Evaluating Gender Pay Gap's Impact on Employee Performance at M&S

This research report investigates the impact of the gender pay gap on employee performance, focusing on the context of Marks and Spencer. The study begins with an introduction outlining the research aim, objectives, and questions, emphasizing the significance of addressing workplace disparities. A comprehensive literature review explores the influence of gender pay gaps on worker performance, the issues faced by employees due to these gaps, and potential solutions. The research methodology section details the use of the research onion, with a positivism philosophy and a deductive approach to analyze the data. The data analysis chapter presents the findings, followed by a conclusion and recommendations. The report aims to provide insights into how gender pay gaps affect employee motivation, morale, and overall output, and suggests alternative options for companies to overcome these challenges. The report underscores the importance of addressing pay equity for a diversified and skilled workforce and the need for companies to analyze their current situation, renew hiring patterns, and discontinue salary negotiations to promote a more equitable work environment.

Research project

Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................3
Research aim..........................................................................................................................3
Research objectives...............................................................................................................3
Research questions.................................................................................................................3
Research rationale.................................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................5
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.............................................................................8
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS................................................................................................11
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.....................................................24
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................25

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Working performance within a business is defined as the aspect in which employees
fulfils obligation of their jobs and duties assigned to them. There are various factors due to
which performance of employees are impacted whether in positive or negative aspect. One of
them is gender pay gap and this is the major reason that disparity among workplace is created.
This may lead in undervaluing and discrimination due to which their motivation and morale and
minimised overall output (Nollenberger, Rodríguez-Planas and Sevilla, 2016). This is regarded
as the biggest challenge for an organisation which may create pay gap and inequality within
employees. In current scenario for every business there major concern is associated with
bringing in diversified workforce so that skilful employees can be aligned with business. This is
observed hat across the world just a fraction of women are working in the same role as men,
which is a situation of disparity. This is an institutional barrier due to which progress for
women get stopped. This research report is analysing impact of gender pay gap on performance
of employees in the premises of Marks and Spencer.
Research aim
“To evaluate the influence of gender pay gap on workers performance at workplace”. A
study on Marks and Spencer.
Research objectives
 To determine the impact of gender, pay gap within the company.
 To analysis the issue faced by employee because of gender pay gap within the
company.
 To determine the alternatives options that may support company to can overcome
from challenges of gender pay gap.
Research questions
 What is the influence of gender pay gap on workers performance?
 What is issue faced by employee because of gender pay gap within the company?
 What are the alternative options that may support company to can overcome from
challenges of gender pay gap?

Research rationale
The selection of this topic is to analyse impact of gender gap within performance of
employees. Besides this with the help of this topic it can be analysed that how a person is
supposed to examine situation of their working place in order to get appropriate succession
opportunities (Steinberg, Skae and Sampson, 2018). This research topic is associated with dual
perspective for researcher in terms of personal and professional aspect. In terms of personal
aspect this research will be helpful for researcher to develop various skills such as
communication skills, research skill, creative thinking skill and many more. These skills could
be helpful for researcher in managing various tasks in their future with utmost efficacy and
effectiveness (Cassar and Rigdon, 2019). On the other hand in terms of professional perspective
this research is helpful in understanding concepts of research such as use of research
methodology and techniques of data analysis. So this could be helpful for researcher to
complete their further researcher in such a manner that appropriate results can be developed. So
this can be concluded that this research is going to assist researcher in managing balance
between personal and professional aspects.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
What is the influence of gender pay gap on workers performance?
According to Campbell (2016), The gender pay gap basically reflects the adequate wage
and salary that is paid by an organization to its employees. It also define workplace
performance and its productivity through which employee motivation and encouragement is
concerned as with this probability and ability to attain long term and standardized goals are
achieved with adequateness. Gender pay gap is associated with the workplace culture and its
attributes of an organization towards its employees and workers. It is also get influenced by
different factors such as unconscious and conscious discrimination that usually bias within
decision making and hiring. As both men and women in various jobs and industries get worked
but in this a factor as female dominating companies offer lower wage under which individual of
similar experience, education and knowledge get differentiated on the basis of wage. The
disparities among woman and men get hindered the wage system which also be constrained of
spending and income power of a family. The difference in between wage is a major cause of
occupational segregation in which men paid higher as per comparison to women’s. It has direct
impact over the professionalism and it is a vital case of managing and controlling societal based
differentiation. It affects formal priority in which higher retention rate, improvised orientation,
employee satisfaction and decision making credibility get affects in effective basis. The women
are just considered as a fraction of men as while working on similar position. In this companies
make continuous efforts and as per concern of World economic forum, there is about 202 years
and through this only economic pay gap get changed. It also shrink the several issues that
ingrained all across economies in which employee get accept inequality with better pace. It
brings higher challenges well in which more of the people couldn’t even accept about that
equality and gender pay is an issue and it exist all over.
What is issue faced by employee because of gender pay gap within the company?
According to Eble, and Hu (2018), There are different issues that is required to be known by
woman that there is a need to getting equally paid as per man. It is an equivalent aspect through
which gender inequality get managed within the workplace. It affects overall working dynamics
of an organization and it is due to the myriad reason’s. It includes experience, age, racial bias,

