Research Proposal

Sikander Hussain
F19-Mbac-026

Title and Introduction:

Title
Assessment of factors Influencing the Market Performance of Pakistan International
Airlines.
Introduction
Pakistan international airlines is the ambassador of Pakistan internationally and its
market performance sufficiently contributes in the economy of Pakistan and within
previous few years the performance of PIA has decrease due to problems in its services
(Khan, 2020). The current study is based on evaluating which factors contribute in
increasing and which factors contribute in decreasing the performance of PIA. The
decreasing performance of PIA is one the biggest problem for Pakistan which requires
to be addressed in order to identify factors which can improve its performance (Malik,
2020). The current study has identified that aged fleet, overstaffing and centralized
structure are factors which negatively influence the performance thus leading it
towards failure. Taking into consideration the current will enhance the knowledge
about the influences of aged fleet, overstaffing and centralized structure of PIA. The
current study can be useful for PIA management to better understand the factors
influencing their market performance and will be useful for other companies as well in
order to plan while considering these factors thus enhancing their performance.
The gain of this current study will be the implementation of maintenance of fleet and
machinery, hiring staff as per required, and having a decentralized system which will
increase performance of a company.

Supervisor Comments

Mark out of /10

Literature Scope:
Market performance:
Market performance is considered as performance of a company within its specific
industry of target market (Isaksson and Lantz, 2015). It is revealed as effectiveness of a
company in a market or industry in utilizing all the resources to gain profit and provide
value to customers. Market performance is estimated through market structure and
conduct. The better performance of a company in a market is revealed through
competitive edge company has achieved in that market (Davies, et al. 2005).
Market performance comprises of profit for value, benefit, return on resources, piece
of pie while non-monetary performance estimates comprises of corporate social duty,
advancement, responsiveness and worker improvement. So as to accomplish its set
objectives within the sight of progression in technology, refinement of business forms,
and requirement for steady development, a company pays special mind to procedures
to upgrade performance. It thusly considers the skills of its machinery and equipment,
employees, their innovative ability, authority given to them and addresses the subject
of whether it can accomplish its objectives with what it as of now has on ground or pay
special attention to approaches to supplement (Akewushola and Elegbede, 2013).
Aged fleet:
Every vehicle or fleet has a certain age of maturity and it suffers malfunctions when it
gets older which eventually increases the collision chances. Aged fleet is referred as
the vehicles of aviation which have reached or crossed their certain age of maturity
(Martinez, et al., 2011). Murray & Glidewell (2019) in their research stated that aged
fleet basically involves all those vehicles and equipment of company which has
reached its certain age limit or crossed it and it no more operationally useful in
providing its customers with services as per their demand.
A research was conducted by Keating (2014) which focused on connection between
the aging equipment of aviation and the operational availability along with customer
satisfaction and revealed that the aging fleet negatively effects the customer
satisfaction due to lack of providing services as per the requirement of customers. The
study further revealed that the satisfaction of customers is very important and if the
fleet of aviation is not meeting the requirement of its customers the customers will feel
unsatisfied and will not go for using the same airlines for their travel purposes in
future.
Maybury (2015) evaluated the fleet modifications and replacement importance and
revealed that aged fleet is no more an asset for a company rather it becomes an expense
as it requires more repair and maintenance cost which might lead to decrease in income
of a company.
A research was conducted by Mcnab & Sullivan (2016) which focused on long term
effects of an aging fleet on operational availability and cost while focusing on the US
coast guard and revealed that the companies having aged fleet lead to have increase in
their cost on maintenance which ultimately reduces their overall performance. The
study further illustrated that when the company is having aged fleet, the on time
availability of efficient product becomes difficult which leads to decrease in
performance of company.
Overstaffing:
Overstaffing is a process of hiring number of employees more than required in a
company. When a company hires more than 1 person for a specific task to be done it
eventually means that the company is overstaffing the employees which will lead to
increase in staff cost as well (AlAli, 2020).
Tran & Davis (2012) revealed that companies in which there is slight overstaffing it
eventually leads to decrease in the stress and burnout while increasing the performance
of employees being productive thus enhancing the overall performance of company.
The study further revealed that slight overstaffing is quite beneficial for the company
but when the company goes for increasing the number of employees to a great extent
which involves more employees doing one work it leads to increase in cost of
company thus reducing its profit.
A study was conducted by Dong (2016) which focused on the influence of staffing
level on overall performance of 48 non-profit hospitals in Maryland and revealed that
there is a significant effect of moderate or slight overstaffing but understaffing and
higher overstaffing leads to decrease in performance of hospitals. Likewise another
research was done by Musaed (2020) which focused on influence of staffing level,
wages and bank performance using data of 10 banks listed in Kuwait stock exchange
from 2008-2018 and revealed that there is no significant influence of staffing level on
bank performance. Likewise, another research was done by AlKulaib & AlAli (2021)
which focused on banks of Kuwait using data from 2010-18 and found that out of 10 6
banks were most overstaffed while 4 were most understaffed. The study further
revealed positive and significant effect of staffing level and bank performance.
Smith, et al. (2020) revealed that when the companies go for hiring more than required
staff they are unable to manage their human resource properly and all the work of
company is not done as per requirement which eventually leads the company towards
decrease in profits and increase in expenses. Griffiths, et al. (2017) evaluated the effect
of nurse staffing level on performance of employees, quality of work done and overall
