Research Report: Employee Motivation and Satisfaction at Sainsbury's

This research proposal investigates the crucial role of Human Resources in enhancing employee motivation and satisfaction within Sainsbury's, a major UK supermarket chain. The report begins with an introduction outlining the significance of employee motivation and satisfaction and then delves into a comprehensive literature review. This review explores the fundamental concepts, importance, and various HR practices employed by Sainsbury's to boost employee morale and productivity, including open communication, training and development, recognition, and positive work environments. Furthermore, the research identifies the challenges faced by the HR department, such as low self-confidence among employees and unhealthy competition. The methodology section details the research philosophy, approach, strategy, and data collection methods, including the use of a survey with 30 employees. The report concludes with ethical considerations and resource requirements, providing a complete framework for understanding and addressing employee motivation and satisfaction within the organization.

Research Proposal
(HR-motivation and
satisfaction at the
workplace)

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................5
Describe the basic knowledge and importance of motivating and satisfying employees
towards their work at workplace?...........................................................................................5
What are the different practices used by human resource to increase motivation and
satisfaction of employees at the workplace of Sainsbury?.....................................................5
What are the challenges that are faced by human resource department while motivating and
satisfying employees towards their work within Sainsbury?.................................................6
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Background of the research
Human resource is defined as division of an organisation that focuses on finding,
recruiting, screening, providing training and development, organising employee benefit program
and motivating employees. Employees are the most important asset for every organisation so it is
necessary to motivate and satisfy employees so that they attain objectives of the organisation.
Motivation is defined as driving force to work hard towards work in respect of satisfying own
needs and requirements whereas satisfaction refers to the emotional response of an individual
towards current condition of the job.
The current research report focuses on motivation and satisfaction of employees at
workplace. The chosen organisation for the research report is Sainsbury’s, it is the supermarket
that holds position of second largest chain in the United Kingdom. It has over more than
1,11,900 employees and they motivate and satisfy employees so that customer service could be
increased.
Rationale of the research
The main purpose of conducted current research is to have clear understanding about the
contribution of human resource in increasing employee satisfaction and motivation at workplace
because it has been identified that motivation and satisfaction are defined as driving force that
retain employees and work harder to achieve the objectives of the organisation. The two other
perspectives are called personal and professional perspectives that are achieved through this
research. In respect of personal perspective I have learnt about patience and communication level
that I would adapt in my personal life and from the point of view of professional perspective I
have learnt about the practices that are used by human resource for motivating employees that I
would use in future when I will step into my professional career to achieve objectives in
organisation.
Aim and objectives of the research
Research Aim: To identify the contribution of human resource in increasing employee
motivation and satisfaction of employees within a workplace. A study on Sainsbury
Research Objectives:
 To determine the basic knowledge and importance of motivating and satisfying
employees towards their work at workplace

 To analyse different practices used by human resource to increase motivation and
satisfaction of employees at the workplace of Sainsbury
 To identify challenges that are faced by human resource department while motivating and
satisfying employees towards their work within Sainsbury
Research Questions:
 Describe the basic knowledge and importance of motivating and satisfying employees
towards their work at workplace?
 What are the different practices used by human resource to increase motivation and
satisfaction of employees at the workplace of Sainsbury?
 What are the challenges that are faced by human resource department while motivating
and satisfying employees towards their work within Sainsbury?

LITERATURE REVIEW
Describe the basic knowledge and importance of motivating and satisfying employees towards
their work at workplace?
According to Rožman, Treven and Čančer (2017), motivation is a word to move.
Motivation is referred as forces that move individuals to move in specific ways. Motivation
focuses on influencing and pressurizing that channel, sustain and trigger behaviour of humans.
Motivation is the responsibility of human resource managers that inspires, encourages and
impels employees to take needed action and step so that they do their work more responsibly.
Satisfaction of employees refers to the process of making employees happy by fulfilling their
needs and expectations at work. Employee satisfaction brings positivity in organization as there
are various factors that are considered by human resource for satisfaction of employees like
treating workers with respect, giving timely recognition to employees, encouraging employees,
providing more benefits than industry and giving other perks and benefits and positive working
environment.
As per the view of Gelard and Rezaei (2016), importance of motivating and satisfying
employees towards their work at work place is necessary. Motivation and satisfaction increase
the productivity of employees as well as organization. Most of the employers have understood
the importance of happier employees as they are more motivated and satisfied with their job
roles and responsibilities at workplace. A study had taken out in 2015 by Andrew J Oswald that
happiness at workplace could increase productivity by almost 12%. Happiness in employees is
created with continuous motivation and satisfaction with their job responsibility, duty and role.
Motivation and satisfaction is important because it increases the contribution of employees while
working and this ultimately result in decreasing errors in work.
What are the different practices used by human resource to increase motivation and satisfaction
of employees at the workplace of Sainsbury?
According to Salleh and et. Al, (2016), every organization and manager faces struggles to
make their employees motivated and satisfied with their job from time to time but great leaders
and managers very well know that motivation and satisfaction of employees is the way to get
success because employees are the resources that work towards achieving objectives of the

