Impact of Cultural Diversity Practices on Employees' Productivity and Performance at Workplace in the Retail Sector in UK: A Study on Marks & Spencer (M&S)

A. Title
To evaluate the impact of
Cultural Diversity practices
on the employees'
productivity and performance
at workplace in the context of
retail sector in UK. A study
on Marks & Spencer (M&S).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost, praises and thanks to God, The Almighty, for showers of blessings
which helped me immensely throughout the research project and its successful completion.
Secondly, I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to the Respected Principal who
has given me the opportunity to do research on this topic which is “The impact of Cultural
diversity practices on the employees' productivity and performance” which broadened my
mind and thoughts regarding the retail sector of UK and the well-known company Marks &
Spencer.
Next, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my Research Supervisor for providing me
invaluable guidance from the beginning of the research till the end. My classmates and friends
also deserve an equal appreciation without whose support I would not be able to accomplish the
objectives of this research.
Besides all, I would give my heartfelt thanks to my family members who encouraged and
appreciated me in all the steps of the study especially when times got tough who acted as my
supporting pillars in my research work.

B. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The research is basically done as the retail firms in UK prefer more diversified workforce
in order to obtain a wide variety of new and innovative ideas and opinions. It provides many
opportunities to the employees to interact with the other employees from different background
and culture. On the other hand, it also creates many issues like conflicts, high investment and
many more. So, there is a need to manage the cultural diversity at the workplace in order to gain
more benefits and ways to meet up the challenges faced.
The research focused on the cultural diversity at Marks & Spencer which is a multinational
retailer in UK. The researcher tried to cover all the aspects regarding the impact which Cultural
diversity practices have on the productivity and performance of the employees. Scholar used
primary sources like Questionnaire where the respondents chosen were some employees from
M&S and secondary sources including Literature review by different authors to obtain a deep
insight regarding the objectives of the research.
The study analysed the data through thematic analysis which helped in drawing various
significant conclusions. The researcher also recommended various strategies which can be
implemented in companies like M&S to manage the cultural diversity at the workplace.

C. TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. Title.............................................................................................................................................1
B. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.........................................................................................................3
C. TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................................4
D. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................5
Background of the study..............................................................................................................5
Research Aim and Objectives......................................................................................................5
Rationale of the study..................................................................................................................6
E. LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................8
Theme 1: Concept of managing cultural diversity at workplace of retail firms in UK...............8
Theme 2: Impact of Cultural Diversity practices on employees' productivity and performance.
.....................................................................................................................................................9
Theme 3: Challenges and Barriers faced by the retail firms during the implementation of
cultural diversity practices.........................................................................................................10
Literature Summary...................................................................................................................11
F. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..............................................................................................12
Research approach.....................................................................................................................12
Research Philosophy..................................................................................................................12
Data collection...........................................................................................................................13
Sampling....................................................................................................................................14
Data Analysis.............................................................................................................................15
Ethical Considerations...............................................................................................................15
Research Limitations.................................................................................................................15
G. DATA ANALYSIS and H. OUTCOMES................................................................................17
I. CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................28
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................28
Recommendations......................................................................................................................28
J. REFLECTION...........................................................................................................................29
K. REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................32
L. APPENDIX...............................................................................................................................35
Questionnaire.............................................................................................................................35

TOPIC: To evaluate the impact of Cultural Diversity practices on the employees' productivity
and performance at workplace in the context of retail sector in UK. A study on Marks &
Spencer (M&S).
D. INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Cultural Diversity plays a major role when people from different cultures works at the
same workplace respecting each others’ culture, beliefs, behaviours and opinions. There is a need
to manage the cultural diversity in order to ensure the smooth functioning of organizations in
every aspect. This is mainly based on people from different race, age, religion, ethnicity, gender
or religion (Hingley, 2016).
Cultural diversity at workplace provides material and intangible benefits to the employees as
well as employers (Hall, King and Finlay, 2017). On the other hand, it also results in conflicts
and many other issues. So, the companies have to implement various practices in order to
manage the cultural diversity at the workplace.
The research is basically done by considering a British multinational retailer company Marks &
Spencers (M&S), headquartered in London, England which deals in the selling of own labelled
clothes, food and home products (Is M&S stuck in the middle ?, 2018). The company considers
its employees as its biggest assets who are responsible for its overall progress.
Therefore, the researcher feel the need to study about the ways to manage the cultural diversity
by implementing various practices which helps in increasing the productivity and overall
performance of the employees in M&S. The research also shed light on the strategies which can
be used by M&S in order to meet the challenges which are faced by the company while
implementing those practices.
Research Aim and Objectives
Aim
To study the impact of Cultural Diversity practices carried out in M&S on the
productivity and the performance of the employees at the workplace.
Objectives

