Problem Solving and Decision Making in Workplace Discrimination Against Women

This report discusses the complex problem of workplace discrimination against women, identifies information on the problem, suggests alternative solutions, and develops a plan for implementation. It also highlights the need for monitoring and review practices to ensure successful application of the solution. The subject is Business and the course code, course name, college/university are not mentioned.

Solving and
Decision Making

Contents
INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ...........................................................................................................................................3
Discuss with the complex problem which is identified within the work place ..................................3
Identify various information on the identified problem, to aid inform the decision-........................4
making process..................................................................................................................................4
Suggest a range of alternative resolutions to the problematic..........................................................5
Giving women platform to be in power and make financial progress...............................................5
Ending violence and sexual assault against women...........................................................................5
Use a decision-making method to evaluate a range of answers to identify the most ......................6
suitable option...................................................................................................................................6
Develop a plan for applying the solution...........................................................................................6
Communicate the plan to shareholders.............................................................................................7
Assess appropriate monitoring and review practices to ensure successful application of ...............7
the solution........................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business decision making is a complex process as the factors involved and the
consequences of each action made has varied effects on all stakeholders. The workforce of
the company is especially important and it has been identified that UK businesses are still
very sexist towards women and the female employees face harassment frequently (Garcez,
Cavalcanti and de Almeida, A.T., 2021). This report will include various topics such as
complex problem within the workplace, information on identified problem, alternative
solutions, decision making techniques, plan for implementing the solution, communicating to
the stakeholders and at last monitoring and review techniques for the successful
implementation of the solution. The organization which will serve as a framework on which
this report will be structured is Marks and Spencer which is a major British multinational
retailer which was established in 1884 and is currently headquartered in London while
specialising in sale of clothing and home products.
MAIN BODY
Marks and Spencer is a multinational company which holds a lot of corporate weight
behind its decades long legacy and as such it employs a large workforce while still failing the
women in its workplace. There are some glaring issues that the company themselves admitted
to in 2018 when it was identified that there was a 12.3% pay gap between the two genders
and when it came to women participation in the UK company, around 53% of the directors
were male and the company's 10-person board contained 7 men making it a 70% biased
scenario (Marks and Spencer reports a 12.3% mean gender pay gap, 2021). Such issues are
common ih the current business landscape of UK along with sexual exploitation which must
be resolved with urgency.
Discuss with the complex problem which is identified within the work place
It has been identified that a complex problem with this is the discrimination against
women within the workplace which has a huge impact over the business organisation. This is
the main problem which is seen in the workplace that through keen observation that the
women are not treated equally than men. It is an established fact that about most of the
women in the United Kingdom have faced discrimination on the job because of the gender.

One of the biggest gender gaps is in the area of income where women are not equal to the
men just because of the gender. This is considered as the complex problem within the
workplace which can impact achieving of the goals and objectives. As in early times the
woman of education which were assumed to be less knowledgeable and have less capacity to
perform within the workplace. Partiality against women has been done since times long gone
and it still exists today. People to get want women to move forward and step ahead in order to
achieve the goals and objectives. There are various issues related to these problems such as
unequal pay, sexual harassment and racism. (Krishankumar, and et.al., 2020)
Identify various information on the identified problem, to aid inform the decision-
making process
It has been known that these discrimination against women is the major problem and there
are several issues which can be discussed in order to find the various solutions for decision
making process. The information which is identified has been discussed below:
 It is been identified that women are more educated than men and has more knowledge
still they are paid less within the workplace. From the various statistics it is identified
that almost 74 percent of women faces challenges and paid less at the workplace. It is
also identified that more than half of women leave the workplace for at least a year,
which is considered as twice the rate of men. According to recent UK reports and
surveys conducted by the government, a whooping 91% of UK businesses are still
being reporetd as being practitioners of sexism owing to gender pay gaps and the
existence of 'boy's club' culture which has been very harmful for women ('It’s still
real' New report finds staggering 91% of UK businesses experience sexism, 2022)
 The women also face sexual harassment within the workplace which cannot be
neglected. From the reports it is identified that the most of women face sexual aasault
harassment within the workplace which can be verbal or physical assault.
 The women have a fear of asking to be paid higher in job as it may seems that women
are greedy or desperate for high pays which leads to hesitation when it comes for
asking within the workplace.

