LSC Malta: Research Proposal on Training & Organisational Performance

This research proposal investigates the role of training in enhancing organizational performance within the UK retail industry, focusing on Sainsbury's. The literature review examines the concept of training, its impact on organizational performance, and effective training strategies. It highlights the significance of training in equipping employees with necessary skills, improving customer service, and enhancing sales. The research design outlines the methodology for data collection and analysis, ethical considerations, and presentation. The proposal emphasizes the need for tailored training programs, continuous learning, and strong management support to foster a culture of development and improve organizational outcomes in the competitive retail environment.

Research Proposal

Contents
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................1
1.0 Introduction............................................................................................................................1
1.1. Main body.............................................................................................................................1
1.2 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................5
Research Design and Scope.............................................................................................................6
2.0 Introduction............................................................................................................................6
2.1 Research Methodology..........................................................................................................6
2.2. Data Analysis........................................................................................................................9
2.3. Ethics, Values, Referencing and Presentation....................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

Literature Review
1.0 Introduction
In research, literature review has been considered as an overview of previously published works
on a particular topic. In relevance to investigation derivation about role of training in enhancing
organisational performance within UK's retail industry, this literature review will consider the
determined theoretical interpretations (Tsai, Tang and Chen, 2022). Rational of this literature
review is to understand how significantly the training impact an organisation. As in this
competitive business environment, every industry facing tough competition. Similarly retail
organisation also facing few challenging in meeting the customer's demands and attaining its
organisational objectives. Therefore, Sainsbury ( retail organisation) need to conduct training
session with its workplace so that its employees become enable to work latest technology and
trend. Main aim of this literature review is to bring forth a better and clear understanding of the
role of training in organisational performance. Thus, the literature review will help the respective
company to understand necessity of the training through which it can improve organisational
performance and also become enable to compete within the competitive marketplace. In this
literature review, following objectives will be covered,
 To determine the concept of training within UK retail industry.
 To examine the role of training as to improve performance of Sainsbury.
 To identify effective strategies of training in Sainsbury for improving organisation
performance.
1.1. Main body
Concept of the training within UK retail industry
According to the Jemma Smith, (2021), UK retail industry is very significant for
country's economy & provide livelihood to over three million people. There are various big retail
organisation (Sainsbury's, Aldi, Tesco, Iceland and many more) within UK that help the country
to uplift its economy. Therefore, in retail industry within UK, training is designed with the
purpose to give company's employees the soft and hard skills that they need in order to perform
their job well as without a proper guidance, and training, the retail industry can not perform at
level they expect. As UK is a big destination in the retail space & is expected to grow at high
level. This retail industry has witnessed a rapid growth or development in implementation of the
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training programs as from line associates have an immediate and major influence over the
customer's buying decisions. For instance, in shopping complex, sales staff is biggest stimulus
for the buyer's purchase decisions, thus their communication skills, knowledge about the product,
soft skills and other etc., are a significant concern. It has become very crucial for the retail
workforce to pay a close attention the way they interact with the customer & closes sales
transactions. Hence, training ensure that organisational workforce structure remains strong. In
UK retail industry, training requires a substantial amount of the expenditure by the firms that
seems like huge expense at start but is proved profitable in long run. If workforce of the
organisation like Sainsbury are well informed & have an access to the training material, as &
when they require, are typically happier. Retail industry is well known and papular for its high
turnover rates & one of the advantages of training in this industry is that it helps in increasing the
employee retention by giving them skills and knowledge that they need for fulfilling their job
responsibilities well.
According to the (Deng and et. al., 2022). UK's retail industry is lifeblood of the country.
Proper training to these organisations will improve the employees retention, enhance sales &
build a successful brand. This industry need on-demand interactive training which will prepare
them to do their best. Keeping the organisation or employees about new procedures, policies is
key to success. An effective training impact the retain industry significantly. A well informed
retain staff in organisation can aid the customers in making well informed purchasing decisions.
