Marks & Spencer - Employees Motivation Influence on Customer Satisfaction - Research Proposal Example

Research Paper: A Study Of Employees Motivation and Its Influence on Satisfaction: The Case of Marks & Spencer, London, UK Task I Research Project Description Customer satisfaction may be defined as the degree to which the products and services of an organization exceeds the customers’ expectations. In this era of global competition, most of the business organizations operate with an objective of maximizing customer satisfaction. The rationale behind such objective can be justified by the fact that as the customer satisfaction increases; it will in turn attract more and more customers. Such enhancement in the customer base definitely increases the sales and revenue of the organization. A general conscience indicates that level of customer satisfaction highly depends upon the customer services provided by the employees of the organization. Customer service includes a large number of aspects including understanding the contemporary business trend and interpreting the same to the customers, procuring the best suitable products and services to the customers through rightly identifying the customer specifications and preferences. Therefore, efficiency in customer service can be achieved only through high inclination of employees towards their jobs. However, employees can bring such efficiency in their performances only if they are highly motivated towards achieving organizational objectives. Organizational motivation can be defined as the process through which the employees are induced to achieve organizational goals through providing tangible and intangible benefits for accomplishing their primary needs and expectations from the organizations. Therefore, it is expected that there is a relationship between customer satisfaction and employee motivation. The research paper will evaluate the employee motivation and customer satisfaction of Marks & Spencer Plc is one of the leading retailers of London, United Kingdom that specialises in merchandising of men and women’s wear, home and food products as well as luxury products. The company has been operating in this industry segment since 1984 and gradually has been able to internationalize its business through its continuous effort for product diversification and customer satisfaction. The company started gaining attention since 20th century through selling of the products of British manufacturers and producers only. Customer satisfaction was prioritized by the company since then which can be exemplified by the company’s effort to give full cash return if the purchased products appear to be unwanted to the customers. In fact, the company has a provision of returning money irrespective of the time of purchase, only if the customer can produce the bill at the time of demanding the return. Apart from this, Marks & Spencer Plc puts huge emphasis on quality consideration and maintains a scientific inventory management system in order to procure products of superior qualities, especially in case of food products. Quality is another aspect of the company that enables it to retain customer satisfaction. In fact, Marks & Spencer Plc has gone through a series of business turmoil since inception. However, it has been able to manage such situations through concentrating on understanding the taste and preferences of the consumers and accordingly, training their employees in such a way so that they can strive to infuse uncompromising attitude towards customer satisfaction through procuring the customers the product which best suits his needs. The taglines of Marks & Spencer Plc such as “This is not just food, this is M&S food” and “Quality worth every penny” also reflects the company’s attempt to ascertain customer satisfaction through quality consideration. Now, many researchers are of the opinion that tradition of Marks & Spencer Plc to institute good staff relations and effort of the management to provide maximum benefits to the staffs, works as motivational factor among the human resource of the company. As a result, the employees are influenced to put their best efforts in their respective duties and responsibilities at workplace. Therefore, the main purpose of this project is to identify the correlation between employee motivation and customer satisfaction in this famous British multinational retailing company Marks & Spencer. 2. Aim of the Research Aim of the research is to identify whether sound motivation level of employees of Marks & Spencer help the organization to achieve customer satisfaction which in turn facilitates the organization to accomplish its short term as well as long term business objectives. For the purpose of analysis, the following aspects will be taken into consideration. Critical analysis of the theories and literature related to customer satisfaction and employee motivation. Identification of the association between these two factors in Marks & Spencer. Identification of the problems related to the research agenda and accordingly provides structured solutions so that the company can improve its future performance through motivating the employees so that they strive to establish customer satisfaction. 3. Research Question For the purpose of indentifying the relationship between employee motivation and customer satisfaction, the researcher must aim address the following questions. 3. Research Objective In order to accomplish the aim of the research paper, the research objective will be formulated in such a manner that it will help the researcher to attain its fundamental as well as auxiliary intentions. In order to achieve the aim of the research, the first objective is to prepare a blueprint regarding how to carry out the research and complete the work within a specified time period. In this context, the research approach and techniques that is required to in In order to carry out the research, decision should also be taken regarding selection of the source of the most appropriate data and information that will best explore the intrinsic connotation of the research aim. During the progression of the research work, the researcher will present his findings based on some considerations and he will also encounter various limitations in terms of access to certain information and complexities in applying certain techniques. The researcher should examine all such factors well in advance that can may create hindrance in the research work and take precautionary measures in order to overcome such difficulties. 4. Information Required: Literature Review 5. Research Methodology Research methodology signifies the systematic approach for analysing the information and statistics regarding the research agenda and subsequently to arrive at a realistic solution to the pre- defined research problem. In the next segment, a detailed research methodology will be presented so that the research can be carried out in a structured manner. 5.1. Research Approach Qualitative research approach aims to explore the intrinsic connotation of the research objective through analyzing the contradictory arguments proposed by different connoisseurs. More specifically, qualitative research approach requires the researcher to conduct in-depth study of the acquired materials and information to validate the reasons behind the research issues and questions. For the purpose of analyzing the underlying rationale between deductive reasoning approaches will be incorporated under qualitative research. Moreover, as qualitative research is not based on any pre-determined hypothesis and not confined to the requirement of analyzing limited numerical data, the research approach will provide the researcher more flexibility to precede the research work. A part of this qualitative research will also involve meta-analysis i.e. drawing a definite inference regarding the research questions through root-cause analysis of the existing journals and theoretical framework. 5.2. Research Technique 5.3. Research Philosophy 5.4. Research Paradigm 5.5. Practical and Ethical Issues 5.6. Project States and Annual Completion Expectation Read More