The Impact of Skin Colour Discrimination on Employees' Motivation in the Workplace

This research project explores the impact of skin colour discrimination on employees' motivation in the workplace, with a case study on Marks & Spencer. It aims to understand the concept of skin colour discrimination, assess its influence on employee motivation, and determine strategies to eliminate it from the workplace.

Research Proposal

Project Title
The topic of this research project is “The impact of skin colour discrimination on employees'
motivation in the workplace”.
Aims and Objectives
Discrimination is referred as the prejudicial treatment of distinct people on the basis of different
aspects including age, race, sex, gender etc. Treating an individual unfairly at workplace
because of his/ her colour is not tolerable. Discrimination based on colourism is a type of
prejudice usually from people of similar race in which they are treated differently on the basis
of social implications from the cultural meanings which are attached to colour of skin (Adams,
Kurtz-Costes and Hoffman, 2016). This research report is based on Marks and Spencer which is
a British multinational retailer of United Kingdom who specialise in selling home products,
clothing and food products. The company was founded in year 1884 and its headquarters is
situated in London. This report is based on the topic “The impact of skin colour discrimination
on employees' motivation in the workplace”. The aim and objectives of study are as follows:
Aim of Research:
“To analyse the impact of skin colour discrimination on motivation of employees in workplace.
A case study on Marks & Spencer.”
Research Objectives:
 To understand the concept associated with skin colour discrimination.
 To assess the influence of skin colour discrimination on motivation of employees at
workplace.
 To determine various strategies to eliminate skin colour discrimination from workplace.
Research Questions:
 What is the concept of skin colour discrimination?
 What is the influence of skin colour discrimination on motivation of employees at
workplace?
 Which strategies can be employ by Marks & Spencer to eliminate skin colour discrimination
from workplace.
Significance of Research:

The research on the title “To analyse the impact of skin colour discrimination on motivation of
employees in workplace. A case study on Marks & Spencer.” is significant as this supports
investigator in understanding the concept of skin colour discrimination as well as its impact on
employee motivation at workplace (Baert, and Verhaest, 2019). It also assists investigator in
determining strategies through which an organisation can reduce discrimination from workplace
based on skin colour. In addition to this, this research is also significant for other people who
will perform investigation on the similar topic in future.

Relevance to Professional or Academic Field/Literature review
Concept of skin colour discrimination
According to the view point of Koch, D'Mello, and Sackett, (2015), Skin discrimination is also
known as shadeism or colorism. Skin Discrimination is the discrimination among people of
same race in which people treated accordingly to their skin color. Colorism is referred
discrimination against individuals who have darker complexion. The expression colorism
and racism are similar. People with lighter or whiter complexion is considered as more valuable
or more beautiful than people with dark tone. Color or race discrimination can be so harmful to
society, especially in organizations. Employees should not have treated in wrong manner based
on their hair texture, skin color and so on. There are many laws out there in the society to
protect the employees in such critical situation.
Even though color and race are not the same thing, yet they are linked. State has laws to protect
the interest of employees (Canache, Hayes, Mondak and Seligson, 2014). Discrimination is not
tolerable before law. Skin color discrimination in organisation is when workers are
discriminated on the basis of their skin color. One of the examples of skin discrimination- when
someone is not getting a job, promotion, or raise due to her or his skin characteristics. If both
men are equally capable of the same job but the man with light skin tone get job, it's considered
as skin discrimination. Although, such strict laws prevail in society, skin discrimination in
organizations can be seen.
Impact of skin colour discrimination on motivation of employees at workplace
As per the view point of J Cavico, Mujtaba and Samuel, (2016), skin discrimination negatively
impacts the motivation level of employees as if an employee finds himself or herself being
discriminated on any basis, then his/ her morale declines which impacts their motivation level
and performance. Employees for future success and recognition, strive at their choosing
professional. But when discrimination occurs at workplace, it has a very negative impacts on
employees. The stress, anxiety and burden cause by harassment and discrimination can cause a
serious breakdown. A recent study has shown skin color discrimination has a negative effect on
both physical and mental health. Employees who have faced discrimination are more likely to
have a psychological distress and many health related problems (da Silva and Lima, 2016).
Employees who faces harassment often, starts using drugs, smoke, consumption of alcohol etc.

