Introduction and Methodology

Introduction and Methodology

The point of sale technology is proving to be one of the most promising business attributes for the operators of departmental stalls as well as other business outlets in the industry. The main objective of the departmental stores operators in ensuring that they attain the best returns on their investment by ensuring that they can serve their customers fast and conveniently. The majority of these business ventures have high customer traffic almost on a daily basis and considering that the industry has high competition rates; it is imperative that they serve their customers fast and conveniently.

Ensuring that they have adequate stock of all their products is the additional attribute that departmental store and the other business outlets have to guard. The logic behind this assertion is that the more times a customer finds that the product they are looking for is out of stock in a particular departmental store, they will most likely move to another store with their stock. The fact that the business has lost a customer because of poor inventory management is the additional attribute that most of this business are suffering from and would seek to resolve.

Problem Overview

My departmental store has been suffering greatly as a result of the poor inventory management because the last two years I have been relying on the manual management of the store. In trying to resolve the poor inventory management challenge, I have hired additional staff which has increased by operational costs and consequently eating into my profits, making it impossible to expand and increase the inventory. High turnover rates are the additional challenge I have been contending with, with services regularly disrupted as the little number of employees I have are unable to keep up with the high customer traffic (Dick, 2015).The intense training that I have to train the cash register operators is another challenge of suing the manual system in addition to the challenge the store suffers as a result of the operator errors. In the knowledge of these challenges, I have become imperative for me to adopt the point of sale technology in the departmental store I have any hope of remaining in business and additionally becoming profitable.

Adoption of POS is going to play a major role in ensuring that there is adequate trucking of the inventory and, as a result, ensure that there is sufficient stocking of the store. The benefits of the POS include the fact that it will be calculating the time that we need to reorder and at the same time assess the inventory on an item by item basis. The adoption of POS is going to make life easier for both the customer and the cashier, by reducing the errors by the operators mainly as a result of the POS touch system. The POS system additionally resolves the high employee turnover challenge as it greatly reduces the training duration, empowers the sales and service staff to ensure that they offer better quality customer interactions (Wenzel, 2011).  The additional benefits of the technology include the streamlining of the vital day to day operations, client management, undertaking inventory management, employee roaster as well as client marketing functions. The adoption of the POS technology in the departmental store is going to resolve most of the challenges that the stores has been suffering from and thus guaranteeing customer satisfaction and the consequent profitability.

Methodology

Action research entails a methodology that has dual aims of both actions as well as research. About the case of action, it is desired to bring a change relating to the problematic issue at hand. These could be the community, organizational or program challenges. In the context of the research, the objective relates to the increase in the understanding of the area o the researcher as well as the client and in most cases, all the stakeholders relating to the problem that needs a solution. Action research encompasses the learning attained by doing, in that once there is the identification of a problem; the stakeholders undertake action to resolve the problem, asses the success of the efforts and if they have not been satisfied, they try again (Dick, 2015).

Although this is the essence that informed the action research approach, there are other instrumental attributes of action research that are vital in differentiating it from the other common problem-solving activities undertaken on a daily basis. The main distinction of action research from these other activities includes the fact that action research targets contributing to both the practical concerns of the specific stakeholders who are the immediate problematic situation. The common attribute is the fact that there is a dual commitment element in action research which encompass investigating the system as well as collaborating with stakeholders in the system in ensuring that the introduce the change that will be favoring the desirable direction (Greenwood, 2015). The attainment of the dual objective of action research is via the collaboration between the researchers and the clients, with its emphasis on the co-learning being a critical element of the action research process. The action research process mainly lies in a four step paradigm encompassing the planning, acting, observation, and reflection. Ones start by planning, acts, observe and then reflect.

Plan

Planning is the first step in the action research process, and the main components of the planning involve examining the diverse alternatives that apply to solving the specific challenging situation in the stakeholders (Leavy, 2014).

Action                                 

Action as the second step in the action research process encompasses making a decision on the best course of action that promises the best solutions in relating to offering a solution to the problematic situation. The emphasis in this step is selecting the course action with the most promising success likelihood (Leavy, 2014).

Observation

Observation step in action research is the step whereby the researchers study the results of their action. In this case, the researchers implement changes and revisions to the courses of action in this step, ensuring that they introduce measures and countermeasures that are going to promise the best outcomes (Leavy, 2014).

Reflection

Reflection is the last step in action research process, entailing the assessment of the final outcomes as a result of implementing the project. The main roles that the researcher undertakes in this step is presenting a summary of the study ensures that there is the sharing of the outcomes of the entire project with all the stakeholders. The diverse alteration and modifications that occur in the different project phases involve ensuring that the stakeholders are aware (Leavy, 2014). Additionally, the phase involves the description of the main issues that were evident in the project implementation such as the learning issues as well as the interventions that will make future implementations a success.

Relevance of Action Research

Action research is instrumental for the research as it offers excellent premise making the adoption of POS a success.  In this case, the fact that action research entails the systematic and reflective inquiries that the stakeholders in the research undertake as they offer the solution to a problematic situation. The practical solutions that action research desires to offer is the main attribute that makes it most desirable in the POS adoption at the departmental store.  The emphasis on the collection, assessment, presentation of the data on the cyclical basis guarantees that the solutions generated are reliable and guarantee to solve the problematic situation.  The steps that inform the action research process and the reflections on each of the steps ensure that the implementation of the actions is resourceful and that there are minimal deviations from the desirable outcomes as corrective measures in time (Greenwood, 2015).  The overall assessment of the data collected along with the sharing among the stakeholders’ guarantees that all the parties are conversant with the situation and the lessons learned guard against future anomalies. In this case, action research presents the best model that I will use in ensuring that the adoption of POS technology in the store rests on adequate research that guarantees its successful adoption and profitability of the venture.

References

Dick, B. (2015). Reflections on the SAGE Encyclopedia of Action Research and what it says about action research and its methodologies. Action Research, 13(4), 431-444. doi:10.1177/1476750315573593

Greenwood, D. J. (2015). An analysis of the theory/concept entries in the SAGE Encyclopedia of Action Research: What we can learn about action research in general from the encyclopedia. Action Research, 13(2), 198-213. doi:10.1177/1476750315573592

Leavy, P. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research. London: Oxford University Press

Technology trends for 2011. (2011). Machine Design, 83(10), 28.

Wenzel, E. (2011). New Point-of-Sale Strategy Boosts Service and Security. PC World, 29(11), 34.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in article critique writing service if you need a similar paper you can place your order for top research paper writing companies.