Research Proposal Form - Talent Management Practices in Small and Medium Enterprises

Section One: Title, objective, responsibilities

Title or working title of the research project (in the form of a question, objective or hypothesis)

Title- Talent Management for Small businesses and entrepreneurs

Research objectives (e.g what is the question you want to answer? What do you want to learn how to do? What do you want to find out?):

Aims

The aim of the research is to highlight the importance of talent management for the small businesses and entrepreneurs. Talent management has helped the business to grow in the market and make the interest attached but the small businesses are more in need of talent management so that they can gain competitive advantage as the performance of the small businesses is completely dependent on the individual performance.

Objectives

The main objectives of the research are-

• Identifying the concept of talent management

• Evaluating the state of talent management in small businesses

• Examining the ways in which talent management help out entrepreneurs

Research question

Following question will be answered at the end of the research-

• What is the concept of talent management?

• What is the situation of talent management in small businesses and for the entrepreneurs?

• In what ways talent management can help in developing the business for future?

Section Two: Reasons for choosing this research project

Reasons for choosing the project (e.g links to other subjects you are studying, personal interest, future plans, knowledge/skills you want to improve, why the topic is important):

In the current scenario entrepreneurship and small businesses are promoted by all the nations by providing different benefits. Along with this entrepreneurship is shaping the economy in a significant way by providing many job opportunities. With respect to this it is quite important to know that how talent management is supporting the entrepreneurs in terms of benefits. Moreover, this topic is selected because I have an aim of being an entrepreneur.

Section Three: Literature sources searched

Use of key literature sources to support your research question, objective or hypothesis:

Talent Management concept

In the words of Cselenyi (2013), effective talent management is the most important business strategies that an organisation can have in order to gain competitive advantage and fight against the uncertain market. Organisation needs to optimise their performance and reduce the cost in order to have best talent management strategies. The company needs to preplan everything so that at the time of implementation, the strategies can come out with an effective result for the business resulting in motivating work force and an environment to gain competitive advantage in the market. Successful business organisations have detailed talent management Strategies and plans aligned for the business so that effective strategy can help in motivating the employees and also result in better business performance in the future.

Talent Management in small businesses

In the opinion ofKrishnan and Scullion (2017), small businesses have few employees and they are mostly dependent on the performance of the employees at an individual level. Small businesses need to make sure that they higher quality employees in their business so that the profits and revenues can be generated more than the investments. Talent management Strategies and plan will be help the SMEs to identify what kind of employees are mostly eligible for the business operations and how they can be given a free environment for developing their skills that will be indirectly help in the business to grow.

In the words of Maheshwari, et. al. (2017), talent management Strategies and plans will be helping the SMEs to implement the best Strategies and higher the quality improves who can understand the business operations deeply. Not only from the professional point of view, the employees hired should be personally active and should have good observing skills that will be indirectly help in the business to grow because the employees’ attitude towards the business and towards themselves will be helping to know whether their eligible for the business operations or not. Personal knowledge is much more important than professional knowledge.

Talent management in SMEs

According to Chung, et. al. (2018), talent management have some strategies and a process model that helps the SMEs to organise the activities and evaluate the performance and outcomes of the business on the basis of the process model. Management process model have six steps that involves overall view of the business and how the Employees with the best eligibility can contribute in the growth of the business.

Talent Management Process Model

In the words of Harsch and Festing (2020), talent management requires planning that will be helping the SMEs to identify what areas are to be covered and how the employees will be made work so that the business can gain competitive advantage in the future. Talent management also attracts the requirements that an organisation has to fulfil. According to the business requirements, the company will be attracting employees towards their organisation by promoting them on various social media sites. Talent management will be Den selecting the candidates on the basis of tests conducted before hiring of the candidate to know whether the eligibility criteria is matching of the business requirements or not. Other than this developing stage of the talent management focuses on the skills and competencies that are to be required by the employees. If the employee is eligible for working but does not have sufficient skill then it is the requirement of the business to develop the skills in the employees and observe them for a few months. Talent management will also help in retaining the best talents through promotion. This will be helping in motivating the employees to stick to the organisation rather than switching the jobs because of the scope of fewer promotions for increments. Small businesses should make sure that they have proper strategies decided in order to make the employees feel that they are a part of a bigger organisation as a whole and should also provide dam the best retirement benefits and conducting exit interviews for effective succession planning.

Section Four: Activities and timescales

Activities to be carried out during the research project (e.g research, development and analysis of ideas, writing, data collection, numerical analysis, tutor meetings, production of final outcome, evaluation, writing the report):

Gantt Chart

How long this will take:

7 weeks

Milestone one: _________________

Target date (set by tutor): ____________________

Milestone two: _______________________

Target date (set by tutor): ______________________

Section Five: Research approach and methodologies

What type of research approach and methodologies are you likely to use and why? What your areas of research will cover:

Data Collection Methods

Data Collection method is very efficient in the research because it helps in analysing the previously conducted information and how the scenario of the businesses have been changed. The research is making use of primary and secondary data for conducting the research highlighting the importance of talent management and small businesses and for the entrepreneurs (Ghosh, 2019).

