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Impacts of Leadership and

Motivation on Employee
Performance
Dissertation: Systematic Literature Review
[Writer]
[Institute]
[Date]
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................4
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1. Overview of Tesco ........................................................................................................................ 5
1.2. Research Aims .............................................................................................................................. 5
1.3. Research Objectives ...................................................................................................................... 5
1.4. Research Questions ....................................................................................................................... 6
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................. 7
2. Impact of Leadership and Motivation on Tesco Employees’ Performance .......................................... 7
2.1. Leadership Styles followed by Tesco ........................................................................................... 7
2.1.1. Autocratic Leadership Style .................................................................................................. 7
2.1.2. Democratic Leadership Style ................................................................................................ 7
2.1.3. Transformational Leadership Style ....................................................................................... 7
2.2. How Tesco Employees are Motivated? ........................................................................................ 8
2.3. Leadership ..................................................................................................................................... 9
2.3.1. Leadership Characteristics and Abilities ............................................................................. 10
2.3.2. Leadership from the Organisational Context ...................................................................... 10
2.3.3. Leadership in the Performance of Human Talent ............................................................... 11
leadership in the performance of human talent ...................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.4. Motivation ................................................................................................................................... 12
2.4.1. The First Theories of Motivation ........................................................................................ 12
2.4.2. Essential Phases of the Motivation Process ........................................................................ 13
2.4.3. Importance of Motivation ................................................................................................... 15
2.5. Theories of Motivation................................................................................................................ 16
2.5.1. The Pyramid of Needs Theory ............................................................................................ 16
2.5.2. The Existence/Relatedness/ Growth (ERG) Theory ........................................................... 17
2.5.3. The Theory of Goal Setting ................................................................................................ 17
2.5.4. Skinner's Theory ................................................................................................................. 18
2.6. Motivating Factors ...................................................................................................................... 19
2.6.1. Intrinsic Factors................................................................................................................... 19
2.6.2. Extrinsic Factors ................................................................................................................. 20
2.6.3. The Hygiene Factor ............................................................................................................. 20
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CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE SEARCH METHOD............................................................................. 22

3. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 22
3.1. Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 22
3.1.1. Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria ......................................................................................... 23
3.1.1.1. Keyword-based Search via Boolean Operators............................................................... 23
3.1.2. Identification of Relevant Research Studies ....................................................................... 23
3.1.3. Selection of Relevant Studies ............................................................................................. 24
3.1.4. Data Extraction (see appendix 3 for Table 3) ..................................................................... 24
Table 3: Summary of Selected Research Studies ............................................................................... 24
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS ......................................................................................................................... 30
4. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 30
4.1. Results ......................................................................................................................................... 30
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................... 37
5. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 37
5.1. Assessment of Strengths and Limitations of the Reviewed Studies ........................................... 37
5.2. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 40
References .................................................................................................................................................. 41
Appendices ................................................................................................................................................. 48
Appendix 1: Kable’s et al. (2012) 12-Step Framework............................................................................ 48
Appendix 2: Table 2: Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria ............................................................................ 49
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Introduction

In the modern-day business world, business organisations, regardless of operating in the public
and private sectors and business fields, need effective leadership either transactional or
transformational along with strong motivational factors to make positive impacts on their
employees and their work performance. Motivation refers to the driving force acting on or within
an individual that causes such an individual to act or behave specifically, in a goal-centric way. It
means that effective leaders drive their employees towards a more consistent behavioural pattern
in a goal-centric manner, which is essential to positively exploit their full potential in order to
make sure quality performance and successful organisational outcomes (Pouramini and Fayyazi,
2015). The effective leaders, such as the Tesco's Board and Executive Committee (Tesco plc,
2018), use their best competencies (innovativeness and creativity) and knowledge to motivate
their employees and achieve the restoration task (Pouramini and Fayyazi, 2015). The very
competent and effective leadership of Tesco has the strong potential to realise the impediments
along with the key issues behind, and as remarkable development this same phenomenon can be
put forward to the crucial objectives with the employees working at the fore front of Tesco
(Pourbarkhordari, Zhou and Pourkarimi, 2016). Similarly, there are numerous issues, including
leadership authority and performance, skills associated with communication and decision-
making, intellectual capabilities and personal traits are the central mechanisms behind. The level
of performance is the factor bridging leadership and their workforces underneath (Walumbwa
and Hartnell, 2011). Likewise, the success of any business organisation like Tesco in the
modern-day business context only rests upon the employees’ performance and the leadership.
Fearless and confident endeavours, diligence and efficiency, on the part of the staff members of
an organisation, which result in the desired objectives, are the reflection and replication of a
variety of leadership styles (Pouramini and Fayyazi, 2015), such as transformational and
transactional leadership among others.

Although the relationship among leadership, motivation and employee job performance, or
impact of leadership and motivation on employee job performance has been explored and
examined in the past (Ellemers, De Gilder and Haslam, 2004), high correlations between them
were not established. Nevertheless, it has been concluded by later research that there is a positive
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correlation among them (Ugboro and Obeng, 2000). In this systematic literature review, this
relationship will be explored and studied in the context of Tesco Plc, a British multinational
groceries and general merchandise retail chain, with the aim of providing its leaders and
managers with valuable information how job performance of employees can be enhanced by
motivating them intrinsically and/or extrinsically.

1.1. Overview of Tesco

Tesco plc, established in 1919 by Jack Cohen, is a UK-based multinational retail chain selling
groceries and general products with headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire,
England, United Kingdom. The giant retail chain is the 3rd largest one across the world in terms
of profitability and 9th largest across the world in terms of revenues generated by it. Tesco has
many shops in 7 countries of Europe and Asia and is the UK’s market leader of groceries. In the
UK, Tesco is leading the market with around 28.4% market share.

1.2. Research Aims

The basic aim of this research project is to explore the impact of leadership and motivation on
employee performance through taking the case of Tesco into account.

In this regard, this study will find key factors of leadership and motivation through which the job
performance of Tesco employees is affected. This study is qualitative in nature and will identify
the relationship among leadership, employee motivation and their performance at work.

1.3.Research Objectives

To meet the abovementioned research aim, the following key objectives will be met also, which
are:

 Finding the ways through which employee performance is affected by motivation and
leadership of Tesco;
 Exploring and understanding how behavioural pattern and discipline may impact the
Tesco employees’ performance; and
 Exploring and understanding different styles of leadership through which employees’
performance at Tesco is affected.
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1.4. Research Questions

Following research questions will be answered:

 How do Tesco leadership and the company’s motivation policies affect performance
management?
 How can the leadership’s and management’s discipline and behavioural pattern affect
employee performance at Tesco?
 How do a variety of leadership styles adopted by Tesco affect employees’ motivation and
performance?
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2. Impact of Leadership and Motivation on Tesco Employees’ Performance

The role played by leadership is pivotal in motivating employees and their performance and
effective leaders always help their managers to manage employees and positively exploit them as
per their competences (Kadapure and Dasar, 2018). All the operational activities in Tesco rely
strongly on the leaders’ performance and their leadership styles. At times, employees are
motivated by leaders through which the efficiency is improved and they are managed as per their
tasks’ need. Styles of leadership help the leader in identifying the employee need and in meeting
such needs effectively. The management is also liable to handle employees through which
productivity of the organisation is increased and to manage strong and close relation with them
(Jones, Kalmi and Kauhanen, 2010).

