A study of leadership skills necessary for management of group conflicts at Tesco UK

This dissertation focuses on the leadership skills required to effectively manage group conflicts at Tesco UK. It explores the causes of conflicts, their impact on the organization, and strategies for resolution. The study aims to provide recommendations for sustainable conflict management.

Running head: DISSERTATION
TITLE: A study of leadership skills necessary for management of group
conflicts at Tesco UK.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................7
Introduction............................................................................................................................7
Research Background.............................................................................................................7
Problem Statement..................................................................................................................8
Research aim and objectives..................................................................................................8
Research Aim......................................................................................................................8
1.4.2 Research Objectives...................................................................................................9
Research Questions................................................................................................................9
Research Hypothesis..............................................................................................................9
Significance of the research study..........................................................................................9
Limitations of the Study.......................................................................................................10
Summary...............................................................................................................................10
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................................................12
Theme 1: The Causes behind general conflicts....................................................................12
Increment of production cost for lack of unity.................................................................12
Theme 2: Inefficiency of the leadership of higher management..........................................13
Theme 3: Improper implementation of the rewarding system.............................................16

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Theme 4: Feasible Leadership strategies for the mitigation of the group conflicts.............17
Work division and fostering of team work spirit..............................................................17
Strategies of effective communication.............................................................................19
Using workplace events and trainings for fostering cohesion..........................................20
Summary...............................................................................................................................21
Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................23
Introduction..........................................................................................................................23
Research Philosophy............................................................................................................23
Research Design...................................................................................................................23
Research Approach...............................................................................................................24
Data Collection Method.......................................................................................................24
Data Sampling......................................................................................................................26
Settings and Participants.......................................................................................................26
Instrumentation.....................................................................................................................27
Data Analysis........................................................................................................................27
Limitations of Research Study.............................................................................................28
Research Ethics....................................................................................................................29
Research Timeframe.............................................................................................................30
Research Schedule............................................................................................................30
Graphical Interpretation....................................................................................................30
Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS...............................................................................33

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Introduction..........................................................................................................................33
Survey Questionnaire for employees of Tesco stores, UK...................................................33
Analysis of the survey data...................................................................................................35
Regression analysis..............................................................................................................42
Descriptive Statistics.........................................................................................................42
Correlations.......................................................................................................................43
Model Summary...............................................................................................................47
Anova................................................................................................................................47
Co-efficient.......................................................................................................................48
Collinearity Diagnostics...................................................................................................52
Residual Statistics.............................................................................................................53
T-Test Returns......................................................................................................................54
Question 1: Language highly impacts conflict.................................................................54
Question 2: Employee Satisfaction Rate..........................................................................55
Question 3: leadership impacts communication...............................................................56
Question 4:........................................................................................................................57
Question 5: Partiality and favouritism..............................................................................58
Analysis of Interview...........................................................................................................59
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations........................................................................63
Recommendations................................................................................................................63
Conclusions..........................................................................................................................64

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Reference List..........................................................................................................................66
Appendix: Ethics Approval Form............................................................................................75

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Abstract
In the introductory chapter, emphasis have been laid on the discussion of the background
including the research issue and the problem statement highlighting the key areas of research
concerned with the topic of research. Based on the problem statement, the research aims,
objectives and the research questions would be prepared in this chapter. In the last part of this
chapter, the significance of conducting the research on this topic as well as the limitations of
the study would be identified also. The factors that give birth to a multicultural workforce in
an organisation are educational standards of the employees of various levels, position of
individual employees in the organisational structure, age gap of the various employees,
gender variation, difference in gender as well as inherent culture and ethnicity. There are
other parameters of analysis also, other than these principal considerations. However, the
variation in the leadership strategies might lead to the collision in interests within various
employees and sectors in the same organisation. In this context it can be opined that these
problems are not mitigated from the root as soon as possible, this would give space for
greater conflict in the future. The empirical review conducted above, depicts the feasible
reasons for the occurrence of the group conflicts in the internal environment of companies in
UK, especially retail companies and the individual retail outlets. In the literature review, it
has been communicated that leadership strategies, workplace diversity as well as language
barrier as wage differences are most of the most important reasons for which conflicts occur
in the organisation. Some impacts of the group conflicts on the organisations and the long
term losses that can result out of that, have been highlighted in the course of the literature
review supported by research materials composed by eminent scholars. Such conflicts mostly
result in the lack of cohesion among the employees’ groups and thus slows down the
important processes of operation. In the research study, primary survey and interview has
also been conducted. Based on these instruments, the findings and analysis chapter have been

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constructed. Using an interpretative and exploratory research methods, the data collection and
analysis have been conducted.

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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the all library media specialists for their participation in the survey who
supported my work in this way and helped me get results of better quality. I am also grateful
to the members of my committee for their patience and support in overcoming numerous
obstacles I have been facing through my research
I would like to thank my fellow doctoral students for their feedback, cooperation and of
course friendship. Nevertheless, I am also grateful to the professors for sharing their
dissertation woes, and a glimmer of hope for post-dissertation normalcy.
I would like to thank my friends for accepting nothing less than excellence from me.
Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family: my parents and to my brothers and
sister for supporting me spiritually throughout writing this thesis and my life in general.

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Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
Introduction
The success of a company as well sustainable future development depends majorly on the
leadership strategies that have been implemented by the core management of the company.
This is mostly true in the context of managing of the group conflicts in a diverse as well as
multicultural business environment like Tesco, UK. This thesis paper aims to make an in-
depth analysis based on the kinds of group conflicts that are faced by companies like Tesco.
Based on that further analysis would be conducted in thesis paper, highlighting the most
efficient strategies to eradicate this perilous issue and ensure sustainability of the company as
well as ensuring profit maximisation. In this chapter, emphasis have been laid on the
discussion of the background including the research issue and the problem statement
highlighting the key areas of research concerned with the topic of research. Based on the
problem statement, the research aims, objectives and the research questions would be
prepared in this chapter. In the last part of this chapter, the significance of conducting the
research on this topic as well as the limitations of the study would be identified also.
Research Background
In the corporate business domain of Europe, the organisational set ups are mostly multi-
cultural. As such, the diversity of culture in an organisation creates a lot of managerial
challenges that needs to be overcome in order to ensure the sustainability of the organisation
in the evolving business atmosphere of the European business sphere.
The factors that give birth to a multicultural workforce in an organisation are educational
standards of the employees of various levels, position of individual employees in the
organisational structure, age gap of the various employees, gender variation, difference in
gender as well as inherent culture and ethnicity. There are other parameters of analysis also,

