9050PROJ Project
A001963458
Project Statement
Word Count: [550 words]
Background
From early 2020, the term “Workplace” has undergone a facelift in its meaning courtesy of the inevitable situations that COVID-19 containment measures birthed. According to Carnevale, J.B., and Hatak (2020, p 15), workplace change was gradually taking shape in the period just before the pandemic. COVID-19 outbreak accelerated the facelift. This model of the working environment brought with it some challenges that are inherently wired into the model. According to Edmondson and Mortensen (2021 p 109), some of the most affected areas include employee engagement, performance, and culture. When effective measures like vaccination were found and implemented, returning to the physical, the conventional workplace became an option creating a new term – hybrid workplace (Gómez, et al 2020 and Holston-Okae and Mushi, 2018, p 36). This is where an employee can work both from the physical office and home. However, our challenges linger and get complicated as the employee is no longer at one distinct location.
Project Topic
This project will aim at finding new ways of improving employee engagement, performance & culture in a post-COVID-19 world where hybrid working models are the norm.
Purpose of the Research
In the conventional workplace setting where the employees only reported physically to work employee engagement, their performance, and culture of the workplace were managed through some well-researched and tested models that produced good results. However, in the hybrid workplace setting, these important parameters cannot be measured via conventional means and models. Thus, this research serves to define a conceptual framework of
– how to improve the employee engagement with each other and their management
– how to improve, measure, and maintain employee performance in the hybrid workplace
– how to build, maintain, monitor, and get feedback regarding the workplace culture and its effect on the overall operations.
Theories and Frameworks
Herzberg’s Motivation Theory (or the Two-factor theory) will be the underlying framework that this research will be based on. The study will work with the theory’s postulates that there are factors in the workplace that causes satisfaction and there another independent set of factors that cause workplace dissatisfaction (Alshmemri, Shahwan-Akl, and Maude, 2017, p 14). Thus, the study will narrow down the scope to find these factors to determine what can improve employee engagement, performance, and culture in the hybrid workplace.
Research Methodology
To find the most appropriate approach and method of improving employee engagement, culture, and performance, this research will use several scientific approaches to model, plan, collect, analyze, and presents the findings. The research will involve experimentation with real-life cases to ensure that the data collected is credible and reliable. The randomly selected sample will be divided into three different groups that will be subject to different workplace experiences. The first group will be selected from the fully remote workplace population. The second group will be selected from the fully onsite workplace in the office population and the last group will be the hybrid workplace environment.
The study will collect data on the experiences of the employees as well as the overall effect on the performance of the team and the companies they work for. The study will collect both qualitative and quantitative data of various metrics that can measure the improvement of the parameters in question. To collect the data, surveys, interviews, and measurements of performance metrics will be used to help in the analysis.
References
Alshmemri, M., Shahwan-Akl, L. and Maude, P., 2017. Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Life Science Journal, 14(5), pp.12-16.
Carnevale, J.B. and Hatak, I., 2020. Employee adjustment and well-being in the era of COVID-19: Implications for human resource management. Journal of Business Research, 116, pp.13-17.
Edmondson, A.C. and Mortensen, M., 2021. What psychological safety looks like in a hybrid workplace. Harvard Business Review, 3, p.109.
Gómez, S.M., Mendoza, O.E.O., Ramírez, J. and Olivas-Luján, M.R., 2020. Stress and myths related to the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on remote work. Management Research: Journal of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management.
Holston-Okae, B.L. and Mushi, R.J., 2018. Employee turnover in the hospitality industry using Herzberg’s two-factor motivation-hygiene theory. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(1), pp.28-48.
