Example of a research proposal 英国硕士论文开题报告范文样本

Research Proposal:

A Study of the Relationship between Organisational Citizenship Behaviours,

Psychology Contract and Organisational Justice: Focusing on the Chinese

Workers

[Note: This proposal has been reproduced in anonymised from with full permission from the student. It is reproduced using single line spacing to save paper].

Name: ????

Student Number: ????

Date of submission: dd mmm yyyy

Word account: 2122 excluding references

Contents

1 Research Background 1

2 Research aim and objectives 1

3 Literature review 2

3.1 Organisational citizenship behaviours 2

3.2 Psychological contract 3

3.3 Organisational justice 4

4 Methodology 5

4.1 Questionnaire survey 5

4.2 Sample selection and data collection 5

4.3 Research ethics 6

4.4 Data analysis 6

5 Timetable 6

6 Conclusions 7

7 References 7

1 Research Background

Fuelled by increasing globalization and international competition, many enterprises have realised the importance of recruiting, retaining, and managing human resources, which contribute to increasing competitiveness of organisations and gaining sustainable competitive advantages (Nadiri & Tanova, 2010). Recently, many scholars and practitioners devote multiple efforts to organisational citizenship behaviours. The reason is that organisational citizenship behaviours contribute to improving organisational performance by maximizing their job efficiency and productivity (Organ, 1988; Wagner & Rush, 2000). Jahangir et al. (2004) assert that “successful organisations have employees who go beyond their formal job responsibilities and freely give their time and energy to succeed at the assigned job” (p.75). From these perspectives, organisational citizenship behaviours act as an essential role in strengthening organisational effectiveness. Given its importance, this study aims to examine organisational citizenship behaviours of Chinese workers in order to improve research generalizability.

Either in academic study or in practice, organisational citizenship behaviours have gained much attention. Hence, many scholars examine and explore the definition, structure, antecedents and consequences of organisational citizenship behaviours. Among all antecedents, organisational justice and psychological contract have received much attention in the field of organisational psychology and organisational behaviours. The existing studies have illustrated that organisational justice and psychological contract are positively related to organisational citizenship behaviours (Cohen-Charash & Spector, 2001; Turnley et al., 2003). Through surveying samples from United Kingdom, mainland China, France and the United States, Fok et al. (1996) also found that employees with different cultural background had different perception of fairness and organisational citizenship behaviours. Concerning for the difference of culture, it is necessary to examine organisational citizenship behaviours and its antecedents in the Chinese cultural background. At the same time, Hui et al. (2004) point out that employment relationship is different due to different psychological, social, and interpersonal mechanism. Furthermore, the existing studies associated with organisational justice, psychological contract, and organisational citizenship behaviours are rooted in western cultural background. Whether they work or not in the Chinese cultural background has not been known. Therefore, in order to improve research generalisability, this study attempts to identify the effect of organisational justice and psychological contract on organisational citizenship behaviours focusing on the Chinese workers.

This proposal is arranged as follows: section two provides research aim and objectives. As such, section three reviews literatures associated with organisational justice, psychological contract, and organisational citizenship behaviours. Section four presents data collection methods. Section five provides timetable. This proposal ends with conclusions.