Kensington College Business Research Project: Gender Equality at ASDA

This business research project investigates gender equality and workplace discrimination, focusing on the retail company ASDA. The research includes a literature review that defines workplace discrimination, explores its impact on employee productivity, and identifies the challenges ASDA faces in managing gender equality. The study employs a qualitative research methodology, including an inductive approach and interpretivism research philosophy. Data collection methods involve a combination of primary and secondary sources. The project analyzes the concept of workplace discrimination, the impact of gender inequality on employee productivity, and the challenges faced by ASDA in managing and promoting gender equality. The project concludes with recommendations for reducing gender inequality and improving the company's productivity. The project also includes a reflection on the effectiveness of the chosen research methods and explores alternative methodologies.

BUSINESS RESEARCH
PROJECT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Research proposal...................................................................................................................3
Literature review....................................................................................................................4
Research methodology...........................................................................................................6
Data analysis and interpretation.............................................................................................7
Conclusion and recommendation.........................................................................................16
Reflection on effectiveness of research methods.................................................................17
Alternate research methodologies........................................................................................18
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................19
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................21
QUESTIONNAIRE..............................................................................................................21

INTRODUCTION
Managing equality and diversity is the latest issue in the current competitive market
because the competition is high and to face this many companies use inequitable practices. Thus,
for success it is necessary that company provides equal opportunities to all the employees
irrespective of gender, income, age, religion or any other basis (Foster, 2019). In the current
world the workplace discrimination is the latest issue and in that also the gender inequality is the
major issue. Gender inequality is the issue which arises because of the reason that company uses
discriminating practices and provide more preference and opportunities to males as compared to
females. Thus, the present research is based on the study of issues being faced at time in order to
manage the gap between the males and females of employees of ASDA. This company is a
retailer of supermarket chain which was founded in 1949 and deals in merchandising, grocery,
financial services and many other services.
Aim
“To investigate the issues faced at time of managing gender equality in order to reduce
workplace discrimination. A study on ASDA.”
Objectives
 To understand the concept of workplace discrimination.
 To evaluate the impact of high gender inequality over productivity of employees with
regards to ASDA.
 To analyse different challenges faced by ASDA while managing gender equality.
 To recommend some measure for reducing gender inequality and improving productivity
of company.
Research questions
1. What is the concept of workplace discrimination?
2. What is the impact of high gender inequality on productivity of employees?
3. What are the different challenges faced by ASDA in managing and promoting gender
equality?

4. What are some recommendations for reducing gender inequality for improvising
productivity of company?
Research proposal
Covered in research proposal form
Literature review
Concept of workplace discrimination
In the words of Taylor, (2018) workplace discrimination is defined as the difference
which is being created at the workplace by the employer on the basis of gender, age, pay,
income, knowledge, caste, race, religion, colour and many other differentiating factors. This
existence of workplace discrimination is very popular within the workplace because of the
reason that there are people of different qualities and temperament and all have different thinking
relating to work. But in workplace discrimination also the major issue is the gender inequality
which is very high at the workplace.
In opinion of Falk and Hermle, (2018) gender inequality is a concept which is prevalent
in every business and company whether be it big or small does not matter. Gender discrimination
is defined as the difference created on the basis of gender that is males are being given more
preference than female employees in all measures whether be it work related, related to pay they
get or related to the role they have in management and leading the business organizations.
As against of this Daly (2019) articulates that the discrimination can be on the basis of
age as well because many companies and people feel that old employees are less competent as
compared to the younger ones. This is majorly because of the reason that people have feeling
that if the person has become older then they will not be able to perform their task in better way
and will only increase the expenses of the company. Discrimination within the workplace is
mainly based on the certain prejudices that occurs when an employee is been treated as
unfavourably due to gender, race, religion, sexuality, maternity and pregnancy or the disability.
In other words it means as an unfair treatment of the employees in term of unequal pay,
incentives, caste, culture etc. It takes place when an employer or supervisor discriminates against
employee with regard to work related decisions with an inclusion of such issues like hiring,
promotions, firing and availability of the benefits. There are some state and the federal laws in a
place for protecting an employee from the discrimination within the workplace.

