It’s some time now that i have been thinking about this. Today the ITeS(BPO/Call center) industry contributes to a considerable share of GDP in a mjority of Asian and Oceanic countries. So many skilled workers but still the plague of attrition is widespread in the IT industry. Many people leave within the first 6-18months of the employment. Either they change the company or change the industry. Factors for such high attrition are still unknown to a large extent or rather we can term it as too many players contribute for increasing employee turnover which makes it essentially too difficult to exactly term what causes this turnover / attrition ? Researchers have been publishing articles and journals about this subject and lot of solutions have been proposed. But still the happening has never changed. Industry still faces with near 30% attrition.Employee Satisfaction largely is to be blamed for this turnover of employees. Many new entrants come into the industry imagining that growth would be at a tremendous rate and that the individual financial gain would be huge, but they don’t understand that all that money and career progression promised comes with experience which eventually comes from staying back in a company for at least 4-6 years to even start the career progression. Although this is from the employee side, if we consider the company side, many large players in the industry portray the IT industry as place of unending fun, party, money and less job stress which in fact is the reverse way where today’s IT industry comes in with lots of job stress and work commitment demands. Unable to cope with this, lots of new graduates eventually start to get back to some other industry of just keep shifting companies to avoid getting into the job stress and work pressure.They believe " Until I am a fresher I need not work and until i am not working I don’t have any work pressure”
Friday, June 22, 2012
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Porter's Five Forces
Porter's five forces is a framework for the industry analysis and business strategy development developed by Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School in 1979. It draws upon Industrial Organization (IO) economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of a market. Attractiveness in this context refers to the overall industry profitability. An "unattractive" industry is one in which the combination of these five forces acts to drive down overall profitability. A very unattractive industry would be one approaching "pure competition", in which available profits for all firms are driven down to zero.
Three of Porter's five forces refer to competition from external sources. The remainder are internal threats. It is useful to use Porter's five forces in conjunction with SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats).
Porter referred to these forces as the micro environment, to contrast it with the more general term macro environment. They consist of those forces close to a company that affect its ability to serve its customers and make a profit. A change in any of the forces normally, requires a business unit to re-assess the marketplace given the overall change in industry information. The overall industry attractiveness does not imply that every firm in the industry will return the same profitability. Firms are able to apply their core competencies, business model or network to achieve a profit above the industry average. A clear example of this is the airline industry. As an industry, profitability is low and yet individual companies, by applying unique business models, have been able to make a return in excess of the industry average.
Porter's five forces include - three forces from 'horizontal' competition: threat of substitute products, the threat of established rivals, and the threat of new entrants; and two forces from 'vertical' competition: the bargaining power of suppliers and the bargaining power of customers.
This five forces analysis is just one part of the complete Porter strategic models. The other elements are the value chain and the generic strategies.
strategy....the need....the reality!!!
Sometimes its just not enough to plan or even have a strategy. My workplace for example has broad strategies about what they want to do and what the organisation wants to achieve, but the organisational strategy lacks reality, key strategic parameters like employee satisfaction is ignored completely. The middle level management lacks the sense of control on the unnecessary usage of resources. However the point of discussion in this blog is to either first to have a strategy and then align the business to satisfy the strategic needs or to align the business first to streamline its operation and then to have a strategic goal.
