Impact of Workplace Discrimination on Employee's Age

Unit 11
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Executive summary
Equality and diversity is essential factor which need to maintain at the workplace because
that help in maintaining the workplace working culture. It also leads to developing as well as
maintaining the positive as well as smooth working culture for employees. There are several
types of workplace discriminate from which one main is age discriminate and it is essential for
management to overcome it effectively. Unilever is a British consumer good firm which is
operating at the international level. The research describe about impact of workplace
discrimination on the basis of employee’s age at the workplace.
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Table of Contents
Executive summary .........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Background to the study.........................................................................................................4
Research topic........................................................................................................................4
Research aims.........................................................................................................................4
Research objectives................................................................................................................4
Rationale for the research.......................................................................................................5
Research questions.................................................................................................................5
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................5
Methodology and Data Collection...................................................................................................7
Research philosophy...............................................................................................................7
Research approaches..............................................................................................................7
Evaluation of quantitative and qualitative methods...............................................................7
Primary and secondary sources..............................................................................................8
Sampling methods..................................................................................................................9
Questionnaires........................................................................................................................9
Data analysis and interpretations...................................................................................................10
Research Outcomes........................................................................................................................17
Covered in PPT.....................................................................................................................17
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................17
Recommendations .........................................................................................................................17
Reflection ......................................................................................................................................17
Recommendation of alternative research methodology ................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................19
Appendix........................................................................................................................................20
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Introduction
For each establishment it is necessary to follow equality and diversity at their work place
because this makes it capable to evolve and hold effective positive operative surroundings that
increase productivity and profitability (Bhave, Teo and Dalal, 2020). In order to develop as well
as maintain equality and diversity at workplace a company management need to ensure that their
must be no situation•••••••on related to the workplace discrimination. Workplace discrimination
is considered as situation when an employee do biasses with another one in respect of age,
colour, gender, position, salary and many more. Organisation selected for this research project is
Unilever which is a British consumer good firm operating at the international level. It is founded
by Lever Brothers in year 1929. Its head office is located at the London, England, United
Kingdom as well as the products of this firm are skin care, juice, tea, margarine, bottled water,
baby food, drinks, toothpaste, personal care, cleaning agents and many more. The respective
research is based on determining the impact of workplace discrimination on the basis of
employee’s age at the workplace.
Background to the study
Workplace discrimination is determined as situation where employees experienced
situation when they unfavouritism at the workplace on the basis of different aspects such as age,
colour, gender, position, salary and many others (Faroque, Ferdausy and Rahman, 2020). It is
essential for a company to understand and determine workplace discrimination situation which is
mainly arise on the basis of age of employees. By conducting research on respective topic
researcher able to develop their understanding related to age discrimination at the workplace.
According to which they can develop strategies as well as plan because that help in attaining the
desire goal.
Research topic
Equality and diversity at the workplace.
Research aims
“To determine impact of workplace discrimination on the basis of employee’s age at the
workplace. A study on Unilever.
Research objectives
 To analyse concept of workplace discrimination on the basis of age.
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 To identify impact of age discrimination of the employees performance and company
productivity.
 To determine the ways through which workplace discrimination on the basis of
employee’s age can be overcome at workplace.
Rationale for the research
Researcher selected respective topic in order to conduct this research because it is one of
the main issues experienced by almost every company while performing their work. It is so
because in every company employees experienced issues related to age discrimination which is
one of the major issues that impact on the performance of employees. The primary purpose of
this research is identify the image of age discrimination on the performance of employees as well
as productivity of company (Gough, 2020). Along with this, researcher also want to identify the
ways through which workplace discrimination on the basis of employee’s age can be overcome
at workplace. This will help researcher in attaining their desire goal of researcher as well as they
also able to provide recommendations in order to conduct improvement at the workplace.
Research questions
 What is the concept of workplace discrimination on the basis of age?
 What are the impact of age discrimination on the employee’s performance and company
productivity?
 What are the ways through which workplace discrimination on the basis of employee’s
age can be overcome at workplace?
Literature Review
 What is the concept of workplace discrimination on the basis of age?
As per the view point of John Sherman, Esq. (2019), age discrimination is a act of
treating someone different from the other peoples because of their age. It is worse behaviour and
less favourably act which is done in the workplace because of their over age (What is Age
Discrimination in the Workplace? [Examples & FAQs], 2021). It is basically unfavourable
treatment towards employees because of the time of life. Masses who are age of 40 and aged
than it are secured from work favouritism for which act is passed as age discrimination in
employment act. It protects both the employees who are currently working and that one who are
seeking the task. It is forbidden in any state. Any act which is taken by the employer that effects
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the employees are over 40 is also age discrimination. It impacts the working of an organisation
the employees feel demotivated because they do not get the equal opportunities to growth as
compared to the others. Not hiring an individual and fire them because the employer wants a
young person for the particular post. Not giving them promotion because they are too old all this
feel them unhappy. It effect seriously on the working environment of business large and small
too.
