the effects of the recruitment strategies on the performance of an organization, and with specifics to Marks and Spencer

Motivation

Literature Review

A great deal of review has been given to the study relating to the research objectives. It allows relevant literature that flexible comparison to be made and drawn upon different perceptions on issues and concepts of the study. At the same time, it allows constraints for empirical research to be realized. The review of the literature in this paper includes a general overview of management theories as well as Marks and Spencer. The review focuses on the performance management practices as applied by the company for success missions. The specific literature review focuses on the discussion on the impacts of staff motivation in enhancing performance of the employees. It goes to an in-depth analysis of studies focusing on the effects of the recruitment strategies on the performance of an organization, and with specifics to Marks and Spencer. This section also assesses and explains the management theories and concepts relating and supporting the motivational theory and in relation to Marks and Spencer. While examining the literature review, the study aims at identifying gaps that the study seeks to fill and outsource in the existing literature.

Theoretical Literature Review

One of the key roles of a manager in enhancing the success of an organization is to comprehensively understand employee motivation, its concepts and individual differences in personality and needs of workers. Being keen to employee motivational theories and factors, their changes over time in terms of priorities and the approach to these concepts, has been a step for managers towards better rewards of success. According to Robbins (2005), employee commitment, performance efficiency, productivity and loyalty are functions of motivation. Personality and productivity as some of the best motivational factors are considered as continual process which require the right mindset and attitude that can only be achieved at a rightfully motivated work ethics. Kovach (1987) suggests that the dilemma of many companies is to find out why their employees come to work on time, stay in the company for their full working lives, and are very productive at the same time. The significance of employees’ motivation, that makes them behave in certain ways, therefore may finally determine whether an organization fails or succeeds.

Many studies have been done on motivation and found out that more motivated employees are more productive, efficient, and stay in an organization for a long time. Thomas (2009) argues that the challenge of employee motivation in the work place rests with the ability of identifying the motivating factors of each employee considering the differences in personalities and other individual differences. The differences may be in terms of psychological, social, demographic, economical or political differences that every employee may have based on various levels of their needs. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs(1946) states that a complete individual satisfaction, therefore motivation, is a function of five needs; psychological, safety, esteem, love, and self actualization. These factors are very necessary in work place and managers who have mastered these concepts and theories are prone to much success.

Robbins (2005) argues that hygiene factors such as job security, salary, benefits and working conditions can prevent dissatisfactory issues among the employees. However, they may not go along way motivating the worker as well to that expected levels of motivation that will enhance more efficiency and productivity. When more sense and mindset of self actualization such as achievements, recognition, responsibility, personal growth and advancements are conferred upon an employee, he or she will be more motivated. Instances of personal growth and effort-recognition by an organization have myriad ways of extracting the best out of every worker. Such an organization would be reaping the advantage in the market place over its competitors that are still suffering from instances of absenteeism, high costs of re-training certain employees’ motivational programs, and production declines. According to Wiley (1997) in the process of ensuring employees are motivated, employers or managers must understand the drive of workers and what motivates them and such understanding are very essential in enhancing productivity.

Woodman et al. (1992) describes motivation as the internal acting force that makes a person to behave in a specific goal-oriented manner. Motivation is what makes people do what they do best at work, what make people want to work, that’s motivation (Reece and Brandt, 1990). In the same way, Daft and Marcic (2004) suggest that motivation involves both external and internal forces that arouse passion, enthusiasm, and persistence in pursuing a specific action. These studies argue about a common idea, that motivation must be accompanied by individual behavior, causes for that behavior, and the reasons for such behaviors which differ depending on the differences of individual needs. Managers and therefore an organization should not limit their energy on a specific model of motivation but should embrace the diversity of motivational models in order to realize the different needs of employees (Kovach, 1987).The aspects of models of motivation remains dynamic as various surveys prove that priorities of employee motivational factors change over time due to changing economic conditions, changes in working environment/industry, competitions in the industry, changes in the workers attitudes, labor market conditions among others.

Robbins (2005) discussed several theories that link motivation to organizational success. He argues that the reinforcement theory is an interlink theory that maintains rewarding a behavior with recognition immediately following the behavior is much likely to encourage the repetition of the behavior. He also suggests that involvement of the employees to taking part in the various responsibility of the organization is in conjunction with the ERG theory. This is also compatible with the efforts to stimulate the achievement need of the employees. Increasing the intrinsic factors in the job, for instance achievements, responsibility, and growth, make the employee be more satisfied working and is more likely to be motivated to perform. This is compatible and very consistent with the Herzberg’s two –factor theory.