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Monday, October 6, 2008
The First Proposal
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The BPO Industry in the India – Historical Overview
Growth Statistics and Factors of Growth
Emerging Issues within the BPO industry
Introduction
Employee turnover can be defined as the consequence of an employee’s withdrawal behaviour; in today’s business environment employee turnover or employee attrition is a major organisational phenomenon in the IT/ITES industry. The core construct of this research project is however to analyse the factors that have an effect on employee retention rate which can also be interpreted to be the factors that contribute to the increase in employee attrition rate. There are many different constructs that can be considered to follow with the research study and the main theme of the research project. Employee motivation and Employee Satisfaction have been identified as having the most direct impact on employee retention rates within an organization. Researchers have time and again indentified the need for both academic and industrial research on the subject of employee retention. Shortage of skilled employees along with inability to retain skilled IT workforce can effect the strategic development and operation of the business. (Ramlall 2004) in his research study highlighted that the Critical employee loss has huge economic affect and also knowledge affect on the organisation. Poor retention rates can be due to employee turnover, burnout and lack of commitment. Closely related to the issues of retention is a key factor Employee Motivation. It is important to keep the
Employee Motivation
Employee motivation can be defined as the “the psychological process that cause the arousal, direction, and persistence of voluntary actions that are goal oriented (Mitchell 1982). Robbins in 1993 defined Motivation as a willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need. The drive created by an unsatisfied need generates as search behavior to find a particular goal that, if attained, will satisfy the need and lead to the reduction of tension. The inference is that the motivated employees are in a state of tension and to relieve this tension they exert effort to perform a particular job, this can be interpreted as “greater the tension, higher the effort level”. There are numerous theories of motivation; however the key theories of motivation identified by the researcher are Abraham Maslow theory and Hackman-Oldman theory. Maslow’s theory deals with the psychological aspects of motivation where as Hackman-Oldman theory essentially identifies five core job dimensions which may lead to high motivation state and thus increase the job performance.
Employee Satisfaction
Satisfaction has traditionally been defined as a positive emotional state reflecting attitude or response towards a given situation (Mak and Sockel 2001). Previous research has identified that employee satisfaction can be considered as a casual antecedent to organizational commitment and can also be negatively related to employee turnover and absenteeism(R.T.Mowday, Porter et al. 1982). (Porter.L.W and Steers.R.M 1973)in their research study suggested that expressed “intention to leave” may represent the next logical step after experienced dissatisfaction in the employee withdrawal process. This can be interpreted that employee satisfaction is a direct influential factor which can affect he employee attrition levels.
Background
The BPO Industry in the India – Historical Overview
This research study examines the key factors that affect the employee attrition rates in the Information Technology Enable Service (ITES) / Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector of the IT industry with in the Indian sector. There are several reasons for choosing the Indian BPO sector for the case study. The Indian BPO sector accounts to a large share of the world outsourcing market, followed by Philippines and other countries. After the economic reforms in the mid 1990s in India, and the new economic policies of the Indian government to allow Foreign Direct Investment(FDI) into the telecommunication and other large public and private sectors. Since the implementation of these reforms, the Indian economy has become dynamic and vibrant, and FDI have accelerated significantly. The consequence of such high level liberalization of the market captivity by the Indian government set the stage for India to emerge as a superpower in the BPO industry in the early Twenty-First Century. The growth of the BPO sector was also made possible by the already available information technology sector and the technically literate English speaking employee base. According to NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) BPO is the fastest growing industry in India and as of 2005 estimates there were more than 450 active Information technology Enabled Services(ITeS) /BPO companies in India.
Growth Statistics and Factors of Growth
India has what is known as ‘people attractiveness’. India produces over two million English –Speaking Graduates every year who are ready to work for salaries that are nearly 80 percent lower than those paid to their Western counterparts. (Bhatnagar 2007) has also claimed that every year about 100,000 engineers graduate in India, most of who are employed in the BPO/ITES sector for trouble shooting and technical support. According to the Global Services Location Index cited in the A.T.Kerney (2007) report India is ranked first in the Global BPO Industry followed by China, Malaysia, Thailand and Brazil.
The BPO sector has rapidly grown in India in the past decade, and its exports have also grown from a $565 million in 2000 to 7.3million in 2005. The exports of ITES-BPO are estimated at US$ 40.3 billion (Rs. 163,000 crore) in 2007-08, as compared to US$ 31.4 billion (Rs. 141,000 crore) in fiscal year 2006-07, an increase of 28.3 per cent in dollar terms and 15.6 per cent in rupee terms(Department of Information technology 2008). Growing at a rate of nearly 37% over the past four years, BPO is the fastest growing segment of the Indian IT-BPO sector. BPO exports from India grew from US$ 3.1 billion in FY 2003-04 to over US$ 8.4 billion in FY 2006-07. Over the same period, direct employment in Indian BPO grew from 216,000 in FY 2003-04 to 553,000 in FY 2006-07. The segment is currently growing at about 30 percent, and is expected to reach US$ 10.9 billion FY 2007-08, employing over 704,000 professionals.
