An Analysis of Equality and Diversity in the Workplace at M&S

This report investigates the critical aspects of equality and diversity within the workplace, using Marks & Spencer (M&S) as a case study. The study begins with an introduction defining equality and diversity, emphasizing its importance for organizational success and employee well-being. A literature review explores the impact of diversity on performance and various approaches to managing workplace diversity, supported by academic sources. The research employs Saunders' research onion methodology, including qualitative research, primary data collection through questionnaires with M&S managers, and secondary data analysis from academic sources and organizational reports. The data analysis section presents findings from the primary research, organized thematically, which highlight M&S's approach to diversity. The report also addresses ethical considerations, cost analysis, and alternative research methodologies. The conclusion summarizes the research outcomes, reflecting on the study's findings and offering suggestions for future research, ultimately evaluating the importance of equality and diversity on organizational and employee performance.

Equality and Diversity in the
workplace

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
P1 Literature review and research question ................................................................................1
P2 Research methods for primary and secondary research ........................................................4
M1 Justification for the selected research method ......................................................................5
P3 Primary and secondary research using Saunder's research onion...........................................6
P4 Data analysis ..........................................................................................................................7
P5 Research outcomes ..............................................................................................................14
P6 Reflection .............................................................................................................................15
P7 Alternative research methodologies ....................................................................................15
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................17
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................19

INTRODUCTION
Work place equality and diversity is defined as the term which promotes equal
opportunities and treatments without any discrimination or prejudice for individuals by
respecting their diversity (Sharma, 2016). It promotes fair chance to every individual to grow and
demonstrate their skill and potential by defending their human rights, equality and diversity. For
improved employee retention, organizational performance, work culture and legislation it is
important for the business to integrate work place diversity and equality policy.
The report will produce a research work for analysing the equality and diversity issues
and policies of Marks & Spencer (M&S). The organizational is successful and leading
multinational retailer which has been gaining huge success across the world through its effective
diversity management and quality services. As a assistant of human resource management I will
conduct a research on significance of diversity and equality within M&S and the ways through
which organization addresses related issues.
P1 Literature review and research question
The aim of the research is to evaluate the importance and role of equality and
diversity on organizational and employee performance and to analyses the approaches to
manage diversity at workplace through a case study of M&S.
Research question
The research questions for the study are as follows:
 What is equality and diversity at workplace?
 How workplace diversity affects the performance of employees and organisation? How organisation can manage various workplace and diversity related issues?
Literature review:
According to Sarvaiya and Eweje, (2016) successful workplaces must integrate the
diverse work force so that they can understand the different needs of customers. Its necessity
becomes more critical for the multinational organisation as they operates in diverse business
environments. The equality at work place ensures that all people are provided same treatment
without any discrimination on the basis of race, disability, gender, culture, religious beliefs or
marital status. It is quite common practice at work place to have prejudices for the discrimination
and thus to restrict an individual from getting equal opportunities in growth or treatment. In the
same context Hawkins, (2017) stated that for enhancing the productivity and work environment
1

businesses must promote practices which restricts any kind of discrimination. This unethical
behaviour on diversity basis can be in the form of bullying, victimisation, pay gap differences,
unequal treatment or opportunities and harassments. The organisations which fails to manage the
discrimination are not able to achieve success for long term as it affects employee productivity
and creativity in negative manner.
Ozturk and Tatli, (2016)elucidated that in this era of globalisation most of the service
providers are trading globally. Thus it is quite common and obvious part for them to witness and
work with diversity. The divers work force assist in developing better understanding of
customers and other potential stakeholders of the business. It also eliminates the language
barriers and issues related to employee dissatisfaction. However for achieving these benefits
there must be a strong framework for promotion and management of equality and diversity.
As per Bendl and et.al., (2015) the implement ion of strict legal and organisational
policies is one of the best and fundamental practice to avoid work place discrimination. There
must be an effective communication between the management and employees so that each
individual gets a fair chance to put forward their perspective. The organisation and team
members must respect the differences so that discriminatory practices can be completely avoided
at work place. Riach and Brewis, (2019) stated that organisation can have several measures or
policy changes to encourage equality. For instance there must be equal pay for the same work
and it must not depend upon gender. There are organisations which have different pay scale and
growth opportunities for female and male workers. Such types of organisation also have
discriminatory policies on the basis of age and disability. The diversity based differences can be
eliminated by joint efforts of employers as well as employees. To establish the diversity and
equality companies must have strict monitoring framework so that such practices can be
identified and necessary legal actions can be taken against the individuals disrespecting diversity.
It has been also observed that when organisational policies does not empower equality
and diversity then employees are discouraged and they does not deliver their full output
(Guillaume and et.al., 2017) . On the other hand when individuals are empowered that they have
access to same promotion and growth opportunities without any fear or matter of concern on
behalf of their role, gender, age, race and disability then they appreciate their employment, job
duties and work culture and thus overall business growth is achieved.
2

