Impact of Cultural Diversity on Organisational Behaviour: A Study on H&M

This research project examines the impact of cultural diversity on organisational behaviour, focusing on H&M. It explores the concept of cultural diversity, its positive and negative impacts on organisational behaviour, and ways to manage cultural diversity at the workplace. The study aims to understand the benefits of diverse culture in promoting innovation, increasing employee involvement, and developing creativity. The research methodology includes data collection through a questionnaire and data analysis. The findings highlight the importance of managing cultural diversity for enhancing productivity in organisations.

Research Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................................................................................5
RESEARCH METHODLOGY..........................................................................................................7
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTREPRETATION..............................................................................10
RESEARCH OUTCOMES...............................................................................................................17
REFLECTION & RECOMMENDATION FOR ALTERNATIVE RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY............................................................................................................................18
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................18
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................................20

Title: To examine impact of the culture diversity on organisational behaviour. A study
on H&M.
INTRODUCTION
Cultural diversity is quality of the diverse and the various cultures as opposed to the
monoculture, global monoculture and akin to the cultural decay. It is related to having various
cultures respect the differences of each other. At the workplace, cultural diversity is when the
organisations are open to hiring the staff members from all sorts of various backgrounds
regardless of race, culture and religion (Ferdman and Deane, 2014). When the firms hire and
sustain diverse pool of the people then this brings regarding various advantages to firm and
staff members. H&M is a multinational clothing company and it was founded in year 1947 in
Sweden. The cultural diversity impact of the organisational behaviour as the people of
different backgrounds and culture are work at common place.
Research aim
“To examine impact of the culture diversity on organisational behaviour. A study
onH&M.
Research objectives:
 To understand concept of cultural diversity at workplace.
 To examine impact of culture diversity on organisational behaviour in context to
H&M.
 To identify the ways for managing culture diversity at workplace.
Research questions:
• What is cultural diversity?
• How culture diversity impact on the organisational behaviour of H&M?
• What are the ways an organisation should adopt to managing cultural diversity?
Rationale of research
Present work is focused on cultural diversity and its effects on organizational
behaviour. It is related to the lack of interaction between all cultures. In personal and
professional circumstances, learner conducts this study. The researcher wishes to increase

key skills and personal knowledge individually. In professional context, researchers should
grasp the question of cultural diversity (Foblets and Alidadi, 2016). Through this
investigation, researchers will know the steps needed to perform an investigation in an
effective manner.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is an essential part as in the previous study it allows researchers to
recognize research limitations. The study's main research gap is the impact of the culture
diversity on organisational behaviour. In collecting the data and information in literature
review, there have been secondary sources used such as books, magazines, articles and
others.
Cultural diversity
According to opinion of Dr. Lisa D. Belfield (2020), Cultural diversity is related to
the community of diverse people with various backgrounds. Religion, race, sex, age and the
sexual orientation are taken into consideration. Cultural diversity includes different
communities that value one another's differences. Cultural diversity means recognizing that
there are many groups with diverse values, skills, strengths and needs within an organization.
It also requires an awareness how people in the workforce are able to find specific religious
beliefs and sexual values. Cultural diversity would be the case if businesses would recruit
people from diverse backgrounds, irrespective of race, religion and culture. As companies
recruit and maintain a diversified workforce and company can able to get the benefits from it.
Culture diversity impact on the organisational behaviour of H&M
As per viewpoint of Brittany Chambers (2020) the cultural diversity develops the
negative and positive impact of cultural diversity on organisational behaviour. The negative
and positive impact of the cultural diversity on organisational behaviour given below:
Positive impact
The culture of an organisation mainly influences employee behaviour. Its results indicate
organisational culture that shows impact of motivation promotes individual learning; improve
organisational value, impact communication and also solving the conflict. The cultural
diversity bring innovation at workplace because the different culture people think new ideas
and implement in conducting organisational activities and attain set objectives (Guerin and
Green, 2016).
Negative impact
The negative impact of cultural diversity at workplace is enhanced tendency of the
organisational personnel in order to indulge in the interpersonal conflict because the diverse

employees have various thoughts, customs, traditions, norms and beliefs. Other than this,
from the cultural diversity, there are some other issues arise such as miscommunication and
the barriers creation (Han and Beyerlein, 2016).
Ways an organisation should adopt to managing cultural diversity
As per opinion of Dr. Richard T. Alpert (2020), the creation of cultural skills
contributes to comprehension, communicating with people from various backgrounds and
working on the various cultural priorities and beliefs. To manage the cultural diversity at
workplace, there are some of the effective ways adopted through H&M given below:
Teamwork- This is necessary to have the teamwork to have open mind towards the
new culture and also embrace various dynamic on the shared teamwork than focus on the on
individual differences. Considering the opinion of other people is an opportunity for H&M to
expand business (Hofhuis, van der Zee and Otten, 2015).
Hiring- To create another work place, this is necessary to employ and attract talent
from various backgrounds. It requires leadership as well as those who agree on the
recruitment of talent. For situations where companies can break through and recruit the most
skilled people with appropriate knowledge, experience, expertise and skills, the successful
result is a varying work culture (Joubert, 2017).

