Icon College HND Business Research: Amazon Gender Pay Gap Analysis

This research project investigates the impact of the gender pay gap on employee productivity within Amazon, a multinational technology company. The study aims to understand the concepts of equality and diversity in the workplace, focusing on how pay disparities influence employee performance. The research employs a quantitative methodology, utilizing a questionnaire to gather data and analyze the impact of the gender pay gap on employee motivation and productivity. The project reviews relevant literature, examines the company's background, and outlines the research methodology including data collection, sampling, and analysis techniques. The findings highlight the negative consequences of pay inequality, including decreased employee morale and productivity. The research concludes with recommendations for Amazon to implement strategies to overcome the gender pay gap, fostering a more equitable and productive work environment, and also explores alternative research methods and reflections on the project.

RESERACH PROJECT

Abstract
This research is based on providing an understanding of equality and diversity
within a workplace. The research explains how gender pay gap can influence overall
productivity of employees within an organization. It also describes what approaches can
be used by an organization in order to overcome issue of gender pay gap. Quantitative
research methodology has been employed in the research and a questionnaire was
used to collect data from respondents. It was found that the findings of the literature
review and data analysis were almost the same with no major differences.

Contents
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................4
Research Aim...........................................................................................................................................4
Research Objectives.................................................................................................................................4
Research Questions.................................................................................................................................5
Background of Company..........................................................................................................................5
Significance of study................................................................................................................................5
Literature Review........................................................................................................................................7
Concept of equality and diversity in Amazon..........................................................................................7
Influence of gender pay gap on employee productivity in the Amazon..................................................8
Approaches that Amazon should implement to overcome gender pay gap............................................9
Research Methodology..............................................................................................................................11
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................11
Research Philosophy..............................................................................................................................11
Research Approach................................................................................................................................12
Research Strategy..................................................................................................................................12
Research Choices...................................................................................................................................12
Techniques and Procedures of Data Collection.....................................................................................12
Sampling Method..................................................................................................................................17
Data Analysis.........................................................................................................................................17
Access Negotiations...............................................................................................................................17
Research Limitations..............................................................................................................................18
Ethical Issues.........................................................................................................................................18
Gantt Chart............................................................................................................................................19
Findings and Analysis.................................................................................................................................21
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................28
Recommendations.................................................................................................................................28
Alternative Research Methods..............................................................................................................28
Reflection...............................................................................................................................................29
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................30
Appendix....................................................................................................................................................33
Research Proposal Form............................................................................................................................34

Ethical Form...............................................................................................................................................38
INTRODUCTION
Equality is an important concept not only in small but large businesses as well.
The main aim of the concept is to make sure that everyone within the organization gets
access to equal opportunities with no discrimination. On the other hand, Diversity is a
concept which means that people from different backgrounds, cultures, religions, skills,
experiences etc. work within the company (Özbilgin and Slutskaya, 2017). Both equality
as well as diversity are important because they not only impact the employees but the
whole organization. Also, it has been seen that organizations that discriminate among
workers have a staff who productivity is low. By creating a workforce that is diverse and
provided with equal opportunities, a company can gain access to different segments of
the market as well as expand overall business (Altman, 2018).
The main aim of this practice is to ensure that all the employees in the company
get a fair and equal chance to share their ideas and thoughts. This also contributes to
their overall performance as well as levels of productivity. Today, many organizations
promote diversity in their workplace. This is mainly done in order to enhance overall
productivity and performance of not only employees, but organization as well.
Organization chosen for this research is Amazon, which is an American multinational
technology company. It was founded by Jeff Bezos in the year 1994. The company has
operations across various sectors including ecommerce, digital streaming, cloud
computing etc. The company was reported to have a gender pay gap which was
affecting the performance as well as productivity of the employees. The research
examines the impact of managing cultural diversity on the company’s overall
performance.
Research Aim
“To analyze the impact of gender pay gap upon the productivity of employees at
Amazon.”
Research Objectives
 To understand the concept of equality and diversity in Amazon.

