A Detailed Report on Corporate Governance and Discrimination at ASDA

This report provides a detailed analysis of corporate governance at ASDA, a major British supermarket retailer. It begins with an executive summary outlining the core issues, primarily focusing on employee complaints of discrimination and inequality. The report is structured with an introduction, literature review exploring corporate governance theories (agency, stewardship, and stakeholder), and a discussion of discrimination within the workplace, including employee rights and employer accountability. The research methodology includes secondary and primary research, with findings critically reviewed and presented. The analysis delves into the impact of discrimination on employee performance and the overall corporate governance at ASDA, including its triple bottom line impact and strategic initiatives. The report concludes with recommendations for ASDA to improve its corporate governance and address the issues of discrimination. The report also includes a questionnaire used for primary research.

Running head: ASDA CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
ASDA CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The concept of Corporate Governance can be essentially described as the means which are
generally adopted by the organization to deal with the different aspects relating to the employee
and social welfare. In regard to this, the report is aimed towards understanding the different ways
in which the employees at ASDA have been undergoing issues relating to the fact that many
employees have complained about discrimination and inequality scenarios. Therefore, by
following a systematic structure, the paper is dividing into different sections whereby the
Introduction, Literature Review, the Research methods and the Discussion and Analysis has been
presented. This is then followed by the Conclusion and the Recommendations of the study.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Literature Review............................................................................................................................6
The concept of Corporate Governance........................................................................................6
Agency Theory............................................................................................................................6
Stewardship Theory.....................................................................................................................7
Stakeholder Theory......................................................................................................................7
Discrimination.............................................................................................................................8
Discrimination at the Workplace.................................................................................................8
Employee Rights..........................................................................................................................9
Employer Accountability.............................................................................................................9
Considerations.............................................................................................................................9
Theories of Discrimination........................................................................................................10
Discussion of secondary and primary research undertaken...........................................................13
Overview....................................................................................................................................13
Secondary research undertaken.................................................................................................13
Primary research undertaken.....................................................................................................14
Summary....................................................................................................................................15
Critical Review of the Results.......................................................................................................16
Overview....................................................................................................................................16

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Primary research results.............................................................................................................16
Secondary research results.........................................................................................................27
Discrimination at ASDA............................................................................................................27
Impact on the performance of employees..................................................................................28
Corporate governance at ASDA................................................................................................28
Triple bottom impact.................................................................................................................29
Strategic initiatives for ASDA...................................................................................................30
Conclusion and Recommendations................................................................................................34
References......................................................................................................................................35
Appendix........................................................................................................................................38
Questionnaire.............................................................................................................................38

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Introduction
Corporate Governance can be correctly comprehended to be a set of rules and regulations
which are required to be utilized by the organization in engaging into various operations. The
Corporate Governance of a company needs to be such that it is successfully able to cover all the
operations of the organization and in line with this has the overall capacity to certify that it will
successfully be able to guide the organization towards the right steps which are required to be
undertaken by it. In line with this, according to Yermack (2017), the corporate governance
encompasses of the overall interest in a company`s stakeholders which comprise of the
customers, suppliers, governmental regulatory bodies which go a long way in supporting the firm
to attain its objectives. In line with this, the corporate governance of an organization is greatly
impacted by the overall external as well as the internal forces which govern the overall
operations of the enterprise. The primary aim of the report lies on the corporate governance of
the ASDA in UK. The subject of the Corporate Governance can be comprehended to be vast in
nature and in line with this, it can be considered to be the overall duty of the firm to certify that,
they are being successfully able to apply and include all the aspects which are related to the
concept of the Corporate Governance. After research, it was identified that, the Corporate
Governance issue which is relevant in the case of the ASDA can be comprehended to be the
Discrimination and the accusation of the staff members against the management stating that they
are not being treated adequately. With respect to this, the staff members have reported that
although the firm has the equality as a concept in its Corporate Governance, however, the firm
has not been taken it very seriously and in reality the different staff members have been
subjected to a huge level of discrimination and there have been various accusations from the side
of the staff members stating how they were actually being treated in the firm.

