Research Proposal: Staff Motivation and Productivity at Next Plc, UK

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments. This report analyzes staff motivation's impact on Next PLC's productivity.

Research Proposal
“A study on the impacts of staff motivation on the productivity of Next
Plc, UK”
1

Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Literature Review........................................................................................................................5
3. Research Methodology................................................................................................................7
4. Summary....................................................................................................................................10
Reference List................................................................................................................................11
2

1. Introduction
1.1 Background of the Research
The entire productivity of any organisations all across the globe aligned with the roles and
responsibilities of the employees and their commitment in fulfilling the same. Staff Motivation
has become among the prerequisites that is essential in order to increase the organisational
creditability within the respective operating markets of the UK. There are benefits as well as
limitations of motivating the employees in accordance with the need of increasing organisational
performance. The particular research study shall identify and analyse how employee motivation
within the organisational premises influences on organisational productivity of Next PLC, UK.
1.2 Overview of the organisation
Next PLC, UK operates within the fashion retail industry that focuses to produce and offer
clothing, footwear, as well as home essential products and services to national populations of
UK. The organisation was founded in the year 1864 by Joseph Hepworth and was formerly
named as J Hepworth and Sons (nextplc.co.uk, 2019). It is headquartered currently
Leicestershire, England and is operated under the supervision of Michael Roney and Simon
Wolfson, who respectively the Chairperson and CEO of the organisation.
1.3 Aim and Objectives
The research shall be undertaken based on the aim: “to investigate the impacts of staff
motivation on productivity of Next PLC, UK”. In order to fulfil the aim of the research, the study
requires achieving these following objectives:
 To understand the significance of staff motivation
 To identify and analyse the positive implications of staff motivation that benefits
organisational productivity of Next PLC, UK
 To identify and analyse the negative implications of staff motivation that limits the
organisational productivity of Next PLC, UK
 To recommend possible solutions with which challenges of staff motivations can be
resolved in order to increase organisational productivity of the Next PLC, UK
3

1.4 Research Rationale
The particular research shall identify and analyse the issues of how motivating employees within
the organisational premises of the Next PLC, UK shall influence the overall productivity of the
particular organisation. The particular issue has been selected in order to carry out the research
because of the high level of employee turnover that is subjected within most of the organisations
within the national premises. Employees within the private sector firms of UK are diligent to
provide their commitment and generosity in order to back up the respective organisations in the
achievements of business objectives. With the course of time, there has been a rapid increase in
the rate at which motivational programs are being projected to employees. However, there are
some positive as well as negative consequences of staff motivation that impacts the overall
productivity of the organisations within the international market of UK. These issues and
solutions to carter the limitations of staff motivation have become major concerns henceforth, the
particular research shall be carried out to indentify and analyse the same.
4

2. Literature Review
2.1 Significance of Staff Motivation
According to the Wehrmeyer (2017), Staff motivation is one of the major factor that results in
increasing the effective productivity of the organisation by increasing the level of commitment,
skills, abilities and responsibility among the organisational workforce. Motivation is necessary to
be projected within each and every constituents of organisational workforce, so that the same is
able to contribute effectively with full satisfaction within the respective organisational premises.
2.2 Concepts and theories of Staff Motivation
In the words of Bratton and Gold (2017), motivation and its corresponding applications in
context to development of individual and organisational productivity can be well understood and
implemented through process and content theories of organisational behaviours. Content theory
includes further approaches that are developed by Maslow, Alderfer, Herzberg, and McClelland,
which are based to motivate employees by fulfilling individual needs and goals in respective
lives. Additionally, Process theory involves further theories developed by Adams, Locke, Porter,
Vroom and Lawler, which explains how motivation should be implemented upon the
organisational workforce.
2.3 Positive impacts of Staff Motivation
As opined by Raziq and Maulabakhsh (2015), staff motivation is primarily practised in order to
increase the level of employee’s creditability that further allows the organisation to fulfil their
receptive expectations of business productivity. Motivation within the organisational workforce
creates effective employee relations with which the organisations are able to subject low level of
employee turnover. Moreover, Riisgaard et al. (2017) states that with the effective approaches
and applications of employee motivation, the organisation as a whole is able to conserve the
costs and utilisations of financial resources that are projected to the workforce during the phase
of training and developments.
2.4 Negative impacts of Staff Motivation
Staff motivation cannot be effective always for an organisation seeking to enhance their existing
level of productivity, say Riisgaard et al., (2017). Motivational practices such as rewards,
5

