Cultural Diversity's Impact on Workplace Productivity at Apple Inc.

This research project investigates the crucial role of cultural diversity in managing workplace productivity, with a specific focus on Apple Inc. The project begins with an executive summary, followed by an introduction that outlines the research area and poses key research questions and objectives. A comprehensive literature review explores the existing body of knowledge on cultural diversity management, its impact on productivity, and the ways organizations like Apple Inc. can effectively manage it. The methodology section details the quantitative research approach, the use of questionnaires for data collection, and the probability sampling method used to survey 50 managers. Results are presented using frequency distribution analysis and MS-Excel graphs, followed by a discussion that interprets the primary data in relation to the literature review. The project culminates in conclusions, recommendations for Apple Inc., and a reflection on the research process, providing a holistic view of cultural diversity's impact on workplace productivity.

Research Project
(To identify the role of cultural diversity
and its importance in managing
productivity at workplace)

Contents
Executive summary ...............................................................................................................................3
Introduction/ background to the research area....................................................................................5
Research Question............................................................................................................................5
Sub-questions of research ...............................................................................................................5
Research aim and objectives ...........................................................................................................5
Rationale and importance for choosing the topic ............................................................................5
Literature review...................................................................................................................................7
What type of role played by cultural diversity at workplace of an organisation? ............................7
What are the several ways through which Apple Inc can easily manage cultural diversity at
workplace? ......................................................................................................................................7
What is the significance of cultural diversity management in improving productivity at workplace?
..........................................................................................................................................................8
Methodology.........................................................................................................................................9
Research Approach ..........................................................................................................................9
Research techniques .......................................................................................................................9
Data collection methods ..................................................................................................................9
Sampling...........................................................................................................................................9
Data analysis approach ..................................................................................................................10
Timeline of research activities.............................................................................................................10
Methodology ......................................................................................................................................12
Results/ Findings..................................................................................................................................15
Discussion ...........................................................................................................................................17
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................22
Recommendation ...............................................................................................................................22
Reflection ............................................................................................................................................23
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................25
Appendix .............................................................................................................................................27

Executive summary
Main intent behind conducting this report is to identify the role of cultural diversity
and its importance in managing productivity at workplace. This is a main purpose and in
order to accomplish this purpose, different numbers of activities or tasks were completed by
researcher. Literature review is a main activity that was done by using number of secondary
sources such as articles, magazines, books etc. Research methodology is another activity that
was important for researcher in gathering as well as analysing of reliable information with the
use of questionnaire. Results were described by the researcher by using frequency
distribution analysis and Ms-Excel for making effective graphs. Discussion was done by
interpreting primary data and relating with this data to the literature review. Conclusion was
completed by researcher by presenting entire information in short manner. Recommendations
were done by providing suggestions to the company about the improvements that are related
with the topic. Reflection is a last part that was done by explaining experience and
effectiveness of research methods in accomplishing of research aim and objectives.

Introduction/ background to the research area
Cultural diversity introduces to the quality of different or diverse cultures within a workplace. It
is a type of appreciating the differences in an employee. These differences can base on sex, gender,
age, sexual orientation, ethnicity and social status of an individual. For this research, Apple Inc is a
chosen multinational organisation that was founded by Steve Jobs in 1976. Company specialise in
designing, developing and selling of consumer electronic products and online services to the large
number of customers (De Aquino and Robertson, 2018). Therefore, it is a
multigenerational organisation with employees from 18 to 87. They are our most diverse as well as
fastest-growing population. There are different benefits of cultural diversity at workplace of
company including improved creativity, increased productivity, reduced employee turnover etc.
Therefore, management of cultural diversity at workplace is important for the growth and success of
business. There are some ways by which company can easily manage cultural diversity at workplace
such as effective communication, team building, awareness and model the right behaviour. These
are essential ways in managing cultural diversity and increasing productivity in the workplace of
Apple Inc.
Research Question
 How cultural diversity helps an organisation in improvement of productivity level at
workplace?
Sub-questions of research
 What type of role played by cultural diversity at workplace of an organisation?
 What are the several ways through which Apple Inc can easily manage cultural diversity at
workplace?
 What is the significance of cultural diversity management in improving productivity at
workplace?
Research aim and objectives
Research aim:
Main aim of this research is “To identify the role of cultural diversity and its importance in
managing productivity at workplace. A study on Apple Inc.
Research Objectives:
 To identify the role of cultural diversity at workplace of an organisation.
 To determine the ways for managing cultural diversity at workplace of Apple Inc.
 To analysis the significance of cultural diversity management in improving productivity at
workplace.
Rationale and importance for choosing the topic
Main reason for selecting this topic is to increase awareness about the role and importance of
cultural diversity management in improving productivity at workplace. With the help of this
knowledge, each organisation tries to hire employees from different and diverse background. This
research is important in practical and academic level. If this research is published this will be
beneficial at academic level by increasing student’s understanding about the significance of cultural

diversity. At practical level, this research support large number of organisation by providing data
about the ways of cultural diversity management and its significant in increment of productivity level
in the workplace. Therefore, this research is important at practical and academic level (Roberson,
2019).

