Impact of Gender Equality on Sainsbury's Performance Report

This report investigates the impact of gender equality on organizational performance, using Sainsbury's supermarket in Enfield as a case study. The introduction highlights the importance of a good work environment for employees and defines gender equality. The literature review explores the significance of gender equality, the challenges Sainsbury's faces in managing it (such as unequal pay, bias, and training gaps), and ways to overcome these issues (like removing pay gaps, standardizing pay, and providing mentors). The methodology section details the research approach (quantitative), philosophy (positivism), and sampling technique (probability sampling with 60 employees). The results section presents the findings, and the conclusion and recommendations summarize the study and suggest further actions. The reflection section provides the author's insights on the research process.

Equality and Diversity
in the Workplace
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Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................3
Chapter 2: Literature review............................................................................................................5
Chapter 3: Methodology..................................................................................................................8
Chapter 4: Result............................................................................................................................12
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations..............................................................................23
Chapter 6: Reflection.....................................................................................................................24
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................25
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Chapter 1: Introduction
Background to the study:
A good work environment is essential for men and women because with the help of this,
they become more able to work longer and without any kind of ill-health risk. Gender equality
refers to a belief and in which both men and women should acquire equal treatment. Under this
practice, employees should not be discriminated on the basis of gender. The overall objectives
and gaols of gender equality in a workplace are men and women enjoy the same rights,
obligations and opportunities in all spheres of life (Fėlix and David, 2019). Gender equality at
workplace helps an organisation in improvement of its performance and success. For this project,
Sainsbury's supermarket of Enfield is a chosen organisation operating in London, United
Kingdom. Company was founded in year 1869 by the John James Sainsbury. In this
organisation, different number of men and women employees is working with each other and
have equal opportunities to make any kind of decision regarding business practices. Gender
equality among employees helps company in enhancement of its performance level. As it support
company by providing different benefits including a wider talent pool, improved teamwork,
superior staff retention, improved reputation etc. These are main advantages that get by an
organisation while managing gender equality in the workplace.
Nature of the Problem: There are different examples of inequality gender such as
unequal pay, unfavourable recruitment strategy, different opportunities, redundancies, bias,
sexual harassment and holding sexist views. These are considering main causes of gender
inequality and have negative impact over business and well as employee’s performance. In
current environment gender inequality is major issues that have negative effect on overall
performance of an organisation (Hassan, 2018). In order to deal with these issues, there is
requirement of promoting gender equality at workplace. This is biggest opportunity for an
enterprise to promote equality and gain better outcomes. For this, company should promote a
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better work life balance, offer training, mentors to everyone etc. These are considering best ways
for promoting gender equality at workplace.
Research aim
Main aim of this investigation is “To identify the impact of gender equality over
organisation performance of company. A study on Sainsbury's supermarket of Enfield.
Research objectives
 To study the significance of gender equality in organisation.
 To identify the challenges which Sainsbury's face while managing gender equality among
employees.
 To determine the ways that implement by Sainsbury's to overcome the issues of
managing gender equality inside organisational functions.
Research Questions
 What is the importance of gender equality in context of an enterprise?
 What are the several challenges may face by which Sainsbury while managing gender
equality among employees?
 What are the ways required to implement by Sainsbury for overcoming the issues
associated with management of gender equality.
Rationale and importance of the study: Main intent behind choosing this topic or research is
to increase awareness about the significance of gender equality among societies, organisation or
an individual. This research is essential at personal level by enhancing research skills of
researcher. As it will helps investigator in completion of full project in systematic and effective
manner. This investigation also important at academic level by boosting student’s knowledge
about the gender equality and its importance at working place (Windscheid and et. al., 2018).
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Chapter 2: Literature review
A literature review discusses published data in a specific subject area within certain time
duration. In addition, it is a comprehensive summary of previous study on a topic. Literature
review is a written summary of books, journal articles and many other documents or sources that
describes the current and past state of data. It is a presentation, classification and evaluation of
what other investigators have written on specific subject. Therefore, literature review is defined
as an in-depth, systematic, broad, critical review and comprehensive of scholarly publications,
audiovisual materials, unpublished scholarly print materials and personal communications.