Benefit of the training within retail sector us that it keep the workforce informed regarding
products on offer, so that they become enable to make a clear communication with customers. It
lead to customer satisfaction and customer confidence, that result in higher sales & profit. Apart
form this, blended training can be undertaken with a flexibility of part of training happening any
time, any where, through mobile learning. Retail staff can easily access the self paced training
modules & lead the actions to better customer servicing. If there is a generic comparison among
different industry segments, then retail industry would be most dynamic sector or industry. This
dynamism, when being key differentiator of this sector, frequently as a challenges for sales force
to stay abreast with latest trend in industry & this responsibility completely lies on training and
content.
Role of training as to improve performance of Sainsbury
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According to the Mark Francis, (2021), in retail sector, organisational employees are their
frontline troops. Employees are ones who win over & help the companies in retaining their
customer. Therefore, it is very significant for the Sainsbury to pay a close attention on such way
in which they interact with their customers & their techniques in closing sales. It has been
identified that training play most crucial role in improving performance of the Sainsbury.
When staff or employees are equipped with the knowledge or skills then it enabled them
to distinguish between customers looking for assistance & customers who enjoy undisturbed,
browsing. From time to time, it cane be a hard call to make, involve few realistic scenarios in
online training that will support the customers in learning to assess what customer actually
wants. An appropriate training will help the Sainsbury in developing stronger sales skills & will
substantially enhance their productivity.
Training not only develop the workforce but it also help the organisation like Sainsbury
in making best use of company's human resources in favour of gaining the competitive
advantages. Hence, it seems compulsory by the respective company to plan for such training
programs for its workforce in order to increase their competencies and abilities which are
required within workplace. Training not only develop the employee's capabilities but also
sharpen their creativity and thinking so that they can take better decision timely. Training
develops a self efficacy & result in superiors performance by replacing traditional weak or
inappropriate practices by effective and efficient work related practices.
According to (Chakraborty, Islam and Samanta, 2022). training is very essential for the
success of business organisation across the world wide. In this rapidly changing retail industry,
training has ben considered as an indispensable function. As mostly employees in retail industry
deal directly with the customers, therefore, it is very significant that they receive an adequate
training on how to facilitate great customer services & enhance sales. In context of the
Sainsbury, training play vital role it its performance as training amplify the organisational
strength and acquire new skill sets. It is very essential for Sainsbury to break down the training
needs in order to target the relevant individuals.
Facilitating a strong and effective training strategy can make the Sainsbury hugely
influential, & it will drive more knowledge and skills into the respective organisation. Apart
from this, most significant role of trainings is that it develop great work ethics and also improve
the communication at workplace. Naturally, training introduce a consistency within workplace
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&, again drives productivity in organisation. It is because of positive impact which the training
instills on workers. Company will be able to project same energy into the performance.
At last, as it has been identified that every day new applications, software and technology
being introduces as upgraded solution for the improvements & progress. Due to this, there is
going to be a constant skill gap which will need to be addressed. For the training is most
effective way of ensuring that. Therefore, in Sainsbury, through training, respective organisation
or its workforce can upskill & improve the performance at work. Even the well qualified
professional also have to go through the training as the organisation has specific requirements
from every role. Thus, in this situation, training play most crucial role in educating the workforce
or organisation as well about the use of new technology and applications.
Effective strategies of training in Sainsbury for improving organisation
performance
According to the Kimberlee Leonard, (2019), effective strategies of training is a necessity
of the business as it help the organisations like Sainsbury in developing significant skill in
employees fort heir job position. In workplace, training help the companies in mastering the new
process & reinforces existing protocols. In order to make effective strategies for training, it is
very significant for Sainsbury to determine that what training is needed & how frequently it is
required. Customer services might haves monthly training on the system. Sales department could
have regularly or weekly training on the products and services. When developing the training
needs, then it is imperative to understand most effective ways for the organisation or workforce
to receive information as it impact the organisation performance. Organisation should establish a
budget on the basis of company's resources & which can deliver the needed training. The budget
constraints is significant reason many organisation use online learning platforms; team can
access training any time & can review the videos on demand.
Apart from this, organisation should take a look at what competition or similar sector do.
Respective company should learn what works & doesn't work from the external resources. For
instance, outside sales representatives frequently have same sales strategies. Therefore,
organisation should observe their rivals and learn form their practices.
