What impact and effect does supervisor support have on employee motivation within the retail industry?

By

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would first like to express my gratitude for my research supervisor, colleagues, peers and family whose immense and constant support has been a source of continuous guidance and inspiration.

DECLARATION

I [type your full first names & surname here], declare that the following dissertation/thesis and its entire content has been an individual, unaided effort and has not been submitted or published before. Furthermore, it reflects my opinion and take on the topic and is does not represent the opinion of the University.

Signature:

Dated:

ABSTRACT

Supervision has always remained an integral part of human resource management functions. Supervisors tend to play an important role in motivating their subordinate employees. The prevailing competition among the retail sector companies has had profound positive impact employees. Now, companies are moving towards implementing such training facilities and policies that can cater to the needs of employees, who tend to perform beyond their capacities. That is why there exists a gap between levels of motivation among employees, working in different capacities. It is a fact that employees showing good performance tend to get both compensatory benefits and non-cash incentives. This practice continues in every organisation let alone the one which is playing in the retail sector. It is a fact that without motivation, employees will not do what an organisation expects from them. If an organisation wants to motivate its employees, the management should come up with effective motivation plan. The firs chapter provides introduction to the topic, while the second chapter is based on literature review. The methodology is covered in the third chapter, while in chapter four, the findings and results based on statistical tests are presented. The fifth chapter concludes the dissertation, while providing summary and implications for future research.



TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTI

DECLARATIONII

ABSTRACTIII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background of the Study1

Problem Statement2

Purpose of the Study2

Aims and Objectives3

Rationale of the Study3

Research Questions/Hypothesis4

Hypotheses4

Significance of the Study5

Ethical Concerns5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW7

Early Theories of Motivation7

Supervisor's Behaviour and Employee Motivation12

Factors affecting Employee Motivation14

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY19

Research Design19

Participants in the Study19

Instrumentation20

Demographics21

Procedure21

Statistical Tests22

Validity23

Reliability24

CHAPER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS26

Results26

Data Analysis28

Discussion32

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION37

Summary37

Limitations37

Implications for Future Research40

Conclusion41

REFERENCES43

APPENDIX - A45

APPENDIX - B49

APPNEDIX - C50

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Motivation is an internal drive to satisfy one's unsatisfied needs and is commonly used in management of enterprises to make employees energetic for creating profits for the company. Businesses today encourage their workforce to work in teams as part of the management policy to ensure greater commitment, participation, recognition and motivation. The retail business is the fastest growing industrial sector in Britain today. Experts anticipate that in the next five years, the retail sector will experience a growth of around five percent (Wright, 2004, 55). Currently, the retail sector accounts for £325 billion in revenue with 11 percent of total British workforce working in this ever growing sector (White, 2008, 29).

According to (Wright, 2004, 55) developing and maintaining a motivating relationship between supervisors and employees within organisations is especially important. As boundary spanners, supervisors must work through critical horizontal and ...