Introduction
Has motivation any role in the overall performance of an organization? This question is among the most important questions in the field of management. Both theoretically and practically, the topic of motivation plays a central role whose integral position in performance translates to all levels of performance. On the other hand, researchers have found this topic of motivation to be an essential tool in the development of other theories in the practice of management. Some researchers even point out that motivation forms the basic foundation on which other topics of management practice like performance management, leadership, managerial ethics, teamwork, and organizational change and the processes of decision making are based. It probably is from this fundamental role of this topic that intense attention has been given to it not only in learning institutions but also in management journals and periodicals (Steers et al 2004: 379).
Just like any other business organization, high street estate agencies are also organizations on which motivation is instrumental in their daily performance. In fact, it is much needed here than in most of the organizations due to the great competition that is pushing the industry into remaining with a little niche of the existent market. This paper will point out the importance of motivation in high street estate agencies. It will point out how key workers could be motivated and hence lead to maximum performance. To attain this, the paper will examine the theories of motivation as highlighted by several scholars. It will then point out how the workers of these agencies could be motivated based on the fact that the industry is facing great competition and is being pushed into the sideshow by the market. To some extent, this paper will show how the existing models of motivation could be improved to face future problems.
The High Street Estate Agencies
For a long time, estate agents have never embraced the new technology to facilitate their business processes. This could be attributed to the policies and trading conditions that were existent. The state agents relied on old methods of doing business of portal marketing. They told the agents they did not require websites. They could give the estate agents portal pages that would ensure high traffic to the agents’ offices. Therefore some estate agents sat and relaxed and never bothered to even take photos of their property for the sake of marketing. However, the trading conditions are speedily facing extinction leaving the high street estate agents in a threat of extinction. The greatest threat facing the high street estate agents comes in terms of house prices that have gone low, the reduction in the complete volumes of the houses, and thirdly, stiff competition in terms of fees following upcoming online estate agents. If the trend remains constant, the high street estate agents are threatened with extinction or a great reduction in the market niche in the next decade or even half-decade (Bright sale 2008: 1). This could be attributed to the negative characteristics associated with the agencies. For example, they are the boom conditions left the agencies with beautiful empty offices, a staff that was poorly trained, a staff that lacked innovation, and an image of low regard and contempt by the customers. These, coupled up with the competition from the online companies marked the beginning of the troubles for the high street estate companies.
From 1996 to 2007, the UK experienced a great leap in the price of houses. To be precise, an increase of 232% was experienced in house prices. Statistics show that the price of a property leaped from 60,638 Pounds and settled at 201,081 Pounds in 2007. The table below shows the increasing prices of property as pointed out by the Halifax Index in 2007.
Halifax Index of UK Residential Property Prices
In addition, the completion volume did not feel any alteration and hence remained constant. It should be noted that the income in this industry is completely reliant on the volume of completions and the price of the house. Therefore, experiencing a constant rate of completions with an increment in the house prices meant an increase in revenue. The table below shows the completion rates in the industry as pointed out by HMRC and quoted by Bright sale (Bright sale 2008: 5).
This increase in revenue did not compel the agents to reduce their fees as experienced in other sectors. Accordingly, the aggregate fee earned the industry an overwhelming 5 billion Pounds in 2007 as compared to 1997 which accounted for less than 2 billion Pounds. As a result, there was a great mushrooming of agencies, amounting to about 15,000 registered ones. Finally, the lack of pressure concerning the fees assisted the companies to continue performing exemplarily well. Through the refusal of private seller listings by the traditional agencies, the portals ensured that vendors would not be sold property by the use of estate agents. Most of the existing portals were aimed at pressing down any form of competition that would lead to pressure on fees. In addition, the portals also ensured that the high street agencies did not incur too many costs by means of reducing high street locations that were expensive. But where did the problem find the industry?
Unfortunately, all the factors that protected the high street estate agencies have turned upside down. They have started to go on reverse posing a great threat to the traditional agencies. Statistics of 2008 and the estimates for 2013 show that things are going from bad to worse. The industry is experiencing a fall in price for properties, there is an estimated reduction of completion volumes and the agencies are being forced to charge lower fees due to the competition from online agencies. Statistics from seasoned property analysts show that the price of the property is likely to drop towards the trough since 2008. In addition, the Halifax Price Index of 2008 points out a steady drop in property prices, a phenomenon that would support the supposition of analysts. The table below points out the drop in prices as quoted from the Halifax Index by Bright sale.
