Business Research Project: COVID-19 Impact on Sainsbury's Performance

This business research project investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Sainsbury's, a major UK retailer. The report begins with an introduction outlining the background, aim, objectives, research questions, and potential research problems. A comprehensive literature review explores the effects of COVID-19 on businesses, specifically focusing on the retail industry. Key themes include the impact of the pandemic on overall business performance, the issues faced by the retail sector (such as supply chain disruptions and financial challenges), the effects on employee performance and motivation, and strategies for overcoming these challenges. The research examines both the negative and positive impacts of the pandemic, considering aspects like online sales growth and the reduction in competition. The analysis also addresses the challenges of employee demotivation and stress, as well as the importance of effective communication and leadership. The report uses a case study approach to analyze Sainsbury's experience, providing insights into how the company navigated the crisis. The report concludes with a discussion of the findings and recommendations for future strategies.

Business Research Project
(Impact of COVID 19 on organizational
performance- Case study on Sainsbury)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Background Study.......................................................................................................................3
Aim..............................................................................................................................................3
Objectives....................................................................................................................................4
Research question........................................................................................................................4
Research problems.......................................................................................................................4
Literature review..............................................................................................................................4
Theme 1- Impact of COVID 19 on business...............................................................................4
Theme- 2 issues faced by retail industry due to COVID-19 pandemic.......................................5
Theme- 3 effect of COVID-19 on employee’s performance and motivation..............................6
Theme- 4 Strategies to overcame from the issues.......................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Background Study
Coronavirus consider as a long lasting pandemic that give adverse impact on the
economy of each and every country, business and performance of the organisation. COVID 19
affect negatively on the productivity and working cycle of the companies and people. There are
rapid changes are measures in the business operations and employees job. Most of the people
experienced critical situation because of this pandemic because it gives worst effect on the health
of the people. In context of organisation, many businesses and company’s growth rate became
low and most of the employees lost their jobs. When UK entered in to the lock down period then
financial performance of the organisations begun to affect. Most of the organisations started to
do their work from home and mostly employees doing their job at home. COVID 19 affect the
UK societies, economy and lives of the people and it influence each and every industry and
sector whether it can be hospitality, travel and tourism or retailer industry. The main concern of
this report is focus on retail industry so that researcher considers Sainsbury organisation as their
research area. In this report, research will cover the impact of COVID 19 on the performance of
Sainsbury Organisation because it is a most famous multinational retailer organisation that
mainly operate their business all around the world (Rashid, et. al., 2019). COVID 19 is a disease
that not only affect the people but it also affects the Economy of the country, Business and many
other negative impact has been seen by world. There are many businessmen who shut down their
business because of the losses due to the COVID 19 (Bell, Bryman and Harley., 2018). During
the lock down most of the business were not able to sell their product that make them suffer from
the loss and other problem like rent on the property force them to shut their business.
This report will cover case study of Sainsbury which is a British multinational company
and second largest chain of supermarket after the TESCO. It will discuss Impact of COVID 19
on business performance of Sainsbury both negative and positive impact on their market
performance.
Aim
To identify impact of COVID 19 on the performance of Sainsbury Both negative and
positive impact.

