&G ought to first initiate exploratory research to gain firsthand information on any situation and better outline its organizational objectives. This is because exploratory research facilitates the in-depth study of an undefined problem. Also, exploratory research seems to have a clear comprehension of the existent challenges hence could lead to the provision of conclusive outcomes (Lichtenthaler, 2011). Subsequently, exploratory research commences with a general objective and utilizes the objectives to isolate issues which can then redirect the focus into solving immediate challenges. One of the most important elements is how the researcher can easily alter the subject matters to fit the relevance and insight of the entire organization. Besides exploratory research can be carried out in the preliminary phases of a challenge hence takes a ground approach due to its ability to resolve all the questions. In this particular case, the P&G needs to collect sufficient data on Lewisburg and then effectively use the data to develop and advance the realization of ideas and strategies. Since P&G has not defined Lewisburg's future and R&D facilities, exploratory research will assist the organization to generate solid supposition and queries. In terms of managerial roles, exploratory research will help P&G come up with strong, established priorities, create operative definitive, and upgrade the final research outline. Investigators can then make use of monitoring to gather information related to how workers at R&D facility interrelate with other branches. It would be strategic if the managers would get information about the amount of interaction needed between the two branches by comparing information flow and work input.
Research Design
Problem Statement
As noted, P&G Company is transferring its IAMs pet food department from Vandalia to Mason. Due to the company’s huge size, the move will affect the cohesiveness of its workforce and force a reshuffle of positions hence slowing down routine operations (Regev, 2011). Therefore, even though the aim of moving from Vandalia to Mason is to increase productivity, without careful consideration, the moving process may slow down the routine activities due to lack of a proper framework to coordinate company activities.
The Purpose of the Research
P&G is a company that targets consumers spread across more than 40 countries. Capturing the needs and wants of the company is key in defining the success of the company. The ability to extensively create an additional branch, distribute the workforce effectively and then sustain a cohesive workforce in Lewisburg and Mason relies on purposely collecting enough data that will ensure increment in the collaboration and effectiveness of different branches located in different sectors (Micheli et al., 2019). Thus, the research paper has to ensure the evaluation of integration in terms of work ethic, structural operations, or technical alterations all through various company branches. Additionally, harmonizing internal and external operations depends on defining distinct lines between different workforces. For instance, the multi-study should explore and then define the functions of Mason’s workforce consequently comparing it to Lewisburg to formulate accurate objectives and develop a mutual goal for the two branches. One of the specific or recommended mechanisms of contextualizing and enlarging the vision of an organization is by motivating workers to feel as if they are part of the organizations and that their vision is also the organization’s vision in the long term.
Secondly, ensuring workers obtain real-time feedback to assist them to evaluate their performance is a common way of engaging the workers in the core operations of the company. The circulation of feedback between top managers and workers strengthen the cohesiveness and promotes conducive working conditions where employers can be open about issues (Micheli et al., 2019). Obtaining feedback from workers fosters better clarity on emerging issues encountered on a daily basis. In the end, the workers have to collaborate with the managers to ensure increased productivity and efficiency within different company branches.
Independent Variables
Time is the main independent variable in the research. While the researchers relate the relationship between different branches and workforce, time will remain constant all through the research (Brown, & Anthony, 2011). The research centers its argument on establishing a firm association between these variables.
Dependent Variables
The dependent variable is cohesiveness as it depends on the workforce relations and management of internal operations (Brown, & Anthony, 2011). More so, organizational hierarchy influences personality and types of activities the workers will be engaged in from time to time. Furthermore, productivity and efficiency are under dependent variables.
Research questions
What are the common managerial frameworks between Mason and Lewisburg?
What are the transferable skills needed in Mason and Lewisburg?
How can the managers define the future of Lewisburg’s business performance?
What are the mechanisms workers can use to adapt to new working environments?
Type of Sample Picked For the Study
The research centers on the business operations and the management of different branches. Hence, the research will sample the 250 workforces. This is because, during the transfer from Vandalia to Mason, 240 workers were displaced. Sampling these workers will unveil the underlying reasons which caused the displacement. More so, the main reason for the transfer from Vandalia to Mason was to increase productivity (Chesbrough, 2012). However, displacing workers affects the core operations of the organization and slows down the movement since a shortage of workers tends to draw back the nitty-gritty details of the transfer. Therefore, the 240 workers will indicate how internal systems can be aligned to external operations so that the transfer cannot halt any operational systems within the company.
How the Sample Will Be Recruited
The sample will be recruited based on the impact of the transfer from Vandalia to Mason. Workers whose skills were rendered useless during the move will be considered and their feedback will be used to draw out the conclusive findings of the research. Even though the sample is already isolated, how each worker was affected differs greatly hence personal suggestions are to be considered firsthand before making any conclusive sentiments. Thus, the degree of impact may deviate occasionally due to how each work was impacted by the displacement.
How the Research Will Be Conducted
Typically, the research aims to define or strengthen the collaboration ties between various P&G branches. In this particular case, the researchers should initiate a guided discussion among the workers and managers (Chesbrough, 2012). The aim of a guided discussion should be to collect data and gaining an understanding of various perspectives within a brief time frame. For instance, focus groups can be formed to discuss specified objectives and operations in different branches. Also, the focus groups can help the company gather data on the weakness and strengths of the company. In short, a guided discussion will be a pivotal point for the collection of information and formulating a way forward.
After the guided discussion, the researchers may apply observational mechanisms. Observation is a primary research mechanism where people do not need to come into contact with each other. Rather, the managers and workers can observe and report their findings. Subject observation may take place in two ways (Chesbrough, 2012). The first is by taking note of the happening within the company and reporting actual matters to top managers. The second observation mechanism may take place under uncertain frameworks where the company only employs certain people to observe certain occasions within the company. In summary, observation will help inform on the actual operations of the company and isolate weaknesses and strengths.
How to Ensure the Research Participants Are Safe and the Benefit of the Research
No participant will use his or her personal information. The feedback will remain anonymous hence no one will be held accountable for any sentiments made (Chesbrough, 2012). Also, the participants will be given an option before taking part in any of the research questions hence they will have total autonomy over all the aspects of the research.
The research will unveil implementable strategies that will then help the company improve it's business relations activities in different branches (Chesbrough, 2012). Secondly, the relevance of the research will assist the managers to come up with appropriate cohesive measures while dealing with workers and different localities.
References
Brown, B., & Anthony, S. D. (2011). How P&G tripled its innovation success rate. Harvard Business Review, 89(6), 64-72.
Chesbrough, H. (2012). Open innovation: Where we've been and where we're going. Research-Technology Management, 55(4), 20-27.
Lichtenthaler, U. (2011). Open innovation: Past research, current debates, and future directions. Academy of management perspectives, 25(1), 75-93.
Micheli, P., Wilner, S. J., Bhatti, S. H., Mura, M., & Beverland, M. B. (2019). Doing design thinking: Conceptual review, synthesis, and research agenda. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 36(2), 124-148.
Regev, G., Favre, J., Hayek, E., Wilson, P., & Wegmann, A. (2011, June). Business/IT alignment in practice: Lessons learned from a requirements project at P&G. In International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (pp. 93-101). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