2.1. Leadership Styles followed by Tesco

2.1.1. Autocratic Leadership Style

With this leadership style, a firm does not integrate employees in process of decision-making
(Van Vugt et al., 2004). Organisations are supported by autocratic leaders because they handle
the critical situations effectively, through which all the issues can be solved efficiently. This
leadership style is followed by Tesco at all levels through which the decision making process is
made effectively and very fast (Woods, 2007).

2.1.2. Democratic Leadership Style

Democratic leaders are involved in distributing the tasks among the employees and always make
efforts to take full advantages of employees. At Tesco, this style is applied with the aim of
maintaining good and strong relations with subordinates and increasing their overall performance
level by integrating them into the process of decision-making (Woods, 2007). This leadership
style is adopted at the firm’s middle level. As an example, a leader takes the periodical sessions
how to use innovative technology in order for developing employees (Cadwallader et al., 2010).

2.1.3. Transformational Leadership Style

Transformational style is helpful to the leaders because they will be able to bring the employees
together, convince them and achieve the business goals in timely manner (Samantara and
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Sharma, 2015). This leadership approach also helps the management by enabling managers to
benefit from multi-skilled and talented people so that they accomplish their tasks efficiently
(Samantara and Sharma, 2015). This style is applied at Tesco with the aim of improving
employees’ performance and making them perfect, so that they work together with their teams.

2.2.How Tesco Employees are Motivated?

Tesco management has adopted the human relation approach to management. The theory of
human relations management, presented by Elton Mayo (Wood and Wood, 2004) is a researched
belief that people want to be an integral part of a decisive and supportive team within the
organisation through which development and growth is facilitated. Thus, if staff members of a
company receive strong focus and are motivated to partake, they consider their work has
importance, and they are stimulated to be more productive, leading to the best quality work
(Wood and Wood, 2004). At Tesco, this management approach is used with the aim of regulating
the organisational operations. Tesco makes employees self-dependant and the reason behind this
is that its management believes that if staff members will sink in comfort zone, their performance
levels will be decreased, and thus the organisation will have to face severe loss (Tesco, 2018).
This approach to management helps Tesco in identifying the employees’ psychological needs
and in fulfilling them effectively (Tesco, 2018). Focus of Tesco is on the task-oriented approach
and it aims to achieve the business targets efficiently and in timely manner (Boddy, 2012).

For supporting business growth, Tesco needs motivated and well-trained people who have the
potential of recognise customer needs. Thus, employees working at Tesco are greatly supported
in their different roles and at different levels. It has been recognised by Tesco that motivation of
employees is crucial to make sure continued business growth and success. Tesco appreciates that
employees are their valuable asset and have varied lifestyles outside of work. Thus, employees
are supported with a work/life balance approach and offered reward by means of the following
(Tesco, 2018):

 Flexible Work Timings

 Free Or Discounted Rate Health Benefits
 Discounted Membership Of Gym
 Market Competitive Wages
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 Employee Discount
 Options Of Company share

It has been found by Tesco that it is crucial to develop trust and respect among staff members.
They discovered that respecting, regarding and valuing subordinates, providing them with
realistic goals and tasks, and creating an interesting and secure work environment, have the
strong potential to increase employees’ motivation. A motivated employee at Tesco works with
the collaborative and teamwork approach with others with the one common goal of achieving
individual and team objectives. It simply suggests that that focus of such a motivated staff
members is strongly on target customer, treating them more fairly and is ascertained and
dedicated to receiving feedback from others.

Tesco uses a variety of leadership models and motivation theories to boost their employees’
performance. Now, the following content will discuss and critically analyse leadership and
motivation in the context of employee performance, in which leadership styles and motivational
factors will be more elaborated.

2.3. Leadership

García‐Morales, Matías‐Reche and Hurtado‐Torres (2008) state that one of the key elements
reflecting leadership is represented by the term "influence" and it appears, in one form or
another, in almost all the definitions collected by them. The second most important element is
defined by terms including "activity", "behaviour", "action" (Harvey, Parry and Vorbach, 2014);
the importance of this element is that in order to be practical and effective, the study of
leadership must focus on specific behaviours that can be identified and taught to future
administrators. Another crucial element that appears essential to any definition of leadership is
the voluntary aspect of the response given by the leader's entourage to his attempts to influence
(Murphy, 2013): the police officer who by a sign of his hand forces a motorist to stop performing
an activity that has an obvious influence, but no one will say that he has shown leadership. These
are major elements, coupled with the fact that what interests us here is "organisational"
leadership (i.e. the leadership of an individual who already holds a position of legitimate
authority in an organisation) (Lutz, Lyon and Maxwell, 2003; Rosete and Ciarrochi, 2005;
Neubert et al., 2008; Eblin, 2006; Harvey, Parry and Vorbach, 2014, lead the researcher of this
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study to define leadership as follows: all the activities by which a hierarchical superior influences
the behaviour of his subordinates in the direction of a deliberately more efficient realization of
the objectives of the organisation.

2.3.1. Leadership Characteristics and Abilities

Investigations of the leader's leadership and influence patterns are being explored on various
theories depending on his ability to grow for the success or failure of the leader's establishment.
Because (Lord and Maher, 2003), implicit leadership theory defines beliefs about how leaders
perceive and behave. They also pointed out that leadership is basically an indexing process that
is considered to be the nature of social manipulation and of being governed by others, that is, a
natural tool to influence people (Lord and Maher, 2003). A stimulating vision is the leadership’s
indispensable characteristic (Berson et al., 2001). It is crucial that the desired final step be
presented with conviction and passion in order to motivate and motivate those involved to act. A
compelling vision is typically associated with a strategy that clearly defines the objectives, the
priorities at stake and the means to be used, while highlighting the collaboration and teamwork to
be implemented to achieve the same goals (Bamford-Wade and Moss, 2010). A successful vision
is forward-looking and involves innovation and change. It identifies current problems as well as
unmet needs and offers constructive solutions that engage all concerned (Berson et al., 2001).
Gilley, McMillan and Gilley (2009) identified some key qualities and abilities of leadership
including attention management; managing meaning; trust management and self-management.

Reuvers et al. (2008), nevertheless, indicated that, despite this clear evolution in leadership
theories, the focus on the characteristics or behaviours that the audience has to show. From this
point of view, leadership plays a dominant role; leaders must be the true architects of change by
empowering the human talent of their organisations. The concept of leadership in general the
skills and competencies that people develop in an individual and social process both in the group
and in the organisation, to encourage others (Lapierre and Hackett, 2007).

2.3.2. Leadership from the Organisational Context

For many organisations, the quality of the leadership is a factor determining in their success and
sustainability (Lok and Crawford, 2004). The leadership does not just refer to the person or
persons neither to the head of the organisation nor to those with official leadership. Unofficial
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leaders and professional, the thinking heads, are also considered part of leadership of the
organization. Leaders are those who inspire and guide others through their acts. The notion of
leadership is even wider and extended (Lok and Crawford, 2004). It is rooted in the culture of
organisation. Leadership does not only involve managerial performance, the determination of
substance, vision and strategy given to a mission, but it also involves and above all
interpretation, norms and values (Lok and Crawford, 2004).