RESEARCH METHODLOGY
The research methodology for gathering and analyzing accurate data on the report is a
significant and successful part of the investigation. In conducting the research methodology
part, there has been included the different layers of research onion given below:
Research philosophy- There are interpretivism and positivism are two different
research philosophies. There has been positivism philosophy used because it is suitable to
collect and analyzed the information by taking a less time (Kulkarni, Boehm and Basu,
2016).
Research approach- There is inductive and deductive are the two main kinds of
research approaches. Among both the approaches, deductive approach has been used because
it is valuable and facilitate in order to analysing as well as finding the quantitative data.
Research Strategy- This section is important because various strategies have been used
to help researchers collect data or knowledge on the study in question. Survey is an efficient
strategy for the collection of data that lets researchers obtains accurate information over short
periods of time (Martin, 2014).
Research Choice- There is qualitative and quantitative are the research choices of
analysis used by researchers to gather and analyze information on the subject. Qualitative is a
tool that assists researchers in obtaining theory, while quantitative analysis requires numerical
or hard facts to obtain data. Both forms of analysis are useful but more useful and relevant for
the conduct of current research, provided that it does not require time and also offers reliable
results in comparison with the qualitative sample (Lambert, 2016).
Time horizon- It is a vital part of the research technique that has two approaches such
as cross-sectional and longitudinal. Those are the main approaches to the time horizon, but
the cross-sectional method has been used for the communication gap analysis, as the real
situation is focused and no longer takes time to complete the whole project (Mateescu, 2017).

Data Collection- In current study, this is an important way to gather primary and
secondary data on the impact of the culture diversity on organisational behaviour. The
questionnaire is best suited for the collection of primary data and a reliable tool to be used in
an investigation. Other than this, literature reviews have been pursued for the purpose of
gathering secondary data regarding the research, books, articles, publications, etc. Both
origins of data collection have also been considered for the conduct of the present research
(Ozgen, Nijkamp and Poot, 2017).

Sampling- It is method of selecting respondents from the population is referred to in
this way. There are two methods for this method that are probabilistic and non- probabilistic.
In this analysis, the researcher used the random sampling and selects 40 respondents. It does
not take longer and lets the researcher select the large sample size for the main purpose of
using such a technique. Unlikely is another technique that won't work, as it takes longer and
there is no chance of selecting a large number of respondents (Ravazzani, 2016).

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTREPRETATION
Questionnaire
Q1) Are you aware about concept of cultural diversity?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) Does diverse culture influence entire business organization as its activities?
a) Yes
b) No
Q3) What is the impact of culture diversity on organizational behaviour of H&M?
a) Positive
b) Negative
Q4) What kind of benefits of diverse culture attain by H&M in their organizational
activities?
a) Promote innovation
b) Increase employee involvement
c) Develop creativity
Q5) What kind of issues faced by company due to cultural diversity at workplace?
a) Language barriers
b) Conflict among employees
c) Difference in culture
Q6) What are the important ways H&M should adopt to managing cultural
diversity?
a) Effective communication
b) Provide equal treatment
c) Hiring diverse talent
Q7) Does managing cultural diversity is important for H&M to enhance their
productivity level?
a) Yes
b) No
Q8) Recommended the ways by which H&M can manager diversity and improve its
performance.
Data sheet

Q1) Are you aware about concept of cultural diversity? Frequency
a) Yes 30
b) No 10
Q2) Does diverse culture influence entire business
organization as its activities?
Frequency
a) Yes 35
b) No 5
Q3) What is the impact of culture diversity on organizational
behaviour of H&M?
Frequency
a) Positive 30
b) Negative 10
Q4) What kind of benefits of diverse culture attain by H&M in
their organizational activities?
Frequency
a) Promote innovation 15
b) Increase employee involvement 15
c) Develop creativity 10
Q5) What kind of issues faced by company due to cultural
diversity at workplace?
Frequency
a) Language barriers 15
b) Conflict among employees 10
c) Difference in culture 15
Q6) What are the important ways H&M should adopt to
managing cultural diversity?
Frequency
a) Effective communication 20
b) Provide equal treatment 10
c) Hiring diverse talent 10
Q7) Does managing cultural diversity is important for H&M
to enhance their productivity level?
Frequency
a) Yes 35
b) No 5
Theme 1: Awareness about concept of cultural diversity.
Q1) Are you aware about concept of cultural diversity? Frequency
a) Yes 30

b) No 10
a) Yes b) No
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
30
10
Interpretation: As per opinion of 30 respondents that they have the understanding regarding
the cultural diversity at workplace. According to them, cultural diversity at workplace related
to working the different cultural of people at commonplace which have different backgrounds
and values. Other than this, there are 10 respondents which do not have understanding
regarding the cultural diversity.
Theme 2: Diverse culture influence entire business organization as its activities.
Q2) Does diverse culture influence entire business
organization as its activities?
Frequency
a) Yes 35
b) No 5
a) Yes b) No
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
35
5