 To analyze the influence of gender pay gap on employee productivity in the
Amazon.
 To identify approaches that Amazon should implement to overcome the problem
of gender pay gap.
Research Questions
 What is the concept of equality and diversity in Amazon?
 How does gender pay gap influence the productivity of employees within
Amazon?
 What approaches should Amazon implement in order to overcome the problem
of gender pay gap?
Background of Company
Amazon is an American multinational technology company that primarily focuses
on cloud computing, e-commerce and other technology related services. The company
was founded by Jeff Bezos in the year 1994 and is one of the most widely recognized e-
commerce companies across the world. A wide range of products ranging from gadgets
to household products are offered by the company through its physical stores as well as
online website (Andrews and Parsons, 2018). Apart from this, the company also allows
various sellers to sell their products online. Amazon aims to serve its customers through
both offline stores as well as online website and become the most customer-centric
company in the world. Not only this, the company also manufactures and sells
electronic devices to the customers. The respective company is headquartered in
Seattle, Washington and the largest online retail company in the world. Amazon is also
a market leader in providing digital personal assistant devices with gadgets like Alexa
and Echo.
Significance of study
This research is important because it explains the concept of equality and
diversity along with its importance within a workplace (Ahrens, 2018). The study will
demonstrate why is it important to promote equality and diversity within the workplace
and how can it help in overcoming various challenges like gender pay gap. Today,

almost all organizations promote equality and diversity in their workplaces because it
assists in enhancing overall levels of performance as well as productivity of not only the
employees, but organization on the whole.

Literature Review
Concept of equality and diversity in Amazon
Equality and Diversity has become an important concept today in organizations
as it contributes to the overall enhancement of organizational performance. Equality
ensures that all employees working in a particular organization are provided fair and
equal opportunities without any kind of discrimination (Sharma, 2016). On the other
hand, Diversity is all about taking into account that different employees belong to
distinct backgrounds, religions, cultures and values. Equality is a concept that is
relevant to businesses regardless of the number of employees working for the
company. Equality is basically related to ensuring that everyone in the organization gets
and equal opportunity. Organizations that follow the practice of Equality and Diversity
provide their employees with various opportunities in order to create a culture without
any kind of discrimination. Equality and Diversity within the workplace mean to respect
the employees who work for the company for their individual differences. If an
organization hires people from different backgrounds enhances the overall creativity
within the organization allowing the employees to share their ideas. A diverse workforce
also helps the organization in gaining a competitive edge against others in the market
(Why is diversity in the workplace important?, 2020). One of the reasons behind this is
that employees belonging to different backgrounds are more likely to understand the
needs and expectations of different customers in an effective and detailed manner.
Being a multinational company, Amazon has a diverse workplace wherein
employees from different backgrounds and culture work for it. This means that there are
no language barriers as such because the staff has taken the concept of foreign
language to an advanced level. Due to this, the company has been able to relate to a
much larger audience around the world (Baker and et. al., 2016). If an organization
recruits candidates who belong to different nations, the managers get an access to a
large talent pool of candidates. Diverse employees who work from remote areas can
also be beneficial for the company as they can lead it to open offices in new locations.
This helps the organization to expand its business operations in countries or markets
that were previously untapped by it. Amazon is a company the promotes equality and

