研究過程可以被描述為“一個(gè)系統(tǒng)的設(shè)計(jì)，收集，分析和報(bào)告的數(shù)據(jù)和相關(guān)的一個(gè)具體的營銷情況”。它通常涉及六個(gè)階段，連續(xù)重疊，其功能是相互關(guān)聯(lián)的。
在研究過程中的階段如圖所示：
在項(xiàng)目中，同時(shí)進(jìn)行數(shù)據(jù)采集和數(shù)據(jù)錄入。所有問卷的收集是在一二周的基礎(chǔ)上完成的。在等待其他填寫問卷，，數(shù)據(jù)錄入已收集的進(jìn)行。

The research process can be described as "a systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation facing the company" (Kotler, 1994). It usually involves six stages which overlap continuously with their functions being interconnected.

The stages in the research process are as shown in the diagram:

In project, the data collection and data inputting were done simultaneously. The collection of all the questionnaires was done on a two weeks basis. In the wait for the other filled questionnaires, data entry for those already collected was conducted.

Defining the problem
Problem definition
Problem definition increases the possibility of gathering necessary and relevant information by setting clear research objectives, purposes, direction and plan.

An effective performance of its human resources will make sure that Rogers Aviation carries out its assigned missions more productively. However, informal meetings with a few employees were likely to show that they might have unfavorable opinion towards the present PMS. Performance management influences employees' performances, which in turns influences the performance of the company. Though only a few staff had such attitudes towards the system, it becomes imperative to find out what the majority of employees think about it. An assessment of the staff's perception about the system is therefore essential in order to check whether it indeed necessitates some amendments.

Establishing the research objectives
The objectives of this research are:

To get the employees' viewpoints about the PMS and to know how they perceive it
To examine the degree of satisfaction of employees with the actual PMS
To examine whether the actual PMS increases commitment of employees towards the organization
To find out whether the appraisal helps or hinders career development of employees in the company.
To find out possible ways of improving the present system
Establishing research hypothesis to verify
The hypotheses for this study are:

The actual PAS at Rogers Aviation increases commitment of employees.
Unbiased appraisers increase the level of trust between them and their subordinates.
Recognition and fair compensations increase the level of fairness of appraisals.
Performance management helps career development of employees at Rogers Aviation.
Men and women employees find their appraisers to be equally familiar with the quality of their performances.
Planning a research design
The research design is a master plan which identifies techniques and steps for gathering and examining required data.It is a plan that draws the link between the research objectives and what has to be done in the study to achieve these objectives.

The research design can be categorized into two parts;

Exploratory research
Conclusive research
Exploratory research design
The major goal of this research design is to provide insights, understanding and knowledge of the research problem facing the researcher.

onclusive research design
The goal of this research design is to help the researcher in assessing, and determining the most appropriate procedure in a specific situation. It can further be broken into descriptive and causal research. Descriptive research is concerned with the description of something, whereas causal research is concerned with determining the cause and effect relationship. There are two basic descriptive research studies namely cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. Cross-sectional design is about gathering information from a subset of population at a single point in time.

In addition, there are mainly two different research paradigms, namely quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative research methods produce a mass of numbers that need to be summarized, explained and examined, whereas qualitative data analysis describes and summarizes the mass of words generated by interviews or observational data. For the purpose of this project, a combination of both quantitative and qualitative research techniques was used. This is known as the pluralistic research approach. An in-depth interview, which is an exploratory qualitative technique, was carried out with the HR Manager at Rogers Aviation. On the other hand, cross- sectional studies have been used to measure the staff's perception of performance management by means of surveys.

Planning a Sample
After deciding about an appropriate design, sample planning can then be carried out. Sampling is concerned with any process that involves a small subset of population to formulate inferences about the entire population.

4.1.3.1 Population
It is the whole group of people that a researcher requires data on. A good sample generates results that have characteristics which are similar to the entire population.

4.1.3.2 Sampling Frame
It is a complete list of potential members of the population that the researcher wants to study. This should ideally be equal to the population.

4.1.3.4 Sample
The sample is the part of the population that is in fact studied to gather information.

For the purpose of this project, a census study was performed whereby data was collected from each member of the population. This implies that all employees working at Rogers Aviation would be surveyed as the entire population is sufficiently small. Hence my sample frame was equal to my population and the sample size was 116 employees.