 What are the impact of age discrimination on the employee’s performance and
company productivity?
According to the view point of Andew Mayfair J.D. (2021), age discrimination is
considered as substantial detrimental which impact on the working environment of a business
unit. It is also determined that age discrimination impact or damage the positive as well as
efficient working relations at the workplace (The Consequences of Age Discrimination at Work,
2021). There are several aspects which show age discrimination impact on the employees
performance as well as company productivity. It is so because when there is age discrimination
employees lose their potential that directly or indirectly affect their productively negatively. It is
generally happen because employees are not treated equally on the basis of age which also affect
their productivity which get decreased. In addition to this, it also consider as impact of age
discrimination according to which company loss their employees. It is so because they face age
discrimination and due to that they not able to conduct work properly and effectively at the
workplace.
 What are the ways through which workplace discrimination on the basis of
employee’s age can be overcome at workplace?
As per the view point of Insperity staff of Texas (2021), it is essential for a company to
implement The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) in order to protect the people
who are more than 40 from getting discriminated on the basis of age at the workplace (6 top tips
for preventing ageism in the workplace, 2021). There are several ways by which workplace
discriminated on the basis of employee's age can be overcome effectively such as company may
adopt diverse culture at workplace according to which they hire people of different age group
and from different locations. In addition to this, it is essential for the management to develop
proper rules and regulation which is necessary to follow by all employees so that no one can do
discrimination to anyone on the basis of age or any other aspects.
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Methodology and Data Collection
Research philosophy
Research philosophy is consider as belief about ways in that information or data about the
phenomenon must be gather, evaluate as well as used. There are several research philosophies
which a researcher may adopt in order to evaluate the information or plans based on the research
topic. These will include positivity as well as instructive (O’Connor and Kmec, 2020). In regards
of this investigation undertaking research worker is following positivity because through that
research worker will be capable to collect manifest content or information related to subject.
Furthermore it also help them in evaluating subject matter in proper way so that result can be
achieved with success.
Research approaches
The research approach is determined as procedure as well as plan which dwells of time
period of wide anticipations supported on the elaborated methods of information accumulation,
judgement as well as representation. The research approach is effectively bifurcated into two
categories such as approach used for data collection as well as approach of data evaluation or
reasoning. There are two types of research approach i.e. deductive and inductive. In regards of
this investigation and study, research worker is following deductive investigation because by
this they are capable of evaluating theory related to the development or creation of hypotheses in
proper manner. In addition to this, it help in collecting as well as evaluating information or data
in order to test collected hypotheses in proper manner.
Evaluation of quantitative and qualitative methods
 Qualitative method - Qualitative research is the process of gathering, examining as well
as understanding the non-numerical data, such as language. It is generally adopted in
order to understand how an individual understand and giving meaning to their social
reality (Palumbo and Manna, 2020). It can be characterized as a non numerical data in the
form of video ,texts, paragraph as well. There are different type of qualitative research
methods such as in-depth-interviews,case study research,documents etc. There are
various steps involve in the qualitative research are first of all data is collected form the
various sources than manage the data and familiarisation and coding of all data available
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data, seeking, reviewing and defining themes, representing, account or narrative than
make the report of the research.
 Quantitative method - Quantitative research is conduct as a process in which data is
collected and analyse numerical data to report, anticipate or control uncertain of interest.
The main aim of quantitative research is to examine the basic relation between variables,
make articulation and generalize results to wide area of population. It is a used as a
theory to evaluate theory to support or reject it (Park and Lee, 2020). Quantitative data
provide the useful information to decision making. It is used to describe data in numerical
form.
In accordance of this investigation a research worker is utilising quantitative research
strategy and by that will be capable to collect and demonstrate the certain message affiliated to
subject matter. Furthermore it also assist in accomplishing the attainment of facts and figures
relevant to topic.
Primary and secondary sources
 Primary source – It is also known as first hand collected information. It is so because in
process researcher gather information or data related to topic by themselves. It is
considered as time taking method but through it an investigator can collect more
authenticate as well as reliable information which help researcher in attaining desire
outcome. There are several ways through which a researcher may adopt primary
information or data such as survey, questionnaires, interview as well as many more.
 Secondary source - It is considered as information which is gathered by a researcher from
the existing sources such as online or offline books, articles, government documents,
newspaper and many more. The benefits of this is that it is cost as well as time effective.
In addition to this, by respective source researcher can understand the perspective of
other authors (Sarwar and Muhammad, 2020). On the other hand, the information that is
available may not match the needs of the research and can be inefficient. This is because
the secondary sources are not necessarily focused on the specific research topic.
In this research, an investigator is adopting both primary research source as well as
secondary research source. In respect of primary source researchers is developing questionnaire
on the other hand in respect of secondary researcher is gathering information from existing
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