Report: Problem Solving and Decision Making in John Lewis Partnership

This report provides an in-depth analysis of problem-solving and decision-making processes within the John Lewis Partnership, focusing specifically on the issue of workplace discrimination. The report begins by defining the complexity of the problem, exploring its scope and impact on the organization, particularly concerning issues like age, religion, and gender discrimination. It then analyzes the problem to aid the decision-making process, identifying root causes such as generation gaps and gender inequality, and their effects on productivity and employee turnover. The report further outlines a range of potential solutions, including policy enforcement, employee training, and diversity initiatives. It also addresses the communication of the plan to stakeholders and provides techniques for monitoring and reviewing the implementation of solutions to ensure successful outcomes. The conclusion summarizes key findings and recommendations for improving workplace dynamics and decision-making effectiveness within John Lewis Partnership.

PROBLEM SOLVING
AND DECISION
MAKING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
(i)Describing problem complexity with its scope and impact....................................................1
(ii )Analyse the problem to help decision making process ........................................................3
(iii)Range of Solution..................................................................................................................4
(iv) Evaluate a range of solutions................................................................................................6
(v) Plan to solve the issues at workplace....................................................................................9
Communicating the plan to stakeholders..................................................................................12
Monitoring and review techniques to ensure successful implementation of solution..............12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Decision-making refers to the most important activity in a company, that mainly contributes
to resolve problems which impact on productivity and profitability of business. An organisation
can survive in competitive market when its management have sufficient skills and knowledge to
identify the complexities occurs at workplace, so that decisions can be taken to reduce the which
negative impact of same on overall business (Kumar and et. al., 2017). The present assignment is
based on John Lewis Partnership which is engaged in providing wide range of products such as
clothing, watches & jewellery, financial services and many more. It was established in the 1929
by John Speden Lewis having headquartered in London. England, UK. In order to gain high
competitive factors, its managers are going to use some decision-making techniques like Fish-
bone diagram, that helps in identifying complexities at business. In this regard, under this project
problem related to workplace i.e. discrimination is explained, with a range of alternative
solutions to resolve the same. A detailed discussion for communicating the plan with
stakeholders and reviewing techniques also used to ensure successful implementation of the
solution.
(i)Describing problem complexity with its scope and impact
Workplace discrimination is defined as a situation when an employee is treated
unfavourably on basis of age, sex, skin colour, religion, race, etc. Employees need to understand
that there is big difference in harassment and discrimination which can lead to confusion and
different actions needs to be taken in such incidents (Garg, 2016). Harassment is part of
discrimination that prevails at workplace easily without employees realise that they are being
harassed. In context with John Lewis Partnership, it is considered as one of the largest retailer in
UK in terms of sales. It has more than 83,000 workers that mostly belong to different
background, so problems like discrimination, unequal treatment, demotivated staff etc. taken as
general issues at workplace. But it adversely impact on employee mental and physical state as
well as on their performance that leads to affect customer services also. Along with this, it also
impacts overall productivity and efficiency of employee. So, it is essential for managers of this
company to identify root cause that raise discrimination at workplace. For identifying the root
cause, they also need to analyse the impact of same on productivity of business, so that proper
decisions can be made to resolve it.
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Scope of the issue “Discrimination at workplace”
There are various ways by which employees are discriminated at workplace, some of
them are discussed below:
Age Discrimination: In this employees are treated badly on the basis of age and make
them believe that due to their physical state they are unable to perform certain tasks. This occur
when company recruits more younger candidates, that increase age gap among old and new staff.
So, this would raise discrimination where older staff members feels less motivated and talented
because of their respective age group. This can also be seen when companies provide training
and development sessions to new recruiters to make them fit with current organisational
situation. This hinders mental state of older staff as they start to believes that they are no longer
required by organisation (Akcaoglu, 2014). This also create roadblock in achieving efficiency in
performance which it impacts overall productivity of organisation. Similarly, new recruiters face
difficulties in making collaboration with older staff members, because they are much
experienced in their relative field.
Religion Discrimination: In this type of discrimination employees are treated inferior
on the basis of religion they follow. Many companies have bad image of not recruiting employee
following certain religion. This can also happen at workplace where personnel are treated badly
and suppose to be less efficient because of religious practices they perform. This effect society as
whole as unemployment in such religions and culture will increase which will impact economy
negatively. Such discrimination will block chances of organisation to bring diversity in
employees and create bad impact on their productivity and mental health due to regular
misbehaviour by peers and employees.