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other than these principal considerations. However, as observed by Costanzo et al. (2014), the
variation in the leadership strategies might lead to the collision in interests within various
employees and sectors in the same organisation. In this context, Wang and Rafiq (2014), also
opines that if these problems are not mitigated from the root as soon as possible, this would
give space for greater conflict in the future.
Problem Statement
Diverse workforces in the multinational companies like Tesco, which have a diverse
workforce can give birth to several areas of group conflicts that needs quick resolution. In
absence of that, the conflicts would assume a greater shape inside the organisation and
directly or indirectly might hamper the productivity of the company in the future. Capable
and highly strategic managerial control is required for the mitigation of such problems.
Owing to the detrimental nature of such problems, a detail specific and elaborate research is
to be conducted in order to formulate and recommend strategies for the resolution of such
intra-organisational issues.
Research aim and objectives
Research Aim
The research study in this thesis paper is emphasised at the Tesco Company, UK.
Apart from the domestic market of UK, the organisation has shops in seven of the European
countries. This research study would focus on the major group conflicts that has disturbed the
management of the company and analyse the sources of such conflict. The wide HR fraternity
of the company has revealed the flaps of diversity in the organisational structure of the
company in the annual reports of the country. Analysing these, strategies are to be aligned for
confronting the challenges prone to group conflicts. Hence, this research would aim at

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identifying leadership skills that can be applied to effectively manage the group conflicts at
the Tesco Company in UK.
1.4.2 Research Objectives
 To assess the possible causes of misunderstandings and disunity among employees at
Tesco
 To discuss the effects of unresolved conflicts on production, consumer retention, sales
and overall return on investment
 To identify the leadership skills and behaviour management approaches which can be
implemented to effectively manage group conflicts at the organization
Research Questions
 How has multiculturalism hindered employee unity at Tesco UK?
 What are the effects of group conflicts on the overall return on investment at Tesco?
Research Hypothesis
H0: Leadership skills are not essential for the management of the group conflicts at
Tesco, UK
H1: Leadership skills strongly impact the management of group conflicts at Tesco, UK.
Significance of the research study
The significance of the research study lies in analysing what larger organisational issues,
group conflicts can create within an organisation and how they can negatively impact the
profitability and future sustenance of the organisation.
Furthermore, it is essential to understand what feasible instruments can be implied by the
management of the organisation in order to identify and confront the conflicts that arise

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within the internal environment of the company. The research study would also be helpful in
suggesting various other strategies that the management of Tesco, UK should consider, for
preventing such issues in the future also.
Limitations of the Study
The topic under concern, that is emergence of group conflicts in the company and
analysis of the impacts that might be emerging out of that, is applicable in a broad context. In
context to that, the research should have been conducted with a larger and more versatile
sampling group. In absence of this, the research data would be lacking relevancy. In case if
the budget allocated for the research would have been more, a more elaborate sample would
have been selected for the survey.
Summary
This introductory chapter of the research introduces the background and context against
which this research have been conducted. The background study and the problem definition
also deciphers that internal group conflicts in a Tesco has turned out to become a grave
problem that requires the attention of the management and this is such a issues that needs to
mitigated immediately. This research study would focus on the major group conflicts that has
disturbed the management of the company and analyse the sources of such conflict. Based on
the factors highlighted in the research aim, the objectives have been set for this research
based study. The objectives have been set out mainly concentrating the fact that it is required
to analyse what that most feasible factors that can cause conflicts among the work groups.
Other than that, it is also necessary to understand the most important demographic, regional
or ethnic factors that causes the differences among the employees that rises to the level of
conflict.

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On the other hand, it is also essential to identify the necessary leadership skills that can
help the company in implementing strategies that can uproot the differences and the conflicts
effectively. Multiculturalism have been depicted as the most important factor that causes
divergence among the employees. The specific factors of multiculturalism that is responsible
for this, is deemed essential for an in-depth study. Hence the basic significance of this
research study as analysed in this chapter is the depiction of the intrinsic factors that causes
differences and variation in the perception of the employees, which in turn results to group
conflicts. Based on the issues depicted, a comprehensive and managerial strategy can be
formulated, which would help in the mitigation of such issues and ensuring that such issues
are not aroused further in the organisation under focus. Lastly, the limitations of this research
study have also been depicted in this chapter. The lack of a comparative study as well as the
limited date sampling size are identified as the most essential limitations of the study.
However, the researcher have made the best use of the time and allocated budget to make the
research supported by most relevant data and in depth analysis.
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Theme 1: The Causes behind general conflicts
Increment of production cost for lack of unity
Eminent researchers like Visintin and Pittino (2014), have put forward a detailed
discussion of the group conflicts that occurs within the organisation. As the authors state,
group conflicts in a company often become the causes of diminished cohesion among the
store staff and thus during the peak sales season or hours of highest sales, the business output
lacks from the projected value, finally depositing in an economic loss for the company. In
this context, researchers like Heneghan et al. (2017), highlight in their article that the work
process of various companies the cost of production is directly proportional to the time as

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well as other resources like money and labour consumed by the workers. In such working
atmosphere, group conflicts can amount of a huge backlog in production and thus the
inventories would be affected which would in turn affect sales and the unavailability of the
product would also diminish the customer loyalty towards the particular brand. On the
contrary, researchers like Bamiatzi et al. (2014), has argued that most of the group conflicts
are occurring due to the difference in designation and monetary accomplishment that is
achieved out of the organisation by dint of various demographic factors that are valued as
bars of discrimination in the society of UK. In such an atmosphere, the researchers have
argued that miscommunication between the various layers of hierarchy as well as between the
departments becomes an evident outcome and as an outcome, the employees are not able to
make best use of the resources from their ends which in turn affects the quality of the finished
products. In such instance, Ågotnes et al. (2018), provides that the facility managers and
other members who are not quite attached with the ground level workers who are
accomplishing the prime bulk of the work are not sure what resources are exactly required by
the workers to accomplish a certain project, the usage and rendition of the resources becomes
less coordinates and as an outcome poor utilisation of the company’s resources hampers the
product quality. In this context, Martinez-Corts et al. (2015), have put an extra emphasis on
analysing the basic cause of this particular category of group conflicts and attempted to
generalise the causes of the conflict. Variation in the interests, values as well as individual
perception might lead people to misjudgement as well as prejudgement. Framing of an
apprehension towards a group of people in a working community, most of the time affects the
way information are perceived and passed on to the group by the working community of a
different level. Again, authors like Singer (2018), hold the general workforce diversity as the
determining factor behind the myriad of organisational conflicts that seriously affects the
communication and flow of information in the organisation. The authors also suggest that in

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order to eradicate these problems from a company, staff training as well as employee
empowerment regarding the work procedure of the company. Again, in sharp contrast,
Figueiredo‐Ferraz, Gil‐Monte and Olivares‐Faúndez (2015), opines in this context that the
organisational leaders also needs to formulate a communication channel that is much more
inclusive and is able to address the varied needs of the workers of all level as well as the
clients.
Theme 2: Inefficiency of the leadership of higher management
As pointed out by Kauppila and Tempelaar (2016), leadership as well as behavioural
management strategies that are emphasised by the higher management of the company has a
strong influence on the conflicts that emerge among the workers of an organisation that
operates with a multicultural workforce. The same authors have evidently studied in many of
the reputed companies of UK there are many misleading leadership approaches undertaken,
which account to resistance from the employees alongside arousing grievances among them
against different work groups in different organisational levels. That is why, authors like
Rogach et al. (2016), always supports the development of a democratic leadership approach
that is required to keep all the sectors of the work force equally focused and emphasised.
The role of leaders is also stretched to making right and effective decisions which is
one important step towards minimisation of the organisational conflicts. In this context,
Andreasson, Eriksson and Dellve (2016), opines that when some of the employees or specific
work groups of the company feel left out and disregarded during the undertaking of nay
crucial decision by the higher management, they tend to resist the organisational changes and
even implementation of the changed decisions becomes difficult. This in turn affects the level
of motivation and inclusion of the other work groups which dread that the management is
partial and the same consequences can occur with them any time, too. That is why, authors