Mark and Spencer Management is one of the few and unique management organizations which have adopted series of employee motivations. M&S online (2011) points out Mark and Spencer as having managers who understand well the concepts and theories of motivation and have enjoyed the full benefits of a motivated worker. One of the responsibilities of the section managers is motivate and inspire their team. This involves coaching them and inspiring their team of customer assistants in order to deliver better services that customers are happy about. According to Kovach (1984), section managers train their team and provide their psychological needs that instill passion and real zeal for the products they work with.

The management orientations of Marks and Spencer support the basic concepts and theories of motivating employees since they have evidently increased its management motives. B Robbins (2005) argues that the two-factor theory by Fredrick Herzberg, which emphasize on work itself, recognition, and responsibility as the sole motivators are directly the same approach employed by the Mark and Spencer. Optimum employee understanding and training, training, responsibility, and recognition practices to performance of various employees have been the foundation of the overall performance of the company. The ranges of management opportunities in Marks and Spencer are a vital illustration of the company’s ability to share responsibilities and instill the zeal and passion of action within every employee. This has largely been impacting on the company positively as sales volume in fiscal year records high margins. M&S online (2011) clearly puts it that one of the success stories was the imitative for Marks and Spencer to undertake successful change, facilitation which was required to transform the company into a learning organization, making use of knowledge creation and management.

M&S have over 375 stores and have enjoyed the loyalty of over 11 million shoppers in a week. This is a record of a company that has also enjoyed the efficiency of 66,000 workers who are well motivated to extract such margin of sales. The company remains one of the unchallenged companies in clothing sales due to it lenience to changing employee motivating factors. Various management changes have been taking place within Marks and Spencer and they have been developmental in nature which goes someway to explaining why the results have been successful. The company has changed their marketing mix, dropped and added products, service and customers, downsized and made large numbers of employees redundant and at the same time have developed the capacity to solve their own problems and achieve both high performance and quality of work life. This may be because their scientific approach and scientific- based strategy for change management, and employee engagements.

The management understands well the theories and concepts behind motivating employees in enhancing high productivity. Despite massive management and corporate structural changes in the recent past, the company still remains the leading in worldwide quality food and clothing retailer (M&S online, 2011). Management at M&S has been undergoing through series of restructure in late 1990, a situation which was occasioned by the results of the pressure from the ever changing economic demands and environment in the world. This made many companies to undergo series of management realignment, including M&S. the company took that to its advantage in order to benefit from the new series and management concept about employee motivation. Today, M&S stands as one of the largest food and clothing retailers in the world.

Since 2002, M&S have operated it Human resource services from Salford, Manchester. This is where administrative services that support employee issues are centered (M&S online, 2011). In line with the changing factors that might affect the company’s employees in an otherwise ways, M&S introduced People Policy Specialists to the Human Resources Services in 2008. PPS was responsible for the provision of the employee relation support and guidance for the Mark & Spencer management by providing employee customized laws and its policies. The Human Resources Service and the Recruitment services in most M&S branches have re-strategized the recruitment standards and services since 2011(M&S online,2011). Many modern theorists believe that in order to succeed business culture needs to be change-oriented and, hence, Mark & Spencer need to adapt to differentiating changing environments and internal workforce diversity.

According to Liao (2005) and Schneider (1994), the recruitment strategies and approaches of the Human Resources management of any company are reliant on the incorporating and situational agendas of the organization. They have myriad effects on the performance of the organization. Incorporative approach, as suggested by Schneider (1994) is an effective Human resources management which is deemed necessary in fostering employee motivation, commitment and development. This approach aims at creating a conducive working environment that emphasizes on the employee development during recruitment, training, participation, and communication which conversely make them innovative, committed and flexible in their work. Bergenhengouwen (1996) argues that the concept of core competence goes beyond strategic capability in looking for competitive advantage of an organization. It however depends on the recruitment strategies that an organization applies. M&S has been taking great steps in enhancing its recruitment strategies, which have been viewed as the starting point of successful strategies for the company through proper schedules of acquiring, training, retaining, and developing human resources.