Emerging Issues within the BPO industry
Despite the growing success of the Indian BPO industry, analysts and media reported have started to focus on the emerging issues within the BPO industry. Many problems facing the BPO industry directly relate to the human capital. For example the 2005 Global Outsourcing Offshoring Summit of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce highlighted several challenges including annual turnover rate ranging from 20 to 80 percent and the imbalance in the demand and supply of skilled talented workforce. Analyst firm Gartner had predicted in 2005 that as many as 70 per cent of the top 15 Indian BPO start-ups will cease to exist in the near future. Another major concern is the shortage of manpower at the mid-management level.
The increasing attrition rate has attracted the attention of the top management of both clients and service-providers, who are now viewing this as an area of strategic importance, rather than an operational issue (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2005). Due to high attrition rate, employees who quit the organization cost huge amount of operational capital primarily in terms of their recruiting and training, (O.Longenecker and Scazzero 2003) has suggested in his research study that loosing IT personnel can be a cost of doing business and the actual cost might be 2.5 times their individual annual salary. With employee attrition becoming a growing concern in the ITeS/BPO sector in the India, the purpose of this research study is to investigate the factors that have an effect on the employee attrition rates and suggest methods to increase the employee retention rate in the BPO sector in India.
Research Problem and Aim
The theoretical problem identified is to analyze the linkages between employee satisfaction, employee motivation and the employee retention i.e. to analyze the how employee motivation and employee satisfaction can affect the employee retention levels at the Indian ITeS/BPO sector. This research study would particularly focus on the Indian BPO sector and then analyze the intermediate linkages between the three identified constructs.
Literature Review
Employee attrition rate in an organization can also be known as the employee churn rate or Employee turnover rate Employee retention rate has been considered as a key construct for the purpose of this research study
Researchers have time and again indentified the need for both academic and industrial research on the subject of employee retention .Literature on employee satisfaction and employee motivation has been available both on a practitioners approach and on an academic approach. The current study although is concentrated on both the approaches, it would primarily deal with the academic approach towards the case study. (Mak and Sockel 2001) suggested that in today’s business environment the relationship between organisations and there IS departments is fast changing leading to a state of undermining the retention of IS workforce consequently effecting the productivity of the IS departments. Losing IT personnel as expressed by (O.Longenecker and Scazzero 2003) can be a cost of doing business and the actual cost might be 2.5 times their individual annual salary. According to (Stokes 2000) due to the scarcity of skilled IT workforce employee retention has become a factor of strategic importance to gain competitive advantage in the IT industry. Stokes has also identified that better job opportunities and ever increasing competition is a major cause factor of attrition which has been tempting the IS/IT personnel to change the companies more often. (Lockwood and Ansari 1999) in their research study identified that the key motivators and controllers of employee retention has changed dramatically between the present day IT employees to the IT personnel of past generation. A similar view is expressed by (Bhatnagar 2007) in her research, where she emphasises that the IT/ITES industry has grown at a tremendous rate that, not only is recruiting highly skilled IT workforce important but also to retain them in the organisation to sustain a skilled competitive advantage in the ever growing IT market.