Interpretation: According to opinion of 35 respondents that cultural diversity influences the
whole business organisation and its activity. They said that the people of different
backgrounds have different opinions and values which arisen the conflict at workplace. On
the other hand, there are 5 respondents which are not agree with the given statement
Theme 3: Impact of culture diversity on organizational behaviour of H&M.
Q3) What is the impact of culture diversity on organizational
behaviour of H&M?
Frequency
a) Positive 30
b) Negative 10
a) Positive b) Negative
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
30
10
Interpretation: On the basis of 30 respondents that cultural diversity develop the positive
impact on organisation behaviour of H&M organisation as there are different background and
culture people can bring the ideas to work in a better manner and focus on attending the set
objectives. This helps in arise the creativity and positive working environment. Other than
this, there are 10 respondents which said that cultural diversity develop the negative impact at
workplace because it increase the tendency organisational personal in order to arise
interpersonal conflict.
Theme 4: Benefits of diverse culture attain by H&M in their organizational activities.
Q4) What kind of benefits of diverse culture attain by H&M in
their organizational activities?
Frequency
a) Promote innovation 15
b) Increase employee involvement 15
c) Develop creativity 10

a) Promote innovation b) Increase employee
involvement c) Develop creativity
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16 15 15
10
Interpretation: On the basis of 15 respondents that the main benefit of diverse cultural that
organisation can be attained is promote innovation. According to them the cultural diversity
is helpful in promote the innovation at workplace. On the basis of 15 respondents that cultural
diversity is helpful in the employee involvement because employees are able to
understanding the culture of each other and from this they can able to work together. There
are 10 respondents which are agree with develop creativity is one of the main benefit of
cultural diversity their organisation can be attained.
Theme 5: Issues faced by company due to cultural diversity at workplace.
Q5) What kind of issues faced by company due to cultural
diversity at workplace?
Frequency
a) Language barriers 15
b) Conflict among employees 10
c) Difference in culture 15

a) Language barriers b) Conflict among
employees c) Difference in culture
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16 15
10
15
Interpretation: From the cultural diversity there are some issues faced by an organisation.
On the basis of 15 respondents that cultural barrier is one of the main issues that company
face from the cultural diversity. On the basis of 10 respondents that cultural diversity arise the
conflict between the staff members because they have different norms, values, customs and
beliefs and traditions. On the basis of 15 respondents that difference in the culture arise the
issues at workplace
Theme 6: Important ways H&M should adopt to managing cultural diversity.
Q6) What are the important ways H&M should adopt to
managing cultural diversity?
Frequency
a) Effective communication 20
b) Provide equal treatment 10
c) Hiring diverse talent 10

a) Effective
communication b) Provide equal
treatment c) Hiring diverse talent
0
5
10
15
20
25
20
10 10
Interpretation: According to 20 respondents that H&M should develop the effective
communication among the employees so that they can get the opportunities to understand the
culture of each other. There are 10 respondents which said that management should give the
equal treatment to all cultural people. 10 remaining respondents are agree with hiring that the
diverse talent at workplace
Theme 7: Managing cultural diversity is important for H&M to enhance their
productivity level.
Q7) Does managing cultural diversity is important for H&M
to enhance their productivity level?
Frequency
a) Yes 35
b) No 5
a) Yes b) No
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
35
5

Interpretation: On the basis of 35 respondents that managing the cultural diversity is
necessary for H&M organisation to increase productivity level in an effective manner. On
the basis of 5 respondents that managing the cultural diversity develop is not necessary for
increasing the productivity of an organisation.
Discussion on secondary basis
It has been discussed from the above mentioned information that cultural diversity is
related to community of the diverse people with the different backgrounds related to religion,
gender, age and the sexual orientation. At the workplace there are different background and
cultural people work for attaining the specific objective. It has been discussed that there are
negative and positive impact of cultural diversity on organisational behaviour. In context to
positive impact that cultural diversity develop the innovation and creativity at workplace.
Other than, this negative impact is related to arisen the conflicts among the employees
because their opinion and values are different from the each other. In order to manage the
cultural diversity at workplace H &M organisation used different ways such as hiring the
different culture people and develops the teamwork at workplace.
RESEARCH OUTCOMES
Covered in PPT

