Dissertation on Discrimination's Impact on Employee Motivation

This dissertation investigates the impact of gender discrimination on employee motivation, using Amazon as a case study. It explores various types of discrimination faced by employees, including race, gender, age, and religious discrimination, and their effects on motivation. The research aims to identify ways to eliminate gender discrimination within organizations and discern the advantages of doing so. The study utilizes secondary sources such as books, articles, and newspapers to gather information. It also provides recommendations for organizations, such as educating employees and implementing policies, to eradicate gender discrimination and foster a more inclusive and motivating work environment, ultimately enhancing employee productivity and organizational success.

DISSERTATION
(Exploring the
impact of
discrimination on
employee
motivation)

ABSTRACT
In the current investigation it is being aimed at taking out information about the
impact of gender discrimination on the motivation level of employees. From the
gathered secondary information, the main findings of the current investigation is that still
companies are operating and they are differentiating people on the basis of their
gender. Majorly, secondary sources are used such as books, articles, newspapers etc.
because in these information is easily available. There are certain recommendations
that are given to the organisation such as educating employees, making policies etc. to
eradicate gender discrimination.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to show my gratitude to my professors and supervisors involved in
the completion of the whole dissertation. I am thankful to them for providing their
support to me in each and every step of the dissertation. They have given their precious
time to my dissertation and shared their knowledge with me for the successful
completion of the whole investigation.
I am also thankful to my family and friends who have provided their assistance in
completing my project.

Table of Contents
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................2
ACKNOWLEDGMENT.................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................5
1.1 Overview of the topic.........................................................................................................5
1.2 Research aim, Objectives and Questions......................................................................6
1.3 Background of the company............................................................................................7
1.4 Research Rationale...........................................................................................................7
1.5 Significance of the research.............................................................................................8
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................................................9
2.1 Various types of discrimination faced by employees within an organisation...........9
2.2 Impact of gender discrimination over employee motivation within Amazon...........11
2.3 Ways to eliminate practice of gender discrimination within Amazon.......................13
2.4 What are the advantages of eliminating gender discrimination on employee
motivation within Amazon?...................................................................................................16
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY........................................................................18
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION AND DISCUSSION.......................23
4.1 Various types of discrimination faced by employees within an organisation.........23
4.2 Impact of gender discrimination over employee motivation within Amazon...........25
4.3 Ways to eliminate practice of gender discrimination within Amazon.......................29
4.4 Advantages of eliminating gender discrimination on employee motivation within
Amazon....................................................................................................................................33
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS................................................36
5.1 CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................36
5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS..................................................................................................38
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................40
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................44

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview of the topic
Employee motivation is referred as the process in which company adopts
different types of strategies to motivate and encourage their existing employees. Earlier
companies had seen discrimination at higher level but with the broad mind-set of people
discrimination has eliminated from the workplaces (Kartolo and Kwantes, 2019). People
have become more aware about speaking against any type of discrimination and taking
right actions to eradicate every type of discrimination. It is the level of commitment,
creativity and energy that a organisation's workers bring to their jobs. Whether the
economy is shrinking or growing, finding paths to encourage employees is always
concern for a management (Heilman and Caleo, 2018).
Competing theories stress either employee involvement or incentives. Employee
motivation is about the way of engaging employees towards the goals of the
organisation and the way they feel empowered. Motivated workforce are always an
asset for the organisation because they are directly proportional to the success of
organisation. Motivation is generally intangible and it is determined that it is very difficult
for measuring and quite difficult to control. It is observed that motivating employees is
easier if it facilitated appropriately as it is all about intensity, perseverance and intention.
Discrimination refers to the practice of treating people unfairly in comparison
other people or group of people (Bandy, 2021). This basically shows that when an
individual or group is discriminated then they do not get every right
Discrimination is defined as the act of making unjustified differences between
people based on the classes, groups or any other categories (Tritt and Teschner, 2019).
In simpler words, this makes people to treat other people less fairly.
Discrimination is defined as the behaviour in which people behave differently with
other people on the basis of their ethnicity, age, gender, race etc. This type of
discrimination is always considered illegal and unfair. In an employment context,
discrimination could be generally referred as treating a group and an employee less well
in hiring, recruiting or any other terms and conditions of employment because of
person's colour, gender, disability, religion etc. Employment discrimination against any

individual is unlawful (Guynn, 2020). Discrimination at work could occur in many
different settings and it could affect women or men on the basis of their gender, skin
colour, social origin, religion etc. Discrimination in the workplace denies various
opportunities for many employees (Verniers and Vala, 2018). It is very important for
organisation to eliminate discrimination from the workplace by making sure that training
and education should be provided at equal level. It is significant for very type and size of
the company and for this companies invest proper time so that practices and laws could
be formed.
The present study is based upon investigating and exploring the impact of
gender discrimination over employee motivation. This report covers the various
challenges faced by the company if an employee feels discriminated in the workplace. It
also covers the importance of employee motivation within an organisation so that
productivity of the business could be enhanced.
1.2 Research aim, Objectives and Questions
Research Aim: To investigate the impact of gender discrimination over employee
motivation. A study on Amazon
Research Objectives:
 To study the various types of discrimination faced by employees within an
organisation.
 To determine the impact of gender discrimination over employee motivation
within Amazon
 To identify the ways to eliminate practice of gender discrimination within Amazon
 To discern the advantages of eliminating gender discrimination on employee
motivation within Amazon
Research Questions:
 What are the various types of discrimination faced by employees within an
organisation?
 What is the impact of gender discrimination over employee motivation within
Amazon?
 What are the ways to eliminate practice of gender discrimination within Amazon?