The primary data collection method will be used. The primary data collection method is effective because it will be highlighting the talent management and its use in the small businesses along with the benefits provided to the entrepreneurs.

Secondary data collection method will be used for highlighting the result of using talent management in small businesses and its effectiveness in the long run. Previously identified and conducted researchers will be taken into consideration and will be given proper reference in the research. The information will be highlighting about the benefits of the talent management strategies in the small businesses and how the entrepreneurs have benefited from the talent management process (Ghosh, 2019).

Annual Report of the small businesses taken for the research will be taken as a source of primary data for knowing whether the talent management strategies are effective in the performance of the business or not.

Research Philosophy

Research Philosophy is defined as the method by which the researcher will be collecting the data according to the selected philosophy and will analyse the information collected accordingly. In this research, Interpretivism research philosophy is selected where the small samplesof small businesses will be taken highlighting the talent management strategies used and how they are helping the business to gain competitive advantage in the market. As in-depth investigation will also be taken, the philosophy will be best suited for the same.

Sampling

Random sampling method will be used and around 20 SMEs will be taken for the research. The data will be collected from the companies like Verdant Leisure, Captify, Smith Brothers and so on. The companies will be evaluating about the benefits of talent management in SMEs.

Research Strategy

Qualitative and Quantitative both the research strategies will be taken into consideration. This is because the analysis of the data will be showcased using statistics so that the readers can easily understand about the information the research is trying to convey.

Research Approach

The research approach taken into consideration for the research will be descriptive approach as it will be helping the researcher to identify the characteristics of the problems and will be providing a depth information about the same.

Time Horizon

The research will be completed in 7 weeks after the approval.

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Comments and agreement from tutor

Comments (optional):

I confirm that the project is not work which has been or will be submitted for another qualification and is appropriate.

Agreed: ________________ (name)_______________ Date ______________

Comments and agreement form project proposal checker( IV sampling)

Comments (Optional):

I confirm that the project is appropriate.

Agreed /Disagree: (Name of the IV) Date

Section 1: Basic details:

Project title: Talent Management for Small business and entrepreneurs

Student name:

Student ID number:

Programme:

College Name:

Intended research start date:

Intended research end date:

Section 2 Project summary

Please select all research methods that you plan to use as a part of your project:

• Interviews Yes No

• Questionnaires Yes No

• Observations Yes No

• Use of personal records Yes No

• Data Analysis ?Yes No

• Action Research Yes No

• Focus Groups Yes No

• Others (Please specify) :

Section 3: Participants

Please answer the following questions, giving full details where necessary.

Will your research involve human participants?

Who are the participants? Tick all that apply:

Ages 12-16: Young people aged: 17-18 ?Adults:

How will participants be recruited (identified an approached)?

Describe the processes you will use to inform participants about what you are doing:

Online messages via emails and text

How will you obtain consent from participants? Will this be written? How will it be made clear to participants that they may withdraw consent to participate at any time?

Written consent will be taken from the participants. The research is completely voluntary

Studies involving questionnaires: will participants be given the option of omitting questions that do not wish to answer?

?Yes No

If no please explain why below and ensure that you cover any ethical issues arising from this

Studies involving observation: Confirm whether participants will be asked for their informed consent to be observed.

?Yes No

Will you debrief participants at the end of their participation (i.e give them a brief explanation of the study)?

?Yes No

Will participants be given information about the findings of your study?(This could be a brief summary of your findings in general)

?Yes No

Section 4: Data Storage and Security

Confirm that all personal data will be stored and processed in compliance with the Data Protection Act (1998)

?Yes No

Who will have access to the data and personal information?

During the research: Researcher

Where will the data be stored?

In data protected devices of the researcher

Will mobile devices such as USB storage and laptops be used

?Yes No

If Yes, please provide further details:

After the research: Researcher

Where will the data be stored?

Password protected devices

How long will the data and records be kept for and in what format?

The data will be kept until the research is completed

Will data be kept for use by other researchers? Yes No

Section 5 : Ethical Issues

Are there any particular features of your proposed work, which may raise ethical concerns? If so, please outline how you will deal with these:

It is important that you demonstrate your awareness of potential risks that may arise because of your research. Please consider/address all issues that may apply. Ethical concerns may include, but are not limited to the following :

• Informed consent.

• Potentially vulnerable participants.

• Sensitive topics

• Risk to participants and /or researchers

• Confidentiality/anonymity

• Disclosures/ limits to confidentiality

• Data storage and security, both during and after the research (including transfer, sharing, encryption, protection).

• Reporting

• Dissemination and use of your findings.

Section 6: Declaration

I have read, understood and will abide by the institution’s Research and Ethics Policy: ?Yes No

I have discussed the ethical issues relating to my research with my Unit Tutor:

?Yes No

I confirm that to the best of my knowledge:

The above information is correct, and this is a full description of the ethical issues that may arise in the course of my research

Name: Date:

Please submit your completed form to your supervisor and also attach to the Research Proposal when submitting to Turnitin.