BM631 Research Methods: Employee Turnover and Business Performance

This research proposal investigates the issue of employee turnover and its impact on business performance within the UK retail industry, using Marks & Spencer as a case study. The research aims to identify the reasons for employee turnover, assess its impact on business performance, and examine strategies used by Marks & Spencer to satisfy employees and decrease turnover. The proposal includes a literature review of relevant peer-reviewed articles exploring reasons for employee turnover, its impact on business performance, and methods for improving employee satisfaction. The proposed primary research will use a positivism research philosophy, a deductive approach, and a survey strategy to collect quantitative data from 50 managers at Marks & Spencer. The research will utilize both primary and secondary data collection methods, including questionnaires and secondary sources such as articles and books. The study is designed to provide insights into employee turnover, its consequences, and effective strategies for retention, ultimately contributing to improved business performance within the retail sector.

Research Methods CW1
Dissertation Proposal

Table of Contents
WORKING TITLE..........................................................................................................................3
MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS PROBLEM...........................................................................3
USEFUL PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES......................................................................................4
PROPOSED PRIMARY RESEARCH............................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

WORKING TITLE
To investigate the issue of employee turnover and its impact over business performance
within UK retail industry
MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS PROBLEM
Research Aim:
To investigate the issue of employee turnover and its impact over business performance.
A study on Marks & Spencer
Research Objectives:
 To identify the reasons of employee turnover within UK retail industry
 To discern the impact of employee turnover over business performance of Marks &
Spencer
 To examine the ways used by Marks & Spencer to satisfy employees and decrease
employee turnover
Research Questions:
 What are the reasons of employee turnover within UK retail industry?
 What is the impact of employee turnover over business performance of Marks &
Spencer?
 What are the ways used by Marks & Spencer to satisfy employees and decrease employee
turnover?
Background of the research:
The project focuses on identifying the issue of staff turnover and its influence on the
performance and productivity of business. In present era, it becomes challenging for the business
world to reduce the turnover rate of employees within workplace. Organisation faces difficulty in
attracting and retaining the talented staff within business due to which it becomes challenging to
gain competitive edge in market (Abugre and Acquaah, 2022). The few reasons of employee
turnover are lack of growth and progression, lack of recognition, being overworked and various
others. Within this research the chosen brand is Marks and Spencer, it is a multinational brand
that offers wide varieties of goods and services to its target customers including home products,
clothing, financial services and various others.
Problem statement:

The problem which may be identified is that high turnover within workplace which
influence the functioning and operational activities of the business. Organisation generally faces
issues related to high turnover due to which it becomes difficult to attain competitive advantage
over its competitors (Basnyat and Lao, 2019).
Rationale of the research:
The rationale behind conducting this research is to determine the issues of employee
turnover and its impact over business performance. Employee turnover creates a negative impact
on the brand reputation and image. This project is beneficial for the researcher as it helps in
accomplishing their personal as well as professional objectives. In terms of personal objective,
the skills and knowledge of the researcher will be improved which will be helpful in conducting
their future research. Researcher will avail the knowledge related to different research methods
due to which they can accumulate relevant data. In terms of the professional perspective, this
research provides knowledge related to the reasons of employee turnover and different strategies
for overcoming the impact of employee turnover which will be helpful in their job role.

USEFUL PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES
What are the reasons of employee turnover within UK retail industry?
According to the opinion of Kang and Sung (2019), there are various reason of staff
turnover within UK retail industry that creates a great impact on the business and its growth.
Business world faces various issues related to employee turnover which hampers their growth
and efficiency. The few reason of employee turnover are lack of growth and progression, poor
compensation, being overworked, little opportunity for decision making, toxic workplace
environment and many others. These are the reasons due to which organisation faces high
employee turnover. If staff feels trapped in a dead end position, they look to switch the company
in order to improve their income and status. While working in an organisation, staff generally
feel they are over-working due to which it becomes difficult for them to manage personal life
and work life. Thus, it is important for company to find out the causes of employee turnover and
also develop strategies or mitigating the issues in order to gain competitive advantage over its
competitors.
What is the impact of employee turnover over business performance of Marks & Spencer?
As per the viewpoint of Ramlawati and et. al., (2021), there is a great influence of
employee turnover over the business performance and growth. There is a negative as well
positive affect of employee turnover on the business performance. Staff turnover negatively
influence the organisational performance due to loss of knowledge, skills and abilities as well as
loss of organisational memory which is developed among the staff through experience and
training. The few negative impact of employee turnover are low productivity, high recruitment
cost, low company morale and lost sales. Employee turnover also creates a positive impact on
the organisational performance such as improve talent potential, providing offer staff an
opportunity to grow, losing employees that are not adequate, recruiting internally and many
others. Thus, employee turnover is a method of measuring the effectiveness of human resource
management system of business.
What are the ways used by Marks & Spencer to satisfy employees and decrease employee
turnover?
According to the perspective of the Bartock (2019), there are different ways which can be
implemented by the company in order to satisfy the employees and decrease employee turnover.
Due to staff turnover, organisation may lose employee productivity, miss out on sales