Gender Discrimination: This is most common type of discrimination that can be
reported or seen at workplace. On the basis of sex or gender there are number of discriminating
activities (Zsambok, 2014). Employees and employers both can become victim of this
discrimination by management and need to analyse carefully to identify these activities. Salary
packages, promotions, team leader, absence of female in strategic planning are most common by
which gender discrimination is carries out or prevails in organisation. This create gaps in
communication, effects victim performance and can lead to increase absenteeism in organisation.
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This can lead to increase in turnover rates which will result in loss of revenues and profits for
organisation.
From above discussion, it has been analysed that major cause that creates discrimination
at workplace within John Lewis is gender inequality, where as compared to male, female
workers face unequal wages and less motivated that majorly affects their working performance.
This lead to create inefficiencies in customer services and arise issues in getting retention of
them as well. Along with this, due to generation gap, respective company faces issues related to
conflicts and less collaborative behaviour among new recruiters and older staff.
(ii )Analyse the problem to help decision making process
Discrimination at Workplace is considered as major issue that arise when workers treated
unequally or unfavourable on the basis of difference in gender, sexuality, race, religion and other
biological characteristics. This leads to directly impact over company's potentiality in acquiring
increased level of productivity and profitability in an innovative and creative style without any
obstacles (Clark, 2015). Such kind of proper examination or evaluation of workplace problem
enable John Lewis Partnership to make best strategic decision in order to gain competitive
advantage as well as maintaining healthy working relationship inside firm's culture in an
impressive manner. In this regard, it has been analysed that as respective company also offers
financial related services, so, major issues related to workplace discrimination occurs majorly
within financial department. Hereby, due to generation gap, both new recruiters and older staff
face discriminative issues that affect their working performance as well. Older staff members
feels less motivated due to less talented as compared to new staff who have acknowledged with
latest technology and key financial terms. While new recruiters face problems when their ideas
and conceptions are taken as less effective by upper level of management due to less experience
(Liu, Fan and Zhang, 2016). Therefore, under this situation, generation gap arise discriminations
for staff members and highly influences the decision making capability of managers. This would
can be analyse in following way -
Decrease productivity: This aspect is concerned with reducing subordinate interest or
contribution towards an attainment of business goals or objectives as they feel less motivate from
the existing workplace culture. Moreover, inequality within working culture restrict each
manpower to share their ideas or opinion with each other which directly influence over John
Lewis's capability in acquiring increased level of productivity and proficiency ratio.
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Increase in employee turnover: Due to workplace discrimination, it rises workforce
turnover rate because of not getting enough opportunities or platforms which lead them to grow
and develop their skill or abilities in achieving organisational pre-determined goal. In addition, it
generates miscommunication among John Lewis's personnel that decreases its brand value within
competitive industry.
Similarly, the other root cause that create discrimination at workplace of John Lewis
Partnership, especially in operational management is gender inequality. Hereby, due to giving
position to female employees on upper level of management, they feel a number of issues, such
as less cooperation of staff members due to male dominance. So, this would highly affect the
decision-making abilities of managers of John Lewis and impact majorly on productivity of
business in following way -
Mismanagement at workplace: Under this factor, it creates huge problem for managers
in managing or handing entire functional area in a better way as favouritism lead to confusion or
ambiguity among John Lewis team members (Martin, Donohoe and Holdford, 2016). Moreover,
there will be no proper coordination or integration between company's each divisional unit which
lead to mismanagement and misdirection inside an organisation as well as impact over decision
making process.
Demotivate manpower: In this, improper management or guidance within a working
culture impact greatly over John Lewis manpower as it misguides them in acquiring company's
pre-determined goal or objective in a better way. Along with this, it generates dissatisfaction in
employees as they feel demotivate in putting their best effort for an accomplishment of firm's
objective in an innovative or creative way.
(iii)Range of Solution
In order to resolve issues and root factors that leads to create discrimination at workplace,
a number of solution can be implemented. In context with present company i.e. John Lewis
Partnership, its managers firstly need to make sure that workplace policy is properly enforced, to
minimize the issues and discrimination at workplace (Shih, 2015). Having an effective
organisational policy will help in creating and providing healthy or friendly environment to the
employees where they can work effective and efficient manner without facing any issues. Since
generation gap is considered as major issue that affects workers that are working in financial
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department, so, providing equal training to both old and new staff members will help in reducing
the same.
