Impact and Implications of Remote Workforce on Marketing Management in Hong Kong

A study of the impact and
implications of the remote
workforce on marketing
management in Hong Kong

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This is the first chapter of the research report and will present the background of the research
project along with the problem statement. In addition to these, this chapter will also present
research questions, research aims and research objectives. Towards the end of the chapter,
research will present an account of the significance of conducting research on the selected topic,
which will be followed by an overview of the main contents of each chapter.
1.1: Background of Research
Due to the political issue in Hong Kong, social conflicts and protests happen more frequently for
the reason of Hong Kong–Mainland China conflict, political screening, economic and social
inequality. The protests lead to traffic jams, damage to public facilities, broken windows and
doors of retail shops. The protests have affected Hong Kong's economy and stock market. One
major driver of the economic downturn in Hong Kong is a steep decline in retail sales.
Even worse, due to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), the economy was negatively
affected in general over the world. Members of the public are strongly urged to avoid non-
essential travel outside Hong Kong. As a highly developed economy with a high standard of
living, Human’s behavior, business development, management decisions, and investment
direction were forced to change and influence others.
Employees are not able to come to the workplace. Firm had a requirement to get staff members
to work from home. Employees are required to be able to communicate and collaborate online
without sacrificing the security. To get over this issue, a companystarted remote working in
which a largenumber of the staff members are working remotely around the world.
A remote workforce is defined as the employee who is employed by a company but works
outside the office environment. In recent times the trend of remote working has been increased
which is a result of technology and high inclination towards free working. In the current scenario
of the COVID-19 pandemic and political issues in Hong Kong, most of the businesses are
working remotely in order to run their business in an unstoppable manner and grab prominent
opportunities as well. (Badi, Wang and Pryke, 2017)

The researcher has been working in the marketing agency, GASOL Limited in Hong
Kong since 2010. Throughout the years, especially the COVID and Hong Kong Protests,
consumers were less willing to go out and many commercial event activities were being forced
to be cancelled. All the marketing activities were pending until further notice (Fu, Ridderstaat
and Jia, 2020). At the back office, people were announced to work remotely at home. There is
such a great need for a change of traditional marketing to digital marketing. The need for NEW
marketing channels had increased significantly; no matter outsourced or in-house, the work
being managed by a team was moved to a remote office.
1.2: Problem of statement
In a business environment many factors arise that should be analyzed by management in order to
operate their business and increase the performance. Remote working is a mode of work that
allows employees of an organization to perform all required job responsibilities from outside
traditional office space.
A distributed workforce is said to exist when a business utilizes employees who work in multiple
locations, including their homes and satellite offices. (Hinds, P. & Kiesler, S., 2002.)
The distributed workers do not get the opportunity to interact live with other team members.
Working long hours without breaks seemed to be fairly normal for remote teams. （Osman, H.,
2016. ） Distraction may happen at an individual's working place. It can happen as a result of
trying to work across many time zones in order to assure the close collaboration. Remote
working helps the marketing management to enhance productivity of an organisation. It makes
the staff members more engaged. The remote work is mainly related with the more engagement
causes the cognitive dissonance. (Andaleeb and Hasan, 2016).
The aim of the business industry is to develop organizational performance and productivity by
allowing professionals to work outside of the traditional office environment. This is based on the
concept of work needing not to be done in a specific place to be executed successfully. In other
words, it is the practices of leading and managing remote employees effectively. To develop the
business some staff work outside by managing all functions and activities that deliver higher
performance (Chan and Lim, 2020). This comprises a mix of communication, technology, and
process which is specifically designed for leading a productive remote workforce.

