To Examine Cultural Diversity's Impact on Disabilities at ASDA

This research project examines the impact of managing cultural diversity to reduce the issues of physical and mental disabilities in the workplace, using ASDA as a case study. The study defines the concepts of equality and diversity, emphasizing their importance in creating a positive work environment. It sets out research aims, objectives, and questions, supported by a literature review exploring the benefits and challenges of cultural diversity, including its impact on employee motivation, productivity, and retention. The research employs primary and secondary research methods to gather and analyze data, focusing on ASDA's practices and their effects on employee well-being. The report includes a discussion of research methodologies, potential issues, and alternative approaches, culminating in conclusions and references. The project aims to identify the impact of cultural diversity, the importance of managing it, and the issues arising from physical and mental disabilities in the workplace, providing insights for organizations seeking to improve their diversity and inclusion strategies.

Research Project
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Title: “To examine the impact of managing cultural diversity to reduce the issue of Physical and
Mental Disabilities at workplace”. A study on ASDA.
Abstract: This study is done to increase knowledge upon the impact of culture diversity in
order to resolve the issue of Physical and Mental Disabilities at workplace. These are the
required approach that employer requires to analyse in order to promote equality and diversity at
workplace. This research is based on ASDA which is a British supermarket retailer. In order to
gather relevant information, primary and secondary sources are used that analysing views and
opinions of services users. With the help of this analysis, organisation can identify the
requirement of implementing cultural diversity at workplace.
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Acknowledgement: For this research, I want to thank my superiors and guide for their
guidance to structure this research as well as in data gathering practices from different sources.
They also resolve my queries and evaluate efficiency level of my research.
Furthermore, I want to appreciate working practices of employees of ASDA who provide
their contribution in gathering relevant information of firm.
At last, I want to thank my family members and friends for their support that motivate me to
done this research.
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5
LO1..................................................................................................................................................5
P1 Defines a research question or hypothesis, supported by a literature review........................5
P2 Research methods and conduct primary and secondary research..........................................9
LO2................................................................................................................................................10
P3 Primary and secondary research using appropriate method.................................................10
P4 Apply appropriate analytical tools to analyse research findings and data............................14
LO3................................................................................................................................................24
P5 Communicate research outcomes in an appropriate manner for the intended audience......24
LO4................................................................................................................................................24
P6 Reflect on the effectiveness of research methods.................................................................24
P7 Alternative research methodologies.....................................................................................25
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................25
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................26
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INTRODUCTION
Equality and diversity is a term that can be defined as promoting equal opportunity for all by
implementing diversity within workplace (Arnett and et.al., 2020). Both these terms determine
separately as equality is about ensuring that everyone has equal opportunity and they are not
treated differently on the basis of their characteristics and by any other term. On the other hand,
Diversity is about taking actions by employ a workforce of individuals without discriminating
them on the basis of gender, race, age, culture, religion and so on. In this regard an organisation
requires to implement cultural diversity at workplace by providing employment opportunities to
those who belongs to different culture, country and workplace. By implementing such, firm can
promote respect of other cultures by developing a team of individual who belongs to diverse
culture. These kind of practices are required to promote employee’s morale by providing them
appropriate satisfaction from their job role. This research is based on ASDA which is a British
supermarket retailer which was founded in the year of 1949 by Peter and Fred Asquith and Sir
Noel Stockdale. This organisation provides their product and services in their more than 630
stores in which they have a huge workforce. For the firm, it is required to implement cultural
diversity because the employees of the firm belong to different cultures.
LO1
P1 Defines a research question or hypothesis, supported by a literature review.
In an organisation, cultural diversity plays a most important role in order to enhance
employee motivation, their morale as well as to provide them job satisfaction. Management can
access such practices by providing fair treatment to their employees that can assist them to
develop positive working environment (Gundara and Jacobs, 2019). With the help of these
practices, an organisation can retain their employees for a long duration that helps in managing
productivity within organisation. This research is based on cultural diversity practices of ASDA
that can assist them to resolve issues related to physical and mental pressure over the employees.
Research Aim
Main aim of this research is “To examine the impact of managing cultural diversity to
reduce the issue of Physical and Mental Disabilities at workplace”. A study on ASDA.