REFLECTION & RECOMMENDATION FOR ALTERNATIVE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Reflection
I feel happy because I got the opportunity to conduct this Investigation on impact of
cultural diversity on organisation behaviour. Through conducting the present investigation
my skills and abilities are enhanced in order to meet with the research objectives, I use
various methods for collection of data and information regarding the topic. In this research, I
have used positivism research philosophy and the deductive research approach. There has
been questionnaire used for Collection of data from primary method. The reason behind using
the questionnaire is that it is supportive me through providing the quantitative information
and reliable data. To collect information from secondary data use journals, books, articles and
magazines which helped me in overcoming from the research gave and attaining the set aim
and objectives.
Alternative research methodology
There is an alternate methodology suggested for study that is interview. It is an
alternative questionnaire instrument that also assists researchers in the gathering of primary
information. Under this, respondents may share their opinions and views on the issue. I have
also learned the negative and positive impact of cultural diversity and ways an organisation
should adapt to managing cultural diversity during this investigation.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above mentioned report that cultural diversity is
related to having the people of different places or background which work at in an
organisation for attaining the common objectives within given time period. In this report,
there has been discussed about the positive and negative impact of the cultural diversity city
on organisational behaviour. Other than this, there has been studied about the different ways
in which an organisation used to managing the cultural diversity such as teamwork and
hiring. For Collection of data, there has been questionnaire developed on the basis of impact
of cultural diversity on organisational behaviour. In order to fill the questionnaire there has
been 40 sample size used.
RECOMMENDATIONS

Present report is based on the impact of cultural diversity on organisational behaviour.
Regarding this, there are some recommendations given below:
 It is necessary for H &M organisation to develop the effective communication among
the team by providing the details in an accurate manner. It will helpful in make
coordination among the different culture people.
 It is essential for company to provide training to all the staff members regarding the
cultural diversity so that they can able to understand the culture of each other and
work together in a team.
 Management should treat each employee as an individual and avoiding taking the
employees from diverse backgrounds for granted. It will help in motivating the staff
members which are belong to different backgrounds and enhance the organisational
productivity.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Ferdman, B. M. and Deane, B., 2014. Diversity at work: The practice of inclusion.
Foblets, M. C. and Alidadi, K. eds., 2016. A test of faith?: religious diversity and
accommodation in the European workplace. Routledge.
Guerin, C. and Green, I., 2016. Cultural diversity and the imagined community of the global
academy. Asia Pacific Journal of Education. 36(1). pp.1-12.
Han, S. J. and Beyerlein, M., 2016. Framing the effects of multinational cultural diversity on
virtual team processes. Small group research. 47(4). pp.351-383.
Hofhuis, J., van der Zee, K. I. and Otten, S., 2015. Measuring employee perception on the
effects of cultural diversity at work: development of the Benefits and Threats of
Diversity Scale. Quality & Quantity. 49(1). pp.177-201.
Joubert, Y. T., 2017. Workplace diversity in South Africa: Its qualities and management.
Journal of Psychology in Africa. 27(4). pp.367-371.
Kulkarni, M., Boehm, S. A. and Basu, S., 2016. Workplace inclusion of persons with a
disability. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal.
Lambert, J., 2016. Cultural diversity as a mechanism for innovation: Workplace diversity and
the absorptive capacity framework. Journal of Organizational Culture,
Communications and Conflict. 20(1). p.68.
Martin, A. M., 2014. Multiplicity organizations: A qualitative phenomenology study of
cultural diversity in the workplace(Doctoral dissertation, Capella University).Rice, M.
F., 2015. Diversity and public administration. ME Sharpe.
Mateescu, M. V., 2017. Cultural Diversity in the Workplace-Discourse and Perspectives.
Modelling the New Europe. An On-line Journal. (24). pp.23-35.
Ozgen, C., Nijkamp, P. and Poot, J., 2017. The elusive effects of workplace diversity on
innovation. Papers in Regional Science. 96. pp.S29-S49.
Ravazzani, S., 2016. Understanding approaches to managing diversity in the workplace.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal.
Online
Alpert, R.T., 2020. Cultural Diversity in the Workplace. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.diversityresources.com/cultural-diversity-workplace/>
Belfield, L.D., 2020. What is Cultural Diversity?. [Online]. Available through:
https://www.purdueglobal.edu/blog/social-behavioral-sciences/what-is-cultural-
diversity/.

Chambers, B., (2020). Paving A Way To A More Inclusive Future: H&M's New Head of
Diversity & Inclusion, North America. [Online]. Available through: <
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brittanychambers/2019/02/11/paving-a-way-to-a-more-
inclusive-future-hms-new-head-of-diversity-inclusion-north-america/
#32c243311c5e>.