Literature review
Literature review is a reproducible, explicit and systematic process of finding, evaluating and
synthesizing the present structure of completed and recorded work created by researcher,
practitioners and scholars. This section of the research is completely based on secondary sources
which are articles, magazines, books, publication research, journals etc. All these are useful sources
within an investigation because this will support researcher in collecting of detailed and in-depth
information regarding the cultural diversity (Angouri, 2018). Main research gap is to identify the
ways for managing cultural diversity at workplace. In previous study, there is information about the
ways of cultural diversity management but there is lack of data about its importance in improvement
of productivity level at workplace. In order to fulfil this literature gap, some research questions will
be uses which are described as below:
What type of role played by cultural diversity at workplace of an organisation?
According to the Amadeo (2020), Diversity at workplace has been essential topic in many
organisations. Diverse workforce at workplace helps organisations to rethink how diversity impacts
the working place as well as business affords. Along with this, there are numerous roles played by
diverse workforce at workplace. First off, associations that focus on recruiting diverse employees
have a bigger pool of candidates to select from, which can prompt to analysing more knowledgeable
or candidates and decreasing the time it takes to fill empty positions. Organisations that do not hire
from diverse or different talent pools run the difficulty of missing out on competent candidates and
may have risk in filling key roles, which maximise recruitment costs. There are some effective roles of
cultural diversity which will be explained as below:
 Cultural diversity maximise satisfaction level of customers by enhancing how employees of
company act together with a more diverse public and clientele.
 Cultural diversity helps an organisation in increasing creativity and innovation at workplace. this
turn to support business in improvement of its productivity and profitability level easily.
What are the several ways through which Apple Inc can easily manage cultural diversity at
workplace?
According to the Richard T. Alpert (2020), developing cultural proficiency outputs in
a capability to know, communicate with, and efficiently act together with
individual’s crosswise cultures, and work with changing cultural beliefs and
schedules. There are some effective ways, by which Apple Inc can easily mange
cultural diversity at workplace. These ways will be explained as below:
Communication: It is a best way for an organisation to practice in effective or efficient
communication within multi-cultural environment. In this company can keep an open mind, practice
active listening, have accurate understanding of cultural differences and watch their nonverbal
communication. This will support them in management of cultural diversity in the workplace which
turn to effect on productivity level in positive manner.
Teamwork: It is essential for company to have an open mind in the direction of new culture
and hold the diverse dynamic on collective teamwork rather than emphasis on individual
differences. Company will also see other employee’s opinion as a chance to expand their horizons. It
will be beneficial and essential for Apple Inc in management of cultural diversity in the working place
and achievement of better outcomes easily.

What is the significance of cultural diversity management in improving productivity at
workplace?
As per the opinion of Reynolds (2019), diverse team within an organisation are more productive
and perform each task and activities of business in effective manner. The range of working methods,
expertise and experience offered by diverse workforce that can help an organisation in boosting of
its problem solving capacity and leading to their higher productivity. According to the previous
studies it has been shown, organisations that have diverse employees in their workplace are more
productive and happier as compare to other originations that not have diverse employees. Along
with this, there are another significance of managing cultural diversity at workplace including wider
range of skills, improves culture insights, improved company reputation, reduced employee
turnover, improved employee’s engagement, improved creativity, increased productivity, increased
profit and so on. These are main benefits that can e get by company if they mange cultural diversity
in the workplace. This turn to support business in accomplishment of its competitive advantages and
achievement of long term goals within a minimum time period.