In the organisational context, today, where organisations and employees must act in a constantly
changing environment, the quality of leadership is a key factor in success. From this
observation, many organisations create a leadership by putting in place the process to impact the
quality of leadership. Successful organisations are the ones who knew how to develop a strategy
to improving their leadership culture, impacting both at the individual level and at the level of
organisation (Roig-Tierno, Huarng and Ribeiro-Soriano, 2016). Leadership Development (LD)
is basically building the quality of leadership identifying and developing talents, organising
successions of ways passable and smooth, and allowing the growth of managerial experience
(Roig-Tierno, Huarng and Ribeiro-Soriano, 2016). A successful LD strategy is based on the use
of a coherent set of instruments and processes that address all dimensions of leadership: the
quality of the individual leader, leadership teams and the leadership culture within the
organisation. In the lack of coherence in the organisation and appropriate instruments, such
attempts will generally be futile or even counterproductive, whatever the time and financial
resources invested (Roig-Tierno, Huarng and Ribeiro-Soriano, 2016).

Content is perceived differently depending on the point of view of the organisation or the
individual (Porter and McLaughlin, 2006). In addition to the intrinsic motivation offered by a
mission, the individual leader will see it from his career. Mission is only stage in his personal
development, whereas for society, the attribution of a mission to a significant resource as been
assigned to assume responsibility and deliver a benefit. It is important to ensure sustainability of
the organisation and the effectiveness of the leader (Porter and McLaughlin, 2006). For this
purpose, the organisation must propose a perspective to long term by offering the leader
opportunities of development, new challenges and providing for a succession plan (Porter and
McLaughlin, 2006).

2.3.3. Leadership in the Performance of Human Talent

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In the context of business organisations, two main approaches of leadership are the
transformational and the transactional leadership styles (Masood et al., 2006). According to Bass
(1985) (cited in Zhong Basuo, Avolio, and Atwater, 1996), the behavioural pattern of the ideal
leader is established by the concept of transformational leadership. For example, a manager
motivating his team by fostering a high performance through some key approaches including
influence, inspiration, example and motivation. One of the most suitable leadership styles is
transformational through which organisations lead towards innovation (Avolio and Bass, 2001).
However, it has been considered by Masood et al. (2006) that the transformational style results
from the method through which important changes in the organisational members’ attitudes and
behaviours are influenced. There are many factors influencing the leader-follower relationship
including motivation, communication and satisfaction of employees as part of the organisational
environment (Madlock, 2008).

Retail chains, such as Tesco, require a leadership that let them carrying out the basic functions of
management, which include planning and making strategies, organising the workplace, direction,
control while leading the human talent to optimise their work performance (Sirianni and Frey,
2001). The effective and good managers are the important asset of any business organisations
because these people have the strong potential to lead to organisational change process (Slaski
and Cartwright, 2002). The management of any organisation is responsible for performing
employee performance appraisal that should instead take the form of an incessant, regular, face-
to-face conversation, through which the employee-employer relationship is strengthened and
allows the company to move forward (Slaski and Cartwright, 2002)..

2.4. Motivation

According to Robbins (2000), motivation is a process by which an individual gives intensity,

direction and persistence to his or her action in order for achieving a given goal.

2.4.1. The First Theories of Motivation

Regarding the management, the term "motivation" appeared in the 1930s in the sales field
(Hellriegel, Jackson and Slocum, 2005). It would have been proposed to account for the
customers’ purchasing intention or behaviour, but subsequently spread to other knowledge fields
and embraced by business managers, with the aim of comprehending and influencing the
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employees’ behaviour. From the management perspective, the worth of research on employee
motivation and performance at work is understood.

It is an issue that determines what, in the opinion of employees, can be an incentive to act, acting
with these incentives to improve their services, that is to encourage them to do better and more in
the performance of their duties (Hellriegel et al., 2008). Indeed, any contractual relationship
between an employer and a worker raises the issue of participation in the work, commonly
known as "goodwill" of the employee, necessary for the effective performance of tasks
(Hellriegel, Jackson & Slocum, 2005). Therefore, the quality of management is able to respect
the timetables set.

The means of organization and control are necessary to explain the relative efficiency of the
industries. Only salary does not seem to explain the participation of people because it is common
to observe that between two employees of the same level of qualifications and wages there are
differences in productivity and quality in their work (wood and wood, 2004).

The concepts of mobilization reached their peak in the 1950s. These theories were created during
this period, and today their validity is strongly controversial, perhaps they offer a better
understanding of employee motivation. . . These theories are called theories of needs, x and y
theories, and biphasic theories. If other reliable theories have been developed since then, it is
good to know these three for at least two reasons (Hellriegel, Jackson and Slocum, 2005):

 They are the foundation stone develop the basis of theories.

 Leaders are still enhancing in drawing inspiration on regular basis.

2.4.2. Essential Phases of the Motivation Process

According to Hellriegel et al. (2008), it is stated by a major motivation principle that

performance is basically a functional activity associated with an individual’s overall ability and
motivation. Very frequently, performance is articulated by aptitudes and motivation, meaning
that an employee can only make sure success in a task if the person in charge of it has the
necessary aptitude. Ability refers to the talent letting intensity to do the given jobs associated
with a goal. However, independent of individual competence, aptitude alone is not enough to
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guarantee high productivity. The person must also want to do it. Motivation analysis generally
focuses on the following three areas (Hellriegel et al., 2008):

 The factors that cause the behaviour,

 The direction taken by the latter,
 Methods to maintain it.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory

Source: (Taormina and Gao, 2013)

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, the motivation process begins with the
identification of a person's needs, as shown in phase 1 (from bottom) of the figure above. Needs
are the shortcomings of which someone suffers at a given moment (phase 1) and which can be
psychological, physiological or social (Taormina and Gao, 2013). They often play an incentive
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role. In other words, they create in the individual tensions that he considers unpleasant and is
therefore inclined to reduce or eliminate by its action (phase 2) (Taormina and Gao, 2013).
Motivation is goal-oriented (phase 3) (Taormina and Gao, 2013). An objective is a specific result
that a person wants to obtain. The objectives of an employee are frequently the driving force, and
their realization can substantially reduce their needs. For example, some employees have great
ambitions for promotion and they strongly expect that work on highly visible projects for long
hours will help in earning those promotions. Needs and expectations of these specific behaviours
make it possible to overcome it and act to reduce it. Employees concerned about advancement
may seek to work on major problems posed to the organisation, in order to gain visibility and
influence with their superiors (phase 4) (Taormina and Gao, 2013). Promotions and increases are
two of the ways in which organisations tend to maintain desirable behaviours. They inform staff
of the legitimacy of their request for promotion and recognition and their behaviour (phase 5)
(Taormina and Gao, 2013). The basis of his theory of achievement motivation is that most
motivation is rooted in an individual's culture of belonging. This theory questions and shifts the
origin of the type of motivation of an individual existentialism (the actions result from personal
choices) to a "social determinism" (the actions are predetermined by the sociological conditions
of the individuals).