company. The different types of practices used by human resource of Sainsbury’s to motivate
and satisfy employees at workplace are:
Open communication
Human resource of Sainsbury’s is focused on developing environment in which open
communication could be done among them and employees. This is the crucial way for
maintaining satisfaction and motivation in employees. Employees are provided with two way
communication in which they do not feel uncomfortable while approaching their supervisors or
bosses about their problem and new ideas.
Training and development
As per the opinion of Pang and Lu (2018), Training and development is the another factor
that is used by Sainsbury’s for motivating employees. Training and development refers to the
process where employees are taught about new skill and knowledge so that they can do their
work more effectively and efficiently. This also provides employee with the opportunity of
career development this increases the satisfaction level of employees in the organization.
Recognition and awards
Human resource of Sainsbury use rewards and recognition to motivate and satisfy
employees as human resource managers know that this assist in satisfying psychological, social
and financial needs of employees. They give monetary benefits to employees so that employees
can increase their standard of living and this satisfies employees and they remain in the same
company only.
Positive working environment
The other powerful practice used by Sainsbury is providing positive working
environment for motivating and satisfying employees at workplace. Human resource provides
positive working environment by increasing employee engagement and participation in decision
making of the organization. When employees are participated in decision making they feel
satisfied with their jobs as they think they are important for organization.
What are the challenges that are faced by human resource department while motivating and
satisfying employees towards their work within Sainsbury?
According to Diskienė, Stankevičienė and Jurgaitytė (2017), there are many challenges
that are faced by human resource department while satisfying and motivating employees towards

their work at Sainsbury. These challenges create issues in attaining the objectives of
organization, some of the challenges are:
Low self confidence of employees
Human resource department of Sainsbury’s faces the problem of low self-confidence
among employees as employees do not have confidence on their talent and skill to do particular
job and responsibility.
Lack of confidence in Organization
There are employees who do not feel that organization is moving towards growth and
success and they feel that organization cannot give security of job. They remain uninterested in
projects that are for longer period of time this makes impossible for human resource to motivate
and satisfy employees.
Unhealthy competition
As per the view of Lenz and et. al, (2016), human resource department faces challenge of
unhealthier competition among employees in the organization and this competition arises
because of rewards and recognition provided by organization to motivate employees for their
great performance. This creates negative behavior in those employees that do not perform well in
their job role. This forms difficulty in satisfying and motivating employees by human resource
department of Sainsbury’s.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology is the chapter that has particular techniques and procedures that
are used for identifying, selecting, processing and analyzing required information about the topic
of the research.
Research philosophy
It refers to the foundation of study that has set of beliefs on which research depends upon.
There are two common research philosophies that are positivism and interpretivism. In the
present research work researcher would be taking assistance of positivism philosophy because it
tests and evaluates quantitative information in short period of time. Interpretivism would not be
chosen by researcher because it evaluates qualitative information that is not required in the
present research (Banfield, Kay and Royles, 2018).
Research approach
Research approach helps in fulfilling the aim of evaluating data gathered according to the
topic of the research. Research approach is mainly classified into two main kinds that are
inductive and deductive approach. Researcher would be using deductive approach in the current
research because it focuses on gathering and evaluating numerical information as it does not take
longer period of time whereas inductive approach gathers and evaluates information other than
numerical format (Ørngreen and Levinsen, 2017).
Research strategy
Research strategy refers to the strategies on which aims of the research are based and
research is conducted. There are different type of strategies that are available action research,
survey, case study, archival research, grounded theory and many more. In the present research
researcher would be using survey as research strategy because it collects required information in
quantitative style. Questionnaire would be using as strategy of research because first hand
information would be gathered through questionnaire (Igwenagu, 2016).
Research choice
This is the type of research in which researcher decides the type of data to be collected
with two different types of research choices that are qualitative and quantitative research choices.
In the current research, researcher would be using quantitative research choice because it collects
all the required numerical data for the research to achieve predefined objectives whereas

