Equality and Diversity in the Workplace: A Study on TESCO

This report focuses on the role of equality and diversity practices in eliminating workplace discrimination. It includes a study on TESCO, a grocery retailer in the UK, to understand the importance of equality and diversity at the workplace. The report explores the negative consequences of workplace discrimination and how equality and diversity practices support TESCO in eliminating discrimination. It also discusses the methods and data sources used in the study.

Research
Project
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Project Title
The title of current report is “Equality and diversity in the workplace.” For
studying about the role that it plays within an organization.
Aims and Objectives
Equality and diversity at workplace mainly refer to the set of practices where employees belong to
different background in term of culture, knowledge, gender, skills etc. all work coordinately and get
equal opportunity or benefit as others are getting. It brings up several benefit to an organisation by
keeping employees engaged within the organisational practices and encouraging them to work harder
by integrating all the skills or capabilities of people belongs to different background. This not only
support in increasing profitability of organisation but also support in retaining talent for longer
duration. Hence, with appropriate management of equality and diversity practices within working as
well as policies of the business, an organisation would be able to get succeed in reducing the
workplace discrimination. As the equality at workplace support in creating a positive working
environment which in turn bring coordination among the people and support management in
reducing the behaviour of discrimination which is mainly performed by colleagues with their mates
due to differences in characteristics of two individual. Other than this the implementation of equality
and diversity policy within the organisation support in ensuring that discrimination practices can be
reduced from the management side with effective implementation of employees’ rights and
organisational policies. Hence for conducting this study effectively over the role of equality and
diversity practices within an organisation study is being focused toward TESCO which is a grocery
retailer in UK and operates in several other countries throughout the world.
Aim
To determine the role of equality and diversity practices in eliminating workplace
discrimination. A study on TESCO.
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Objective
 To examine the importance of equality and diversity at workplace.
 To identify the negative consequences that TESCO may face due to workplace
discrimination.
 To ascertain manner in which equality and diversity practices support TESCO in
eliminating workplace discrimination.
Relevance to Professional or Academic Field/Literature review
Importance of equality and diversity at workplace.
As per the view point of Barak, M.E.M., 2016, equality and diversity at workplace means a lot
of things, as it is about giving equal respect to staff in term of their cultural background, gender,
culture, race, career experience, skills, belief and many more. This can be implemented within
an organisation by creating a corporate culture where employees are being inspired and
encouraged for expressing their unique ideas and thoughts in order to go hand in hand with the
diversity of people. This is so because when them remain a strong culture of cooperation then it
become easier to brings the cognitive diversity within the group through the pressure to
conform. As per the view point of Dutta. D., 2020, there are certain factors which represent the
importance for the equality and diversity at workplace,
 Diverse workforce support in better customer understanding: - Several
organisations offer their product or services at international level. So, in order to
approach customers from different geographical location it is very crucial to an
organisation to have its workforce belongs to different culture so that need and want of
different people can be understand effectively. This will further help in approaching
them with right strategy.
 Diverse workplace breaks down language barrier: - By managing the diversity
within workforce it become easier to manage a group of staff from different nationality
which support an organisation to reach to a new shore. This is so because it will help in
improving the communication among client and organisation which also help in keeping
them satisfied with the services an organisation offers to them. Increase employee satisfaction: - By maintaining equality and diversity at workplace it
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become easier to keep the employees more motivated toward their work as they are
being treated equally despite of their culture or background. This in turn also support in
keeping the employees more satisfied with their work.
The negative consequences that TESCO may face due to workplace discrimination.
From the view point of jill Harness, 2019, discrimination issues is being continuing from years
but people are now getting concern about it as it bring several consequences with it that not only
affect an employee, workplace but also society as well. In fact the discrimination practice with
an individual not only affect their mental well being but also influence their physical health. In
context of TESCO, the discrimination practices at workplace may negatively influence the
company in term of financial losses through the lawsuits which in turn also influence it brand
image within the marketplace. In addition to this it also influences the working atmosphere
where the other employees are being working, they can get demotivated with this, which may
influence the productivity of the TESCO. Other than this it creates dissatisfaction among
employees and also results into increasing turnover of the employees in continuous basis. This
presents a negative image of a brand within the market that also change the perspective of
prospect employees and company may loss several different talented people that can become a
part of company and may help it in reaching to new heights.
