Aldi UK: Retail Market Growth

Background of the topic:

Aldi, is German supermarket chain which has more than 10,000 stores in 20 countries. Aldi UK had been founded on 1990 in Leicestershire, GB and gradually it operates almost all the places in the UK. It offers health products, food, beauty products, pet care product, drinks, sports, home garden, electric products and travel products (www.aldi.co.uk, 2019). According to Hur et al. (2016), in recent years, retail organisation has made high level of revolution in their product quality, service process and customer dealing process. This is why, in the UK retail sector, different retail brands have been developed such as Walmart, Macy’s and Sainsbury’s. According to Gerhart and Fang (2015), in order to deal with these ever-increasing competitions in the retail market, company needs to focus on building striog workforce by motivating their staffs in continuous manner. Aldi UK has already focused on building creative and highly cooperative workforce, with promoting their professional and personal development in consistent manner. Aldi UK has more than 31,000 colleagues in their workplace, who operates in synergistic manner with maintaining strong cooperation with one another (www.aldi.co.uk, 2019). However, due to the high level of competition in the international and domestic retail market, Aldi UK has to focus more on improvising their selling structure, customer dealing process and promotional technique, which pose severe work pressure on its staffs. In this aspect, it becomes difficult for Aldi UK to maintain the satisfied and innovative workforce. This is why, other supermarket chains in the UK such as Walmart, Marks & Spencer, Lidi and Coles, pose strong competition on Aldi UK (www.aldi.co.uk, 2019). Now, for dealing with the ever-increasing competition, Aldi UK needs to make its workforce highly compassionate and dedicated towards the organisational goals through making consistent motivation and encouragement.

Academic rationale:

Employee motivation is internal and intrinsic drive in an organisation that put forth the necessary effort towards encouraging staffs in work related activities. This research proposal is going to represent the importance of evaluation of employee motivation in retail sector, with special reference to famous supermarket chain in the UK, Aldi. With increasing competition as well as ever increasing number of employees in retails sectors in the UK, organisations need to focus on motivating their staffs in consistent manner in order to form well-organised, satisfied and highly creative team. This research proposal will highlight the issue in the retail sector, that why it is important to make consistent evaluation of employee motivation and how Aldi build excellent work team in terms of maintaining their quality of work as well as productivity. In today’s fast paced business world, maintaining employee motivation in retail is quite a bog issue. Aldi, UK, has more than 31,000 staffs in teh UK and Oreland and it has planned to increases the number to 35000 by 2020. On the other hand, with increasing competition in the retail market in the UK, Aldi has focused on increasing its productivity and sell. This is why, majority of staffs in marketing field and customer dealing department in this organisation have to face severe work pressure on daily basis. This is not only effect on the psychology of staffs but also make them highly frustrated due to the severe work pressure. Through this proposal, researcher is going to highlight that ow Aldi, Uk, will deal wit the issues of maintaining employee motivation in this tough situation in terms of forming highly creative and motivating workforce. Through this proposal researcher is going to shed light on the the act that how employee motivation in today’s business world is strongly associated with the productivity, reputation and continuity if success in the retail organisation. With development of new technologies in retails industry, customers are highly concern about the brand reputation, product quality and service quality of any company. In this aspect, Aldi UK needs to focus on building high-skilled and cooperative team with motivating their personal and professional development, that would assist this organisation to meet the ever-changing demand of UK based customers.

Research questions:

How does employee motivation is linked with organisation productivity in retail sector?

What are the factors that are associated with maintaining employee motivation in the retail organisations?

Why does employee motivation is important for retail organisation?

Why does the continuous evaluation of the employee motivation is important in the retail sector?

How does evaluation of the employee motivation is related to success and brand reputation of retails organisation?

Objectives:

To analyse how employee motivation is linked with organisation productivity in retail sector

To determine the factors that are associated with maintaining employee motivation in the retail sector

To evaluate why employee motivation is important for retail organisation

To determine the importance of continuous evaluation of the employee motivation in the retail sector?