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like Hsiao, Auld and Ma (2015), opines that the decisions making, as a leadership technique,
should be inclusive and requires that none of the work groups should be benefitted more than
the other as an outcome of that decision. In this context, an evidence can be provided. In case
if any retail organisation observes higher sales rate during the happy hours at any particular
season, they might take the decision to enhance the basic pay of the employees who handle
the stores during the happy hours. This can result in the alleviation of the employee
motivation of a specific group of employees. On the other hand the other employees who
handle the stores during the other hours of the day would feel demotivated as they observed
one band of employee with the same skills and in the same work domain are getting undue
advantages owing to working for a different shift time. In such a condition, Rudolph and
Zacher (2015), suggests that the company should make an inclusive decisions and implement
a rotational policy for the workers so that all the workers in a definite store might get to work
during the peak hours. It might be the fact that the higher management is not able to pay
attention to this factor of employee resentment and naturally ignore the fact. Herein, Sharma,
Dhar and Tyagi (2016), opines that the management decisions should be taken including even
the lowest levels of management so that all the factors of operation are properly taken in to
consideration while the decisions are undertaken. In the example scenario stated above, the
management should consult the individual store managers before taking the decisions of
implementing the decision of salary hike. The store managers would be able to reflect
accurately how this change would impact the employees of their stores. This is how, conflicts
can be kept at check. However, Abu Bakar & McCann (2016), states that most of the retail
brands in UK are absolutely focused at profit maximisation and that is why they often
disregard the factors of employee satisfaction and employee motivation. They emphasise that
appraisals and annual awards are the only means by which they would appease the

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employees. The higher management most often care less to make their operating decisions
inclusive.
Theme 3: Improper implementation of the rewarding system
Workplace conflicts are also brought about by the dissimilarity of the wages,
incentives as well as the motivation scheme that is implemented by the management of the
company. In this context, Wang et al. (2016), provides that employees who have similar
qualifications but are having a difference in the wage structure would definitely feel less
motivates and less connected with the management and their resentment would grow which
would allow them to stop communicating with the management (they would hold the
management solely responsible for this). In fact, Marinova, Van Dyne and Moon (2015),
opines that in many of the companies of UK there are dominant traits of discrimination based
on ethnicity and societal standard as well as favouritism resulting out of that and as an
outcome, many of the employees or work groups as a whole get unfair promotions.
In order to mitigate this issues many of the authors have suggested in the empirical
literature that there should be a basic harmonisation in the salary structure of the company
which is not absolutely inclined towards the kind of qualification they have or their
organisational optimisation skills that they have banked after joining the company. On the
contrary, the employers and the organisational leaders can formulate a policy of moulding the
salary structure based on the kind of tasks that are being handled by the employees (Fisman et
al. 2018). In that case, Danielsson et al. (2015), advocates that the management can cite the
difference in the nature of tasks that have been handled by the employees and also exhibit the
same as the reason for the difference in the salary structure of the different employees with
the same basic skills and similar educational qualifications. The employees should understand
that the nature of the task flow differs as the work domain of an individual employee shifts

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and based on that that the salary structure of the designated employee also differs. It is not
always an outcome of personal preference of the leaders or an outcome of their unethical
favouritism. In case, if the issues of organisational conflicts still persist in the work domain,
Zukauskas and Vveinhardt (2015), suggests that the employers and leaders should take up the
lead to communicate to the employees the reason why the current salary structure have been
adopted by the company. In case if they are able to justify the salary scheme before the
employees, much of these conflicts can be resolved and Lee (2015), opines that as an
outcome of this employees can easily fit in to the structure as well as the culture of the
company.
Theme 4: Feasible Leadership strategies for the mitigation of the group conflicts
Work division and fostering of team work spirit
The culture of multiculturalism is held primarily responsible by Lewin (2018), as one
of the primary factors behind group conflicts in the organisations. Tackling and dealing with
the mentality of the individual employees who come from various backgrounds and separate
cultural domains become different because not everyone gives equal value to the personal
value and beliefs of all others they deal with. Besides, Katsikea Theodosiou and Morgan
(2015), opines that different workers coming from different backgrounds have the tendency
of dealing with different issues in the internal environment of the company in a different way.
They portray a difference in the level of understanding of the particular issues that they
encounter or need to deal with.
In the above context, eminent authors like Bin Taher, Krotov and Silva (2015), have
advocated one theoretical frame work involving the inclusion of leadership approaches in the
unifying spirit. For evidence, the authors suggest that leadership activities like role play as
well as division of labour are essential and can also be pivotal to keep the motivation as well

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as the interest of the workers, intact and straightforward at the organisational objectives that
have been set for them. Such leadership activities, as Papachristos and Kirk (2015), supposes,
are highly motivating for the employees. These makes the employee feel that they are also
important part of the organisation and as such they tend to ignore the personal monetary
interests and concentrate on the fulfilment of the organisational outcomes that needs their
participation to be fulfilled. In alignment, Schwab et al. (2016), also states that these
strategies also help in the mitigation of the currently occurring organisational group conflicts.
Three straight way steps have been suggested by the authors like Leon-Perez et al. (2015), in
order to implement the policies that can help in the mitigation of these issues parallely
ensuring that they these instances do not occur again. These are:
 Identification of the organisational group conflicts
 Analysing the original cause behind the conflict through role play and active informal
participation
 Formulation of the feasible mitigation strategies
Strategies of effective communication
As Rosenbloom (2016), identifies, one of the most feasible strategy of clearing group
conflicts in a company is ensuring a channel of positive and lucrative communication with
every strata of the workforce. In fact, advocating this view, DePasquale te al. (2017), have
stated that lack of a clear channel of communication hinders the flow of information across
the departments and this is one of the important reasons why the reports of the employee
conflicts in the individual stores do not reach the higher management. In a diverse and
multicultural work force, where there are already limitations existing in the form of language
barriers, such block of communications aggravates the issues for the smooth operations of the
company. In this regard, Ferrell (2016) professes that one of the mainstream strategies of