The spotlight programme introduced in 2010 has made the recruitment strategies very efficient and aims at giving spotlight recognition for exceptional services of an employee. This strategy has enormously boosted the performance of M&S in the competitive environment through it valued and credible recruitment agency at the HRM (M&S online, 2011). Their annual report plans for 2013-2015 has a massive focus on the UK environment since their anxiety to expand their multi-retail services speaks well over its performance through recruitment channels in the region.

The current competitive scenario of firms in various industries is increasing and organizations are faced with competitive focus of their products. Management performance is one of the value characteristic of a highly performing organization and investment in human resource as one of the major source of competitive advantage compliment efficient management. Although Mark and Spencer have been heavily investing in its business strategies, management performance has also been one of the key competitive advantages that have enhanced the company’s success over the years. It has been taking a strategic approach can be especially beneficial for staff functions within companies, as they often are required to justify their need for resources and their contribution to the company. The new changes to business units and flatter company structure are likely to increase employee empowerment and responsibility, increasing more of the direct contacts with customers and building new knowledge through valuable management efficiency. Modern theories suggest flexible strategies which are better, accommodating change in the structure of the management, where they specialize in their field of tasks (Johnson and Scholes, 2002; Francis, 2003) has been the key source of management success in many organization, including Mark & Spencer.

To become more flexible Mark & Spencer has decided to apply a more horizontal management organization technique. Through a clear leadership role of appointed heads of business units, centralization has also been expected to be high only to a certain degree, not to prevent adaptability and flexibility of staff. Coordination is also expected to be in a form of a clear structured hierarchy and division of labor. To encourage job enrichment and staff satisfaction, M&S may establish one or more specific coordinating roles. Liaisons, individual or departmental, committees, task forces, project groups, etc are all examples of possible structural coordinating tools.

Empirical Literature Reviews

In according with Maslow hierarchy of needs, Marks and Spencer observes workers basic or safety needs at each level. Their sole idea is to make more employees want to achieve a higher level of needs such as social or esteem needs that makes them undergo self actualization. In pursuit of managing employee performance, management has to undergo various transformations that can adopt favorably with changing cultural changes. Mark & Spencer has a management scenario of rapid organizational transformation, which is based on a vision imposed on the company in a mainly directive fashion, down from the top, by its management and CEO, but which could potentially lead to a widespread change of attitudes and behaviors in the company.

Basic motivational theories describe the vice as a psychological factor which develop within an individual a passion to achieve some goals. Fodness (1994) argues that the psychological demands of an individual are the instances of the recurrence which makes wants unlimited. M&S understands this and that’s why the company trains workers regularly to keep these workers motivated. This makes them adapt to the changing work environment and pressure that comes with fashion.

One of the reasons behind the above mentioned transformations and changes is to modify the changing the attitudes and behaviors of the staff. In most cases, and during training, employees are being required to reconsider their attitudes towards how work is performed and their attitudes to their counterparts externally. Working relationship is vital to all from all levels of the whole organization. In this case, there are three people-related process that is to be undertaken: creating willingness to change; involving people, and sustaining the momentum (Doorewaard and Benschop, 2003; Burnes, 2004).

In the process of seeking and creating the willingness and readiness for change, Mark and Spencer’s management is aware of the positive aspects of the proposed change may also have negative impact on the company’s performance. Therefore, the company has to make its employees be fully aware of the pressure for such change during the business period, giving them an on-going feedback on the performance and areas of activity within the organization, and understanding staff’s fears and concerns. A constant communication and involvement will have to be present, providing resources and explanations for change. Aligned line managers will have to give all support needed to the change agents, develop new competence and skills and reinforce desired behaviors, such as increased pay or bonus. The theoretical literature has provided a foundation for narrowing the review of literature to the motivational theories and other studies on Mark and Spencer. The specific literature has in turn provided a platform to identify the gaps that this study intends to cover through empirical work.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

According to Brewton and Milward (2001), a valid research methodology should relate to the research methodology, and also ensure to obtain relevant data which addresses the research question. It should also consider the time constraints and resources and be ethically sound. The study aims at fulfilling these conditions. This part of the study focuses on the practical aspects of proving and extracting the relevant information for analysis.

Research Design

The research design for this study is descriptive which ensures a cross examination of the relevant information for the analysis of the impact on the staff performance to motivation of the employees and the overall impact it has on Marks and Spencer as a business. It will also help in extracting relevant information on other variables like recruitment strategies effects on the performance of Marks and Spencer and a comprehensive classification of the connection that exist between performance management and the organizational success of Marks and Spencer. Technique of survey questionnaire and other interview tools will be used. In the process of uncovering the real effects of motivation to the performance of Mark and Spencer, the study adopts the use of exploratory tools of investigations of the relevant information.

