Review the Sample Qualitative Research Proposal from this unit's readings.Morgan, D. L. (1997). Focus groups as qualitative research: Planning and research design for focus groups [PDF]. Retrieved fro

Review the Sample Qualitative Research Proposal from this unit's readings.

• Morgan, D. L. (1997). Focus groups as qualitative research: Planning and research design for focus groups [PDF]. Retrieved from https://study.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/Morgan.pdf
• ChangingMinds.org. (n.d.). Open questions. Retrieved from http://www.changingminds.org/techniques/questioning/open_questions.htm
• ChangingMinds.org. (n.d.). Probing questions. Retrieved from http://changingminds.org/techniques/questioning/probing_questions.htm

Compose a formal, APA-formatted paper of no more than 700 words (word count excluding title and reference pages) that:

• Articulates the alignment issues between the business problem, purpose statement, and research question.
• Articulates the alignment issues between the business problem and the conceptual framework.
• Argues why the ethical considerations provided are inadequate to meet applicable standards.

Sample Qualitative Research Proposal

Background of the Study

When surveyed, almost 60% of employees expressed a desire to leave their current position for another they perceived as “better” if such opportunities arose (Romanova, 2013, para. 16). Beyond the academic research community, few consider giving deference to stronger indicators of employee turnover intentions. Both employees’ perceptions of their value to organizational structures and work-task satisfaction bore a more significant relationship to workers’ employment decisions than either salaries or job locations (Banner, 2014; Whitehall, 2014).

As an amalgamation of forces, work engagement is not a one-dimensional configuration, but a multi-layered structure encompassing organizational, leadership, and employee paradigms (Hammond, 2014). Though often regarded as the antonym to burnout, careful quantitative examination of employee work engagement confirms a myriad of constructs require further exploration to describe fully the phenomenon (Garrett, 2012; Johnson, 2014; Ward, 2015). These factors require in-depth exploration to elicit descriptions from individuals who possess views, opinions, and experiences with the phenomenon (Starke, 2012). Strongly encouraged, as a recommendation for further study, is development of thematic awareness of such factors related to the phenomenon of employee work engagement (Carter, 2013; Pym, 2015; Stark, 2012; Ward, 2015).

Business Problem

Leaders frequently hold the mindset that compensation is the ultimate factor in determining whether employees leave a company, despite recent studies to the contrary (Carter, 2017; Pym, 2017). The specific problem is leaders in manufacturing industries lack an understanding of the phenomenon of employee work engagement (Rogers, 2017; Starke, 2017). Qualitative research describing the phenomenon is valuable (Lee, 2017; McCoy, 2017) and will add to the existing body of knowledge specifically related to the field of leadership.

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this envisioned qualitative descriptive single case study is to explore leaders’ view of why employees leave an organization.  To obtain the three independent data points required for case study triangulation analysis (Coulson, 2017), the researcher proposes two different types of interviews and direct observation of leaders. These data sources are: 1) in-depth one-on-one interviews utilizing open-ended questions with 10 leaders of the manufacturing organization, 2) a focus group discussion with 15 leaders of the manufacturing organization using a semi-structured interview approach, and 3) direct observations of at least 10 leaders of the manufacturing organization. In total, the researcher anticipates a minimum of 35 different leaders will contribute data.

Research Question

The research question that will guide the envisioned study is: what is the relationship between employees’ voluntary turnover intentions and employee work engagement?

Conceptual Framework

            The researcher proposes Porter’s Five Forces for analyzing competition within an industry as the conceptual framework for this study.  Developed in 1979, this framework indicates a paradigm for leaders to analyze drivers of an industry. Through analysis industry competition, threats of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of consumers, and the threat of substitute products or services leaders are able to identify to determine organizational strengths and weaknesses (Carter, 2017).

Figure 1. The analytical framework that is used for the remainder of the study.

Figure 1 shows a visual interpretation of how the researcher will Porter’s Five Forces framework as the foundation for exploring the study’s phenomenon. Employees are the single most valuable asset to organizational survival (Ward, 2017). Through this framework the researcher will explore the importance of employee engagement in driving competitive advantage from an organizational perspective.   

Ethical Considerations

            To ensure the ethical treatment of all human subjects, as well as anonymity of organizations, an extensive review of all ethical procedures, requirements, and protections should be undertaken (Simmons, 2013). To abide by these guides, the researcher provides specific procedures as measures to guarantee the highest degree of commitment to ethical principles in research.