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SECOND SUBMISSION
Management And Professional Development Research

BY

NIRANJAN REDDY (09126767)

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Introduction

Statement of issue & its Organizational Significance:

The use of recruitment approach through internet has increased significantly for the last few
years (Taylor, 2008). The emergence of various sophisticated e-recruitment techniques has
helped organizations to achieve efficiencies in recruitment processes (Eversole, 2008). The
Internet had made radical changes to the recruitment processes in organization (Capelli,
2001) & the future of recruitment industry is on the net (Edgeley, 1995). According to Hays
(1999) most HR managers tend to take the internet seriously but they face problem of how to
use it effectively for recruiting purposes.
.
Aims and Objectives:
This study aims to compare the implications of e-recruitment on the super markets in India &
UK.
To achieve the aims this study will evaluate the perception of HR managers of supermarkets
on e recruitment with regard to :
• The positive factors that influence the decision to implement e recruitment system.
• The negative factors that influence the decision to implement e recruitment system.
• Feature of their e recruitment website
• Challenges & obstacles on implementing e recruitment system.

Hypothesis:
The hypotheses formulated for the research are
Hypothesis 1: the factors influencing the decision for implementing e recruitment system are
different for India compared to UK
Hypothesis 2: the challenge that organizations face on implementation of e recruitment are
almost similar in India and UK.

Definition of the terms:

E Recruitment can be explained as a recruitment process that a company undertakes through
web oriented tools such as companies’ public internet site or its intranet (Capelli, 2001).

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Kim & Conner (2009) added it also includes individuals seeking job information &
completing at least some part through online application processes, even if it is just
instruction for applying and describing position.

Supermarkets were traditionally viewed by development economists & policymakers as the

rich world’s place to shop. But it has spread to developing regions. It is also called grocery
store. It is a self service store which offer food and household merchandize. It is smaller than
a hypermarket (Thomas et al, 2004)

HR (Human Resource) managers are those involved in management of Human Resource.

This research will consider the HR managers with responsibilities of recruiting of employees.

Limitations of the study:

There were constraints like time & money which will be involved in the research and can
influence the finding. The no. of respondents of the used in the research will be low and due
to less sample size the analyses & the results will be limited. This limitation will also prevent
the generalization of the outcomes. The research will use method for data collection which
can itself have its own limitation (Bell, 1999). For instance the questionnaire used for survey
can affect by a biased question design (Saunders et al, 2007).

2. Review of the literature:

Jankowicz (2000) explained that research has value only in relationship with other’s. In other
words, the outcomes will be useful only if it is similar or different compared to other’s
findings. It is a preliminary search that facilitates in generating and refining research ideas
(Sharp et al, 2002). Even Though one have good knowledge of his research area, reviewing
the literature is considered essential (Saunders et al, 2007).

Relevance of the topic in the academic literature

Recruitment is an essential part of the HRM as it undertakes important function to draw
human resource in the organization (Barber, 1998).

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According to Lievens et al (2002) due to war of the talent the organizational emphasis
shifted from selection to attraction of employees. He further added that shortages in labour
market and difficulties in recruiting has lead to a competitive market of recruitment.
The concept of e-recruitment emerged during mid 80s but the systematic references in
Human resource Journals were made during mid 90s when it was used extensively by
information technology companies and universities (Galanaki, 2002). In this twenty first
century there had been expansion in opportunities of all work areas (Taylor, 2008).
According to CIPD (2007) more than three quarters of the employers were advertising on
web in 2007. In U.S.A more than 50% of the hiring was done through internet which will
most probably increase over years (Cober & Brown, 2006). According to Crispin & Mahler
(2006) nearly 20% of hires externally was through organization’s website and 13% through
job on boards. The Recruitment confidence index (RCI, 1999-2006) tracked the number of
online recruiters and reflected that it was 40 % for corporate website & 25 % for commercial
job on boards. Along the same lines CIPD (2006) also found that 64 % companies used e
recruitment. Though, e recruitment has become well established but it did not influence much
the recruitment process as predicted (Perry & Wilson, 2007)
Also , e-recruitment has made the applicants to concern that weather their personal
information are kept confidential & secure (Kerrin & Kettley, 2003).