performance of hospital and revealed that overstaffing and understaffing leads to
decrease while moderate staffing leads to increase in profitability of hospital.
Centralized Structure:
A centralized structure is an organizational structure in which the top management or a
single person makes the decisions and all other people simply implement the decisions
and have no authority to make changes in decisions or take decisions (Contigiani and
Levinthal, 2019).
Thomke & Beyersdorfer (2018) stated that for a company to run smoothly and in a
single direction towards achieving goals of company there is need of a centralized
structure where all the employees work in same direction instead of making decision
themselves and disturbing the process of achieving organizational goals. Camuffo, et
al. (2019) in their study stated that while performing any experiment or doing any
work within a company when the top management is sole responsible for making
decisions regarding all the work to be done it lacks creativity, and ideas of people who
are going to implement those decisions and work accordingly. The study further
revealed that in centralized organizational structure when any problem occurs at lower
level and decision making is in hands of entrepreneurs or top management, more time
is taken in information sharing and approval process in large companies which brings
great decrease in profitability of company.
A study was conducted by Keum (2017) which focused on influence of hierarchy on
idea generation and innovation and revealed that when a company is having centralized
structure there is lack of creativity and innovation in company which eventually
reduces the productivity and performance of company along with decrease in customer
satisfaction. Ott, et al. (2017) stated that companies which are having centralized
structure give their decision making authority to top management and for every single
decision the lower staff needs to take proper approval from top management which is a
time taking process thus reduces the productivity and performance of company.
Lee, Min, & Lee (2016) evaluated the effect of centralized and decentralized
organizational structure on company performance and revealed that within a company
a decentralized structure opens the path for innovation and creativity both inbound and
outbound while a centralized structure closes the doors of innovation and creativity and
gives power to a single owner or managers which brings decrease in performance of
company.
A study conducted by Darvishmotevali (2019) revealed that there is a negative
influence of centralized structure and positive impact of decentralized structure on
performance of a company and concluded that when a company goes for having a
centralized structure the company tends to have a single decision maker which reduces
the productivity and eventually the performance of company.
Resource Based View
The resource based view involves clear illustration of organizational identity and its
strategic capabilities nature as well as sources. The resource based view focuses on
inter organization and states that performance of a company is based on firm specific
resources and capability of a company to efficiently and effectively manage them
(Wernerfelt, 2008). Resource based view states that a company can only be successful
and competitive in market if it efficiently utilizes and develops its distinctive capacities
and capabilities and resources including both tangible and intangible ones (Madhani,
2010). When all companies are having same resources and have capacity to utilize
them in same way it will eventually lead to having same performance but when
companies are having similar resources and still utilize them in different way they can
create an edge in market and be successful (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 2011). The
implication of resource based view is that the high performance of a company is only
achieved from efficient use of its resources, as when company is having good
machinery and equipment, better management of hired staff and given them power and
authority as per requirement might lead to increase in performance or decrease
performance otherwise.
Human Capital Theory
The human capital theory states that the investments in human capital involves
investment in general usage and specific human capital. As per human capital theory,
in order to get more benefits from the employees a company provides them general
training for their general work and provides special training for certain specific skills
which might bring significant increase in their performance and profitability (Dong,
2016).
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Methodology:
In order to get adequate answers to questions of current research questions there are
number of factors which need to be considered. The current research used Saunders
research which includes the research philosophy, approaches, and procedures.
Research philosophy demonstrates the overall perspective which leads to a research
study. The current study focuses on an adoptive questionnaire which will be distributed
among the target population sample to evaluate the connection among aged fleet,
overstaffing, centralized structure and market performance of PIA. As the study is a
questionnaire based and measures the variables objectively thus it is based on a
positivist philosophical paradigm which states that social fact can be evaluated
independently and objectively (Scotland, 2012).
As the study involves a description of connection among variables thus the study is
explanatory while evaluating aged fleet, overstaffing, centralized structure and market
performance. The data will be collected from a sample population at one point in time
due to time limitations thus using a cross-sectional research setting. Likewise the
research will be deductive in nature as it is the most adequate to this topic.
The population of current study will be employees of PIA which will include upper,
middle and lower level manager along with employees. There are around 14,500
employee in PIA which is total population of our study (Turbine, 2020). The sample
size is collected using Raosoft which revealed a sample size of 375 questionnaires to
be filled by employees of PIA.
The reliability of questionnaire will be checked using pilot reliability test conducted on
37 questionnaires distributed to employees of PIA. The non-response biasness will be
removed by personally collecting data from employees through emails and self-visits
and the missing response biasness will be removed by including required option
compulsory in questionnaire developed on google forms.
After the information is gathered from the survey, the pearson correlation will be done
in order to evaluate the association among variables and multiple regression will be
used to evaluate the cause and effect relationship between aged fleet, overstaffing,
centralization and market performance of Pakistan International Airlines.