To find out relation between employee motivation and success as well as brand reputation of retail organisation?

Literature review:

Introduction:

This chapter of the research paper will discuss relevant theories and models on employee motivation, in order to highlight the importance of evaluation of employee motivation in retail sector. With discussing relevant theories, this section will highlight how Aldi UK is going to focus on motivating its staffs in terms of creating high skilled workforce for dealing with ever changing customer demand in retails sector in the UK. This chapter will also critically discuss teh adverse effect of lack of proper analysis of employee motivation in the retail sector on the overall organisation success and productivity if Aldi UK. With using relevant academic sources, this chapter will make potential arguments on evaluating employee motivation and its importance in consistent success o the organisational processes:

Concept of employee motivation in retail sector in the UK:

When it comes to understand the concept of employee motivation in an organisation, it is necessary to analyse the benefits that are associated with employee engagement in the organisation. Employee motivation is process of improving the performance and creativity of the workforce in terms of improvising the organisation productivity (Lăzăroiu, 2015). In the UK retail market, Aldi is famous supermarket chain which believes in maintaining highly creative and productive workforce that not only focus on achieving organisation objectives but also emphasising on promoting the brand reputation in the international market. According to Afsar et al. (2016), employee motivation is associated with several benefits such as increased employee satisfaction, improved efficiency of overall organisation, ongoing development of the entire workforce and increased employee commitment. Aldo UK, although believes in promoting employee engagement and motivation for managing high skilled workforce, recent increasing level of competition by the potential rivals such as Walmart, Mark & Spencer and Lidi makes it difficult for this supermarket chain to maintain the employee satisfaction and efficiency. In this aspect Hur et al. (2016) stated that, sometimes it becomes difficult for organisation to maintain employee motivation and team effort in the workplace due to heavy workload. However, Aldi UK believes on promoting the cooperating and synergistic working culture, which would assist marketers to hold the interest and engagement of employee towards their work. On the contrary Gerhart and Fang (2015) argued that, employee motivation cannot be maintained only by reducing work pressure on staffs, rather employers need to make the entire work environment highly creative, positive and innovative which would make consistent professional development and performance improvisation of the staffs. Aldi UK has already focused on keeping the entire workforce motivated through emphasizing on all their needs, interest and demands.

Concept of relationship between evaluation of employee motivation and organisational success:

As stated by Safiullah (2015), evaluation of employee motivation is the process through which organisational officials can analyse the performance standard, creativity d level of engagement of staff to their work objectives. In the UK retail sector, marketers focus on evaluating how much the staffs ae motivated towards achieving organisational target. Aldi UK, believes on making continuous research and analysis of process of motivating the skill, professional development and creativity of each workforce. One of the most important process that Aldi UK has implemented in its organisational framework is regular training and development process. Through conducting professional training fort staffs, marketing professions of Aldi UK assist staffs to improve their skills, knowledge, efficiency level and professional standard. In order to analyse that whether the entire training process is favour of employee motivation, the higher official sin Aldi UK conduct self-assessment program for employee, in which employee are allowed to share their viewpoint, issues, demand and interests Infront of the employers. On the contrary Perryer et al. (2016) argued that, sometimes, training and self-assessment process are unable to determine the individual performance standard and issues of each employee. The author also stated that, sometime organisational officials are unable to motivate staffs with training and development as there is still the issues of remuneration and financial needs. In this context, Aldi UK has focused not only on conducting raining program for staffs but also, they emphasize on improvising the overall pay and benefit structure of the staffs with maintaining impressive hike of salary according to the designation and performance of individual staffs. According to Osborne and Hammoud (2017), employee needs not only the financial security but also proper dignity, respect and freedom in their workplace, that drive heir positive energy towards achieving organisational target. Aldi UK focus on equal opportunities for each employee in the workforce with promoting the equal gender pay, bias less training process and proper employee wellbeing.

