Strategies for Employee Motivation in Recessionary Times: Amazon Study

This dissertation investigates strategies for motivating employees during economic recessions, using Amazon as a case study. The research explores the impact of recession on employee performance, job satisfaction, and retention. It examines various motivational theories and models, analyzing challenges faced by businesses during downturns, and identifies strategies that can be implemented without significant financial investment. The study employs a mixed-methods approach, including literature review, and a survey of Amazon employees to gather primary data. The findings reveal key factors influencing employee motivation during recessions and offer recommendations for Amazon and other businesses to enhance employee engagement, improve performance, and maintain a productive workforce during challenging economic times. The dissertation covers topics such as the impact of motivational strategies, challenges faced by companies during recession, and strategies for employee motivation without surplus money.

DISSERTATION BUSINESS
RESEARCH

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In this research, the study is conducted on the bases of motivating employees at the time
of recession and this study is related to the amazon company which is one of the most successful
technology based company engaged in e-commerce and digital streaming of videos and games.
decline in economic activity and growth which leads to lower performance and development of
economy. The aim of this research project is strategies of motivating employees without
investing surplus money at time of recession. During recession the profitability of the firm is
reduced which have a high impact on the economic growth of the business and the sales of the
company are reduced drastically. The topic chosen for this research is effective as it will help the
other researcher in this future study. Moreover, the Organisation chosen for the research is
Amazon which is involved in the online retailing. Adoption of motivational theory helps in
enhancement of the performance of the employees and overall business organisation as well. The
motivational strategies adopted by the company help in retaining the employees for the longer
period. It assists in enhancing the performance of the employees and provide them with job
satisfaction.
Research methodology helps in identifying the type of research and that data which is
required to be gathered on the basis of identifying the type of research and the analysis which is
required to made. Quantitative research is helpful in for identifying the information through the
help of views of authors or by using the numerical data for the study to provide evidence for the
research. Interpretivism philosophy because it will assist in identifying the effectiveness of the
research by gathering the information which is accurate and reliable by conducting the in- depth
study. In this research study it also uses the questionnaire through which it will be able to get the
first hand information from the respondents. The thematic method analysis uses the qualitative
technique to analyse the information related to study in order to identify the useful information
for the research. It further carries with the survey on 20 randomly selected employees of
Amazon.
Motivation sometimes bring the interest of the employees for longer term and sometimes
it decreases the employees turnover as if the person are not interested in working in their field.
This results in committing more work in similar time and efforts and results in more productivity
in the company. Organization issue various benefits such as by providing awards and recognition

and various other benefits in terms of motivating the employees at the recession periods.
Employees are the major part of every company and their working as a team provides more sales
and profits to the organisation. Implementation of motivational strategies helps in providing the
employees with job satisfaction. At the time of recession, the unemployment rate is increased
due to the recession which affect the profitability and performance of the organisation. Leaders
also motivate employees by removing the barrier of communication and interaction with
different team members and can discuss the issue and the problems which they raised at the time
of completing the projects. This refer to motivate employees by costing less charges in training
session and also it results in retention of employees for longer term.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................6
Background of the study.........................................................................................................6
Research problem:..................................................................................................................7
Research aim and objectives..................................................................................................7
Research questions.................................................................................................................7
Rationale.................................................................................................................................8
Timeline and resources...........................................................................................................8
Resources..............................................................................................................................10
Outline of Study...................................................................................................................10
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................................................12
Introduction..........................................................................................................................12
Theme 1: Evaluation of Motivational strategies to retain employees.................................12
Theme 2: Challenges faced by company at the time of recession to manage employee
motivation.............................................................................................................................15
Theme 3: The motivational strategies which business can implement without investing surplus
money...................................................................................................................................17
Theme 4: The motivational strategies that are implied by business during recession.........20
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................22
Introduction..........................................................................................................................22
Research philosophy.............................................................................................................23
Research Type:.....................................................................................................................23
Research design:...................................................................................................................24
Research approach:...............................................................................................................25
Data collection......................................................................................................................26
Sampling:..............................................................................................................................27
Data Analysis........................................................................................................................28
Ethical consideration............................................................................................................29
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS...................................................................31
Data analysis.........................................................................................................................33
Theme 1: Recession leads to increase in unemployment rate of the country.......................33