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making the communication and rendition of the discussions and the messages of the higher
management go down all the layers of the hierarchy is introduction of a surrounding
environment, whereby there would be agents of higher management in the form of
coordinators or success managers who would ensure that the decisions that have been
undertaken by the management and the justification behind the undertaking of the decision
reach the entire hierarchy and also make sure that the leaders and the managers of all levels
have passed on the necessary decisions down the hierarchy and gathered affirmation of the
employees under them in favour of the decisions undertaken. Again, Peng et al. (2016),
observes that clearing the channel of communication is not enough for mitigation of the
conflicts. There should be an online platform, as they advocate, which would be utilised for
the submission of feedback from each of the employees and owing to encryption the content
of the feedback would reach directly to the higher management and none of the
organisational leaders or departmental heads in the interim would be able to access the
information.
Using workplace events and trainings for fostering cohesion
The barrier of language variation is one of the major impacts of workplace diversity
that becomes the cause of misunderstanding as well as conflicts within the company. Coming
from diverse and multicultural background, the employees’ exhibit division on the basis of
values, perceptions as well as languages spoken. Workers, many of whom are coming from
the Spanish or French backgrounds feel uncomfortable when they receive instructions in core
English in the UK companies. Hence, they feel left out and their employment demeanour
diminishes. Moreover, they also feel low when they are not able to communicate and cater to
the needs of the customers, who in return do not want to communicate with them owing to
their language problem and prefer to be attended by a British store keeper. As Dedahanov et
al. (2016), opines, the employees who faces such issues must realise that the organisation

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where they are working have the least to do in order to alleviate them from such a problem. It
is the employees themselves, who need to be adaptive and learn basic spoken English to be
able to communicate with the customers and the managers. However, in the same context,
Folger, Poole and Stutman (2015), have advocated that the cohesion with such employees can
be enhanced through hosting of events, training processes and ample exposure of the
employees facing issues owing to the above stated problems can turn out to be s step in the
correct direction for avoiding the arousal of group conflicts.
Summary
The empirical review conducted above, depicts the feasible reasons for the occurrence
of the group conflicts in the internal environment of companies in UK, especially retail
companies and the individual retail outlets. Deriving the literature review, it can be
communicated that leadership strategies, workplace diversity as well as language barrier as
wage differences are most of the most important reasons for which conflicts occur in the
organisation. Some impacts of the group conflicts on the organisations and the long term
losses that can result out of that, have been highlighted in the course of the literature review
supported by research materials composed by eminent scholars. Such conflicts mostly result
in the lack of cohesion among the employees’ groups and thus slows down the important
processes of operation. Again, the employee morale is also reduced along with employee
engagement followed by complication of the business environment. The general capability of
the workers in intimidated by the workers as an outcome. The reduction in the efforts of the
workers might have negative impacts up on the overall organisational reputation since there
would be an indirect impact of this on the customer loyalty also. Marketing, production and
sales would be equally impacted.

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Owing to these inevitable impacts up on the organisational outcomes, it is essential
that the best leadership practices are implemented for the mitigation of such group conflicts.
The leaders might take up a democratic or an authoritative approach based on the individual
state of affairs of the company wherein the decision is being implemented. However, in order
to ensure the maintenance of the individual rights, efficiency in role play as well as employee
involvement practices like events and training are essential factors that needs to be focused
up on. With a right and evenly implemented culture in the company, the employees would be
enticed towards sheer hard work, focusing on the organisational objectives, ignoring personal
conflict of interests.

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Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter will emphasise on the research philosophy, research design and instrumentation
along with the data collection process and the data analysis method. The setting and
participation of the research study would also be discussed here.
Research Philosophy
For this thesis, the research philosophy of Interpretivism has been followed. Since a
subjective interpretation of the sample is followed, in this dissertation, the research
philosophy should positively be Interpretivism. The Interpretivism philosophy holds that
study of the research sample in their natural environment and recoding their on-field
experiences and ideas is key to the principle.
Research Design
An exploratory research design has been followed by the researcher in the course of
this research study. In the course of data collection, the respondents were asked about the
conflicts that they have to face in the definite Tesco stores where they are working. The
survey do not intends to explore or implement or research the consequences of the application
of any resolution strategy for the group conflicts that affects the respondents. As an outcome,
it can be defined that the research questions do not intend to offer any sort of final and
conclusive solutions to the identified research issues. The study is only intended to analyse
the research problem that have not been clarified from the first person perspective in this
research study, previously. At best, the data collection procedure helps in a better
understanding of the problem in the context of the company and the definite employees who
have been facing the issues on a regular basis. The same kind of outcome is advocated for an
exploratory research study also. There is no availability of any clear or definite solution in the

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data collection process. The research problem is only understood by the researcher at various
levels of depth.
Research Approach
Since a set of hypotheses have been formulated for this research study, this thesis
surely pertains to a deductive research method. In the process of research, one of the
hypotheses would be nullified and the other would be established. This is the definite
pathway that is formulated by the deductive research approach (Silverman 2016). There are
several advantages of pertaining to a deductive research approach. Firstly it establishes the
possibility of explaining casual relationships among concepts as well variables. Secondly, it
offers a broad scope to measure the concepts quantitatively. It also generates the possibility
of generalising the research findings to a certain level.
Data Collection Method
A mixed approach have been followed by the researcher so far as data collection for
this research paper is concerned. Both quantitative as well as qualitative approaches have
been adopted by the researcher for the cause of data collection for this research and
assimilation of relevant information for this research. Among the feasible qualitative data
collection methods, there are the likes of content analysis, study of research articles and
annual publications of the company. This also includes the focus group studies. The
quantitative methods that are applied here, includes random sampling process, questionnaire
as well as interview within a shorter and selective sample size. There are ample advantages of
qualitative research that have been employed here. Firstly, the subject materials can be
clearly evaluated and with precision and further detailing. Moreover, in qualitative research,
the research frameworks are much more fluid and the available data is basically focused up
on human experiences as well as observations.

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However, such data are third hand information that might lack relevancy. On the
contrary, the researcher has attempted to make the research work more relevant and
significant by making use of quantitative data collection followed of analysis of the collected
data. Quantitative data is definitely more reliable as well as objective. First hand statistics can
be used in case of quantitative data collection, in order to generalise any finding. The most
advantageous prospect of pertaining to quantitative data collection in the course of this
research study is that by using this means, the researcher have been able to restructure many
complex problems clarifying them in the light of the first person perspectives of the sampling
respondents. The limited number of variables in his case, helps in deriving to a conclusion
much easily. Besides, in the case of the quantitative data collection, the hypotheses set by the
researchers are directly put to test. The outcomes are obviously less detailed than qualitative
data collection (Lewis 2015). That is why a combination of qualitative as well as quantitative
data collection methods have been utilised by the researcher in the course of this research
study.
Data Sampling
For the purpose of primary quantitative data collection for this research study, the
researcher has made use of Non-Probability Convenience sampling method. The availability
of all the respondents (50) is a matter of concern for the researcher and it is not possible that
during the work hours all of them would be available for the survey at the same time. This is
the reason why the researcher have to approach them as per their convenience. The major
concern of convenience sampling is that the availability of the respondents is dependent on
their convenience. As an outcome, the selection of Non-Probability Convenience data
sampling is justified.
Settings and Participants

