Introduction

Research Background

In the present time, due to increasing competition and changing trends in the market, implementing effective changes have become one of the key concerns in most of these business organisations. In this particular context, being the most important part of an organisation, employees are needed to be engaged and motivated for obtaining success from that change. In the present time, a range of challenges are faced by the retail sector in the UK and because of this reason, it is important to make positive changes in the organisational management process. For instance, it has been seen that some of the key challenges faced by the retail sector in this country are related to implementing mobility, creating omnichannel interaction, system consolidation, customer service excellence and so on (incom.co.uk, 2021). In order to cope with such issues, change management is one of the most important requirements in these business organisations.

For example, it has been reported that the management teams of a leading retail organisation in the UK, Marks and Spencers (M&S) too often make ineffective decisions which have resulted in business issues (bbc.com, 2021). Due to this complex management process, most employees of this organisation face issue in understanding their own tasks. In order to solve this issue, in 2016, M&S has made changes to simplify its management structure (fashionnetwork.com, 2021). Through this change, it has been possible to enhance the decision-making process which in turn helps to move the business closer to customers. In this change management process, a new operating committee has been developed and the employees were asked to work accordingly. In this context, employee motivation has become one of the key concerns for this organisation, as, without the help of employees, it is difficult to continue business operations based on the newly organised committee successfully.

Apart from that, the Covid-19 pandemic crisis has significantly impacted most of the business sectors across the world. For instance, in the UK, the total volume of retail sales has decreased by 1.9% compared to 2019 while online sales volume has risen by 60% in May 2020 compared to the February level (ons.gov.uk, 2021). It indicates a key trend and demand for online or digital marketing and sales. Thus, the implementation of online marketing has become a key focus of most of the retail organisations. Employee motivation is a key requirement in this organisational or business management change as, without their participation of them, this purpose could not be achieved. It indicates that employee motivation is important for rapid change in the organisation (managers.org.uk, 2021). On the contrary, many organisations are unable to ensure employee motivations due to a range of factors which in turn creates barriers in effective change implementation and management. Focusing on this issue, this research would be conducted to recommend effective ways of employee motivation for organisational change management.

Research Aim

The aim of this proposed study is to analyse the impact of employee motivation on change management in retail business organisations.

Research Objectives

The objectives of this research would be-

• To study the importance of employee motivation and change management in business organisations
• To analyse the impact of employee motivation on the change management process in retail business organisations
• To find out the challenges faced by the business organisations in implementing and managing changes within the business process
• To evaluate the possible effective ways of employee motivation in business organisations

Research Questions

1. Why is change management as well as employee motivation important in business organisations?
2. How does employee motivation influence change management in retail business organisations?
3. What challenges are faced by business organisations in change implementation and management processes?
4. How can employees in organisations be motivated for change management?

Research Rationale

A lack of employee motivation creates a limitation in effective change implementation and management in business organisations (Stouten, Rousseau and De Cremer, 2018). On the other hand, it has been seen that in order to achieve a competitive advantage in the potential competitive market and to cope with rapid changes in the organisation, change is an important aspect. Apart from that, the Covid-19 pandemic crisis has also influenced retail business organisations to make certain changes for sustaining the business (Mitchell et al., 2020). On the contrary, many organisations in this industry are incapable of ensuring employee motivation which has become a key issue in the present time. However, the proposed research can shed light on these particular issues by identifying the effective ways of employee motivation for effective change management based on the analysis of the importance of employee motivation on such change management. From this point of view, it can be stated that the research is significant enough for further conduction.

Literature Review

Importance of employee motivation and change in business organisation

Change management

Effective change management in business organisations helps to successfully adopt new technologies or business processes to work promptly based on the current demands and trends of the consumer market (Kotter et al. 2021). For instance, the fashion retail industry in the UK and many other countries face challenges to meet the new technology trends and changing consumer preferences. It has been found by Nash (2019) that these retail organisations plan to take innovative approaches for meeting such challenges and it indicates the requirement of changes in the overall management process. This study has also highlighted that customers’ demands for social media-based marketing are increasing in the fashion industry. As for this reason, shifting the traditional marketing techniques to digital processes creates a need for implementing change in the marketing management process. Similarly, it has been reported that due to the rapid growth of digital technology over 10 years, customers expect new and more personalised online services, and simultaneously good in-store experience is also demanded by the rest of the customers (incom.co.uk, 2021). As a result, retail organisations have realised that smooth shifting to digital technology as well as omnichannel interactions are important for ensuring consumer saturation. It is also a reason for making changes in the overall business management process.

Employee motivation

It has been stated by Kurdi, Alshurideh and Alnaser (2020) that employee motivation is important in a business organisation for ensuring organisational success, change management, customer satisfaction and service improvement. It has also been reported that the primary aim of employee motivation is to increase employee engagement and retain in a business organisation (managers.org.uk, 2021). Supporting these aspects, it has been revealed by Davies and Doherty (2019) that employee motivation is important for balancing any hybrid business model successfully.

Influence of employee motivation on organisational change management

According to Hussain et al. (2018), employee motivation is necessary to perform the activities effectively to implement the organisation change successfully and for this purpose proper leadership practice is a key concern. Supporting this finding, it has been stated by Bakari, Hunjra and Niazi (2017), that motivates employees to make the organisation capable of implementing changes for further improvement. It further helps to build a productive workplace environment which is essential in improving organisational performance and productivity.

Issues in motivating employees and managing changes in business organisation

A range of issues is faced by many business organisations in motivating employees. For example, it has been found by Beltrán-Martín and Bou-Llusar (2018), that low self-confidence and a lack of skills and knowledge of employees are the main issues associated with the approach of employee motivation. On the contrary, it has been argued by Rahbi, Khalid and Khan (2017) that ineffective leadership styles in many organisations are the barriers to employee motivation. In many cases, organisational changes further change or influence the job position or role of the employees and because of this fear, they often show a lack of motivation (Riyanto, Sutrisnoand Ali, 2017).

