Increasing Employee Motivation for Small Businesses in a Post-pandemic World

Executive Summary

The aim of this study is to identify effective leadership strategies for increasing employee motivation among small and medium businesses in a post-pandemic world. Four objectives cover the investigation and they are meant to identify effective leadership styles best suited for increasing employee motivation, find out the appropriate reward system for increasing employee motivation, understand ways of creating an environment where employees feel motivated/engaged to work, and to determine how to create a balance between employee welfare and organizational goals. Data was gathered from primary and secondary sources with interviews being the source of primary data and published books and journals being the source of secondary data. The interviews were done virtually and they helped the researcher to sample the views of 13 business owners about the improvement of employee morale in a post-pandemic environment.

The scope of the study is on promoting the operations of small businesses in a post-pandemic world through improved employee productivity. The findings of the investigation revealed that the servant leadership style was best suited for small business owners to use in motivating their employees. It stems from heightened concerns about employee welfare, due to health issues, which emerged after the pandemic. The adoption of the servant leadership styles has the potential to balance the interests of employers and employees. Therefore, small business owners could use it is a practical agent of change to motivate employees in a post-pandemic world.

Introduction

Background to the Study

Highly motivated employees often represent a positive energy in the workplace that encourages workers to match the same spirit. The benefits of having motivated employees in an organization are magnified if leaders are the source of the morale and inspire colleagues to boost productivity using suitable leadership styles (Yuan and Zhang, 2017). Different industries and organizations have unique characteristics that affect leadership effectiveness in this regard (Wu, Peng and Estay, 2018). However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has dampened the resolve by some leaders and workers to exude confidence and pride in their work because of rising concerns about employee safety and wellbeing (Men, Qin and Jin, 2021). For example, the pandemic has elicited fear and concern among some workers about the possible risk of infection, especially for at-risk workers who are vulnerable due to public exposure (Men, Qin and Jin, 2021). Consequently, the effectiveness of contemporary leadership styles has been undermined because of the unprecedented nature of health and safety concerns brought by the pandemic.

As alluded above, the effects of COVID-19 on business operations and human resource practices, has thrust employee safety and wellbeing concerns to the forefront of leadership considerations. For example, the pandemic has made it critical for leaders to take care of employee interests in the same manner they do for their shareholders (Pieper et al., 2019). The COVID-19 pandemic has created new leadership challenges for most companies because of the difficulty of maintaining high levels of motivation where fear and uncertainty characterize the workplace (Men, Qin and Jin, 2021). This concern is especially poignant for small businesses that depend on effective leadership to succeed (Kim, Baik and Kim, 2019). Comparatively, large organizations, such as multinationals, have adequate resources to manage some of the challenges brought by the pandemic (Bouwmans et al., 2019). Small businesses do not have the same freedoms because of resource limitations, inadequate staffing and low levels of public trust (Blom et al., 2020). From this background, the present research seeks to find out ways to increase employee motivation for small businesses in a post-pandemic world.

This study is focused on leadership as the core theme of the investigation. Leadership refers to the influence that a person or a group of people have on others (Wu, Peng and Estay, 2018). This aspect of employee management is selected for the study because of its undue influence on employee motivation. Indeed, a host of scholarly research has identified the link between leadership and employee motivation (Wu, Peng and Estay, 2018; Bouwmans et al., 2019; Pieper et al., 2019). Therefore, an effective way to motivate employees is to understand how to lead teams in an organization (Williams and Preston, 2018). Based on this statement, the current study seeks to establish how changes to leadership could be used to increase employee motivation among small businesses in a post-pandemic world.

Research Aim

To identify effective leadership strategies for increasing employee motivation among small and medium businesses in a post-pandemic world

Research Objectives

1. To identify effective leadership styles best suited for increasing employee motivation among small businesses
2. To find out which reward system is appropriate for increasing employee motivation among small businesses in a post-pandemic world
3. To find out how to create an environment where employees feel motivated and engaged to work in a small business
4. To determine how to create a balance between the realization of employee welfare goals and organizational objectives among small businesses in a post-pandemic world

Research Questions

1. Which leadership style is best suited for increasing employee motivation among small businesses in a post-pandemic world?
2. Which reward system is appropriate to increase employee motivation among small businesses in a post-pandemic world?
3. How would leaders create an environment where employees feel motivated and engaged in a post-pandemic business environment?
4. How do leaders create a balance between the realization of employee welfare goals and organizational objectives among small businesses in a post-pandemic world?

Justification of Study

Creating a connection between employee welfare and organizational goals is a critical part of leadership effectiveness. The COVID-19 pandemic has disconnected these two aspects of management by elevating the importance of employee interests in business operations at the expense of cost concerns (Men, Qin and Jin, 2021). Consequently, managers have to grapple with the challenge of balancing the interests of their shareholders as well as those of their employees (Vidal et al., 2017). The challenge has been incremental for many small business owners who lack the resources for achieving this balance (Williams and Preston, 2018). Furthermore, the uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic has made it untenable to continue with “business as usual.” Therefore, new ways have to be devised to enhance employee motivation in a post-pandemic world. In other words, businesses have to look for innovative ways of reassuring workers that their safety is paramount to them and that they should continue working optimally even as uncertainties abound (Wu, Peng and Estay, 2018). The current study aims to find out effective leadership strategies for increasing employee motivation in a post-pandemic world.

Review of the Literature

To recap, the aim of the study is to identify effective leadership strategies for increasing employee motivation among small and medium businesses in a post-pandemic world. This aim is supported by four objectives, which strive to identify effective leadership styles, reward systems, techniques, and tools for creating a motivated workforce where employees feel engaged and productive. In this chapter, we will explore the current state of literature on the importance of leadership in boosting morale, role of rewards systems in enhancing employee productivity, impact of workplace environment on morale, and challenges that small businesses have encountered in the pandemic period. However, before delving into these areas of discussion, it is important to understand the theoretical foundation underpinning the research topic.

Theoretical Foundation

The transformational theory of leadership is the main theoretical foundation for the present study. It is selected for review because small businesses are undergoing a significant period of change, which has been occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic (Men, Qin and Jin, 2021). The transformational leadership theory focuses on the nature of the relationship between leaders and their followers by suggesting that practices, which foster understanding and good relations between both parties, are likely to boost productivity (Wu, Peng and Estay, 2018). The transformational theory of leadership strives to motivate employees to improve their performance by harnessing employee passions and interests to increase productivity in the workplace. Leaders who motivate their employees this way are expected to demonstrate model practices and behaviors that their employees can follow or emulate.

In a transformational leadership context, there are minimal differences between the conduct of a leader and his or her followers. Based on this framework, several scholars have argued for the use of this leadership style in organizations that want to promote a democratic workplace environment where employer and employee inputs are given equal value (Wu, Peng and Estay, 2018). This statement describes the present attitude in most organizations today because the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that the interests of employers and employees need to be factored in decision-making processes to promote the welfare of workers and uphold organizational goals in equal measure. However, employers have had varying levels of success when implementing transformational theory due to differences leadership styles and workplace environments.

Given that the present study focuses on understanding ways of increasing employee motivation in a post-pandemic society, it is important to understand how the transformational theory of leadership can be used to foster change in the workplace to help employees better adapt to their new workplace environment. Relative to this assertion, Farahnak et al. (2020) explored the role of transformational leadership in effecting change management within an organization and reported that attitudes towards change were key determinants of leadership effectiveness (Farahnak et al., 2020). In this regard, researchers have established a positive relationship between employee attitudes and implementation success in the corporate setting (Yuan and Zhang, 2017). This statement also suggests that leadership is critical to the implementation of successful change management.

Subject to the above statement, the transformational leadership theory has emerged as a conduit for fostering good relationships among organizational stakeholders while promoting change at the same time. Relative to this assertion, Weller et al. (2020) highlight the role of transformational leadership in influencing employee actions by pointing out its role in fostering good relations among employees. The researchers affirm the link between transformational leadership and employee attitudes, with the latter proposed as an effective way of implementing change management (Weller et al., 2020). A different journal article authored by Peng, Liao and Sun (2020) highlights the role that leadership plays in strengthening employee affective commitment to their employers. It suggests that the relationship between the two parties is moderated by employee perceptions of their role in an organization. Relative to this finding, Peng, Liao and Sun (2020) opine that leaders influence the perception that workers have of their impact in an organization. Therefore, the motivational attributes of a company are top-down and organization-specific factors have an impact on leadership effectiveness.

The above-mentioned articles highlight the role of organization-specific factors in implementing change within an organization. However, other researchers have investigated the role of employee-specific factors in realizing the same objective with different outcomes. For example, Groves (2020) and Erdurmazl (2019) explored the role of employee openness in implementing transformational change within an organization and established that resistance to change was influenced by employee-specific factors. The transformational leadership theory, described above, plays a moderating role in understanding the effects that employee-specific factors would have on an organization’s willingness to adopt such changes (Groves, 2020). Its role in motivating employees has also been explored within the context that such leadership practices motivate employees (Edelbroek, Peters and Blomme, 2019). For example, the article by Pradhan and Jena (2019) suggests that transformational leadership is useful in breaking monotony of work, thereby making employees more interested to stay in the workplace. In this regard, transformational leadership is critical in fostering motivation.