P2 Research methods for primary and secondary research
There are variety of research methods which can be used for conducting this research.
The most appropriate choices which can be used for this research are Saunders research onion
and 5 step approach:
Saunders research onion:
In this model the outermost layer is called research philosophy which describes the
research process and method chosen for research approach in second stage. The third layer is
research strategy which explain that how work is intended to be carried out. It may include ways
such as experimental study, action or case study research, literature review, survey and
interview. The fourth layer of this research model is time horizon which states the estimation of
time for completing project (Bohari and et.al., 2019). Thus it classify studies as longitudinal and
cross sectional. The last and the fifth layer represents data collection stage which can be primary
and secondary. The primary data is collected via interviews or survey while the secondary data is
collected via literature review. The research strategy and approach are chosen on the basis of
type and method of data to be collected.
Advantages and disadvantages:
The prime benefit of this research method is that it consist of several stages through
which primary and secondary data collection methods can be understood and classified. Thus it
is very easy to describe methodological study in convenient and easy manner (Mayer, 2015).
However it has one drawback that it is very time consuming and quite complex to understand
due to multiple layers.
5 step approach:
In this research methodology in the first step a research problem is defined. The next
stages emphasis on finding methodologies which can solve the formulated research problem.
Thus in the second stage data collection, primary and secondary research conducting tools are
planned and analysed. The third stage is called data collection in which primary and secondary
data is collected by various approaches (Saunders and et.al., 2015). The fourth stage of this
model is known as interpretation stage which examines the collected data to draw relevant
conclusions. The last stage consist of reporting of research findings and to make the relevant
decisions on the basis of research outcomes.
Pros and cons:
3

As compare to Saunder's research onion 5 step approach of research is very simpler and
less time consuming. Since it formulate research methods with aim to strictly focus on the
solution of research problem, it is highly specific and less time consuming (Carins Rundle-Thiele
and Fidock, 2016) . One of the limitation of this method is that it does not involve in depth
planning of the research aspects such as time horizon, distinguishing blue print for both primary
and secondary research.
For this study Saunder's research onion methodology is chosen as the suitable approach
as it is not only limited to solutions of research questions but also helps to explore wide range of
concepts related to research topic. Though time being one of the drawback of this method but it
can be trade off with the efficient methodologies for delivering suitable research outcomes.
M1 Justification for the selected research method
The research questions chosen for the study not only describes the concept of work place
equality and diversity but it also explore its various dimensions. The chosen research questions
analyses the significance and various policy framework used by the organisation to manage work
place diversity. The research method chosen for this study is Saunder's onion model. One of the
reason for choosing this method is that in this model various layers are used to identify and
understand the different elements of research in detail. Thus for both primary and secondary
research highly specific research techniques can be adopted. As compare to 5 stage research
method, onion model involves higher degree of precise and accurate method. Further there are
certain elements such as time frame of the study, nature of data collection methods within
primary and secondary research, philosophies and approaches are also not included in the five
stage method. Another important consideration which makes onion method highly suitable is that
it also consider ethical consideration into account so that research reliability, validity and
efficiency can be increased.
P3 Primary and secondary research using Saunder's research onion
For this research following research methods and elements of Saunder's onion are chosen
for executing this study.
Research type:
The research study can be of qualitative or quantitative. The quantitative studies uses
statistical data while qualitative studies uses only descriptive or non-statistical data. This
4

