Impact of Motivation Strategies on Employee Satisfaction and Business Performance: A Study on Tesco

This report explores the impact of motivation strategies on employee satisfaction and business performance within Tesco. It includes a literature review on the concept of motivation strategies and employee satisfaction, as well as the challenges faced by Tesco in motivating employees. The report also discusses different ways to mitigate these challenges. The research methodology includes a survey of 20 managers from Tesco. The findings suggest that motivation strategies have a positive impact on employee satisfaction and business performance. Flexible working is identified as the best strategy to motivate employees within Tesco.

RESEARCH
METHODS

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1- LITERATURE.................................................................................................................3
PART 2- METHODOLOGY...........................................................................................................7
FINDINGS.....................................................................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................................................14
LIMITATIONS & ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS....................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................17
Questionnaire........................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Employee satisfaction is very simply defined as how satisfied or content employees are
with their roles and responsibilities related to job. There are many factors that that influence
employee satisfaction which include compensation, motivation, teamwork, flexibility etc.
Business performance is also increased when employees are satisfied in the organisation (Jensen,
2018). So, company uses motivation strategies to encourage employees so that they could work
with greater efforts and contribute in enhancing the business performance. The present report
holds information about the motivation strategies and for this the selected organisation is Tesco.
Research Objectives:
 To identify the concept of motivation strategies and employee satisfaction within Tesco
 To discern the impact of motivation strategies on increasing employee satisfaction and
enhancing business performance within Tesco
 To determine the challenges faced by Tesco while motivating employees towards goals
of Tesco
 To examine different ways to mitigate challenges related to motivating employees within
Tesco
Research Questions:
 Explain the concept of motivation strategies and employee satisfaction within Tesco?
 What is the impact of motivation strategies on increasing employee satisfaction and
enhancing business performance within Tesco?
 What are the challenges faced by Tesco while motivating employees towards goals of
Tesco?
 What are the different ways to mitigate challenges related to motivating employees
within Tesco?
PART 1- LITERATURE
Research Topic:
Impact of motivation strategies on employee satisfaction and business performance
within an organisation.
Research Aim:

To investigate the impact of motivation strategies on increasing employee satisfaction
and enhancing business performance within an organisation; A study on Tesco.
Literature Review:
Literature review is the section in which research aims at taking out relevant information
from various sources. Basically in this second-hand data is collected from the secondary sources
like journals, articles, newspapers, books, magazines etc.
Explain the concept of motivation strategies and employee satisfaction within Tesco?
According to Hitka, Kozubíková and Potkány (2018), job satisfaction or employee
satisfaction is very similar because they both tell how satisfied an individual is with the job.
Employee satisfaction is quite significant because it keeps employees happy and also assist in
reducing the employee turnover. The human resource department in an organisation works and
forms strategies to increase satisfaction and experience among employees. It is known as one key
metric that could help identify the overall health of a company, this is the major reason that
makes Tesco to conduct regular surveys for measuring employee satisfaction over time. Higher
satisfaction level shows that employees are quite happy with how their employer i.e. Tesco treats
them. Generally, people get confused between employee satisfaction and employee engagement
but the latter term is known as one of the factor to motivate employees in the company.
Employee engagement is used by Tesco for motivating employees and in this they are
encouraged to take participation in different decisions and operations of the organisation. Tesco
gives extra benefits in terms of bonus and incentives, flexibility, insurance, strong leadership,
recognition etc. Hence employee satisfaction is very important in Tesco because it helps them in
retaining large number of employees.
As per the view of Ozkeser (2019), motivation is defined as inducement or incitement to
move or act. It is the procedure in an organisation to induce the employees of a company to act in
a predefined desired manner so as to attain organisational goals. In Tesco, motivation is the
procedure to stimulate action by understanding the requirements of employees and by using their
motives. A motivated employee in Tesco works harder and achieve greater concentration and
there are less chances to make any mistakes or get involved in any conflict. Tesco supports their
employees by rewards and work-life balance through reduced rate or free health benefits, flexible
working, staff discount, competitive salary, discount gym membership, company share options
etc. The company Tesco has discovered that it is quite significant to create respect and trust. The