Impact of high gender inequality over productivity of employees.
In the views of Polcuch, Brooks and Bello, (2018) the major impact of the gender
inequality being practices by the company is on the productivity of the employees. This is
majorly because of the reason that if the employees will be ill- treated then they will not have
their concentration in the work. Thus, this will result in the decrease in the productivity of the
employee and will result in overall decrease in the company’s profitability. Another important
issue is the pressure which is created on the employees when discrimination is being spread over
the employees then it creates negative environment and to sustain in that environment the
employees goes under some mental pressure and this reduces their working capacity hence
resulting in reduction of overall productivity.
But on the flip side, Van der Vleuten, (2016) states that another impact of gender
inequality is that this will demotivate the employees as this discrimination will spread a negative
environment within the workplace and every employee will not like the differences being made
among the employees. Hence, this will also have an impact over the working capacity of the
employees and in the end, it will result in decrease in the morale of the employees. Thus, if the
employees will not be motivated then they will not perform in the intended manner. Hence, this
will impact the overall productivity of the company and the profitability of the company will
decrease.
Gender discrimination has a direct impact on the productivity of the workers as due to this
they caused with mental issues. An individual who is been discriminated at the work might
develop higher level of anxiety and are more prone to the depression and outbursts. This in
turn results to adverse effect on the ability of the workers in performing their job or duties.
Moreover, it increases the conflict at the workplace which shift the focus of the team from
their respective duties to drama of office. It could fracture the team, with a single group
siding with person discriminated over and one side for alleged discriminator. This permeates
the firm down towards significant activities which results fall in the overall morale and the
performance of an enterprise. Thus, poor morale has the negative impact on the corporate
culture and is directly felt by that of the customers. Furthermore, with an increase in conflict
and the morale falling, productivity would diminish as well. As the business leader,
managers must know that the employees who are motivated and comfortable at the work are
the best performers. When the people try to avoid the negative behaviour of employees like

experiencing or witnessing the gender discrimination, it could have significant effect on
bottom line of business itself. Employers must also be concerned with more than company's
morale and the productivity at the time when it comes to gender discrimination. There are
some legal issues which need to be considered, any sort of the discrimination involves
gender equality which lead to an adverse type of legal actions. In case the company does not
addresses discrimination actions and the accusations appropriately, disgruntled employee
can bring lawsuit against company for not preventing or protecting their rights.
Challenges faced by companies in order to manage gender equality.
With regards to the thinking of Leung, (2020) there are many challenges which the
company faces in reducing gender inequality and promote equality among both the gender. The
major challenge which the companies faces at time of reducing workplace discrimination based
on gender is the cultural differences which is present at the workplace. This is majorly because
of the reason that in different cultures there are different believes relating to working women and
within company there are employees from diverse cultures. Thus, every employee at the
workplace has different approach of treating a working woman differently.
In against of this Resnick, (2018) criticizes that major challenge in promoting gender
equality at workplace is the acceptance of employees that women can work in competition to
males. This is majorly because of the reason that most of the people has thinking that women are
not much capable of working in corporate world. Hence, because of this thinking and mentality
the people are not able to accept the fact that women work. Thus, this result in discriminating
among the male and female and as a result of this the females are mistreated and provided with
less opportunities as compared to males.
But in contrast to this Martinsson and Griffin, eds., (2016) states that another major
challenge which is being faced by companies at time of implementing policies of gender equality
is that many people think that women have less knowledge of the market and the corporate world
and the are better at doing the household stuff. But this is not the reality and women also have
good knowledge and education relating to the issues going within the market place. Thus, this
also causes some challenges at time of implementing strategies of promoting gender equality at
the workplace in order to decrease the workplace discrimination. The challenges that are faced
by the company in managing the gender discrimination within the workplace relates to

conflict of ideas, culture and religion. Different people work with diverse backgrounds and
culture so conflict in the decision-making and idea generation occurs because all the
employees thinks as per their culture and everyone has different style of working. Thus, it
becomes very difficult for the company to manage the gender inequality in effective manner
or without any conflicts and therefore somewhere the discrimination within the work
environment cannot be entirely removed. Company develops various strategies for
managing the inequality but negative behaviour and attitude of the people leads to failure of
such strategies.
Research methodology
Research type- Research type is defined as the method which is being used in order to continue
the whole research in successful manner (Hennink, Hutter and Bailey, 2020). These are of two
different types that is qualitative and quantitative research type. The quantitative research is the
research which is based on the factual data that is numbers and figures whereas qualitative
research is the one which includes descriptive data and the study of theory and models. The
present research is completed by using the qualitative method as research wanted to do study of
theory and not facts and figures.
Research approach- These are the process which are being used time of collecting the data and
analysing and interpreting them. For this there are two approaches that is inductive and deductive
where inductive is the one wherein patterns and observations are studied in order to draw some
conclusion. Whereas in deductive approach the factual data in order to test the hypothesis being
developed for the research topic. For the present study on issues being faced at time of managing
gender inequality the approach used is inductive. This is being selected because of the reason
that this assist the qualitative research to a great extent.
Research philosophy- These are the assumption on which the whole research is based and
includes the different sources and areas wherein the research data is being collected. It is of two
different ways that is positivism and interpretivism. In positivism the factual knowledge is more
preferred and this is suitable with quantitative research and interpretivism is based on integrating
human interest in the study. For current research user of interpretivism is made as this is more
suitable for qualitative research (Bryman, 2016).