Research Objectives
 To identify the impact of cultural diversity within a workplace.
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 To examine the importance of managing cultural diversity over business performance of
ASDA.
 To identify main issues that occurs at workplace due to Physical and Mental Disabilities.
Research Questions
 What is the main impact of cultural diversity within a workplace?
 What are the importance of managing cultural diversity over business performance of
ASDA?
 What are the issues that occurs at workplace due to Physical and Mental Disabilities?
Hypothesis
Hypothesis 1
Null hypothesis: μ = There is impact of cultural diversity within a workplace.
Alternative hypothesis: μ ≠ There is impact of cultural diversity within a workplace.
Hypothesis 2
Null hypothesis: μ = There is importance of managing cultural diversity over business
performance of ASDA
Alternative hypothesis: μ ≠There is importance of managing cultural diversity over business
performance of ASDA
Hypothesis 3
Null hypothesis: μ = There is different issues that occurs at workplace due to Physical and
Mental Disabilities
Alternative hypothesis: μ ≠There is different issues that occurs at workplace due to Physical and
Mental Disabilities
Literature review
The main impact of cultural diversity within a workplace
As per the views of Katle Reynolds, 2017 now a day, a workforce is made up of
individual who belong to different culture, ages, gender and religion (13 benefits and challenges
of cultural diversity in the workplace, 2017). Many organisations understand that it is required to
implement cultural diversity at workplace in order to appreciate belief and values of different
cultures. These kind of practices are essential at workplace because while diversity is properly
managed, the result of this is that all the individuals would consider themselves important that
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aid to promote employee’s motivation at workplace. Cultural diversity has both positive and
negative impact within a workplace which are determined below as:
Benefits (Positive impact)
 Diverse cultural perspectives can inspire creativity and drive innovation: Culture
influence the way a person think and see the world (Schachner, 2019). Thus, it would be
beneficial for an organisation to employ individuals who belongs to different cultures in
order to grab opportunities on the basis of their creative and innovative view point.
 Drawing diverse talent pool: In today’s global market, a multicultural and inclusive
environment help an organisation to retain a right candidate at workplace. in context of
recruitment, diversity assist in drawing a talent pool by which firm can attract ambitious,
enthusiastic and talented candidate to keep their workforce productive. This will assist in
retaining employees for a long duration as well as reduce cost of employee turnover.
 Diverse teams are more productive and perform better: A diverse workforce always
offers a range of expertise, experience and diverse working practices that helps to attain
numerous opportunities at workplace. With the help of experience and expertise a firm
can manage problem solving approaches as well as can lead a greater or productive
workforce easily.
Challenges (Negative impact)
 Difficulties in integration between different culture: Major challenge in front of an
organisation can be foster integration between different cultures. It is not an easy
approach to develop a team in which individuals have different mind-set as well as
working approaches. On the other hand, another challenging factor in this could be
negative cultural stereotype personality that can affect company’s morale as well as
workforce productivity.
 Professional communication can be misinterpreted: Effective and impressive
translation is a key term that lead teamwork. Due to diversity in cultures, organisation
faces one major challenge as diversity in language that has a direct impact upon verbal
and non-verbal communication of individual’s. Thus, there might be possibility of
misinterpreted communication that can affect negatively upon others emotions.
 Different understandings of professional etiquette: Cultural has a direct impact upon
behaviour, attitude, values as well as etiquette. Thus, these kind of practices can lead
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misunderstanding as well as an ill feeling between teammates because it is hard for each
and every one to understand other’s behaviour and attitude. It can also raise issue in front
of management to deal with approaches of punctuality as well as other conflicts.
