Workplace Diversity Research Assignment

This assignment delves into the topic of workplace diversity by focusing on research methodologies. It examines the use of quantitative research approaches to understand this phenomenon, highlighting the advantages and limitations of survey questionnaires as a primary data collection tool. The assignment discusses how pie charts in Excel spreadsheets are used to visualize the findings obtained from the survey.

Unit 6: MANAGING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PROJECT

Table of Contents
Step – 2 Conduct primary and secondary research..........................................................................2
Primary Research.........................................................................................................................2
Secondary research......................................................................................................................4
Step – 3 Discussion of findings & recommendations......................................................................7
Evaluation of tools used to gather research and data.................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12
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Step – 2 Conduct primary and secondary research
Based on the aim and objectives of the current research project, the following study has used
secondary and primary data sources. Since primary data is first-hand collected by the researcher,
a questionnaire has been devised to conduct a survey from 20 employees of Sainsbury’s (Bell,
Bryman, Harley and Bryman, 2019). The questionnaire comprises 5 questions based on the 5-
point Likert scale. For secondary research, peer-reviewed journal articles have been selected
relating to the research topic (Quinlan et al., 2019).
Primary research is time-consuming but it allows liberty to the researcher to control the quality
of the data. On the other hand, secondary data is already available which saves time for the
researcher. However, quality cannot be controlled. Nevertheless, both data sources have been
used to ensure the reliability of the data and findings (Bell, Bryman, Harley and Bryman, 2019).
Primary Research
35%
20%
10%
20%
15%
Gender pay gap adversely impacts productivity
at work
Strong Agree Agree neutral
Disagree Strongly Disagree
The chart illustrates employees’ response regarding the impact on gender pay on productivity.
35% of them strongly agree that gender pay gap adversely impacts productivity, 20% agree with
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it whereas 20% and 15% disagree and strongly disagree with it, respectively. 10% are neutral
about it.
35%
25%15%
15%
10%
Gender divide in general impacts the
welbeing of employees
Strong Agree Agree neutral
Disagree Strongly Disagree
The chart illustrates employees’ response regarding the impact of the gender divide in general on
employee wellbeing. 35% of them strongly agree to it, 25% agree to and 15% are neutral. On the
other hand, 15% strongly disagree with it.
25%
35%
10%
15%
15%
Having diverse workforce is challenging for
managers to ensure inclusion and equality
Strong Agree Agree neutral
Disagree Strongly Disagree
The chart illustrates employees’ response to the challenge of having a diverse workforce in
enforcing equality and inclusion. 35% agree and 25% strongly agree that having a diverse
workforce is challenging for managers to ensure inclusion and equality. 10% are neutral to it
whereas 15% of them strongly disagree with it.
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20%
15%
30%
35%
There is ethics audit to respond to issues of
equality and diversity
Strong Agree Agree neutral
Disagree Strongly Disagree
The chart illustrates the employees’ response regarding ethics audit within their organisation.
35% strongly disagree with it and 30% disagree with it. On the other hand, 20% strongly agree
and 15% agree to it.
30%
20%10%
20%
20%
Whistle-blowing platforms reduces
inequality and gender pay gap
Strong Agree Agree neutral
Disagree Strongly Disagree
The chart illustrates the employees’ response regarding whistle-blowing. 30% strongly agree and
20% agree to it whereas 10% have responded neutrally. On the other hand, 20% disagree and
20% strongly disagree with it.
Secondary research
Employee wellbeing is an important aspect of managing human resources. The current issues of
diversity and equality within the workplace further press on organisations to address the
challenges relating to sexual harassment, gender pay gap and gender divide in general. Sharma
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(2016) stated that in managing workplace diversity and equality, leadership plays a crucial role.
The research indicated that organisations use appraisals to manage performance. However, many
managers also serve their biased agendas resulting in discrimination and poor rating. The
research suggested using diversity management systems to promote audits in bringing equality
and diversity in the organisation.
Cletus, Mahmood, Umar and Ibrahim (2018) studied the challenges and prospects of modern-day
workplace diversity. It is a complex concept comprising psychological, physical and sociological
aspects that are attributable to faith, sexual orientation, gender, political beliefs and ethnicity of a
person or group. Thus, workplace diversity transcends representation, recruitment and
preferential treatment of employees at work. However, workplace diversity is challenging in
business management. On the other hand, having a diverse workforce stimulates critical
thinking, professional and problem-solving skills yet disrespect, discrimination and hostility
toward people from a diverse background in the organisations. As a result, such behaviours
impact employee morale and teamwork as well as the profitability of organisations. To overcome
these issues, the research suggested fostering open communication and empowering culture
within the organisation. This way acceptance and productivity will be improved.