Review of three relevant Academic Journals

Kim & O’Connor (2009) studied the electronic recruitment for employees of United States
and analyzed the issues faced by the state on implementation of e-recruitment system. They
developed a phone survey method for collecting information of the states personnel agencies’
use of e-recruitment, submission of application and challenges in implementation of e-
recruitment. They found that all the 23 state personnel agencies that responded to the phone
survey provide the application forms which could be downloaded and allowed candidate to
submit application online. The assessment of application and selecting candidate online was
done by 10 states. The challenges they faced on implementation of e recruitment process
included technical difficulties, cost constraints and resistance of HR staff to adopt the new
system of recruitment. They found that most commonly used features on e-recruitment
website were the agency contact information, frequently asked questions & job search option.
Based on the information collected they also presented the guidelines and implication for
proper implementation of e-recruitment for the state government employees. They
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emphasized on the collaboration of line managers & HR managers to develop a staffing

program that will provide well defined job requirements, tools for assessment & effectively
select the job candidate (Kim & O’Connor, 2002).
Galanaki (2002) studied the IT companies in UK and discussed the factors that affected
companies’ decision to adopt e-recruitment. They considered various attributes that impacted
the decision for e recruitment in a positive or a negative way and tested the responses of the
companies in those attributes. Their study provided an insight for how organizations perceive
& value e-recruitment. For conducting their research they used method of survey in the form
of postal questionnaire followed by interview with some selected companies. They selected
their sample on the basis that the IT companies in sample should have reflected a distinctive
behaviour pattern towards e-recruitment. But of the sample size of 99 only 34 companies
responded. They also found that saving of time is not facilitated by e-recruitment as one of
their respondent stated that saving in time is exaggerated and the company did not
experienced any saving in time since adoption of e recruitment. Another important deduction
of their research was that the implementation of e recruitment was found to be privilege of
large & known companies only as they could spread the financial burden and face relatively
smaller risk (Galanaki, 2002). Thus, despite of its potential for successful implementation in
Small companies due to its low cost & simplicity it is popular only in well known companies
(Raymond, 2001).
Parry & Wilson (2007) examined the reasons for the organization’s decision to implement
online recruitment and developed a model of factor which affected the decision of adopting e
recruitment method. They used deep interviews & surveys on Human resource managers
involved in recruitment process. They explored the factors affecting the implementation of e
recruitment in relation to Diffusion of innovation theory (DIT) & Theory of planned
behaviour (TPB). They used an online survey for their research. By using the online survey
they also adopted a limitation for their research. That is, their respondents were those people
who were already using internet. Their research also found that many organizations were
capable of implementing e recruitment but chose not to. They also found that the factors
affecting the adopting of corporate websites were different from the factors affecting
adopting of job on boards.

Value of the review of the academic journals to the research

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From the above reviews of the Journals it can be inferred that e recruitment is becoming very
popular among the organizations and it is used very widely as a mode of recruiting people.
Thus, e recruitment is very significant issue for organizations. This formed the basis of the
research idea of this study. But impact of e recruitment and the challenges faced on its
implementation may not be same everywhere. So, this study will compare the implication of
e recruitment in India & UK. The research may also recommend the organization on
successful implementation of e recruitment.

3. Methods:

Methodological perspective:
According to Saunders et al (2007) the purpose of the research can be exploratory which is
for finding what is happening and to seek new insights; descriptive which presents the
accurate profile of persons and situation or explanatory which establishes the cause and effect
relationship between variables.
This study can be termed as a descriptive- explanatory research because it presents the profile
of situation as well as effects on e recruitment implementation.
The research philosophy of the study can be considered to be positivism according to which
authenticate knowledge is the scientific knowledge. The study will adopt a structured
methodology and will assume that the researcher will not influence the research and is not
affected by the research (Bell & Bryman, 2003). The approach used for the research will be
deductive.

Research Design:
The research will adopt the survey strategy which is usually associated with a deductive
approach. The deductive approach tends to be based on the scientific principles (Saunders et
al, 2007).
The study will follow the quantitative approach and thus the data collected will be objective
and not subjective. In other words the quantitative data have unique interpretations though it
can be presented differently (Jankowicz, 2005).
The data collected through survey will be analyzed later using quantitative techniques. The
data collection method used for the research will be through questionnaire and if required for
getting more specific data for some respondents’, interview method can also accompany the
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questionnaire. All the respondents will be asked the same set of questions which are in a
predetermined sequence (DeVaus,2002). The data will be collected directly by the researcher
which means that it is a firsthand data and thus is a primary data (Bell & Brymen, 2003).
In order to gain access and to deal with the ethical issues, the questionnaire will have a
covering letter which will state the purpose of the research and provide details of dealing with
some ethical issues.

Population & Sample:

The population is referred to as the entire elements that are of interest for the research. But
due to constraints of time as well as money, it is not possible to collect data from the whole
population. In fact, the collection of data from entire population is even unmanageable for
most of the researches (Jankowicz, 2005). As a result, the research will take samples which
will be the representative for the whole population.
The sampling frame used for the research can be considered very small as the research will
have 5 samples from UK and 5 samples from India.
The methods used for sampling can be explained as probability sampling in which each
element has equal chance of being selected and non-probability sampling where chances for
any element for being selected is not known ( Saunders et al, 2007). The method of sampling
used in the non probability sampling is the self selection where individual will identify their
willingness to contribute to research and provide the data.
For this research if we consider the population as HR managers concerned with recruitment
in India & UK. Than through self selection 5 respondents from both the countries will be
selected.