In the business environment individuals are considered as the main assets of any modern
business where digital marketing activities and functions are used to increase the business
performance and brand image. Remote work enhances productivity of an organisation. Working
at an office enforces discipline and also makes the people more productive than they are when
anyone is not looking. Staff members and business firms both agree that major detractors from
the sufficient work are related to working in office. On the other hand, having staff members in
the office is expensive. Through having the remote employees, the company is able to save the
costs and save add up. Idea about remote working is related to the engagement that causes
cognitive dissonance (Six tips (and tools) to building a world-class remote marketing team.
2020). Staff members that remotely work feel that the firm cares well. They need to manage their
own time and also productivity. In context to this, they feel less like interchangeable cogs in
machines. Interactions with the colleagues are limited to problems which matter instead of
spending an inordinate amount of the time socialising. They feel closer to firm and mission than
when they perform the tasks in office.
GASOL Limited is a Hong Kong based design & marketing agency, founded in 2010.
The team of such an industry involves professionals with rich experience and creativity that can
help to develop the business performance. This provides better quality of services which
influences the number of customers and increases productivity effectively. As the whole world is
facing the problem of Pandemic (Covid-19) all businesses have been affected negatively. Most
of the businesses work remotely by using digital technology for the purpose of running their
business in an unstoppable manner and getting the opportunities. (Cheng et. al., 2016). GASOL
is a Hong Kong based totally design & advertising and marketing agency, founded in 2010.
Their crew of professionals with wealthy reports and creativity are passionate in presenting all-
round service for you. They serve a large mix of personal-public, and social-zone organizations
across numerous industries to assist our customers in achieving their desires. Their works
replicate their creativity. They take a constant approach to making use of new knowledge and
technology to enhance our creativeness, producing limitless thoughts and opportunities.
1.3: Theoretical rationale
The present investigation is based on the impact and implications of the remote
workforce on marketing management in Hong Kong. The remote working style tends to do better
work outside the office. They are inspired through surroundings and can filter out the distractions

of the environment as they seem to be fit. Opportunity to work remotely brings a new
perspective to the position of remote worker. In regards to this, they see this as motivation or
reward for excellence of work and continue to surpass objectives. This dissertation is mainly
conducted in a personal and professional context. This research is mainly related to the impact
and implications of the remote workforce on marketing management in Hong Kong. The remote
workforce is a mode of work that permits staff members of a company to perform all necessary
job responsibilities from outside traditional office space. In the personal context, the
understanding of researchers about the core subject area will be enhanced so that it is able to
perform the tasks. On the other hand, in a professional context, research skills as well as
analytical skills of an investigator are enhanced (Cheng and Zhang, 2018). Through this, the
researcher is able to perform the tasks and activities related to an investigation in a significant
manner. An investigator is able to perform any kind of similar investigation in the future and get
positive research outcomes.
Need hierarchy theory
Maslow's want hierarchy specifies that the 5 needs shown right here are activated so as,
from lowest to highest. Each need is brought on after the one immediately under it inside the
hierarchy is happy.
Safety Needs- After physiological wishes have been happy, the next stage of desires is
triggered--protection wishes. These are concerned with the want to operate in an environment
that is bodily and psychologically safe and comfy, one loose from threats of damage.
Organizations help fulfil their employees' safety wishes in several approaches. For example, they
guard keep employees from risks within the surroundings by means of fitting them with goggles
and hard hats (Cortez and Johnston, 2020). Even apparently secure work settings, together with
places of work, may be swamped with safety dangers. This is why efforts are made to spare
workplace employees from eyestrain, wrist accidents (such as the increasing number of well-
known carpal tunnel syndrome), and returned pain, by the usage of in particular designed laptop
monitors, desks, and chairs. Physical protection may also contain such basic tools as safety and
fire-prevention. Today's organizations show considerable interest in protective the safety of their
personnel. Although government guidelines dictate many safety practices, it's miles secure to say
that employers independently understand the motivational benefits related to offering secure
paintings environments.