Basing on the previous recession period in the UK, it is possible to estimate a great fall in the completion volumes. This recession can be noted between 1989 and 1996. And, as statistics point out, there has been a constant and proportional relationship between the prices and the completion volumes. An increase in prices of the property has been equally matched with an increase in the complete volume and the opposite is true. Basing on the years of recession, the completion volume peaked in 1988 and equally troughed in 1995. This points out that the phenomenon is likely to repeat itself.
Finally, the high street estate agencies are faced with doom with the prediction of high competition on fees. While the high street estate agencies continue to hold tight on their traditional norms, their online counterparts are experiencing a great awakening and hence popularity. In fact, a majority of other house agencies are probably into their third generation since they started doing business online. The reason why the United Kingdom estates may have ignored online marketing could be the ease with which their property used to sell itself. There has been a misconception that one only needed a big and bright office to beat their competitors. This could explain the estates’ attitude towards internet marketing which they did not consider as good enough. After all, their offices were equipped with the current equipment to make them attractive. They failed to note the change in behavior by their users who had clearly moved on to the internet for their housing needs. To the users, the offices are secondary because the first place they check for information about houses is online. The agents who to advantage of the internet have high traffic to their sites thus more sales which translates to lower fees. For example, the current fee for a high street estate agency stands at 1.9% while it competes with online agencies which are charging at a rate of 0.5%. With such great disparities, the chances of high street estate agencies gaining popularity within their customers remain minimal because most of the families buying a house would rather save money by buying online and use it to fulfill their other needs. Therefore the high street estate agents need to fully embrace the internet marketing strategy. There is greater efficiency online and of course lower costs.
Concept of Motivation
The word motivation was coined from Latin more which stands for movement. From that concept, the definition of motivation as offered by Atkinson (1964: 2) was, “the contemporary (immediate) influence on direction, vigor, and persistence of action.” On his part, Vroom (1964: 6) defined motivation as, “a process governing choice made by persons…among alternative forms of voluntary activity.” Other definitions have been offered by scholars to show how motivation relates to general performance. Among other definitions is the definition by Campbell and Pritchard (1976: 63-130) defines motivation as:
Motivation has to do with a set of independent/dependent variable relationships that explain the direction, amplitude, and persistence of an individual’s behavior, holding constant the effects of aptitude, skill, and understanding of the task and the constraints operating in the environment.
From the definitions offered, there are factors that are seen to run through them. They all touch on events that increase the energy, give direction, and assist in the sustenance of the behavior of an individual over a given period of time. These three factors coordinate in an efficient way to determine the behavior of an individual within his working environment.
The concept of motivation can be traced back to the Greek philosophers who concentrated on the theory of hedonism as the major force that drives an individual to act as he does. Basing on this concept, human beings were believed to be creatures who will always want to seek pleasure and try their best to avoid pain. Motivation started gaining acclaim in other fields of study when in the 19th Century psychologists starting developing an interest in the concept. Due to the weaknesses in the concept of hedonism, challenges started arising in the field of motivation. Accordingly, the challenges motivated more scientists to engage in the effort to offer a definition of motivation. Among the earliest developed theories of motivation were the theories of instinct. This model was developed by scholars like McDougall, James, and Sigmund Freud. These theories argued that human motivation was not a rational approach but a result of instinct (Steers et al 2004: 380).
According to McDougall, motivation occurs as a psychological predisposition that is innate and is inherited within generations and which determines the perception and the ability of the individual to pay attention to a class of objects. The same predisposition dictates the individual’s degree to which he gives a particular emotional excitement whenever he views the given objects and finally dictates the individual’s reaction as a response to the given objects. Supporting this perspective, James offered the instincts which could be the factors that determine an individual’s motivation. The instincts include sociability, locomotion, fear, curiosity, sympathy, and jealously. As predicted, the theories of instinct started to receive criticism as a result of their weaknesses.
The drive or reinforcement theories took the center stage immediately after the criticism of the instinct theories. These theories were developed by scholars like Thorndike, Hull, and Woodworth. Through these concepts of drive, learning was incorporated as one important factor in the motivation of an individual. According to the drive theory, an individual’s decision for the present circumstances or the future is usually based on the individual’s past actions and the results of the actions. If an individual undertook an action that ended up with negative consequences, he tends to avoid the repetition of the action. On the other hand, if an action resulted in encouraging rewards, the individual tends to repeat the same action. On his part, Thorndike called this the law of effect while Hull purported that the drive and habit of an individual acted as determinants of his motivation.