Given its relevance to harnessing factors that are critical in promoting change within an organization, the transformation leadership theory also plays a critical role in understanding factors that lead to the success, or failure, of firms during unpredictable and uncertain times. The COVID-19 pandemic presents such a situation and espouses the need to evaluate motivational factors within this narrow prism of focus (Men, Qin and Jin, 2021). Therefore, issues that affect employee motivation during uncertain periods, such as leadership effectiveness, reward policies, and workplace environment, are conceptualized within this theoretical framework (Ballin, 2020). Overall, the transformation leadership theory forms the theoretical framework for this study because of its ability to moderate employer-employee relations in a change environment.

Importance of Leadership in Boosting Morale

Leadership plays an important role in influencing employee motivation because organizations use different leadership styles to enhance productivity. Some of the most commonly researched leadership styles are democratic, autocratic, transformational, and participative (Beltrán-Martín and Bou-Llusar, 2018). Depending on the chosen style of leadership, employers exert influence on a person, or a group of employees, to perform tasks using this concept (Wu, Peng and Estay, 2018). In this regard, leadership has a direct correlation with employee motivation. Therefore, choosing the right strategy to lead teams is an effective way of motivating them.

The transactional, behavioral, and trait theories are models for understanding the influence of leadership on employee motivation. They are primarily focused on identifying practices that foster good relations between employers and employees by tweaking aspects of the workplace environment where teams interact (Williams and Preston, 2018). In a study authored by Beltrán-Martín and Bou-Llusar (2018), it was established that leadership styles had a significant impact on workplace performance. This view was developed after investigating how leadership factors affected the motivational levels of employees in the workplace. From this background, the Abilities, Motivation and Opportunities (AMO) model was introduced to aid in the realization of this objective, with the primary focus of analysis being the availability of employee abilities, motivation, and opportunities for growth as precursors for development. The AMO model assumes a top-down management structure where skills, motivation, and opportunities for career development are prioritized in understanding employee motivational levels (Pesch et al., 2017). Results indicate that motivational attributes enhancing one’s skills and opportunities for career growth had the highest impact on motivation (Beltrán-Martín and Bou-Llusar, 2018). Therefore, individualized leadership styles have a more profound impact on motivation compared to group-designed plans.

Leadership training is also one of the ways of boosting employee motivation in the workplace. It is linked with improved training opportunities, enhanced leader effectiveness and improved corporate performance (Tafvelin and Stenling, 2021). In this regard, the transfer of leadership training has been associated with improved organizational outcomes (Tafvelin et al., 2019). Some researchers have delved deeper into this issue by analyzing the context of implementing leadership strategies to find out the perception employees have of a leader and the role it plays in influencing motivation (Ugaddan and Park, 2019; Abasilim, Gberevbie and Osibanjo, 2019). Consequently, it has been established trustful leadership has a more significant impact on employee motivation compared to untruthful leadership (Men, Qin and Jin, 2021). Similarly, perceptions about organizational justice have been seen to play a significant role in influencing how effective employers would be at using leadership to enhance motivation.

The character of leaders has also emerged in this analysis as a moderating factor for the impact that leadership has on employee morale. Particularly, responsibility in leadership has been associated with positive motivation outcomes among employees because workers consider employers who take responsibility for their actions to be more trustful than those who do not do the same (Lämsä and Keränen, 2020). In the context of this analysis, leaders who are accountable to their subjects are those who demonstrate values of fairness, openness, trust, and care (Ugaddan and Park, 2019). In most firms, these values are espoused in the employer-employee relationship (Williams and Preston, 2018). However, in the context of this analysis, responsible leadership is practiced in various setups based on a firm’s unique circumstances (Lämsä and Keränen, 2020). In certain scenarios, the leader is expected to show direction to employees, and in other contexts, this responsibility is shared (Pesch et al., 2017). The strategy chosen depends on the kind of business or sector a firm operates.

Accountability in leadership draws attention to ethical leadership, which is a new area of leadership management that espouses the promotion of sound corporate practices to inspire employees to perform well. Researchers have mentioned the social learning theory in this context of review to examine how ethical leadership behaviors are practiced in the organizational setup (Jin et al., 2019; Osafo, Paros and Yawson, 2021). In this theory, leaders are often motivated to practice ethical behaviors to set a good example for their juniors to emulate (Kelleher, 2019). The underlying premise of its implementation is that good organizational values stem from ethical leadership (Osafo, Paros and Yawson, 2021). In this environment, leaders and their employees are encouraged to adopt ethical practices as a matter of conviction and not merely to comply with a set of rules or guidelines.

Concerns have arisen about the emergence of leadership styles that undermine employee wellbeing because ineffective leadership styles have a detrimental impact on employee motivational levels in the same magnitude as effective ones do. Consequently, the need to review job designs and leadership models that employers use to exert control in the workplace has been proposed as a precursor to the implementation of sound leadership practices (Kaltiainen and Hakanen, 2022). Sarmah et al. (2022) say that this analysis has led to new discussions about the resources available to employees to complete their tasks, the demands imposed on them by their employers to fulfill their contractual agreements, and the effect that such arrangements have on their wellbeing. Relative to these concerns, it has been established that leadership styles promoting worker autonomy generate the highest levels of job satisfaction among employees (Sarmah et al., 2022). Comparatively, leadership styles that promote excess control from the employer lead to exhaustion and unrealistic job demands, which worsen motivation levels among employees.

Leadership traits that promote excessive leadership control are destructive behaviors. They have also been linked to employee silence due to the high-stress levels it causes them (Wu, Peng and Estay, 2018). Work complexity has been identified as a moderating variable impacting motivation, but employee silence is primarily linked to the avoidance of role conflicts, which also affects workers’ enthusiasm (Frazier and Tupper, 2018). Role ambiguity and job overloads have also been mentioned in this context as causes of low levels of job satisfaction (Wang et al., 2022). These findings suggest that organization-specific factors may create leadership challenges if unchecked.

Based on the above assertion, there is a level of care required when choosing the best leadership style to adopt in an organization, subject to its corporate or institutional setting. For example, in an Indian-based study, schools were mentioned as “emotionally fragile” organizations where the capability of leaders to demonstrate empathy-shared leadership was paramount to achieving high levels of motivation (Roy, 2020). In such settings, leadership is presented as an important driver of creativity among employees (Donkor, Dongmei and Sekyere, 2021). Indeed, in this framework of review, shared feelings of belongingness are identified as a key driver for promoting innovation and motivation among workers (Kim, Baik and Kim, 2019). Therefore, creativity is an antecedent of positive thinking and high energy that leaders are expected to demonstrate (Lewis, Ricard and Klijn, 2018; Kim, Baik and Kim, 2019). This piece of evidence demonstrates that institutional contexts and business nature play an important role in determining the effectiveness of leadership approaches in influencing motivation levels.

Role of Rewards Systems in Boosting Morale

A company’s reward system refers to the benefits that employees get for performing a set of tasks or duties. In this setup, employers provide monetary and non-monetary rewards to realize optimum productivity from their workers (Asseburg and Homberg, 2020). Non-monetary rewards may include employee recognition programs, scholarships to further studies, career promotion opportunities, and an improved workplace environment, while monetary rewards may include bonuses and direct financial assistance (Verharen, Adan and Vanderschuren, 2020). Rewarding employees helps to create strong bonds between employers and workers, thereby boosting motivation.

Recent groundbreaking work suggests that a company’s reward system helps employers to make value-based decisions that affect employee motivation. Value-based decisions help to ascertain the cost and benefits of pursuing certain compensative actions at the expense of others (Verharen, Adan and Vanderschuren, 2020). Nonetheless, the role of rewards in boosting employee performance is responsible for varying levels of performance among different firms. For example, Asseburg and Homberg (2020) say that public sector organizations have lost their appeal in the labor market because they do not offer attractive rewards as private sector firms do (Zheng et al., 2021). Köbis, Soraperra and Shalvi (2021) support the same findings after identifying significant differences in motivation levels for employees working in Chinese public and private sectors. Differences in turnover intention among different groups of workers have also been attributed to the same phenomenon (Pieper et al., 2019; Zheng et al., 2021). The reason for the varying levels of attractiveness for public and private sector organizations has been perceptual factors relating to an employer’s character (Asseburg and Homberg, 2020). Based on this understanding, the employer knowledge model has emerged to evaluate a firm’s characteristics, subject to three fundamental issues.