According to the (Garrett, Kitteringham and Livingstone, 2022). Instead of one-size-
fits-all approach, organisation should look into the personalised alternatives in which training is
tailored to the workforce's personal needs & objectives within the company. The personalised
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training provide opportunities for the individuals to learn new things that they need to at their
level. It will motivate the employees to perform better. As resulting employees workforce will be
increased that is very beneficial for the organisational. While idea of implementing training plan
can be daunting, this becomes far accessible when there is a desire to foster such culture which
promotes the learning at all level within the organisation. It’s also significant to remember that
few of most impactful erudition opportunities can happen outside of the formally constructed
programs & through regular workplace interactions between managers, peers, & employees, &
interdepartmental communication. In organisation like Sainsbury's top management should
recognize the training as a critical to success of the business and & on other level of the
employees to do the similar. In this regard, company's top management should not secret of its
support for the training. Training in workplace should not be seen as a means of distributing
favour & loyalty patronage to the employees (Huque and et. al., 2022).
1.2 Conclusion
In relation to the training programmes employees in retail sector, an in depth research has
been carried out. In this, it has been observed that training programs are very beneficial for the
UK retail industry in numerous ways. In this research, a clear concept of the training has been
explained with the motive to increase knowledge about specific subject. Analysis of the above
literature indicate that the training is highly significant for the organisational success. In above
literature, researcher has examined that how training play a crucial role in the retail sector and
how it impact the organisational performance significantly. Along with this, investigators has
also advised few strategy through which, organisation can make the training more effective in
order to improve the organisational performance. Apart form this, it is seen that the above
literature has presented that training benefit the Sainsbury. Training help the respective company
in improve its organisational performance and also build a well brand image within market place.
By this company become enable to gain the competitive advantages. Therefore, it can be claimed
that the above literature has provided a valuable insights in context of orle of training within UK
retail industry. However, above literature is not able to establish a proper connection between the
training and sales opportunities generated in organisations. Henceforth, it can be concluded that
the research gap exist when identifying a relationship between the training and sales
opportunities generated efficiently in retail organisation.
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Research Design and Scope
2.0 Introduction
The current research is well established in a systematic as well as effective manner. The
purpose of the existing research is based on the role of training in enhancing organisation
performance within UK retail industry. The main reason behind the selection of this topic is that
it facilitates in the fulfilment of the dual perspective. Respective research topic is interesting
from both academic as well as practical perspective. In terms of the academic and personal
perspective, it helps in the determination of activities that are effective in nature towards role of
training within candidates. It simultaneously aids researcher in application of similar techniques
so that it can evolve same nature of characteristics within own personality (Amrutha and Geetha,
2021). In context to professional or practical perspective, benefit of this research is regarding
easy access of HR jobs within large organisations along with handling of activities effectively
from very first day with the help of understanding the role of training. In future period, this will
also facilitate the investigator in developing sound professional career along with the
development of its overall personality effectively which will assist organisation people in getting
rid of employee related issues. Different aspects of chosen topic such as concept of training, role
of training, effective strategies of training will be investigated. Within this existing investigation
project, there are various problems or limitations which are faced by the researcher at time of
conducting the research. Some of these boundaries consist of scarcity of the resources, issues
related to time, high cost, choice of the research method and many others (Cerdin, Liao and
Sharma, 2020). In such manner, all the research questions and objectives will be addressed in
relation to the research topic within this investigation project in an effective and efficient
manner.
2.1 Research Methodology
Research methodology refers to one of the key chapter in the whole investigation project
and this section is used by researcher to obtain the answer for its two major questions. Such
questions cover the method of collecting along with analysing the information. Research
methodology is considered as a systematic process for collecting as well as analysing data as per
the topic. The research methodology which is used here in this research project follows a logical
and cohesive structure that is used under Saunders Research Onion (Fellman and et.al., 2020).
