MAN130 Management Research Methods Assignment Sample 2023

Introduction

The reward and recognition play an essential role in the workplace as it indicates the job satisfaction level of employees, and that is examined in Maslow’s Hierarchy needs theory, stated by Fallatah and Syed, (2018). Furthermore, Herzberg’s two-factor theory and Alderfer’s ERG theory and Vroom’s Instrumentality and expectancy theory represent the concept of reward and recognition for improving employee’s morale and performance, opined by Rehman et al. (2018). Herzberg’s satisfying factors are a sense of achievement, work’s nature, authority, personal and professional development and growth opportunities are considered essential for employee’s behaviour at the workplace, stated by Rehman et al. (2018).

Furthermore, the research aims and objectives will be established to carry out the proposal. A literature review will be provided based on the topic. Research methodologies will be explained, where positivism research philosophy will be used. The deductive research will be utilised for this research proposal, and a primary research method will be used for the data collection procedure.

The justification behind selecting the topic is to determine how reward and recognition contribute to employee performance. Another research paper suggests that dissatisfied staff could not be motivated unless rewards and recognition are offered for hard work and determination (Zeb et al. 2018). Therefore, researchers have suggested that organisations need to care about hygiene elements before implementing reward and recognition concepts in the workplace, stated by Chiat and Panatik, (2019). Argued by Zeb et al. (2018), refuses to accept the Herzberg’s theory. It suggests satisfiers are motivating employees to create particular desirable behaviours for a short time and hygiene factors, which would not be considered motivational.

According to Chinomona et al. (2017), a reward is provided as a trophy in return for an employee’s success and obtainability. Furthermore, the reward is also considered as an appreciation of particular behaviour in the form of monetary and non-monetary inducements after particular obtainable or success. Therefore, it should be considered as a challenge for organisations to ensure employees are motivated. Employee’s motivation level could be decided based on an effective system of “rewards and recognition”, stated by El Qadri et al. (2018).

Aims and objectives

This research proposal’s main research proposal is exploring the insinuation of reward and recognition schemes on the staff working in Morrisons supermarket.

Objective 1: To recognise the effect of non monetary motivation on the staff’s performances.

Objective 2: To examine the relationship between recompense and staff’s performances.

Objective 3: To explore the effect of monetary motivation on the staff’s performance in the retail organisation.

Objective 4: To advocate strategies to improve employee motivation in the organisation.

Literature review 

The literature review is referred to surveying books, journals, pdfs, articles and other essential sources. These are related to a specific topic, field of research, hypothesis, and following, so it offers an explanation, summary, and reproving analysis of these works related to the research issue being explored (Snyder, 2019). Therefore, this research proposal will research non-financial motivation on staff’s performance and relationship with reward and employee performance—the monetary incentive on employee’s performance and strategies to improve employee’s basis in the industry.

The impact of non-monetary motivation on staff’s motivation

According to Munyua, (2017), a research study suggests that career improvement and mentoring are the essential factors of staff’s motivation. A compatible work environment is the crucial factor of the inherent reward that some enterprises provide to value employees’ effort and hard work. Another study suggests that freedom, career development opportunities, appreciating employees, training programs, sustainable workplace culture, and good mentoring are necessary factors that positively impact staff’s attitude and productivity at the workplace, stated by Omolawal and Bawalla, (2017). Furthermore, five unconstrained variables are often undertaken in the research such as training, identification of performance, the opportunity for career improvement, efficient communication mediums and employment security to recognise the effect on employee’s work-related motivation, opined by Kumar and Hossain, (2017). Intrinsic rewards are offered to the employee’s that improve self-esteem, sense of achievement and workplace satisfaction, growth and improvement of particular talent and skills.

Apart from that, job characteristics and sales policies in the retail sector are interrelated to intrinsic motivation, opined by Kantanen et al. (2017). Different motivational factors also contribute to inherent satisfaction among employees, which is proven to improve happiness and performance in the workplace, stated by Good et al. (2021). Intrinsically motivated employees in the retail sector tend to work with fun and challenges instead of the pressure of external reward. Such a working process indicates an energetic flow, and the flow itself controls the satisfaction among employees. Furthermore, high intrinsic or non-financial motivation makes positive results such as elasticity and open-minded attitude among employees in the workplace, opined by Kantanen et al. (2017).

The relationship between compensation and employee performance

Rewarding or compensating employees are dependent on the performance. How well employees could perform in the tricky field for organisation rather than turn out wrong would slow down overall productivity and performance. Very few organisation’s efficiently link compensation and performance, stated by Sancho et al. (2018). Vroom’s expectancy theory suggests that employees make choices in the organisational function based on expectancies, and these expectancies are relied on rewards and provide good outcomes, opined by Patil, (2020). According to Panekenan et al. (2019), employee behaviour could not be comprehended unless influencing rewards. However, if an enterprise fails to offer tips to the employees, it would most likely negatively affect employee performance. Nyikuli et al. (2017) argued that money is not the only motivator for the employees to improve performance; instead, when pay increases substantially, intrinsic elements become the primary motivator. Employees require intrinsic reward as motivation for enhancing performance and skills.

