Cultural Diversity Management: HR Policies at ASDA (Semester 1, 2024)

This report delves into the critical aspects of equality and diversity within the workplace, emphasizing the significance of human resource policies and practices in managing cultural diversity effectively. The introduction outlines the background, aims, objectives, rationale, and significance of the study, focusing on the importance of providing equal opportunities to all employees and preventing workplace discrimination. A literature review explores the importance of equality and diversity to business, the issues faced by management in maintaining a productive diverse culture (with a case study on ASDA), and the role of HR policies in managing cultural diversity. The research methodologies section details the research design (exploratory), approach (inductive), philosophy (interpretivism), sampling (probability), and data collection methods (questionnaires and secondary sources). The data analysis employs a thematic approach to examine the collected data, leading to conclusions and recommendations for fostering an inclusive and equitable work environment. The report highlights the importance of HR in creating an effective and diverse workplace.

Equality and Diversity in the Work
Place

Table of Contents
Title : ...............................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Background..................................................................................................................................1
Aims and objectives.....................................................................................................................1
Rationale......................................................................................................................................2
Significance..................................................................................................................................2
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................2
Importance of Equality and Diversity to Business......................................................................2
Issues Faced By Management to maintain productive diverse culture effectively in ASDA.....3
Importance of Human Resource Policies in Managing Culture Diversity in Company..............3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES.................................................................................................4
DATA ANALYSIS..........................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.............................................................................12
Recommendations......................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14
APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................15
Questionnaire.............................................................................................................................15

