Managing Diversity in the Workplace

This assignment delves into the concept of diversity management in the workplace. It examines various theoretical frameworks and practical strategies used to foster inclusive environments. The analysis considers the benefits of diversity for organizations, including improved innovation, productivity, and employee morale. Additionally, the assignment discusses challenges associated with diversity management, such as unconscious bias, discrimination, and lack of cultural competence. It draws upon scholarly articles and reputable online sources to provide a comprehensive understanding of this crucial topic.

Managing Diversity in the
Workplace

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Background of the study..................................................................................................................2
Purpose of the study...............................................................................................................2
Rationale of the study.............................................................................................................2
Problems and hypothesis........................................................................................................3
Aim..................................................................................................................................................3
Objectives........................................................................................................................................3
Research Questions .........................................................................................................................3
Literature review..............................................................................................................................4
Research Methodology....................................................................................................................6
Gantt Chart.......................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
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Background of the study
Diversity can be defined as understanding and accepting different individuals in terms of
gender, age, class, physical ability etc. It is categorized as primary and secondary dimensions.
Primary dimensions are based on age, sex, race etc. while secondary dimensions include religion,
education, income etc. Several organisations like TESCO, Asda adopt diversity in their
workplace to become more open and creative in the world (Barak, 2016). Due to change in the
recognition of different organisation, diversity in workplace is becoming one of the major issue
for all the companies to consider it more seriously. The study is based on managing diversity in
the workplace. The need of placing diversity in the organisation in UK was first seen in 1960s
and 1970s. Main goal was to eliminate the discrimination in the employment.
The main concept of this study is to promote equal employment opportunities by
developing various plans which are beneficial and remains for longer period. This can be seen as
a turning point as it eliminates factors like nationality, skin colour, human race etc. Recent study
has carried out the concept of diversity management and explained that it is the ability to
increase the productivity, assumptions, paradigms and morale of Tesco (Bond and Haynes,
2014).
Further, human resource manager of TESCO has played an important role in making
effective environment and in the company. It looks after policies related to the employees as well
as organisation. The study has focused on removing racism and discrimination among the
employees (De Anca and Vega, 2016). Diversity management has forced the companies to
consider this concept so that they can establish well developed system in their workplace and
manage their employees effectively.
Purpose of the study
Main purpose of this study is to increase the productivity of TESCO by promoting
effective management of diversity in the workplace. Further, to raise the productivity and
effective environment among the employees, it is very necessary to look after employee’s
management policy.
Rationale of the study
The rationale behind this study is to determine several methods of dealing with TESCO
diversity. It has also provided different guidelines to manage diversity effectively in small and
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big multinational companies and providing ways to reader to develop effective diversity in their
industry by using various management tools (Emerson and Murphy, 2014). Different ways are
implemented by the authority to manage employees in their workplace.
Problems and Hypothesis
In the current working era, there is great need to focus on workplace diversity to increase
the productivity and profitability. It plays an important role in managing the effective
environment in the company. Managers have faced difficulty in finding the factors which helps
in managing diversity in the workplace. Additionally, they are not able to determine the
leadership activity which help them to deal with these issues (Ewoh, 2013). Further, TESCO has
also faced the problem in coordinating the work of their employees because they are from
different background and do not understand effective methods to handle their customers. This
has created uncertainty and divergence in the company. This is because managers are not skilled
enough to control diversity in the organisation. The organisation is also facing the problem in
coordinating activities of people which belongs to different locations and culture.
Another great challenge that TESCO has faced is management of diversity in reducing
discriminatory barriers and praising them on larger level like reward system or job satisfaction
(Guillaume and et.al., 2014). This has increased the problem for the managers of TESCO as
every employee has different perspective regarding their income and safety criteria.
Aim
To investigate the impact of managing diversity at the workplace- A study on TESCO.
Objectives
 To understand the importance of managing diversity at the workplace.
 To explore the strategies used by TESCO for managing diversity at their workplace.
 To identify the challenges faced by TESCO in managing diversity at the workplace.
 To recommend some effective ways in which TESCO can effectively manage the state of
diversity at their workplace.
Research Questions
 Discuss the importance of managing diversity at the workplace.
 What are the main strategies used by TESCO for managing diversity at their organisation.
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 What are different challenges that TESCO has faced in making effective diversity in their
workplace?