The following section will elaborate the importance of motivation and Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs theory among other theories of motivation.

2.4.3. Importance of Motivation

In the context of the new economy, with globalisation and the accelerated development of
technologies, the competitiveness of companies relies more and more on knowledge and also on
the ability of companies to innovate. In fact, innovation in products and technology, as well as
the renewal of knowledge, contribute to increased competition between companies (Prabhu,
Sutton and Sauser, 2008). To respond to this increased competition, work organization methods
are reviewed to allow flexibility for the development of knowledge and innovation. Project teams
are part of the preferred forms of work organisation (Prabhu, Sutton and Sauser, 2008). This
rapid evolution of the organization of work towards the project teams has contributed to the
reinforcement of certain requirements for the employees: the success of the organization, notably
by the achievement of the objectives of the project, depends inter alia on the motivation of the
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employees to use their creativity and to make efforts. It is therefore a question of finding the
most effective employee motivation strategies. Motivation is very important in any business.
Employees tend to work better and more efficiently if they are motivated. There is therefore a
link between motivation and the increase in performance (Hellriegel, Jackson and Slocum,
2005). Motivation is therefore essential in project teams because it allows members to work
harder and thus the end result of the project is better. In this sense, because motivation can
inspire, encourage and stimulate individuals to achieve common goals through teamwork, it is in
the project manager's interest to see to creating and maintaining an environment, motivating for
all members of the team.

2.5.Theories of Motivation
2.5.1. The Pyramid of Needs Theory

According to Hellriegel, Jackson and Slocum (2005), humans have a complex set of extremely
strong needs, which lend themselves to a hierarchical structure underpinned by the following
essential assumptions:

The motivational role becomes less important when a need is fulfilled. Nevertheless, another
need appears slowly but surely to take its place, in order for constantly striving to fulfil a need.
The networks of need, for most humans, are quite complex in nature and behaviour is affected by
many needs at any time. Consequently, and it is clear, when an emergency is experienced by a
person, this need dominates until its fulfilment.

Lower level requirements must be met before the higher level requirement activation is sufficient
to direct the conduct. More needs are met for higher level requirements than for lower level
requirements.

This theory founded by Abraham Maslow (cited in Udechukwu, 2009) is definitely the highly
recognised motivation theory. Maslow presented this theory with five levels of individual needs:

 Physiological needs
 Security needs
 Membership needs
 The need for self-esteem
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 Self-realisation needs

This hierarchical level follows a slow satisfaction, which is to say if one of these needs is
satisfied, it gives way to another. In terms of motivation, we can say that, although none is ever
fully satisfied in its entirety, a need that is significantly ceased to be a motivating factor. Also,
according to Maslow, to motivate a staff requires first to identify what hierarchical level it is and
to strive to meet these needs.

Maslow's theory received an enthusiastic welcome, especially from business leaders. The fact
that it comes from a certain intuitive logic and that it is intelligible for the most part actually
pleads in its favour.

For Hellriegel, Jackson and Slocum (2005), theoretical work presented by Maslow received
much attention from managerial people as well as from psychologists. It has been established by
research studies that managers working at the top levels are usually better capable of meeting
their needs for deliberation and self-fulfilment compared to lower-ranking managerial persons.

2.5.2. The Existence/Relatedness/ Growth (ERG) Theory

Alderfer's ERG theory also relies on Maslow’s theory, and he only put the needs into three
categories (existence, relationship, and development) instead of five (cited in Podmoroff, 2005).
The categories recommended by this theory are asset, kinship and the need for growth. There is a
need for physiological and safety to include Maslow. Kinship is Maslow's need for interpersonal
needs, self-esteem and love. Growth is about the self-respect and self-realization of Maslow's
needs. The difference in ERG theory is that requests at lower levels cannot be met before higher
levels. In fact, if the higher demand levels cannot be met over and over again, the staff is more
likely to be directed by low-level demands. In some cases, employees can start with high-grade
needs without fully meeting lower-level needs. Unlike Maslow, Alderfer believes that higher-
level needs are met, even if satisfied. The underlying needs will also be returned.

2.5.3. The Theory of Goal Setting

Locke's (1968) (cited in Landy, 2010) work establishes that an individual is motivated when he
has clear goals and appropriate feedback on his ability to achieve them. Not only is working to
achieve an objective a major source of motivation, but it improves the performance of the
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individual: well-defined and hard-to-reach goals lead to better performance than vague or easy-
to-use goals (Landy, 2010). The individual is stimulated by the search for fulfilment and he feels
that he is developing his professional skills and his expertise. Later, Locke and Latham (1990)
(cited in Landy, 2010) specified the conditions for an objective to be actually motivating for an
individual:

Clarity of purpose: Objectives must be clear (unambiguous) and measurable (eg, achieve 10%
growth, less than 2% error).

Challenge of the goal: The objective must represent a challenge, a form of difficulty, so that the
individual anticipates the feeling of accomplishment that he will obtain from the attainment of
this objective. Motivation is strengthened when the individual understands the meaning of
achieving the goal; thus, a form of retribution / reward linked to achieving the goal is likely to
further improve motivation.

The difficulty of the goal is no longer motivating when the goal is too ambitious to reach. The
challenge is therefore to determine the right level of complexity, which will allow the individual
to improve his performance and not discourage him.

Commitment to the goal: An individual is more likely to make an effort to achieve a goal if he or
she is convinced of the relevance of that goal. The individual will be particularly committed to
achieving the goal if he has participated in setting it. Participatory management is based on the
idea that the individual must be involved in decision-making. The harder the goal is to achieve,
the stronger the commitment.

Feedback: Regular and appropriate feedback is essential to maintain motivation. Feedback helps
reinforce successful behaviours.

2.5.4. Skinner's Theory

Modern behaviourism, derived from Watson’s and Pavlov’s work, is identified first and foremost
in the name of Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904), who was one of the well-known contemporary
psychologists (Skinner, 2014). According to Skinner (2014), the theory is only helpful if it
formally represents data collected and analysed scientifically. For this very reason, he used a
very strict experimental method and insists on the need to use operational definitions to precisely
 Page | 19

determine the cause-and-effect relationship between environmental factors and the observable
behaviours they cause. Most of his research was done in the laboratory with animals. He then
applied his principles to the systemic study of human behaviour.

According to Sanghi (2014), a positive reinforcement factor is a reward or stimulus that

enhances the likelihood of a reaction in the desired direction, which itself will have positive
consequences (for the executive and for the employee), and will therefore tend to be renewed. As
all groups value positive outcomes, the challenge for a leader is to select positive reinforcement
factors that can create, reinforce and perpetuate desired behaviour. Achieving the desired results
can involve assignments, jobs, participation in decision-making and many other positive
reinforcement factors.

