Exploring Motivation in the Workplace: A Dissertation Proposal on H&M

This dissertation proposal explores the importance of motivation in the workplace, focusing on a case study of H&M. It aims to analyze the concept and significance of employee motivation, identify various motivation strategies used within H&M, and examine the challenges faced by management in motivating employees. The proposal outlines the research aim, objectives, and questions, followed by a literature review covering definitions, characteristics, importance, models, and theories related to employee motivation. It details the research methods and methodology, including the research philosophy (positivism), approach (deductive), methodology (quantitative), and strategy (survey), along with sampling methods, data collection tools, and methods for interpreting data using MS-Excel. The proposal also includes a Gantt chart for time management and addresses ethical considerations. The ultimate goal is to understand the role of motivation in retaining employees and achieving organizational success, with the full dissertation and more resources available on Desklib.

Dissertation – Proposal
(The importance of motivation in the
workplace and how it moves employees)

Cover page:
 Student name
 Student ID
 Proposed research title
 Name of the university
 Submission date

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................................4
Chapter 2: Literature Review ..........................................................................................................6
Chapter 3: Research Methods and Methodology ............................................................................8
Chapter 4: Conclusion....................................................................................................................11
Chapter 5: References and Bibliography.......................................................................................12

Chapter 1: Introduction
Talk about the topic
Employee motivation is known as the key to success of an organisation. It is basically the
level of commitment, energy and drive that an organisation's employees bring to the role every
day. Without it, organisations experience decreased productivity, lower levels of results and it is
likely that the organisation would fall short of reaching significant objectives too. But employee
motivation does not come easily because it is something that leaders of the workplace need to
monitor and nurture. In simpler words, employee motivation is the level of innovation, energy
and commitment that staff of an organisation hold during the working days. Improving and
maintaining employee motivation could be a issue for companies, as not every operation or
activity would be of excitement and interest to those who should complete it. Hence,
organisations should work to finds ways to keep up with the levels of motivation among their
staff (Ivy, 2018). The current investigation focuses at taking out data about the significance of
motivation in the workplace for encouraging them to retain in the same company. The chosen
organisation for the current research is H&M. H&M is a Swedish multinational clothing
organisation. The headquarters of the company is situated in Stockholm. It is famous for fast
fashion clothing of teenagers, children, men and women. It is operating in more than 74 countries
and has more than 5000 stores under the different brands of the company.
Significance of the topic
The current research is very important because it carries out information about the
importance of motivation in the workplace and the way it moves employees within organisation.
In this modern time, motivating employees is necessary so that they can be retained in the
organisation for longer period of time. This report focuses at carrying out piece of information
about the strategies of motivation used by company to encourage employees and the challenges
faced by company while encouraging workforce (Giertz-Mårtenson, 2020). Hence, this report
can be used by organisations, firms, researchers and professionals for encouraging their
workplace . H&M is the company which is continuously growing and developing so in order to
attain the high quality, less time and higher achievements and production and keep managing it,
workforce has to be satisfied and motivated. So, the current study would examine the most used
and considered motivation theories, motivation approaches and the impact of it on performance
of employees and productivity of the business.

Purpose of the research
The main purpose of conducting the current investigation is to understand the
requirement of continuous motivation in the workplace. This mainly aims at determining various
strategies adopted by company to encourage and motivate workforce. This will take out the
challenges that are faced by companies so that companies can prevent all these upcoming issues
and barriers. This will also aim at identifying the key motivator for the workforce so that
appropriate strategies of motivation can be formed and developed to encourage and retain them
in the company. This also gives out various motivational theories used by company to engage,
encourage and motivate their employees time to time so that they could be easily aligned with
the defined goals and targets of the organisation.
Proposed aim, objectives and research questions
Research Aim
"To analyse the importance of motivation in the workplace and how it moves
employees." A study on H&M
Research Objectives
 To understand the concept and importance of employee motivation at workplace
 To identify various strategies that are used across organisations for motivating and
moving of employees in H&M
 To analyse various challenges faced by management in the process of motivating
employees in H&M
Research Questions
 Explain the concept and importance of employee motivation at workplace?
 What are the various strategies that are used across organisations for motivating and
moving of employees in H&M?
 What are the various challenges faced by management in the process of motivating
employees in H&M?

Chapter 2: Literature Review
Different aspects of the selected topic such as (definition, characteristics, importance,
models, theories, advantages, disadvantages, challenges etc.
Explain the concept and importance of employee motivation at workplace?
According to Su (2020), employee motivation is known as the key factor for helping up
the ability and capacity of an organisation. In the stage of globalisation, each company requires
to continue itself in a competitive market. Motivation is an important factor that urges individual
to offer their best execution and assist in arriving at big business goals and objectives. Positive
inspiration would empower the expanded outcomes of employees yet a negative motivation
would reduce their exhibition. Maintaining and improving motivation among employees could
be a problem because it requires great efforts as well as great amount of money. Employee
motivation is quite significant in the organisation because it assists in encouraging, inspiring and
motivating employees. If it is identified that there is low level of motivation in the workplace
then workers works at very slow pace, spend their maximum time away from their
responsibilities, roles and activities and possibly occupying by surfing online and spending more
time on phones. They are largely unfocused and are not putting their all into work. This is not
only wasting resources but can have a knock on impact to other employees. So, it becomes
important to motivate existing employees so that they can be retained in the company for longer
time duration.
What are the various strategies that are used across organisations for motivating and
moving of employees in H&M?
According to Lee, Jung and Ha-Brookshire (2020), it is very obvious to make difference
between highly engaged and motivated employees in the organisation in comparison to
employees who are not motivated. Motivated employees are happier because they are always
inspired by their responsibilities and roles. There are many strategies that are adopted by H&M
for motivating and moving of employees in H&M. The foremost strategy is setting goals and
objectives to create meaning in which expectations from employees, explaining how their great
contribution makes difference etc. The other strategy is celebrating milestones be it small or big,
providing feedback as per their performance and meaningful, empowering problem learning and
solving, following through on promises, experimenting and learning etc.