Literature review
Importance of managing diversity at the workplace.
The organisation has faced many problems regarding management of diverse culture
people. They have to understand different perspective of their employees which belongs to
diverse culture. According to Harvey and Allard, (2015), diversity management in the workplace
is broad criteria which mainly focuses on the concept of employees’ culture, background, age,
sex, religion, opinions etc. The author has said that diversity is mainly based on race and religion
which affects the mentality of different people and workers of the organisation. Issues in
diversity are mainly arises from discrimination and different culture group. Therefore, it will
become more difficult to determine discriminating practises if it will be inclusive for every
individual.
Janssens and Zanoni, 2014, has proposed that the main problem in explaining the concept
of diversity is that it will go beyond the thinking level of all the people because they belong to
different race, caste and religion. The danger in narrowly defining diversity can be increased
when it fails to recognize the interaction between cultural differentiation of different employees.
On the other hand, Jonsen and et.al., 2013, argued that employees not only differ by their race,
religion and caste but their way of working, values, abilities and defining things also impact
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Illustration 1: Managing diversity in workplace
(Source:Root, 2017)

effective atmosphere of TESCO. The organisation has to put more efforts not only in bringing
their employees together in terms of their cognitive style, knowledge and skills together. This
will help other employees to increase their potential and performance. Further, diversity in
groups creates disputes and conflicts which leads to uncertainty and mismanagement in the
workplace. This will directly affect the performance of the organisation.
Strategies used by TESCO for managing diversity at their workplace.
According to Oswick and Noon, 2014, TESCO has used various strategies to overcome
the challenges of diversity management in the workplace. Human resource management of the
organisation has conducted various events which help them to interact with each other. This will
help them to eliminate the problems of discrimination in the workplace. Further, manager of
TESCO has implemented various policies related to employee’s job satisfaction and reward
system. Rewarding staff members will increase their confidence and remove the mentality of
discrimination and inferiority. This system will encourage other staff members of the company to
look after their tasks and complete with the help of their colleagues which belongs to other caste
or religion. In addition to this, job satisfaction policies specially for minorities will increase their
motivation level and they try to coordinate more with their colleagues and team members.
As per the view of Rees and Smith, (2017), diversity in the workplace can be maintained
by providing more priority to women and minority caste employees. The managers can also hire
young generation so that age gap in the workplace can be eliminated.
Another way to maintain diversity in the workplace is by providing diversity trainings to
the staff members of TESCO which will eliminate the feeling of inferiority and separateness
among the people.
Challenges faced by TESCO in managing diversity at the workplace.
According to Rice, 2015, different challenges are faced by the organisation in
maintaining the diversity in the workplace. Several policies for different demographics people
raises conflicts among the employees as they feel that they are discriminated and not given all
the benefits like of their colleagues were given.
Rice, 2015, has suggested that diversity management is very important matter which
every company has to give importance as this will directly affect the performance as well as
productivity of the organisation. TESCO can maintain diversity in the workplace by
implementing various plans related to the employees which can motivate them to interact more
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with each other and know their culture. This will help them to strengthen their relationship and
links to solve difficult tasks of their projects. Additionally, the author has argued that employees
which belongs to same country of the company have to faceless struggle as compared to foreign
employees. Further, business issues and social justice are two important criteria which must be
fulfilled when diversity and culture of the employees comes.
On the other hand, Richard, Roh and Pieper, (2013), said that employee's management is
great issue in maintaining effective environment in the company. The organisation has also faced
conflicts and disputes among their employees because diverse people have different opinions,
beliefs, thoughts, religion and politics which conflicts with others and leads to mismanagement
in the workplace. Another major issue which the organisation is facing is from other big
companies because they provide various policies which are same for all the employees. The
workers of TESCO assume that they are enjoying more benefits of the policies.
Kilbourne, 2010, suggested that diversity in the organisation can be managed by
emphasizing the communication and ensuring that employees well understood policies,
procedures and rules of the company. Working policies must be flexible enough so that they help
in reducing cultural barriers among the employees. Further, TESCO has to view its employees as
individuals and ignore positive and negative stereotypes. The managers have to judge the success
and failure of the team individually so that feelings of all the workers cannot be hurt. This will
increase their motivation level and they will focus more on the productivity of the company.