According to Rosenbaum, More and Steane (2018), managing multiple teams and differentiating needs of multiple sites are the main challenges faced by organisations in implementing organisational change. In contrast, it has been found by Waddell et al. (2019),  failure to involve and engage employees and poor communication are the concerning issues in managing changes in organisations.

Effective ways of motivating employees

As per the findings of Najjar and Fares (2017), meeting the specific needs of employees enhances employee motivation in ab business organisations. This finding indicates the implementation of The Maslow Hierarchy of Needstheory of motivation to motivate employees by meeting their basic needs. On the other hand, it has been highlighted by Idowu (2017), that by offering incentives or promotions, it becomes also possible to motivate employees in an organisation. Supporting this aspect, Najjar and Fares (2017) have stated that creating a flexible workplace, providing training are also effective ways of ensuring employee motivation. 

Methodology

Research Philosophy

Research philosophy is of mainly four types including realism, positivism, interpretivism and pragmatism philosophies (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). Positivism philosophy mainly focuses on gathering and implementation of only factual knowledge and information related to the concerning problem areas. On the other hand, realism philosophy generally depends on the assumptions of a scientific knowledge development approach as it relies on the idea of independence of reality from the human mind (Kennedy, 2017). Focusing on these aspects, positivism philosophy would be followed in this proposed research.

Research Approach

Research approaches are of mainly two types including inductive and deductive approaches.  The deductive approach helps to justify any existing concept, theory or hypothesis by contributing new findings. On the contrary, through an inductive approach, it becomes possible to create any new theory or concept (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). As previous studies have already revealed that employee motivation as well engagement has a direct relationship with organisational change management, this proposed study would analyse the findings. Hence, it can be stated that the selection of deductive research philosophy is justified.

Research Design

There are mainly three types of research designs which include explanatory, exploratory and descriptive research designs (Al-Ababneh, 2020). Exploratory research design allows the researcher to explore new things while the explanatory design is based on the explanation of the previous findings. In this proposed research, a descriptive design would be chosen to describe how employee motivation influences change management in a detailed manner. Therefore, the selection of this research is Justified.

Research strategies

In research, mainly two types of data collection methods are followed including primary or secondary data collection methods. As discussed above, through the primary data collection method, data is cooled from the above-mentioned primary sources while based on the secondary data collection method, secondary sources are used to collect data. Apart from that, many studies, multi methods are also used where relevant data is collected from primary and secondary sources (Bell, Bryman and Harley, 2018).

On the other hand, data is of mainly two forms including qualitative data and quantitative data (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). Quantitative data is available in a numerical or statistical form which allows the researcher to undertake quantitative analysis. On the contrary, qualitative data is descriptive detailed information. The mixed-method is also used in many studies where both qualitative and quantitative data are collected. However, from this discussion, it has become clear that the selection of data collection methods is important for generating new ideas or solving a particular problem. In this research, a primary quantitative method is going to be followed to collect data.

Data Collection methods

In order to collect primary quantitative data, an online survey would be conducted among 63 employees of different retail organisations in the UK. A set of some close-ended questions would be designed on Google Form and its link would be distributed via email to a minimum of 70 employees and it is expected that 63 responses would be collected. The questions would be related to different aspects of motivation and change management to know their views regarding the influence of their motivation on their organisational change management. Equal chances would be given to all participants to be responsive to avoid any kind of partiality of biases. This data would be collected and the response would be considered as primary quantitative data.

Sampling methods

There are different types of sampling techniques used in research such as simple random, clustered, systematic, convenience, snowball sampling and so on (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). A simple random sampling method would be followed in this study to select the participants for the survey for the purpose of collecting data. In this process, no partiality would take place and thus, it would be possible to avoid biases in this research. Following this aspect, an online survey would be conducted among 63 employees of different retail business organisations in the UK to collect responses from the participants directly. 

Data Analysis methods

As discussed above, only primary quantitative data would be collected, the data analysis method would also be selected accordingly. Based on the collected data, a percentage or response analysis would be performed through graphical representation to obtain significant research findings. In this context, the majority of the responses would be considered for answering the research questions.

Validity, reliability and generalizability

Reliability and validity of data are one of the main concerns in research. In this particular context, it is needed to ensure that all the data are collected from authentic and valid sources. By ensuring the reliability as well as the validity of data, it further can be possible to state that the research is conducted in a valid and legal way (Bell, Bryman and Harley, 2018). In this research, data would be collected from original sources without creating any biases.

Ethical Consideration

There are certain research ethics which are needed to be met at the time of conducting this research for ensuring the entire research is conducted systematically and ethically (Gray, 209). Similarly, in this proposed research, those ethics would also be met. For instance, ethical approval would be obtained from the university before starting the research activities. All the required data would be collected from the participants after collecting consent from them. In this way, it would be possible to ensure that no participants would be forced to participate in this research. In this particular context, the scope, reason, aim and benefits of this research would be explained to them to make sure that this research would be used only for academic purposes and not for any commercial or business purposes. Moreover, all the data would be stored and managed following the guidelines of the Data Protection Act 2018 to ensure data privacy. These data would be stored in the password-protected laptop which can only be accessed by the researcher and the assessor. Thus, specific ethical considerations would be met in this study.

Research Schedule

[Refer to Appendix I]

Research Limitations

As in this research, data would only be collected from the employees of the retail organisation, the perceptions of the managers or leaders would not be included here and hence it would be a gap in this proposed research. There is also a possibility that some of the target participants would not respond properly and hence it would further create a research gap.