maternity, disability and many other breaks in career that is usually faced by women on random
basis. It is quite dominating and surprising that still women paid lesser as compared to men and
it is processed majorly in many companies. It is slight optimised as well and with this many of
the prospects are considered by companies as with this obvious change are implemented. In
relation to gender pay gap and inequality more of employees faced discrimination at workplace
and it has direct impact over the working standards of workers along with this it is also be
relatable to gender gap, sexual orientation, race, religion, age and many other factors as well.
It processed an unequal way and unequal opportunities for employees that formally get
contributes towards education, career options and for training as well. It has raw impact over
women and also indicate empirical evidence about low paying jobs and reduces the level of
contribution that is pertain by an employee at the time of task completion. It isolates the well-
being of employees as if co-worker get higher paid of similar work that it surpasses potential
impact over working credibility of lot of employees. It reduces the occupation choices, hiring
practice, guidance and expectations of workers and have disproportionate the social and formal
norms beyond certain control. It makes difficult for women to work and get succeed since it
tend to care taking if varied range of duties and responsibilities.
What are the alternative options that may support company to can overcome from challenges
of gender pay gap?
According to Glass, Cook and Ingersoll (2016), There is no doubt to the initiatives that must
be taken to completely eradicate the difference in the pay scale between the genders. Not only
does such a difference demoralise the less fortunate gender but also affects the company itself
in the bigger picture. In the present world image of a company is much more important than
increasing operational cost of the company. In other words, increased operational cost of the
company will only reduce its profit margin but the negative brand image can completely put the
company out of the business. With such huge impact of the issue, it is the moral, ethical and
functional responsibility of every company to work towards reducing the ever-existing gender
pay gap.
There are various changes that a company should make in order to execute the vision of
zero pay gap between the genders. These changes are as follows.

Salary Record and Analysis: The first and the foremost step to make the difference
would be to analyse the present situation in the company. Which will help in acknowledging the
issue and understanding the depth of it. After getting the data from the analysis of salary of
employees the company should effectively work towards levelling this difference based on
further analysis of work done by every employee.
Renewed hiring pattern: Most of the times when the victim of gender pay gap changes the
company in the hopes of a new start, that individual is then again judged on the last salary that
was issued to him, which only further adds to the problem. For this the core principle of hiring
should be renewed and the salary should be decided on the potential and the skills of the future
employee of the company.
Discontinuation of negotiation: In the efforts of reducing the operational cost of a
company, most of the times the HR managers are asked to negotiate the salary as much as
possible. Due to this the potential possessing and deserving candidates, who cannot negotiate
under the pressure of leaving a bad impression agree to the low pay scale. This process might
just get over on the very first but it impacts the employee till one’s last day; as beginning with
the low salary means further incentives addition will still be lower than the majority of other
employees. Hence ultimately decreasing motivation of individual will resulting into low work
efficiency. With the proper execution of these steps a company can surely exterminate the
gender pay gap and initiate a much better and healthy future of equality at workplace.

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This section of research is playing vital role in managing and conducting research project in
appropriate manner (Srinivas and Babu, 2017). This section facilitates the researcher to gain
insight regarding methods and techniques to be used within research so that effective and
appropriate results can be obtained. Under this section researcher decides various aspects in
which they can receive assistance to deal with research outcomes. For carrying out research in
significant manner this is imperative that all the dimension of research can be examined
accurately so this section is helping researcher to deal with those dimensions. By using research
onion method current research will be executed by researcher which is elaborated as under:
Figure 1: Research Onion, 2021.
Research Philosophy: This is defined as the belief in which research data will be gathered.
There are four types of research philosophy such as positivism, realism, interpretivism and
pragmatism. Under this research positivism philosophy will be used as this facilitates the
researcher to analyse the data in appropriate manner. This research is based on analysing impact
of gender pay gap so positivism philosophy will be helpful for researcher to examine perpetual
impact of gender pay gap over their performance in significant manner.
Research approach: This is defined as the relevance of the study over pre determines
hypotheses (Haddadi and et. al., 2017). There are two types of research approaches such as
inductive, deductive. Under this research researcher is using deductive approach as this is
associated with positivism form of research philosophy and recognising justified research