Skinner also presented the use of negative or neutral reinforcing factors in his motivation model,
while aiming to discourage unwanted behaviours and encourage desirable behaviours (cited in
Sanghi, 2014). But Skinner thinks that the most powerful motivating factors are positive
reinforcement factors, ranging from money to the interest of the job (Sanghi, 2014). Positive
motivation and negative motivation are each effective. The sanction may be demotivating for the
person concerned. But this fear must be put into perspective because it calls on the principle of
responsibility and exemplarity. It also returns the individual to the group. The latter may have
bad behaviour when they are out of play. This can be a factor of demotivation when a lack of
sanction is an imbalance between those who devote themselves and those who do nothing. The
concern for fairness must guide the administrator. From this point of view, the management of
human resources must also adopt the concept of group or team by integrating it into their
administrative practice. (Sanghi, 2014)

2.6. Motivating Factors

The organisational management, particularly the HR managers, need to consider the following
intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors (Slocum and Hellriegel, 2011).

2.6.1. Intrinsic Factors

According to Coelho, Augusto and Lages (2011), intrinsic motivation in the workplace occurs
when the profession is a vocation. This is related to what a worker can get internally, or not. To
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improve in our field, to become more important in this environment, to learn, etc. It means that
the intrinsic motivation refers to a behaviour driven by internal rewards or the motivation to
engage in behaviour comes from within the individual because it is intrinsically rewarding. This
contrasts with extrinsic motivation, which involves engaging in behaviour to gain external
rewards or avoid punishment.

2.6.2. Extrinsic Factors

According to Coelho, Augusto and Lages (2011), extrinsic motivation is one of the most
common types of job motivation. It is related to what a worker can get or not. Increases,
opportunities for professional promotion, feeling valued by his company, recognition of success,
etc. This form of motivation is easier to understand because, in my opinion, it is much more
widespread than intrinsic motivation. We meet her so frequently that we are completely used to
it.

2.6.3. The Hygiene Factor

According to Sachau (2007), some factors inherently drive motivation and job satisfaction, but
lack of these factors does not produce strong negative emotions. They are called motivational or
satisfaction factors because they motivate workers. They let the workers produce more and more
desires. There is another set of different behavioural factors. Their lack will cause dissatisfaction,
and their presence will only reduce this dissatisfaction and will not inspire them. These are
unsatisfactory factors, such as social welfare (Sachau, 2007).

According to Pegler (2012), job satisfaction factors are different from dissatisfaction. As a result,
managers who eliminate dissatisfaction can provide peace to employees without inspiring them.
This led Hertzberg to classify the supervision of quality, wages, and company policies, working
conditions, relations with others, and working conditions where safety is a health factor. When
the factors related to these factors are satisfied, the employees are not satisfied, but they are not
satisfied either. Inspire employees to continue working

Therefore, HR managers must use factors that motivate employees while reducing
dissatisfaction. These benefits (such as acceptable compensation) are necessary for employees to
 Page | 21

continue to be employees of the organization, so they retain their work (limit or avoid
dissatisfaction), but they are not the source of motivation.

2.7. Conclusion

Effective and successful leaders come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but no single leadership
approach is always suitable to employees. The status quo is wanted to be changed by all leaders,
but they adopt different approaches. Some prefer to take the lead with their own concepts and
ideas, while others prefer to lead with their enthusiasm and confidence. Still others lead by
revealing courage in spite of risks and the unidentified, and some lead to change by facilitating
others. A leader needs to have the influential power over others to make their organisational
behaviour standards, while encouraging them to do what is anticipated. When a leader is
respected by his or her employees, the leader is seen as being ineffective. Due to all the diverse
views of individuals, it takes a potent leader to be fully capable of making influence on
employees to see things by their own way. Many factors contributing to being an effective and
powerful leader have been identified. Meanwhile, all styles of leadership have a meaningful
impact (positive or negative) on the employees’ performance, work motivation and job
satisfaction.
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CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE SEARCH METHOD

3. Introduction

This chapter is the most important part of this systematic literature review paper. The
methodology chosen will be explained very clearly and logically in this section. To develop an
effective search strategy, a framework presented by Kable, Pich and Maslin-Prothero (2012) was
applied. This 12-step framework (see appendix 1 for Table 1) is a valuable tool to properly
document a search strategy used in a systematic review. This framework also guides researchers
to tale every single aspect into consideration required for finding pertinent literature.

The central focus of the12-step framework presented by the researchers in systematic reviews is
strongly on what needs to be documented in the critical review document in order to make the
followed search method replicable to other research workers (Kable, Pich and Maslin-Prothero,
2012). According to Kable, Pich and Maslin-Prothero (2012), a comprehensive documentation of
the literature search method assists readers in better grasping the underlying principle and central
aim of the review. Another advantage of this framework is that it guides researchers and
reviewers by means of the strategy development stage and makes sure that not a single crucial
facet is neglected (Kable, Pich and Maslin-Prothero, 2012). Thus, this model of identifying
relevant literature is viewed as a very helpful reviewing tool for inexpert reviewers.

3.1. Methodology

A literature refers to a text of a research-based scholarly article, which integrates the current
knowledge and information, along with considerable research findings, and theoretical and
methodological contributions to a specific research topic. In fact, literature reviews are a strong
foundation for research in virtually all the academic fields.

The current research-based study thoroughly studied, reviewed and analysed the research studies
conducted by different researchers in past on the impact of leadership and motivation on
employees’ performance. By critically reviewing, studying and summarising the previous
research articles, a distinctive phenomenon was established. This systematic review serving as a
guide for researchers in their searching and selecting pertinent literature was taken into account
as the first and foremost step.
 Page | 23

At first, to explore and examine how motivation and leadership affect employee performance in
the retail organisations, only one electronic database was used including EBSCO Online
Database and Emerald, which are the best databases for authentic and reliable research-based
articles and data, through which relevant data was found out for this research project. The
researcher tried to find as many pertinent research articles as possible through these databases.

3.1.1. Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

To find relevant studies, a specific inclusion and exclusion criteria was developed and followed.
Through inclusion and exclusion criteria, the boundaries were set and defined for this systematic
review. In doing so, some key factors were used as inclusion or exclusion criteria. Information
associated with these criteria can be seen in appendix 2 (Table 2):

This table of inclusion and exclusion criteria shows some key factors that were followed to select
relevant articles at the first stage of research process. Only those research articles were selected
which met the above-mentioned inclusion criteria including peer-reviewed research papers,
English language, publication date (2010) to present, adults (>18 yrs) and working professionals
as research participants. Out of these criteria, studies were not considered.

3.1.1.1. Keyword-based Search via Boolean Operators

Three basic key words were used to find the most relevant research studies. These keywords
were ‘Leadership’, ‘Motivation’ and ‘Performance Management’. As an integral part of
literature search strategy, Boolean Operators were applied (‘AND’ or ‘OR’) to find the most
relevant research studies. All three key words were put into the databases. Besides these, some
other most relevant keywords were also used, which include ‘leadership styles’, ‘effective
leadership’, ‘employee motivation’, ‘employee performance’, ‘employee job performance’,
‘employee work performance’, ‘employee performance at work’, and so on.