The first one relates to how employers treat workers and the preferences they harbor for the kind of employees they wish to have. The second issue is the employer information aspect, which evaluates varied characteristics of a firm, such as the level of centralization adopted in an organization and the values they espouse in them (Zheng et al., 2021). The third criterion for evaluating an employee’s profile relates to job-specific duties, such as a definition of tasks that need to be completed, the amount of money paid to employees, and the availability of career growth opportunities (Blom et al., 2020). Collectively, these issues are pertinent in understanding the attractiveness of an organization to prospective employees.

Employee characteristics also have an impact on the effect that rewards have on motivation. Particularly, the ages of workers have a direct relationship with the effectiveness of a company’s reward system (Rael, 2017). Consequently, there are increased calls for employers to adopt targeted motivation strategies to achieve high levels of motivation (Alhmoud and Rjoub, 2020). Relative to this analysis, there are two groups of rewards for different generations of workers – extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic rewards are those that have a tangible benefit to employees. They may include increased pay, expansion of career growth opportunities, enhanced promotion opportunities, and employee workload (Alhmoud and Rjoub, 2019). Comparatively, intrinsic factors are those that have a non-monetary value attached (Bouwmans et al., 2019). They may include extra support provided to an employee to complete a task by his or her workers and the meaningfulness of one’s duties to their personal or professional lives.

Extrinsic rewards are more effectively used among Generation X workers, while intrinsic rewards are associated with generation Y employees. Comparatively, new studies have tried to explore the best leadership style to use on Millennials who are set to dominate the workplace by 2025 (Gabriel, Alcantara and Alvarez, 2020). However, the best leadership style to use for this group of employees is unclear because of changing workplace dynamics and rapid technological changes (Kemp, 2018). These issues have been compounded by the heightened growth in the number of Millennials in the workplace, which has happened in a relatively short time, and their role in overseeing operations that are partly being supported by older workers (Gabriel, Alcantara and Alvarez, 2020). Therefore, generational differences play a key role in determining the best leadership style to use in workplaces.

Cultural differences are also other factors affecting employee motivation in the modern workplace. Particularly, organizational values and beliefs affect how well employees perceive or understand motivational strategies adopted in an organization (Management Association, Information Resources, 2018). In a study to understand the impact that extrinsic, intrinsic, and social factors have on employee motivation, it was established that all three of them had a significant impact on employee motivation levels (Manohar et al., 2017; Gabriel, Alcantara and Alvarez, 2020). In the Middle East context, it was observed that social rewards had the highest impact on motivation levels (Alhmoud and Rjoub, 2019). This finding is important in understanding how companies can retain talent and, by extension, improve the productivity of their workers (Bell et al., 2018). Broadly, these findings show that the presence of rewards in an organization increases employees’ motivational rigor. In turn, it enhances subjective benefits of workers and amplifies differences in performance between two scenarios- when employees are rewarded and when they are not rewarded.

Impact of Workplace Environment on Morale

The environment where employees work could have a direct impact on their motivation levels in the same manner as rewards do. Herzberg’s Hygiene factor theory is among the most commonly cited models explaining this statement (Zhang, Jinpeng and Khan, 2020). In some pieces of literature, the theory is referred to as the two-factor model, which suggests that the main issues influencing employee motivation are not the same ones that cause dissatisfaction (Singh and Bhattacharjee, 2020). Hygiene factors are associated with workplace rules and policies that may have an impact on productivity. The relationship workers have with their supervisors, the administrative styles adopted in organizations, and the technical supervisory rules they are supposed to comply with are some of the factors that characterize an organization’s “hygiene” environment (Zhang, Jinpeng and Khan, 2020). Consequently, it is predicted that employee motivation will decline when these hygiene factors are not fulfilled or are only being partly addressed.

Recently, scholarly attention on the role that workplace environments have on employee motivation has shifted from brick and mortar workplace environments to virtual ones. This process has been accelerated by the ongoing digital revolution in the global marketplace and the development of modern communication techniques (Köbis, Soraperra and Shalvi, 2021). Zhang, Jinpeng and Khan (2020) say that social media is perhaps the most impactful force to come from this trend in the last decade. It allows workers to share knowledge instantly, thereby leading to fluctuations in motivation levels (Hutchins, 2019). The same researchers have pointed out that the lack of social media could weaken motivation levels in the workplace because employees may not feel inclined to share knowledge if such platforms do not exist (Makrides, Vrontis and Christofi, 2020; Zhang, Jinpeng and Khan, 2020). The impact that social media has on workplace motivation is covert in the sense that it creates a mediating effect promoting self-efficacy. This process could lead to varying levels of motivation in the workplace.

Challenges of Small Businesses in a Pandemic Period

The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis first reported in 2019 in Wuhan, China. Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a pandemic in March 2020, businesses have suffered depleted revenues, as some of them were forced to close down to control infection spread (Kumari and Eguruze, 2022). Researchers have noted a difference in the manner firms responded to the crisis, with large Multinational Companies (MNCs) having a better experience at managing the crisis compared to their smaller counterparts (Miklian and Hoelscher, 2021). Given that the COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis, there has been a significant mental, physical, and psychosocial burden imposed on employees who have to constantly grapple with the fear of contracting the disease while performing their duties (Ertel, 2021). In this regard, the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as an occupational health hazard for most employees.

As part of the measures taken to counter the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the workplace, such as social distancing and wearing of masks, employers have forced some of their employees to work from home. This change in the workplace environment has led to significant mental health issues among employees who are not accustomed to staying indoors for long hours (Assefa, 2021). Others have complained of experiencing a difficult time working from home when their children or family members constantly distract them (Harel, 2021; Assefa, 2021). Collectively, these changes have had a negative impact on motivation levels. Heightened levels of worry and uncertainty about the pandemic and the future of some employment positions have exacerbated these concerns (Vidal et al., 2017). Given the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses, employers are having a difficult time keeping their employees engaged. Others are having an equally difficult time retaining their staff because the pandemic has forced people to rethink their career and life decisions.

Summary

This chapter has shown that motivation factors are those that can nurture satisfaction in the kind of work employees do. They bring a sense of accomplishment to workers and allow them to get recognition or acknowledgment for the work they do. The analysis has also indicated that leadership, rewards systems, and workplace environments significantly affect employee levels of communication. However, a gap in the literature exists, which fails to highlight how these issues relate to small businesses or the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study seeks to establish these links with a focus on how to motivate workers to improve productivity in a post-pandemic society.

Methodology

To recap, this paper has four main objectives, seek to identify effective leadership styles, reward systems, tools for creating a balance between the attainment of employee and organizational goals in an environment where members of staff feel motivated and engaged to work. This chapter highlights the main techniques used by the researcher in meeting these objectives. Key sections of this methodology are designed from the research onion model, as espoused by Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2019), which highlights five stages of methodological analysis: philosophies, approaches, strategies, choices, and time horizons.

Research Philosophy

The research philosophy selected for use in a study indicates the worldview that a scholar has chosen to inform decisions regarding the collection and analysis of findings. Figure 3.1 below shows four main philosophies used in academic research and they include positivism, realism, interpretivism, and pragmatism (Subramaniam, 2019).

The main differences among the philosophical continuums described above could be traced to the concepts of epistemology and doxology. They refer to what is known to be true and what is believed to be true, respectively (Heath, 2018). Positivism and interpretivism are the two major research philosophies used in scientific research (Edelbroek, Peters and Blomme, 2019). The positivism research philosophy relies on concrete empirical research to develop findings, while the interpretivism approach adds human reasoning and experiences in the process (Brinkmann, 2018). In other words, it favors the adoption of an experience-based view of the world, which accounts for the subjectivity of people’s opinions in data collection, interpretation, and analysis.

Given that the present study is focused on understanding motivational factors affecting employee performance, the interpretivism research philosophy was selected. This research philosophy follows an experience-based view of the world when analyzing evidence. In other words, it uses people’s subjective experiences to determine how data should be interpreted (Prasad, 2017). The subjective nature of the research philosophy was relevant in identifying linkages between employee motivational behaviors and leadership practices in the small business setting (Asseburg and Homberg, 2020). It was also useful in understanding leadership, as a concept, because it is a subjective variable predicated on people’s ability to influence others (Abasilim, Gberevbie and Osibanjo, 2019). Given that employees respond to leadership practices differently, the interpretivism research philosophy was instrumental in understanding this diversity because it provided multiple perspectives for reviewing the research issue.

Research Approach

Two major research approaches used in academic research are inductive and deductive. They differ in approach because the inductive technique is designed to develop a theory, while the deductive method is used to test such theories (Hatta et al., 2020; Hennink, Hutter and Bailey, 2020). Given that the present study was exploratory, no theories were tested, thereby negating the use of deductive reasoning (Zeithaml et al., 2020). Instead, the inductive approach was used because the pieces of evidence collected in the study formed the basis for developing its findings. In other words, the researcher used scientific evidence gathered from the study to make broad generalizations about effective leadership styles for increasing employee motivation in a post-pandemic SME environment.