Data collection method:

The data collection method was selected after evaluating if it provides the reliable data and
the appropriate data relevant for the research (Bell, 1999). As discussed earlier, the data
collected will be primary data and the instrument used for data collection will be the
questionnaire.
According to Saunders et al (2007) the decisions like selecting questions, distribution &
design as well as collection of questionnaire should be taken very carefully. The researcher
has the capability to influence the responses through design of the questionnaire. Well
structured questionnaire also facilitates to analyze the data easily (Bell, 1999).
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The questionnaire used for the research will be a structured and self administered. The
questionnaire will first ask about the demographic information of age, gender, and
designation & job tenure. Then, the questionnaire will ask about the positive factors which
affect the implementation of e recruitment in the organization. There were 7 factors included
in the questionnaire for positive factor. Then the questionnaire listed the negative factors that
influence the organization’s decision to implement e recruitment. There were 6 factors listed
in the list. There will be three categories of responses which the respondents can give for the
factors involved. Which are not influencing, influence & major factor. The respondent will be
asked to respond as any of these three. There were 9 elements included in the questionnaire
for the challenges that organization face on implementing e recruitment. The respondent will
be asked to agree or disagree for any particular element. The respondents will be most
probably met face to face & according to Bell (1999) there is no need for accompanying
letter in this case. But, for convenience the questionnaire will have a covering letter stating
the purpose of the study and to take care of the access and ethical issues.
To get more specific information of any organization, the research may also undertake
interview of some respondents. For instance, the details of the challenges they faced on
implementation of e recruitment and how they handled it may be asked.
The questionnaire and the covering letter for the research are included in the Appendices.

Data Analysis Methods:

The demographic characteristics will be first analyzed by grouping the similar respondents to
see if there is any similarity between the demographic characteristics and the responses. The
data collected will be presented in terms of percentages in a table. In other words, the
analysis will use descriptive statistics by presenting frequencies of the element and extract the
quantitative results. For example 72 % respondent considered cost effectiveness as a positive
factor. The table could also be presented in a bar graph reflecting 3 bars for each element for
not any influence, influence & major factor.
Thus the information collected from the respondents will be presented in tables and graphs
which will help in testing the hypothesis framed in the beginning of the research. If the result
will support the hypothesis than the hypothesis will be accepted or if the outcomes are not
aligned to the hypothesis, than hypothesis will be rejected.

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The research may also use SPSS 14(Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software for
better assessment of the data if required (Bryman & Cramer, 2009).

References:

1. Bell, J. (2005), Doing Your Research Project, 4th ed, Buckingham: Open University
Press.
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2. Bell, A & Bryman, E (2003) Business research methods , 2nd ed , Oxford ; Oxford
University Press, New York

3. Barber, A.E. (1998), Recruiting Employees, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.

4. Cappelli, P (2001). Making the most of online recruiting. Harvard Business Review,
79, pp-139-146;
5. Cober, R. and Brown, D. (2006), Direct Employers Association Recruiting Trends
Survey, Booz Allen Hamilton, Washington, DC.
6. Crispin, G. and Mehler, M. (2006) Career X Roads 6th Annual 2006 Sources of Hire
Study, available at: www.careerxroads.com
7. CIPD (2007) Recruitment, Retention & Turnover , London: CIPD
8. Cooper, D & Schindler , P (2008) Business research methods, 10th ed , McGraw hill.
9. deVaus, D (2002) Surveys in social research, 5th ed, London: Routledge.
10. Edgley, K. (1995), “The best job in the world may be one click away”, The Times, 11
October.
11. Eversole, T (2008) E recruitment Tools : processes come of age , Staffing
Management, HR Trend book 2008
12. Hays, S. (1999), “Hiring on the web”, Workforce, Vol. 78 No. 8, p. 76.
13. Jankowicz, A (2005) Business research projects, 4th ed , London : Thomas Learning.
14. Galanaki, E. (2002), “The decision to recruit online: a descriptive study”, Career
Development International, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp. 243-51.
15. Kerrin, M. and Kettley, K. (2003), E-recruitment: Is it Delivering?, Institute of
Employment Studies, Report 402
16. Kim, S & O’ Connor, J (2009) Assessing electronic recruitment implementation in
state governments : Issues and challenges , Public Personnel Management Volume 38
No. 1
17. Lievens, F. and Harris, M. (2003), “Research on internet recruitment and testing:
current status
18. Robson, C (2002) Real world research, 2nd ed, Oxford : Blackwell.

19. Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2007), Research methods for business
students, 4th edition, Pearson, Essex: England.

20. Thomas,R; Peter, T & Julio,B (2004) The rapid rise of supermarkets in developing
countries”. Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, Vol 1 No 2
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21. Taylor, S (2007) People Resourcing in context , Charted Institute of personnel

development, London : 2007

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