Suggest a range of alternative resolutions to the problematic
It is very important to have the alternative solutions to the problem which is faced by
women in the workplace.
Giving women platform to be in power and make financial progress.
Around the world, females have less portrayal than men. All over the planet, most of
the states have never had a woman like head of government or state for something like one
year in the past several years including the United Kingdom. The number of women in
political positions compared with men is alarmingly deranged. In worldwide councils, ladies
are shadowed four to one. Positioning equity in political positions is a unique case as just
three nations have more ladies in parliament in single or lower houses. By having an
equivalent presence of ladies in governmental issues or administrative roles, the interests and
upsides of females will be better addressed on the political level. For frequent ladies, making
economic progress and move up the financial scale is hard. All through the world, ladies
work for extended periods of time of neglected homegrown positions. In certain spots,
females don't reserve the privilege to possess land, procure a pay and progress their vocations
because of occupation apartheid. (Kaufman, and Lindquist, 2018)
Ending violence and sexual assault against women
An extraordinary number of nations have regulations against rude behavior at home
and rape. Be that as it may, these regulations regularly go unnoticed, endangering ladies and
young ladies' freedoms to their wellbeing and equity. Consistently, ladies across the world are
killed by a relative or personal accomplice. This dimension is an hurtful design of the
significance of viciousness toward women. Women are certain to meeting sexual brutality
than men. When it comes to sexual assault in UK, the situation is quite grim as according to
surveys as recent as of 2020, nearly 72% of the UK's entire polulation have accounted for
being sexually harassed atleast once in their life and women were much more likely to report
such incidences (2020 Sexual Harassment Survey, 2019). Workplaces are a major issue as
well due to majority of the women reporting being harassed and the perpetrator of such
traumzatizing events were mostly men.

Use a decision-making method to evaluate a range of answers to identify the most
suitable option
The decision-making process pays an important role within the organisation. It is very
important to identify which technique is suitable and can help in solving the problem. There
are various decision-making techniques which can be discussed below:
 It has been identified that the company can use the process-oriented approach which
means that the primary responsibility of a manager is to get things done with and
through the others which involves leveraging organisation processes in order to
accomplish the goals and objectives of the business organisation. This is the approach
which can help the organisation to stick to one goal and achieve them.
 It is very important to involve the team in the process in order to make a good
decision. Involvement of the team members helps in bringing the multiple viewpoints
into the conversation and stimulate creative problem-solving. According to the
research, it has come to the light that decision-making is highly effective because it
pulls individuals collective knowledge and experience which leads to more innovative
solutions and assist to surface and overcome the hidden business among the team
members ( Danti, 2021).
Develop a plan for applying the solution
It is very important to develop a plan which can implemented in order to have a solution to
the problem. There are various steps which can be included which are discussed below:
 It is very important to first identify the problem and the percentage amount which is
been present in the workplace.
 The managers need to hire the equal amount of men and women within the
workplace.
 The compensation package policies should be similar for the women which is most
important.
 It is very important for the management to conduct the equal training sessions for
women which can help them in understanding better.
 The women should be asked first and they should be treated equally in terms of
performance of various other aspect.

 In terms of promotion, it is very important for the women to be first and be paid
according to their ability. (Burroughs, 2020)
Communicate the plan to shareholders
It is very important for the management of the organisation to convey the plan to the
stakeholders. In order to communication the organisation can focus on developing a
campaign which will help in communication to the stakeholders of the company. This will
help in establishing the right way and convey to the large audience. It is essential as in order
to eliminate the problem the various measures need to be taken into consideration. The use of
various digital platforms such as social media can help in communication where the company
can focus on the right which is been given to the women in workplace and also the
recruitment of women is in equal ration to men (Atrey, 2018).
Assess appropriate monitoring and review practices to ensure successful application of
the solution.
It is very important to have the appropriate control and monitoring over the implemented
solution in order to know whether the things have been implemented in a right way or not.
The various monitoring techniques which can be used by the organisation are:
 Key performance indicators - This is the measurable technique for the performance
management which can help the organisation in knowing the effectiveness of the
implemented plan. This can help in measuring the success of the activity which is
conducted.( Mosley and Branscombe, 2021). There should be KPI's which must be
exclusively established to promote workplace safety while prioritizing counters
against sexual and any other form of harassment. Some examples include number of
reports on sexual exploitation, number of incidents, the total amount of complaints in
a month or quarter along with the nature of the allegations.
 Digital infrastructure review – Modern business systems employ a robust IT
framework which comprises of multiple devices includes mobiles, laptops and PC's
which are often used to communicate and facilitate lewd conversations and practices
at the workplace. The chat and browser history of such devices along with every
major and minor use of digital technologies by employees which belong to the
business must be regulated thoroughly.