Research Strategy

According to the taxonomy of research methodologies, both positivism and interpretivism research philosophies have unique strategies for implementation. The positivist approach often involves the use of experiments, surveys, case studies, action research, theorem-proof, forecasting, and simulation tools to undertake research studies (Heath, 2018). Comparatively, the interpretivism research philosophy is associated with reviews, action research, case studies, descriptive analysis, future research, role-playing, and argumentative techniques to achieve the same goal (Hennink, Hutter and Bailey, 2020). Both sets of strategies define formats used to collect and analyze data and have far-reaching implications on the type of information to be analyzed.

Given that the current research is exploratory, the descriptive/interpretive approach was the main strategy adopted in the present study. The subjective nature of the relationship between leadership and employee motivation was the main justification for its selection because it requires a nuanced understanding of how the pandemic has affected small businesses (Donkor, Dongmei and Sekyere, 2021). Additionally, the interpretive approach was used in the study because small businesses are found in multiple economic sectors – each with its unique dynamics and experiences that could affect employee motivation (Donkor, Dongmei and Sekyere, 2021). Therefore, the selected research strategy helped to provide context and meaning when evaluating the relationship between leadership and employee motivation in the SME sector.

Research Choice

The decision to select a research choice is influenced by the nature of a study and the objectives a researcher intends to achieve. Scholars have a choice to make in selecting mixed methods, multi-methods, or mono-methods based on the above-mentioned criteria for review. The mixed-methods technique combines qualitative and quantitative data elements when investigating a research issue (Champagne-Poirier et al., 2021). Comparatively, as its name suggests, the multi-method technique involves the adoption of multiple layers of analysis in investigating a research topic. Alternatively, the mono-method encourages researchers to use either qualitative or quantitative data in a study, and not both (Subramaniam, 2019). Based on the above identifying criteria, the mono-method was the selected research choice for the current investigation because qualitative data formed the main basis for developing the findings. The use of one type of data in conducting the study provided the researcher with a nuanced understanding of the relationship between leadership and employee motivation in the small business setting.

Techniques and Procedures

Scholars often use cross-sectional and longitudinal techniques to undertake their studies. Both techniques are relevant in understanding the period of data collection, analysis, and their implications on findings (Heath, 2018). The cross-sectional method involves the collection of research data at one point in time. Comparatively, the longitudinal method is associated with data collection at different points in time (Brinkmann, 2018). Therefore, the longitudinal method is associated with research investigations that may take months, or years, to complete, while data collection processes in cross-sectional research are ordinarily completed within a few days (Subramaniam, 2019). The cross-sectional technique was the main framework used to undertake this investigation because data was collected in days. Therefore, the study captures the implications of changes in leadership styles on employee performance in a post-pandemic environment.

Data Collection

Subject to an analysis of the merits and demerits of the methodological techniques highlighted above, the researcher integrated both primary and secondary data sources in the study. Primary data came from interviews administered to 13 small business owners operating in the hospitality, retail, and transport industries (see appendix 1). Alternatively, secondary data was obtained from credible sources of published data, including books and journals. The two sources of information were integrated into the research process to provide robust and holistic findings. Stated differently, secondary data helped to explain primary research findings and the interview data was contextualized using the secondary findings.

The decision to use interviews as the main data collection technique was informed by the small sample of participants chosen for the investigation. Given that the target population was small business owners, only one respondent in a firm gave their views on the subject matter. The interview method enabled the researcher to collect reliable data from these entrepreneurs by allowing in-depth discussions to occur about the relationship between leadership styles and employee motivation in a post-pandemic world (Assefa, 2021). The target population was small business owners who had more than 12 employees at a time. This focused search strategy enabled the researcher to sample the views of 13 SME owners. This number of informants was sufficient for the analysis because a minimum of 12 respondents is adequate to undertake comprehensive interviews (Namey, 2017). The sample population means that the interplay in the relationship between leadership styles and employee motivation was investigated from the experiences of 13 small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sampling Procedure

As highlighted above, primary data was obtained from SME owners who had operational businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic period. The researcher recruited them through the purposive sampling method because it helped to identify entrepreneurs who had sufficient experience managing employees during the crisis period. The purposive sampling method was suitable for the study because it enables researchers to identify respondents with unique characteristics from a large sample of people (Andrade, 2021). Given that the researcher intended to gain insight about effective leadership practices in the post-pandemic period, small business owners emerged as suitable informants because they have sufficient knowledge about changes in employee motivation, before, during, and possibly after the pandemic (Donkor, Dongmei and Sekyere, 2021). Stated differently, only a limited number of people had the leadership skills and knowledge about employee motivation needed to explain the impact of the pandemic on productivity.

As highlighted in this chapter, secondary data was used as supplementary research information for this study. This means that the researcher collected this type of information to supplement primary data sourced from the small business owners. This type of data mainly came from peer-reviewed journals and books because of their high credibility and reliability in academic research (Prasad, 2017). The focus of the secondary data analysis was to collect updated information that would be relevant to the pandemic period 2019 -2022. Consequently, research materials that were older than five years were excluded from the search process. Keywords and phrases used in the search were “employee motivation,” “leadership,” “small businesses,” “COVID-19,” “pandemic,” and “crisis.”

Data Analysis

As highlighted in this chapter, the researcher collected two sets of data –primary and secondary. Primary data, which was gathered using interviews, were analyzed using the thematic and coding method, while secondary information was evaluated using the content analysis technique. For the interview part, the researcher identified recurring themes from a broader set of responses. The themes were later coded using numerical symbols to support a scaled analysis. The codes represented different areas of probe relating to the relationship between leadership styles and employee motivation in a crisis environment. Broadly, the interview findings were analyzed using thematic and coding methods in six stages, as defined in Table 3.1 below.

Table. 3.1: Thematic and coding method

Analysis of Secondary Data

As highlighted in this chapter, besides interview data, the researcher also gathered information from published sources. This data was analyzed using content analysis, which involves the identification of words, phrases, themes, and concepts within a larger body of text (Monteiro and Richter, 2019). The content analysis method has widespread applicability in qualitative research investigations and a successful record in being used as a tool for analyzing historical texts and published research sources (Bouwmans et al., 2019). Using the content analysis technique, the researcher was able to identify the presence of relevant concepts and understand the meanings and relationships they share with factors affecting leadership and motivation. This same process also helped in understanding the language, contexts, and inferences made by various authors or scholars to identify biases or objectivity concerns that affected the findings.

Ethical Considerations

Research ethics refers to the identification of values, norms, and institutional guidelines regarding the collection and dissemination of data. Doing so helps researchers to develop good ethical discretion in the manner they treat participants and use other people’s work to develop their findings (Stokes, 2017). To promote sound scientific practices, ethical considerations in research are also designed to minimize scientific misconduct and clarify ethical dilemmas (Costantino et al., 2019). The present study had two sets of ethical implications because primary and secondary data sources were used.

Primary Research

Given that human participants formed the basis for the development of primary research findings, it was important for the researcher to ensure the presence of guidelines and policies that would protect their safety and dignity. The importance of doing so is documented in several academic texts that have highlighted the need for researchers to ensure their informants feel safe and comfortable to give information (Patten and Newhart, 2017). The process is linked to the generation of reliable data because unethical research processes may compromise the integrity of findings (Temple, 2019). Therefore, relevant to the current study is the need to understand ethical measures the researcher undertook to protect the interests of the participants and enhance the credibility of study findings during the interviews. In line with this goal, the main ethical considerations that underpinned the primary research process are outlined below.

Informed Consent: Research participants need to take part in studies only after understanding the implications of doing so. To meet this requirement, researchers are often encouraged to provide potential informants with relevant information relating to a study before participation (Chatfield et al., 2021). Therefore, the researcher provided all interviewees who took part in the current investigation with relevant data relating to the study, including the intention of the researcher in designing it, its scope, and significance. These details were provided in an informed consent form and all participants were required to ascertain their understanding of the issues highlighted before confirming participation (see appendix 2). In this regard, the researcher made them aware of what the study entailed before allowing them to take part in them. Based on the terms detailed in the informed consent form, all participants took part in the investigation voluntarily. This statement means that the researcher did not coerce, intimidate, bribe, or pay the small business owners to give their views on leadership in the post-pandemic period. The goal was to interview SME owners who were willing to give honest feedback on the research topic without expecting compensation.

Anonymity and Confidentiality: The safety of the research participants was partly enhanced by observing principles of anonymity and confidentiality in research. Anonymity and confidentiality of data are two ethical principles associated with the use of human subjects in research (Blake et al., 2021). They relate to the need to protect the privacy of respondents when collecting and analyzing information (Kostovicova and Knott, 2022). Some scholars suggest that the concepts are closely linked with the need for informants to give consent to participate in a study because doing so is an implicit acceptance of the risks involved in presenting the views iof known people (Kumar, 2018). Subject to this statement, the information obtained from the respondents was presented anonymously in this report to protect the identity of the respondents. This action is in line with the provision of Mustajoki and Mustajoki (2017), which maintains the need to protect the integrity and identity of people who wish to give their views about a study and do not wish to be known. Therefore, the anonymous presentation of research findings made it possible to extract valuable data about the leadership practices of small businesses without obsessing over the identity of the small business owners, or their backgrounds.