The management of this company can also check all the policies which they developed
for minimize discrimination are following properly or not and ensure that all policies and
procedures are approachable and acquirable to all the employees. They should review policies
and plans regularly to ensure if equal wages are provided to both male and female staff members
as per their respective job, so that discrimination on the basis of gender can be reduced (Rezaei,
2016). The management of John Lewis can develop policies regarding the working style of the
employees like they work in organised, sequential, planned and detailed oriented. If they will not
follow these styles, then they can framed polices regarding them so that they can work
effectively and in a proper manner. So the organisation can effectively implement its designed
policies. The company can also make focus on diversifying and formulated a policy regarding it.
Under this policy, they can focus on minimising the discrimination regarding culture, ages, races
and genders etc. To implement this policy, they can reduce the diversity which is occurred at the
workplace due to diversification in culture and genders etc.
Providing education to both managers and staff members: John Lewis & Partners
should provide proper education to their employees regarding the discrimination rules and
regulations that are prevailing in the organization (Jonassen and Hung, 2015). All the employees
should be aware about the consequences of predominant discrimination due to which some
employees are suffering. The education can be provided in the form of conducting the written
and verbal assessments in which they can inform the committee of John Lewis & Partners about
the harassments they are suffering because it may leads to destruction of co–workers morale. As
female workers who are positioned on high post face issues related to less collaborated male
workers, so, by bringing awareness among such staff about racial discrimination helps in
cultivating the respect as per organization values. Similarly, treating less to older staff due to less
talented as compared with new recruiters, if managers get knowledge about federal laws then
they can make proper decisions to reduce to the same.
Train supervisors and managers on how to respond to discrimination at workplace :
John Lewis Partners must train its managers and supervisors of financial department,
where staff members face issues due to generation gap (Clark, 2015). This would help then in
analysing how to model respectful behaviour at the workplace and recognize inappropriate
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behaviours. They must be able to respond immediately to any harassing or discriminatory
conduct or complaints regarding the same. Training should specify the types of conduct that
violate policies of organisation, the importance of anti harassment policy at the workplace and
the responsibilities of responding to complaints and stopping retaliation. In context with staff
members, they also feel equally talented when same kind of training is provided to both old and
new recruiters. This would help them in getting specific skills and knowledge that requires to
work as per current demand of business. Hereby, managers need to understand and enforce the
discrimination policies to quickly identify and resolve potential problems early, before they rise
to level of unlawful discrimination (Anderson and et. al., 2015). State that discrimination based
on race, colour, religion, sex is illegal and will not be tolerated. Te business policies should be
described regarding discrimination, harassment and reasonable accommodation. Managers also
need to avoid retaliation i.e. employees should not be punished for reporting discrimination,
participating in an investigation or lawsuit or opposing discrimination. The following can be the
ways in which the managers and supervisors can respond to discrimination-
 Treat the complaining party with respect, understand their problem and be concerned.
 Promptly and thoroughly investigate without being biased to either of the parties.
 Interviewing the complaining and accused parties, review of personal files of parties etc.'
Taking appropriate actions during and after investigation.
 Adopting a well-drafted anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policy.
 Timely regulating the policies so formed so that they do not become obsolete with time.
(iv) Evaluate a range of solutions
After analysing complex problems within the work place there are some decision making
tools and techniques by which organization can motivate their employees towards the work. In
order to betterment of future there are two solutions for every problems such as the workplace
policy is properly enforced and another one is educated workers about discrimination. On the
basis of these, John lewis organization easily increase their employees confidence by providing
them appropriate training and developing programmes within the company (Polk, 2015). With
the help of this firm can increase their overall productivity in an effective manner. For
identifying underlying factors that creates discrimination at workplace and arise issues in front of
management, managers of John Lewis can use the Fish-bone theory. This would help in
understanding the contributing factors and to look out at various ways, by which such issues can
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be reduced. As currently, respective company face issues in terms of less motivated staff and
high employee turnover, therefore, before making decisions regarding to resolve same, by using
Fish Bone Theory, it managers can analyse issues in following way -
From this Fish-Bone diagram, it has been analysed that due to stereotyped perception
about female workers and unequal wages, the problems related to gender discrimination has
raised at operational department. This lead to highly affect the motivation level of female staff
that impact on their performance as well. Similarly, philosophical beliefs and past experience
raise religion based discrimination, while pediaphobia and ephebiphobia i.e. fear about
knowledge and experience gap lead to increase age discrimination in John Lewis Partnership. So,
its managers need to take proper decisions for reducing such issues.
