Recruiting post graduate students: A heterogeneous association of humans and non-humans

Posted on 26/08/2013 by yellowbag

According to the HEFCE report Postgraduate education in England and Northern Irelend over the last ten years postgraduate recruitment has increased but has declined over the past two years. The reasons for the decline are as yet unknown but HEFCE suspects that the reasons include the recession, increased fees and employers less likely to sponsor employees.

A news report in The Daily Telegraph (from HESA) talks about postgraduate applicants going abroad to take masters degrees due to the lower cost (free to £500.00) and the opportunity to learn a new language and culture.

If it is the case that postgraduate recruitment is going to fall over the next few years universities will need to work hard to convert as many applicants as possible to enrolment. It is going to be necessary to develop strategies to keep applicants interested and engaged throughout the pre-enrolment period.

Using Actor-Network Theory (ANT) it will be possible to describe the current ‘keep-warm’ processes and the structures and strategies of the university and to lead to explanations about the current situation and for improved processes and policies to be developed.

ANT can be used to follow the actor(s) through from the end of the recruitment process into the keep-warm and understand the roles of the human and non-human actors. Websites, emails, telephone communications, letters, personal contacts, meetings, events etc. and to understand the power relationships that exist throughout the process.

The process of getting applicants through to enrolment is fundamentally a service system. It would be beneficial to identify and describe any service innovations.

The research question can then become:

Strategies for increasing postgraduate enrolment: using Actor-Network Theory to describe and explore service innovation.

Graduate recrutiment

The problem

Posted on 18/08/2013 by yellowbag

Over The past few years the numbers of applicants to post graduate courses has been in decline. This is the case for many universities and is true for applicants in the UK/EU and overseas (outside the EU). There are many reasons for this decline including the downturn in the UK and European economies, UK government immigration policy and the perception of many in countries such as India that applicants from outside the EU are not wanted. Many employers who would in the past sponsor applicants to do management courses and other masters courses have cut their development budgets.

These are just some possible causes but there are likely to be others. If it is the case that the pool of applicants is getting smaller – at least for the time being – then the remaining applicants need to be managed in such as way that the probability of them enrolling on a course is increased. People can make as many applications as they like to as many universities as they like and the decision whether or not to take up a place is likely to hinge on a number of criteria. For example, the distance of the university from the applicant’s home or workplace, course fees, reputation of the institution, potential of job enrichment, promotion or employment at the completion of a course, personal circumstances such as caring, finances, time, confidence in own ability to complete a masters course.

The research project I intend to carry out would make use of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as a method for describing the whole range of activities, systems, processes, staff, committees, IT systems, communication plans and other actors. The aim would be to follow the actors both inside the university and those outside considering applying and through the application process through to an end point. The actors would include the range of human and non-humans for example, web sites, emails, pamphlets, telephone calls, messages, and adverts to name just a few.

Other research methods that could be brought to play are Sensemaking Theory – how do the applicants and the staff make sense of the organization and the processes and how to these impact on the applicants? My aim is to create a written ‘rich picture’ of the process and to use ANT to describe innovations and services and to see whether these lead to improved recruitment on to masers courses. Another aim of course is to generate some suggestions for improving recruitment systems and policies.

Research Title & Question

Posted on 27/04/2013 by yellowbag

I have decided to stop looking for a research question and title until I have read more research papers. I need to find a sound gap in the current research in order to better define my own research.

New Research Issue

Posted on 08/04/2013 by yellowbag

I have been reading a lot of papers on theory and research for assignment one. On the weekend I made a discovery about an area that could be an interesting area for my research project specifically e-HRM systems. e-HRM systems are basically ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems or part of, that allow Human Resources teams to carry out their functions using online internet or intranet systems.

e-HRM is the (planning, implementation and) application of information technology for both networking and supporting at least two individual or collective actors in their shared performing of HR activities. This concept highlights several crucial aspects of e-HRM. At the outset, e-HRM utilizes information technology in a twofold manner: First, technology is necessary to connect usually spatially segregated actors and enable interactions between them irrespective of their working in the same room or on different continents, i.e. technology serves as a medium with the aim of connection and integration. Second, technology supports actors by partially – and sometimes even completely – substituting for them in executing HR activities.

Hence, information technology serves additionally as a tool for task fulfillment. The planning aspect accentuates the systematic and anticipated way of applying information technology. The shared performing of tasks through at least two actors’ points out that the sharing of HR activities is an additional feature and underlines the aspect of interaction and networking. The consideration of individual and collective actors takes into account that e-HRM is a multilevel phenomenon; besides individual actors, there are
collective actors like groups, organizational units and even whole organizations that interact in order to perform HR activities.

Stefan Strohmeier, 2007.

e-HRM: HR functional applications, integrated HR suite applications, interactive voice responses (IVR), HR Intranet applications, Employee Self-Service (ESS) and Manager Self-Service (MSS) portals, HR extranet applications, or HR portals (Florkowski & Olivas-Luja´ n, 2006). Reflecting the breadth and rapid development of these technologies, the concept of e-HRM has been defined in several ways. In line with Martin, Reddington, and Alexander (2008), we distinguish between the use of IT in HRIS and e-HRM. Whilst HRIS refers to the automation of systems for the sole benefit of the HR function, e-HRM is defined as the application of Internet and web-based systems to change the nature of interactions between HR professionals, line managers and employees from face-to-face relationships to ones that are increasingly mediated by technology.

Jukka-Pekka Heikkila, Adam Smale, 2011.

One area that has had some investigation is online staff training systems. These are often not used to the extent that that they are designed for. There are many reasons for this and there are many related theories. Some of these include, motivation theories, IT systems theories, performance theories, Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), Diffusion of Innovation Theory and to some extent Actor-Network Theory.

I will be looking at eLearning for staff at work over the next few weeks and reporting the findings here.

Conceptual Framework (2)

Posted on 26/03/2013 by yellowbag

The conceptual framework that I outlined in my last posting referred to:

The conceptual framework and some questions I have now decided on are:

A case study exploring organizational behaviour and the diffusion of innovations: What factors enhance the likelihood of successful implementation and routinization?

How do we know when an innovation has been implemented and how successful the implementation has been?
What accounts for successful implementation
Why some organizational innovations fail to survive in organizations?

I have amended it as follows (in the light of further reading and thinking):

A case study exploring organizational behaviour and the diffusion of innovations: An investigation into the factors that enhance the likelihood of successful innovation implementation and routinization.

Some (potential) research questions:

What organizational factors are likely to lead to the successful implementation of organizational innovations?
Why do innovations fail or fail to survive in organizations?
What measures can be used to determine the success of an implementation?
What are the critical roles needed to ensure successful implementation?
How do organizational social networks affect the implementation of innovations?
How do innovations become routinized into everyday work?

The next stage is to work up the aims and objectives.