Employee satisfaction can have a significant impact on employee attrition levels in an organisation. (Mobley 1977) in his research paper identified that employee job satisfaction has a direct impact on the employee turnover and retention. Mobley expressed through his understanding of the psychology of withdrawal decision process that employee dissatisfaction stimulated the thought of quitting. Similar idea was expressed by (Bhatnagar 2007) in her research paper that Employee dissatisfaction due to unclear Internal Job Postings, Unusual Work profile, personal factors and lack of clear Career opportunities only increase the rate of attrition and employee turnover in the Indian ITES sector. (P.Carayon, J.Schoepke et al. 2006) emphasised that if the organisation had to increase the employee retention rate in an organisation then there was great need to increase the Quality of Work Life (QWL) parameter within the organisation which would inturn increase the employee satisfaction rate. (Porter and Steers 1973) suggested in their writing that employee job satisfaction has been consistently and inversely related to employee turnover.
(Mak and Sockel 2001) suggested that employee motivation can also be a key factor affecting the employee retention in the organisation. Mak and Sockel have also identified three key motivation theories that can explain the relationship between motivation and retention. Sutherland in his 2001 article highlighted that the motivation factors are different for IS and non-IS employees. He states that the skills and competency requirements are different for IS employees which is why their motivation factors are also quite different.(Ramlall 2004) has deeply studied the motivation theories and the underlying link between employee motivation and employee retention. He concluded in his research that for any organisation to have an effective employee retention strategy, the key employee motivators are to be identified. (Bhatnagar 2007) on the other hand identified that employee engagement in the organisation can also have a significant impact on the employee retention rates. She also indentified that employee retention rate is low in the Indian ITES sector in the first six months due to the low motivation factor of the employee base and high stress levels in terms of training and initial performance requirements. (Ross 2005) in his article highlighted that the war of employee retention begins at the time of recruitment itself, with companies recruiting employees whose talents and interests fit with both the long-term and short-term needs of the organization. Expressing a similar view is (Lockwood and Ansari 1999) in their article where they have suggested that IT retention strategy is part of the IT recruitment strategy. (Sheridan 1992) has also suggested that the organisations have to understand the person-organisation cultural fit conditions in the recruitment stage itself to control attrition. A key strategic step to control attrition identified by (Bhatnagar 2007) is the concept of blacklist where an industry standard list of frequently job changing employees would be created and such identified employees would be withheld from recruitment for a particular period of time. Although the interim and after effects of such a concept is much arguable, but NASSCOM (National Association of Software Service Companies) has been considering such a concept as a necessity to increase employee retention rates.
Methodology and Project Plan
The researcher considered a scientific approach based on the qualitative approach of research process(Sekaran 2001) .The scientific method is distantly based on the hypothetic-deductive method (Lee and Lings 2008) where data is collected, analysed and interpreted to form a research question or a set of objectives to be addressed as part of the research project. Part of the qualitative research process is collecting data from sources that are best of their quality and knowledge which primarily include peer reviewed journal articles. This is due to the fact that the topic of research mainly deals with the individual behaviours in the present scenario and their idiosyncratic needs that affect their presence and operation in an organisation, which can be identified only through the detailed study and analysis of the employee behaviour patterns in a contextual setting. This type of research method has been considered because it exposes different interpretative schemes, people’s values and reality of understanding within employees of the organisation which inturn enables to identify the factors that cause attrition. The supervisor of the researcher is much likely to advocate this type of scientific approach to the research project. The supervisor himself, had suggested a research process involving three stages where he advocated the use of literature review for development of the process model in the first stage and then to develop a set of objectives to be addressed in the second stage based on the literature review and the process model and in the final stage to have a set of interviews analysing the factors contributing attrition and analysing the relationship between employee motivation, employee satisfaction and employee retention.. The supervisor of this research project Dr. Mark Freeman has consistently considered case based approach in his research projects[i], where a similar kind of approach has been used for studying and analysing a particular pattern through literature review and collected data. The time and again discussion of the supervisor and researcher makes it much clear that both the researcher and the supervisor have a better coordination and understanding of the scientific method proposed for the project and there is considerable support for the researcher from the supervisor.