Evaluation of various solutions is conducted below:
Workplace policy is properly enforced:
In the current scenario many employers are using different kinds of workplace policies in
order to make day to day marketing tools. Along with it involves in reasonable lateness policies,
gender diversity policies and so on (Frensch and Funke, 2014). In relation with John lewis is
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Illustration 1: Fish-Bone Diagram

making every possible changes within the organization. With the help of these changes they can
encourage employee's confidence effectively. If workplace will be enforced properly than
employees can make unique goals and strategies in order to achieve company goals together with
good market image in front of the others. For the better understanding of this there are some
advantages or disadvantages, those are listed below:
Advantages:
Clear expectation of employees: According to this employees can clearly and ideally
think about their expectations from the company. It is very essential for them to make their
appropriate goals towards the business operations in an organization. Apart from this they can be
face any risk without any issues and helps other to make clear objectives.
Clear guidelines for managers: According to this manager of this respective
organization can get lots of appropriate guidelines by which they can make effective policies
towards the organization (Graesser and et. al., 2018). That helps employees to prepare particular
project to gain desired goals perfectly.
Disadvantages:
Restrictions: In order to have various policies and procedure brings lots of benefits for
employees and employer. But in relation with John lewis, employees can face various issues
such as rapid decisions and shift strategies which is the huge disadvantage of this policy that
creates some conflicts in between the employees or employer.
Workplace inspection: According to this weakness some time companies are not able to
give proper safety hazards to employees so that they can feel low and not able to get any safety
hazards. It negatively influence people and develop misunderstanding between employee and
employers.
Educated workers about discrimination:
In the current period of time employers should be must educated about their employees
discrimination law by which they can make better decisions in order to increase firms
productivity in an effective manner (Iwai, 2014). If employer will concentrates on these
discrimination laws factors then employee can work easily and not able to face any kind of issue
within the organization. Therefore, it is necessary for employer to remove these sort of factors
effectively. Therefore, employment law is much necessary for more education by which
employees can make effective environment within the working place.
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Train superior and workers- This is a kind of solution for overcoming the
discrimination issue in which employees should be trained in an effective manner. If superior
and workers will be trained well then there will be no any discrimination at the work place. The
solution has some advantages and disadvantages which are mentioned below such as:
Advantages- One of the key advantage of this solution is that it is a long term solution. This is
so because if employees and superior will be well trained then there will be less chances of
discrimination. Along with this method is less costly.
Disadvantage- The disadvantage of this method is that in it if trainer is not good then this will be
difficult for employees to learn. Apart from it, if there is lack of communication and coordination
then this solution can be in vain.
Among all these solutions, providing training to both workers and managers of John
Lewis Partnership, considered as best one (Hooshyar and et. al., 2016). As this would help in
bringing awareness among them about negative consequences of creating discrimination or
misbehaving with others. So, that proper organisational behaviour can be set up where all
workers regardless of differences in biological characteristics, age, religion and more, can
receive equal pay and treated equally as well.
(v) Plan to solve the issues at workplace
The issues at the workplaces can be resolve only by creation of an effective business
plan. This is so because these plans provide a framework to overcome from issues as well as
includes various kind of policies to overcome from the issues. Hence, it becomes compulsory for
companies to follow all the activities of plan to overcome from the issue. Herein, below a plan to
overcome from the issue is mentioned that is as follows:-
Executive Summary
John Lewis is a retail organisation conducting its operations within the confines of United
Kingdom. This entity has been encountering the issue of discrimination at workplace. This has
been noticed particularly in 2 departments of the organisation, namely, operations and financial.
Operations department is affected by gender discrimination while financial department is
influenced by generation gap (Ramos, 2014). To deal with this, the entity has proposed to
conduct training and development sessions whereby the staff of the entity would be informed
about the need to ensure equitable treatment to all as this ensure peace and harmony within the
premises.