 To evaluate the overall concept of cultural diversity management at M&S.
 To identify the ways in which cultural diversity impacts the overall productivity and
performance of the employees at the workplace.
 To ascertain the challenges which M&S can face in the implementation of the practices to
manage cultural diversity.
 To recommend the strategies whose implementation can help M&S to meet up the
challenges faced above in order to increase the productivity and performance of the
employees at the workplace.
Research Questions
 What is meant by concept of culture diversity management?
 How culture diversity impact on overall performance and productivity of employees?
 What are the challenges faced by firms in effective implementation of culture diversity
within organization?
 What are different strategies that can be used to overcome challenges and enhance
performance of employees?
Rationale of the study
The main reason behind this research is that most of the employees are become
dissatisfied as they are discriminated on the basis of gender, race and many other factors which
also results in unequal distribution of opportunities provided to them. This disturbs the overall
productivity and performance of the employees.
As the competition in the retail sector of UK is increasing day by day, it becomes a major
concern for the retail firms to increase its productivity by making the employees more satisfied
and productive so that they become able to give a tough competition to its competitors (Dean,
2016). The companies face lot many issues in managing the cultural diversity at the workplace.
So this research can be proved much useful to various stakeholders such as researchers who wish
to do further study on this topic, the other retailer companies who wish to implement the various
practices of cultural diversity management and the investors who invest in various operations of
the companies. This will especially benefit the managers, the HRM and the employers of the

M&S in order to increase their employees productivity and performance thereby enhancing the
customer base and profitability of the company.

E. LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature Overview enables the researcher to critically evaluate the particular topic by
going through various books & journals which are already published by well-known authors
(Williams and Kayaoglu, 2020). It helped the researcher to gain a deep insight by making
various themes according to the objectives of research and to draw significant conclusions from
them which can help M&S to manage the cultural diversity at its workplace in order to improve
the productivity and performance of its employees.
Theme 1: Concept of managing cultural diversity at workplace of retail firms in UK.
As per the view of Otaye-Ebede (2018), there is a need to manage the cultural diversity at
the workplaces for the smooth functioning of the organizations. The study analysed that the
perspectives of different cultures helps the retail firms to bring in innovation and creativity which
helps in solving various problems and meeting the fluctuating demands of the customers in
completely new and exciting ways. The researcher also evaluated that employees from different
cultures allows the organizations to expand their broader range of products and services to their
respective areas which are completely known to them resulting in targeted marketing. Therefore,
managing cultural diversity becomes most important in the organizations for facing a rapid
growth and progress.
In support of the above statement Kanakaratne, Bray and Robson (2020), assessed the
benefits of managing cultural diversity in the recruitment process as it broadens the talent pool of
the potential employees. Further, it explained that it helps in hiring ambitious and globally
minded candidates which improves the employee retention as well as reduce the investment
which is associated with employee turnover. The study also explained that cultural diversity
management also teaches the employees to create a sense of dignity and respect towards each
other's beliefs and cultures which improves the environment of the workplaces. It makes the
workforce more motivated and enthusiastic in order to compete with the competitors in the
emerging markets of UK's retail industry.
On a contradictory note Holmes (2018), argued that managing cultural diversity requires
a large amount of investment of money and resources. The study further elaborated that this
money can be used by the companies in other important operations and practices like training
and development, marketing and many more. The scholar also analysed that it can create