Social Needs- Once physiological and protection desires had been happy, the social
desires are activated. These refer to the need to be appreciated and conventional by way of
others. As social animals, they need to be with others and to have them approve of them
(Yeniyurt and et. al., 2019). Many organizations offer fitness canter facilities for their
employees. Besides maintaining employees healthy, it is easy to look how such opportunities
additionally assist fulfil social wishes. "Playing tough" with the ones whom we also "paintings
difficult" provide true opportunities to meet social wishes on 26 the activity.
Esteem Needs- Not only will we need to be liked by means of others socially, but we
additionally need to benefit their admire and approval. In other phrases, we've a need for self-
esteem—this is, to attain achievement and have others understand our accomplishments.
Consider, for instance, reserved parking spots or plaques honouring the "employee of the
month." Both are approaches of selling esteem within man or woman personnel. So too are
awards banquets wherein worth workforce members' contributions are diagnosed. The identical
thing is frequently achieved in print with the aid of spotting one's organizational contributions on
the pages of a corporate publication. The practice of awarding bonuses to humans making
guidelines for improvement is another rather successful manner to assist employees' satisfy their
esteem desires. A actual “thank you” may be enough reputation to foster respect and esteem.
Self-Actualization Needs- What takes place in any case an employee's lower-order
desires are met? According to Maslow, human beings will strive for self-actualization—this is,
they will work to turn out to be all they're able to being. When people are self-actualized they
carry out at their maximum level of creativity and grow to be extremely valuable property to
their businesses (Leonidou and Hultman, 2019). For this motive, companies are inquisitive about
paving the way for his or her employees to self-actualize by means of assembly their lower-order
desires. As this discussion definitely indicates, Maslow's idea affords tremendous guidance with
appreciate to the wishes that workers are influenced to achieve. Indeed, many corporations have
taken movements directly recommended by using the idea, and have located them to achieve
success. For this cause, the concept stays popular with organizational practitioners. Scientists,
however, have referred to that specific elements of the principle—notably, the statement that
there are simplest five needs and they are activated in a specific order—have no longer been
supported fully. Despite this shortcoming, the insight that Maslow's principle gives into the

importance of spotting human needs in the place of job makes it a precious method to
motivation.
In stark evaluation to Weber's bureaucratic concept of control, the human members of the
family concept emphasize relationships. Mayo believed that productivity increases whilst
humans sense like they're a part of a group and valued via their co-workers (Tse, Wang and
Zhang, 2019). The human relations theory emphasizes reward and teamwork as motivational
factors. This is largely the alternative of the bureaucratic idea. While emphasizing private factors
is a superb concept, there may be an excessive amount of an amazing factor. Valuing
relationships especially else can cause complex situations like office romances and promotions
based totally on personality as opposed to activity accomplishments. A glad medium between the
bureaucratic concept and human members of the family idea is probably a higher goal for
managers. Some regulations are necessary, but you shouldn't dehumanize personnel both.
1.4: Research Rationale
The researcher of the study has opted for this topic because it is the current issue. The researcher
will select this topic because of personal interest and wants to gain a wider set of perspectives
linked with the subject matter. This is the current issue in the present time because of the
COVID-19 pandemic. The researcher of the study will use themes in order to effectively explore
the related subject matter. The present investigation is conducted in the personal and professional
context. In the personal context, understanding about the remote workforce in Hong Kong of an
investigation can be enhanced effectively (Dean et. al., 2021). It helps in enhancing the
understanding regarding the remote workforce in the detailed manner and its benefit during the
COVID-19. On the other hand, this is also investigated in the professional context as it is helpful
in enhancing the research and analytical skills of an investigator effectively. Improving the skills
helps in developing the positive impact on an investigator as it assists in conducting the similar
kind of investigation in future. It will help in completing the investigation effectively and getting
positive research outcomes. In order to conduct this research, the information about the concept
of remote work and how people will benefited with remote work option. The cause and motive in
the back of the choice of this specific region of studies is to get records about the hospitality
industry. Also, conscious with the technology which is considered by using inns so that it will
provide effective and satisfactory services to its guests and cope with the troubles and useless
scenario like COVID 19. Along with this, by investigation at the unique place of research, the