In the fifties, Skinner and others made some adjustments to the drive theory to include a new operant which is conditioning. Others referred to it as reinforcement theory. In this position, the developers of this theory purported that an individual usually has his future behavior guided by his knowledge of the interrelationship between actions and the resulting effects. These results are usually learned with time. It is from these reinforcement theories that workplace motivation built its concepts within the realms of management (Steers et al 2004: 380).
Motivation in Management
Psychologists’ main focus on motivation was drives and instincts. However, this was not the main focus for business managers. Basing on the individual needs of management, managers approached the topic from a more pragmatic point of view. Among the major funders of the theory were Frederick Taylor and others who started the scientific management movement. With an increase in industrialization, the group had realized great inefficiencies in the factory production processes. Accordingly, they founded the movement which advocated for a pay-for-performance incentive system, redesigning of the job, job training, introducing of ergonomics, and also employment and selection techniques that were improved. This approach to worker-management was completely favorable according to the developers. To them, they viewed it as a phenomenon that would not only improve the psych of the workers but also it would improve the productivity of the workers and hence the profitability of the factory. This could be achieved through bettering the production systems. In addition, it would improve the efficiency in the production process and finally, the reward factor for both the employer and the employee would improve production (Steers et al 2004: 380.
Several factors later led to the discrediting of this system. It was triggered by the continuous sophistication of the available workforce, efforts of the companies to increase productivity without paying attention to the improvement of the worker rewards, factors which resulted in unionization movements.
This resulted in a sociological approach to the complexity of worker management. It was at this point that sociologists embarked on the identification of the impact of social factors on an individual’s behavior. The issues of the impact of group dynamics and an individual’s complexity became the focal point. Among the greatest contributors to this new approach to worker dynamics were Mayo, Roethlisberger, and Dickson. This approach identified that workers had to be treated in a humane way lack of which would result in unresponsiveness, low morale, lack of craftsmanship, and overall confusion of workers (Steers et al 2004: 381).
The fifties saw the cropping up of the content theory. Maslow came up with the hierarchy of needs theory as a contribution to this approach to employee motivation. In this theory, an individual’s development is based on the achievement of certain needs before aiming for the next level of needs. The needs include psychological ones, need for safety, need for love and belongingness, esteem needs, and finally the need to attain self-actualization. This view by Maslow was later developed by Alderfer who identified three basic needs which are, “existence, relatedness, and growth.” Later, the concept of needs was developed by Murray before McClelland developed it. In the new approach, the concept of hierarchy was refuted and they came up with other factors that contributed to an employee’s motivation. According to them, achievement, power, affiliation, and autonomy greatly improve the employee’s motivation. Unlike the steady progression up the hierarchy of needs, the approach by McClelland argued that an individual possesses certain needs which act as motivators whenever activated. These needs compete with each other as opposed to coming one after another in a defined manner (Steers et al 2004: 381).
The theory identified that workers possessed the need for achievement. This need eventually led to competition based on excellence. In addition, they had the need for power. This causes an individual to develop the desire to attain control over his environment. These two conceptualizations by McClelland acted as the basis for workplace motivation because they were directly related to the working environment of the workers and hence had a direct impact on their behavior as compared to the theory by Maslow which was characteristically abstract and hence did not directly relate to the workplace environment.
After a lot of research in the field of motivation which was focused on the individuals and their differences which were viewed to be the main actors, Herzberg came up with another theory that was focused not on the individual characteristics but on the workplace activities and the nature of the job. He developed the motivation-hygiene theory. The nature of the job, especially the challenges offered probability for recognition and other reinforcements would greatly act to motivate a worker. Hygiene factors- the contextual aspect of a job were viewed to be temporal factors that for future expectations of an employee. To this moment, the conceptualization of Herzberg still has a place in contemporary job design and enrichment. These two are great role players in motivation and attitude formation (Steers et al 2004: 381).
The 60s brought along a new approach to the topic of employee motivation. This approach was different from the content theories whose approaches were made from a statistic point of view. In the new approach which was called the process theories, the motivation factors were viewed from a perspective that identified the relationship between causes and effects of actions within the view of time. The process theory was marked by several cognitive theories which analyzed an individual’s thought processes and how these thought processes influence his decision to behave in a given manner at the workplace (Steers et al 2004: 381).