 What are the advantages of eliminating gender discrimination on employee
motivation within Amazon?
1.3 Background of the company
The chosen company for the present study is Amazon. Amazon is known as
American multinational technology organisation. It focuses on digital streaming, e-
commerce, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. It is known as the big five
companies in the United States industry of information technology along with Facebook,
Microsoft, Apple and Google. This organisation is also referred as one of the most
influential cultural and economic forces in the whole world. It has also become world's
most valuable and popular brand. The founder of the company is Jeff Bezos and the
headquarters is located in Seattle, Washington, United States.
It operates in the industry of e-commerce, entertainment, digital distribution,
supermarket, self-driving cars, consumer electronics, artificial intelligent etc. The
company was founded in the year of July 5, 1994 in Bellevue, Washington, United
States. Amazon is an organisation which has several competitors and rivals. In terms of
retail stores, the rivals are: Walmart, Best Buy, Target etc. In respect of subscription
services, Amazon has competition with Google, Apple, Netflix etc. In the category of
web services, Amazon has rivalry with IBM, Microsoft etc.
Google is the company which has great competition with Amazon. This company
has also adopted various strategies to remove discrimination from the workplace such
as Google Anti-Harassment Policy, Artificial intelligence tool to avoid discrimination and
many more.
1.4 Research Rationale
The main purpose of conducting the present investigation is to determine the
impact of gender discrimination on the employee motivation within an organisation. In
this modern and competitive world, organisation is giving importance to the motivation
of employees so that they could be retained in the company for longer time duration
(Parker and Funk, 2017). The project aims at taking out information about the negative
impact of discrimination on the motivation of employees. It is very significant in this
modern time because no employee wants to work in the organisation where they have
to face discrimination on the basis of their gender, colour, age etc. This research holds

great importance in terms of professional as well as personal perspective. From the
point of view of personal perspective, researcher would be able to understand that
discrimination is legally wrong and this type of behaviour should be avoided in personal
as well as professional life. Researcher will adapt the personality where they will not
discriminate any person on the basis of their gender, age, caste, religion etc. In respect
of professional perspective, investigator will learn about the importance of employee
motivation and will also focus on learning about different strategies to motivate
employees. Researcher will also learn that employees could be easily motivated in the
organisation when discrimination on the basis of any factors like colour, age, religion is
eliminated. Hence, the present investigation is very significant for my personal as well
as professional learning.
1.5 Significance of the research
The current investigation is very important because it carries out information
about the discrimination on the basis of gender has impact over employee motivation
(Heilman and Caleo, 2018). The level of motivation is decreased due to the
discrimination they face in the organisation. So, the present research covers data about
the ways that could be used by company to eliminate the gender discrimination from the
workplace and every employee works together.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Various types of discrimination faced by employees within an organisation
According to Sipe and et. Al (2016), discrimination in the organisation has been
legal for many years and it still happens in many organisations. The only path for
stopping the workplace discrimination is speaking up about the circumstances,
incidents, form lawsuits and shine a light on discriminatory procedures. Many
companies care about the bottom line and they would stop discriminating when big
settlements and verdicts make discrimination too costly for permitting. Some of the
common kinds of workplace discrimination in the workplace faced by employees and
employers are:
 Race discrimination: Racial discrimination refers to the discrimination that
exists both in the workplace and society. It is determined that it is very common
that every company and almost in every place there is existence of racial
discrimination. Particularly minority groups are generally passed over at all steps
of the employment procedure-they are not recruited, they are not guided and
mentored, they are not promoted, they are subjected to unfair scrutiny and
sometimes they are terminated wrongfully (Kim and et. al., 2020). Gender discrimination: The very common discrimination that prevails in the
workplace is gender discrimination. Basically, this is the kind of discrimination in
which employees are treated differently on the basis of their gender. It takes in
many forms: it could be failure to recruit, but more generally, female employees
are not trained for leadership, they are not even promoted, they are sidelined and
given less opportunities when they have kids, they are paid less salary etc. The
very common example to explain the existence of gender discrimination is that
biggest companies have less than 5% female as operating in the position of
Chief executive officer. With the time it is increasing and taking bigger shape as
problem. It is also determined that women have been more fired or furlough
during the times of pandemic. Women are being underpaid in comparison male
employees even for the same work.