What are the various challenges faced by management in the process of motivating
employees in H&M?
According to Soares Oliveira (2018), it is determined that an organisation faces many
challenges while motivating their employees because it is not an easier task. There are many
challenges that are faced by management of H&M such as higher expectations and needs of
employees, budgetary issues, chaos among employers and employees etc.

Chapter 3: Research Methods and Methodology
Research methods and methodology are quite important in the current investigation
because it directly assists in gathering, analysing and evaluating the needed and required
information. There are several types of methodologies that are explained below in detailed
manner. Saunders research onion is followed in the current investigation which provides
particular strategies to assemble and examine the information.
What research philosophy and why?
It generally studies the types of epistemology, axiology and ontology. Researcher will
select epistemology philosophy because it helps researcher in introducing the reliable data
required within a study. It is also divided into three more forms that are: positivism,
interpretivism and realism. Positivism philosophy will be used by researcher to evaluate
numerical data in the shorter period of time (Nayak and Singh, 2021). The main reason of
selecting positivism philosophy is it helps in analysing numeric data and primary piece of
information. This accommodates in examining and analysing information that is of numerical
form.
What research approach and why?
The research approach is of three kinds that are: inductive, deductive and abductive. The
present research requires to take out data that are of numerical and primary form. The main
reason selecting deductive approach is it accommodates in evaluating and examining numeric
data in minimum period of time. Deductive approach is very useful when there is requirement of
analysing the validity and reliability of gathered primary and numerical information.
What research methodology and why?
The research methodologies are of two forms that are: qualitative and quantitative
research methodology (Babii, 2020). It is determined that investigator will choose quantitative
research methodology because it accommodates researcher in taking out statistical and numerical
piece of information. This assists in taking out numerical data about the topic of motivating
employees in the organisation. This provides methods that help in the procedure of accumulating
numerical piece of information in shorter period of time.
What research strategy and why?
The strategies have great significance to conduct research efficiently and effectively
because it gives techniques for completing the whole research with apt data and decided time

duration (Ragab and Arisha, 2018). There are several types of research strategies that involve:
systematic literature review, case study, grounded theory, survey, action research etc. Researcher
will choose survey as research strategy because it assists in taking out raw and numerical data.
Under this strategy questionnaire will be used as it includes certain close-ended questions.
Sampling methods and why
Researcher will choose probability sampling because it accommodates in selecting large
number of respondents by following random method. The random method defines that there is
no requirement to select respondents particularly. 25 managers will be selected as respondents to
accumulate data about motivation in the workplace.
Data collection methods/tools
The two significant kinds of data collection are: primary and secondary data collection.
Researcher will select primary data collection because it helps in carrying out raw data through
questionnaire method (Willmott, 2020). On the other hand, secondary data collection will also be
used by investigator because it helps in taking use of published data from sources such as: books,
articles, newspapers, journals, magazines etc.
Ways of interpreting data/How are you going to interpret data?
MS-Excel will be used in the current investigation which helps in making tables and
graphs. With the assistance of graph information will be easily interpreted by researcher,
professionals and students.
Time prospects of the research (Gantt chart)

Time is the significant component for conducting investigation. Gantt chart is selected in the
current investigation because it assists in scheduling activities with systematic time interval.
There are two sides in the Gantt chart as one involves activities that need to be performed and in
the other time period for completing those activities.
Ethical consideration of the research
Ethics are very important to conduct investigation. Researcher will also follow certain
principles of ethics such as taking consent from organisation and respondents, not harming
participants while collecting data, confidentiality of data etc.

Chapter 4: Conclusion
From the above gathered piece of data, it is summarised that every organisation gives
importance to motivating workforce in the company. The success of the organisation and
motivation of employees move towards one direction. It has covered the significance of
employee motivation so that defined objectives could be attained in shorter time duration.

Chapter 5: References and Bibliography
Books and Journals
Babii, A., 2020. Important aspects of the experimental research methodology. Вісник
Тернопільського національного технічного університету, 97(1), pp.77-87.
Giertz-Mårtenson, I., 2020. H&M: How Swedish entrepreneurial culture and social values
created fashion for everyone. In European fashion. Manchester University Press.
Ivy, P.R., 2018. “An Analysis of Employees’ Performance Appraisal System: A Study on Hennes
& Mauritz AB (H&M) (Doctoral dissertation, Daffodil International University).
Lee, S., Jung, S. and Ha-Brookshire, J.E., 2020, December. Ripple Effects of the Deviation
between Employees’ Expectations Toward Corporate Sustainability and Perceived
Performance. In International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference
Proceedings (Vol. 77, No. 1). Iowa State University Digital Press.
Nayak, J.K. and Singh, P., 2021. Fundamentals of Research Methodology Problems and
Prospects. SSDN Publishers & Distributors.
Ragab, M.A. and Arisha, A., 2018. Research methodology in business: A starter’s
guide. Management and Organizational Studies, 5(1), pp.1-14.
Soares Oliveira, T., 2018. Businesses, the UN and decent work promotion: a case study of
H&M, ILO and Sida’s engagement in Cambodia.
Su, Y.Z., 2020. The Internationalization Strategies of Fast Fashion Clothing Retailer Brands: A
Cases Study of ZARA, H&M, UNIQLO, and Gap.
Willmott, H., 2020. On research methodology. The Journal of Organization and Discourse, 1(1),
pp.1-4.