According to Saxena, (2014), Employees must be encouraged in diverse groups which
will assure team work and reduce diversity. Diverse team will get to know the achievements and
contribution of each and every individual of the team. This will increase respect and value for the
person which has performed nicely. Furthermore, the managers have to open minded and they
have to encourage them their culture is not only the thing which value the organisation but their
support and coordination makes them powerful and effective leader in the market. This will help
them to enhance their relationships with their colleagues which belongs to different culture or
background.
As per the view of Singh, Winkel and Selvarajan, (2013), diversity in the workplace can
be managed by confirming that all the employees are getting equal chances for development and
they must be analysed according to their performance rather than their experience. They have to
take care of their promotions by avoiding facts like tenure, ethnic background and other
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discrimination related policies. The organisation can implement diversity measures after placing
all the employees related policies in their workplace effectively. Further, the managers of
TESCO need to rate the qualifications of the candidates by their best performance rather than
their age or experience. This mentality will also decrease gap between employees and helps in
managing diversity in the workplace.
Research Methodology
Research methodology is collection of methods which helps in studying the phenomena
in details and includes various patterns and issues in analysing principles of methods in the
research. The researcher has used research methodology to carry out their research effectively.
They have used research approach, philosophy, design, data collection and sampling methods to
increase their productivity in conducting their research.
Research approach:
There are two kinds of research approaches; inductive anddeductive. Inductive approach is based
on developing conclusions and generalising the facts from specific to general. In this data is
collected to determine themes and explore the concept (Wood and et.al., 2016). On the other
hand, deductive approach is used to generalise data from general to specific. In this data is
collected to examine the propositions and hypothesis.
In this study, inductive approach will be used to develop conclusion of the study. It has
also used the generalising study in which specific to general approach is used Further, data is
collected to manage the diversity in the workplace (Wrench, 2014). This data is relevant and help
in exploring the concept. Themes and patterns are identified to develop conceptual framework.
It has also helped in making things clear. Thematic analysis is done to increase the
understandability of the topic and review the views of different people.
Research philosophy:
The manner in which research is conducted is come under research philosophy. It
depends on the way in which researcher thinks and develop knowledge for the study. There are
three types of research philosophy that is positivism, realism and interpretivism. In
interpretivism, the researcher, finds out the facts which affects people’s mentality (Yoder, 2014).
Reality is related to time, situation, culture, value and location of the society.
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In this study interpretivism research philosophy will be used which is based on reliable
facts and methods. It has helped in developing the methods which are more reliable and
appropriate. Further, it has also helped in collecting positive information and developing various
diversity related policies in the workplace (Barak, 2016). Realism approach is also based on
collecting real data and facts to increase the understandability level.
Research design:
It used to integrate the overall strategy used in the research. It helps in analysing the facts
which are used in gathering and analysing the measures used in the research. There are various
types of research design like descriptive, correlation, experimental, semi experimental etc. In this
study, descriptive research will be used to describe the characteristics of employees of different
culture. Further, exploratory design is also used to expand the issues which are not yet
determined (Rice, 2015). It has helped in exploring the facts and valid outcomes in the direction
of aims and objectives. Exploratory design research also helped in identifying the cause and
effective relationship between managing diversity in workplace and employees.
This helps the scholar to find out the reasons to reach in the bottom of the phenomena.
On the other hand, descriptive has helped in reaching to valid sources and information. Hence,
this research has helped the scholar to find out the design used in aims and objectives (Saxena,
2014). Descriptive research has been used to identify the facts and findings related to the factors
which are directly affecting research design. This has helped in understanding the concept
deeply.
Data collection:
Data collection is very important step in the research which depends various types of
techniques and approaches. There are mainly two methods for collecting data. Primary method
involves the data which is collected in first time of the research by different methods like
questionnaire, interview etc. Secondary data involves quantitative and qualitative data. This can
be collected from books, journals, newspapers, articles, magazines, internet etc.
In this research, primary data method will be used to collect information related to
managing diversity in the workplace. The interview is conducted from the employees and
managers which are facing the problem of discrimination and diversity in the workplace. This
has helped in exploring the topic related issues and problems. The formal and informal interview
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with the employees of the company has given idea about the problems which they are facing.
Further, questionnaire is also conducted among the managers of the workplace to analyse their
situation in maintaining diversity in the organisation. This has helped in analysing the data on the
basis of their response.