 Age discrimination: Age discrimination is another discrimination that is faced by
the employees who are over 40 years old. It is one of the fastest growing types of
discrimination in the organisation today. The baby boomer generation ages is
facing this particular kind of discrimination i.e. age discrimination and this has
also made these people to face financial security into retirement. It is also
recorded that older job seekers face many challenges to get recruited. This
makes them apply for multiple jobs and are generally unemployed in comparison
to younger employees. Older employees face harassment from younger
employers and bosses and they also create create pressure on them to retire or
resign. Religious discrimination: This is the kind of discrimination that is illegal under
law to discriminate against people for their religious beliefs. This type of
discrimination generally takes the form of harassment at work about beliefs,
retaliation for taking off religious beliefs (Parker and Funk, 2017). Sexual orientation discrimination: The other discrimination in the workplace is
discriminating a person on the basis of their sexual orientation. There are
employees in the workplace who have been harassed because of their sexual
orientation. This made them feel unsafe in the workplace and supervisors deny
them promotions because of who they are.
 Parental status discrimination: It is common knowledge that employers can
not ask an applicant about their marital status and when they have children.
Basically woman employees get maternity leave on the other hand male
employees do not get leave from their organisations. This is the discrimination
that has taken place more in the time of pandemic.
According to Coffman, Exley and Niederle (2018), Amazon was sued for discriminating
against female and Black workers in recruiting employees for their corporate offices. It
has been claimed that in federal court in Washington that the company hires people
working at lower levels and promotes them less in comparison to White colleagues with
same qualifications. This claim clearly involves harassment and discrimination as well
as violations of the Equal Pay Act. This has created severe effect on Black women in
the company. Therefore, Amazon lacks of gender and racial diversity in their corporate

ranks and it is quite common throughout the industry of technology. Amazon is an
organisation which uses dynamic management theory so that they can make better
decisions in uncertain situations. Discrimination is also one of the situations that can
happen at any time in the workplace because it is directly depend over the behaviour of
an individual at the present time. Power and influence is the other method adopted by
the leaders of Amazon so that individuals working in the organisation can be influenced
to make better relationship with the people of a company.
2.2 Impact of gender discrimination over employee motivation within Amazon
According to Shannon and et. al., (2017), Gender discrimination is defined as
such type of practices in which unequal or disadvantageous behaviour is seen which is
based on gender. This is the situation on which people are treated in different manner
on the basis of their gender irrespective of their nature and capabilities. In some
organisations practices of gender discrimination existed which relate the business to
minimise the productivity and profitability as well. Gender equality is the fundamental
human right and this is required in order to provide peaceful and sustainable
development to the world. Gender discrimination is such subject matter which
demotivate employees and lead them to perform lesser than their productivity. Gender
inequality is having severe and long term consequences which expose people to
develop feeling of objectification, violence and depression.
When an organisation is associated with adopting such practices of gender
discrimination then their progression ratios may be minimised and at the same time
financial losses can also be faced. Gender discrimination is also having direct impact
over job opportunities as when practices of gender discrimination are followed within the
organisation job opportunities would also be minimised (SteelFisher and et. al., 2019).
The human resource department of every organisation is having role to manage
employees and to develop their skills in such a manner that their efforts can be used in
managing business functions. The major role of human resource department is to
implement such policies by which gender discrimination can be minimised so that
business objectives can be attained in easy manner. In terms of gender discrimination,
this is analysed that the practice is regarded as one of the worst which have direct
linkage to workplace activities and the same would lead the business to face various

negative aspects. Managing diversity and establishing homogeneous work force so that
environment of equitable aspects can be enlightened. There are several implications of
workplace gender discrimination on employee motivation which are elaborated as
under:
Decreased employee morale: Employees are regarded as one of the prominent
asset for the organisation which are associated with developing the business in such a
way that overall business objectives can be attained. When employees of various types
are doing same work along with same efficiency and prominence but at the time of
appreciation only a single segment of people are being apprised then this would
decrease their morale (Triana and et. al., 2019). Morale is regarded as such attitude in
which overall employee outlook is examined. In this respect employees are required to
develop their morale so that they can work with efficient manner and acquire business
objectives.
Decreased employee involvement: Employee involvement is regarded as one
of the most possible development which helps the employees to work in collaborative
manner. When employees are facing issues related with workplace gender
discrimination then this would lead them to minimise their employee engagement and
employee contribution within the organisation (Roscigno, 2019). This is analysed that
when employees are not aligned with providing their efforts to the organisation then this
would lead the business to decrease the intensity of their business functions and work
determination as well.
Job dissatisfaction: Job satisfaction is regarded as the term in which
employees are happy to work over the workplace so that to develop sense of
belongingness. This is analysed that when employees are dissatisfied with their job this
will create issues within working environment of the organisation. In the context of
gender discrimination, this may create sense of vulnerabilities in employees and direct
negative impact can be seen in employees performance. Similarly, this is stated that
dissatisfied employees are not providing significant efforts to the organisation in which
they do not will to work and give their efforts to the organisation. In the context of
Amazon, the company is having global market presence which means that the company