qualitative research choice is not considered because it gathers subjective data that do not
support the present research (Mishra and Alok, 2017).
Data collection
It is defined as method that is used for gathering accurate, relevant and authentic
information from sources that are reliable. Data collection is being divided into two kind primary
and secondary data collection for attaining the objectives of present research. Both kinds of data
collection are selected because primary gives out information that do not exist and that is totally
raw. This would be taking out with the assistance of questionnaire whereas secondary data
collection is the information that already exist and use sources like books, journals, articles
newspapers and so on. With this gap lying in the existing data is addressed (Bairagi and Munot,
2019).
Sampling
It is the stage in research methodology in which samples are selected as respondents
from the whole population for gathering required information. The two kinds of sampling are
probability and non probability sampling. Researcher would depend upon probability sampling
because it selects large number of respondents and collect data without taking much time. Non
probability sampling would not be selected because it does not select larger number of
respondents. 30 employees would be selected as participants for questionnaire from Sainsbury
UK.
Data Analysis
Analysis of data would be done with the assistance of frequency distribution analysis.
Frequency distribution analysis would be used by investigator for analyzing quantitative
information gathered with the assistance of questionnaire.
Ethical consideration
In the present research, researcher would take consent of the chosen organization and
participants for collecting required information and the collected information would protect
information that is confidential for chosen company and participants. Investigator would not use
data that is unpublished.
Resource requirement
The present would need different types of resources like for collecting primary
information researcher would need copies of questionnaire so that it could be provided to

respondents. For collecting information for literature review resources like books, journals,
magazines, electronic sources like World Wide Web and internet are used.
Action plan
Time is the most important resource that is needed to do every task and activity in a
successful manner. Researcher would be using Gantt chart in that all the activities are illustrated
with the timeline. It is a graphical presentation that has vertical axis in which tasks are mentioned
that need to be performed and time of every activity is mentioned in horizontal axis.

CONCLUSION
From the above data it is being analysed that human resource management make strategies
to motivate and satisfy employees so that they could be retained in the company without
disturbing work of the organisation. With the assistance of motivation and satisfaction
employees are able to fulfil their needs and requirements and perform their job role, duty ad
responsibility with more effectiveness and efficiency.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bairagi, V. and Munot, M.V. eds., 2019. Research methodology: A practical and scientific
approach. CRC Press.
Banfield, P., Kay, R. and Royles, D., 2018. Introduction to human resource management.
Oxford University Press.
Diskienė, D., Stankevičienė, A. and Jurgaitytė, N., 2017, December. Challenges for human
resource department: The case of millennials in the workplace. In ECMLG 2017 13th
European Conference on Management, Leadership and Governance: ECMLG.
Gelard, P. and Rezaei, S., 2016. The relationship between job motivation, compensation
satisfaction and job satisfaction in employees of tax administration–a case study in
Tehran. Asian Social Science. 12(2). pp.165-171.
Igwenagu, C., 2016. Fundamentals of research methodology and data collection. LAP Lambert
Academic Publishing.
Lenz and et. al, 2016. Open innovation and the challenges of human resource
management. International journal of innovation management, 20(07), p.1650063.
Mishra, S.B. and Alok, S., 2017. Handbook of research methodology.
Ørngreen, R. and Levinsen, K., 2017. Workshops as a Research Methodology. Electronic
Journal of E-learning. 15(1). pp.70-81.
Pang, K. and Lu, C.S., 2018. Organizational motivation, employee job satisfaction and
organizational performance. Maritime Business Review.
Rožman, M., Treven, S. and Čančer, V., 2017. Motivation and Satisfaction of Employees in the
Workplace. Business Systems Research: International journal of the Society for
Advancing Innovation and Research in Economy. 8(2). pp.14-25.
Salleh and et. Al, 2016. The influence of work motivation on organizational commitment in the
workplace. Journal of Applied Environmental and Biological Sciences. 6(5). pp.139-143.