research study is of qualitative type. One of the advantage of qualitative study is that it provides
in depth analysis and gives more broad research outcomes (Quinlan and et.al., 2019) .
Data collection for primary and secondary data:
Both primary and secondary research can be conducted using type of data collected. For
the primary research primary data in this study is collected through using a questionnaire for the
managers of M&S. Secondary research is conducted by using data from various secondary
sources such as books, journals, organisational reports and articles.
Sampling for primary data:
The sampling is known as the selection of small size population for the collection of
primary data. Thus it is used only for primary research data. In this project the primary data is
collected from 20 managers of M&S which are used for the questionnaire based survey.
Search strategy for secondary data:
Secondary data is collected from various secondary sources and thus for enhancing the
validity and quality of research appropriate search strategy is used (Ledford and Gast, 2018). For
this purpose only authenticated, validate and latest secondary sources between the year 2015-
2019 were chosen in this study.
Data analysis:
The analysis of secondary sources is provided in terms of literature review while for
analysing the primary data thematic analysis is used in the project. In thematic analysis primary
data is interpreted by using various research themes. Thematic analysis also benefits as it helps to
explore a particular theme in great detail and to further encourage way to interpret additional
findings related to research topic (Bresler and Stake, 2017) .
Ethical consideration:
In order to ensure the validity and reliability of project it is necessary that data must be
collected and analysed in ethical ways. Thus during primary data collection several ethical
principles such as privacy, dignity, consent of participants must be taken care by the researchers.
It must be assured that during the research no harm must be caused to the participants and they
must have rights to withdraw from the study or to skip any question.
Cost: The approximate cost for the project will be £1000. The cost can be divided into following
activities.
Activity Cost (in £)
5

Internet 200
Books and Journals 400
Questionnaire 50
Printing research paper 300
Other expenses 50
Total 1000
P4 Data analysis
The data analysis for the primary data is as follows:
Theme 1 Diverse work force within organisation
Q- 1 Do you think M&S has diverse workforce? Frequency
Yes 17
No 1
Not sure 2
Total 20
6

Interpretation:
It has been observed that around 85% of the sample population agreed that M&S have
diverse work force. The organisation has employees from different culture, background and
opinion. There were only two participants who stated that they were are sure if existing work
force of the organisation can be considered as diverse or not. Among 20 participants only one
employee informed that organisation does not have diverse work force.
Theme 2 Managing work place equality and diversity
Q- 2 How your organisation manage the diverse workforce and equality
at work place?
Frequency
 Anti-discriminatory policies 5
 Education and training 2
 Transparency and equality in growth opportunities 3
 All of the above 10
Total 20
7
Yes
No
Not sure
Total

Interpretation:
M&S uses various strategies to promote equality at workplace. Out of 20 participants,
five employees informed that organisation has anti-discriminatory policies which prohibit the
discrimination and thus all individuals are treated with equality. In the similar context 2
participants also informed that there are regular training and education programs conducted by
the organisation so that diversity can be promoted. There were 3 employees who stated that for
managing diversity organisation adopts transparency in its policies and thus provide equal
opportunities to its all staff members. However 50% of the population stated that instead of any
single factor or strategy M&S uses all these measures for managing diversity.
Theme 3 Significance of promoting diversity and equality within organisation
Q- 3 Why it is important to promote equality and diversity within
organisation?
Frequency
 Improved productivity 3
 Efficient team work and individual performance 3
 Meeting global business needs 2
 All of the above 12
Total 20
8
Anti-discriminatory
policies
Education and training
Transparency and
equality in growth
opportunities
All of the above
Total

Interpretation:
Diversity and equality is one of the important aspect which affects different elements of
business. An equal number of three participants believes that with proper management of
diversity organisation can enhance their productivity, individual performance and efficient team
outcomes. Two of the participants also informed that since organisation is working globally it is
vital for its success to deal with diversity. More than 50% of the study participants informed that
diversity management is helpful in all of the mentioned business areas.
Theme 4 Impact of diversity policies on employee performance
Q- 4 Do you think equality and diversity policy of organisation affect the
employee performance?
Frequency
 Not at all 1
 Somewhat 1
 Large extent 18
Total 20
9
Improved productivity
Efficient team work
and individual
performance
Meeting global
business needs
All of the above
Total

Interpretation:
A significant percentage of 90% of the sample population informed that equal treatment
and effective diversity management at work place affects the performance of employees. The
equal opportunities motivates employees and thus have positive impact on employee
productivity. Contrary to this there was only one participant who stated that these policies does
not have any influence on the performance as performance of individual solely depends upon
their capabilities and skills not on equality policies.
Theme 5 Discriminatory organizational policies and culture
Q- 5 Have you ever felt that organisational policies or work culture is
discriminatory towards you?
Frequency
Yes 2
No 17
Not sure 1
10
Not at all
Somewhat
Large extent
Total