Title :
Managing cultural diversity in workplace
INTRODUCTION
Background
The cultural diversity and equality can be explained as promotion of equality for all with
in the diverse workforces of the organisation. This is all about providing equal opportunity to all
employees in order to provide them chance to achieve their potential. Equality and diversity also
can be taken as a process where the situations and issues like discrimination with in the
workforce. Work place discrimination can be explained as prejudicial treatment with in the
workplace that can affect hiring, promotion, job assignment, salary and benefits on the basis of
age, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, nationality or any kind of disability. These type of
problems and issues can reduce the performance of the organisation in both internal and external
operations. This is major concern for all organisation to handle issues related to discrimination in
order to keep all employees motivated and encouraged to gain effective performance in the target
market.
Aims and objectives
Aim
“To evaluate the extent to which cultural diversity can be managed through human resource
policies and practices in workplace: A study on ASDA
Objectives
 To understand importance of equality and diversity to business
 To investigate issues faced by management in managing different employees with
diverse culture in ASDA
 To analyses importance of human resource policies in managing culture diversity in
company
Research Questions:
 Why managing equality and diversity to business is important?
 What are the main issues faced by management in managing different employees with
diverse culture in ASDA?
 How human resource policies can help in managing culture diversity in company?
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Rationale
This topic is selected for research project because it is one of the most crucial factor that
can affect the performance of an organisation in target market. It can directly affect the internal
performance of organisation by affecting employee motivation and satisfaction with in
organisation. By evaluating this situation various methods can be found that can help the
organisation to reduce the issues that are related to workplace discrimination. The role of Human
Resources department is most important for internal and external performance of organisation.
This is major function of the Human Resource Department to design organisation processes and
policies to address various issues like work place discrimination and equality with in practices of
organisation.
Significance
This research project can be used by different people to develop better knowledge related
to equality and diversity with in the work place and role of Human Resource Management to
solve the problems and issues that are related to discrimination with in the workplace on the
basis of various factors and differences. Different researchers can use this research to find the
research gap and select the field of research. This research work also can be used as foundation
for other researcher to conduct their research work. This research also can be used by the
organisation for review in order provide opportunities to Human Resource Department to make
respective changes in company policies and functions. This process can help the organisation to
maintain their performance effective target market.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Importance of Equality and Diversity to Business
This is important for organisation to maintain equality with in the diverse organisation to
meet all the legal rights of employees with in organisation. As per the view of Frijns, Dodd and
Cimerova, (2016) these are some laws are made by legal authorities on national and international
level to prevent discrimination with in the work place to protect fundamental rights of
employees. This rights of individual employee protect them legally from all type of
discrimination with in the work place. Any kind of discrimination can lead the organisation to
face critical legal action from government or legal body of country. By implementing better
practices organisation can implement equality with in diverse work force. This equal treatment
between employees can help organisation to achieve maximum efficiency in operations by
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encourage and motivate employees by providing them with equal opportunities with in the
organisation. Diversity is also important for organisation because it can help them to maintain
effective talent management with in organisation. This talent management can help the company
to gain high efficiency in internal operations. This is reason why equality and diversity is
important for organisation.
Issues Faced By Management to maintain productive diverse culture effectively in ASDA
According to Knudson, Kay and Fisher, (2018) this is important for the organisation to
develop and implement effective policies and practices with in organisation to provide equal
opportunities and benefits to all employees. But there are some issues faced by organisation in
management of diverse work force. Some main challenges and issues that are faced by
organisation in diversity and equality management are related to accommodation of beliefs of
different employees who have different opinion about spirituality, political and religious view.
Acceptance and respect is major issue that is faced by organisation management in maintaining
cultural diversity effectively with in organisation. This is also big challenge for organisation
management to develop work culture with in work place to provide better conditions to all
employees. The issues that are related to gender equality are major for organisation because of
stereotype mentality of people with in corporate culture. This is difficult for organisation to
accommodate people with physical and mental in work place. The difference in mentality due to
generation gap also can cause major issues with in work place. This all issues can lead to
conflicts with in organisation that is not good for internal operational performance of
organisation.
Importance of Human Resource Policies in Managing Culture Diversity in Company
In opinion of Reus-Smit, (2017) the role of human Resource Management is most
important for organisation to develop effective policies and practices with in organisation. This is
main objective of the Human Resource Department to manage the effective policies with in the
organisation to gain maximum performance from employees. This is also duty of Human
resource management department to develop effective equality policy for organisation to provide
equal opportunity and benefits to all employees. Effective equality policy that is developed by
HR department can help organisation to manage cultural diversity effectively. This how role of