Withdrawal from Study: Given that the research participants enjoyed the freedom to take part in the study voluntarily, they were also at liberty to withdraw from it. However, participants who chose to do so were required to inform the researcher in writing. Withdrawal from the study meant that they were at liberty not to answer specific questions in the interviews or take part in any specific research process relating to the investigation, if they so wished. The freedom to withdraw from the study stems from the recommendations of Bratton and Gold (2017), which highlights the importance of researchers to give informants the freedom to engage in the research process, as and when they wish. Doing so helps improve the quality of information they get (Thompson et al., 2021). In other words, their right to take part in the study allows informants to give candid feedback, unlike an alternate scenario if they were under duress. Therefore, the researcher ensured that the interviews were conducted in a free and relaxed atmosphere.

Treatment of Data: Given that human subjects formed the basis for developing the research findings, the treatment of personal information became an important ethical concern. Ethical guidelines relating to the treatment of data are widespread and vary depending on the value of the information collected, purpose of its collection, and sensitivity of information (Ferretti et al., 2022). Nonetheless, most techniques proposed in the management of data are associated with procedures for the collection, management, and preservation of information (Morgan and Nica, 2020). Based on these common objectives, in this analysis, the researcher stored information obtained from the small business owners in a computer. It provided a safeguard for the study by securing data using a password. The password was only privy to the researcher to minimize the threat of data breaches. Similarly, the information secured was not shared with anyone, except for the supervisor, and the relevant academic institutional board members.

The safeguards outlined above made it difficult for persons who may harbor ill intent to destroy, alter, or compromise data. For example, the informants were allocated a unique identifying code, during the data analysis phase, which made it difficult to expose their identities, names, genders, or positions held in a firm (Ferretti et al., 2022). The last step in protecting the data involved destroying the information after concluding the research process.

Secondary Research

The ethical issues involved in the use of secondary data are not as expansive as they are in the primary research section outlined above. This is because secondary research does not use human subjects as the basis for developing research findings. Instead, data is sourced from the findings of other scholars through a rigorous research review process before they are used to develop findings (Ballin, 2020). Based on these characteristics of secondary research, the ethical implications that emerged in this part of the analysis related to the use of other people’s works. Consistent with this observation, secondary data used in this study was obtained with permission from the authors, as recommended by Bryman (2017). Alternatively, freely available research materials were used in the investigation because of the lack of legal safeguards to prevent public use. The researcher also correctly cited the authors whose works were used in developing this research.

Limitations of Study

The limitations of this study stem from the scope and nature of the investigation. These limitations refer to aspects of the research study that were out of the control of the researcher and have the ability to influence the findings (Nekmat, 2020). The first limitation is associated with the focus on small businesses as a distinct segment of the economy. Therefore, the findings highlighted in this paper are solely representative of employee motivation practices in SMEs, as opposed to MNCs and similar enterprises. The second limitation of this study is its indicative nature. In other words, the views highlighted in the presentation are not representative of small businesses in general but rather a sample of them (Wu, Peng and Estay, 2018). This statement highlights the extent that these findings can be used to explain leadership practices that would increase employee motivation in a small business setting. In other words, the findings reported in this document are only indicative and do not represent the actual extent of leadership effectiveness in the small business segment of the market.

This research is also limited to the locus of study, which is small business. As highlighted in this document, these businesses are mostly resource-strapped and operate within a small geographical market (Wu, Peng and Estay, 2018). They may lack the technical skills and expertise of balancing the interests of their shareholders, unlike large organizations do. They may also lack the accountability needed to develop sustainable solutions for managing the effects of the pandemic once it is over (Kim, Baik and Kim, 2019). These small businesses are also mostly privately owned, hence run the risk of failing to meet best practices of performance in the area of human resource management (Wu, Peng and Estay, 2018). Therefore, the current research is limited to businesses that have these characteristics and the findings are confined to the post-pandemic business environment where employee interests are at the forefront in making leadership decisions.

Reliability and Validity of Findings

The reliability and validity of the findings highlighted in this document are supported by the use of the member-check technique, which involves participant approval before the publication of findings (Al-Tit, 2020). In other words, the researcher provided informants with an opportunity to review the findings to establish whether their views were correctly presented in the study, or not. Corrections and adjustments to the findings were made in areas where disparities between the respondents’ views and the findings reported were observed. Consequently, there was consistency in the views presented by the small business owners and the findings of the study.

Findings and Analysis

This study was designed to investigate ways to increase employee motivation for small businesses in a post-pandemic world. It was guided by four main objectives, which were centered on identifying effective leadership styles, reward systems, conditions suitable for creating a supportive work environment, and realizing a work-life balance for employees in the small businesses setting. These objectives were formulated to understand how to motivate employees and improve productivity in a post-pandemic world. To recap, data was gathered using interviews and secondary data. The findings for each section of the data collection process are discussed below.

Interview Findings

As highlighted in this paper, the data collection process happened in two phases with the first one involving the collection of primary data using interviews. Thirteen small business owners volunteered to take part in the study. Using the thematic and coding method, four themes emerged from the interviews and they included employee benefits, management roles, remote working, and working conditions. Some of these themes overlapped with one another, but they were the key issues to consider when motivating employees in a post-pandemic world.

Employee Benefits

The theme of employee benefits was closely associated with questions revolving around the need to identify the best rewards program to motivate employees in a post-pandemic world. A journal piece developed by Men, Qin, and Jin (2021) also investigated the same issue and established that COVID-19 will reshape leadership styles beyond the crisis. Seven respondents mentioned the theme of employee benefits and closely related it to the process of determining the best reward system to use in motivating employees. Relative to this statement, the current body of research suggests that during crises, an effective leadership style is that which is overly directive and actionist (Kumari and Eguruze, 2022). This is because crises may change the operating environment for entrepreneurs and demand a fast-paced or radical decision-making process to mitigate their effects (Alhmoud and Rjoub, 2019). Based on this statement, it could be assumed that the respondents’ views were consistent with those of existing researchers who have emphasized the need for expeditious decision-making during crisis periods.

After giving a background of the leadership styles that are suitable for crises, the interviewees were also asked to give their views about challenges they may have experienced from a leadership standpoint because of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the business owners admitted that his greatest challenge was having to look for new ways of staying financially buoyant, while maintaining good relationships with stakeholders. Relative to this statement he said,

“I had to cancel my travel plans because I wanted to minimize my short-term expenses until I could fully grasp what was going on. Some of my colleagues had to cancel important events for the same reason. I know of companies that were using timing strategies to delay the recruitment of some workers, while others had to cancel new product launches or planned business expansions. I must say, finances quickly dried up and it was tough to manage the aftermath…”

Some scholars affirm the negative financial impact of the crisis on businesses because many were forced to close, or downsize, due to financial constraints that followed the pandemic (Pieper et al., 2019). Some had to cancel bonuses and sales incentives, thereby making relations with employees vulnerable to neglect (Pieper et al., 2019). Therefore, a delicate balance had to be maintained to keep employees happy and, at the same time, make sure the business remained profitable. Relative to this assertion, Kumari and Eguruze (2022) say that keeping employees engaged while maintaining their remuneration would be a positive step towards reassuring them that their jobs are secure. This strategy could help to calm anxieties associated with job losses and insecurity.

The respondents affirmed the above statement but they maintained that it was difficult to find the right kind of reward to give employees during a crisis. Therefore, it was assumed that the best timing to look for such rewards was after the pandemic ended. When asked to describe the kind of rewards that employees should be given when such a time comes, the respondents said non-monetary compensation would soon become more appealing than monetary compensations. This response drew attention to the possible increase in value of non-monetary compensation after the pandemic.

Management Roles

The second theme that emerged from the interviews related to the role of management in motivating employees. This theme was linked to the process of identifying the best leadership style to use in a crisis. The need to understand leadership in crisis stems from the importance of having a rapid response plan when unexpected events happen (Köbis, Soraperra and Shalvi, 2021). In most situations, leaders share the task of responding to a crisis through emotional empathy (Köbis, Soraperra and Shalvi, 2021). This strategy is based on the unpredictable effects of crises on workers and organizations because monetary losses and livelihoods could be destroyed (Roy, 2020). Relative to this assertion, current research shows that most crises tend to occur in an uneven pattern of sequences, have an unprecedented impact, and tend to require immediate response (Köbis, Soraperra and Shalvi, 2021). These conditions demand that contingency plans are developed to define procedures to follow when crises occur.