appraisals, and others when provided to certain employees may motivate them at that moment
however; failure in further roles and tasks may lead them to be demoralised. Jealousy and
biasness towards productive employees may generate, which is one of the major limitations of
practising staff motivation within organisational premises.
2.5 Literature Gap
There were various other sources that could have been approached in order to perform critical
review of literature effectively however, due to lack of financial resources and time.
6

3. Research Methodology
Methodology Chosen techniques Justification
Research Philosophy Positivism With selection of positivism
philosophy, it shall be easier
to gather accurate knowledge
and understanding about the
research topic. In-depth
information can be collected
for which the research can
provide quality outcomes
(research-methodology.net,
2019).
Research Approach Deductive The chosen approach shall
allow the research to focus on
existing frameworks, theories,
models and concepts so that
the researcher need not to
spend much time in
developing hypothesis of
questions (research-
methodology.net, 2019).
Research design Exploratory and Explanatory With implementation of
exploratory research design,
any changes can be made to
the research in any phase of
the research process.
Explanatory researches tend to
save resources and time of the
researcher (research-
methodology.net, 2019).
7

Data collection process Primary research (Qualitative
and Quantitative)
The outcomes can be recent
due to primary research
methods. Data can be
presented systematically with
implication of quantitative
analysis. Qualitative data
analysis may provide the
researcher with in-depth
understanding of the research
problem, as respondents
reflect their experience and
opinions in the interview
process (research-
methodology.net, 2019).
Research strategy Survey and interview Both strategies take less time
and provide recent
information.
Sampling technique Probability sampling
technique
The research can have option
to select respondents
randomly and all members
have equal change of
attending survey and
interview. The technique can
give the researcher with cost
advantages (research-
methodology.net, 2019).
Sample size Survey-100 employees and
Interview-2 managers
The frequency can be
determined easily with 100
samples.
Ethical consideration The information shall be kept
in adherence to Data
-
8

Protection Act 2018. Consent
forms shall be signed from
respondents before conducting
interview and survey.
Table 1: Selected research methods
(Source: Created by the leaner)
Research Timeline
Activities Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8
Proposing
research topic
Setting aim
and objectives
Setting up of
research
methods
Conducting
Survey and
interpreting
results
Conducting
interview and
documenting
collected
opinions
Project
Conclusion
Final
Documentation
of research
study
9

4. Summary
From the entire discussions presented above, it can be summarised that the particular research
problem of identifying and analysing the impacts of staff motivation upon organisational
productivity of Next PLC, UK can be solved by following the appropriate approaches as
discussed.
10

Reference List
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Nextplc.co.uk. (2019). At a glance. [online] Available at:
https://www.nextplc.co.uk/about-next/at-a-glance [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].
Raziq, A. and Maulabakhsh, R., 2015. Impact of working environment on job
satisfaction. Procedia Economics and Finance, 23, pp.717-725.
Research-Methodology. (2019). methodology - Research -Methodology. [online] Available at:
https://research-methodology.net/research-methodology/ [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].
Riisgaard, H., Søndergaard, J., Munch, M., Le, J.V., Ledderer, L., Pedersen, L.B. and Nexøe, J.,
2017. Work motivation, task delegation and job satisfaction of general practice staff: a cross-
sectional study. Family practice, 34(2), pp.188-193.
Wehrmeyer, W., 2017. Greening people: Human resources and environmental management.
Routledge.
11