diversity at its workplace which is why its employees are highly satisfied. The managers
or team leaders do not differentiate or discriminate among the employees belonging to
different backgrounds. Strategic human resource management takes HRM into account
as a integrated and coherent process (Armstrong, 2009).
There are various laws that organizations operating in different parts of the world
are expected to adhere to. There are many advantages of promoting equality and
diversity within a workplace like knowledge of employees in different areas can be
utilized in an effective manner (Barak, 2016). Also, the management of the company
gets a better understanding of different market segments as well as customer behavior
can be achieved. Due to this, respective company has been able to retain its talent pool
for a along duration of time. The main idea of equality and diversity is to treat the
employees of the company without any kind of judgements being made on them. They
should be respected and treated fairly regardless of their backgrounds and culture. This
helps in creating a workplace environment wherein the employees get to feel valued
and are also appreciated for their efforts.
Influence of gender pay gap on employee productivity in the Amazon
Amazon was reported to have a gender pay gap within its system wherein the
female employees were paid a higher salary as compared to the male staff although
both put in equal efforts. Due to this, the overall productivity levels of the company went
down because the male employees were frustrated and were no longer interested in
their jobs. This was also because the female staff members were offered bonuses from
time to time. Gender pay gap can be defined as the average difference between the
wages or salaries of male and female employees working within a company (How
Gender Pay Gap Affects Your Business, 2020). Gender pay gap has many
disadvantages for a company, decline in employees’ productivity being one of the main
effects. When employees working in a company are paid unequal wages for the same
amount and type of work, the performance and productivity levels of the ones who are
being paid less can be affected in an adverse manner. Not only productivity, but their
motivation levels also come down (Stredwick, 2005). There can be many reasons why
employees in an organization suffer from gender pay gap. Many times, the skills,

experience and knowledge of female employees are undervalued as compared to the
male staff. Gender pay gap can result in a decline in the overall economic output as
well as productivity of a company.
Employees working at Amazon have been facing the issue of gender pay gap at
their workplace, due to which their overall individual levels of productivity as well as
performance are getting affected (Beaman, 2017). The company has ben paying less to
its female staff for the same amount of work that is done by male staff. Due to this, the
female staff of the company started feeling less important which affected their overall
productivity. And this can lead to an overall impact on the productivity of the entire
organization. Due to this, the overall morale of the female staff also got affected which
could be seen in the output. There were cases wherein some of the female staff
members left their jobs for better opportunities. The managers didn’t use to appreciate
and value the amount of work and efforts that the female staff members used to put in
order to get a task done.
Due to this, the employees’ overall level of motivation and productivity got
affected and they stopped putting in efforts. If the company continues the gender pay
gap, it will have to face negative consequences. And this can further lead to an impact
on its overall performance as well as productivity (Booysen, Bendl and Pringle, 2018).
Therefore, it is important for the company to adopt measures so as to promote equality
within the workplace. If employees working at same level will be paid equal, they will
start taking interest in their jobs and will also be motivated to perform effectively. They
should be provided equal opportunities so that they can work efficiently. Otherwise, the
gap in wages of the employees will continue to increase as well as the risk of
company’s performance getting affected will also increase. This can further lead to the
overall position of the company being affected in the market.
Approaches that Amazon should implement to overcome gender pay gap
A company can adopt various approaches in order to overcome the problem of
gender pay gap. For example – some companies, including Amazon have addressed
the problem by paying equal amount of salary for the equal work that is put in by the
employees. A discrimination policy is developed to ensure that all staff members are

