MBA502 Report: Evaluating Gender Diversity at Coles Company

This report provides an in-depth analysis of gender diversity within Coles, a major Australian retail company. It examines Coles' initiatives, including policies promoting equal opportunities, and highlights the company's efforts to support female and transgender employees. The report reviews the company's strategies for ensuring gender equality, such as providing equal pay, offering flexible work arrangements, and implementing policies to prevent harassment. It also critiques these initiatives, identifying both strengths and weaknesses, and offering recommendations for improvement. The report discusses the importance of gender diversity in the workplace and evaluates how Coles' practices impact its employees and its overall market position. Furthermore, it explores the company's approach to cultural diversity and transgender inclusion, and identifies areas where Coles could enhance its diversity and inclusion efforts, such as by expanding policies for IVF, surrogacy, and childcare. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations to improve the company's gender diversity strategies.

Running Head: GENDER DIVERSITY IN COLES
Gender Diversity on Coles
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Cultural diversity is the differences that are present in the society, the population in a
society comprises of many cultures irrespective of age, gender, caste, religion and sexual
representation. It is the responsibility of each individual to accept everyone with positive
approach. Cultural diversity is very important to be practiced by the authorities of any
organization this will help them to serve the customers that are coming from different
geographical areas. Gender diversity is very important for an organization to implement,
gender diversification states equivalent opportunities for both male and female. Coles is one
of the biggest retail companies operating in Australia it has been able to retain its customers
for the longest time and they have also gained a lot of clients in gradual years. The purpose of
the study is to understand the various aspects of the gender diversity and its importance in the
company and its outcomes (Unesco.org. 2019). The company has successfully implemented
the gender diversity and they have given equal platform to both the genders to proper. The
company has not shown any partiality towards their male employees and both the gender are
treated equally. There are some loopholes in few areas where the company has to take effort
in implementing those strategies, which will be highlighted in the study paper.
Gender diversity implies to the equal treatment of both females and males,the
company has encourages in employing female employees in their organization. The company
has implemented many strategies that helped them in empowering the female candidates
within the organizational premises. The female employees also feel safe and secured to work
with the company; the male staffs also cannot criticize the female employees or try to harass
them sexually. The company has implemented many strategies for the female employees so
that they can prosper in their profession. The company also supervises that the female
employees are not facing any kind of harassment. Practicing gender equality in the company
also helps in developing a good image in the market (Richard Kirby and Chadwick 2013).
Recruiting female employees also help the company in resolving the queries of the female

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customers and they can freely discuss their issue along with ask for the appropriate product
that they require, which can be personal and hence they might not feel comfortable to ask that
to the male employees (Badal and Harter 2014).
According to the secondary sources that has been derived from the official website
and the government’s statistical data, it can be stated that they are being very considerate
while formulating their policies and they seek whether all the female employees are
comfortable in that. The bonus and rewards that the companies formulates for it employees is
equally distributed amongst both female and male employees. The company does not practice
any kind biasedness in terms of providing their policies to their employees.
The company has tried to make the female employees feel secured in the workplace
and the gender equality that Coles practices has encouraged other companies to implement
the same. Female employees have better and more organized skills of communication with
the customers irrespective of their gender and they feel satisfied and valued because of the
attention that is given to them. The female employees can also help in building the team spirit
of the employees, the female employees can also be a good representative for other
employees and voice their opinions and grievances to their supervisors. The female
employees can handle and manage the team more efficiently because they understand both
the personal and professional aspects of the company. Coles have many female employees
involved in their hierarchy that is also an advantage for the company, as they can understand
the problems of both male and female employees (Calás Smircich and Holvino 2014).
The employees also find it easier to approach the female supervisors as they feel that
the leniency can be more in them. Women supervisors do not practice the policy if command
and control rather they tend to understand the issues of the employees and the authenticity of
those issues and provide remedies to eradicate them. The company has made certain policies