company believes in valuing employees by offering realistic goals and interesting environment to
work in, it increases employee motivation. In Tesco, a motivated employee works in partnership
with others for achieving team and individual objectives.
What is the impact of motivation strategies on increasing employee satisfaction and enhancing
business performance within Tesco?
According to van der Kolk and et. al., (2019), productivity is referred as the effective and
efficient usage of resources with efforts and minimum wastes to attain outcome. In an
organisation like Tesco that needs large number of employees because their operations are done
at large scale so for keeping employees satisfied, they used different motivation strategies in the
workplace. Employees spend larger part of their life at work and so motivation and employee
satisfaction are inter-linked as well inter-dependent. Employee motivation is very significant in
an organisation because it keeps employee aligned towards the objectives and goals. It is being
determined that motivation strategies have positive impact on the employee satisfaction of
Tesco. It can be explained as below defined benefits.
 Lower level of employee turnover: With the assistance of motivation strategies Tesco
focuses on increasing motivation among employees. When employees become satisfied
in the organisation they stay in their responsibilities and roles as they could see the
effects of their own work. They can also feel that they are contributing to make ongoing
difference in the organisation.
 More innovation: The other significant benefit can be defined as motivated and
satisfied employees are more likely to make their offerings even better. They highly
focus on the products and services and also look for areas to make improvements.
As per the view of Lorincová and et. al., (2019), motivation strategies are directly linked to
the business performance. The strategies of motivation make employees more hard working and
dedicated towards the work. When employees are provided with different benefits like flexible
environment, rewards, compensation etc. All these increase the productivity of employees
towards the work. When productivity of employees is increased they do their work with more
efficiency and offer great customer service. These employees also play important role in
attracting existing as well as potential customers which ultimately help Tesco to grow and
improve the performance of overall business.
What are the challenges faced by Tesco while motivating employees towards goals of Tesco?

According to Junger and et. al., (2018), motivational challenges could lead to
performance issues that cost an organisation thousands of pounds and dollars in losses every
year. A lack of motivation could lead to delays in completion of work by employees.
Unfortunately, Tesco also feels many problems and issues in motivating employees and leave
them unproductive.
Lower self-confidence: Confidence enhances employee motivation; an employee
believes that they can perform the work necessary to attain goals. The managers of Tesco have to
face challenge because their employees lack confidence and this ultimately results in not creating
good relationship with organisation. Employees procrastinate the work or limit their efforts
regarding any specific work.
Fear of failure: The other challenge faced by Tesco in relation to motivation of
employees in fear of failure. Employees fear failure, fear lack of success and avoid work in
which they lack confidence to accomplish. The more employees fear failure the less motivated
they feel to perform their work and attempt to attain goals. Thus, this creates issue in front of
managers of Tesco to motivate each and every employee in the workplace.
Lack of interest: An employee takes motivation as a driving force that persuades to take
certain actions. An interested employee would be curious about operations and tasks to perform
on the other hand, an employee who lacks interest then it will create problem for employees to
accomplish objectives. This shows that employees is not fully engaged in the work.
Higher expectations: The managers of Tesco face challenge because their employee
demand higher benefits and compensations. This becomes barrier in the path of motivating
employees towards the work. Employees become rigid and do not work with their full efforts and
efficiency to accomplish certain pre-defined objectives of the company.
What are the different ways to mitigate challenges related to motivating employees within
Tesco?
According to Reizer, Brender-Ilan and Sheaffer (2019), the high prices of recruitment and
training of employees, it is quite important to retain existing employees. Regular motivation to
employees is key to make Tesco’s employee retention procedure a success. For the best
outcomes, motivation is centered on factors that are significant to workforce on a personal level.
Some of the ways for mitigating challenges related to motivating employees are:

Beginning motivation at the senior leadership level: Tesco focuses on taking actions at
top-most level. The company’s leadership team takes the initiative and motivate employees. The
company becomes approachable to their employees and being there when they need the most.
Constant conversations and interactions with employees are significant to understand grievances
and expectations.
Focussing on providing flexibility in the workplace: The other way that is used by
managers of Tesco is providing flexibility to employees in the workplace. Employees may
require flexibility for different reasons. It may include flexible working hours, flexible policies
etc. This assists in building confidence among employees that they are important for the
company.
Providing constructive feedback regularly: Constructive feedback is defined as a
cornerstone for an employee development, organisational success and team progress. Tesco
focuses on both the setbacks and achievements of employees. The managers use right tone and
attitude while addressing setbacks as well as appreciation.
PART 2- METHODOLOGY
Research methodology is referred as the chapter that focuses on collecting information so
that defined objectives could be attained. Research methodology is defined as the process and
systematic approach for solving the research problem and to reach a new summary. On the other
hand, research methods are the methods considered by investigator for collecting data to conduct
investigation on a certain topic. Some of the research methodologies and methods are explained
below.
Research Philosophy: Research philosophy defines certain beliefs that help in the
evaluation of collected data. The two kinds of philosophy are: positivism and interpretivism
philosophy. Investigator has chosen positivism philosophy because it focuses on the evaluation
of numerical data in short time period (Babii, 2020).
Research Approach: Research approach is categorised into two main types that are:
inductive and deductive approach. Researcher has chosen deductive approach because it
facilitates in measuring numeric data without taking longer time period (Shields, 2019).
Research Strategy: Research strategy is referred as the system that provides different
strategies such as grounded theory, action research, survey etc. Investigator has selected survey
as research strategy because this assists in accumulating numerical as well as primary data. In

survey, questionnaire is chosen to collect data directly from respondents (Bairagi and Munot,
2019).
Research Choice: Qualitative and quantitative are two types of research methodology.
Investigator has selected quantitative research choice as it facilitates in collection of statistical
and numerical facts and figures (Clarke and Visser, 2019).
Data Collection: It is referred as the procedure of accumulating piece of information.
Primary and secondary data collection that is used by investigator. Primary is used to carry out
raw data through the instrument called questionnaire. On the other hand, secondary is used to
take out second-hand data from journals, books, newspapers, articles, publications etc.
Sampling: Sampling is known as the research method used to select participants. It has two
main types that are: probability and non-probability sampling (Phillips and Ritala, 2019).
Investigator has chosen probability sampling because it helps in selecting respondent at equal
criteria. 20 managers from Tesco are chosen as human participants to accumulate information.
Time Horizon: Time is the necessary component while conducting investigation.
Longitudinal and cross-sectional are the two types of time horizon. Researcher has chosen cross-
sectional time horizon because it takes shorter time to attain defined aim and objectives (Ryder
and et. al., 2020).
Frequency Distribution Table
Question 1: Knowledge about the concept of employee motivation
Q1) Do you believe that you have knowledge about the concept of
employee motivation?
Frequency
a) Yes 15
b) No 5

Interpretation: With the above information it is analysed that 15 respondents have said
yes that they do have knowledge about employee motivation. The rest 5 respondents said no that
they do not have any knowledge regarding employee motivation.
Question 2: Motivation is necessary for improving employee satisfaction and increasing business
performance
Q2) As per your opinion, do you think that motivation is necessary for
improving employee satisfaction and increasing business performance?
Frequency
a) Yes 18
b) No 2

Interpretation: By the gathered data, it is analysed that 18 participants have said that
motivation is very important because it align employees with the goals of company. The
remaining 2 respondents answered not that it is not necessary.
Question 3: Type of motivation strategy is best for motivating employees within Tesco
Q3) According to you which type of motivation strategy is best for
motivating employees within Tesco?
Frequency
a) Flexible working environment 8
b) Staff discount 4
c) Competitive salary 5
d) Company share options 3

