Knowledge Exchange Project: Employee Engagement in UK Retail Industry

This research project investigates the impact of employee engagement on organisational performance within the UK retail industry, focusing on a case study of Morrison's. It aims to understand the concept of employee engagement, assess Morrison's strategies for engaging employees, and determine the relationship between employee engagement and organisational performance. The literature review highlights the importance of employee engagement, utilising models like Zinger's, and the positive correlation between engagement and performance. The research employs a qualitative approach, using interpretivism philosophy and inductive reasoning. Data collection involves both primary (employee surveys) and secondary sources (journals, articles), with thematic analysis for data interpretation. Ethical considerations, including informed consent and data protection, are prioritised to ensure research integrity. The project outlines a work breakdown structure and Gantt chart for project management, ensuring timely completion and submission.

Knowledge Exchange Project
Research Proposal
To investigate the impact of employee engagement upon organisation
performance within UK retail industry: A case study of Morrison”

Background
 In the modern era, HR of the retail
industry faces many issues regarding
engaging employees for longer term.
 This in turn recognized as a key issue
because employees easily change their
jobs when they did not find any better
opportunities within company.
 Similarly, the present study also shed a
light upon ways that helps to engage
employees by using effective methods.

Introduction to Morrison's
 The entire study is based upon Morrison which deals with retail industry and
offers range of products and services to their customers at reasonable rates.
Company also deal online in order to engage their customers and the list of
products include food, clothes, drink and many more. The quoted firm is
recognized as a fourth largest chain in supermarket chain in UK and this in turn
reflected that it has a strong customer base.

Aim and Objectives
 The aim of the study is to identify the impact of employee engagement upon
Morison’s organisation performance.
Objectives
 To understand the concept of employee engagement and model related to it
 To assess different strategies employ by Morrison to engage their employees for
longer term.
 To determine relationship between employee engagement and organizational
performance.
 To suggest best way through which company engage employee in order to
create direct impact over organization performance

Literature Review
 According to Li et al., (2021) employee engagement is HR concept which
determine the level of enthusiasm and dedication of a workers towards their job.
 Engaged employees always leads a business towards positive way and ready to
put extra efforts as well. This is important for a firm because it assist to derive
bets outcomes.
 Also, by using Zinger model, company can focused upon 10 different factors
which helps to meet the need of an employee.

Literature Review
 In the opinion of Nazir and Islam (2020) engaging employees for the longer
term, company must change the employees engagement strategy that helps to
attract them towards it. For that, involve the employees during decision making
that helps to make them privilege. Further, taking feedback on the performance
also reflected that company care about their employees and that is why, it helps
to generate the best outcomes.

Literature Review
 Men, O’Neil and Ewing (2020) argued that offering reward and recognition to
their employees assists to improve the performance. This must be related to the
monetary term so that it helps to attract the new employees as well.
 Sandhya and Sulphey (2020) evaluated that there is a positive relationship
between the organization performance and employee engagement such that when
employees ready to put extra efforts then it will create positive impact upon
organization performance.

Literature Review
 Thus, it can be stated that through high engagement, customer satisfaction also
increases and this in turn shows that reduce the employee turnover. This further
creates a direct impact over the organization performance. On the other side,
Chanana (2020) critically evaluated that if employee did not perform well and
not engaged, then the outcomes of the organization affected adversely. That is
why, it can be stated that engagement of employees is necessary for an
organization, because it helps to generate the best outcomes and keep employees
healthier as well.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Research Gantt Chart
Task
Mode Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
1 Selecting topic 2 days Mon 10/18/21 Tue 10/19/21
2 Formulation of research aim
and objective 4 days Wed 10/20/21 Mon 10/25/21 1
3 Literature review 5 days Tue 10/26/21 Mon 11/1/21 2
4 Research methods selection 2 days Tue 11/2/21 Wed 11/3/21 3
5 Conclusion and
Recommendation 2 days Thu 11/4/21 Fri 11/5/21 4
6 Formatting 1 day Mon 11/8/21 Mon 11/8/21 5
7 Taking feedback 4 days Tue 11/9/21 Fri 11/12/21 6
8 Doing changes as per the
feedback provided 1 day Mon 11/15/21 Mon 11/15/21 7
9 Final submission 1 day Tue 11/16/21 Tue 11/16/21 8

Methodology
Methods Description
Research type
In the present study, qualitative research type will be chosen by the scholar
in order to reflect the theoretical aspects of employee engagement. Another
reason for choosing this method is such that it does not deal with numbers
and that is why, qualitative study will be adopted.
Research
Approach
Inductive research approach will be used for determining the relationship
between employee engagement and organizational performance. This is
because it helps to integrate the key element of a study and meet the defined
aim.
Research
philosophy
As per the chosen type, interpretivism research philosophy will be adopted
that helps to clearly examine the ways through employee can be engaged.
Also, it assists to generate the best outcome and meet the set objectives as
well.

Methodology
Methods Description
Data collection
There are two types of data collection methods used by the scholar which
includes primary and secondary. Under primary data collection, researcher
uses survey method through the means of questionnaire where 30 employees
of Morison selected in order to determine their engagement. Whereas, for
secondary data collection methods, relevant books, journals articles will be
selected to develop brief thesis.
Data analysis
Thematic data analysis method will be adopted by the scholar in order to
analyse the data in an effective manner. Further, it assists to present the
findings in more accurate manner.
Sampling
Random sampling will be used by the scholar which helps to determine the
views of employees pertaining to company’s employee engagement strategy.