Supervisor Comments

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Data:
In this study the data will be collected online from PIA employees. An adopted
questionnaire will be developed on google forms which will be distributed among
employees including upper, middle and lower managers along with other staff. The
demographics of respondents include both males and females. The data will be
gathered from employees by sending an email to middle management of PIA which
will then guide regarding the employees from which useful information related to
current study will be gathered.
Data will be collected through non-probability sampling technique as the focus is only
on the employees of PIA including upper, middle and lower managers along with other
staff. Within non-probability sampling, random sampling technique will be used as the
data will be gathered randomly from employees of PIA and any other technique cannot
be used due to COVID-19 limitations. During data collection it will be ensure that no
personal data will be gathered and the information gathered will only be used for
academic purpose.
The research will be under the Coventry university ethics rules, all the information that
will appear on the dissertation will be taken from reliable journal articles located on the
Coventry university data base. The survey will be as a quantitative data stored in the
Bristol.

Supervisor Comments

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Discussion:
Based on previous literature of study the hypothesis of study are:
 There is a significant (positive/negative) impact of aged fleet on market
performance of PIA.
 There is a significant (positive/negative) impact of overstaffing on market
performance of PIA.
 There is a significant (positive/negative) impact of centralized structure on
market performance of PIA.
The current research critically analysed the existing literature and developed the
following objectives which include:
 To evaluate the impact of aged fleet on market performance of PIA.
 To evaluate the impact of overstaffing on market performance of PIA.
 To evaluate the impact of centralized structure on market performance of PIA.
The current objectives altogether formulate the research topic which is to evaluate the
factors affecting the market performance of PIA including aged fleet, overstaffing and
centralized structure. The previous literature on aged fleet, overstaffing and centralized
structure influence on market performance will be based on previous articles, journals,
books that will provide answers and explanations to the research questions.
The previous literature as discussed above revealed that when the fleet becomes aged it
eventually reduces its efficiency and requires more maintenance cost which leads to
decrease in market performance of an airline. Likewise, when more than required staff
is hired in an organization it leads to decrease in efficiency and increase in salaries
expense of company leading to decrease in its market performance. The previous
research suggests that when a company is having a centralized structure, there is no
innovation and creativity in company as only one mind is working thus leading to
decrease in market performance of that company while within a decentralized structure
there are number of minds contributing which enhances creativity and market
performance.
The research questions are specific and narrowed to a certain company i.e. PIA, to give
to dissertation a long-term objectives that will make the research more helpful.

Supervisor Comments

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References and Bibliography:

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