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According to this research onion, there is a use of various philosophies, approaches, strategies,
choices, data collection method and many more. These different elements of the respective
research onion are used for the purpose of gaining data as per the requirement so that the
investigation can be accomplished in a more appropriate and effective way. This section gives
the validity and reliability of the entire research by analysing the methods which are used for
accumulating the information. Sampling size and many other aspects will also get chosen under
this section that will facilitate in obtaining all the data to the investigator as per the requirement
of the topic. Various elements of Saunders Research Onion are discussed as below:
 Research Philosophy: It covers various principles and belief which provide a direction
about data collection and its evaluation. There are two main kinds of research
philosophies and these include positivism and interpretivism. Positivism philosophy will
be used by researcher to collect quantitative data and analysing it in a systematic as well
as generalised manner. This kind of research philosophy provides valuable knowledge to
investigator about existing pattern and trend exists within society. The reason for not
selecting interpretivism research philosophy is that this kind of research philosophy
provide assistance to the investigator in collecting as well as analysing the quantitative
information that takes so much time and data for conducting the research in a proper
manner (Galvão, Marques and Ferreira, 2020). There is also an another reason for not
selecting interpretivism as a research philosophy and the reason behind it is that this type
of research philosophy needs gathering of the in-depth data for the study.
 Research Approach: The approach in research methodology is defined as a planned
process which helps an investigator in the process of testing the hypothesis and theories
effectively and in a valid manner. There are two major research approaches and these
comprise of inductive approach and deductive research approach. In this current
investigation, the investigator will make use of deductive research approach in order to
test the hypothesis such formed. The major advantage of using such kind of research
approach is that it will provide assistance to the researcher in testing existing hypothesis
rather than start developing new theories. Another reason behind choosing such
approach is that it is cost-effective method that helps investigator in ascertaining the
cause and effect relationship between dependent as well as independent variables
successfully.
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 Research Strategy: This is another element of research onion that gives direction as well
as guidance to the researcher in order to collect the data about its ideas and opinions in a
more effective manner (Galvão and et.al., 2020). Within existing research, strategies are
designed in order to conduct the investigation in a great and more specific manner for the
purpose of collecting appropriate information. There are different kinds of research
strategy and it cover case study, survey, action research, focussed group, systematic
literature review and many more. In this present research, the researcher will use the
research strategy of survey for the purpose of gathering quantitative information through
questionnaire. The investigator will make use of this research strategy because survey is
considered as the cheapest method to collect data from the varied number of respondents.
This kind of research strategy will provide assistance to the investigator in the process of
accumulating mass information from the participants and also needs small time to collect
information directly from the respondents.
 Choice of Method: It is considered as another significant component of the research
methodology that expresses the kind of information needed within the research project.
There are mainly two kinds of research methods and these research methods consist of
quantitative as well as qualitative method. Within the present research, the investigator
will make use of the quantitative research method in order to collect information from
both primary and secondary sources (Kabi and et.al., 2018). The quantitative research
method provide assistance to the investigator in the process of gathering as well as
analysing numerical data in an easy way. This kind of research method also requires less
time and is cost-effective in approach of collecting and inspecting data in the form of
numbers. The quantitative research method also focusses on the facts and figures about
the topic and with the support of this kind of method, researcher can build trust on the
quantitative data as compared to the qualitative information.
 Time Horizon: This refers to the time that is taken by the investigator in order to collect
the data and along with it time horizons consist of cross-sectional as well as longitudinal.
Within this existing research, cross-sectional time horizon will be used by the
investigator as it facilitates in the process of gathering data in one single go along with
the less amount (Llerena-Izquierdo and Ayala-Carabajo, 2021). With the support of this
kind of time horizon, the researcher completes the research within a very small time in an
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accurate manner. On the other hand, the investigator will not select longitudinal time
horizon as it takes time to accomplish the research as well as observe individual variables
for the longer period of time and needs more cost.
 Data Collection and Analysis: The process of collecting data refers to a method which
is used by the investigator for the purpose of collecting the information in relation to the
research topic. There are two main methods of collecting data and these include primary
and secondary data. With the help of primary data collection method, investigator collect
data directly from the respondents among the large population. On the other hand, with
the help of secondary data collection method, the researcher gathers data from the
published sources like journals, articles, books and many more sources. In this existing
investigation, the researcher will make use of both primary and secondary sources to
collect data in order to conduct the research effectively. Primary data is used in data
analysis section in the form of questionnaire while secondary data is used in literature
review section through online sites. There are multiple techniques of analysing the data
which is collected and these techniques include frequency distribution, thematic analysis,
correlation and many others (Maheshwari and Vohra, 2018). Within the present research,
the investigator will use frequency distribution for analysing the quantitative data. The
researcher will use this technique because it is less-time consuming and also requires less
cost for inspecting data in the form of tables and graphs.