Under this theory, Tolman and Lewin developed the Expectancy theory which purported that an individual usually made a decision on a given behavior in a purposeful way and with a goal and that the behavior decision is intentional. In this theory, an employee usually evaluates all the possible workplace behaviors and evaluates their expected rewards before deciding to embark on a given behavior. For example, if working hard would result in a promotion, the employee is likely to aim at the promotion by deciding to work hard. Therefore, an employee will decide to engage his efforts in a task only after evaluation of the expected rewards (Steers et al 2004: 382). These theories were later developed to measure not only employee motivation but also absenteeism and organization citizenship and worker turnover. The theory was also developed through the addition of the issue of equity which pointed out that employees would behave in a given manner if they perceived unfairness at the workplace.
Application of the Theories
After having a clear understanding of the high street estate agency and the problems that face this industry, and understanding the theories of motivation, it is possible to put the theories in application in this industry. This part of the paper will apply the learned theories in the context of the real estate agency. While the paper has mentioned various theories, the application part will not dwell on all theories. It will identify some important theories and apply them.
To start with, this part will identify the application of the content theories. One of the greatest conceptions of the content theory is that a worker will be motivated based on his perception of how challenging the job is. Also, the theories identify the importance of self-development as a major factor in motivation. According to Forster (2009, p.169), managers should make the jobs more challenging. In addition, the skills and knowledge bases of employees should be encouraged to improve. This can be achieved through the promotion of education and other activities that enhance the skills and knowledge concerning the sector.
As identified in the previous section about the high street estate agencies, it is evident that most of these agencies were left with a staff that is poorly trained and extremely not innovative. Under such circumstances and a sector whose future looks bleak under tight competition from emerging technology embracing agencies, the employees stand a chance of feeling completely demotivated. They will thus feel like their future is threatened. One step that the agencies should take in ensuring motivation for their employees is through training and educating them to attain enough skills that would be used in the effort to ensure that they compete against the emerging competition. With enough skills and education, the employees will be able to develop an innovative string which is an important factor in ensuring that the company does not get pushed into a side niche in the market. They need to take advantage of the new marketing strategies that are promising in changing their business. If they embrace the new technology they will keep abreast with the estate business. Therefore they will be able to change their strategies to suit the market needs. This will ensure they get customers and probably push their sales up which will a reason for motivating them to work even harder.
By getting enough skills the employees will be motivated in the sense that they will be able to develop strategies that will ensure that the future of their sector and industry stays bright. With enough skills in the field, the emergence of competition will not be viewed as the emergence of their end, but it will be viewed as a challenge. This in itself is a motivating factor. Because making work challenging encourages motivation.
This form of motivation is very important in the current political and economic environment because of several factors. To begin with, the world has greatly engaged in reliance on technology. In addition, the greatest competition threatening the real estate industry is the emergence of online agencies. The employees, therefore, have to improve on their knowledge base through education so that they can counter the competition being offered by the rival agencies. Secondly, the high street estate agencies depended to some extent on the policies and conditions which allowed them to block competition and cut down on their expenses. This assisted them to experience less pressure on the fees charged and thus retained the high fees despite an increase in the price of a property in the UK. This allowed them to rake in great revenues. However, with the collapse of these laws and policies, competition has entered the market thus forcing them to reduce their fees or face extinction. This shows that the agencies will no more rely on the policies but will need to develop new strategies to compete with their competitors. To get these strategies, they must thus increase their knowledge base and skills.
Another supposition by the content theory is that of empowerment. According to Forster (2009, p. 1720), “…the most enjoyable and most rewarding jobs are those where employees have as much freedom as possible to carry out their work without direct command and direct supervision.” Forster identifies this as a motivating factor. Not only is this theoretical but also its success has been identified practically by great companies like Google and WL Gore which have embarked on this form of employee motivation and as a result has emerged among the most innovative organizations in the world. This means that by empowering the employees, the high street estate agencies will not only be motivating them but will also be giving them room for innovation which is an integral part of any organization’s effort to stay afloat in stiff competition. Innovation is what these organizations need.