3.1.2. Identification of Relevant Research Studies

Identification of relevant research studies is a very challenging and time-consuming task. Once
keywords put on the database, numerous research articles were found associated with the
research topic area. To identify relevancy of research studies, the researcher first looked at the
 Page | 24

abstract of the study by reviewing research title, research aims and objectives, and research
participants.

3.1.3. Selection of Relevant Studies

Once these areas have been reviewed, the research studies were included in the category in
which the most relevant studies were then be selected through a filtering strategy. Search filter
allowed the researcher to narrow studies and their results in order to retrieve articles that are
most pertinent to the research aims, objectives and questions.

Initially, a large number of research studies were found on Google Scholar related to research
topic. However, by filtering such studies, articles and their results were narrowed in order to get
most relevant articles on leadership and motivation and their impact on employee performance
and that are most pertinent to the research aims, objectives and questions. Thus, total 8 research
studies (see the following Table 3) were selected to conduct this study by critically reviewing
them.

3.1.4. Data Extraction (see appendix 3 for Table 3)

Table 3: Summary of Selected Research Studies
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CHAPTER 4: RESULTS
4. Introduction

This chapter explains results by critically analysing the characteristics and quality of research
studies. Thus, following is a comprehensive critical assessment of the research studies selected,
in which all aspects of the selected articles are critically reviewed.

4.1. Results

According to Andrew and Sofian (2012), one of the critical organisational issues emerging
employee engagement, mainly as the entire business world is engaging in recovering from the
traumatic economic recession at the global level. Majority of the researchers have explored and
discussed the area of employee engagement and how it is affected by leadership and motivation.
The researchers, thus, conducted a research on the construct with the aim of determining the
assertions of the human resource (HR) consulting organisations and adding to the existing
knowledge of this area in the literature. Through random sampling method, the researchers
recruited 104 HR professionals working at the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia and found the
ambiguity regarding the impact of individual variables related to employee engagement on work
outcomes. A simple random sampling plan is the random and independent selection of a number
of statistical units of the target statistical population (Moyé, 2007). This plan is most often used
for adaptive sampling, provided that travel is inexpensive. In case of high cost, this sampling
plan can be reduced with a two-level random plan (Moyé, 2007). Simple random sampling
requires no prior knowledge of the population, and its theoretical study is simple and the current
estimators for mean and variance are unbiased (Moyé, 2007). The lack of link between the
choices of different elements is an advantage to implement an adaptive sampling. In addition,
sampling may be interrupted or continued without causing bias (provided that the items in the
order of draw are examined). However, this approach of sampling provides minimal precision
leading to high variance of estimators (Singh and Singh Mangat, 2011). In addition, it can be
difficult to achieve because it requires a random drawing procedure that can include any element
of the population, it is necessary that they are all identified individually (Singh and Singh
Mangat, 2011). Finally, for random simple random sampling, the cost of moving and locating
static units can be high since they can be spatially distant from one another. Further, they used
the job and organisation engagements as the measures of employee engagement. The researchers
 Page | 31

also used the social exchange theory (SET) to underpin the study theoretical. The SET considers
that the relationship constituted between two parties, such as en employer and an employee, can
be described on a continuum between economic exchange and social exchange as two extremes:
economic exchange encompasses apparent respective responsibilities and obligations, self-
interest and limited to an exchange of quantifiable resources, while social exchange encompasses
unspecified and undetermined obligations, left to the discretion of both parties, both with respect
to their content and their frequency (Rupp and Cropanzano, 2002). Through questionnaire
survey, data were collected from participants. This approach is good than interviews because It
collects data from a large number of individuals at a relatively low cost. Reduce staff and
sometimes reduce travel (Presser, 2004). Save more when you need many samples. In addition, it
also promotes reliability by promoting greater uniformity (Presser, 2004). There are no changes
in the query and this change can occur when using several interviewers. Survey questionnaires
can also reduce prejudices because the interviewer cannot intentionally or involuntarily influence
the response (Presser, 2004). However, unlike interviews, the questionnaires do not allow
researchers to clarify some issues, to make sure they have the answers, ask for clarification or
explanation or to ensure that the respondent answers all questions form (Press, 2004). If you do
not need or do not provide all the information necessary to support your conclusions, or if the
problem is not entirely clear, you may not be able to communicate with the respondent. In most
cases, it is also not possible to request confirmation. In general, it is impossible to obtain detailed
information from the interview questionnaires. To analyze the data, the researchers used the
mean, the standard deviation, the t test and the multiple regression methods. The results and
results of the survey show the main differences between the organizational commitment and the
work of the employees, the common support of the employees as an important individual
variable that affects the participation and the professional results. Similarly, in the case of Tesco,
the democratic leaders involved in hiring employees took full advantage of their employees.
Applying this style implies maintaining a good and solid relationship with subordinates and
improving their level of general performance by integrating them into the decision-making
process (Woods, 2007).

Muhammad and Shao (2013) conducted a research study with the aim of highlighting the role
played by talent management using generic strategies, through which talent is retained,
employees’ turnover rate is reduced and an organisation’s perceived HR outcomes are achieved
 Page | 32

if the leadership and management has implemented a series of succession planning, branding of
employer, motivational factors and policies of employee development policies in an effective
way (Muhammad and Shao, 2013). Both qualitative and quantitative techniques (mixed method)
were adopted to collect primary data, and structured questionnaire as the data collection method
was used by researchers, which was an instrument to establish the hypothesis. Although, mixed
method approach to research is not easy and can be very time consuming, the weaknesses of both
quantitative and qualitative research can be strengthened by combining them, and thus, using
mixed method was good because two ways of thinking creates stronger theory. This research
method has the strong potential to provide researchers with more evidence than simply studying
a research problem compared to either quantitative or qualitative research solely by them. This
method also makes sure all the questions are responded unlike those that cannot be responded by
a single qualitative or quantitative method. However, collection and analysis of both quantitative
and qualitative data can confuse the reader due to heavy amount of data. Nevertheless, this data
collection method is “practical” as it lets the researcher to employ all or any approaches possible
to properly address a research problem. The researchers also conducted interviews and
discussions that supported them in ascertaining the results. An interview has the strong potential
to enable the interviewer to go much deeper, mainly due to a longer speaking time granted to the
interviewee. Thus, more in-depth, comprehensive and innovative insights are likely to be
collected, which will be useful for a subsequent quantitative phase. Moreover, interviewer bias is
usually less important in interviews because it can follow a predetermined structure in the
interview guide. However, the logistical aspects of the interviews are not easy, especially if an
interviewer has to travel to meet the interviewees. Muhammad and Shao (2013) recruited 200
HR Managers as the study participants. They concluded by getting the results that the techniques
of talent management in any organisation are an integral part of HR strategies and their
leadership practices. In the Tesco context, Tesco management focuses on the talent management
by adopting the human relation approach to management. This theory is a researched belief that
people want to be an integral part of a decisive and supportive team through which development
and growth is facilitated (Wood and Wood, 2004). At Tesco, this management approach is used
with the aim of regulating the organisational operations, while making employees self-dependant
(Tesco, 2018).
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According to Wahyu Ariani (2013), every business organisation focuses on the management role
through which employees are managed; what and how they think and feel regarding their
employments, and what they are willing to do for the business. In their study, Wahyu Ariani
(2013) aimed to identify the link between employee engagement, organisational citizenship
behaviour (OCB), and counterproductive work behaviour (CWB). For this, 507 people as study
subjects were recruited who were working at service industries in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The
researchers used the validity and reliability tests through which the questionnaire contents were
evaluated. Testing approach to questionnaire was good because validity refers to an instrument’s
ability to measure what it is intended to measure or a degree to which what the researcher has set
out to measure is measured by the researcher (Monsen and Van Horn, 2008). Reliability test
means an instrument’s ability to lead to reproducible results. It means that each time it is
employed; similar scores should be obtained in a study (Monsen and Van Horn, 2008). A
questionnaire is considered as reliable if a researcher gets similar responses from participants
repeatedly. Although it cannot be precisely calculated, through estimating correlation
coefficients it can be measured. In this study, questionnaire allowed Wahyu Ariani (2013) to
work on a larger scale, and the number of study subjects is not restricted by time (the
questionnaire is fast to distribute, the subjects responds to their pace outside the trainees’
presence) or by the costs (travel, telephone charges). However, in survey questionnaire based
studies, participants may not be completely truthful with their responses because of social
desirability prejudice and attempting to keeping privacy. Questionnaire also limits the
interviewer’s personality effects and does not allow researchers to remind and reformulate to
assist subjects in expressing their perspectives, and to make sure that the questions are responded
correctly and devoid of any oversights. The researchers cannot know who really responses and
thus cannot make sure high response rate. However, with this method Wahyu Ariani (2013)
found a major positive association between employee engagement and OCB and a major
negative link with CWB and between OCB and CWB. The researchers also found no differences
between employee engagements of both genders, suggesting that there was a difference in mean
score of OCB and CWB between both genders.