One of the respondents argued that most people tend to ignore the increase in responsibilities that leaders have to experience during crises. He believed they had a difficult task of stabilizing the organization, staying true to its essence, accepting the social impact of a crisis, and facing the consequences associated with its development. Therefore, there was a belief that the best leadership style to use in crises needed to demonstrate agility and resilience to counter challenges that SMEs encounter during crises. Relative to this assertion, Osafo, Paros, and Yawson (2021) propose that a servant leadership style is appropriate for a crisis environment because leaders have to wait and assess how it will affect each employee before making any impactful decision.

Nine out of the 13 respondents who participated in the interview also mentioned the servant leadership style as the best approach to use in a post-pandemic environment. It was associated with a humane way of managing crises and was closely linked with the development of relationships between employers and employees. One of the informants even suggested that small businesses are unique from their larger counterparts because the owners tend to know their employees personally and intimately through their leadership presence. He remarked as follows,

“You see….there is a personal touch to our businesses. It is hard to see someone go. Usually, we have invested emotions, goals, desires, money, and even dreams to make our businesses work…. and to live with one another peacefully. I do not suppose the same happens in large organizations…I think they treat employees like stock over there (laughs).”

Although a servant leadership style was mentioned as the most common model to adopt in a crisis, leaders need to express confidence in what they say and how they act during crises to make its implementation effective. This statement is supported by the findings of Pesch et al. (2017), which suggest that, during crises, leaders have to be quick and confident when making decisions. These attributes need to be demonstrated even one when does not have the full scope of facts needed to make important decisions (Köbis, Soraperra and Shalvi, 2021). Relative to this statement, one of the respondents recalled a situation where he had to keep the hopes of his employees alive while privately counting efficiency and monetary losses during the pandemic. He said that was one of the most difficult times in his career because he felt helpless.

Three of the informants were keen to point out that different phases of crisis require a modified leadership approach. In support of this vision, they said that, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a rapid response plan was formulated with emotional and economic interests in mind. They also said that the recovery phase of the crisis was the second phase of response and it had fewer ambiguities. In this phase of leadership, employees were required to adjust to a “new normal.” Current research studies also allude to this stage of crisis response and suggest that complexity are rife in such environments (Alhmoud and Rjoub, 2020; Manohar et al., 2017). Therefore, at this stage of development, a different set of attributes in leadership are needed to navigate crises and they should focus on leveraging new opportunities through innovation. It is from such sentiments that proposals to change the working conditions of a firm, or adopting remote working plans, are embraced as possible proposals for adapting to new business conditions (Wu, Peng and Estay, 2018). Relative to this assertion, Lewis, Ricard and Klijn (2018) say that the long-term success of such plans depends on a democratic introspection of strategies that could be adopted and settling for one to optimize productivity.

In another round of questioning, five of the respondents argued that risk minimization should be a priority for leaders who enter the workplace post-crisis. The conservative approach was proposed for adoption in this setting because of the uncertainties associated with the implementation of new systems in small businesses. During this process of investigation, the informants still maintained that leaders should remain empathetic to the plight of workers. At the same time, they advised entrepreneurs not to shift their focus away from leading the new team towards embracing a “new normal.” As a cautious statement, one respondent said,

“In my experience, I have observed that many leaders fall into the trap of thinking that the transformation process is a one-man show. No, it is not! It requires the input of all stakeholders. Therefore, there needs to be frequent deliberations among all stakeholders involved as changes are being designed and planned for adoption.”

Another consideration on leadership during crises that emerged from the interviews was the need for bold and empathetic leadership values during crises. Relative go this statement, five of the informants argued that crises required leaders to make decisions that may be unpopular. In the process, they mentioned the need for leaders to be bold. At the same time, they believed that leaders had to show a “human side” to the crisis even when making tough decisions. Therefore, they restated the importance of showing empathy when interacting with employees in uncertain times. Overall, based on the insights highlighted above, the servant leadership style emerged as the best model to use during a crisis. Its features are consistent with known crisis emergency response plans that require leaders to act decisively to address economic and emotional effects of pandemics (Abasilim, Gberevbie and Osibanjo, 2019). The justification for selecting this leadership style was informed by the need to have a balanced response to crises because emotional and economic effects of such tragedies have an equal impact on businesses and employees.

Working Conditions

Working conditions play a significant role in influencing employee motivation. They affect morale and employee attitudes, which are essential in boosting productivity in the workplace (Sarmah et al., 2022). This theme emerged as the third one from the interview process and ten of the 13 respondents sampled mentioned it. One of them said that many small business owners are stressed due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and most of them are experiencing trouble managing the interests of different stakeholders; least of all, the working conditions of a firm. Therefore, the environment that employees worked in was relegated in the list of concerns to prioritize during the pandemic.

Respondents also said that the COVID-19 crisis forced small business owners to focus their attention on maintaining the health of business fundamentals, thereby ignoring workers’ interests, such as improved working conditions. Relative to this development, Sarmah et al. (2022) say that people’s behaviors during crises reflect key tenets of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, which suggests that basic requirements should be met before all other considerations. The same principle happens to organizations because crises force them to focus on basic needs, as opposed to higher-level priorities. Given that employee concerns may be neglected in such an environment, some informants mentioned the need to improve coordination between a company’s HRM plans and its transformational structure.

The above statement is founded on the assumption that some crises could threaten the survival of some organizations by making them obsolete if they are unable to recover in the process. Therefore, there is need to revert to core truths of a business, such as its corporate culture, mission or vision, when developing strategies that would motivate employees during crises. Relative to this proposal, one of the respondents believed that maintaining organizational resilience is the best way for managers to maintain positivity in the workplace. He proposed that effective channels of communication be established in the organization, with an increased frequency of communication, to reassure employees that management cares for them. Men, Qin, and Jin (2021) also support the use of the same approach in developing employee trust, especially in the uncertain COVID-19 environment.

The theme of “changing working conditions,” as a basis for improving employee morale, was closely associated with that of remote working, which will be analyzed in subsequent sections of this chapter. Given that the informants believed that the new workplace environment would be online, they assumed that the introduction of remote working as the “new norm” would automatically change working conditions. Based on this conception, two of the informants believed that the virtual workplace environment should be adjusted to help employees improve their skills in the virtual space.

As part of the response of one business owner who was asked about what could be done to improve working conditions, as a basis for motivating employees, he cautioned against adopting excessive protective mechanisms to cushion employees from crises at the expense of the organization. Particularly, he was keen to point out that changes to working conditions should not lead to an increase in operating costs for a business. His concerns stemmed from issues about the financial sustainability of businesses during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Research data showed evidence of suppressed revenues immediately and after the crisis (Kumari and Eguruze, 2022). Therefore, the need to maintain low operating costs for small businesses as they embraced change was critical to some of the respondents.

Remote Working

Remote working was picked from one of the basic rulebooks of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, which was to stabilize businesses by automating key processes. This strategy involved allowing employees to work from home, as a tool for reducing infection rates (Kumari and Eguruze, 2022). Given that remote working is friendly to users because it gives them time to work on projects based on their schedules, it was proposed as a tool for improving employee morale in the post-pandemic work setting. Six respondents held this view and Verharen, Adan and Vanderschuren (2020) adds that remote working is associated with increased productivity in many industries. Key among its benefits is an increased sense of flexibility that allows employees to work on projects at their convenience, as opposed to the timeframe set by employers, as is ordinarily the case. Doing so gives them an opportunity to reorganize their lives and prioritize working when they are at optimum efficiency (Singh and Bhattacharjee, 2020). Sometimes, the best time to work could be at night and remote working would allow tasks to be completed at this time. By respecting such freedoms, it was assumed that employee morale to work would improve.

It is difficult to adopt a remote working plan using the conventional 9-5 model that most businesses follow to manage their employees because workers are required to be at their stations during official times of business. Therefore, those who operate optimally outside of this working hours may miss opportunities to improve their productivity if remote working is ignored (Zhang, Jinpeng and Khan, 2020). Therefore, the concept is a unique addition to the post-pandemic workplace environment. Furthermore, depending on the kind of business one may be engaged in, remote working emerged as a valuable resource for employees to use in the post-pandemic setting because it allows for easy access to materials that could be obtained virtually (Zhang, Jinpeng and Khan, 2020). Therefore, regardless of one’s location, materials needed for work are accessible.

The theme of “remote working,” as a basis for boosting employee morale, was closely associated with that of the working environment, which was mentioned by 12 respondents. In both themes, the informants argued that the two concepts needed to be improved to boost employee morale. After further probe, it emerged that the informants advocated for a transformation of the workplace environment through remote working. One of them was convinced about the adoption of this strategy and said,

“I believe remote working will be the new way of doing things. I mean…we cannot go back to the way things were. What if there is another pandemic? Will we have to close shop again!? I think not….We have to adjust”

Another respondent argued that the successful adoption of a productive remote working environment would require behavior change on the part of the employees. However, he did not believe that they would naturally take the initiative to make such changes because they depend on leaders to show by example that they are committed to a cause. Therefore, he was confident that if workers saw their employers being serious about adopting new motivation systems, they would reciprocate in behavior change.