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The ASDA Stores Limited can be comprehended to be a British Supermarket retailer
which has its headquarters in the Leeds, West Yorkshire. The company was found in 1949 and
expanded its overall operations to the South of England during the years 1970 and the 1980s.
The company was also listed on the London Stock Exchange until 1999 and later on it was
acquired by the American retail giant Walmart (Asda.com 2019). The ASDA can be
comprehended to be the second largest supermarket chain in Britain between the time period of
2003 and 2014 by the virtue of market share and since the fourth month of 2019, the firm has
been able to regain the second position but is still behind Tesco and ahead of Sainsbury`s
The paper will follow a comprehensive format with reverence to which the Introduction
chapter will provide a brief overview on the subject which will then be followed by the
Literature Review on the same. This will then be trailed by the research procedure that will be
adopted and the findings of the research. The last section of the research will provide certain
recommendations which can be largely adopted by the firm in order to improve the current
scenario.

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Literature Review
The concept of Corporate Governance
The corporations have become increasingly powerful and a dominant institution. In
regard to this, it is vital for a firm to certify that it is successfully able to manage all the existing
aspects of a business which range from the influences, the capabilities and the size. Their
governance and the way in which the dissimilar actions are usually managed tend to be
influenced by the economies and the social landscape scenarios (Tichy 1981). Therefore, due to
the changing nature of the different firms, it has been observed that, the different shareholders
are losing out on the trust and the market value of the firms is being affected considerably. In
line with this, it is integral to certify that, the firm is being able to see to it that the organizations
are putting this lack of governmental control to good use and thereby stress on the overall
importance of the accountability in the organizations. Therefore, the corporate governance has
become a vital aspect of the enterprise and thereby assists in ensuring that the current global as
well as the complex environment can be well managed (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung 2016).
The literatures in the domain of the Corporate Governance tend to provide some meaningful
form of information and governance aspects but tend to fall short on the aspect related to
governance and there remain many interpretations to the concept of Corporate Governance in the
firm. The different theories which are related to the field off Corporate Governance can be
comprehended to be the Agency theory, Stewardship Theory and the Stakeholder Theory.
Agency Theory
The agency theory is deemed to have its roots in the economic theory which states that
there lies a considerable association between the principals, shareholders and the other agents.

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The shareholders are the individuals who generally tend to hire these people to perform certain
functions for them and assist them in ensuring that they are successfully able to perform good
work and manage the organization on their behalf. The theory can be comprehended to be a
conceptually simple theory which suggests that the different managers are not required to be self-
centered and instead work towards ensuring that the overall goals and objectives of the firm can
be met with and the society as a whole tends to benefit from this (Triana, Jayasinghe and Pieper
2015). The main problem which lies in this theory can be related to the fact that there needs to
exist a differentiation between the ownership and control. Hence, In this case, it is seen to it that,
the agents are required to function with principal made rules and aim to maximize the
shareholder value.
Stewardship Theory
The Stewardship theory can be comprehended to have the roots of the firm registered in
the psychology as well as the sociology and concentrates on the fact that a steward tends to lie
with the focus of ensuring that the wealth of the firm can be maximized accordingly through the
performance and also because it is the overall duty of the steward to do so (Cascio 2015). Unlike
the agency theory, the stewardship theory does not stress on the perception of individualism but
rather stresses on the top management being the stewards of the firm who motivate the overall
victory of the firm (Tricker and Tricker 2015). It relies on ensuring that the returns of the
stakeholders are maximized and hence, the performance of the enterprise can directly have an
influence on the perceptions of their individual performance. As per this theory, the agency costs
have to be minimized so as to see to it that, the interests of the shareholder are safeguarded in a
better manner.

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Stakeholder Theory
Another theory related to the domain of the Corporate Governance can be comprehended
to be the Stakeholder theory. This theory states that, any group of persons who can mark or are
greatly influenced by the achievement of the firm`s overall operations can be successfully
attained by unifying the organization`s objectives and by seeing to it that the managers of a firm
work with the stakeholders as well (Vickers 2016). According to this theory, it is not only the
shareholders of the firm who have a crucial role to play in the fulfillment of the objectives of the
firm, but it is also the stakeholders who deserve to receive equal importance. In addition to this,
this perspective tends to broaden the overall outline which states that the network of various
groups tend to affect the overall processes and outcomes which take place in a firm and impact
the different stakeholders of the organization at large.
Discrimination
The discrimination can be described as a treatment or the consideration of an individual
by making discrimination towards a particular individual, group, class or category from where a
person generally belongs. The discrimination can include discrimination relating to the age,
caste, criminal record the disability of the individual, the family status, gender identity as well as
the nationality and the related social class and orientation of a person. Under discrimination a
person is usually treated worse than the normal behavior. This often tends to lead to the
exclusion of the individuals and is generally based on irrational decision making (Eng and Mak
2003). There exist various discriminatory traditions and policies along with various practices and
laws which exist in various countries as well as institutions and are generally looked down upon.
In some of the countries, there often takes place controversial attempts to see to it that the