Factors that are crucial in evaluating employee motivation on the organisation:

Different organisational factors are associated with maintaining employee motivation in the organisation. UK retail market goes through continuous innovation and revolution of selling process, customer dealing process, promotional process, public relation process and administration process. According to Perryer et al. (2016), ongoing organisational processes pose important impact on how organisational will motivate and encourage its workforce. Aldi UK makes continuous research on the factors that are associated with employee motivation and engagement. One of the important factors is organisational environment which plays important roles motivating staffs to work in synergistic manner. Aldi UK always maintain highly cooperative, friendly and creative organisational culture, which assist staff to not only work in team but also go through the continuous development and learning process which makes their professional and personal development. As stated by De Vito et at. (2018), organisational resources are another important factor, that assist employers to provide all benefits and opportunities in order to meet employee’s needs. Aldi UK believes on promoting equal opportunities for each staff irrespective of their caste, religion, ethnicity and gender. Employers of this company provides highly improvised organisational resources such as financial security, consistent training and learning opportunities, health benefits, insurance coverage, safety and protection from any illegal practices and friendly workplace. Aldi UK also emphasize on another important factor, the technological advancement in its workplace. Through providing technical training and skill development process, this company focus on improving competency of staffs to work with new technologies. Through installing new software, application program and operating system, Aldi UK brings improvisation of the overall selling process. Customer dealing technique, public relation process, administration process and employee’ professional development process. According to Guillén et al. (2015), through technological development into workforce, it is possible to reduce the work burden on each staff, which motivate them to deal with manifold tasks rather than investing time to manage one task. Aldi UK implement the technologies not only for reducing individual work load on each staff but also for providing opportunity to each staff to use their creative and innovative skill for dealing with organisational challengers.

Theories on employee motivation:

Maslow’s Hierarchy Need theory:

This theory represents important base needs of individuals that are important for motivating and encouraging them towards their responsibilities in workplace (Alghazo and Al-Anazi, 2016). These needs are self-actualisation needs, social needs, physical needs, psychological needs and esteem needs. Aldi UK , although maintain positive and friendly work culture for motivating its staffs, it needs to evaluate these above mentioned needs in order to keep the entire workforce motivated towards their obligations. Aldi UK needs to focus on meeting physical needs by providing safety, security and protection to each staff from abuse, discrimination and bias. Moreover, this company needs to provide proper emotional support by promoting positive and supportive work culture in the workplace. As stated by Haski-Leventhal et al. (2019), along with emotional and physical support employee motivation is assorted with self-esteem and self-actualisation. Aldi UK believes on conducting regular training and development process which assist its employees to develop their knowledge, understanding and skill which not only improve their self-actualisation but also assist the staffs to respect each other values.

Alderfer ERG Motivation model:

Based on this theory, for evaluating employee motivation, employers need to consider three important needs such as existence neds, Relatedness needs and Growth needs. Aldi UK needs to focus on psychological and material needs otf its staffs such as foods, air, clothing water, safety, physical love and affection. According to Putra et al. (2017), in order to evaluate whether the employee is properly motivated, employers needs to check that whether the staffs are provided with proper shelter, foods, support, respect and drinks in their workplace. On the other hand, Aldi UK has already shifted their focus on growth and relational needs of its staffs, in which higher official work on making the workplace more innovative, supportive and creative. In this workplace, employee will be allowed to share their opinions, issues and interest, which assist the employers of Aldi UK to build strong and high skilled workforce. In this aspect Lăzăroiu (2015) stated, along with growth and existence needs, relatedness needs are another important factor that is important for keeping staffs motivated in workplace. Aldi UK focus on building such a workforce, in which employee will provide dignity and respect to each other’s opinion and maintain cooperative and synergistic relationship among them.