outcomes. Deductive approach is supporting the researcher to analyse numeric data in such a
way that research objectives can be attained.
Research strategy: Research strategy is defined as the overall plan for the research in which
researcher plans and execute various aspects of research so that using statistical methods
research objectives can be attained. This aspect within research is holding utmost significance
in analysing research aims and aligning the same with efforts of researcher so that prominent
investigation can be executed. The major research strategies are experiments, survey, interview
and observation. These strategies are helpful in suggesting the researcher to find that possible
way in which research objectives can be accomplished in easy manner (De Angeli and O'Neill,
2020). Under this research, researcher is using survey in which questionnaire is chosen in order
to ensure that data collection and other resources are used in cost and time effective manner.
Choices of method: Research method is defined as the sources in which according to
nature of research data is gathered and then research outcomes are examined. There are two
methods of data collection such as qualitative and quantitative by which data can be gathered
by researcher. In this research, quantitative method is used by researcher as this is helpful in
analysing numeric information and concludes the results in appropriate manner. This could be
assisting researcher in supporting research objectives in such a manner that according to
research nature investigation can be executed and research objectives can be accomplished.
Thus by selecting quantitative research specific and measurable findings can be obtained by
researcher so that the same can be analysed and evaluated as well.
Time horizons: Time horizons are defined as the duration of time in which research can be
completed with utmost efficiency and management. There are two types of research time
horizons such as cross-sectional and longitudinal (Young, 2018). Cross sectional is associated
with short period of time whereas longitudinal is related to those observations which are lasting
for years and quarters. Under this research cross-sectional time horizon is used as this will be
helpful in executing research in appropriate and suitable manner.
Sources of data collection: Both primary and secondary sources of data collection are used
within research in order to provide appropriate results out of research. In terms of primary data,
this is helpful in gathering first-hand information which is more authentic and helpful for

researcher to take out significant information. On the other hand secondary data collection
sources are helpful for researcher to get in depth knowledge regarding research topic so that
appropriate investigation can be framed using past records and information. With the help of
questionnaire primary information is being collected by researcher whereas for gathering of
secondary data various journals, books and magazines are used. Using both the methods of data
collection will help researcher to take appropriate decisions and to conclude research findings
for accomplishing research objectives in appropriate manner.
Sample size: The sampling method is defined as the process in which a specific number of
respondents are selected out of whole population in order to obtain outcome of research and to
maintain efficiency of overall project (Gichuru, 2017). In this research sample size is taken as
40 and employees of Marks and Spencer are only selected through random sampling. In this
way primary data is collected by researcher so that to take out appropriate research outcomes.

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS
Questionnaire
Q.1 Do you believe that gender pay gap is existed within workplace of Marks and Spencer?
a) Yes
b) No
Q.2 Do you think that gender pay gap is negatively impacting performance of employees?
a) Yes
b) No
Q.3 In your opinion gender pay is providing issues to working employees?
a) Yes
b) No
Q.4 Does practices of gender pay gap reduce market image of Marks and Spencer?
a) Yes
b) No
Q.5 What is the major reasons of gender pay gap within Marks and Spencer?
a) Occupational segregation
b) Vertical segregation
c) Ineffective equal pay legislation
Q.6 What are the consequences of gender pay over workplace or business?
a) Decreased employee performance
b) Ineffective working culture
c) Minimisation of working opportunities
Q.7 What are the ways in which gender pay gap can be eliminated?
a) By increasing female productivity
b) By encouraging female employees
c) By implying equal pay gap legislations
Q.8 As per your opinion why closing the gender pay gap is important
a) To improve organisational performance
b) To improve working culture

c) To strengthen global economy
Q.9 Do you support movement of closing gender pay gap in Marks and Spencer?
a) Yes
b) No
Q.10 How can equal pay at workplace be ensured to all working employees?
a) By preventing salary disparity
b) By taking reviews from employees
c) By disclosing salary ranges for different organisational levels.
Frequency distribution table
Q.1 Do you believe that gender pay gap is existed within workplace of Marks
and Spencer?
Frequency
a) Yes 30
b) No 10
Q.2 Do you think that gender pay gap is negatively impacting performance of
employees?
Frequency
a) Yes 30
b) No 10
Q.3 In your opinion gender pay is providing issues to working employees? Frequency
a) Yes 20
b) No 20
Q.4 Does practices of gender pay gap reduce market image of Marks and
Spencer?
Frequency
a) Yes 30
b) No 10
Q.5 What is the major reasons of gender pay gap within Marks and Spencer? Frequency
a) Occupational segregation 20
b) Vertical segregation 10
c) Ineffective equal pay legislation 10