Human Resource Department is important in management of equality and cultural diversity with
in organisation.
3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
There are some specific methods and assumptions need to be considered in research
process to avoid detraction from the aim and objectives. These methodologies that are considered
in research process can help to keep research work in right direction with high effective results.
Research design
Research design can be explained as the specific outline of the complete research work
that is selected by the researcher. Research design is consists of all the processes and methods
that will be used in the research work to collect and analyse related data. In research three
research designs are commonly used which are- exploratory, descriptive and casual research
design. In exploratory research design is used for the research that are not considered by other
authors previously. This design is based on the priorities that are established in order to develop
better results. The descriptive research design is based on observations and scientific processes
that are effective to describe the behaviour of particular subject without influencing them (Senyo,
Addae and Boateng, 2018). In casual research design is based on investigation based on cause
and effect relationship between the variables. In this research project exploratory research design
is used because et is effective to provide better data collection process that can be used in the
data collection process.
Research approach
Research approach is known as plan and procedures that is consists of specific steps. This
steps which are included in specific approach are based on broad assumption related to methods
of data collection. Data analysis and data interpretation. Research that are mainly used in the
research process are inductive and deductive research approach (Husted, Henriques and Crane,
2018). The inductive research approach can be explained as approach where collected data is
analysed in order to form new theories to address particular situation or problem. The deductive
research approach is based on various theory that are used by the researcher to analyse
information and data collected in research work. In this research work inductive research
approach is used to develop new theory on the basis of result that is derived from collected data
and information.
Research philosophy
Research methodology can be explained as the mentality that is possessed by researcher
at the time of research conduction. It also can be considered as the belief of the researcher which
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is considered by them to collect data which is related to the research topic. The mentality of
researcher during research work reflect the research philosophy used by them. There are different
philosophies are considered in process of research to develop better result as per the aims and
objective of research. Some research philosophies that are mainly considered by researchers are-
positivism, realism and interpretivism. In the positivism research philosophy, data collected in
research process is based on natural phenomenon in their respective properties and relations. In
the realism research philosophy data, models and theories that are used in the research are based
on situation and conditions that are addressed with in research project. The interpretivism
philosophy is based on concept where researcher uses to interpret various elements of research to
develop better result for research project. In this research project interpretivism research
philosophy is used to conduct whole research work. This is philosophy can improve the result of
collected data.
Sampling
Sampling can be explained as phenomenon in which a some people are included in the
data collection process. These people represents large population that is related to particular
research topic. In the research project two different process of sampling are used which are
probability sampling and other one is non probability sampling (Almalki, 2016). For this
research project probability sampling is used in which probability of getting selected in research
work is equal for all members of population. In probability sampling specifically simple random
sampling is used to select 20 managers of ASDA. Random sampling approach is used in this
research project to avoid the influence of various factors on respondents and response provided
by them.
Data collection
Data collection is a process that is used to collect information and data and arrange them
in the systematic manner to enable the research work to answer research questions. In research
work two approaches of data collection are mainly used. These process of data collection are
primary data collection and secondary data collection. The selection of the data collection
process is based on the aim and objectives of research (Ilie, Nickerson and Planken, 2019). The
primary data collection can be explained as process where researcher collects data from main
sources of information. To collect this information different processes like Questionnaire,
Survey, Personal Interview and experiments. In the secondary data collection process researcher
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uses the secondary data and information sources like Books, Journals, articles and blogs. This
secondary sources are based on the research work of other researchers. In this research project
both primary and secondary data collection process will be used. For primary data collection
Questionnaire is used and for secondary data collection authenticate books, journal and articles
are used.
Data analysis
Data analysis is process of analysing the collected data sing different tools and
techniques. In this research qualitative data has been collected, in order to analyse collected
information Thematic data analysis approach is used (Kettler, 2019). Thematic data analysis
approach is used in order to analyse data with vast perspective. Different themes are used to
analyse collected information to develop better knowledge. This technique of data collection is
used to develop detailed theories related to research topic.
Ethical considerations
In this research process all ethical consider has been followed in order to keep research
project and information relevant collected and developed from the research process. All dignity
and respect is maintained throughout the whole research process. Sources that are used for data
collection process are authenticate authorised. No people are subjected to harm during the whole
project.
DATA ANALYSIS
Theme – Effectiveness of Policies to Maintain Equality and Diversity with in the Work
Place
Question 1. Do you think that policies that are used by organisation
are effective to maintain equality and Diversity with in the work
place.
Frequency
Strongly Agree 5
Agree 10
Neutral 1
Disagree 3
Strongly Disagree 1
6