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Objective
The management of John Lewis has stipulated SMART objective to combat with the
issue of discrimination prevailing within the premises of this entity. The SMART objectives laid
down is as follows:-
“To reduce discrimination within all the departments of John Lewis by the end of next
1 year by conducting regular training sessions.”
SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
 High brand goodwill owing to which
enforcement of Anti Discrimination
Act in premises
 Existence of diverse workforce
 Prevalence of discrimination within
some departments of the company.
Opportunities Threats
 Stipulation of training and development
sessions to create awareness for need of
promoting equitable treatment for all.
 Increase in staff turnover owing to
significant level of discrimination
within the company.
Resources
This is one of the key aspects of solution plan in which all the resources are being
allocated to implementation of solution for resolving the issue of discrimination (Van
Knippenberg and et. al., 2015). Herein, below resources are mentioned below that are as follows: Human resources- This is one of the key source of solution of above issue. Under it all
the employees, trainers and supervisors are included who can play an important role in
the context of solving the issue. Financial resources- This resource is as importance as above mentioned human
resource. It is so because in the absence of proper financial resources, this can be difficult
to implementation of solution plan. The amount of fund is based on the level of plan.
 Other resources- Apart from the above mentioned resources, company may need some
other resources such as mentor who can keep an extra site of eye on evaluation of plan.
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So, these are the key resources for implementation of solution plan of before identified
issue of discrimination.
Budget
This can be defined as an estimation of future income and expenses so that financial
resources can be managed in an effective manner. Below is the budget for solution plan:-
Particulars Amount (£)
Salary of trainer
(150 for per month)
450
Salary for mentor (100 per month) 300
Education charge of employees 150
Other 80
Total 980
Quality control
This is the last step of the implementation of solution plan. In this plan the quality or
performance of plan is evaluated. Herein, methods to control the quality are mentioned that are
as follows:-
 KPI- This can be defined as a kind of technique which is related to focusing on those
activities which are profitable and non profitable (Garg, 2016). By use of this technique,
above solution plan will be assessed in an effective manner. As well as on the basis of it,
further corrective action will be taken.
 Benchmarking- This is a kind of technique in which company's plan and policies are
compared with other company (Beach and Lipshitz, 2017). Due to this above company's
plan will be evaluated in a better way. By comparing their plan with other company, they
will be able to evaluate their plan.
Thus, by considering all these measures, effective outcomes can be attained. This will
assist in managing resources in most effective manner. Along with this, by taking advantage of
different types of techniques, goals and objectives can be attained within the stipulated course of
time.
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Communicating the plan to stakeholders
Stakeholder Mode of
Communication
Particulars of communication
Board of Directors Presentation The need to conduct training and development
sessions for employees would be
communicated to Board to gain approval for
the same.
Investors, Suppliers Email, Fax The new approach of company to combat the
issue of discrimination would be
communicated to investors and suppliers so as
to create awareness about the concern among
them also.
Monitoring and review techniques to ensure successful implementation of solution
For the successful execution of solution, John Lewis will make use of the below
mentioned monitoring and review techniques:-
Stipulation of Strict Non-Discriminatory Policies: The management of John Lewis
would stipulate stringent organisational policies which would ensure that there is no
discrimination on any basis (Carcasson and Sprain, 2015). Further, the entity would ensure that
the policies safeguard the right of employees to receive equitable treatment in all respects. With
the incorporation of this policy into the company, there would not be wage discrimination
between males and females, and also no partiality with new or old staff members.
Appointing Discrimination In-charge: The management of John Lewis would appoint a
person who would ensure that the Anti-discriminatory policies of company are strictly followed
by the staff (LeBlanc, McConnell and Monteiro, 2015). Also, this in-charge would be
responsible for monitoring and reviewing any kind of suspicious discriminatory behaviour within
any of the business units of this entity.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that workplace discrimination is a major offense
and disrupts the organisational productivity as well. It is extremely important for an organisation
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to intermediate in such situation so that stability in the organisation could be maintained. The
executives have undertaken numerous initiatives to counter the situation and assure that such
activities are not repeated. The primary approach is to treat the employees with respect as it is
extremely difficult for them to make such allegations. The manager have to promptly investigate
the complaint so that a root cause of the problem are identified and assured that such behaviours
are not repeated.
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