Objectives
 to analyse the effect of COVID 19 on productivity of employees.
 to evaluate the issues faced by company during COVID-19 pandemic
 to analyse the ways in overcoming the issues faced.
Research question
Q1 what are Impact of COVID 19 on performance of business?
Q2 What are the issues faced by retail industry during the COVID 19?
Q3 How COVID 19 effect on the productivity and performance of employees?
Q4 What strategies can be used by company to overcome the issues from COVID 19?
Research problems
During the research, investigator can face some issues in them researches that can create
barriers for them to conduct their research successfully. Some of the issues that can be faced by
researcher are Finance related problems- Lack of finance can be problem for the researcher so it
will be necessary for the researcher to arrange finance after the calculation of cost within the
research. The topic information collect by the researchers on the COVID 19 can have possibility
that it can be wrong information that can affect the whole research.
Literature review
Theme 1- Impact of COVID 19 on business
As per the author (DeFilippis., and et.al., 2020) COVID 19 has huge impact on the
business and it directly effect on their performance, During the pandemic countries goes in lock
down situation in which no activities were carried out by the businesses. Most of business face
the loses and business who were not able to survive shut down their business because of their
rant. These Crises also force companies to reduce salaries of their employees, and they also fired
their employees, so they can continuously run their business and run their activities effectively
(Benítez., and et.al., 2020). It affects mostly the small business because competition in the retail
industry is high and after the pandemic sales of their product decrease and also affect their
performance within the market where they are operating. Sale declination make their business
compete failure and make them force shutting down business. Most of the big retailer are also
having online faculties and huge capital, so they can survive but not small business. people who
set up their business from the long times within the market, so they can service affect the most.
In the retail industry small The world is facing an extraordinary crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic

has sent shock waves throughout global communities, dislocated international supply chains and
triggered steep sell-off in financial markets. It has already become clear that the high street will
take on a very different form once the pandemic is over. Weaker players will, unfortunately,
cease to exist, leaving behind a smaller but more resilient sector that have acted fast.
On the other side argument by Author (Gray., 2019) explained that online business has
mostly positive impact because online transaction and shooing increase after the COVID-19
pandemic. Most of the people turn fear to go outside and buy this, so they were ordering the
thing online. In the retail industry of the UK online retailers like Salisbury were keep making the
profits, and they were covering the losses from their online business. It helps them to increase
their sales online, and they also make new customers who but product and help them to recover
them loses they make in their physical stores. One more positive impact on the big retailer was
that most of the business close their stores after the COVID-19 pandemic that decrease the
competition, and they were very few big companies like Salisbury were able to survive and it is
beneficial for them because they can attract those customers group of small retailers to buy
product and services from them, and they can provide products in lower prices because raw
material prices also affect from the COVID-19 pandemic, so they were able to provide product
and services to their customers in lower prices and overcome from the losses.
Theme- 2 issues faced by retail industry due to COVID-19 pandemic
As per the view of (Nimmagadda, Reiners and Wood., 2018) The COVID-19 pandemic
has imposed with the global challenges on the whole retail industry. A mass closer if the stores
and impact on their business performance due to the poor supply chain management result in an
unpredictable health of the business activities. Financial business was impact and most of the
business shut down t their business because of issues like financing. The UK retail industry
impact from the COVID-19 pandemic mostly, and they go run out cash and without having a
cash within the business they cannot run the activities, Sales decline Sales of the retailers like
Sainsbury decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and they are not able to reach to their target,
they complete every year. Another issues faced by the companies within the retail industry are
rend.
An owning a retail store can be excessive, and they have to pay high rent to the owner of
the property and this issues impact the companies every high. They then to pay rent, no matter
their stores are close or open and UK put the Lock down for the moths and for that small and big

both retires pay the rent and companies like Salisbury have many stores and every store was on
rent, so they pay every moth and it became a serious issue for them. One issues that affect the
companies' performance in the retail industry is demotivated employees, after the COVID-19
pandemic most of the companies fired their employees because they have no more sale that
makes them fired their employees, it's become issues for the company because other employees
who are Woking in their stores have fear of their jobs as well because they can think that
company can also terminate from the jobs. Employee are demotivated, so they are not giving
their best within the task and not able to provide good results to their companies.
In contrast to this, Author (Papadopoulos, Baltas and Balta., 2020) argued that those
issues will be not permanent and after the economy will rise other business will also come up
rapidly and this issues will also have solved with the time's ad companies like Salisbury will able
to take competitive advantages within the market where they are operating their business and
show their presence effectively. Companies within the retail industry can also use soma
strategies to overcome from the issues from the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the business are
working online to sell their product and this strategy can also be used by retail companies like
Sainsbury to take competitive advantages, and they sell their product online. After the COVID-
19 pandemic most of the people and purchasing products from online, so they it will increase the
sales of the company, and they can recover from the issues they are facing.
Theme- 3 effect of COVID-19 on employee’s performance and motivation
According to the (Shen and et.al., 2020) COVID-19 has huge impact on the employee’s
performance and their motivation that has indirect impact on the company's growth. During the
pandemic most of the employees were demotivate because companies terminate their employees
during the pandemic because of the sales declines and it affects the other employees as well. It
creates fear in workers that can also be get terminate any time from the organization.
Demotivation result in the low performance in employees. It is necessary for the company’s
leaders and their managers to communicate with their employees, so they can work without any
fear. Communication will help them to get back their performance, and they will able give their
best. Company executives point out that COVID-19 will have an impact on performance
efficiency of organizations: 46% of respondents expect a reduction in performance targets in
2020.