Overall, the primary research findings extracted from the interviews highlighted four themes that represented the creation of a new motivating environment for employees in small business settings that are characterized by remote working, improved working conditions, better remuneration, and a heightened management sensitivity to employee needs. These attributes of leadership have been linked to the servant leadership style, which is appropriate to use in crises.

Secondary Data Findings

As highlighted in this document, secondary data defined the second layer of information for use in the present study. To recap, evidence was obtained from published sources, including books, journals, and credible websites to expound on the insights obtained from the interview findings highlighted above. Using the keywords of “employee motivation,” “COVID-19,” and “leadership,” 12,673 articles were obtained from six databases, including Emerald Insight, Sage Journals, Springer, and Google Books. These articles were later examined based on their publication date and 8,985 of them eliminated because they were not published within the past five years. Again, it was important to get materials that were published recently because COVID-19 pandemic is a relatively new phenomenon. Implementing this exclusion criterion left 3,688 materials for additional review. These sources of data were later subjected to another layer of analysis where those that did not have a small business focus were eliminated. The process led to a reduction in the size of the number of materials available for review to 86 across four databases. Nonetheless, six articles were identified as being core to the investigation because of their relevance to the research topic..

Anchor Articles

Leadership is an effective tool for increasing employee motivation in the workplace. The article by Williams and Preston (2018) emphasized this fact because it discussed the theoretical foundation of the study. It demonstrated that there are several theories attributed to this aspect of management, including the transactional, behavioral, and trait theories (Williams and Preston, 2018). These models of leadership are primarily focused on identifying good leadership practices and the environment through which they thrive. However, for purposes of the current research, the transformational theory of leadership emerged as the main theoretical foundation for review. It focuses on the nature of the relationship between leaders and their followers by instilling good leadership practices that foster understanding and good relations between both parties. It also focuses on understanding motivational and inspirational attributes of leadership that foster peace and understanding between leaders and their subjects (Wu, Peng and Estay, 2018). In other words, the transformational leadership practice strives to inspire teams through passion and enthusiasm.

Leaders who practice the transformational leadership style are often model employees to their followers and subscribe to the same standard of performance as their subjects do. Therefore, there are minimal differences between the conduct of a leader and their followers. Based on this background, several scholars have argued for the use of this leadership style in their organizations (Wu, Peng and Estay, 2018). However, they have had varied levels of success due to differences in leadership styles. From this background, the transformational theory of leadership emerged as the main theoretical framework for the present study. Nonetheless, six research papers emerged as anchor articles for the current study based on their relevance to the research questions.

Table 4.1: Anchor Articles 

Key Thematic Areas

As highlighted in the methodology section of this study, the secondary research data were analyzed using the content analysis method. This technique helped the researcher to recognize the presence of certain words, meanings, and contexts that were related to the themes identified in the interviews to gain a deeper insight into the findings. Broadly, two thematic areas of review emerged from the secondary data analysis and they related to the need to use innovation, training, and a transformative attitude to motivate employees.

Training and Transformation

Training and transformation emerged as core themes in the secondary data analysis process. This outcome was plausible because, as highlighted in the literature review section of this study, the transformational theory was the main theoretical framework for the current analysis. Relative to this assertion, crisis emerged as the catalyst for embracing transformational change because it demanded the use of new techniques for motivating employees (Miklian and Hoelscher, 2021). Current works of literature pair transformational leadership with the need to train employees about new behaviors they need to adapt in a new workplace environment (Peng, Liao and Sun, 2020; Ugaddan and Park, 2019). The training programs also include managers and leaders who require a course in learning how to manage employees in crisis. More importantly, training is needed to help all cadres of workers better adopt the servant leadership style.

Training was part of proposals to better equip leaders to manage the effects of crises on workers. Part of the scholarly analysis showed that formal leaders benefitted the most from such training programs (Tafvelin et al., 2019). Given their importance in helping employees to adapt to a post-pandemic environment, it is critical to include all cadres of workers in such programs (Tafvelin and Stenling, 2021; Yuan and Zhang, 2017). Overall, they may play a moderating role when assessing the influence that leadership has on small businesses during crises. Given that these enterprises operate in relatively small jurisdictions, it would be relatively easy for them to realize associated gains of change compared to multinational companies that have a wider market to address (Vidal et al., 2017). Overall, the themes of training and transformation appealed to leadership as a tool for motivating employees to improve their skills in preparation for future pandemics.

Innovation

Some scholars mentioned the theme of innovation as part of the solution for improving motivation in a post-pandemic environment. It emerged as a moderating variable to the influence that leadership would have on employees in a post-pandemic setting. Most of the scholarly works of literature that talked about this issue took a technological angle to the analysis with digitization receiving the greatest mentions for being the most commonly used platform for coming up with innovations during crises (Kim, Baik and Kim, 2019; Lämsä and Keränen, 2020; Zheng et al., 2021). These areas of research showed close relations with the themes of “remote working” and “changing the workplace environment,” that emerged from the interviews. Current research draws the link between leadership and innovation because new ideas are nurtured through effective leadership practices (Kim, Baik and Kim, 2019). Therefore, it is possible to come up with new ways of motivating employees in a post-pandemic setting based on the internal characteristics of a business (Zheng et al., 2021). Changing the workplace environment and adopting the remote working model are some proposals that fit this narrative.

Digital marketing also emerged from the scholarly review of literature as a commonly used technique for raising awareness about organizational challenges and maintaining business-to-customer relationships during crises. It forms part of the push for the adoption of innovative techniques to manage crises in small businesses (Lämsä and Keränen, 2020). The transformational theory, which forms the main theoretical framework for this study, encompasses this approach because technology is one of the most transformational forces in business today (Rael, 2017). Its adoption is not only confined to increasing organizational productivity but also to improving relationships between employers and employees (Pradhan and Jena, 2019). It is from this basis that digitization is linked with innovation, as a useful tool for motivating employees in a post-pandemic environment (Wang et al., 2022). Furthermore, given that remote working is reliant on technology, digital-based innovative strategies would naturally fit within the new transformative model of operation to optimize employee output (Makrides, Vrontis and Christofi, 2020; Williams and Preston, 2018). Overall, these secondary data findings helped to bolster some of the recommendations proposed by the interviewees in the primary data section. Notably, they affirmed the importance of innovation and digitization as tools for enhancing employee morale in a post-pandemic setting.

Summary

The findings of this chapter suggest that the global business environment is affected by disruptions to company operations and COVID-19 has accelerated their impact on business and employee performance. From a management perspective, the ability to master the challenges that come from these uncertainties is a critical skill. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has caused havoc in the HRM field, leaders can overcome its effects by being better prepared for the next crisis through training and development. At the same time, they need to demonstrate, strength and compassion, especially in how they manage stakeholder relationships through servant leadership.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Conclusion

To recap, the aim of this study was to identify effective leadership strategies for increasing employee motivation among small and medium businesses in a post-pandemic world

The objectives were to identify effective leadership styles best suited for increasing employee motivation, find out the appropriate reward system for increasing employee motivation, understand ways of creating an environment where employees feel motivated/engaged to work, and to determine how to create a balance between employee welfare and organizational goals. Data was gathered from primary and secondary sources with interviews being the source of primary data and published books and journals being the source of the second set of materials. The interviews were done virtually and they helped the researcher to sample the views of 13 business owners about the improvement of employee morale in a post-pandemic environment. The scope of the study was also on promoting the operations of small businesses in a post-pandemic world.

The findings of the investigation revealed that the servant leadership style was best suited for small businesses. It stems from heightened concerns about employee welfare, which emerged after the pandemic. Its adoption has created a balance in the fulfillment of employer and employee needs. Therefore, the servant leadership style emerges as a practical agent of change that small business owners could use to motivate employees in a post-pandemic world. In this analysis, there is a link drawn between this finding and the first research question, which sought to find out the best leadership style to use in a crisis period. The servant leadership style emerges as the best approach to use in the process because it caters to the interests of employers and employees equally.

The second research question sought to find out the best reward system to use in enhancing employee motivation in a post-pandemic world. This area of analysis had mixed views emanating both from the entrepreneurs interviewed and the published data sources reviewed. The blend of views from the two sources stems from the success that traditional reward systems have had in motivating employees and the potential that newer approaches pose to entrepreneurs who are willing to try new systems.

Broadly, the pieces of evidence espoused in this paper revealed that non-monetary reward systems are likely to have a stronger impact on employee motivation in a post-pandemic world, compared to monetary-based recognition systems. This change could be attributed to alterations in value systems among employees and newer workers, which has happened progressively over the decades and accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has made it more acceptable for employers to cater to employee personal goals alongside those of shareholders. Traditionally, shareholders were the most valuable stakeholders for a business because of their financial contributions. However, their power appears to have been counterchecked by the COVID-19 pandemic because employees are also demanding the same level of recognition for their work. This is why the non-monetary reward system shows promise in motivating employees in a post-pandemic business setting.