Project Plan
Stage 1
Construct a Literature review of the available literature regarding the BPO/ITeS industry in the Indian context, and obtain an understanding of the industry changes since 1990s
Stage 2
Analyze and prepare the information gathered in stage 1 for interpretation and to develop a set of Hypothesis statements and objectives/Aims
Stage 3:
Develop questionnaires based on the literature review and then analyze the data collected and interpret the analyzed data to address the hypothesis
Stage 4:
Prepare final thesis report for submission.
Expected Outcomes
The findings of the research study aims to have a closer view of how employee satisfaction and employee motivation can have on employee retention rates in the BPO/ITeS sector in India. The key findings from this research study are expected to identify the cause factors for the increasing attrition which can be used for further research in this area. This project would bring light on how employee attrition rates in Indian ITeS/BPO industry have become a strategic problem highlighting the need to address the issue with detailed analysis and at the same time to suggest primary steps to be taken to tackle the employee attrition and increase Employee retention rates
References
Bhatnagar, J. (2007). "Talent Management Strategy of employee engagement in Indian ITES employees: key to retention." Employee Relations 29(6): 640-663.
Department of Information technology. (2008, Aug 2008). "Indian Electronics and IT Industry." Ministry of Communication and Information technology.
Lee, N. and I. Lings (2008). Doing Business Research : A guide to theory and practice. London, SAGE Publications.
Lockwood, D. and A. Ansari (1999). "Recruiting and retaining scarce Information technology talent : a focus study group." Industrial Mangement & Data Systems 6(251 - 256).
Mak, B. and H. Sockel (2001). "A confirmatory factor analysis of IS employee motivation and retention." Information & Management Journal 38(5): 265-276.
Mitchell, T. R. (1982). "Motivation: New Direction for Theory, Research, and Practice." Academy of Management Review: 81.
Mobley, W. (1977). "Intermediate Linkages in the Relationship Between Job Satisfaction and Employee Turnover." Journal of Applied Psychology 62(2): 237-240.
O.Longenecker, C. and J. A. Scazzero (2003). "The turnover and retention of IT Managers in rapidly changing organizations." Information Systems Management(Winter 2003).
P.Carayon, J.Schoepke, et al. (2006). "Evaluating causes and consequesnces of turnover intention among IT Workers: the devlopment of a questionnaire survey." Behaviour and Information Technology 25(5): 381-397.
Porter, L. and R. Steers (1973). "Organizational, Work and Personal Factors in Employee Turnover and Ambseteeism." Phsychological Bulletin 80(2): 151-176.
Porter.L.W and Steers.R.M (1973). "Organisational Work, and personal factors in employee turnover and absenteeism." Psychological Bulletin 80: 151-176.
R.T.Mowday, L. W. Porter, et al. (1982). Employee-Organization Linkages: The Psychology of Commitment, Absenteeism and Turnover. Academic Press. New York.
Ramlall, S. (2004). "A Review of motivation theories and their implications for employee retention within organizations." Journal of American Academy of Business: 52-63.
Ross, J. A. (2005). "Dealing with the Real Reasons People Leave." Harvard Management Update 10(8): 3-5.
Sekaran, U. (2001). Applied Business Research, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
Sheridan, J. (1992). "Organizational culture and Employee Retention." Academy of Management Journal 35(5): 1036-1056.
Stokes, S. L. (2000). "Attracting and Keeping IT Talent." Information Systems Management(Summer 2000): 8-16.
CONSENT FORM
CONSENT FORM FOR …………………
Analysing the factors that affect attrition rates in Indian ITeS/BPO Industry
Kondala Ranganathan
I have been given information about analysing the factors that affect attrition rates in the Indian ITeS/BPO industry and discussed the research project with Kondala Ranganathan who is conducting this research as part of a MICTAdv supervised by Dr.Mark Freeman in the SISAT school of Faculty of Informatics at the University of Wollongong.
I have been advised of the potential risks and burdens associated with this research, which include revealing my identity, expressing my view about my employer and my management and my individual perspective of my job, and have had an opportunity to ask Kondala Ranganathan any questions I may have about the research and my participation.