Furthermore, Guillaume et al. (2017) studied the impact of demographic workplace diversity on
variables such as wellbeing, social integration and performance of employees. The research
reviewed the moderating impact of diversity on the selected variables while focusing on the
factors that managers and organisations can control such as human resource, strategy, individual
differences, unit design, culture and leadership. The study signified the importance of leadership
in fostering diversity and equality. Participative leadership promotes inclusion and considers
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individual differences. Having an organisational culture of learning and listening enhances
employee engagement which is a positive outcome of diversity.
According to Bond and Haynes (2014), organisational culture plays an instrumental role in
promoting equality and diversity. An organisational culture promoting diversity reflects
teamwork, participation and cohesion. However, managing diversity is challenging and
organisations should use audits to ensure that there are no potential biases.
Schmitt, Branscombe, Postmes and Garcia (2014) studied the correlation between perceived
discrimination and wellbeing i.e. psychological such as depression, self-esteem, life satisfaction,
anxiety and psychological distress. The study found a negative impact of discrimination on
employee wellbeing. Similarly, perceived discrimination has a harmful impact on the
psychological wellbeing of employees.
Similarly, Davis, Frolova and Callahan (2016) studied what managers think of workplace
diversity. The findings of the study show lack of understanding at managers’ part regarding
workplace diversity. Particularly, line managers are well-aware of the concept of workplace
diversity. The reason behind this lack of understanding is the lack of focus and prioritization by
the organisation. The senior managers do not engage in the concept of workplace diversity which
results in a lack of understanding.
The primary research conducted by employees at Sainsbury’s indicates that employees
understand the importance of equality and diversity at the workplace. However, a higher
proportion of employees agreed that there is no ethics audit in their workplace. The literature
indicates that managers lack understanding and importance of workplace diversity due to a lower
level of engagement on the topic by leaders (Bond and Haynes, 2014). This indicates that the
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reason employees in Sainsbury’s believe there is not ethics audit within their workplace is due to
non-prioritisation by managers and leaders.
It has been analysed that there are psychological, physical and sociological aspects of diversity.
The lack of effective measures taken by organisations leads to adverse impact on these aspects of
workplace diversity. The research indicated that whistle-blowing platforms are useful tools to
promote equality and diversity and ensure ethics at the workplace (Cletus, Mahmood, Umar and
Ibrahim, 2018). Whistle-blowing platforms protect the anonymity of employees while it allows
them to report any discriminatory behaviour.
However, organisational components such as strategy, organisational culture, leadership and
values play important role in promoting equality and diversity. It has been found that equality
and diversity and perceived discrimination impact employee wellbeing (Davis, Frolova and
Callahan, 2016).
Step – 3 Discussion of findings & recommendations
The primary and secondary research has provided deeper insight into diversity and equality
management within an organisation. The findings have been illustrated using pie charts in Excel
spreadsheet. The findings indicate that managing diversity is challenging when the workforce is
majorly diverse meaning the cultural, ethnic, sexual, racial and religious differences between
people in the workplace are highly disperse (Davis, Frolova and Callahan, 2016). As a result, it
becomes challenging for managers in Sainsbury’s to assure equality and inclusion. The 35 per
cent of the employees strongly agreed that the high diversity at their workplace poses challenges
for their managers.
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However, it has also been analysed that managers lack an understanding of workplace diversity.
As discussed earlier, leadership plays important role in this regard. However, in the case of
Sainsbury’s, there are no effective tools and strategies put in place by the senior management to
ensure effective handling of diversity (Guillaume et al., 2017). As a result, 35 per cent of the
employees disagreed when they were asked regarding the ethics audit within the organisation.
This shows that ethics audit is necessary to ensure and manage diversity at the workplace.
In addition to that, the research has found that employees find whistle-blowing platforms to be of
high significance in reducing inequality and gender pay gap. Whistle-blowing is effective
because it protects the identity of employees and makes sure that any unethical or discriminatory
incident is reported to senior management (Schmitt, Branscombe, Postmes and Garcia, 2014).
It has been found that the gender pay gap and gender divide in general impacts productivity and
employee wellbeing. The literature indicates that discrimination has a significantly negative
impact on the psychological wellbeing of an individual. The discrimination against someone
based on their race, age, gender, sex or faith reduces their productivity at work. Reduced
employee productivity implies declining organisational performance (Sharma, 2016).
