Cultural Diversity at Woolworths Supermarket

This article provides an overview of the cultural diversity initiatives implemented by Woolworths Supermarket, a leading grocery store chain in Australia. It explores the company's commitment to inclusivity, equal opportunities, and creating an inclusive work environment. The article also discusses the impact of these initiatives on the workforce and the community.

Emotional Intelligence,
Cultural Intelligence and
Diversity

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Personal introduction
 I am a student who seeks to gather relevant information about the cultural diversity of an
organization
 It will help in the future to manage cultural diversity while working in an organization
Speaker notes
As a student, it is significant for me to understand the aspects of cultural diversity that is
implemented within an organization.
Overview of the Woolworths Supermarket
 Australian grocery or supermarket store chain
 Founded on 5th December 1924
 Headquarters in Bella Vista, New South Wales, Australia
 Number of the workforce is 115,000
 As per revenue second largest company in Australia
 Specializes in selling grocery products
 It accounts for over 80% of the Australian market
Speaker notes
Woolworths Supermarket is determined to be the grocery or supermarket store chain that is
founded in 1924 in Australia. It specializes in selling grocery products along with other products
such as stationery items, magazines, health and beauty products, household products and many
more. Currently, it operates 1000 stores all over Australia: 19 convenience stores and 976
supermarkets. The number of employees that works within the organization is 115,000. The
revenue of the company in 2018 is estimated by A$56.726 billion. Approximately 80% of the
Australian supermarket is owned by Woolworths.
Diversity-related initiatives of Woolworths Supermarket
 The organization celebrates and identifies multicultural diversity
 It focuses on enhancing the workforce to reflect the diversity of the consumers
 Its objective of Inclusive Leadership training is to hire the store teams that possess a
cultural and ethnic background

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 With the help of the Migration Council of Australia, it supports access to employment
opportunities and pathways to migrants and refugees
 The organization encourages and gives the opportunity to women working at the senior
roles (Shimeld, Williams and Shimeld, 2017)
 The People Policy Committee provides career development and employment
opportunities for disabled people
 Diversity dimension initiative implements manages and plans programs for supporting
parties as well as regional stakeholders
Speaker notes
Woolworths Supermarket follows multicultural diversity in order to reflect the diversity of the
workforce. Based on its cultural diversity the organization aims to appoint people who possess
the cultural and ethnic background and provide them Inclusive Leadership training. It helps them
to understand and involve within the community in which they operate. On the other hand, the
organization also contributes in Migration Council of Australia's Friendly Nation Initiative to
serve access to employment opportunities and pathways to migrants and refugees migrating to
Australia, especially after being affected by the Syrian crisis. Moreover, it also aims to adopt
corporate responsibility initiatives to hire talented employees within the organization to complete
insensible bias training. The initiatives are designed to promote and reward the team members
for their good performance. The organization also takes initiatives to maintain a workplace that
safeguards the wellbeing and health of the employees, visitors, and customers. Meanwhile,
Woolworths is taking the initiative to provide the best shopping experience to its huge customer
base in order to enhance cultural diversity. As a result, the company has developed community
demographics to facilitate greater insights for recruitment decisions and enable better-informed
product ranges. Furthermore, the company is also taking the initiative to raise a campaign that
states "No salary wage gap between female and male employees."
Sources
 Articles from newspapers, journals, magazines
 Textbooks
 Scholarly books
 Reference books

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 Websites
Speaker notes
To gain relevant information about the cultural diversity initiative of Woolworths Supermarket
various secondary sources have been used. The research has been conducted with the help of
articles from newspapers, journals, and magazines that provided with a piece of appropriate
knowledge regarding the cultural diversity adopted within the firm. On the other hand, the
textbooks, scholarly books, reference books helped in gathering information about the cultural
framework policy of Woolworths. Moreover, the website of Woolworths helped in providing
adequate information about the objectives and vision of Woolworth’s diversity policy or
initiatives.
Critique of the diversity initiatives
 The diversity initiative of Woolworths helps in creating programs for specialists and
operational support areas
 The initiatives help the business leaders to provide opportunities to people irrespective of
individual difference and background
 It creates an inclusive environment that provides guidance and support to gender
transition
 The diversity dimension initiative provides an understanding of the business and the
passion for working with store operations and leadership (Klettner, Clarke and Boersma,
2016)
Speaker notes
The initiatives adopted by Woolworths such as Friendly nation initiative of the Migration
Council of Australia helps in providing various opportunities to the migrant group. The
initiatives are implemented by the organization to make sure that the diversity-related programs
are improving successfully and appropriately. The initiatives help the company to leverage,
respect and value exceptional contribution of people with diverse perspectives, experiences, and
backgrounds. This helps in providing unique customer service to the diverse community. The
diversity dimension initiative is implemented to fulfill the commitment of recruiting the
Aboriginal team members across Australia. Moreover, the initiatives demonstrate a strong

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representation of women within the management, operational and support roles. With the help of
the campaign related to the equivalent position and salary of female and male, Woolworths has
created a remuneration principle and inclusion and diversity strategy to improve the areas related
to salary wage gaps. On the other hand, the initiatives help the company to maintain and build a
workforce that encourages and supports diverse contributions and perspectives.
Recommendations
 Woolworths must recognize differences
 The company must enhance personal evaluation
 It must create a workplace that embraces and values different perspectives
 The organization must develop a global mindset and promote diversity through cross-
cultural understanding
 It must also enhance cultural awareness
 The workplace must be more productive and welcoming for everyone
Speaker notes
To enhance its cultural diversity policy or initiative, Woolworths must identify differences based
on management style, personality, religion, gender, and race. The organization must also
enhance personal evaluation of overall diversity-related programs. On the other hand, the
company must also improve its communication skills to value and embrace different perspectives
of people. It must be aware of various diversity-related factors to become productive and
welcoming. It will help in understanding the background and culture of an individual working
within the organization. This will also help in enriching the experiences, culture and unique
perspective of the organization.
Additional sources
 Critical analysis
 Textbooks
 Reviews
 Journal articles
 Scholarly books

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Speaker notes
All these sources such as scholarly books, journal articles, reviews, and textbooks helped in
gaining relevant recommendations for enhancing cultural diversity for Woolworths. The
recommendations gathered from these sources will be beneficial for enhancing Woolworth’s
cultural diversity.

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References
Klettner, A., Clarke, T. and Boersma, M., 2016. Strategic and regulatory approaches to
increasing women in leadership: Multilevel targets and mandatory quotas as levers for cultural
change. Journal of Business Ethics, 133(3), pp.395-419.
Shimeld, S., Williams, B. and Shimeld, J., 2017. Diversity ASX corporate governance
recommendations: a step towards change?. Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy
Journal, 8(3), pp.335-357.