Workplace Conflict in Asda: De-escalation Techniques and Negotiation Process

This report discusses workplace conflict in Asda, the de-escalation techniques used, and the negotiation process. The report highlights the gender pay gap issue and how it was resolved.

Running head: WORKPLACE CONFLICT
WORKPLACE CONFLICT
Name of student:
Name of university:
Author’s note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................2
Discussion......................................................................................................................2
Conflict.......................................................................................................................2
De-escalation technique.............................................................................................3
Negotiation process....................................................................................................4
Conclusion......................................................................................................................5
References......................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
This report aims to discuss the topic workplace conflict in the organisation ‘Asda’.
The conflict is clearly described in this report and the differences of the conflict are clearly
stated in this report. The de-escalation technique that is used in this conflict is highlighted in
this report along with the benefit of each process. The processes of conflict resolution that
was used has been identified in this report. The advantages and the disadvantages of all the
approaches is clearly stated in this report. An analysis of the result of the approach is
provided in this report. Lastly this report concludes with an appropriate conclusion.
The company Asda is a supermarket retailer in Britain that is headquartered in Leeds,
West Yorkshire. This company was built in 1949 during the period when the supermarket
that owned the Asquith family merged with the Associated Dairies, which is a company in
Yorkshire (Xie & Allen, 2013). Besides the core supermarkets, this company also provides
numerous services that includes the provider of mobile phone that utilises the prevailing
network of EE and the financial services. The marketing promotions of Asda are commonly
dependent exclusively on the price ever since 2015, just as the parent company which is
Walmart.
Discussion
Conflict
Asda, which is the second largest retailer in UK is facing the mass legal action by the
women of the company who has a job in the stores. It is claimed by the women that the pay
scale of the women are not similar to the male workers in the distributor warehouses. The
case has been filed and it is predicted that the case will test how the retailers determine the
payment method of the staff in the different sections of the business (Leat & Revoredo-Giha,
2013). And in any situation the women are fruitful in their allegations, the company would

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face severe difficulties that could damage the reputation of the company and the workers. The
legal action is believed as the largest of its variety in the private sector and it could lead to the
situation of severe high pay-outs (Rancati, 2015). The two sources that have been used
highlighted the similar issue of the gender gap in payscale of the company and one of the
sources discussed about the case of the company. The sources claims that the issue of the
gender gap has been prevailing in the company for a long time and this led to the distress
among the workers of the company, especially the female workers. The male workers were
paid according to the job level in the company and the female workers at the same level were
paid less than the opposite gender.
De-escalation technique
The main de-escalation technique that were used in the situation of equal pay-scale by the
company are as follows:
Offered the paid leave and onsite-or subsidised childcare: The Company offered the
women workers of the company four to six months of paid leave during the phase of
pregnancy of the women and they also provided leave during the initial months of
motherhood. The company also provided the male workers of the company paid leave during
the initial months of parenthood as with the combined efforts of the parents in raising the
child and caring for them in the initial months, the workers can return to their jobs quickly
(Lucia & Flavia, 2017). The benefit of using this step was that the workers were not troubled
by the lack of payment and both the gender could improve the upbringing of their child.
Enhance the work culture around the policies of flexible work: even though several
companies offered the service of paid leave, it was observed that several workers were
hesitant is exercising the benefits of this facility especially the workers who intended to work
over time (Coffin, 2014). The flex policies are intended to be a method of retaining workers

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and obtain the most talent that is top level, but it was not successful as many people took
advantage of this. The company then implemented these policies as mandatory for forcing the
most participation. The major benefit of this method was to provide the equal opportunity to
the genders to work overtime and earn extra money from the company.
Use of transparency in the pay: The company introduced new method of transparency
around the pay that helps in the removal of the issue of pay according to the gender. The
company took this step ahead and published the pay-scale of both gender and this formula
used to connect with them. The company claimed that this method helped in the pay equity
and it removed the negotiations of salary from topic (Units, 2015). The issue of pay gap in
the genders was eliminated as this method helped in discovery of the gaps of pay and the
proper methods were applied for mitigating this issue.
Negotiation process
The main negotiation process that was used was that both the gender workers were
allowed to reveal the salary and the individuals of the same level working in the company
were provided with equal pay-scale which eliminated the issue of gender pay gap. The
women were provided with the extra pay that they deserved as the male workers in the
company. Several women workers achieved a raise in their salary and the women who had
the equal pay of women were provided with extra benefits (Ahmad, 2016). The main
advantage of this approach is that the company now claimed that the company rectified the
mistakes that was being done and ensured the facility of equal pay scale to both the genders
in all the branches of the company (ASDA'A, 2016). This approach was successful because it
helped in improving the work culture in the company as both the genders now had the same
salary scale at different levels and with that the women obtained extra benefits of maternal
leave and incentives for the extra hours that were put by the workers.

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Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that the company Asda faced a legal action for the
gender gap in the pay-scale for the workers of the company and the result of this conflict was
that now the women of the company had the same pay scale as the male workers of the
company, which improved the work culture of the company. The considered company is
Asda, which is the major supermarket retailer that is headquartered in the country, UK and it
is headquartered in the city of Leeds. The foundation of the company was around 1949 and
the company owned the Asquith family, which was merged with the Associated Dairies,
which is a company is Yorkshire. The company faces a huge legal allegation by the women
of the company about the gender gap in pay scale. The de-escalation technique that was used
were offering of paid leave and onsite-or subsidised childcare, improvement of the work
culture around the policies of flexible work and use of transparency in the pay. The main
negotiation process that was used was that both the gender workers were allowed to reveal
the salary and the individuals of the same level working in the company were provided with
equal pay-scale which eliminated the issue of gender pay gap.

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References
Ahmad, M. H., (2016) Report on the effectiveness of HR policies in relation to an events
company.
ASDA'A, B. M. (2016). Inside the Hearts and Minds of Arab Youth. 8th Annual ASDA'A
Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey.
Coffin, C. (2014). EAP in an internationalising higher education system: a ‘language as social
semiotic approach’.
Leat, P., & Revoredo-Giha, C. (2013). Risk and resilience in agri-food supply chains: the
case of the ASDA PorkLink supply chain in Scotland. Supply Chain Management: An
International Journal, 18(2), 219-231.
Lucia, A., & Flavia, C. (2017). Shopping as ‘Best Practice’-Analyzing Walmart’s Debated
Sustainability Policies. Вестник Российского университета дружбы народов.
Серия: Лингвистика, 21(1).
Rancati, E. (2015) Strategic Brand Management and Global Mass Retailer.
Units, E. Y. C. R. (2015). 3 Role Typologies for Foreign Subsidiaries. Strategic International
Management: Text and Cases, 67.
Xie, Y., & Allen, C. (2013). Information technologies in retail supply chains: a comparison of
Tesco and Asda. International Journal of Business Performance and Supply Chain
Modelling, 5(1), 46-62.

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