I understand that my participation in this research is voluntary, I am free to refuse to participate and I am free to withdraw from the research at any time. My refusal to participate or withdrawal of consent will not affect my treatment in any way ... or my relationship with the University of Wollongong.
If I have any enquiries about the research, I can contact either Kondala Ranganathan or Dr.Mark Freeman on Ph:4225 5188 or if I have any concerns or complaints regarding the way the research is or has been conducted, I can contact the Ethics Officer, Human Research Ethics Committee, Office of Research, University of Wollongong on 4221 4457.
By signing below I am indicating my consent to
• Respond to any questionnaire given by Kondala Ranganathan to answer and also permit him to contact me for further information if any required
I understand that the data collected from my participation will be used for academic thesis,, and I consent for it to be used in that manner.
Signed Date
....................................................................... ......./....../......
Name (please print)
.......................................................................
PARTICIPATION INFORMATION SHEET
Title: Analysing the factors that affect attrition rates in Indian ITeS/BPO Industry
PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH
This is an invitation to participate in a study conducted by researchers at the University of Wollongong. The purpose of the research is to investigate the factors that cause attrition in the Indian BPO/ITeS Industry. The study also wishes to understand the linkages between employee motivation, employee satisfaction and employee retention
INVESTIGATORS
Dr Mark Freeman (Supervisor) Kondala Ranganathan
Lecturer Faculty of Informatics Student Faculty of Informatics
mfreeman@uow.edu.au rsvnk257@uow.edu.au
METHOD AND DEMANDS ON PARTICIPANTS
If you choose to be included, you will be asked to participate in a answering a questionnaire by a member of the research team. The researcher will mail you a short questionnaire will be required to ascertain the factors that have supported or inhibited your idea of the research subject. Typical questions in the interview include, your experience of the current job profile and the regarding your motivation levels and satisfaction levels at your work profile..
POSSIBLE RISKS, INCONVENIENCES AND DISCOMFORTS
Your involvement in the study is voluntary and you may withdraw your participation from the study at any time and withdraw any data that you have provided to that point. Refusal to participate in the study will not affect your relationship with the University of Wollongong.
BENEFITS OF THE RESEARCH
This research will provide a basis for future decisions on the employee retention strategies in the Indian BPO/ITeS companies. Findings from the study may be published in a thesis report and possibly published in educational journals. Confidentiality is assured and you or your employer as an individual will not be identified in any part of the research.
ETHICS REVIEW AND COMPLAINTS
This study has been reviewed by the Human Research Ethics Committee (Social Science, Humanities and Behavioural Science) of the University of Wollongong. If you have any concerns or complaints regarding the way this research has been conducted, you can contact the UoW Ethics Officer on (02) 4221 4457.
Thank you for your interest in this study.
HREC Ethics Guidelines
Title of the project
· Analysing the factors that affect attrition rates in Indian ITeS/BPO Industry
summary of aims and significance
· The main aim of the project is to analyze the linkage between employee satisfaction, employee motivation and the employee retention i.e. to analyze the how employee motivation and employee satisfaction can affect the employee retention levels at the Indian ITeS/BPO sector. This research study would particularly focus on the Indian BPO sector and then analyze the intermediate linkages between the three identified constructs.
(QUESTIONS 3) names and qualifications of researchers
· The principal researchers
Kondala Ranganathan
MICTAdv – Faculty of Informatics
University of Wollongong
Dr.Mark Freeman (Supervisor)
Lecturer – Faculty of Informatics
University of Wollongong
LOCATION(S) OF RESEARCH ACTIVITY
· Explain where approaches to potential participants will be through a questionnaire surveys and telephonic/mail conversations through internet. Hence all the communication will be Web based communication/ telephonic communication.
Purpose and Funding of Project
5a The research is undertaken as Student Research and is undertaken as part of the course MICT Adv Subject (ISIT998) with Faculty of Informatics (and Institution, if not the University of Wollongong), and the student’s supervisor.