Importance of managing cultural diversity over business performance of ASDA
According to Rick Lepsinger, 2018 Diversity at workplace has been an important concept
that growing number of opportunities to implement creativity, ideas and variety of innovation
easily (The Importance of Cultural Diversity in the Workplace, 2018). Main reason behind this is
that culture directly influence thought processing, understanding and consistency of an
individual. All these practices directly influence performance of individual because they can lead
a task on the basis of their creative working approach as well as innovative mind set. These kind
of practices impacts positively upon business performance by which firm can implement
required changes in their working practices easily. Importance of managing culture diversity
over business performance is:
Improve creativity at workplace: One major benefit of implementing cultural diversity
is that it assists in improving creative working approach by analysing views and ideas of
different individuals. All these practices assist in influencing traditional working approach by
making desired changes in it on the basis of creative and innovative working ideas. Through this,
an organisation can represent quality services in front of their target customers by making
desired changes on the basis of their requirement and need. Creativity among team assist to have
a diverse set of solution for a specific problem.
Improve employee engagement: Learning provide an ability to attain several challenges
with the help of new ideas. Cultural diversity influence team working practices in which
organisation assign a task to a team in which individual who belongs to different cultures
represent their ideas and views in order to accomplish it effectively within a given time period.
All these practices assist in make improvement in individual’s behaviour towards other by
analysing their creativity and understanding power. Culture diversification also promote learning
at workplace in which each individual can learn so many things from the working approaches of
others.
Reduce employee turnover: An organisation that promote a diverse culture would
immediately entice a wider pool between organisation and employee (Young and Guo, 2020).
Cultural diversity promotes employee to take participation in organisation’s decision making by
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providing their views and opinion in organisation’s decision making. All these practices assist in
developing employee motivation by which firm can retain them easily in organisation for a long
period. Cultural diversity also requires to implement in recruitment process that can lead to draw
a diverse talent pool between candidate and firm. Now days, job seekers prefer those companies
that promote cultural diversity because they do not lead employment discrimination and provide
opportunity to individuals on the basis of their skills and abilities.
Major issues that occurs at workplace due to Physical and Mental Disabilities
As per the articles views, it has been identified that due to physical and mental disability of
employee may raise numerous issues at workplace (Mental health problems in the workplace,
2020). therefore, it is required for employer to provide flexibility to their employees in work
related context so that they can accomplish target within a limited time duration. Major issues
that may occur due to Physical and Mental Disabilities can be conflict, communication error,
misinterpretation, inappropriate behaviour towards team members, anxiety, depression bullying
and so on. All these practices have a direct impact over the work culture of an organisation.
These practices affect negatively upon business profitability as well as productivity of overall
team. Therefore, it is required for management to analyse reason behind such issues in order to
take required against them. In this regard, they can introduce training sessions for their
employees to motivate them easily.
P2 Research methods and conduct primary and secondary research
Primary Methods – There are different primary methods that can be used in order to
collect data for a research. The different methods include observation, test marketing,
questionnaires, online surveys, face-to-face surveys, focus groups etc. The different primary
methods of research ensure that the data which is collected is first-hand and reliable. Also, a
researcher can tailor the size of the sample based on the requiremen6t of the research (De Groot
and Spiekerman, 2020). It is also referred to as field research as it involves the researcher to
collect data from the respondents himself. Primary methods provide the researcher with
information that is fresh and unused in order to determine the solution to a particular problem.
Secondary Methods – Secondary methods of research involves using information or
data that is already available in the form of online journals, diaries, research papers, websites etc.
A researcher can filter the large amounts data that is available as per the requirement of the
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research. Other secondary methods for data collection include the information which is available
on internet, websites of government as well as non-government agencies, etc. Besides having a
lot of advantages, one of the drawbacks of using secondary methods is that the information
available may or may not be according to the requirement of the research. Therefore, it is
important for the researcher to know about the right sources that should be explored in order to
collect the most relevant data.
Quantitative Research – This can be defined as a type of research which involves
analysing the data and presenting it in the form of numbers, tables and graphs. A quantitative
research helps in generating knowledge and allowing the researcher to understand about a
particular research problem (Fink, 2019). The results of a quantitative research can help in
making effective decisions and addressing the research problem in the most efficient manner.
Also, the sample size in a quantitative research is large as compared to a qualitative research.
The process of data collection is faster in this type of research which can be analysed using
various statistical tools and techniques. The analysis of the data can yield insightful and very
useful results which can contribute to the overall effectiveness of the research.