Data collection- This is the most crucial step for success of research because if data will not be
correct and relevant then the research outcome will not be valid. Thus, for this there are two
different sources that is primary and secondary wherein primary is the first-hand data which has
not ben earlier used and secondary is the already used data. For this study combination of both
primary as well as secondary is used because this provides a wide range of data and is better for
the area of study.
Sampling- This is the selection of some samples on which the whole study is directed for better
result (Lazar, Feng and Hochheiser, 2017). Thus, for the current study the sample of 20
employees of ASDA has been used and selected with the help of random sampling. This sample
can be selected with help of two methods random and non- random sampling. In random
sampling every part of population has equal chance of selection which is not in case of non-
random sampling (Litosseliti, ed., 2018).
Data analysis- This is also a crucial task in completion of research in a successful manner
because if the data will not be analysed in proper manner then the result will not be valid. Thus,
for this researcher made use of thematic analysis because this help the researcher in presenting
the data in more attractive manner with help of charts, graphs and tables.
Ethical consideration- This is also an important issue in the successful completion of the
research as if ethics will not be considered then the research will not go in proper manner. The
first ethical issue to be considered at time of research is signing of consent and ethical approval
form by the respondent. This is because this gives right to the researcher in asking question to the
respondent without any pressure. Another ethical issue to be considered is the data and its source
this means that the researcher must use the correct and relevant data and the data must not be
collected form irrelevant or unauthentic sources (Van de Ven and Poole, 2017).
Data analysis and interpretation
Theme 1: Maximum number of employees has been working for 12 to 18 years in the Asda
company.
PARTICULARS NUMBER OF
RESPONDENTS
% OF RESPONDENTS
0 to 6 years 3 15%
6 to 12 years 4 20%

12 to 18 years 7 35%
More than 18 years 6 30%
TOTAL 20 100%
15.00%
20.00%
35.00%
30.00%
0 to 6 years
6 to 12 years
12 to 18 years
More than 18 years
Interpretation: From the carried out research from 20 employees of the Asda company.
Out of which 35% sought to determine the fact that, maximum number of employees has been
working for 12 to 18 years in the Asda company. They tend to have high degree of knowledge
according to which company carried out its operations in order to attain high degree of
operational goals and objectives. This means company tends to recruit old employees who knows
the in and out of the company.
Theme 2: Race, religion, colour, disability, gender and nationality are the key elements of
workplace discrimination.
PARTICULARS NUMBER OF
RESPONDENTS
% OF RESPONDENTS
Race, religion, colour 2 10%
Disability and gender 3 15%
Nationality 5 25%

All of the above 10 50%
TOTAL 20 100%
10.00%
15.00%
25.00%
50.00%
Race, religion, colour
Disability and gender
Nationality
All of the above
Interpretation: From the carried out research from 20 employees of the Asda company.
Out of which, 50% sought to determine the fact that, race, religion, colour, disability, gender and
nationality are the key elements of workplace discrimination. These factors in turn largely affects
the way business works which in turn eventually leads to lower performance and growth of the
company due to lower productivity of the employees.
Theme 3: Yes, maximum number of employees of the organization are aware about the
concept associated with workplace discrimination.
PARTICULARS NUMBER OF
RESPONDENTS
% OF RESPONDENTS
Yes 13 65%
No 3 15%
Not sure 4 20%

TOTAL 20 100%
Yes No Not sure
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7 65.00%
15.00%
20.00%
% OF RESPONDENTS
Interpretation: From the carried out research from 20 employees of the Asda company.
Out of which 65% sought to determine the fact that, large number of employees of the
organization are aware about the concept associated with workplace discrimination. This is based
on the certain set of prejudice which in turn tends to occur because of unfavourable treatment of
employees on the basis of key factors and elements such as gender pay gap, religion, etc. of
workplace discrimination.
Theme 4: Lower productivity of employees is considered to be the key impact of high gender
inequality over productivity of employees in relation with ASDA.
PARTICULARS NUMBER OF
RESPONDENTS
% OF RESPONDENTS
Lower productivity of
employees
7 35%
Lower growth of the company 6 30%
Low retention of employees 4 20%
All of the above 3 15%

TOTAL 20 100%
35.00%
30.00%
20.00%
15.00%
Lower productivity of
employees
Lower growth of the company
Low retention of employees
All of the above
Interpretation: From the carried out research from 20 employees of the Asda company.
Out of which 35% sought to determine the fact that, high gender inequality in turn eventually
leads to low degree of productivity associated with the employees. This in turn affects the
morality of the employees which results in low degree of motivation. This eventually results in
lower retention level of the employees. Other 30% said that, high gender inequality leads to
lower growth of the organization which affects there business performance.
Theme 5: Strongly agree, Asda is incorporating effective practices in order to reduce
workplace discrimination.
PARTICULARS NUMBER OF
RESPONDENTS
% OF RESPONDENTS
Strongly agree 6 30%
Agree 4 20%
Neutral 5 25%
Disagree 2 10%