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for the women employees and ensured that that are being followed in an effective way. The
company provides cab services to the females if they leave at an odd time. The company
takes strict actions if the female employees face any sexual harassments. The women
employees are also efficient in maintaining the ethics of the company, which helps in
maintain the decorum of the company. The gender diversity is highly effective and strong in
Coles and the women employees enjoy their work with the company. The company also has
many policies for the company such as menstrual policy this allows the female employees to
take leaves for 2 or 3 days during their menstrual cycle (Hoogendoorn Oosterbeek and Van
Praag 2013).
Extended maternity leaves is also allowed to the female employees, which has been
extended for more six months this is given if the female employees have any severe
complications during their pregnancy, which takes time to cure. Official leaves or
reimbursements for fertility cure the company provides financial assistance to the female
employees for IVF treatments only if the financial condition of the female employees are not
stable. In adoption and surrogacy policy the company helps the female employees some
financial help for the adoption or the surrogacy treatment. The ideology of crèches are also
being planted within the premises of the company for the female employees so that they can
also look after their babies along with performing their duties. The company is not only
encouraging the working of the female employees but they are also employing the
transgender population in their company. This is making the company a platform to help the
transgender candidates display their skills and earn their livelihood (Cumming Leung and Rui
2015).
Transgender population has faced many discrimination from the society; hence,the
company has provided the platform to them so that they can also prove their potentials and
capabilities to the society. The company has certain policies for the transgender population

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they seek that they do not face any discrimination from other employees. The company also
supervises that any employee does not humiliate the transgender population or any outsider
strict actions are taken in that case. The transgender employees also feel very safe and
secured working within the premises of the company and the organization seeks that the
policies are being followed properly.
There are some prevalent loopholes in the company that are yet to be implemented
regarding few policies, such as the IVF policy, crèche policy and the company has not
successfully implemented surrogacy policy. The company has to take more initiative for the
female employees in order to make them realize that the company has equal concern for them
as much as they have for their male employees. The benefits and the consideration that is
provided to the female employees trigger a feeling of inferiority amongst the male employees
hence it is the responsibility to maintain a balance between for both males and females. The
company must be very stringent in the supervision of maintaining the policies planted for the
female employees. The company must seek whether al the female employees are comfortable
and benefitted with the policies they plan to implement. The policies of crèche must be
considered for the female employees else the retention of female employees can take place in
order to look after their wards.
The recommendations that are to be considered by the company are that there are few
female employees that are not economically stable hence, the policies that the company has
not been successful in planting in their management must be done in an efficient pace. The
company must treat their female and transgender employees on equal platform in order to
discourage partiality between male and female employees. Few secondary sources have also
identified the policies that the company is still lacking in planting which have been identified
in the above discussion. The company’s official website and few statistical data acting as the

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secondary sources justifies that the authority of the company must assist the female
employees. Hence, the recommendations must be planted in the management of the company.
The recommendations are given for the company because the prevalent loopholes in
the organization are not being considered and the female employees are facing certain issues
in continuing their job after supervising their household jobs. Few female employees are
tending to leave their jobs as they cannot manage their personal and professional life in order
to reduce the attrition rate then company must implement the proposed recommendations in
order to satisfy the female employees. The benefits and the consideration that is provided to
the female employees trigger a feeling of inferiority amongst the male employees hence it is
the responsibility to maintain a balance between for both males and females. The website of
the company and few statistical data showcases that the female employees re not completely
satisfied with the planted policies by the company.
The study can be finally concluded that Coles Company has many policies and
strategies for the female employees and they practice cultural diversity in full fledge. The
company has certain policies for the female employees. The company is not only encouraging
the working of the female employees but they are also employing the transgender population
in their company.

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References
Badal, S., and Harter, J. K. 2014. Gender diversity, business-unit engagement, and
performance. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 21(4), 354-365.
Calás, M. B., Smircich, L., and Holvino, E. 2014. Theorizing Gender-and-Organization.
In The Oxford handbook of gender in organizations.
Cumming, D., Leung, T. Y., and Rui, O. 2015. Gender diversity and securities
fraud. Academy of management Journal, 58(5), 1572-1593.
Hoogendoorn, S., Oosterbeek, H., and Van Praag, M. 2013. The impact of gender diversity
on the performance of business teams: Evidence from a field experiment. Management
Science, 59(7), 1514-1528.
Richard, O. C., Kirby, S. L., and Chadwick, K. 2013. The impact of racial and gender
diversity in management on financial performance: How participative strategy making
features can unleash a diversity advantage. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 24(13), 2571-2582.
Unesco.org. 2019. Gender Equality and Culture | United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization. Retrieved 13 September 2019, from
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/gender-and-culture/gender-equality-and-culture/