25DISSERTATION
The setting of the research study is based on survey which is followed by interview.
At first the survey would be conducted among a broad group of participants where each of
the respondents need to answer to the same group of questionnaire. Followed by that a
smaller group of respondents would be selected for conducting the interview.
There are initially 50 respondents selected in total for initial questionnaire based
survey. 5 random Tesco shops in UK would be selected at first and 10 respondents from each
of the shops would be selected for participating in the questionnaire based survey. A random
sampling of the participants was chosen by the researcher since this makes a fair
representation of the entire population possible. Each of these participants would be provided
with a questionnaire which they would need to fill in ad return within a span of two weeks.
Based on the responses of the 50 respondents, 20 of them would be selected for a round of
personal interview. The basic content of the interview would be constituting with questions
regarding the causes because of which the conflicts has aroused at Tesco. The reliability of
the data and the depth of information is enhanced by the system in which the survey and
interview have been planned for this research.
Instrumentation
The instrumentation of a common set of a qualitative questionnaire have been used in
the course of this research study. The questionnaire consists of a number of close ended
questions. On the contrary, the questionnaire that would be used for the purpose of
interviewing the selected sample are supposed to be open ended questions. The close ended
questions would lead to the generation of a general interpretation of the research problem that
is being discussed in the course of this research study. On the other hand, the open end
questions that are being proposed to the selected band of employees of the Tesco stores are

26DISSERTATION
supposed to provide an in depth perception of the issues that are faced by then employees that
gives rise to conflicts in the workplace.
Data Analysis
In the analysis section of dissertation, a comparative study between the empirical
findings attained at as an outcome of the literature review have been compared with the first
hand research data that have been accumulated by the researcher as an outcome of the
primary quantitative data collection. The qualitative approach of the researcher enabled him
to carefully select the literature work as well as comparative research papers by other eminent
scholars working on the same domain. A thorough review of such literature have been
conducted and this helped the researcher to access the most relevant research materials and
thus accumulate important industry specific and some linked company specific data also. In
the light of the various research papers, journal review websites, online blogs, annual reports
of the company and the management and leadership articles, the researcher have been able to
accomplish a highly argumentative empirical research. Again, this detailed study of the
empirical data has helped the researcher to set firth a conclusive perspective build up on the
contextual reviews. A detailed quantitative interpretation have been made based on the
research making use of graph, charts and tables.
Limitations of Research Study
The primary limitation to this research study have been the lack of extensive
experience in collecting data promptly and professionally. In case if the respondents had
given more time and answered the questionnaire of the research with a deeper thought and
wider perception, more relevant data could have been collected. However, a broader budget
for the research could have helped the cause. Next up, the sample size of the research study
could have been broadened. In random sampling a larger sample size could have definitely

27DISSERTATION
helped in accumulation of a more relevant research data. However, the lack of time posed a
serious hindrance to the selection of a broader sample size.
The absence of any definitely research study in the exact domain where the researcher
have been operating, has been another limitation for him. The literature review could have
been made more argumentative if the time for this project had been elongated. The scope of
discussion in the data analysis section of the dissertation has also been limited owing to the
lack of time that has been dedicated to data analysis and data interpretation.
Research Ethics
The researcher has pertained to certain ethical considerations that have been
maintained by him throughout the course of the entire research work. Firstly, the honesty of
the researcher that he remains to true to the objective of the research study and use absolutely
relevant research data as well as incorporate the information that he has been able to deduce
from primary as well as secondary research.
Secondly, the researcher pledges that objectivity of the respondents have not be done.
They have been paid absolute respect and the opinions that they gave in the first place have
been recorded. They have not been alleged in some or the other way and lastly, they have
been forced to reveal data that they were nor willing to disclose, and as such they have not
been subjected to any form of distortional activities. It is commendable that the researcher
has pertained to The Data Protection Act, 1991 and owing to the act he has not disclosed any
form of information regarding to the identity of the respondents whom he approached in the
course of the research study and he also kept that the respondents provided, absolutely
confidential.
Research Timeframe
Research Schedule

28DISSERTATION
ITEM DURATION
Preliminary preparations 10 days
Data collection 20days
Data analysis 20 days
Summary and conclusion 5 days
Graphical Interpretation
Preliminary preparations
Data collection
Data analysis
Summary and conclusion
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Schedule

29DISSERTATION
Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
Introduction
This chapter makes an in-depth analysis of data acquired, followed by a discussion
aimed at deriving the end conclusions in the latter part of the chapter. The findings are
associated with the research questions, up on which the development of argument in this
dissertation is based. The analysis of the data is followed by identification, description and
the exploration of the relationship between the leadership strategies with their
implementation process as well as the group conflicts that hinder the performance if the
individual employees of the organisation as well as the individual employees also. Data from
the respondents was collected out of a self-administered questionnaire, which has been
completed by 50 employees of the Tesco stores of UK. 5 Tesco shops were selected by the
researcher as an outcome of the random sampling process. 10 employees of each of the Tesco
stores were selected for filling out of the questionnaire.
Following the questionnaire based survey with the 50 employees of Tesco, UK, 20 of
the desired 50 candidates for the survey were selected for a round of personal interview. The
interview questionnaire and analysis of the responses following the selective questions have
been presented in this chapter.
Survey Questionnaire for employees of Tesco stores, UK
The impact of language as a factor of conflict in the store is huge. Do you agree?
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Neutral
 Disagree
 Strongly Disagree

30DISSERTATION
4.2.2 Employee satisfaction rate is highly impacted by leadership decisions of the store
managers. Do you agree?
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Neutral
 Disagree
 Strongly Disagree
4.2.3 Organisational leaders have a great role in ensuring smooth communication among the
employees. How much do you agree to this statement?
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Not sure
 Disagree
 Strongly Disagree
4.2.4 Poor communication channels between the managers and employees is responsible for
workplace conflict. Is it right according to you?
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Neutral
 Disagree
 Strongly Disagree
4.2.5 Partiality and favouritism is practiced by the managers of your company. It is correct?

31DISSERTATION
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Not willing to reply
 Disagree
 Strongly Disagree
Analysis of the survey data
Case Processing Summary
Cases
Included Excluded Total
N Percent N Percent N Percent
Language highly
impacts conflict *
employee satisfaction
rate
5 100.0% 0 0.0% 5 100.0%
Language highly
impacts conflict *
leadership impacts
communication
5 100.0% 0 0.0% 5 100.0%
Language highly
impacts conflict *
Impact of poor
communication
channels
5 100.0% 0 0.0% 5 100.0%

32DISSERTATION
Language highly
impacts conflict *
Partiality and
favouritism
5 100.0% 0 0.0% 5 100.0%
Table 1: Case Proceeding Summary: Means
(Source: Developed by the researcher)
The first question was intended to understand the impact of language as a factor
hindering the cohesion among the employees. In return of this question, among the survey
respondents, 29 of the employees reverted that they agreed that language is one important
factor that causes problem. They feel that they should get a training on primary English or a
patronage from the company for that. Again, 15 of the respondents did not agree to this. 6
employees were neutral in response. However, all 6 of them have joined the firm recently and
might not have adequate professional expertise for commenting on this issue. The employees
who agreed to this issue were all well-tenured employees who have been in this form for over
7 to 8 years. Many of them had faced the problem personally and probably all of them had
seen others face the same issue in their work life. The employees who showed disagreement
were comparatively newer employees. Probably they did not face such issues owing to the
fact they were British English candidates or they were having excellent communication and
interactive skills that helped them to overcome easily even if they faced the challenge.
The next question required the randomly sampled employed employees to
reflect if they felt that the store managers had a great role to play in manipulating and
manoeuvring the employees. This implied that the role played by the store managers had a
great role to play in fostering the workplace motivation of the employees or inversely their
actions might become the cause of the workplace resentment of the employees. As evident in