However, nowadays, interests and attention are shifted towards extrinsic and intrinsic rewards, especially in the private sectors, where different reward packages influence retaining higher employee motivation, stated by Edirisooriya, (2018). Rewards exercises play an essential role in employee motivation and performance; thus, an ineffective rewards system could hamper employee motivation, productivity, internal dispute, truancy, increased turnover rate, and decreased commitment and loyalty towards the organisation Edirisooriya, (2018). As per the view of Armstrong (2020), reward management procedures are connected with style, implementation, and reward system to enhance organisation, team members or employee performance and productivity while meeting the needs of the employee, team members, and expectations in the workplace. Extrinsic reward and employee performances are also related because it includes pay, promotion, incentives, and other external benefits to employees and offered by organisations.

The impact of monetary motivation on employee performance in the retail sector

There is only one way for retail employees to attain dreams: sharing it and reward systems offer materials for the fruition of the dream, stated by Ndungu (2017) . Rewards serve a specific purpose that includes attracting new employees to the organisation, establishing effective work performance, and managing the employee’s commitment towards the organisation. Furthermore, if an organisation values team performance, team members need to be compensated to maintain the performance. That psychological contract would make employees think rewards are offered in a fair term based on their performance and productivity, stated by Schreiner, (2018). Another research statement suggests that employees who were offered financial motivation outperformed other team members by 10% and contributed a big difference in the financial results, opined by Addair, (2019). Therefore, retail leaders are solely responsible for contributing to changes in the workplace by supporting the retail store employees. Simply by offering extrinsic rewards to motivate and attain higher profitability for the organisation, which could also lower the employee turnover rate and increase employee performance and engagement, stated by Addair (2019.

Furthermore, the reward systems are also considered to be the main component for performance management. It surrounds all organisational sections aligned to recompense such as employees, rules, regulations, and decision-making procedures incorporated in for locating the advantages and reimbursement to the employees in return to contributions made in the workplace, argued by Siwale et al. (2020). At the same time, principal agency theory suggests that most employees are attracted to economic opportunities and are motivating. On the other hand, socio-economic theory argues that employees who are neither attracted to monetary rewards nor have a similar approach could be fascinated by financial and non-financial rewards that can improve motivation and loyalty towards organisation, opined by  Siwale et al. (2020).

Strategies to improve employee’s motivation in the retail sector

Satisfied and motivated employees are responsible for bringing higher productivity more effectively and meeting goals faster, stated by Ristic et al. (2017). The economic crisis in the 2008 collapse retail and other industries and lowered the rate of transformation, and thereby reduced the productivity and performance of the employees because of demotivating external factors on employees, opined by Ristic et al. (2017). According to Maslow’s Need Hierarchy theory, there are two types of needs that contribute to the employees’ motivation. Lower-level needs could be fulfilled externally, and higher-level needs are satisfied internally. Lower-level conditions indicate average biological needs, and higher-level needs are achievements and individual endeavours and self actualisations, stated by Li et al. (2019). Based on the theory, the organisation leaders should ensure that after completion of the lower levels needs among employees, it should concentrate on achieving higher-level needs where reward, recognition plays a massive role for motivation, opined by Zeb et al. (2018). The management concept of reward and punishment plays a significant role in employee motivation. Rewards are considered tangible or intangible offered by organisations to the employee for contributing to the work and motivating employees for higher productivity. On the other hand, punishment, also part of the management concept, aims to punish violating employees to improve performance, maintain workplace regulation and forces to represent desirable behaviours, opined by Novarini and Imbayani, (2019).

Methodology

Research methodology refers to a particular process or methods utilised to recognise, select, procedures and examine information about a topic (Devi, 2017). Furthermore, research methodology allows a reader to explore a research’s overall authenticity and reliability.

Research philosophy 

The research philosophy is referred to a set of beliefs and presumptions about the enhancement of knowledge. Furthermore, consistent thoughts and opinions would contribute to an acceptable research philosophy; therefore, it would support the methodological choices, strategy for the research, data collection and data analysis (Hürlimann, 2019). The researcher could only produce good research if epistemology is taken into consideration (Žukauskas et al. 2018). There are four types of ontology such as positivism, realism, interpretivism and pragmatism. However, the positivism research policy will be selected for this research proposal. Positivism relies on quantifiable monitoring, which leads to arithmetical analysis (Ryan, 2018).  Furthermore, the selection of the positivism research philosophy is incorporated with obtaining factual knowledge via observation and calculation to validate the research. It would also assist researchers in logically examining data and offering opportunities to utilise different data about similar topics.

Research approach 

The research approach is another essential part of the research methodology that impacts the research methods’ choices (Tuffour, 2017). The research approach is divided into three sections such as inductive, deductive and abductive research approach. Therefore, if a researcher wishes to formulate research questions at the beginning of the research, an inductive approach will be best suited. However, if research wants to obtain research objectives through examining theories, thus deductive research approach would work better. The reasoned approach checks the validity of the hypothesis, and the inductive approach brings emergence to the new idea and oversimplification (Azungah, 2018). The Abductive course concentrates on the surprising elements and research procedure is involved in the explanation. Therefore, the researcher will follow a deductive research approach as the topic highlights employee’s performance via recompense and recognition schemes on Morrison’s. Furthermore, it also suggests that scopes are limited in establishing new research hypotheses on this subject.