This form of motivation is also very relevant at this moment of time both politically and economically because, in political terms, the policies that protected the high street estate agencies keeping them free from competition, and hence high returns are being removed one after the other. Also, the world is experiencing a capitalistic approach to businesses. This coupled up with globalization and opening up of markets based on the WTO initiative of free trade, the agencies have to face stiff competition. This means that without innovation, they will be pushed into oblivion by the competition which is embracing technology and making use of the new developments. Therefore, it is important that leaders in the agencies give their workers enough freedom to exercise their jobs within the specified guidelines that dictate the objectives of the teams, departments, and the whole organization (Forster 2009: 172).
Within the content theories, the three main contributors, Alderfer, Maslow, and Herzberg all agree that without good workplace environment designs, the employees are very likely to be demotivated. Their contributions were strongly supported by research by the Melbourne Business School’s Graham Kirkwood who found out in his research that in the late 90s, all workers were dissatisfied by the places of work that they were during the research. Their main reasons were simple to work place environments like lighting systems, confined working spaces, too much light from computers leading to headaches, and many other simple excuses which made them completely dissatisfied. This greatly affected the productivity of the employees (Forster 2009: 172).
This called for effectively designed ergonomically designed offices. Most of the organizations embarked on the effort to ensure that they created an environmentally friendly working environment. This was important because, with such friendly working spaces, the communication, interaction, and efficiency of workers are enhanced. And with workers’ communication and interaction improved, the chances of innovation become high. As mentioned earlier, the greatest need of these agencies is not policies and legislations but pure innovation that will ensure that they compete with the emerging online agencies. According to Forster, it is communication between the employees and also the management team that promotes innovation. Therefore, by improving the working environments through friendly work ergonomics, the motivation of the workers will be enhanced, and also the environment will be created for innovation which is essential for sustaining competition. Innovation is also essential within these economic hardships and also the political environment that is no longer favoring the high street estate agents.
Just like the content theories, the process theories can also be applied to the employees of high street estate agents in different ways. For example, within the process theories is the theory of general expectancy. In this theory, the education and skill development of the employee is given emphasis. The theory purports that by giving the employees skills and knowledge, their expectations grow and they feel that the efforts they are putting into the job are not in vain. Basing on the environment surrounding the high street estate agencies, the expectations of the employees are likely to be low due to the unpredictable nature of their industry. In most cases, the confidence and the positive nature of the workers could be down because of the stiff competition and the chances of the agencies to survive during this economic time that is seeing a continuous fall in the price of houses and other property.
Forster (2009) goes further to point out that through the improvement of the knowledge and skill of the employees through education and development, the employees’ positive perception and hence confidence, self-motivation, and self-efficacy are developed by the employees. This leads to their setting of goals and expectations that are higher and hence the improved productivity. The setting of goals that are higher is what the high street estate agencies need. Due to the ensuing competition, the expectations of the employees would be below. They, therefore, need to be motivated through this method so that they develop confidence in themselves and set high goals that are able to make them compete with the emerging competition. In addition, the skills achieved through education and development can allow them to make up strategies that would help them keep afloat.
Forster (2009: 179) points out another great application of the theory of General expectations which he refers to as the use of performance appraisals. He argues that a well-used performance appraisal that is structured in a fair manner can be a great motivation tool for employees. This acts positively because it makes the employee realize and understand the expected rewards associated with a certain level of effort and hard work. Performance appraisals are very crucial, in helping the managers to identify the efforts put in the work by employees and hence reward. They should be rewarded to avoid demoralizing those who would feel they worked hard as everyone else yet were short charged at the rewards.
For the high street estate agencies, it is important to understand that employees will be ready to work even harder if he understands that the rewards that await him for this hard work are great. This means that despite the low expectations for the industry, the employee can feel appreciated as an individual if his own effort rewards him. He will cease to contemplate the hardships that the industry is facing and embark on working hard to improve his chances of rewards. If the increased effort translates into an increase in rewards, then the employee will want to improve even further. This will mean setting even higher goals and objectives as compared to what he had done earlier so that he can get an even better reward. Accordingly, the productivity of the employee will be improving with the increased effort.
Basing on the fact that the high street estate agencies depended mostly on the environmental factors to thrive, factors that are currently not favoring them basing on the economic and political arena, they have to change their approach so that they stop relying on the external environmental factors instead, they should factor in on the internal environment so that they are able to improve on their work. To achieve this, they have to ensure that their employees double their effort. This clearly points out the importance of using employee performance appraisal and rewarding them accordingly because this makes them aim higher. By aiming higher, they will provide the much-needed internal environment that will enable them to compete with the online agencies. More importantly, they need to realize that they do not need to rely on operating from their offices but aim at giving their customers satisfactory services online to ensure more sales because they have been accused of not offering the best customer services in their high street offices. They should make the process of viewing and selling and buying easier. By taking advantage of technology the sales can be made online without the need to travel to the estate’s agents’ offices.