Theme 2: Motivational strategies that can be adopted by organisation during recession....34
Theme 3 : Challenges which are faced by organisation during recession............................36
Theme 4: Recession leads to cut off of employees from organisation.................................37
Theme 5: The benefits of implementing motivational strategies.........................................39
Theme 6 : Motivate the employees without using surplus money.......................................40
Theme 7: Providing employees with benefit during recession assist in retaining them in
business.................................................................................................................................42
Theme 8 : The factors through which the recession period occurs......................................43
Theme 9: Providing motivation to the employees assist in improving the performance of firm
..............................................................................................................................................45
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.....................................................47
Conclusion............................................................................................................................47
Recommendation..................................................................................................................49
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................52
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................56
Questionnaire........................................................................................................................57

Topic: To investigate strategies associated with employee motivation in the context of
recessionary period: A study on Amazon
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Recession means decline in economic activity and growth which leads to lower
performance and development of economy. Recession is the period where the business face
major problem in finding productive employees for the organisation due to high unemployment
and thus it is required to motivate the employees for retaining them in business for the long run.
During recession the profitability of the firm is reduced which have a high impact on the
economic growth of the business and the sales of the company are reduced drastically. Recession
leads to decline in the economic activity. In this research, it will provide understanding of the
various motivational strategies which can be adopted by the organisation which helps company
to retain employees and do not lose their job.
Present research is based on Amazon, which was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 with a
strong competition in technology and e commerce sectors. With having a strong brand name in
relation to dealing in online business of consumer products and electronics, they are now linked
with one of the most innovating online business in global market. As many employees are
managed with such business and carrying their activities at larger scale in that cases they are
considered to be one of the second largest technology based company in terms of revenue. They
mainly deal their business online and also operates in various countries to attract customer
through their products and services at international global market. In this study the research will
use the primary and secondary data for identifying the information regarding the Topic.
With the help of motivation strategies the business is able to provide the employees with
job satisfaction that will assist in motivating the employees for improving their performance to
perform better to cope up with the problems of recession. In this research, Itit will provide the
secondary information and the literature sources to analyse the information regarding the topic to
have better understanding about the motivational strategies which can be used b yby the
organisation. Moreover, Itit will include the discussion on the basis of the finding through the
primary and secondary data to identify the effectiveness of the motivational strategies. It will use
the research methods to identify the in- depth information about research to provide better
understanding regarding the research topic. The researcher will use the data collection from

different sources to gather the information about the motivation strategies which can assist in
motivating the employees of the organisation. The research problems understand is regarding the
issues which are being faced by the business during the recession which can be solved by using
the motivational strategies in order to reduce the unemployment rate.
Research problem:
The major research issue which is faced at the time of conducting research are in context
of getting not appropriate time to collect the more data which is relevant to topic. As research is
bound with the time and also it is to be completed with the set time standards thus lot of areas are
to be neglected where there are more chances to get the accurate results. The problem arises at
the time of saving the data in system which there are more chances of hang of system when there
is urgent need of it. The issue may be in results to lack of resources as researcher had not
appropriate resource to gather the information more minutely which results in getting
inappropriate results. The major problem which is faced by researcher is in case of proof reading
the dissertation as lot of mistakes are arises and also new aspects are to be analysed in research
which is difficult to be adjourned in the existing research work.
Research aim and objectives
Aim :
To assess strategies associated with employee motivation during recessionary period with
regards to Amazon. To examine strategies of motivating employees without investing surplus
money at time of recession: A case study on Amazon
Objectives:
 To develop understanding about theories and models of employee motivation.
 To evaluate challenges faced by business atAmazon at the time of recession to in relation
to managing e employee motivation
 To outline motivational strategies which business can implement without investing
surplus money.
 To recommend strategies to Amazon which enhances employee motivation during
recession.
Research questions
Q.1 What are the theories and models of employee motivation?