Qualitative Research – This is a type of research wherein data is collected by asking
open-ended questions to the respondents. The different ways through which data for a qualitative
research can be collected include focus groups, content analysis, case study etc. The results of a
qualitative research are descriptive in comparison to the results of a quantitative research. One of
the major drawbacks of this type of research is that the results which are obtained cannot be
presented in the form of numbers or tables. The research provides an understanding of how
decisions are made. Advantages of qualitative research include an in-depth analysis, creates
openness etc. The research can also help a researcher in understanding the changes within the
team members of a group.
LO2
P3 Primary and secondary research using appropriate method
Questionnaire – A questionnaire can be referred to as a research instrument that
comprises of a set of questions that are related to a particular research problem. The main
purpose of a questionnaire is to collect information that is first hand and accurate (Kogan,
Mayhew and Vasarhelyi, 2019). A questionnaire is one of the most common methods that is used
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by a researcher in order to collect information from a large sample of respondents. Although
there are various advantages of using a questionnaire, there can still be certain drawbacks which
can include the respondents lying or choosing not to answer the questions. The cost associated
with a questionnaire is very less but the overall process of data collection can consume a lot of
time. A questionnaire can consist of both closed as well as open-ended questions.
Sampling – It refers to the process of selecting a pre determined number of observations
from a large population. The size of the sample depends on the type of analysis that is to be
performed for the research. There are two types of sampling, probabilistic and non-probabilistic.
Sampling is an important component in a research and desired results can be obtained by
analysing a sample rather than having to analyse a large population. The primary purpose of the
sampling process is to provide relevant statistical information to the researcher. If the data is
collected from a large population, it can involve a lot of money, but a sample helps in
minimising the cost. Apart from this, the overall accuracy of the data which is collected and
analysed is high.
Positivism/Interpretivism – Positivism as well as interpretivism are types of research
philosophies (Kumar, 2019). Positivism can be referred to as a philosophy that complies to the
viewpoint that information that is gained through observation is factual. In simple words,
positivism states that some of the positive knowledge is based on phenomena that are natural. On
the other hand, interpretivism is a research philosophy that states that the social world can be
interpreted through in a subjective way.
Deductive – A deductive approach can be referred to as an approach that is mainly
associated with developing a hypothesis which is based on an existing theory. A research
strategy is that designed in order to test the validity of the hypothesis. There are various
advantages of a deductive approach which can include a possibility to explain relationships
between a variable and concept. Apart from this, the concepts can be measures quantitatively
through this type of research (Leatherdale, 2019). Respective research involves the use of a
deductive approach. This is an important approach because it involves reaching a logical
conclusion that is true. Thus, this approach is preferred by researchers so as to avoid any kind of
risk. Although, the available to complete a study involving deductive approach is short.
Research Onion – It explains the different stages that should be covered while
undertaking a research. There are different layers in a research onion and each of them describes
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a completely detailed stage of the overall process of the research. The different stages of a
research onion are explained below - Research Philosophy: It refers to a set of beliefs that are concerned with the nature of
reality being researched about. Ontology and epistemology are two ways in which it is
evaluated. Research Approach: It is referred to as the approach that is adopted by a researcher and it
can either be deductive or inductive (Perna, 2020). Inductive approach starts with a
relatively broad theory and then focuses on smaller details. Research Strategy: It can be defined as how does the researcher intend to conduct the
research like the method to be used for data collection etc. Choices: This stage of the research onion explains the mixed method, mono method as
well as multi method. The mono method is the one that involves use of one research
whereas mixed method involves using two or more methods.
 Time Horizons: this refers to the time frame in which the researcher intends to complete
the project. There are two types of horizons, longitudinal as well as cross-sectional.
Therefore, a research onion is important because it involves various stages under which
various methods of collecting data can be illustrated and understood by the researcher. Apart
from this, it also explains the purpose of the research which is conducted.
Questionnaire
Name -
E-mail ID -
1) Do you have complete knowledge and understanding about cultural diversity?
 Yes
 No
2) According to you what is the major role of diversity and equality in ASDA company?
 Enhancing performance
 Motivating employees
 Providing fair opportunities
 All of the above
3) Do you think equality and diversity will lead to have influence over business and its
operations
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