In their study, Tangthong (2014) conducted a survey and ascertained the impacts of HRM
practices on employee performance and retention in MNCs with foreign direct investment (FDI).
The researchers developed eleven hypotheses based on theories that point to potential positive
 Page | 34

and negative links among HRM practices, mediating factors and employee retention. They
recruited 411 participants including management from top positions, HR leader and line
manager. The researchers empirically tested them using SPSS AMOS for Path Analysis. Using
AMOS to test interactions has many benefits than standard linear regression if the researcher
wants to test a variety of relationships with more than one outcome or with mediating variables
at once (path model). Moreover, Tangthong (2014) found that the effects of HRM practices are
direct and indirect on employee retention. Regarding indirect effects, employee engagement as
one strongest mediating variable was found influencing employee retention. Nevertheless, there
was no effect of organisational citizenship behaviours on employee retention. This research
shows positive effects of HRM practices effect on employee retention, but the researchers
focused on Thailand and thus it was only limited to one industrial market, eastern seaboard
industrial estate, Rayong province. Consequently, the conclusions drawn by researchers reflect
only that context. Therefore, the need is to conduct further research by focusing on industrial
estates in the country.

Bedarkar and Pandita (2014) conducted a systematic review of literature and explored the
employee engagement concept and its major factors. For this, they analysed particularly three
key divers including leadership, balance between personal and professional lives, and
communication. In Tesco case, the main role of the retail’s leadership is to guide employees
towards the purposes for which the retail chain was established, effective management of
managers through motivation and communication improve productivity in the performance of
employees. Tesco also appreciates that employees are their valuable asset and have varied
lifestyles outside of work. Along with this, they also analysed the impact of these factors on
employee performance at work. They found that there is limited literature on the impact of key
drivers or factors on employee engagement. For this very reason, focus of the researchers was on
these three specific, mentioned earlier, and less researched factors. Similarly, Carasco-Saul, Kim
and Kim (2015) argued that there are limited research studies on link between leadership,
especially transformational leadership, and employee engagement, as argued by Bedarkar and
Pandita (2014). In their study, Carasco-Saul, Kim and Kim (2015) focused on empirical and
conceptual studies to extensively review them because such studies have explored and studied
the link between leadership and employee engagement. Thus, they analysed and synthesised such
studies into integrated frameworks for this relationship, and suggested research agendas for
 Page | 35

future researchers. However, Tesco’s case established that developing trust and respecting
among staff members is crucial. According to Tesco, respecting, regarding and valuing
subordinates through effective leadership provide them with realistic goals and tasks and create
an interesting and secure work environment. The findings of Bedarkar and Pandita (2014) and
Carasco-Saul, Kim and Kim (2015) are different from the real-world contexts of Tesco because
Tesco’s leadership and its consideration over respecting, regarding and valuing subordinates
have the strong potential to increase employees’ motivation. A Tesco’s motivated employee
works with the collaborative and teamwork approach with others with the one common goal of
achieving individual and team objectives, suggesting that focus of the motivated employees is
strongly on target market, treating customers more fairly. However, these two studies are
valuable as they are systematic literature review articles. Systematic review of past studies can
be a source of valuable time and productivity gains as they summarise in a few pages the state of
knowledge in a research area, while reflecting the evolution of knowledge, and sometimes to
reveal interesting trends for the prospective. This approach also prevents researchers from having
to buy and store tens to hundreds of primary articles (which are frequently expensive to access).

Oliveira and Silva (2015) evaluated how employee engagement can be influenced by high
performance work systems (HPWS) and leader-member exchange (LMX) quality. They also
explored and analysed the link between employee engagement and turnover intention. By
recruiting 189 participants who were the employees of a non-profit organisation located in
Brazil, they collected data through survey which has its benefits and limitations as well, as
mentioned above. The researchers conducted hierarchical multiple regression analyses and found
positive effects of HPWS and LMX quality on employee engagement, and negative effects of
engagement on turnover intention of staff members. However, as the researchers collected and
relied on cross-sectional data, making causal claims was indeed impossible. Besides this, the
information based on self-reports gathered by means of the same approach and source,
suggesting that the researchers’ estimates could be affected by the effects of common method.
Thus, it is essential to adopt different research methods in future studies with the aim of avoiding
these problems.

Rayton and Yalabik (2014) conducted a study in which they extended Social Exchange Theory
(SET) and the Job Demands-Resources model, and for this they examined the relationship
 Page | 36

between employee work engagement and psychological contract breach (PCB), and integrated
employee job satisfaction into this exchange association. According to researchers, employees’
feelings of resource loss are reflected by PCB and work engagement is impacted by such feelings
by means of their impact on employees’ job satisfaction. Thus, work engagement levels of
employees can be seen as interchangeable for the exchange content provided by employers. By
recruiting 191 employees, structural equation modelling on longitudinal survey data was
conducted by the researchers. The findings reveal that only the motivation and job satisfaction
has the strong potential to mediate the negative effects of PCB on employees’ work performance
and engagement. This finding can be associated with Tesco’s case because Tesco realises that
motivated and well-trained people have the strong potential to recognise customer needs. Thus,
Tesco’s employees are greatly supported in their different roles and at different levels, assisting
in mediating the negative effects of PCB on employees’ work performance and engagement.
Tesco also recognises that both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation of employees is crucial,
through which continued business growth and success are ensured (Tesco, 2018):
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CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION
5. Introduction

This chapter consists of a comprehensive assessment of strengths and limitations of the reviewed
past studies and then presents an analytical synthesis of what has been studied and examined in
the context of Tesco.

