Impact of Workplace Diversity on the Performance of Employees: A Case Study of Thai Airways

Running head: DISSERTATION
Impact of Workplace Diversity on the Performance of Employees: A Case Study of Thai
Airways
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Acknowledgement
I want to thank all the people who helped me in every possible way to conduct the research
study. They not only helped me to realize my potential and strength, but also to implement it in
the best way to conduct the research. I also want to express my gratitude towards my mentor for
his incessant supervising and wonderful guidance, as it helped me to finish the study in time. The
total support and guidance provided by my mentor has not only assisted me with my research but
that would also help me in throughout my life to develop my personality. I would also like to
express my gratification for all the survey respondents who spent their priceless time to fill up
the survey form on the research topic. Lastly, I want to thank my family and friends, who
provided me with continuous encouragement to carry out my study.

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Abstract
Workplace diversity is a major issue in the modern world. With globalization in effect, many
companies are now operating as multinationals and have employees coming from different
nations. Thai Airways is one such multinational air transport carrier, which has its headquarters
in Thailand. However, many employees of Thai Airways belong to different countries, such as,
China, Singapore, Vietnam, South Korea etc. Thus, workplace diversity is a major issue in this
company. This research study explored the diversity inclusion practices of Thai Airways to
evaluate the situation and its impact on the employees. 50 employees were chosen through
simple random sampling and a survey was conducted to get an insight about the diversity
inclusion practices of the company and its impact on the employees. It has been found from the
survey that majority of the employees are not satisfied with the diversity practices of the
company and there are differences and unfair treatment in Thai Airways. It has been found
through a quantitative analysis that unfair treatment has negative impact on the employee
performance. Thus, recommendations have been put forward to address these issues in Thai
Airways and improve the job satisfaction of the employees and their performances.

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................6
1.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................6
1.2 Background of the Study.......................................................................................................6
1.3 Background of the Company.................................................................................................7
1.4 Rationale of the Study...........................................................................................................8
1.5 Problem Statement.................................................................................................................8
1.6 Research Aim.........................................................................................................................9
1.7 Research Objectives:.............................................................................................................9
1.8 Research Questions................................................................................................................9
1.9 Research Hypotheses...........................................................................................................10
1.10 Significance of the Study...................................................................................................10
1.11 Structure of the Research Study........................................................................................11
Chapter 2: Literature Review.........................................................................................................12
2.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................12
2.2 Conceptual Framework........................................................................................................13
2.3 Concept of Diversity and Diversity Management...............................................................13
2.4 Approaches Adopted in Diversity Management..................................................................15
2.5 Theories of Diversity...........................................................................................................16
2.6 Dimensions of Workforce Diversity....................................................................................18

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2.7 Factors Leading to Workplace Diversity.............................................................................20
2.8 Benefits and Disadvantages of Managing Workplace Diversity:........................................21
2.8.1 Benefits.........................................................................................................................21
2.8.2 Disadvantages...............................................................................................................22
2.9 Challenges of Managing Workplace Diversity....................................................................23
2.10 Summary............................................................................................................................24
Chapter 3: Research Methodology................................................................................................25
3.1 Research philosophy............................................................................................................25
3.2 Research purpose.................................................................................................................26
3.3 Research approach...............................................................................................................27
3.4 Research design...................................................................................................................27
3.5 Research strategy.................................................................................................................28
3.6 Data collection process........................................................................................................29
3.7 Sampling method.................................................................................................................29
3.8 Data analysis technique.......................................................................................................30
3.9 Research limitation..............................................................................................................30
3.10 Ethical Consideration.........................................................................................................30
Chapter 4: Data analysis and findings...........................................................................................32
4.1 Discussion............................................................................................................................32
4.1.1 Demographic data.........................................................................................................32

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4.1.2 Non-demographic data......................................................................................................35
Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendations...............................................................................45
5.1 Linking to the objectives.....................................................................................................45
5.1.1 Linking to the first objective.........................................................................................45
5.1.2 Linking to the second objective....................................................................................46
5.1.3 Linking to the third objective.......................................................................................47
5.2 Recommendations................................................................................................................47
5.3 Limitation and future scope of the study.............................................................................49
References......................................................................................................................................51
Appendix........................................................................................................................................55

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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Introduction
Diversity in workplace is a key factor for determining the success of any organization as
it ensures manifestation of itself in determining a great reputation for any organization thereby
resulting in the enhanced opportunities and profitability for the workers. As put forward by Hunt,
Layton & Prince (2015), diversity within a workplace encompasses race, age, gender, religion,
ethnicity, citizenship status, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, education,
socioeconomic background and the mental or physical disabilities of the people. Diversity in
workplace is more prominent in the multinational companies. This particular research study will
help in exploring the aspect of workplace diversity and its impact on the employee performance.
The study will however be conducted in context of Thai Airways, one of the flag carriers of
Thailand. It is a multinational organization that comprises of employees belonging to the
different cultures and the countries that brings in diversity at the workplace. Since the first day of
joining the company it emphasizes on the development of the workforce capacity through
recruiting diverse employees for enhancing work and expertise. Hence, Thai Airways acts as
suitable choice for conduction of study based on impact of the workplace diversity on the
employee performance.
1.2 Background of the Study
Companies are becoming increasingly employee centric and so diversity has become one
of the key aspects within the organization. Employees acts as the ultimate asset within any

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organization with proven facts that the companies’ practices effective diversity management that
gave rise to the positive results both in terms of the employee performance and the
organizational profits. Most companies have experienced a changing trend in the form of diverse
employee pool that that works together with every passing day. Thus, workforce diversity has
become the buzzword in the present times with increasing number of organizations keen on
recruiting and having diverse workforce on board. Dora and Kieth (1998) mentioned that the
organizations have led to the discovery that diversity does not act as absolute phenomenon but a
constant process. On the other hand, Saxena (2014) puts forward a discussion that the workforce
diversity acts as one of the crucial necessities in the current changing environment of today while
managing it acts as challenge. Therefore, having invested on the workforce diversity
organizations often tries and finds out the influence of the workplace diversity on the
performance of the employees. Having diverse workforce however has its own challenges and
benefits have. It has therefore been found from the various researches that when a diverse
workforce is recruited as well as managed in the most effective and efficient manner and the
issues arising from them handled smoothly then it results in a positive impact on the performance
of the employees.
1.3 Background of the Company
The Thai Airways referred to state owned enterprise under administration of Ministry of
Transport and is one of the flagship carriers of Thailand that operated commercial flights not
only internationally but also domestically along with providing air related transport service. The
operation of the company comprises of the business unit related to core airline and the business
units supporting the airline business. The key business of the Thai Airways is air transport that