to cope up with the problem. Physical pain includes body aches, headache, high blood pressure,
breast cancer, cardiovascular illness, obesity. Some of the mental pain includes depression, loss
of self-control, developing anxiety disorders, even attempting suicides.
Color discrimination has its effects on working environment and the employee. With color
discrimination, the motivation of many employees goes down cause of their skin color. And
with lack of confidence, employees started losing their strength and their productivity level
decrease (Derous, Pepermans and Ryan, 2017). With such level of confidence, they lack in the
race of life. These also include a poor schedule when the pissed off employees start loses focus
such as leaving work early, not completing work on time and arriving late at work. Leaders play
an important part in promoting a positive environment at workplace. By promoting diversity,
employees feel valued. Advantages of diversity are many like enhancement of productivity. In
today's competitive world, diversity has many benefits. This will not bring only productivity or
happy employees but will also lead to development of all over society.
Strategies to eliminate skin colour discrimination from workplace
As per the view point of Ford, (2014), an organisation must be committed to run a sustainable
business which is both socially and commercially successful. Providing employees in UK and
in other countries for a healthy and safe working environment. It is also to have a culture which
promotes respect, personal development, diversity and inclusivity. Marks and Spencer
employed many people in different countries to promote respect regardless of skin color.
Marks and Spencer wanted everyone to be treated well with respect and dignity and have pride.
1 Focus on diversity- To create a diverse place for work, and to make sure that place will be
racially and ethnically diverse. When minds with different backgrounds and cultures work
together it leads to enhance the productivity of the organisation.
2 Education- education is an important factor to overcome such serious issues. With education
people develop sense of respect (Stoermer, Hitotsuyanagi-Hansel and Froese, 2019).
3 Review your policy- Company should have a policy of anti-discrimination, which sets some
standards of behavior. Employees are required to follow the policy.
4 Build your team- company create a regular team to focus that all its employees get to know
each well and to create a positive environment.
Employees should respect each other cultural and racial differences at the workplace, this
promote unity among them and will create a positive space between employees. Positive

environment causes positive energy which ultimately results in positive outcomes.
Employees should not participate in any kind of negative speeches which spoils the
environment. Even employees should not initiate or take any kind of participation in
discrimination or harassment (Korn, Boffo, and Schmidt, 2015).

Research Approach or Methodology
Research methodology is characterized as a systematic way to gather and evaluate information
in the process of research. Different methods of research are available that can be utilized by
investigator in order to perform research appropriately. Different methods of research are
defined below:
Research philosophy: Two research philosophies includes positivism and interpretivism. In this
study, interpretivism philosophy is used as it emphasizes on specific and unique information
and its relation with researcher is cooperative and participative.
Research approach: Inductive and deductive are the research approaches which can utilize in
research by the investigator as per the study nature. This research makes use of inductive
approach as it supports in collecting in depth data on topic which enable researcher to draw
valid conclusion of study.
Research design: two types of research design are there including quantitative and qualitative
research. The qualitative method of research includes conversational and open ended research
methods (Mackey and Gactss, 2015). This method is used to get detailed and in depth data
regarding the topic. On the other hand, the method in which systematic approach is utilized to
gather quantifiable of data through performing statistical or mathematical techniques is
quantitative research method. In this research, the method utilize is quantitative research
method as this help in drawing accurate outcome by analyzing data in systematic way.
Data collection method: two methods are used to collect data in the research including primary
and secondary. Primary data collection method is about gathering first hand data which is never
utilize before. Whereas, secondary data is associated with collection of previously published
information to collect detailed information on the topic effectively. This research makes use of
primary as well as secondary method for collecting data. Questionnaire is utilizing for
collection of primary data and secondary data is gathered through previously published books
and journals (Fletcher, 2017).
Sampling: the process through which sample is selected is referred as sampling process. It is
categorised into 2 types, probability and nonprobability sampling. In this research, in order to
eliminate biasness, probability sampling is used by investigator. In addition to this, simple
random sampling method is utilising to select sample size. 25 respondents are selected as a