Another form of motivation under this theory of process is goal setting (Forster 2009: 179). Although this theory was developed specially for sports, it gained popularity in the business world when many business leaders started using management by objectives and also the formulation of stretch targets. Researches carried out by several institutions pointed out that this form of management has a great role in the overall motivation of employees. TMP Worldwide found out in their study that most problems associated with performance were a direct result of the absence of clear objectives by the organization. As Forster further points out, well-set goals that are realistic and attainable make the employee avoid performance anxiety and builds his confidence. This happens when the employee attains a given goal or objective of the organization. In addition, achieved goals build the employees’ self-belief making them aim for higher goals.
This is very important for the high street estate agencies which are facing troubled times both economically and politically. This means that their former strategies no longer work because the political ground is offering unfriendly terms and the economy is not operating on their side through fewer completion volumes and dropping house prices. This means that the managers have to come up with certain goals that will be essential for their ability to stay afloat. The management should then try their level best to ensure that the goals are attained by giving the employees both physical and moral support. When such goals are achieved, the organization will not only be operating within its expectations that will ensure its survival, but the employees will be developing their self-confidence and belief. This will push them into believing that they can continue fighting within the industry. They will believe in their capability and hence set higher goals which will be important for productivity and hence keep the competition rolling.
Reinforcements can act as motivators. According to Forster (2009: 179), human beings have a tendency of avoiding things that do not reward them. On the other hand, they tend to want to repeat those activities that happened to give them positive rewards. Forster, therefore, points out that it is important that reinforcements should be used as a tool of motivation for employees. In addition, there should be feedback that is positive to the employees. When employees get such positive outcomes, they get a sense of pleasure and thus become motivated to do the same rewarding activity that led to the positive outcome.
This is very important in the high street estate agencies because all forms of media point out negative feedbacks in terms of their failure. These negative reports about online agencies pushing the high street estate agencies into oblivion or a small niche of the market could act as demotivating factor. As pointed out in this theory, a human being is likely to refuse to repeat an action that has no rewards or that has a punishment for a reward. If the high street estate agents want to motivate their employees into competing favorably in the market, they will be forced to ensure that they set goals from which well attained goals are formally or even informally related back to the employees. With the positive feedback in most cases accompanied by a physical reward or words of encouragement, the employees will feel the rewards associated with their hard work. As a result, the positive rewards and outcomes will prompt them into working even harder so that they receive the same rewards and compliments. This is based on the nature of human beings who tend to repeat the actions that gave them a positive reward.
Conclusion
Basing on the fact that the high street estate agencies are experiencing a very tumultuous time because of stiff competition and predictions that they might be overtaken in the market by online agencies, there is a need for motivation which is essential for products that will enable them to compete. The political and economic factors that form the current environment are very different from those that existed a decade or two ago. Then, laws and policies protected them from the competition and helped them cut down on their expenses thus rake in billions in return. This was coupled up by the rising prices of houses and stable completion volumes of houses. Unfortunately, the current political and economic environment has removed the policies that protected them and hence exposing them to competition from low-cost online agencies. Furthermore, the prices of houses have dropped drastically and prediction shows that the volume of completions would drop too. This means a bleak future for the agencies and therefore new ways of doing business are not an option for the high street agencies.
The motivation strategies for an industry facing such tight political and economic environments need to be well adjusted to fit the wants and needs of the employees. As a result, motivation theories need to be considered before a good strategy is developed. The content theories and the process theories both offer great strategies that would assist in the stratification. If well implemented, the organizations will not only be able to compete with the other competitors but also, will increase their production. Motivation will be a tool through which innovation will be achieved. Innovation is the most reliable weapon for competition. This is the only way through which these high street estate agencies will be able to survive the competition of the emerging online agencies. They can combine their physical presence on high streets with the online experience by giving the customers accompanied visits to view the property. This would give them an edge over their competitors who are exclusively online. This is because nothing can replace the great human touch that is achieved through face-to-face interactions. Failure to which might translate into their oblivion.
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