The third research question underpinning this study related to workplace environment and ways to enhance it to boost morale and productivity. This aspect of the investigation garnered the least attention from the informants because they had limited reactions regarding possible solutions for implementation. Nonetheless, digitization emerged as the core theme that cut across the primary and secondary findings. In the primary research findings, it was linked to the “working from home” theme, which encourages employers to allow their employees to work remotely. In the secondary research findings, the same issue was mentioned, but with a focus on digitization and automation as the new platforms for workplace engagement in a post-pandemic world. Therefore, the primary and secondary research findings converged in views on this aspect of employee performance.

The last research question underpinning this investigation was focused on identifying ways that managers could use to balance employee and welfare goals. This theme emerged from the heightened attention that COVID-19 has brought to the workplace environment where employee needs have been elevated to the same level of importance, as stakeholder needs. Given that remote working has been proposed as a new model of work, it has become challenging for managers and employees to satisfy both the interests of both parties in an environment where little supervision is needed. This is why part of the focus of the current investigation was on understanding how to balance the interests of employers and employees with the aim of improving productivity as new systems, or models, are adopted.

The preliminary research evidence obtained in this research highlighted increased sensitivity to employee needs and improved training as tools that could be adopted to satisfy both employee and welfare needs. Improved training was mentioned as one of the tools of preparing employees to work optimally in an uncertain business environment, hence enabling organizations to meet their fundamental goals, such as profit-making, while the heightened sensitivity to employee interests was identified as a tool for helping managers to meet workers’ needs. Using both tools will play a pivotal role in helping to balance the interests of employers and employees because it will prepare both parties to manage each other’s’ interests. This action is crucial to enhancing organizational and employee productivity in a post-pandemic world because employers and employers may have to make adjustments to cope with the new business environment. This statement explains why change management was mentioned as a fundamental principle of adoption in the small business environment if leadership effectiveness was to enhance employee morale.

The transformational theory of leadership, which has been used as the main theoretical foundation for this research highlights the need for change management in enabling leaders to improve employee morale. It was selected for use in this paper because it outlines conditions that ought to be satisfied before change can be embraced and productivity improved. Stated differently, changes need to be implemented in the organizational setting to equip leaders with the skills and knowledge needed to motivate their workers when in distress. Some of the issues that have been highlighted in this study, including the adoption of digitization tools and the servant leadership style are proposals that have emerged from the use of the transformational theory of leadership. This theoretical lens of analysis underscores the need for making fundamental reforms in the administrative and operational plans of SMEs to make them effective in building a productive workplace environment. The goal is to realize transformational change that would make the firms more versatile to the peculiarities of the business environment. Doing so will empower them to be more accepting of changes that would be needed to manage the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

The scope of this investigation, which was on small businesses and the post-pandemic environment played a significant role in predicting the acceptability of some of the above-mentioned tools needed to implement new leadership in an organization. This is why the scope of the study was highlighted as a limitation in the first chapter of this document. The goal was to show that the tools, business processes, and guidelines of motivating employees in a post-pandemic environment fit within the SME setting. It is important to appreciate the contextual significance of this statement to the investigation because the operational dynamics of small businesses differ from those of large ones. Similarly, as mentioned in this paper, the objectives of SMEs differ from those of big organizations, thereby emphasizing the importance of looking at scope when analyzing the findings of a study.

SMEs have the vitality needed to change key elements of their HRM strategies to alter leadership practices and improve employee morale in the process. For example, their activities are relatively limited to their localized markets, meaning that the processes of adopting, or opposing change, could not have a widespread market impact. The benefit to this limited scope of operations is enshrined in the fact that a focused approach to changing leadership styles could be impactful to the host market if employees embrace them. However, if they do not do so, the concerned businesses would not suffer a reputational damage beyond their limited locus of control. Therefore, the scope of SME operations play a critical role in moderating the effects that leadership styles would have on employee morale.

At the same time, the limited scope of SME operations means that managers could better realize employee buy-in when implementing proposed changes because they will be addressing small groups of workers compared to giant multinationals, which have more people to convince. Collectively, the prospects of realizing the benefits of improved employee motivation are enshrined in the principles of the transformational theory of change, which, as has been explained in this paper, strives to motivate employees to improve their performance by harnessing people’s passions and interests. It is easier to identify these elements of human nature in an SME setting compared to a multinational one.

Leaders who motivate their employees using the principles of the transformational theory are expected to influence their followers in leading by example. This way, they build trust because employees can be more convinced by the actions of a leader, as opposed to his mere promises. Leading by example could help leaders to identify influential employees within the wider pool of workers who would then later help them in cementing a vision of having a motivated workforce. This approach to leadership is anchored on the ability of people to influence others based on common attractions, visions, or desire for an organization. Therefore, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, managers should demonstrate exemplary leadership by embracing change in their workplace environments before demanding that their junior staff do the same. For example, they could start working remotely, or reorganize duty rosters, to free space for workers to complete their tasks remotely. Exemplary leadership is at the core of the success of such proposals and it is supported by the principles of the transformational theory of leadership, which encourages leaders to appeal to the passions and desires of their employees.

It is easier to understand the desires and needs of employees in an SME setting compared to a giant multinational. Therefore, small business owners have an opportunity to create more trust with their employees by being agents of change. This way, employees can develop the conviction needed in making small businesses succeed in a post-pandemic business environment. Therefore, there are opportunities that could be exploited in the post-pandemic business environment that leaders could use to enhance their vision of having a motivated workforce. Some of the strategies that they could follow are highlighted in the recommendations section below.

Recommendations

The recommendations outlined in this paper are meant to address two areas of the current research. The first one is about methodological improvements that can be adopted in future research to broaden the evidence obtained and the second one is about exploiting opportunities for enhancing employee motivation in a post-pandemic world. By focusing on the methodology part, there are opportunities for advancing the quality of evidence collected by increasing the number of respondents. The findings obtained from this research were developed after sampling the views of 13 respondents to understand the role that leadership can play in improving employee morale in a post-pandemic business environment. Future research could involve the use of a large sample of respondents using questionnaires, or surveys, to investigate whether the same conclusions will suffice. Therefore, the findings derived from the current investigation are only indicative of leadership strategies that could be adopted to improve employee motivation in a post-pandemic world.

Another aspect of methodological improvement that could be adopted in future research relates to the nature of the respondents sampled. Given that the findings of this study were developed by sampling the views of business owners in three industries (hospitality, retail, and transport sectors), future research could expand the diversity of businesses investigated, beyond these industries. Doing so would make the findings relevant to more economic sectors because the evidence collected would have incorporated the experiences of a more diverse group of business owners. In such an environment, there will be more experiences exchanged among business owners and a different research outcome could be derived in the process. Still focused on the three economic sectors highlighted above, the findings derived from this study will have more impact on businesses that originate from the same category of industries. This is because of background synchronicity, which affects the applicability of research evidences. Based on the two proposals for methodological improvements highlighted above, it is important to understand the impact that the methodology used on a study will have on the applicability of its findings.

The recommendations outlined in this paper also appeal to the second area of discussion in this study, which are opportunities that could be exploited in the post-pandemic business environment. Relative to this objective, the findings of this paper will be useful to entrepreneurs who plan to start new businesses, or run existing ones, in the post-pandemic business environment. For example, the challenges reported by small businesses owners who have experienced the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and been interviewed in this study provide an understanding of the kind of challenges such entrepreneurs are likely to experience in the post-pandemic business world. However, based on the evidence collected and analyzed in this document, it is possible for the same leaders to draw from the recommendations outlined here to identify the best ways to motivate their employees through effective leadership.

It is also important to make sure that there is synergy between an organization’s culture and the leadership changes to be adopted. This statement stems from the identification of the servant leadership style as the baseline strategy to be followed in developing employee motivational programs. Therefore, there is a need to align an organization’s culture with the servant leadership style to motivate employees to boost productivity because the failure to do so would create an identity crisis for workers who have to abandon old systems for new ones that they do not understand. Furthermore, as part of proposed changes that should take place in organizations to aid in the adjustment to the post-pandemic business environment, managers should examine their internal workplace policies to align with some of the recommendations outlined in this study. For example, adopting the remote working plan would require business owners to align their internal policy environments to accommodate them. The same argument can be advanced for the adoption of the servant leadership style because it thrives best in businesses guided by democratic policies.

Although the pieces of evidence collected in this study have had an SME focus, they could still be useful to large businesses that intend to motivate employees from different teams, departments, or divisions within their organizational structures. Indeed, the nuances highlighted in this study about the peculiarities of motivating employees in SMEs could be applicable to corporate divisions and departments of large MNCs because of the limited scope of control they have. Therefore, the insights presented in this study could be generalized to the post-pandemic business environment covering small and big enterprises. At the same time, they contribute to the expansion of the existing body of evidence on the relationship between employee performance and leadership in human resource management because the aim of the investigation has been to identify strategies for improving employee motivation in a post-pandemic world.

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