It can be said that an organisation has to manage diversity because it hampers the engagement of
employees. In this regard, the literature highlighted the importance of organisational climate and
culture in promoting equality and inclusion (Bond and Haynes, 2014). The participative
leadership, respect and cohesion among employees and managers with the help of senior
management build a culture of support and teamwork. However, the findings from primary
research indicate that the management at Sainsbury’s has not managed diversity and equality
effectively (Cletus, Mahmood, Umar and Ibrahim, 2018). Therefore, below are the
recommendations:
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 Sainsbury’s should offer diversity training to line managers and the senior management
should speak more about diversity and equality. The training should involve line managers
and employees so that the latter could discuss their concerns and issues. These interactive
sessions would reduce employees’ grievances and allow managers to have a different
perspective.
 Sainsbury’s should also employ ethics auditor who would be responsible for ensuring and
monitoring ethics and effectiveness of different management systems. For instance, if the
managers are using performance appraisals then the rating and criteria for performance
should be fair and do not in any way discriminate against anyone. The role of ethics audit
would be to monitor and control the work ethics to prevent issues such as discrimination,
sexual harassment or gender divide in payor leadership roles.
 Sainsbury’s should also establish an effective whistle-blowing platform which would be led
by ethics auditor, HR manager and senior executives. Having an effective whistle-blowing
platform would be signal to the employees that the organisation values them. The platform
should encourage employees to come forward to report any incident without losing their
identity. At the same time, it also discourages any potential incidents of discrimination or
workplace harassment.
 The managers should be held accountable for their rating and actions. The guidelines and
policies regarding performance management, career opportunities, learning and development
etc. should be clear and communicated across the organisation so that employees know their
rights and managers know their duties.
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Evaluation of tools used to gather research and data
As mentioned earlier, the present research has used primary and secondary data. Therefore, the
tools used to gather primary data was survey questionnaire whereas pie charts in Excel
spreadsheet have been used to present the findings.
The survey questionnaire is useful when the research approach is quantitative. The present
research has used quantitative approach because it uses mathematical or statistical tools to
interpret results (Elswick, 2019). Quantitative research is explanatory which means it explains a
certain phenomenon in numbers. The survey questionnaire is used in quantitative research to
gather data from a large sample (Bell, Bryman, Harley and Bryman, 2019). Moreover, surveys
are cost-effective and do not require much time. The questionnaire can be electronically mailed
or distributed among the sample to get the responses. This is why the survey is useful (Bell,
Bryman, Harley and Bryman, 2019).
However, there are demerits to the survey questionnaire. For instance, the respondents may
perceive items as per their own understanding. In this way, the responses may not be appropriate.
Similarly, many respondents also do not give honest responses or feel comfortable filling
questionnaire (Elswick, 2019). In other cases, many employees may not give enough time to
understanding items due to work schedules. This results in different outcomes than anticipated
from the research.
However, in the case of the present study, the survey questionnaire has been used because the
sample for the research was employees who had time to fill the questionnaire at their own
discretion. Moreover, the items in the questionnaire were simple and only 5 since it was small
scale research. Additionally, the survey allowed respondents to remain anonymous. This was
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done to make sure that employees feel comfortable in answering the survey (Quinlan et al.,
2019).
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References
Bell, E., Bryman, A., Harley, B. and Bryman, A., 2019. Business Research Methods. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Bond, M. and Haynes, M., 2014. Workplace diversity: A social–ecological framework and
policy implications. Social Issues and Policy Review, 8(1), pp.167-201.
Cletus, H., Mahmood, N., Umar, A. and Ibrahim, A., 2018. Prospects and Challenges of
Workplace Diversity in Modern Day Organizations: A Critical Review. HOLISTICA – Journal
of Business and Public Administration, 9(2), pp.35-52.
Davis, P., Frolova, Y. and Callahan, W., 2016. Workplace diversity management in Australia:
What do managers think and what are organisations doing?. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:
An International Journal.
Elswick, S., 2019. Data Collection.
Guillaume, Y., Dawson, J., Otaye‐Ebede, L., Woods, S. and West, M., 2017. Harnessing
demographic differences in organizations: What moderates the effects of workplace
diversity?. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(2), pp.276-303.
Quinlan, C., Babin, B., Carr, J., Griffin, M. and Zikmund, W., 2019. Business Research Methods.
Hanpshire: Cengage Learning EMEA.
Schmitt, M., Branscombe, N., Postmes, T. and Garcia, A., 2014. The consequences of perceived
discrimination for psychological well-being: a meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin,
140(4), p.921.
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Sharma, A., 2016. Managing diversity and equality in the workplace. Cogent Business &
Management, 3(1).
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