Mcclelland’s Achievement Motivation Theory:

Based on this theory, employee needs three types of motivations such as achievement motivation, affiliation motivation and power motivation. Aldi UK needs to focus on setting challenging and realist goal which will provide opportunity to employees to implement their intelligence ad creative skill to achieve the target. This process will motivate staffs to keep improvising their skill and knowledge to handle challenging tasks. As stated by Afsar et al. (2016), along with achievement needs, employee need certain power and freedom, which is important for motivating them to take organisational decisions. Aldi UK believes on maintaining friendly and creative environment, in which employees ae allowed to share their opinions, make organisational decisions and execute organisational strategies. In terms of maintaining affiliation needs, Aldi UK manger the friendly relation with staffs, by supporting their ideas, interest and needs. Moreover, Aldi UK believes on maintaining cooperative work culture, in staffs provide proper respect and dignity to each other for promoting their synergistic relationship.

Research methodology:

Introduction:

This chapter will represent the entire process in which the researcher is going to conduct research. In this chapter researcher will discuss the systematic processes which through which the entire research process is proceeded and completed. Research methodology will also highlight the detailed techniques that will be used by the researcher in order to meet the research objectives.

Method outline:

Research philosophy:

In order to conduct this research, researcher will choose positivism philosophy. Positivism philosophy will assist the researcher to gather information that is derived from the realistic database and experience that are important to meet the research objectives. On the other hand, realism represent the thoughts that is completely opposite to the positivism. In realism researcher needs to analyse results of the observation without making any realistic interpretation. Post positivism is based on the facts that in the research the result can be fallible or has errors. Therefore, in order to conduct this research, researcher will use positivism philosophy.

Research approach:

Two types of research approaches are there such as inductive and deductive. Here researcher will use deductive approach, which will assist researcher in order to use the existing models and theories for having the realist as well as relevant information. On the other hand, inductive approx. Is not selected for this research, because ii is associated with using new theories and hypothesis in order to meet research objectives. In this research, forming new hypothesis or using new theories is difficult, as it will make further complication in achieving the research objectives.

Research design:

There are three types of research designs such as explanatory, exploratory and descriptive designs. Here researcher is going to use descriptive design in order t make proper interpretation of information that are collected from the sources. On the other hand, explanatory and exploratory designs are irreverent in this research, as they are unable to provide detailed and appropriate description of research database that can affect overall result of research.

Data collection method:

There are two types of data collection methods such as primary and secondary. In this research, researcher is going to use the primary data collection process. In this process data are collected directly from the respondents in order to get relevant and accurate database. Here, 50 customer and 5 managers of Aldi UK are selected for conducting survey and interview respectively for attaining the primary database. The entire information gathered in the survey and interview process is recorded for conducting the data analysis process.

Data analysis:

There are two types of data analysis process such as qualitative and quantitative. In this research researcher is going to use both the qualitative and quantitative data analysis process. In quantitative data analysis process, numeric database that a collected during the survey of customers of Aldi UK will be analysed. On the other hand, on case d quantitative data analysis, researcher is going to analyse the descriptive information’s that are would be gathered during the interview of managers of Aldi UK.

Sampling method:

Researcher is going to use random sampling methods for selecting respondents. In this process, all the customer of Aldi UK is selected randomly in order to conduct the survey process. In this random selection process, researcher will choose 50 customers of Aldi UK in and close ended questions related to the research topic are delivered to them. In case of interview process, 5 mangers of Aldi UK will be b randomly selected for collecting the qualitative database

Ethical consideration:

In order to conduct this research, researcher is going to implement some ethical considerations into practice. Researcher will ensure that entire participants would make their voluntary participation into the research process and there is no chance of any pressure imposed by the researcher on the participants to attend the process. Researcher will also ensure that entire database that would be collected from eth participants is not used for the commercial purpose but for the research related process. In addition to this, researcher will ensure that entire database would be protected from any unauthorised access.

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