treated equally within the workplace. Amazon can implement various approaches in
order to overcome the problem of gender pay gap in its system. The company should
offer an option of negotiation to the employees due to which both female and male staff
members will get a chance to negotiate for the salary they receive based on their skills
and experience. Apart from this, the company should also follow and adhere to laws
and legislation that are developed in order to make sure that all employees within a
company get equally paid. The employees of the company should be provided an option
wherein they can claim for transparency in their salaries. The management of the
company should revise its wage policies, promotions, benefits as well as bonuses.
Employees who perform better, either male or a female should be provided with
compensatory benefits (Edgley, Sharma and Anderson-Gough, 2016). Apart from this,
the company should also promote the concept of remote working in its system. This will
allow people who live in remote areas to work in an effective manner.
Another approach that can be opted by the company to overcome gender pay
gap in its system is to offer mentoring programs to female employees. During these
mentoring programs, they should be taught how to negotiate their salary as well as
working conditions (Torrington, Hall and Taylor, 2017). Respective company, Amazon,
should provide both male as well as female mentors. This will ease out the process for
female staff members to speak up about the issues in their salary to their respective
mentor (Liu, 2017). Since Amazon itself is an entrepreneurial venture, it should
definitely promote the concept of female entrepreneurship. This will give them a chance
to develop creative ideas and apply them into practice. This will help in narrowing the
gender pay gap and making sure that the overall efficiency of the company is
maintained (Evans, 2016). Training and Development plays an important role in this and
women employees should be provided special training and skills development sessions
so that there is an improvement in their overall access to the market.
This will be beneficial for the company as its overall performance will increase
because the female staff members will be motivated and encouraged. Also, the option
of flexible working will give the female staff members an opportunity to take care of their
children as well as carry out their respective jobs in a much more enhanced manner.

This is an important approach for the company which will help it in overcoming the issue
of gender gap. Also, it should increase the salaries of the females of employees and
pay them equal salaries (Hussain and Ishaq, 2016). They should be promoted if they
perform well and each female employee should have a mentor who guides them
through the different operations of the company. Apart from this, the balance between
male and female employees should be maintained at all times and fair hiring practices
should be followed. The base compensation of the employees who are being paid less
should be increased and made equivalent to their colleagues who do the same job.
Research Methodology
Introduction
This research is based on equality and diversity and how can it help an
organization in overcoming various challenges (Avis, 2018). The ai of this research is to
analyze the impact of gender pay gap upon the productivity of employees at Amazon.
The research questions for the study are as follows -
 What is the concept of equality and diversity in Amazon?
 How does gender pay gap influence the productivity of employees within
Amazon?
 What approaches should Amazon implement in order to overcome the problem
of gender pay gap?
Research Philosophy
A research philosophy can be defined as the way in which data about a particular
research topic should be collected, used and analyzed. There are three types of
research philosophies, positivism, pragmatism and interpretivism. Positivism research
philosophy is based on the view that only factual knowledge, that is gained through
observation is reliable and trustworthy. Positivism explains only those phenomena that
we can know through our senses like smell, sight hearing and so on (GRAY, 2009).
While interpretivism involves the researcher to interpret different elements of the study.
This type of research philosophy pays more focus on qualitative analysis as compared
to quantitative analysis (Coleman, 2019). Positivism, on the other hand, is likely to be

more associated with numbers and quantitative data. For this research, positivism
research philosophy has been selected because it relies on quantitative data and since
questionnaire has been used to collect data, it will help in generating desired results.
Research Approach
A research approach can be defined as a plan that consists of steps of broad
assumptions along with detailed methods explaining how should data be collected,
analyzed and interpreted (Holck, 2018). The research approach for this study is
inductive as the data for the research is collected by the researcher himself along with
creation of own concepts and theory without any use of existing theory. Another type of
research approach is deductive which involves using specific hypothesis and then
collecting data to prove or disprove the hypothesis.
Research Strategy
This research is based on a case study and the organization selected for the
same is Amazon. There are many advantages of using case studies in a research
because they allow the researcher to collect a lot of detail that is not feasible to be
obtained by any other research design. Also, they are conducted on specific and rare
cases wherein large samples of similar participants are absent (COSTLEY, ELLIOT and
GIBBS, 2010). But there are also many disadvantages of using case studies like the
results can’t be generalized to a larger population and are also difficult to replicate.
Apart from this, some case studies are generally on a particular person, which can lead
to creating a bias.
Research Choices
A mono method approach is used for collecting data which means that a single
method is used for data collection. In order to collect first hand, reliable and accurate
data from the respondents, a questionnaire has been used.
Techniques and Procedures of Data Collection
Primary Methods
Primary methods of research help the researcher in collecting information that is
accurate and first-hand information from the respondents (Thompson, 2016). The