 Sampling: According to this element of the research methodology, samples are taken out
from the whole population through making use of either the probability or non-
probability method of sampling. Within this existing research, the investigator will use
the method of random sampling in order to select the candidates. Such kind of sampling
method provides fair as well as balanced possibilities to the participants for the purpose
of getting chosen. There is no biasness prevails under such type of sampling method in
order to select the people from a large number of the population present there. The
sample size for this current research is 25 employees of Sainsbury who will be selected
through random sampling method.
2.2. Data Analysis
Within this current research, both primary as well as secondary sources of data collection
are used by the researcher in order to collect quantitative information in an effective as well as
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efficient manner (Park, Kang and Kim, 2018). In order to analyse the data which is collected,
the data analytical technique of frequency distribution is taken into consideration by the
researcher. This kind of analytical technique allows the investigator to have a glance at whole
information in a very easy manner. With the help of frequency distribution technique, the
researcher can get the information that whether the observations are high or low. It will also be
able to know that whether they are focussed within an area or spread throughout the whole scale.
The reason behind choosing frequency distribution technique is that it provide assistance to the
investigator in organising the information in a meaningful as well as intelligible manner.
2.3. Ethics, Values, Referencing and Presentation
In research ethical consideration has been defined as set of the principles which guide the
research designs & practices. In respective research project, investigator has follow all the ethical
practices. When research has recruiting the respondent for the survey, then all potential
participant were informed that they are free to choose whether they willing to participate and can
withdraw their name. Along with this, all the respondent were full aware about what the study is
about, how long this research will take, benefits and risk of taking part in the survey and so on.
The researcher has also taken into the account confidentiality of the data as all the information or
data collected form the respondent are very safe. Beside it, investigator has also ensure safety of
personal information. It is major responsibility of a researcher to protect respondent's data form
any kind of threat (Portolés and Martí, 2020). Apart form this, when collecting information, the
investigator did not ask any personal question to the respondent. If the survey is related to the
sensitive nature then researcher should inform them so that it does not harm participant's
emotions. Thus, in respective research, investigator has consider all the above discussed ethical
consideration during survey.
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REFERENCES
Amrutha, V. N. and Geetha, S. N., 2021. Linking organizational green training and voluntary
workplace green behavior: mediating role of green supporting climate and employees’
green satisfaction. Journal of Cleaner Production, 290, p.125876.
Cerdin, J. L., Liao, Y. and Sharma, K., 2020. The role of temporal focus, dispositional
employability, and training on the perceived internal career prospects of talents. The
International Journal of Human Resource Management, 31(9), pp.1106-1133.
Fellman and et.al., 2020. The role of strategy use in working memory training outcomes. Journal
of Memory and Language, 110, p.104064.
Galvão, A., Marques, C. and Ferreira, J. J., 2020. The role of entrepreneurship education and
training programmes in advancing entrepreneurial skills and new ventures. European
Journal of Training and Development, 44(6/7), pp.595-614.
Galvão and et.al., 2020. Stakeholders’ role in entrepreneurship education and training
programmes with impacts on regional development. Journal of Rural Studies, 74,
pp.169-179.
Kabi and et.al., 2018. The role of training in building awareness about formalin abuse: evidence
from Bangladesh. International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and
Management.
Llerena-Izquierdo, J. and Ayala-Carabajo, R., 2021, February. University teacher training during
the COVID-19 emergency: the role of online teaching-learning tools. In International
Conference on Information Technology & Systems (pp. 90-99). Springer, Cham.
Maheshwari, S. and Vohra, V., 2018. Role of training and development practices in
implementing change. International Journal of Learning and Change, 10(2), pp.131-
162.
Park, S., Kang, H. S. T. and Kim, E. J., 2018. The role of supervisor support on employees’
training and job performance: an empirical study. European Journal of Training and
Development.
Portolés, L. and Martí, O., 2020. Teachers’ beliefs about multilingual pedagogies and the role of
initial training. International Journal of Multilingualism, 17(2), pp.248-264.
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