sample in this investigation who are the employees of Marks and Spencer.
Ethical Issues
Some of the ethical issues are associated with the research which requires to be considered by
investigator while performing research. Data confidentiality is the issue that is faced by
researcher at the time of performing investigation. For overcoming this issue, researcher should
ensure that all the guidelines are followed associated with protection of crucial information
regarding the respondents as well as other data associated with research. Apart from this,
objectivity of research is also the ethical issue face by investigator (Koch, D'Mello, and Sackett,
2015). To overcome this issue, the researcher required to emphasize on avoiding biasness in
any research aspect involving data analysis, peer review, research design and interpretation.
Expected Outcomes
This research proves to be very helpful for the researcher as well as organisation is this help in
analysing the impact of skin colour discrimination on employee motivation and determining
various strategies that can help in reducing such discrimination from workplace (J Cavico,
Mujtaba and Samuel, 2016). This will help in increasing productivity and performance of
organisation as well as lead it towards growth. This research also helps in improving my
knowledge base on the topic area along with other areas. It supports in my personal growth and
development which will help in my future career progression. If I will perform research in
future on similar or another topic, experience that I get from this is study will help me in
performing that in more effective way.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Adams, E.A., Kurtz-Costes, B.E. and Hoffman, A.J., 2016. Skin tone bias among African
Americans: Antecedents and consequences across the life span. Developmental
Review, 40, pp.93-116.
Baert, S. and Verhaest, D., 2019. Unemployment or overeducation: which is a worse signal to
employers?. De Economist, 167(1), pp.1-21.
Canache, D., Hayes, M., Mondak, J.J. and Seligson, M.A., 2014. Determinants of perceived
skin-color discrimination in Latin America. The Journal of Politics, 76(2), pp.506-520.
da Silva, R.F. and Lima, M.E.O., 2016. Crime and punishment: the impact of skin color and
socioeconomic status of defendants and victims in jury trials in Brazil. The Spanish
journal of psychology, 19.
Derous, E., Pepermans, R. and Ryan, A.M., 2017. Ethnic discrimination during résumé
screening: Interactive effects of applicants’ ethnic salience with job context. Human
Relations, 70(7), pp.860-882.
Ford, R.T., 2014. Bias in the air: Rethinking employment discrimination law. Stan. L. Rev., 66,
p.1381.
J Cavico, F., Mujtaba, B.G. and Samuel, M., 2016. Code words and covert employment
discrimination: Legal analysis and consequences for management. International Journal
of Organizational Leadership, 5, pp.231-253.
Koch, A.J., D'Mello, S.D. and Sackett, P.R., 2015. A meta-analysis of gender stereotypes and
bias in experimental simulations of employment decision making. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 100(1), p.128.
Stoermer, S., Hitotsuyanagi-Hansel, A. and Froese, F.J., 2019. Racial harassment and job
satisfaction in South Africa: The moderating effects of career orientations and managerial
rank. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 30(3), pp.385-404.
Korn, O., Boffo, S. and Schmidt, A., 2015, August. The effect of gamification on emotions-the
potential of facial recognition in work environments. In International Conference on
Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 489-499). Springer, Cham.
Mackey, A. and Gass, S.M., 2015. Second language research: Methodology and design.
Routledge.
Fletcher, A.J., 2017. Applying critical realism in qualitative research: methodology meets
method. International journal of social research methodology, 20(2), pp.181-194.