opportunities, suffer from lower morale and also deal with additional expenses (Lyons and
Bandura, 2019). It is essential for the company to focus on identifying the issues related to the
employee turnover so that the business performance can be improved in better manner. The few
strategies which can be implemented by an organisation for reducing employee turnover are
recognising an rewarding employees, creating learning and development programs, encouraging
healthy work life balance, identifying clear career path and many others. Company must focus on
developing positive workplace environment for their staff in order to make them feel more
dedicated towards the work. In order to minimise the turnover rate within an organisation, it is
necessary to reward and recognise the employees as it helps in improving their motivation and
morale. Thus, it is important to focus on reducing the high turnover by implementing various
strategies so that employees can be retained and sustain in business for long run.

PROPOSED PRIMARY RESEARCH
Research methodology is an important chapter of the investigation which focuses on
determining the type of information required for carrying out the research in better manner
(Kurten and et. al., 2022). It includes various research methods through which data can be
collected and gathered in appropriate way.
Research philosophy:
Research philosophy is one of the method of research that deals with the nature, source
and development of knowledge and skills (Patterson, 2019). There are two kinds of research
philosophy such as interpretivism and positivism. In this investigation, investigator lay emphasis
on selecting positivism philosophy as it gathers numerical piece of information in accurate
manner.
Research approach:
Research approach is another way for accumulating and analysing the data for the
proposed study. The two different kinds of research approach are deductive and inductive
approach (Sablan, 2019). As per the current research, investigator will show their dependence on
choosing deductive approach. This research is chosen as it addresses the research problem in
significant manner.
Research strategy:
It includes the step by step procedure for accumulating the information from large
number of participants related to the chosen research topic. The different categories of research
strategy are case study, action research, survey, systematic literature review and various others.
Within this investigation, the dependence will be shown on selecting survey strategy as it helps
in extracting quantitative data from large number of population (Greeley, Shahan and Barua,
2021). The reason behind choosing survey strategy is that it is cost effective and also collected
data in numerical form.
Data collection:
Data collection is a process of obtaining and measuring the data for different variable of
the study. Primary and Secondary data collection method is considered as two main forms of
data collection methods (Covarrubias and et. al., 2018). The investigator will show their interest
in selecting both the types of data collection method. The primary data collection method is used
by the investigator for gathering fresh or raw information related to the proposed study. In order

to accumulate primary data, questionnaire will be framed by the investigator. Investigator will
also use secondary data collection method for obtaining second hand information. The different
secondary sources will be used by the researcher including articles, books, online sources and
many others.
Sampling:
Sampling mainly includes the way through data can be accumulated from pool of large
number of chosen respondents. Probability and non-probability sampling are the two kinds of
sampling methods. In present study, probability sampling will be selected by the researcher
because it provides equal opportunity to participants (Hall, 2020). 50 managers of Marks and
Spencer are chosen for obtaining information related to the chosen topic.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abugre, J. B. and Acquaah, M., 2022. A contextual study of co-worker relationship and turnover
intentions: the mediating role of employee cynicism. African Journal of Economic and
Management Studies.
Bartock, A., 2019. A study on the relationship between emotional intelligence and employee
turnover. Performance Improvement, 58(5), pp.6-21.
Basnyat, S. and Lao, C .S .C., 2019. Employees’ perceptions on the relationship between human
resource management practices and employee turnover: A qualitative study. Employee
Relations: The International Journal.
Covarrubias, A and et. al., 2018. Expanding educational pipelines: Critical race quantitative
intersectionality as a transactional methodology. In Understanding critical race
research methods and methodologies (pp. 138-149). Routledge.
Greeley, M., Shahan, A. M. and Barua, S., 2021. Background, Scope of the Study and Research
Methodology. In Sustainable Development, Human Dignity and Choice (pp. 5-16).
Springer, Cham.
Hall, R. P., 2020. Mixing methods in social research: qualitative, quantitative and combined
methods. Mixing Methods in Social Research, pp.1-272.
Kang, M. and Sung, M., 2019. To leave or not to leave: the effects of perceptions of
organizational justice on employee turnover intention via employee-organization
relationship and employee job engagement. Journal of Public Relations Research, 31(5-
6), pp.152-175.
Kurten, S and et. al., 2022. Nature and extent of quantitative research in social work journals: a
systematic review from 2016 to 2020. The British Journal of Social Work, 52(4),
pp.2008-2023.
Lyons, P. and Bandura, R., 2019. Employee turnover: features and perspectives. Development
and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal.
Patterson, G., 2019. Queering and transing quantitative research. Re/orienting writing studies:
Queer methods, queer projects, pp.54-74.
Ramlawati, R and et. al., 2021. External alternatives, job stress on job satisfaction and employee
turnover intention. Management Science Letters, 11(2), pp.511-518.
Sablan, J .R., 2019. Can you really measure that? Combining critical race theory and quantitative
methods. American Educational Research Journal, 56(1), pp.178-203.