Research design 

The research design’s explanation is different in every condition; however, researchers and scholars state selecting specific methods of data gathering and analysis. On the other hand, others suggest selecting quantitative and qualitative research methods (da Silva, 2017). Two types of research design currently used in the research projects as exploratory and conclusive research design. The experimental research design represents the research questions, and it does not provide final and definitive resolutions to the current issues (De Langhe and Schliesser, 2017). Furthermore, that sort of research is mainly conducted to examine a problem that is not clearly explained. On the other hand, the conclusive research design is used to search for explorations to reach a conclusion or decide (De Langhe and Schliesser, 2017).

Therefore, the exploratory research design will be selected for this research proposal because of its flexibility and adaptability to changes, and it is also effective for groundwork research which would make ways for future study. Most importantly, it will help conduct interviews and surveys on employees and managers of the Morrison’s.

Data collection methods

The data collection is the most crucial section of the research proposal. Effective data collection processes would assist the researcher in carrying on the research procedure successfully. There are two types of data as primary and secondary (Unachukwu et al. 2018). Primary data is gathered for a particular purpose and used to find answers by critical analysis. Secondary data represents previously introduced data on the newspaper, books, journals, pdfs on different sites. Therefore, the primary research technique will be selected for this research proposal. The justification behind the selection of primary approach is incorporated with finding practical information from the organisation.

On the other hand, quantitative research methods are represented in a structure of inconsistency. While the qualitative research technique represents motives and oversimplifications (Queirós et al. 2017). Therefore, qualitative data from primary research sources will be taken in this research project because data will be generated by carrying out interviews and surveys. The responses of the employees will create the surveys, and interviews will be conducted by collecting information from the five managers of Morrison’s supermarket.

Data analysis procedure

The data analysis is referred to some steps that are needed to undertake, which would establish data formation and interpretations in an order. Furthermore, there are two sets of data analysis available: quantitative and qualitative data analysis (De Block and Vis, 2019). Therefore, qualitative data analysis referred to conducting interviews and surveys, which is done by concentrating on a target group. This data analysis process is based on identifying designs in the responses and critically analysing it to meet the aims and objectives of the research. The quantitative data analysis process consists of examining and explaining graphs, images, charts and diagrams and numerical.

 Furthermore, the qualitative data analysis will be used in this research project because questionnaires will be offered to the participants, and in terms of survey, it aims for 100 participants via Google form. On the other hand, interviews will be carried out on semi-arranged questionnaires to contribute more discussions.

 Ethical consideration & Timescale 

The researcher is responsible for completing the research proposal within the deadline (Rodríguez Bravo et al. 2017). Furthermore, the research is concentrated on qualitative and quantitative data collection that has significant time requirements. Apart from that, researchers would need to put research questions on the Google forms as interview questions or questionnaires for the employees and managers of the organisation. Furthermore, developing interview and survey questions require time, and the time is significantly necessary for this research proposal and needs to be grasped in any repercussion.

[Referred to appendix]

Apart from that, employee conveniences are limited, and the selected number is 100 from the enterprise. Furthermore, the reliability of the answers won’t be true, thereby changing the research aim and objectives. Some of the sensitive questions are produced in the paper, which employees and managers might not answer. Furthermore, simple and general inquiries will not harm employees and managers, and that is ensured to prevent misconception from out of this research.

Furthermore, upon successfully completing the research, the researcher needs to ensure that the participants’ identities remain protected through the study. It could be a precaution to safeguard the participants’ valuable information and make it anonymous in the research publication would prevent harm from the employees.

Conclusion

The above analysis of the research proposal demonstrates the significant impact of reward and recognition on employee’s performance and how it contributes to job satisfaction. The literature review section indirectly emphasises the importance of compensation and glory in the workplace. Maslow’s theory clearly demonstrates how an individual attains achievements and strives personally and professionally after fulfilling the lower level needs. Furthermore, the study also recommends that employee’s work hard and put significant effort into the organisational functions because it is believed to bring desirable rewards, which is the main component that drives employee’s for higher productivity.  Apart from that, it is also recommended that reward and recognition should be available at Morrisons supermarket so that it continues to motivate staff and increase job satisfaction. The intrinsic rewards play an essential role for employee motivation, and it does not have monetary value like an extrinsic reward. Instead, it focuses on employee growth and career development opportunities and offers training programs that assist staff in honing skills and knowledge.

Furthermore, the positivist research philosophy has been constructive for logically examining data. It has helped the researcher utilise different data types in various ranges, which were related to Morrison and employee performances. The deductive research approach has helped the researcher focus on employee performance via reward and recognition schemes, and scopes have been limited for new research hypotheses. Primary research methods have been used to follow up with interviews and surveys of the employees and managers, and participation has been limited to 100 to maintain the authenticity of the research.

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