Q.2 What challenges Amazon faced during recessionary period with regards to employee
motivation?
Q.3 What kind of strategies Amazon can employ for raising employee motivation?
What are the importance of implying motivational strategies?
Q.2 What are the challenges faced by company at the time of recession in order to manage
employee motivation?
Q.3 What are the motivational strategies which business can implement without investing
surplus money?
Q.4 What are the recommendation for the motivational strategies that can be implied by business
during recession?Rationale
In the changing environment the major issue through which the research is conducted in
resultant to finding the outcomes of recession and the impact of employees working in the
company. As researcher find this topic interesting as lot of information are to be gathered
regarding this topic andThe main reason behind conducting present study is to provide
companies with wide framework which they can use for raising and maintaining employee
motivation. Moreover, after economic downturn all the countries are making efforts to recover
from the same. Still, employees are not paid higher in against to the services delivered by them.
In this, such study will help Amazon and other related companies in assessing as well as
understanding strategies that can be used for employee motivation. Along with this, such study
will also offer competent framework to other scholars who want to conduct study on similar
topic. also the overview is to be taken by raising queries in relation to examining the major issue
which is to be faced by company and employees during recession period. In this dissertation the
major issue which is to be examined is in respect of recession period and how to overcome from,
such issue by motivating the employees to achieve better work to secure the jobs in company.
The main reason behind which the research is conducted is in respect of bring various ways and
strategies which is used by company to motivate their employees to work and achieve targets
within the stipulated time. Researcher finds this interesting ton know with techniques and
methods which is used by company to tackle the issue which affects the employee's liability and
company stability at large scale. Thus, by examining the condition of company, researcher select

this topic as by bringing new factors or collecting data which helps company to take effective
decision and also bring various techniques to motivate employees during recession period.
Timeline and resources
Activities /
weeks
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Selection of
research topic
Developing
research aim and
objectives
Designing
research
proposal
Assessment of
books, journal
and scholarly
article:
secondary
research
Research
methods
selection
Designing
questionnaire
Sending
questionnaire to
the selected
respondents for
primary data
collection

Analysing
gathered data set
Concluding
findings
Giving
recommendation
s
Doing
formatting
Taking feedback
from tutor
Doing changes
and final
submission

Resources
The resource which has been used during the research has consisted of the human
resources, physical resources, funding, equipment such as laptop etc. has been used to carry out
the research in the effective and efficient manner. It is important to identify the resources which
has be required for conducting the research in the effective and efficient manner. With the help
of all the resources which are required for conducting the research, the researcher has been able
to perform the activities in the proper plan without delay in the completion of the research which
is beneficial for completing the research in proper way. The research has been feasible as it has
provided information about the topic which is important for the organisation because during the
recession period the employees does not stick to one job and the organisation need to know the
strategies which can help them in motivating and retaining the employees for the longer period in
the business. The resources used for the study help in conducting the research in the effective
and efficient manner to provide solution to the research problems.
Outline of Study
Chapter 1: Introduction
First chapter of dissertation highlights background as well as problem of the research
study. It presents research aim and objectives on which whole study is based. Further,
introductory chapter also contains structure which will be followed in dissertation.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Once aim & objectives have been drafted them next chapter will be initiated. In second
chapter, brief thesis has been prepared by making evaluation of books, journals and scholarly
articles related to employee motivation and recession. This is one of the most important chapter
which provides input for analysing gathered data set effectually.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
Third chapter of dissertation presents tools & techniques which has been applied for
meeting research aim and objectives. It includes research type, approach, philosophy, sampling,
data collection and analysis method.
Chapter 4: Data analysis and findings
Fourth chapter of dissertation is highly significant which presents results of the concerned
issue. Hence, for assessing strategies of employee motivation with regards to Amazon thematic

analysis has been done. Accordingly, as per the gathered responses several themes have been
prepared and findings supported through LR section. In addition to this, graphs have also been
added to facilitate better understanding about topic.
Chapter 5: Conclusion & recommendations
Final chapter of dissertation presents conclusion of findings derived pertaining to
strategies in relation to employee motivation during recession. Further, it also includes
recommendations that Amazon should employ for improving employee motivation.