5b please indicate any conditions placed on the research by the funding body or sponsor and/ or any benefits from the research which the sponsor expects to receive. For example, a manufacturer might support research into a new therapeutic device with the expectation that a report on the efficacy of the device will be supplied to the manufacturer; similarly a local council or community group might support research and provide access to participants with the express aim of receiving a report on the research at its completion. If there are any conditions regarding the publication of research findings or conditions regarding the confidentiality of participants’ information, please provide details.
The UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGong Human research Ethics Committee and other ethics committees
· Multi-centre research and other research projects of staff or students of the
· For multi-centre research National Statement (paragraph 2.31) requires HRECs to record: details of other centres involved in the research; the approval status of the study at each centre; and details of any amendments required at other centres. You should include in your application any available correspondence regarding multi-centre research from other HRECs. Details of other HREC approval and conditions should be forwarded to the
CATEGORY OF RESEARCH
· The participants involved in the research study would include people employed in the Indian BPO/ITeS sector in India. They might vary from newly appointed freshers to experienced seniors. Some part of the research study would also require the involvement of the management level employees
Research method and Activities involving participant
· The methodology and procedure of the project, has already been discussed with some members of the community or from which the research would seek participants. The potential participants who have been informed about the project are senior level employees involved in management and operation handling n the ITeS/BPO industry
Statement of ethical considerations INcluding Harms and Burdens of participation
· Although the harms suggested are only expected and are not obvious. Since the questionnaire answering is only on their individual view of the work profile they are involved in. Expected harms or burdens with participation in research may involve for participants are: embarrassment in the course of interviews and answering questionnaires; the researcher’s tapes, notes, or other data will be included in evidence as part of the research process.
· Participants who are also well informed of the nature of the research where they are sufficiently free to make the decision to participate of to refuse to participate and may well be prepared to take on those risks and burdens.
Recruitment of participants
· The target populations, method of recruitment, and number of participants you intend to recruit should be related to the methodology you propose.
11 Potential participants are well informed of how they were identified and invited for research as someone to be approached to participate in the research.
· The access to potential participants is on the cooperation of the individual participants itself. The researcher will obtain the given personal information (including names, addresses or telephone numbers) concerning potential participants by the participants itself if they consent to reveal the information.
Agreement to participate/ Consent
· An appropriate negotiated agreement will be prepared based on the participant populations. A copy of the pre-prepared consent form has been attached in the appendix of this guidelines application
Freedom to discontinue participation
· Researchers will strive to protect each participant’s voluntary choices through:
1) Ensuring that potential participants are able to refuse to participate without suffering disadvantage as a result of that choice and
2) Providing opportunities for participants to express their wish to discontinue participation while the research is being undertaken and respecting those decisions.
Confidentiality and privacy
· Since this research is based on focus groups involving obtaining information by interview or observation of several people at once, preservation of confidentiality becomes more difficult. Where appropriate it will be indicated whether a group of participants will know the names of the other participants or whether they will know the other participants only by appearance and voice, etc. Participants are informed who will have access to the information and for what purpose.
· The confidentiality and privacy of participants will be preserved in the publication of your research findings, or we will have obtained the participants’ permission to identify them in publications
Publication and dissemination of data
· The participants will be informed that the findings of the research will be published or reported and the ways in which these findings may be taken up by policy-makers (if appropriate).
Storage of data
· Primary data will be retained for a period of at least five years to conform to the University’s Code of Practice—Research and the Joint NHMRC/AVCC Statement and Guidelines on Research Practice (1997). Data will be retained in a secure place, this means secure storage at the research institution and not in the researcher’s home. After 5 (15 years for clinical trials), the data must be securely destroyed.
Period of approval
· It is understood that for the purposes of Committee approval, the period of the research project is the period beginning when the researcher sets up mechanisms for recruiting people as potential participants or when researcher sets up mechanisms for obtaining personal data continuing until completion of analysis.
· It is understood by the researcher that the Committee approval is granted for a maximum period of twelve months, after which you may apply for an extension of approval using the reporting/ renewal form available through the Research office Web site
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