33DISSERTATION
the literature review, multinational and multicultural workplaces involve all the managerial
levels while undertaking any organisational decisions. This is the avenue for the store
managers to reflect the issues and problems that their respective subordinate employees are
facing in their workplace environment. Majority of the employees opined that they believed
that the store managers, that is the level of management, immediately atop, have a great role
to play in deciding the convenience level of the employees who are his or her subordinates.
Herein, it deserves mention that in the literature review section also, it was evident that the
management and leaders (store managers) can indulge in various involving activities like role
play and informal sessions in order to enhance the convenience level of the employees. Their
active participation can also help the employees to determine, if any of the employees need
training in any work domain. Again, if the store managers do not meet the above discussed
objectives, employee resentment and workplace dissatisfaction might emerge among the
employees. As an impact, 40 of the selected 50 employees supported the fact. Only 10 rest
opined that they felt that the store managers had a passive role. However, the opinion casted
by the mass majority is to be held considerable here.
Language highly impacts conflict * employee
satisfaction rate
Language highly impacts conflict
Employee
satisfaction rate
Mean N Std.
Deviation
.00 6.0000 1 .
3.00 4.0000 1 .
7.00 11.000
0
1 .

34DISSERTATION
11.00 9.0000 1 .
29.00 20.000
0
1 .
Total 10.000
0
5 6.20484
Table 2: Standard Deviation
(Source: Created by the researcher)
The third question was most critical. The employees needed to reflect whether they
felt or not that the higher leaders in the organisation had a crucial role to play in ensuring
smooth communication among the employees and the various departments. Majority of the
employees that is 28 of them expressed likeability in favour of the statement. Only 18 of
them felt that they could not agree to this opinion. 4 of the respondents did not give any
biased opinion because they felt they were not yet seasoned properly to frame an opinion
against this question. In fact, as per the discussions of the literature review also, it is evident
that the senior leaders have a commendable role to play so that a lucid and simplified
communication channel exist among the employees and the management. This includes the
process for reporting feedback directly to the upper management. That is why, most of the
respondents (28), who all are tenured enough, reported in favour of the statement. However,
the 18 respondents who went against the statement might have felt that they do not need to
communicate with the highest levels of management and hence their communication
channels are not much important.
Language highly impacts conflict * leadership impacts

35DISSERTATION
communication
Language highly impacts conflict
Leadership impacts
communication
Mean N Std.
Deviation
4.00 6.0000 1 .
9.00 7.5000 2 4.94975
11.00 9.0000 1 .
17.00 20.000
0
1 .
Total 10.000
0
5 6.20484
Table 3: Standard Deviation
(Source: Developed by the researcher)
The nest question was also very relevant from the organisational perspective. It
required employees to opine if they felt that poor communication between the employees and
the management is one essential reason for conflicts in workplace. Only 16 of the employees
out of 50 reported that they favoured the fact. However, 29 disagreed to the concern. This
implies that the communication channels from the upper management is clear and there are
adequate channels through which the employees might communicate the issues. However, it
was observed that employees of one or two particular stores reported that they felt that
communication between the employees and the senior leaders was weak. The rest of the
stores’ employees reported a different scenario. This implies that the communication between
employees and the management is not even and equal for all the stores of Tesco in UK. In
case if employees from few other stores were selected there would have been a variation

36DISSERTATION
observed in the pattern of the opinion observed. One basic reason can also be the difference
in personalities. It might be the fact that the zonal managers or the head store managers in any
particular area in UK is proactive about the service condition of the employees and keeps
regular communication with them. On the contrary, the scenario with the employees of the
other stores might be different. This is why the policy of appointing an independent and
neutral communication and success manager is very important, as it was discussed in the
Literature Review chapter.
Language highly impacts conflict * Impact of poor
communication channels
Language highly impacts conflict
Impact of poor
communication
channels
Mean N Std.
Deviation
5.00 6.0000 1 .
6.00 20.000
0
1 .
10.00 9.0000 1 .
14.00 4.0000 1 .
15.00 11.000
0
1 .
Total 10.000
0
5 6.20484
Table 4: Standard Deviation

37DISSERTATION
(Source: Created by the Researcher)
The last question was important from a strategic perspective. This question directly
asked whether they felt that the leaders of the organisation practiced favouritism and
partiality. The results obtained from the survey are in alignment with the findings of literature
review. Only 16 of the respondents agreed to the fact that the management practiced
favouritism and partiality. Rest 35 of the respondents disagreed to this. In their opinion, the
management did not practice favouritism and partiality. At times it is observed that the
employees with the same qualifications and experience get promotions faster and also that
there is a basic difference in the salary structure of two employees working in the same
domain. In most cases, this might become the cause of a great group conflict. Employees
might perceive that the management is promoting one of them over the other out of personal
grounds of favouritism. However, as Tang et al. (2015), has pointed out that on most
instances, the management have significant reasons behind facilitating an employee in a
different way than the others. Most probably owing to the lack of communication, the
employees were not aware of the facts, or the management did not communicate their internal
policies to the employees. It is, although true, that there should be a clear and specified
organisational policy structure that should be responsible for the letting all the employees
make know clearly what kind of salary structure the company is following.
Language highly impacts conflict * Partiality and
favouritism
Language highly impacts conflict
Partiality and
favouritism
Mean N Std.
Deviation
2.00 20.000 1 .

38DISSERTATION
0
3.00 6.0000 1 .
10.00 9.0000 1 .
16.00 11.000
0
1 .
19.00 4.0000 1 .
Total 10.000
0
5 6.20484
Table 5: Standard Deviation
(Source: Created by the Researcher)
Regression analysis
Descriptive Statistics
Descriptive Statistics
Mean Std.
Deviation
N
Languagehighlyimpa
ctsconflict
10.000
0
6.20484 5
employesatisfactionra
te
10.000
0
11.40175 5
leadershipimpactsco
mmunication
10.000
0
4.69042 5

39DISSERTATION
Impactofpoorcommu
nicationchannels
10.000
0
4.52769 5
Partialityandfavouriti
sm
10.000
0
7.58288 5
Table 6: Descriptive Statistics
(Source: Created by the researcher)
Correlations:

40DISSERTATION
Correlations
Language
highly
impacts
conflict
Employee
satisfaction
rate
Leadership
impacts
communicat
ion
Impact of
poor
communicat
ion channels
Partiality
and
favouritism
Pearson
Correlation
Language highly
impacts conflict
1.000 .947 .842 -.347 -.531
Employee satisfaction
rate
.947 1.000 .954 -.334 -.471
Leadership impacts
communication
.842 .954 1.000 -.082 -.204
Impact of poor
communication
channels
-.347 -.334 -.082 1.000 .968
Partiality and -.531 -.471 -.204 .968 1.000

41DISSERTATION
favouritism
Sig. (1-tailed) Languagehighlyimpact
sconflict
. .007 .037 .284 .178
employesatisfactionrat
e
.007 . .006 .291 .211
leadershipimpactscom
munication
.037 .006 . .448 .371
Impactofpoorcommuni
cationchannels
.284 .291 .448 . .003
Partialityandfavouritis
m
.178 .211 .371 .003 .
N Languagehighlyimpact
sconflict
5 5 5 5 5
employesatisfactionrat
e
5 5 5 5 5

42DISSERTATION
leadershipimpactscom
munication
5 5 5 5 5
Impactofpoorcommuni
cationchannels
5 5 5 5 5
Partialityandfavouritis
m
5 5 5 5 5
Table 7: Correlations Value
(Source: Developed by the Researcher)

43DISSERTATION
Model Summary
Model Summaryb
Mod
el
R R
Square
Adjusted R
Square
Std. Error of
the Estimate
Change Statistics
R Square
Change
F
Change
df1 df2 Sig. F
Change
1 1.000a 1.000 . . 1.000 . 4 0 .
a. Predictors: (Constant), Partiality and favouritism, leadership impacts communication, Impact of poor communication channels,
employee satisfaction rate
b. Dependent Variable: Language highly impacts conflict
Table 8: Model Summary
(Source: Developed by the Researcher)
Anova

44DISSERTATION
ANOVAa
Model Sum of
Squares
df Mean
Square
F Sig.
1 Regressio
n
154.000 4 38.500 . .b
Residual .000 0 .
Total 154.000 4
a. Dependent Variable: Language highly impacts conflict
b. Predictors: (Constant), Partiality and favoritism, leadership impacts
communication, Impact of poor communication channels, employee
satisfaction rate
Table 9: Anova Calculations
(Source: Developed by the Researcher)
Co-efficient

45DISSERTATION
Coefficientsa
Model Unstandardized
Coefficients
Standardize
d
Coefficients
t Sig. 95.0% Confidence Interval for
B
Correlations
B Std.
Error
Beta Lower
Bound
Upper Bound Zero-
order
Partial
1 (Constant) 13.514 .000 . . 13.514 13.514
Employee satisfaction rate 1.655 .000 3.042 . . 1.655 1.655 .947 1.000
Leadership impacts
communication
-2.655 .000 -2.007 . . -2.655 -2.655 .842 -1.000
Impact of poor
communication channels
.581 .000 .424 . . .581 .581 -.347 1.000
Partiality and favouritism .068 .000 .083 . . .068 .068 -.531 1.000

46DISSERTATION
a. Dependent Variable: Language highly impacts conflict
Table 10: Co-efficients
(Source: Developed by the Ressearcher)
Coefficient Correlationsa
Model Partiality
and
favouritism
Leadership
impacts
communica
tion
Impact of
poor
communica
tion
channels
Employee
satisfaction
rate
1 Correlatio
ns
Partiality and
favouritism
1.000 -.929 -.977 .943
Leadership impacts
communication
-.929 1.000 .841 -.997
Impact of poor -.977 .841 1.000 -.860

47DISSERTATION
communication
channels
Employee satisfaction
rate
.943 -.997 -.860 1.000
Co-
variances
Partiality and
favouritism
.000 .000 .000 .000
Leadership impacts
communication
.000 .000 .000 .000
Impact of poor
communication
channels
.000 .000 .000 .000
Employee satisfaction
rate
.000 .000 .000 .000
a. Dependent Variable: Language highly impacts conflict
Table 11: Coefficient Correlationsa
(Source; Developed by the Researcher)

48DISSERTATION
Collinearity Diagnostics
Collinearity Diagnosticsa
Mod
el
Dimensio
n
Eigenval
ue
Condition
Index
Variance Proportions
(Constan
t)
Employee
satisfaction
rate
Leadership
impacts
communicat
ion
Impact of
poor
communicat
ion channels
Partiality
and
favouritism
1 1 4.134 1.000 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00
2 .769 2.318 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00
3 .090 6.764 .02 .00 .00 .00 .00
4 .006 26.748 .00 .01 .02 .16 .05
5 .000 126.386 .98 .98 .98 .84 .95
a. Dependent Variable: Language highly impacts conflict
Table 12: Collinearity Diagnosticsa
(Source: Developed by the Researcher)

49DISSERTATION
Residual Statistics
Residuals Statisticsa
Minim
um
Maxim
um
Mean Std.
Deviation
N
Predicted Value 4.0000 20.000
0
10.000
0
6.20484 5
Residual .00000 .00000 .00000 .00000 5
Std. Predicted
Value
-.967 1.612 .000 1.000 5
Std. Residual . . . . 0
a. Dependent Variable: Language highly impacts conflict
Table 13: Residuals Statisticsa
(Source: Developed by the Researcher)

50DISSERTATION
T-Test Returns
Question 1: Language highly impacts conflict
One-Sample Statistics
N Mean Std.
Deviation
Std. Error
Mean
Language highly
impacts conflict
5 10.000
0
6.20484 2.77489
One-Sample Test
Test Value = 0
t df Sig. (2-
tailed)
Mean
Difference
95% Confidence Interval of
the Difference
Lower Upper
Language highly 3.604 4 .023 10.00000 2.2957 17.7043

51DISSERTATION
impacts conflict
Question 2: Employee Satisfaction Rate
One-Sample Statistics
N Mean Std.
Deviation
Std. Error
Mean
Employee
satisfaction rate
5 10.000
0
11.40175 5.09902
One-Sample Test
Test Value = 0
t df Sig. (2-
tailed)
Mean
Difference
95% Confidence Interval of
the Difference

52DISSERTATION
Lower Upper
Employee
satisfaction rate
1.961 4 .121 10.00000 -4.1571 24.1571
Question 3: leadership impacts communication
One-Sample Statistics
N Mean Std.
Deviation
Std. Error
Mean
Leadership impacts
communication
5 10.000
0
4.69042 2.09762
Question 4:
One-Sample Statistics

53DISSERTATION
N Mean Std.
Deviation
Std. Error
Mean
Impact of poor
communication
channels
5 10.000
0
4.52769 2.02485
One-Sample Test
Test Value = 0
t df Sig. (2-
tailed)
Mean
Difference
95% Confidence Interval of
the Difference
Lower Upper
Impact of poor
communication
channels
4.939 4 .008 10.00000 4.3781 15.6219

54DISSERTATION
Question 5: Partiality and favouritism
One-Sample Statistics
N Mean Std.
Deviation
Std. Error
Mean
Partiality and
favouritism
5 10.000
0
7.58288 3.39116
One-Sample Test
Test Value = 0
t df Sig. (2-
tailed)
Mean
Difference
95% Confidence Interval of
the Difference
Lower Upper
Partiality and
favouritism
2.949 4 .042 10.00000 .5846 19.4154