Hence, it can be said that discrimination may bring several kind of negative consequences to the
internal as well as external practices performed by TESCO. This is so because when an
employees face discrimination at workplace then other staff members who are associated with
same kind of characteristics as victim may also feel that they may have to face such kind of
behaviour in future. As a result of which they started experiencing a higher level of stress,
suspicion, mistrust, hostility, depression and rivalry at the workplace. This brings up several
changes in the behaviour of employees in term of way they represent themselves at workplace.
Like there would be a reduction in communication, lack of team work, increasing absenteeism,
their morale get down and these all bring an outcome related with the reduction in productivity
as well as increasing in errors.
Manner in which equality and diversity practices support TESCO in eliminating
workplace discrimination.
As per the information presented by the Sharma, A., 2016, equality and diversity practices plays
a significant role within an organisation. This is so because by adopting or getting involved in
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such practices it become easier for an organisation to make its employees accept the people
belongs to different background as well as their culture. This not only support in reducing the
conflicts among the employees at workplace but also contribute toward promoting the culture
where each and every individual is being appreciated and treated as per their skills and
capability despite of judging them over them background. This in turn help in creating
appositive working culture where each individual get equal chance to keep their view and get
opportunity as per the capability and hence help in reducing the discrimination practices.
According to Callister. L., 2019 in order to manage the equality and diversity at workplace
TESCO can involve it into human resources practices that support in ensuring that each and
every practice related with staff members get perform in effective manner. Additionally, it also
ensure that each and every individual get the benefit to which they belong and have a right to
demand which ensures that discrimination practices can be remove from the workplace. This is
so because equality and diversity practices get involved within eth ethics and value of an
organisation and also become a part of human resources management practices which ensures
that each principle get fulfilled which automatically reduce the discrimination practices when
people get equal chance and valued at their diversity.
REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Sharma, A., 2016. Managing diversity and equality in the workplace. Cogent Business &
Management, 3(1), p.1212682.
Barak, M.E.M., 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage
Publications.
Online
Callister. L., 2019. [Online] available through:<https://www.skillcast.com/blog/7-tips-promote-
equality-end-workplace-discrimination>.
Why is diversity in the workplace important? 2020. [Online] available through:
<https://www.brighthr.com/articles/equality-and-discrimination/equality-and-diversity-in-the-
workplace/>.
Dutta. D., 2020. Understanding and Driving Equality in the Workplace. [Online] available
through:<https://blog.vantagecircle.com/understanding-equality-in-the-workplace/>.
Harness. J., 2019. The Effects of Discrimination in the Workplace. [Online] available through:<
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https://bizfluent.com/about-5035338-effects-discrimination-workplace.html>.
Research Approach or Methodology
1. Describe the methods you intend to use to deliver your aim and
objectives.
 Research methods: - For performing an investigation effectively it
is crucial for a researcher to adopt right method in line with the set
objectives of investigation. There are mainly two methods used
within a study such as qualitative and quantitative. From these two,
in this study quantitative method will be used as it support in
gathering the quantified data which ensures the accuracy of
information by present facts and figures about a particular area of
study.
 Research approach: - For analyzing the gathered information
appropriately that help in justifying the pre specified objective a
researcher has to adopt right approach as per the research method.
The research approach are inductive or deductive. For performing
this investigation deductive approach is used which is best suitable
for the quantitative method and help in analyzing the numerical facts
and figures which is being collected within an investigation.
 Time Scale: - This section constitutes a major part of any
investigation as time scale help in tracking the activities and help in
accomplishing the work in [provided guidelines. For preparing time
scale Gantt chart will be used within this study which is graphical
representation of the set of activities involve within a study which
support in guiding the investigator by presenting the sequence along
with duration of each and every activity involve within the study.