Interpretation-
As per data collected in the research process 5 respondent managers are strongly agreed
that policies that are developed by the Human Resource Department are effective to maintain
equality and diversity with in organisation. 10 people are strongly agreed to the statement above.
1 respondent has provided neutral response. 3 respondents have provided negative response and
1 respondents has strongly reflected disagreement. For the above data it can be interpret that
policies that are developed and designed by Human Resource department are Effective to
maintain equality and diversity with in work place of organisation.
Theme – Effectiveness of Organisational Policies to Manage the Cultural Diversity with in
the Organisation.
Question 2. Policies that are used by ASDA are effective to manage
the cultural diversity with in the organisation.
Frequency
Strongly Agree 6
Agree 10
Neutral 1
Disagree 2
7
5
10
1
3
1
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

Strongly Disagree 1
Interpretation -
As per above data 6 respondents are agreed to the statement above that policies of
organisation are effective enough to maintain cultural diversity with in organisation. 10 other
respondent are also agreed to the statement. 1 manager has sown neutral response. 3 people have
shown negative response and one of these three was strongly disagreed to statement above. As
per above responses most of the people are agreed to the statement so it can be interpreted that
policies and practices that are used in organisation are effective to manage and maintain cultural
diversity with in organisation.
Theme- Human Resources Department of Organisation is Effective to Address Issues
Related to Workforces Diversity and Equality.
Question 3. The human Resources department of organisation is
effective to address issues related to workforces diversity and equality.
Frequency
Strongly Agree 4
Agree 10
8
6
10
1
2
1
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

Neutral 2
Disagree 2
Strongly Disagree 2
Interpretation -
As per the responses that are collected from questionnaire 14 people are strongly agreed
to the statement about the effectiveness of Human Resource department in addressing the various
challenges and issues that are related to work place diversity and equality. 4 respondents among
these 14 are strongly agreed to the statement. 2 people have provided neutral response. 2 people
have shown disagreement and 2 respondents have strongly denied the statement. As per above
data it can be interpreted that the Human Resource Department of ASDA is effective to solve the
challenges and issues that are concerned with work place diversity and equality.
Theme – Relevance and Currency of Organisational Policies
Question 4. The policies related to equality and diversity are
frequently updated by HRM to get better result with performance of
the organisation.
Frequency
9
4
10
2
22
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree 2
Agree 13
Neutral 1
Disagree 2
Strongly Disagree 2
Interpretation -
As per above data 4 respondents are strongly agreed that all the policies that are designed
by Human Resource Department are updated frequently. 13 respondents are also agreed to this
statement. 1 person has provided neutral response for statement. 4 respondents were not agreed
to the statement and 2 of these 4 have strongly shown disagreement for the above statement. As
per the responses of respondents it can be interpreted that Human Resource of organisation is
well aware of organisational condition and they are frequently making relevant changes in the
organisational policy.
Theme – Effectiveness of Actions that are Performed by Human Resources Department
Question 5. Actions taken by Human Resources department in Frequency
10
2
13
1
22
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

management of diversity providing equal opportunities to all
employees.
Strongly Agree 6
Agree 8
Neutral 2
Disagree 2
Strongly Disagree 2
Interpretation -
As per information collected from the respondents 6 respondents are strongly agreed that
actions that are performed by Human resource department are providing equal opportunities to
employees. 8 other respondents are also supporting this statement. 2 respondents have shown
neutral response and 4 of 20 have shown disagreement to the statement. Among these four
people 2 were strongly disagreed to effectiveness of the actions of Human Resource Department.
As per above responses, most of the employees are in favour of actions of Human resource
department. So, it can be interpreted that the actions that all the actions that are performed by HR
11
6
8
2
22
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