55DISSERTATION
Analysis of Interview
Each of the 20 respondents were interviewed with a common questionnaire. Their responses have been analysed based on each of the questions.
The questions are as follows:
Question 1: What kind of linguistic barriers do you face in the stores and what do you think can be done for resolving the issue?
Generally, the employees who were conversant in English were chosen. This is because a third person perspective was required on this
issue. Mostly, during the peak seasons of the sales in the stores, casual employees who are mostly Turkish, French and Spanish are appointed.
This is when, the employees reported that the language problem becomes maximum. The store managers, they reported, at times do not take
active problem to solve the problem. This is because, as few of the tenured employees returned that they feel that the managers know that most
of the casual employees consider this as a stop gap job and hence the company also do not show any interest to devote the resources for their
betterment. However, 20 to 25% of the casual employees who are latter absorbed in to the mainstream of the workforce create a bigger issue
when they need to communicate more on the professional level.
Question 2: What are the reasons of poor communication with the managers and weakening of the communication channels?

56DISSERTATION
As analysed by the employees who participated in the interviews, poor communications is the outcome of the friction, confusion,
frustration as well as an extremely tense business environment. In such an environment, employees, as the respondents feel, are often feeling
demotivated and lacking the productive zeal and even feeling less inspired to collaborate and communicate. It might happen that the personal
fulfilment of any particular employee is nor happening of a job. However, the company do not terminate such employees. This is where the
employees resent the managerial decisions. They almost accumulatively reported that most of such cases are ignored by the company. They feel
that there should be a policy on the part of organisational leaders to deal with such employees on a higher level or send them for further training.
This is because the employees have observed that so long as these kind of employees stay in the organisation they influence others to eel that
they are not getting what they want out of their jobs. This is how mostly a group conflict takes place.
Question 3: what are the major leadership flaws that account for group conflicts?
Various instances have been offered by the employees in return of this question which shows that leadership skills of the intermediary
levels of the company needs to be developed to some extend for the betterment and future sustenance of the company also. Firstly about g14 of
the employees put forward a very common issue. Frequently some of the zonal managers set a sales targets without analysing the store strengths,
the employee strengths and the employee skills that is present in the area at present. At times inadequate resources lead to chaotic situation at the
time of annual board meetings where the managers find it hard to account why there have been a flaw in the apprehension of the quarterly targets
and on top of that the store managers need to justify why they could not meet the targets set to them. This imbalanced targets always put an
excess burden on the employees and account to about 16 to 27% of the annual resignation by the store employees.

57DISSERTATION
The second instance is hoisting of training and events inefficiently. There is no need to hoisting a training program annually in a
ceremonial way. Most of the time, the employees who need training instantaneously do not get the required training and when they receive that
they might have learned from regular operations what they would learn from the training itself. Hence, from either perspective, it is a loss of
effort and resources by the company.
Another instance as discussed earlier is the reluctance of the management to take any feasible action with the employees who are manipulating
others. Owing to the gap in the communication channels, the higher management do not get to know about the issues on most occasions. Besides
that many of the respondents also feel that the higher managerial leaders should be involved in direct communications with them which would
help to resolve many of the issues from both ends.

58DISSERTATION
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations
Recommendations
The managers of the company should take up initiatives to develop the
communication channels. In order to do that they need to adopt some of the essential
strategies that they have not yet appointed to implemented very less. The first strategy of that
category is the face to face communications. There can be an email chain, a text message
chain or a chat portal whereby the employees can communicate and render their problems or
any other issues or messages that they feel relevant to the managers directly without the
envisioning of the other intermediary managers or employees. This would help in
significantly developing the working relationships of the employees with the managers. This
can also help in fostering collaboration, enhance level of trust as well as respect along with
avoiding the various misleading instances that have been discussed in the course of the
research paper.
Another basic strategy that the management should follow is keeping their employees
on the loop. The employees are generally keen to know what is going on within the
management cell of the company. They feel important if they get to know that. That is why
the management should take care to communicate the big and small managerial decisions and
justify the decisions on a regular basis so that the workers feel involved with the company
and feel that they are also an integral part of it.
The next strategy is giving space to the employees for sounding off. The managers
should also take time to listen to what the employees have to say instead of only speaking out
themselves. That is why the employees should be given the chance to provide feedbacks. The
medium of collecting feedback can be employee surveys, regular meeting with the staff, and
open door policy with the team or any old fashioned suggestion box.

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Lastly, one important suggestion for the organisational leaders is that they should
always be approachable. Generally, there is a wall between employees and the superiors and
because of these barriers, good communication is hindered. It is the responsibility of the
organisational leaders to reduce these barriers so that they can communicate with the higher
leaders. They do not need to take exemplary steps to melt the ice. Occasionally sitting down
with the employees for a lunch can also help.
Conclusions
In conclusion, to this research study, it can be opined with conviction that in most
instances, it is misleading perception and misconception that leads to the group conflicts in
the Tesco stores. The first chapter delineates the objectives that have been set by the
researcher for the dissertation. The significance of the research study lies in analysing what
larger organisational issues, group conflicts can create within an organisation and how they
can negatively impact the profitability and future sustenance of the organisation.
Furthermore, it is essential to understand what feasible instruments can be implied by the
management of the organisation in order to identify and confront the conflicts that arise
within the internal environment of the company. The research study would also be helpful in
suggesting various other strategies that the management of Tesco, UK should consider, for
preventing such issues in the future also. Deriving the literature review, it can be
communicated that leadership strategies, workplace diversity as well as language barrier as
wage differences are most of the most important reasons for which conflicts occur in the
organisation. Some impacts of the group conflicts on the organisations and the long term
losses that can result out of that, have been highlighted in the course of the literature review
supported by research materials composed by eminent scholars. Such conflicts mostly result
in the lack of cohesion among the employees’ groups and thus slows down the important

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processes of operation. Again, the employee morale is also reduced along with employee
engagement followed by complication of the business environment. The general capability of
the workers in intimidated by the workers as an outcome. The reduction in the efforts of the
workers might have negative impacts up on the overall organisational reputation since there
would be an indirect impact of this on the customer loyalty also. Marketing, production and
sales would be equally impacted.
Besides, in the research study, a philosophy of interpretive research, along with an
exploratory research design. The instrument o survey and interview have been used here also.
The next chapter delineates the data findings and discusses the findings in the analysis
section. This chapter reflects that the flaws in the communication channels, misinterpretation
of the managerial decisions and the linguistic differences emerged as the most important
areas of concern.

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Appendix: Ethics Approval Form
Appendix 1: Proposal
Appendix 2: Part A

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Appendix 3: Risk

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Appendix 4: Consent

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Appendix 5: Expenses

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Appendix 6: Confidentiality

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Appendix 7: Insurance

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Appendix 8: Security
Appendix 9: Contact

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Appendix 10: Attachments