Interpretation: With the above accumulated information majority of respondents believe
that flexible working is one of the best strategies to motivate employees within Tesco.
Question 4: Tesco would face challenges if they do not motivate their existing employees
Q4) Do you think Tesco would face challenges if they do not motivate their
existing employees?
Frequency
a) Yes 17
b) No 3

Interpretation: With the above accumulated it is analysed that 17participants have said
that Tesco faces would face challenge if they do not motivate their employees such as
unachieved targets etc. The remaining 3 believe that company would not face any challenge.
Question 5: Benefits of motivating employees within Tesco
Q5) As per you view, what are the benefits of motivating employees within
Tesco?
Frequency
a) Higher satisfaction among employees 6
b) Higher productivity 4
c) Lower employee turnover 5
d) Enhanced goodwill 5
Interpretation: With the collected data, it is interpreted that 6 respondents have said that
higher satisfaction among employees is the benefit because they get everything from their
organisation. Another 4 respondents have said that higher productivity because they do work
with more enthusiasm. The other 5 respondents have said that lower employee turnover is the
other benefit and the remaining 5 participants have said that enhanced goodwill.
FINDINGS
As per the information collected from secondary sources such as books, articles,
newspapers, journals, magazines etc. it is determined that motivating employees are very
important for the business performance as well as employee satisfaction. Employee satisfaction
is very important as it helps in making workforce happy and also helps in decreasing the number

of employees leaving the organisation. The human resource management in Tesco is responsible
for forming various strategies related to motivation and improving experience in the workplace.
Company conduct survey so that information from employees could be taken out if they are
satisfied in the organisation or not. Lower level satisfaction among employees shows that they
are not enough motivated and encouraged to do their work. It also highlights that company is not
putting that much efforts that could encourage employees. On the other hand, higher satisfaction
among employees highlights that company is actively taking participation in encouraging and
motivating employees (Kauppila, 2018).
The different strategies of motivation have positive impact on the employee satisfaction as
well as business performance. Motivating employees assist in increasing the productivity of
employees which is directly linked to the performance of the business. When employees are
motivated with financial and non-financial benefits they work hard to get more of such benefits
and this creates advantages for the company as their pre-defined objectives and goals get fulfilled
and accomplished.
The company like Tesco works with large number of employees so they develop different
motivation strategies to encourage, motivate and satisfy their employees. They have adopted
various types of motivation strategies such as flexible hours, competitive salary, staff discount,
rewards, competitive compensation etc. Tesco has clearly identified that giving importance to
employees is very crucial as well as necessary at the same time. They value employees and give
them realistic objectives to accomplish. This helps and motivates employees to show their skill
and talent to fulfil and assigned work. A motivated employee makes balance between personal
and professional objectives. The positive can be seen in the organisation as higher productivity
due to great efforts by employees. The employee turnover decreases because they get
opportunities and responsibilities according to their ability. Another biggest benefit is more
innovation, employees take more interest in sharing their ideas and thoughts about doing certain
process, job role and responsibility.
Motivating employees is not an easy task because they have to face many challenges such as
lack of confidence among employees, lack of interest, higher expectations, lower self-confidence
etc. All these challenges become barrier in the procedure of motivating employees. For
overcoming such challenges company focuses on understanding the requirements and needs of