The design of the paper take following illustrated diagram, passing through the faces of the interviewer, the respondent and the interviewer for recommended action;

514350-266700Researcher confirms the data is correct

Researcher confirms the data is correct

781050249555Respondent decodes the question in the way the researcher intended

Respondent decodes the question in the way the researcher intended

466725198120Respondent answers the question

Respondent answers the question

514350308610Researcher decodes the answers in the way the respondent intended

Researcher decodes the answers in the way the respondent intended

In the same way, the study focuses on using analytical research tools to uncover and assess the magnitude of employee motivation in terms of the organization and interlink it with relevant motivational theories and concepts. The study adopts interpretive strategy to take information from the respondents’ point of view given the environment of the study. Just as Suanders et al (2009) argues, interpretive perspective is a highly recommended strategy especially in cases involving business organization and management particularly in the areas of human resource and organizational behavior.

The study aims at utilizing both qualitative and quantitative research techniques in order to minimize the limitations or constraints .Qualitative research techniques are being used to review the qualitative information and literature on the topic of study. Information from materials and content on motivational effects on the Mark & Spencer are intended to be qualitatively reviewed. Qualitative reviews were also in form of situational analysis of various materials that contain information on welfare or satisfaction labor community as the organization grows over time. These materials included scholarly articles, books, journals and many other sources of secondary information.

Data Type and Source

Since the paper is based on the Mark and Spencer management case, the employees and management from a sample of various stores are to be chosen for extraction of relevant information. The sources of information are therefore both primary and secondary. Reliable and valid primary data obtained from different employees from different organizations with the help of questionnaire by employing field survey method and secondary data was collected through the websites, journals, published research papers etc. using chart, (figures) graphs etc. Both qualitative and quantitative data being collected for analysis and formation of credible conclusion on the research questions objects and topic of study. Secondary data are extensively collected from both soft and hard copies of text books containing information on life skills and motivational theories, materials and resources from libraries and archived. Empirical information intended to be collected from journal articles and other scholarly materials as stated above. On the other hand, primary data collection is done from the actual field of study way of administered research instruments, like questionnaire.

The questionnaires are to be delivered through postal delivery, internet/email, group delivery and collection. The questionnaire forms the sole part of primary data as it describes the real intent of exploratory and descriptive part of the paper. It is also very vital for the study since it will enable the study to actually explain the relationship between worker motivation and performance, particularly to Mark and Spencer which is the case study. This works effectively in thee case of self-administered questionnaire as this study adopts.

Ethical considerations

Appropriate behavior is to be adopted during the study in relation to those who become subject to the study. The study is therefore guided by principles and guidelines of ethical procedures which do not infringe another person’s rights.

Reference

Bergenhenegouwen G. (1996) Competence development – a challenge for HRM professionals: core competences of organizations as guidelines for the development of employees, Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 20 Issue 9, pp.29-35;

Burnes B. (2004) Managing Change: A Strategic Approach to Organizational Dynamics, 3d ed., London, Prentice Hall.

HYPERLINK “http://www2.marksandspencer.com/thecompany/mediacentre/index.shtml” t “_parent” http://www2.marksandspencer.com/thecompany/mediacentre/index.shtml

Johnson G. and Scholes K. (2002) Exploring Corporate Strategy, 6th Edition, London, Prentice Hall;

Kovach, K.A. (1984), ‘‘Why Motivational Theories Don’t Work,’’ SAM Advanced Management Journal, 45(2), 54-60.

Liao Y. (2005) Business strategy and performance: the role of human resource management control, Personnel Review, Vol. 34 Issue 3, pp.294-309;

Robbins, S.P. (2005), ‘‘Motivation: Concepts to application’’, in Managing and Organizing People, C. University ed. Boston: Pearson, 163-193.

Schein (1990) cited in Millward L. (2005-in press), Understanding Occupational and Organizational Psychology. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Schneider B. (1994) HRM – A Service Perspective: Towards a Customer-focused HRM, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 5 Issue 1, pp.64-76;

Wiley, C. (1997), ‘‘What Motivates employees according to over 40 years of motivation Surveys,’’ International Journal of Manpower, 18(3), 263-281.

Brewton, P. and Milward, L. (2001) Organizational research methods: Thousand Oaks, sage Publications.