Data Analysis:
In this research, qualitative method will be used to determine the collection of data.
Further, thematic analysis is done to examine, categorising, and recombining the data . It has also
helped in interpreting the information and discovering new and important facts.
Sampling:
Sampling is the method of choosing people from the given population which helps in
generalizing the outcomes back from the population which was chosen for analysis. There are
two types of sampling that is probability and non-probability sampling which assist to evaluate
the research work. In this study, probability sampling will be used in which the 10 managers are
chosen from the total population of the company (Wood and et.al., 2016). This has helped in
analysing the views of the respondents about working culture in the organisation. This has
helped them to understand the actual conditions and policies of the firm. Further, sampling
method has increased the level of understandability and assisted in determining the real facts and
figures.
Gantt Chart
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Gantt chart helps in organising all the activities in proper manner. It helps in managing all
the activities in proper manner. It subdivides the tasks into smaller tasks and allot time period to
complete it. Terminal and summary elements generally includes breakdown structure. It helps in
showing current status of the schedule and relationship and dependency between different
activities.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Barak, M.E.M., 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage
Publications.
Bond, M.A. and Haynes, M.C., 2014. Workplace diversity: A social–ecological framework and
policy implications. Social Issues and Policy Review. 8(1). pp.167-201.
De Anca, C. and Vega, A.V., 2016. Managing diversity in the global organization: Creating new
Business values. Springer.
Emerson, K.T. and Murphy, M.C., 2014. Identity threat at work: How social identity threat and
situational cues contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in the workplace. Cultural
Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. 20(4). p.508.
Ewoh, A.I., 2013. Managing and valuing diversity: Challenges to public managers in the 21st
century. Public Personnel Management. 42(2). pp.107-122.
Guillaume, Y.R. and et.al., 2014. Managing diversity in organizations: An integrative model and
agenda for future research. European Journal of Work and Organizational
Psychology, 23(5), pp.783-802.
Harvey, C.P. and Allard, M., 2015. Understanding and managing diversity: Readings, cases, and
exercises. Pearson.
Janssens, M. and Zanoni, P., 2014. Alternative diversity management: Organizational practices
fostering ethnic equality at work. Scandinavian Journal of Management. 30(3). pp.317-
331.
Jonsen, K. and et.al., 2013. The tragedy of the uncommon: Reframing workforce
diversity. Human Relations. 66(2). pp.271-294.
Oswick, C. and Noon, M., 2014. Discourses of diversity, equality and inclusion: trenchant
formulations or transient fashions. British Journal of Management. 25(1). pp.23-39.
Rees, G. and Smith, P. eds., 2017. Strategic human resource management: An international
perspective. Sage.
Riccucci, N.M. ed., 217. Public personnel management: Current concerns, future challenges.
Routledge.
Rice, M.F., 2015. Diversity and public administration. ME Sharpe.
Richard, O.C., Roh, H. and Pieper, J.R., 2013. The link between diversity and equality
management practice bundles and racial diversity in the managerial ranks: Does firm size
matter? Human Resource Management. 52(2). pp.215-242.
Sabharwal, M., 2014. Is diversity management sufficient? Organizational inclusion to further
performance. Public Personnel Management. 43(2). pp.197-217.
Saxena, A., 2014. Workforce diversity: A key to improve productivity. Procedia Economics and
Finance. 11. pp.76-85.
Singh, B., Winkel, D.E. and Selvarajan, T.T., 2013. Managing diversity at work: Does
psychological safety hold the key to racial differences in employee performance? Journal
of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. 86(2). pp.242-263.
Wood, J.M. and et.al., 2016. Organisational behaviour: Core concepts and applications. John
Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
Wrench, J., 2014. Diversity management. Routledge International Handbook of Diversity
Studies, p.254.
Yoder-Wise, P.S., 2014. Leading and Managing in Nursing-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
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Online
Kilbourne, C., 2010. 5 Steps for Successfully Managing Diversity. [Online]. Available through:
<http://ehsdailyadvisor.blr.com/2010/07/5-steps-for-successfully-managing-diversity/>.
[Accessed on 12th September 2017].
Root, G., 2017. How to Manage Diversity in a Workplace. [Online]. Available through:
<http://smallbusiness.chron.com/manage-diversity-workplace-3038.html>. [Accessed on
12th September 2017].
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