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discriminated class or group is benefited and this is known as reverse discrimination (Williamson
1988).
Discrimination at the Workplace
The discrimination in the workplace has become very common. The primary reason
behind this can be contributed to the increase in the cultural as well as the gender diversity in the
workplace which keeps the employee obligated from various ethnicities as well as circumstances
to work together and meet the aims of the firm (Drucker 2016). However, this difference which
takes place between the various people often has a tendency to bring about mix-ups and
generally results in conflicts and discrimination. The managers are believed to have a
responsibility towards their workers and engage in fair practices. The different discrimination
activities which often take place at work can be taken to be as follows:
Employee Rights
The employees generally possess the right to file a protest against their manager if there
has been an incident whereby they have been dishonestly discriminated alongside or harassed at
a workplace (Wright and McMahan 1992). If any discriminatory behavior is faced by the
employee then it is the overall duty of the employer to mitigate the situation and to protect the
employee from any further harm. In line of this, the employee may ask the help of the anti-
discrimination authorities.
Employer Accountability
The employer is required to protect the workers from all types of discrimination as well
as the harassment which takes place at work. It is integral that they undertake proper measures to
put an end to the unwanted harassing behavior (Bresler and Stake 2017). If there exists a failure

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to do this then it can result in criminal consequences against the organization. The different
employers are accountable for the creation of the accommodations for various employees in case
of a special service is received.
Considerations
Although the different employees possess various anti-discrimination rights, they will be
required to certify that they are required to be responsible for their own safety (Dimopoulos and
Wagner 2016). They are required to respond the employers in case of any discrimination which
takes place and if they would require accommodations within the workplace. Moreover, they can
be held responsible to protect themselves from the additional harm in any scenario. This supports
the claim that the employers who are unaware of the employee needs cannot support them in any
manner.
Theories of Discrimination
In the field of literature, the different theories of the discrimination which are largely
available can be comprehended to be the structuralism, performance identity, the masculinities
theories and other such theories which focus on the professional work environment.
The Structuralism Approach to Discrimination
The structuralism theory focuses on the behaviors which take place within the place of
work and may seem to be uncontrollable in any scenario which exists outside the workplace. The
theory seeks to link the societal forces like the conscious with employers and the responsibility
that the societal discrimination does not need to be managed by the employer (Yermack 2017).
According to Bratton and Gold (2017), the structural discrimination can be comprehended to be
a rather complex and subtle form of discrimination whereby it is destructive at first generation

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because, it tends to foster a pattern of interaction among the various members of the group
whereby the non-dominant groups are ultimately excluded. Examples of this may include the
undermining of women`s professed capability and freezing them out of the social
communications or permitting the behavior which generally tends to depart from the various
stereotypes about the sexual orientation. According to Denis and McConnell (2003), an
employer is required to set up various structures through a strong corporate culture and is
engaged to perform well.
Performance Identity Theory
On one hand, the structuralism approach tends to focus on the employer and tends to
focus on the manner in which the employer practices have an impact on the employees (Delery
and Doty 1996). The intersectionality approach to the discrimination tends to focus on the
various ways in which the people with the multidimensional identities often tend to face the
discrimination and how the racism as well sexism tend to interact as well as engage in the
creation of workplace dynamics which affect the overall intersection. The performance identity
theory focus on the race or ethnicity which is viewed as something which is performed and is
considered to be more than a fixed concept and indeed relates that, the discrimination in the
workplace can be stated to be relating to the dialectical procedure which is generally shaped by
the work culture of the employee (DeCenzo, Robbins and Verhulst 2016). The dialectic is a
concept which is shared by the structuralism theory along with the Performance identity theory
and states that although the racial and gender undercurrents exist in the society in a general
manner but in the place of work, it exists in a specific way. The performance identity theorists
tend to present an argument that, the anti-discrimination law should just be exploring the
dynamics in the employer and employee relationship which further contributes to the costs,