5.1. Assessment of Strengths and Limitations of the Reviewed Studies

This critical review of the literature manifests that a major part of the literature is about
relationship between employee engagement and leadership. It suggests that unlike the potent
research basis of leadership, the past studies provided very limited empirical assessment on a
variety of leadership styles in the leadership-employee engagement relationship context.
Moreover, study on ethical leadership, such as Carasco-Saul, Kim and Kim (2015) has frequently
paid attention to the impact of the direct manager’s own ethical move on the decisions made by
employees as argued by researchers that “ethical leaders affect follower’s self-concept and
identity by highlighting how follower efforts are linked to attaining important moral goals and
values” (Carasco-Saul, Kim and Kim, 2015, p.14). Due to this major issue, there is the need to
conduct further research on ethical leadership in the context of employee performance and
engagement because this approach could widen empirical research in these domains. As an
instance, it would be helpful to investigate the situations behind unauthentic ethical leadership
contextualized within the explicit and implicit ethical policies of a firm. In doing so, employee
performance and engagement may establish as a crucial connection between the business-related
ethics and the disciplines of Human Resource Development (HRD).

Moreover, the literature reviewed earlier exemplified a singular approach to studying and
analysing the leadership-employee performance relationship. It is commonly assumed one
leadership approach is used by leaders in their routine work regarding employee performance
and work engagement. In actual fact, even though some leaders may have a dominant leadership
style, as we can see in the case of Tesco in terms of autocratic leadership approach, decision
made by leaders may demand the acceptance of a variety of styles relying upon specific
circumstances. These are provisional shifts in leadership styles, and the implications of these
shifts or the use of blended leadership styles has not been explored with work engagement and
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performance of employees. Apart from Wahyu Ariani (2013), who made difference between
factors based on relationship and the task-oriented factor in leadership, none of the research
studies or researchers took approaches into account wherein various or changing styles of
leadership impact employee performance and work engagement. In the Tesco case, the retailer
uses human relations approach to management and task-oriented approach and is supported in
identifying the employees’ psychological needs and in fulfilling them effectively (Tesco, 2018).
The task-oriented approach of Tesco aims to achieve the business targets efficiently and in
timely manner (Boddy, 2012).

It was also deduced that employee performance at Tesco is impacted by a positive impact of
rewards. It has also been highlighted that on the basis of rewards level given to the staff members
their performance is equally affected. By studying different research studies and case of Tesco as
a secondary research approach, it has also been found that the management preferred to motivate
employees frequently by rewarding them so as to make sure their commitment levels are high.
Besides this, Tesco motivate employees by giving them a diverse range of rewards, along with
other benefits including flexible work timings; free or discounted rate health benefits; discounted
membership of gym; market competitive wages; employee discount; options of company share,
etc., so that all staff members are motivated to perform well on the basis of their personal
preference concerning the rewards.

Further research exploring and analysing the impacts or influences made by changing or multi-
styled leadership on employee performance and their work engagement could expand the
knowledge and insight into the complexity of leadership choices and the consequences on their
subordinates especially when leaders come to motivate their followers.

Furthermore, there are some research studies that consistently argued that there are direct
meaningful effects of leadership employees’ performance and engagement, or through
mediation. Even though showing a dominating snapshot regarding their relationship, these
assertions are still an unfinished response to a variety of questions, such as ‘whether the positive
link between employee engagement and leadership’s motivation is present with the passage of
time?’ and ‘which one actually causes the other?’ The fact is that the likelihoods presented were:
leaders with transformational style might affect employees positively but for the moment, but the
opposite happens for the long-term because of their sustained challenging anticipations
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(Bedarkar and Pandita, 2014); and work performance and engagement of a staff member could
possibly affect leaders’ instead of the reverse (Oliveira and Silva, 2015). Additionally, some
empirical studies indicated their cross-sectional research approach as a limitation, and then
needed a longitudinal design for their prospective research as an approach to effectively address
this limitation. Devoid of any longitudinal designed research work, most of the research findings
and results on this research topic remain scarcely focused and uncertain. Meaningful knowledge
and understanding can be obtained by means of a longitudinal research designed study to
exploring and analysing leadership’s and motivation’s impact of employee performance, and will
abundantly inflate the literature body. For example, Wu, Sturman and Wang (2013) used a
longitudinal research design and examined the impacts of pay fairness on employees’
performance. The key implication of this study is that even though actual levels of pay are
crucial to perceptions of compensation equality, employees also consider the methods of
compensation, the nature of their relationship with managers, and the degree to which the
management and the firm are forthcoming regarding practices of compensation (Wu, Sturman
and Wang, 2013). They found that only money is not enough to motivate employees but
treatment approach adopted by the management also plays a pivotal role in treating employees
fairly to enhance their work performance (Wu, Sturman and Wang, 2013).

External validity is another key area to discuss. In general, all the research articles reviewed
earlier involved a substantial number and greater diversity in terms of geographical and
occupational aspects of study subjects and offer a rock-solid ground to understand the concepts
researched comparatively and comprehensively. Nevertheless, interpreting this as the secured
external validity is not possible about all the research-based results necessary for vigorous use of
theories regarding the relationship between leadership, motivation and employee
performance/engagement, taking into consideration that every single component and their
associations was studied and analysed independently in a particular context. One research
limitation discoursed by the research studies reviewed earlier is their studies lacked considerable
depth in exploring whether their study results might have comparable implications in other
settings. For this very reason, a sought-after subsequent step to this integrated literature review
would b the attempts for all-embracing conceptualisation and/or empirical confirmation of the
research findings’ external validity.
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5.2. Conclusion

On the basis of the findings of the research studies and reviewing the case of Tesco, it is
concluded that that the employee performance at organisations, such as Tesco, is positively
affected by the effective leadership and the management’s good motivational factors. Both the
employees and management/leadership confirmed that on the basis of the quality of the
leadership and motivations, performance of employees is similarly impacted. Moreover, it can
also be summarized that motivation in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, as adopted by
Tesco, has a major impact on employees’ work and performance.
 Page | 41

References
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Appendices

Appendix 1: Kable’s et al. (2012) 12-Step Framework

Table 1: 12-Step Framework

12 Steps
1) Purpose statement
2) Databases, search engines used
3) Search limits
4) Inclusion and exclusion criteria
5) Search terms
6) Exact searches per database, search engine and the results
7) Relevance assessment of retrieved literature
8) Table reporting literature included in the review, accompanied with
key data such as title, author, but also research subject and findings
9) Document final number of search results
10) Quality assessment of retrieved literature
11) Review
12) Accurate, complete reference list
 Page | 49

Appendix 2: Table 2: Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

Inclusion Criteria
Types of studies Peer-reviewed research papers
English Language
Publication date (2010) to present
Types of research participants Adults (>18 yrs).
Working professionals
Exclusion Criteria
Types of studies Non-English language.
Published before 2010
Grey literature / not published in a peer
reviewed journal.
Types of research participants Children (<18 yrs).
Non-working people