Literature review is an essential part of the dissertation as it support researcher to find out gaps
and consequences in previous research (Wayne and McCosh, 2018). as it will further assist
researcher to deal with research aim and each objectives of study in systematic and effective
manner.
Importance of gender equality in context of an enterprise
According to Coquatrix (2019), gender equality is fundamental right of the human even
then women are not treated equal as the power of decision making to the extend to men are not
given them, they are paid not equally, as well as they targeted physically etc. For the businesses
it is important to empower women as with this they can enhance their productivity,
organisational efficiency and return on investment. This is because they have equal capability
and are more committed to their work then men. Treating all equal the employees has positive
impact on workplace culture as with this the private business can capitalise their potential by
adopting various business model that motivate the leadership of women. It contributes to the
productivity and competence of the organisation as with this they will have trained and loyal
employees who can help them in accomplishing their goals and objectives.
Further it leads to improvement of the overall economic performance as the improved
productivity of the organisation contributes more to the national growth. By ensuring gender
equality within the workplace the organisation can improve their performance and this improved
their ability of attracting talent and retains them for a longer period of the organisation increases.
Gender equality at the workplace also boosts the morale of the employees which motivates them
to perform consistently as all are provided equal and fair opportunities. Businesses that support
this concept have competitive advantage over others as this leads to inclusive workforce which
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work together and due to this various issues so faced by the organisation can easily be resolved
(Wynn, 2020).
The several challenges may face by which Sainsbury while managing gender equality
among employees
According to Greenberg, (2015) the equality within the organisation is so very crucial for
the overall growth and development of the organisation, employee as well as for the economy.
But while incorporating such concept the businesses faces various challenges. Various polices
are formulated by the organisation but the problems is with implementing them in practice which
can be because of various reasons and this has direct impact on the behaviours of various short
term indicators. In addition to this the implementation becomes difficult due to limited
capabilities of the organisation in changing their perception. Various organisations such as
Sainsbury faced various challenges at the time of managing the gender equality within the
workplace such as with the incorporation of this concept some of the employees opposed this as
they felt that this can affect their roles and opportunities. This is because of their perception but
this had adverse impact on the other employees also who were in favour of the concept as this
increases sense of loss of opportunities.
All such challenges lead to another challenge which is of increased turnover as other
employees believed that this will has direct impact on their efficiency. In addition to this the
women employees are provided various roles, responsibilities and authorities but as they were
not provided any training for improving their competence so they couldn’t perform their entire
role effectively. This increased the requirement of trainings for them so that they can become
well versed for executing all their roles and responsibilities (Bae and Skaggs, 2019).
The ways required to implement by Sainsbury for overcoming the issues associated with
management of gender equality.
According to the Petty (2016), there is different number of challenges that were faced by
Sainsbury while managing gender equality at workplace. These issues are mainly related with
gender based violence, high employee turnover, decreased level of performance etc. These are
considering major challenges that have negative impact over entire performance and productivity
of company. In order to overcome these challenges, some ways will be required to implement of
Sainsbury. These are removing the gender pay gap, review salaries and standardize pay, have an
accurate policy on discrimination and many other. These are considering more effective and
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essential ways that will be facilitate company to deal with the issues in efficient manner. Along
with this, there are another main ways that would be used by company for overcoming
challenges associated with management of gender equality. Company must revaluate job
specifications for the senior management team, make mentors available to everyone harassment
requirement to be identified and immediately stopped and many more. These are also identifying
main and essential ways that will be required to follow by Sainsbury. As it support them to
promote gender equality at workplace and retain employees for longer time period. This turn to
assit an organisation in improvement of its growth and success level at marketplace.