 Gender pay gap reports – Marks and Spencer have identified their pay gaps in
business and in order to regularly ensure that women are not being treated lesser than
men, the existing level of salaries being paid should be monitoroed and their levels
should be adjusted accordingly.
CONCLUSION
The above report went into detail regarding the complex situations that women face
in the business workplaces of UK which involve not only sexual harassments but pathetic and
unequal standards of pay when compared to men. There were key discussions held on the
current practices which are being followed by firms in UK and the problem which is been
identified in this report is the discrimination against women which is considered as a huge
problem within the workplace and this need to be resolved with urgency. The report
contained key discussions on the current level of women discrimination in UK based
businesses along with speicial focus on sexual and workplace harassment. It was identified
that maximum businesses were still involved in sexist practices and it was concluded that
setting safety related key performance indicators, making sure that pay is non-biased and
healthy along with system regulations were necessary to control this problem.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Atrey, S., 2018. Comparison in intersectional discrimination. Legal Studies, 38(3), pp.379-
395.
Burroughs, B., 2020. Title VII Meets Title IX for Student Employees: Remedies for
Discrimination against Graduate Students. UMKC L. Rev., 89, p.441.
Danti, A.R.A., 2021. PERLINDUNGAN PEREMPUAN KORBAN KEKERASAN
SEKSUAL BERDASARKAN QANUN DI PROVINSI ACEH DITINJAU DARI
CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas
Gadjah Mada).
Fu, G., Wei, J., Shi, Y., Yan, Y., Li, Y., Zhan, J. and Wang, J., 2018. Examining
discrimination against women, non-Han minorities, intellectuals, and non-
communist members among the current China’s provincial political elites. Journal of
Women, Politics & Policy, 39(2), pp.177-195.
Garcez, T.V., Cavalcanti, H.T. and de Almeida, A.T., 2021. A hybrid decision support model
using Grey Relational Analysis and the Additive-Veto Model for solving
multicriteria decision-making problems: An approach to supplier selection. Annals
of Operations Research, 304(1), pp.199-231.
Hirsh, C.E., Treleaven, C. and Fuller, S., 2020. Caregivers, Gender, and The Law: An
Analysis of Family Responsibility Discrimination Case Outcomes. Gender &
Society, 34(5), pp.760-789.
Kaufman, N.H. and Lindquist, S.A., 2018. Critiquing gender-neutral treaty language: The
convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.
In Women's Rights Human Rights (pp. 114-125). Routledge.
Krishankumar, R., Ravichandran, K.S., Aggarwal, M. and Tyagi, S.K., 2020. Extended
hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set with fuzzy confidence for solving group decision-
making problems. Neural Computing and Applications, 32(7), pp.2879-2896.
Mosley, A.J. and Branscombe, N.R., 2021. Benefit-finding improves well-being among
women who have experienced gender discrimination. Sex Roles, 84(7), pp.404-417.
Online referencing
Marks and Spencer reports a 12.3% mean gender pay gap, 2021 [online] available through
<https://employeebenefits.co.uk/issues/february-2018/marks-spencers-gender-pay-gap/>
2020 Sexual Harassment Survey, 2019 [online] available through <
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/
attachment_data/file/1002873/2021-07-12_Sexual_Harassment_Report_FINAL.pdf>

'It’s still real' New report finds staggering 91% of UK businesses experience sexism, 2022 [online]
available through < https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1599582/sexism-uk-business-government-
gender-pay-gap>