Gathering the data
This is actually the stage where the survey instrument, that is the finalized questionnaire, is used to collect information from the selected sample.

Data collection method
The two main sources of data available are primary and secondary data. Primary data are gathered specifically to help to solve the actual problem, whereas secondary data are assembled for some uses other than helping to solve the existing problem. For the purpose of this study, a combination of both primary and secondary data has been used.

There exist three fundamental techniques of primary data collection which are survey, observation and experiment. Specifically for the purpose of this study, primary data was vital as information. The data was gathered through survey exercises by means of questionnaires and in-depth interviews.

There exist two primary means of secondary data collection: internal sources and external sources. Internal sources refer to information such as archives and records of the company, while external sources refer to books and journals. For the assemblage of the literature review and company profile, secondary data was used. The latter was mainly obtained from books, journals, the organization's own internal information system and internet sources.

Contact methods
The survey research is more suitable to gather the data required for this study. Both personal interviewing and drop-off technique have been used. The in-depth interview offers opportunities for clarifying questions and helps to eliminate uncertainties in feedbacks. A personal interview was thus conducted with the HR Manager to obtain current relevant information, while the employees had to fill the questionnaires by themselves at home due to time constraint at work.

Questionnaire design
Two different questionnaires were conceived: one for the employees and the other was for the HR Manager. In terms of variety of questions set, the questionnaires were designed with a combination of open-ended and closed questions, like multiple-choice questions, and rating scale questions, such as Likert scale. A specimen of each questionnaire is available in Appendix XXX and XXX.

It is to be noted that later stages in the research process have influenced the earlier stages: for this project the data would be analyzed by computer, as such computer coding requirements had to be included in the questionnaire design.

The questionnaire for the employees is divided in different sections. The purpose of each section is explained in the table 4.1.

Pilot testing
A pilot testing may find out whether proper data collection plan for the main study has been chosen. Hence, it gives the researcher an opportunity to check the data collection form and reduce errors, like improper design, before starting the main study.

The pilot testing of the staff's questionnaire was done by one retired employee from Rogers Aviation and four employees from other divisions of Rogers Group. The completion time of the questionnaire was also determined through the pilot testing.

Processing and analyzing the data
After collecting the data, it must be examined in order to formulate the recommendations and conclusion.

Editing and Coding
Before the analysis stage, the data must first be checked for possible errors, incompleteness and legibility. The data should then be corrected through a process called editing. The results must next be interpreted into codes for recording purposes. The data entry can be conducted afterwards.

Interpreting the data
Analysis is the ability to understand and make inferences from data that have been collected by applying logic to it. The findings are interpreted to see if they support the initial study hypotheses. For this study, the statistical software SPSS 16.0 and Microsoft Excel was used to perform the data analysis.

Formulating conclusions and preparing the report
The final stage of the research process is the interpretation the information and drawing relevant conclusions. It consists of a written report to display the findings of the project and suggests recommendations.

The results of the data analysis, the recommendations and the conclusion of the research are described in details in the next chapters.

Ethical considerations
It is important that researchers limit their research activities to ethically sound practices. The study has been guided by basic moral concerns that relate to responsible research in the human sciences. These particular concerns are as follows:

Respondents have not been coerced into participation in the survey.
Privacy and confidentiality was maintained.
A covering letter was attached on every questionnaire to make the respondents understands the nature and consequences of participating in the research study.
All information collected during this survey was treated with utmost confidentiality and the results were used solely for academic purposes.
Difficulties and limitations of the survey
The greatest limitation of this study was the sample size: out of 116, only 70 responses were received.
Due to time constraint at work, employees had to fill the questionnaires by themselves at home. A face-to-face interview could not be carried out with all employees to eliminate uncertainties in responses and to increase the response rate.
Furthermore, open ended questions were left unfilled and there was also a problem of legibility for a few questions.
Some respondents were somewhat biased and many others had no opinion, which ultimately rendered my task more difficult.
Yellow- already modified, words need not to be changed over again.
Pink- not sure, to verify or ask lecturer, missing references
Brown- copied from other dissertation
No highlight- copy paste from internet
Dark blue- Things to check/ change/ delete before submitting a copy to Rogers