As per the view of (Singh and et.al., 2020) employees are facing more stress after the
pandemic, in the June, employee’s engagement feels to an all times record raw within all the
industry including the retail industry. It’s been never in the history that any crises effect the
country, how COVID-19 impact way of living and working. Many of the employee were thrown
intro working from the how, with the new technology any it was a challenging for the employees
because they if they are facing any problems in their work then they cannot again contract to
their superiors. Employees who were new, and they were learning the work were motivated from
it. Retail industry companies like Salisbury also give work from home but there were very few
employees who were working for the company and most of them were support team and some of
them were the delivery people and this situation make them demotivated.
According to the (Topcu and Gulal., 2020) great experience always lead the workers
toward the success and drive them to be loyal with the company. Experience of the employees
directly linked with the engagement of the employees which in turn affect important company
matrix like Revenue, motivation, productivity etc. But after the COVID-19, it completely
changes because of the bad experience of the employees and employees get demotivated due to
those negative experiences like Less salaries, termination etc.
However, Author (Venkatesh., 2020) argued that employees were also happy with the
facilities like work from home because they were able to spend most of their times from their
home. This makes them motivated and employees also become creative, and they lean new ways
of doing work that makes easy for the workers to perform their duty in less time. It increases the
productivity of the employee and makes them more motivated as compare to old way of working
from the stores etc. employees who were working online for the company were not affect an and
COVID-19 does not affect their performance and productivity.
Theme- 4 Strategies to overcame from the issues
As per the view of (Papadopoulos, Baltas and Balta., 2020) COVID-19 has huge impact
on the organizational performance but problems always have some solutions. There are some
strategies that can be used by the Companies within the retail industry. Work from ca be solution
that ca be used by the Sainsbury to overcome from the issues they are facing. Employees will be
motivated and it will increase the productivity and performance both. Expansion of the online
business can also be a good strategy that can be used by Sainsbury. They will able to run their
business more effectively and able to make new customers in their business. Most of the

customers have fear that if they will order the product, it can be risky, and they can come in the
contact, to solve this issues companies can follow shifty measures and maintain the social
distancing. It can be good situational of the problems for the Sainsbury company.
According to the author (Nimmagadda, Reiners and Wood., 2018) companies should
motivate their employees by communicating to them about the situations. Communication with
the employees will help company to understand what employees are facing. It will motivate their
employees and company will able to increase their productivity and grew their business rapidly.
Social distancing and shifty measures at the workplace of Sainsbury can also be applied so fear
from the customer’s mind can be removed, and they can enjoy their shopping without any fear. It
will not solve issue of the customers but it will also about shifty of their employees, of the
employees of the Sainsbury will get proper shifty at their workplace then, it will be easy for the
company to survive in their default times company will be more productive and effective.
In contrast to this, Author (Venkatesh., 2020) COVID- 19 created issues and challenges
for the employees of the Salisbury and performance of the company too. To increase the sales
and overcome the issue, company can come up with the new cost leadership strategies. They can
provide their product and services in lower prices. Recently prices of the raw material also go
low so it can be good opportunity for the Salisbury to take advantages, and they can decrease the
prices of the product and sell their product in bulk.

REFERENCES
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