Employee Engagement Strategies in UK Retail Industry: A Study on M&S

ASSESSMENT 1
PROPOSAL

Table of Contents
1.INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................3
2. BACKGROUND.........................................................................................................................3
2.1 Purpose...................................................................................................................................3
2.2 Aim and Objectives................................................................................................................3
3. LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................4
4. METHODOLOGY......................................................................................................................6
4.1 Approach................................................................................................................................6
4.2 Philosophy..............................................................................................................................6
4.3 Strategy..................................................................................................................................6
4.4 Design....................................................................................................................................6
4.5 Sampling and Access.............................................................................................................6
5. DATA COLLECTION................................................................................................................7
6. ANALYSIS..................................................................................................................................8
7. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS.................................................................................................9
7.1 Limitations.............................................................................................................................9
7.2 Validity..................................................................................................................................9
7.3 Relevance v. Rigour...............................................................................................................9
8. RESEARCH IMPACT AND VALUE........................................................................................9
8.1 Theory....................................................................................................................................9
8.2 Practice...................................................................................................................................9
8.3 Policy...................................................................................................................................10
9. REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................10
10. APPENDIX..............................................................................................................................12
10.1 Research Timeline:............................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

1.INTRODUCTION
This research proposal is aimed to work on the employee engagement area. It is supposed
to reveal that how in the UK retail sector the organizations are working in order to make their
employees deeply engaged in the organizational operations. With this regard, the research
proposal would be considering on M&S, which is one of the most influencing retail sector giant.
The aim is to identify the engagement of employees. In this proposal along with aim and
objectives, some other key elements such as data collection, sampling, methodology and
foremost thing is Pilot study would also be conducted so can present the research proposal in
fully fledged manner (Sun and Bunchapattanasakda, 2019)
2. BACKGROUND
The research proposal is intended to scrutinize different employee engagement strategies
and their impact on the performance of employees. With this regard, UK retail industry is being
taken into consideration. M&S plc which is engaged in retail sector is being taken as the
organization research is being carried out upon. M&S was established in the year 1884, it is
having its worldwide operations (Robertson, 2019)
2.1 Purpose
This topic is being taken since the UK retail industry is getting widened with the progress
of time and the role of employees becomes quite essential. The research would be helpful to
articulate their role and how employee engagement strategies are paving way for better
performance.
2.2 Aim and Objectives
Aim:
To identify the impact of using different employee engagement strategies upon employee
performance within UK retail industry: A study on M&S.
Objectives:
 To understand the concept of employee engagement strategies.
 To assess different employee engagement strategies upon employee performance within
UK retain industry.
 To examine relationship between different employee engagement strategies upon
employee performance.
 To recommend strategies to improve effectiveness employee engagement strategies.

3. LITERATURE REVIEW
Theme-1 Concept of employee engagement strategies-
As per the viewpoints of Opoku‐Dakwa, Chen and Rupp, (2018) employee engagement
can be referred as development of such predicaments in an organization which can make
employee engagement higher. For organizations, it is essential to keep their employees deeply
engaged in order to hike their potential of working and their efficiency too. It would be helpful
for organization in attempt to grab their aims and objectives.
Contrasting the above statements Ismail, Iqbal and Nasr, (2019) supported the idea, that it
is not only about participation of employees but it covers a range of ideas such as their
emotional, cognitivist, behavioural inclination towards organization so can contribute to the
maximum extend.
Theme-2 Different employee engagement strategies upon employee performance within UK
retain industry-
According to Fidyah and Setiawati, (2020) there are number of ways and methods which
can be used for hiking employee engagement in an organization. The retail sector of UK is quite
drastic in nature so there are rigours need to have such strong norms and strategies which can
help to make employees deeply engaged.
Some key strategies are Work life balance, Organizational transparency, providing
adequate compensation and benefits, autonomy and challenges, rewards and recognitions,
extending training and development services, installation of strong communication methodology
etc.
Contrasting the above arguments Albrecht, et al. (2018) stated that besides these all
facilities or privileges there must be clarity of vision. The all employees are having their unique
needs so there must be strong internal mechanism which may extend them best sets of visions
what drives employees to work with full of their emotional, cognitive and professional
inclination.
Ghosh, Sekiguchi and Fujimoto, (2020) shared the idea that with the progress of time
there are some new strategies are being used. For instance “Holistic approach” is one of the best
form of such employee engagement strategy. In this strategy range of notions, ideas, drivers are
taken into consideration so can provide best and the most suitable practice to employees.