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Chapter 3: Methodology
Research methodology refers to a way used by researcher for solving a research problem in
systematic manner. Basically is it the systematic process by which investigators goes regarding
their work of explaining, evaluating and predicting concept of the study. In addition, research
methodology introduces to a systematic study, formulating a hypothesis, gathering and analyzing
information, and concluding research outputs (Amjad and et. al., 2018). There are several
objectives of research methodology such as to verify and test essential facts, to analysis the
cause, to identify concept, to determine the frequency etc. These are main objectives that support
investigator in completion of study within a given time period. There are some useful methods
according to the existing topic or study. These are explained as below:
Research approach: It is an effective procedure or plan that includes steps of broad
assumption to detailed approaches of data collection, analysis and interpretation. In order to
gather data, there are two approaches such as qualitative and quantitative. Within an
investigation, quantitative type of approach will be applied as it provides reliable data within a
lesser time duration. In order to analysis and interpret information, there are also two approaches
which are inductive and deductive (Aoyama, Hoshika and Honda, 2018). To analysis
information or data regarding the gender equality and its impact over organisation performance
of company, deductive approach will be applied. As it is suitable for researcher in analysis of
quantitative information about the current study.
Research philosophy: It is a belief regarding he method in which information regarding the
topic should be collected, analysed and used. There are essentially two philosophies of study
which are positivism and interpretivisim. In order to do current investigation, positivism
philosophy will be followed by researcher because it supports them in collection, analisation and
utilisation of quantitative information (Gaur and Kumar, 2018). Interpretivisim philosophy is not
used for current investigation because it is completely based on qualitative research and also
requires maximum time and resources of researcher while collection and analisation of
information.
Types of investigation: There are two types of study which are qualitative and quantitative.
For doing current study, quantitative type of research will be applied because it support
researcher in collection of numerical information from the population. Qualitative research is not
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appropriate according to the present study because it take more resources and nor provide data in
form of numbers (Gjesfjeld and et. al., 2020).
Sampling: According to the research, sample introduces as a group of sample, items or
objects that are taken from a total population for measurements. There are two techniques of
sampling which named are probability and non-probability. Both techniques are effective but for
executing existing investigation, probability sampling will be applied because it assists an
investigator in selection of sample from larger population and on random basis. With the use of
simple random sampling as a type of probability sampling 60 employees of Sainsbury's
supermarket of Enfield will be selected. Main intent behind choosing probability type of
sampling is it not consume maximum time and cost of company or researcher (Güven, 2018).
However, non-probability is another technique of sampling that is not applied within an
investigation because it takes maximum resources of a company.
Time horizon: This is an important part of the project because it assist researcher in
identification of actual time period for research completion. There are two approaches of time
horizon for example cross-sectional and longitudinal. These are effective but according to the
existing report, cross-sectional time horizon will be applied because it is based on actual
situation. Apart from this, Gantt chart will also applied by investigator for identifying starting
and closing data of each activity. This chart includes number of activities which will be exposed
as below in graphical way (Kelly and et. al., 2018).
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Data collection: For collecting data regarding the impact of gender equality on business
performance, both primary and secondary sources will be applied. Questionnaire is a part of
primary source whereas books, magazines etc. are consider secondary source of data collection.
Research design: This is often seen as the overall research project framework that
investigator adopts to present their gathered data in appropriate way. Exploratory, experimental
and descriptive are three main primary research designs in which investigator have selected
descriptive research design. The key intent for choosing this form is that it support in gathering
relevant data. Using this style also allows investigator to enhance their understanding of the
project and fairly explains overall outputs (Page and et. al., 2019).
Research strategy: There are various number of research strategies such as observation,
interview case study, market survey, focus group etc. These are important strategies of data
collection but for gathering information about the gender equality questionnaire as a part of
market survey will be used. Main reason for selecting questionnaire as it support researcher in
gathering of quantitative information without taking any extra time and cost (Schoonderbeek,
2018). According to the current investigation, questionnaire will be prepared as below:
Questionnaire
Q1) What is your gender?
a) Female
b) Male
Q2) According to you, men and women employees are treated equally within Sainsbury's?
a) Yes
b) No
Q3) Do you believe the women and men within the workplace receive fair salary or pay?
a) Yes
b) No
Q4) Have you experienced gender discrimination at the workplace of Sainsbury's?
a) Yes
b) No
Q5) As per your view point, what is the importance of gender equality in context of
Sainsbury’s?
a) Wider talent pool
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