Methodology
Research methodology is the definite procedures or techniques that are used by investigator for
finding, selecting, collecting and analysing data about a specific topic. This section of the research
involves specific methods that are adopted within investigation process to gather, collect and
evaluate information. It defines those techniques that are followed to collect relevant and accurate
data in a particular research study (Amjad and et. al., 2018). According to the current topic or
research, there are some useful methods or techniques which will be explained as below:
Research Approach
This is a part of data collection that basically has three approaches which are qualitative,
quantitative or mixed. All these approaches are significance but for collecting data regarding the
management of cultural diversity at workplace, quantitative approach will be applied. Main basis for
using quantitative approach is it make easy for researcher in collecting of reliable and valid
information about the existing research topic within lesser time duration. On the other hand,
qualitative or mixed approaches of data collection are not useful according to the current study
because it get maximum time and can create misleading conclusions (Aoyama, Hoshika and Honda,
2018).
Research techniques
This is an important section of research because it helps researcher in collecting of data from
number of techniques i.e. case studies, modelling, questionnaire, interview and so on. These are
main and effective techniques of data collection but for gathering information regarding the
management of cultural diversity at workplace, questionnaire will be make use of because it
facilitate in collecting of reliable and quantitative information in lesser time period. On the other
hand, interview, modelling, case studies etc. are other techniques of data collection but within an
investigation, these are not useful because it takes more time (Gaur and Kumar, 2018).
Data collection methods
There are two types or methods or data collection which are primary and secondary. In order
to gather primary data about the cultural diversity, questionnaire will be used for the reason that, it
helps in gathering of quantitative and valid information easily. However, for collecting secondary
data regarding the management of cultural diversity at workplace number of secondary sources
used for literature review i.e. books, articles, journals, publication research and so on. Main reason
for using secondary sources of data collection as it support researcher in gathering of detailed and
valid information about the study. Therefore, primary and secondary data will be collected within an
investigation (Gjesfjeld and et. al., 2020).
Sampling
There are two techniques of sampling which named are non-probability and probability,
within an investigation, 50 managers of Apple Inc will be recruited randomly under probability
sampling method. Main rationale for using probability sampling as it is based on large sample and
support researcher in identification of respondent’s opinion about the topic in minimum time period
(Güven, 2018).
Data analysis approach
In order to analysis data, there are two approaches which are inductive and deductive. This
project is based on quantitative research and for gathering quantitative information; deductive

approach will be make use. At the same time as it assist in analysing the reliable and valid
information regarding the cultural diversity and its importance in managing productivity level at
workplace. On the other hand, inductive approach is not valuable for current investigation because it
is based on qualitative data and requires more time as well as cost of the researcher (Kelly and et.
al., 2018).
Timeline of research activities
Timeline of research activities is important part for researcher in conducting of full project in
systematic manner. There are two approaches of time horizon which are cross-sectional approach
and longitudinal approach. Both are effective but according to the current study, cross-sectional
approach of time horizon will be make use because it is based on current situation and assist
researcher in completion of full project in minimum time duration. Along with this, Gantt char will
also used in this project because it is more useful and valuable time management tool. At the same
time as it support researcher in identification of starting and ending time period of each activity. This
will be beneficial for investigator in completion of research within allotted time period and in
systematic manner. There are several advantages of using Gantt chart in research such as: easy to
schedule the activities, easy to understand, visual and clear representation of time frames (Kelly and
et. al., 2018). There are some activities prepared according to the project apart from their starting
and ending time period. These are shown as below:

From the above mention Gantt chart, there are number of milestone but there are two
main which are Literature review and data collection. In order to complete literature review,
researcher will require minimum 11 days. For collecting data, researcher will take minimum
25 days.
Methodology
Methodology refers to the significant part of study that will helps researcher in
gathering as well as evaluating of data in appropriate and relevant ways. There are some
methods that will be beneficial in completing of full research which will be described as
below:
Research Philosophy: This section has two types of philosophy which are positivism
and interpretivisim. Both are essential but doing current study, positivism philosophy will be
applied because it support in collecting and analysing of quantitative information regarding
the role of cultural diversity and its importance in managing productivity at workplace within
limited time duration (Amjad and et. al., 2018).

Research approach: There are two approaches of study which are known as inductive
and deductive. These are essential but for conducting this investigation, deductive approach
will be applied because it facilitate in analysing of data in form of quantitative and in less
time duration. On the other side, inductive is another approach that is not helpful for
researcher in performing of present study over the role of cultural diversity because it takes
maximum time of researcher and not provide information in quantitative manner (Wu and et.
al., 2018).
Data collection: Data collection is the essential process of collecting information
regarding the field of study. There are basically two types of sources that will be used within
an investigation for collecting primary as well as secondary information. Questionnaire has
been applied by researcher for gathering primary information (Barak, 2016). On the other
side, secondary is another source of data collection that helps investigator in gathering of in-
depth and accurate information from number of sources such as magazines, books, articles,
publication research etc. Therefore, within a current study, both primary and secondary
sources of data collection are useful.
Sampling: Sampling within an investigation refers to the process of sample selection.
For selecting sample, there are two techniques or methods which are probability and non-
probability. These techniques are essential but for selecting sample size according to the
exiting topic or study, simple random sampling under probability sampling has been followed
because it helps in saving time and also selection of large number of sample size. However,
non-probability type of sampling is not appropriate for current investigation because it is
based on small number of sample size and also need maximum time period (Schilpzand, De
Pater and Erez, 2016).
Research instruments: There are number of research instruments which are
interview, questionnaire, observation, focus group etc. All are consider effective instruments
but for collecting information or data about the role of diversity, questionnaire has been
applied by investigator because it is useful in gathering of valid and reliable data within less
time as compare to other instruments of study (Gjesfjeld and et. al., 2020). Questionnaire
according to the current project will be presented as below:
Q1) Do you aware about the concept of cultural diversity? Frequency
a) Yes 40
b) No 10
Q2) Does managing cultural diversity is important at Frequency