2. Provide detail of data source and any specialist resources
or facilities you may require
 Data sources: - For gathering information in line with the
research objectives, sources of data collection must be
selected in right manner so that required set of information
can be collected. There are mainly two type of sources such as
primary and secondary, this study involves both the sources.
The primary information is one which is collected directly from
the respondents and is consider as first hand data collection.
The main sources of data collection are interview, focus group,
brain storming, questionnaire etc. Among them all the primary
information will be collected with the help of questionnaire as
it helps in collecting larger amount of data in less possible
time period. On the other side the secondary information is
one which present information from the previously performed
investigation. This involve view point of several scholars that
get critically evaluated for developing understanding about
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current study area. For this study data will be gathered with
the help of online sources such as books, journals, articles etc.
The combination of both the sources will support in
accomplishing the main aim behind study where secondary
data help in creating a base for gathering the primary
information effectively.
 Sampling: - It is a method of choosing people in a manner
that help in gathering information on behalf of whole
population. There are mainly two type of sampling method
such as probability and non-probability sampling. For this
study probability sampling method will be used as it provide
equal opportunity for each individual to become a respondent.
The sample size of this respondents is 50 employees of TESCO.
Ethical Issues
The current study may involve several ethical issues and in order to
element these issues several ethical principles will be followed within this
investigation. This mainly includes confidentiality, integrity, anonymity as
well as respect for privacy. Under this the researcher will present
respondents with informed consent where approval of respondents will be
taken voluntarily so that true information can be presented. Other then this
their personal information will be kept confidential and will not be disclosed
in any manner as it can harm the individual who supported in performing
the investigation effectively. Despite of all this, it will also be assured that
while gathering the information from the respondents this will be kept into
consideration that process will not harm individuals personally and
emotionally in any manner as it is unethical practice may affect the
responses. This in turn may influence the validity and reliability of data
which further affect its final outcome.
Expected Outcomes
It is expected that by performing investigation will provide with the outcome
that support in increasing the knowledge and understanding regarding the
equality and diversity along with the importance that it holds within an
organization. Addition to this it will also support in determining that avoidance
of equality and diversity practices may bring influence over the organization as
well as it practices. Despite of this it will also support in determining the ways
in which an organization can implement such practices within the
organizational culture. Other than this it will also support in determining the
connection between equality and diversity as well as elimination of
discrimination practices. This means it will support in identify that how an
organization would be able to avoid workplace discrimination practices by
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adopting the equality and diversity practices within an organization. By
conduction of this investigation, researcher would be able to determine the
ways in which the organizational practices can be improved by maintaining the
equality and diversity practices.
QUESTIONNAIRE
Q1 Do have basic understanding about equality and diversity within an organisation?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2 What importance does equality and diversity practices holds within an organisation?
a) Integrate skills
b) Inclusion opens business opportunity
c) Improve brand reputation
Q3 What are the several benefits that TESCO may get by avoiding workplace discrimination
that employees faces while working?
a) More employee engagement
b) Increasing productivity
c) More management control
Q4 Do you think that workplace discrimination may affect the productivity and profitability of
TESCO if not managed on timely manner?
a) Yes
b) No
Q5 According to you, what are main challenges that TESCO may face due to discrimination at
workplace?
a) Increasing work error
b) Affecting goodwill
c) Increasing employee turnover
Q6 What is the major impact of workplace discrimination that TESCO may face if it is not get
eliminated among employees?
a) Employees job dissatisfaction
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b) Negative working environment
c) Lowering of productivity
Q7 As per your perception what are several strategies that can be adopted by TESCO for
eliminating the workplace discrimination?
a) Inclusive training
b) Open communication
c) Equal opportunity
Q8 Do you think that by formulating organisational policies by considering laws related with
Equality and diversity remain helpful in avoiding workplace discrimination?
a) Yes
b) No
Q9 From the below given factor, which one is most crucial for TESCO that must be consider
while promoting workplace equality?
a) Favourable management policies
b) Strict actions toward misconduct
c) Respecting diversity
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