employees, offering flexibility in the workplace, providing guidance at every stage etc. Hence,
motivation is very important for the company’s success and development.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned data, it is summarised that employee motivation is very
important because it develops enthusiasm among employees related to their work. It uses various
types of motivation strategies to encourage employees such as flexible working, competitive
salary etc. For this secondary and primary methods are used for collecting data so that pre-
determined objectives could be attained.
RECOMMENDATIONS
From the above mentioned findings, it has been recommended some theories that helps
TESCO in increasing employee satisfaction and their business performance. Some theories are
recommended as below;
McClelland's Needs of Theory: This helps to guide the manager of TESCO to identify and
categorised the individuals among the three needs. The Manager should know the needs of the
individuals so that it helps to meet the expectations and also helps to run the team smoothly. A
friendly environment should be developing between employees and the superior, it helps the
employees to ask their doubts freely. Time to time feedback is required for the employees it
helps them to improve their performance. The challenges should be allotted to the employees, to
identify the skills and knowledge. This will also help in increasing business performance of
TESCO within minimum time period.
Urwick's Theory Z: This theory assists that the manager of TESCO need to create a
friendly atmosphere in the organisation so that the employees get easily interacted with their
superiors. An Informal Structure should be created by the organisation, then there will be no
miscommunication between the employer and the employees. This theory helps to develop the
individuals by participating in organisational activities and it also improves the personality of the
individuals. There should be a strong bond between the organisation and the employees, it helps
to achieve the organisational goals effectively and efficiently.
LIMITATIONS & ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Limitations: There are various limitations of experienced by researcher while conducting
this research. These are lack of amount of capital, lack of time, insufficient resources etc. All

these are major limitations that have direct or negative impact on researcher while they wanted to
complete current research effectively.
Ethical considerations: There are number of research ethical principles that must be
followed by researcher while completing this research. These are informed consent, protecting
confidentiality and anonymity of research participants, minimising the risk of harm etc.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Babii, A., 2020. Important aspects of the experimental research methodology. Вісник
Тернопільського національного технічного університету, 97(1), pp.77-87.
Bairagi, V. and Munot, M.V. eds., 2019. Research methodology: A practical and scientific
approach. CRC Press.
Clarke, E. and Visser, J., 2019. Pragmatic research methodology in education: possibilities and
pitfalls. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 42(5), pp.455-469.
Hitka, M., Kozubíková, Ľ. and Potkány, M., 2018. Education and gender-based differences in
employee motivation. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 19(1), pp.80-95.
Jensen, J.D., 2018. Employee motivation: A leadership imperative. International Journal of
Business Administration, 9(2), pp.93-98.
Junger and et. al., 2018. How colleagues can support each other's needs and motivation: An
intervention on employee work motivation. Applied Psychology, 67(1), pp.3-29.
Kauppila, O.P., 2018. How does it feel and how does it look? The role of employee motivation in
organizational learning type. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(8), pp.941-955.
Lorincová and et. al., 2019. Employee motivation as a tool to achieve sustainability of business
processes. Sustainability, 11(13), p.3509.
Ozkeser, B., 2019. Impact of training on employee motivation in human resources
management. Procedia Computer Science, 158, pp.802-810.
Phillips, M.A. and Ritala, P., 2019. A complex adaptive systems agenda for ecosystem research
methodology. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 148, p.119739.
Reizer, A., Brender-Ilan, Y. and Sheaffer, Z., 2019. Employee motivation, emotions, and
performance: a longitudinal diary study. Journal of Managerial Psychology.
Ryder and et. al., 2020. Indigenous research methodology–weaving a research
interface. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 23(3), pp.255-267.
Shields, M., 2019. Research Methodology and Statistical Methods. Scientific e-Resources.
van der Kolk and et. al., 2019. The impact of management control on employee motivation and
performance in the public sector. European Accounting Review, 28(5), pp.901-928.

APPENDIX
Questionnaire
Q1) Do you believe that you have knowledge about the concept of employee motivation?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) As per your opinion, do you think that motivation is necessary for improving employee
satisfaction and increasing business performance?
a) Yes
b) No
Q3) According to you which type of motivation strategy is best for motivating employees within
Tesco?
a) Flexible working environment
b) Staff discount
c) Competitive salary
d) Company share options
Q4) Do you think Tesco would face challenges if they do not motivate their existing employees?
a) Yes
b) No
Q5) As per you view, what are the benefits of motivating employees within Tesco?
a) Higher satisfaction among employees
b) Higher productivity
c) Lower employee turnover
d) Enhanced goodwill