Department are designed to provide equal opportunity to grow and developed with in the
organisation.
Theme- 6 Importance of Equality and Diversity to Business organisation
This is important for the organisation to maintain equality and diversity with in
organisation. High diversity can help organisation in different manner. It can improve the
performance of organisation in target market by innovative and creative actions of diverse team.
It also can improve the market reputation of organisation in the market place. This can also lead
to make positive impact of organisation on the global market. High diversity also can provide
opportunity to the organisation to expand their business to global level. Equal treatment to all
employees can help the management and HR department of the organisation to improve the
motivation of the employees. It can also help company to avoid any kind of legal action against
company.
Theme- 7 Issues Faced by management in Managing Employees with Diverse Culture in
ASDA
There are different challenges are faced by organisation in process of maintaining cultural
diversity with in organisation. This challenges are related to personal values, communicational
barriers between people. For example personal values of employees can cause differences
between the opinion of people. It also can affect their personal values. Due to variety of culture,
communicational or language gap between people also can reduce the internal operations of
organisation due to misleading communication which is result of communicational barrier.
Theme- 8 Importance of Human Resource Policies in Managing Culture Diversity in
Company
There are different policies and practices are used by the organisation to maintain their
performance effective in the target market. Most of companies are preferring more diverse range
of work place to occupy high talent with in the organisation. Due to diverse work force this is
difficult for them to manage performance standards with in the company. This work force
diversity can cause different troubles to company in maintaining better environment within the
work place. To manage high performance standard in organisation role of Human Resource
department of company is to design various policies and processes in order to reduce the issues
that are related to performance of employees. There are different functions are performed by
Human Resource of Company to improve performance of employees. As per the situation of
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organisation Human Resource department make effective developments in organisation policies
to reduce the performance challenges to the company. These policies are related to recruitment &
selection, training and development, work place culture and code of conduct of company. This is
various organisational how policies are regulated by HR department to get effective result with
diversity and equality of organisation.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Recommendations
There are different process can be used by the human resource department to improve the
cultural diversity of organisation. Some of process that can help the HR department to improve
cultural diversity are- measure the current condition of cultural diversity, develop policies of
company more frequently, improve team bonding between the employees from diverse culture.
Organising diversity training also can help the organisation to improve understanding of
employees. By focusing on the organisational culture Human resource department can
implement better diverse culture with in the company (Campos and Kim, 2017). By making
effective changes in organisation structure can improve the diversity condition of company.
Conclusion
This research is concluding the importance of cultural diversity of organisation and role
of Human Resource management to manage cultural diversity with in ASDA. Different research
processes has been used in the research process to collect effective data regarding cultural
diversity of organisation. In this research various primary and secondary data sources has been
used to develop effective knowledge regarding work place diversity and equality in company.
The primary data that is collected from managers of ASDA has been analysed to study the
culture diversity of company and effectiveness of their HR in maintaining effective culture
diversity of Organisation. Various Recommendations also has been provided in the research to
improve the cultural diversity of organisation.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Almalki, S., 2016. Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Data in Mixed Methods Research--
Challenges and Benefits. Journal of education and learning. 5(3). pp.288-296.
Campos, B. and Kim, H.S., 2017. Incorporating the cultural diversity of family and close
relationships into the study of health. American Psychologist. 72(6). p.543.
Frijns, B., Dodd, O. and Cimerova, H., 2016. The impact of cultural diversity in corporate boards
on firm performance. Journal of Corporate Finance. 41. pp.521-541.
Husted, B.W., Henriques, I. and Crane, A., 2018. Quants and Poets: Advancing Methods and
Methodologies in Business and Society Research.
Ilie, C., Nickerson, C. and Planken, B., 2019. Research Methodologies and Business Discourse
Teaching. In Teaching Business Discourse (pp. 37-54). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Kettler, R.J., 2019. Research Methodologies of School Psychology: Critical Skills. Routledge.
Knudson, C., Kay, K. and Fisher, S., 2018. Appraising geodiversity and cultural diversity
approaches to building resilience through conservation. Nature Climate Change. 8(8).
pp.678-685.
Reus-Smit, C., 2017. Cultural diversity and international order. International organization.
71(4). pp.851-885.
Senyo, P.K., Addae, E. and Boateng, R., 2018. Cloud computing research: A review of research
themes, frameworks, methods and future research directions. International Journal of
Information Management. 38(1). pp.128-139.
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APPENDICES
Questionnaire
15

Question 1. Do you think that policies that are used by organization are effective to maintain
equality and Diversity with in the work place.Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Question 2. Policies that are used by ASDA are effective to manage the cultural diversity with
in the organization.
 Strongly Agree
 Agree
 Neutral
 Disagree
 Strongly Disagree
Question 3. The human Resources department of organization is effective to address issues
related to workforces diversity and equality.
1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
3. Neutral
4. Disagree
5. Strongly Disagree
Question 4. The policies related to equality and diversity are frequently updated by HRM to get
better result with performance of the organization.
1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
3. Neutral
4. Disagree
5. Strongly Disagree
Question 5. Actions taken by Human Resources department in management of diversity
providing equal opportunities to all employees.
1. Strongly Agree
2. Agree
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3. Neutral
4. Disagree
5. Strongly Disagree
17