Negative Impact of Workplace Violence/Stress on Waitrose Profitability

This research report examines the negative impact of workplace violence and stress on the profitability of Waitrose, a major UK retail company. The study employs a positivism research philosophy and a deductive approach, utilizing a quantitative method with a survey questionnaire administered to 100 Waitrose employees. The report investigates factors contributing to workplace stress, such as long working hours, abrupt organizational changes, routine work, and job insecurity. It aims to determine the extent to which these factors affect profitability, employing central measure of tendency and regression analysis. The literature review explores existing research on workplace stress, violence, and their effects on organizational outcomes. The methodology section details the research philosophy, approach, strategy, sampling methods, data collection, and analysis plans. The report concludes with recommendations for minimizing workplace stress and enhancing profitability, offering valuable insights for retail companies and academic researchers alike. The research also aims to address key research questions and objectives, including identifying the causes of workplace stress, its impact on profitability, and potential strategies for improvement.

“The analysis of the negative
impact of violence or stress in
the working environment on
firm’s profitability: A study
on Waitrose”

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This research study has been undertaken to put emphasis on illustrating the impact of
workplace stress or violence in the overall profitability of the organisation in the light of the
retail giant Waitrose. Because of the nature of the working environment of the Waitrose let alone
the retail companies that delineates extreme workloads, routine work and also constant changes
in the responsibilities because of the extreme competition the possibility of workplace stress and
violence is very high in Waitrose that may lead to the lower productivity of the organisation also
lower profitability as well. The underlying research will be helpful in illustrating to what extent
these factors affect the profitability of the organisation. Positivism research philosophy will be
adopted for this research along with the deductive research approach. The research study will be
quantitative in nature and close-ended survey questionnaire will be designed accordingly. For the
survey, 100 employees from Waitrose will be selected by convenient sampling method and the
response of the survey questionnaire will be collected by the personal visit of the researcher.
Central measure of tendency and regression analysis will be conducted to check to what extent
workplace violence and stress affect the profitability of Waitrose.
1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title..................................................................................................................................................1
Chapter 01: Introduction..................................................................................................................1
1.1 Background of the Research..................................................................................................1
1.2 Rationale for the proposed research......................................................................................1
1.3 Research questions/aim/objectives........................................................................................2
1.3.1 Aim.................................................................................................................................2
1.3.2 Research Objectives........................................................................................................2
1.3.3 Research Questions.........................................................................................................3
Chapter 02: Literature review..........................................................................................................4
2.1 Workplace stress or violence.................................................................................................4
2.2 Factors contributing employee stress or violence..................................................................5
2.2.1 Long working hours........................................................................................................5
2.2.3 Abrupt and constant changes in the organisation...........................................................5
2.2.4 Boring routine works......................................................................................................6
2.2.5 Changes of responsibilities.............................................................................................6
2.2.6 Job Insecurity..................................................................................................................7
2.2.7 Short and tight deadlines................................................................................................8
2.2.8 Unsupportive work environment....................................................................................8
2.3 Impact of workplace stress or violence on the profitability of the organisation...................9
2.4 Conceptual Framework..........................................................................................................9
Chapter 03: Methodology..............................................................................................................11
3.1 Research philosophy............................................................................................................11
3.2 Research approach...............................................................................................................11
3.3 Research strategy.................................................................................................................12
3.3.1 Research population......................................................................................................12
3.3.2 Sampling frame, size and techniques............................................................................13
3.3.3 Data collection and measurement.................................................................................13
3.4 Pilot Study...........................................................................................................................14
3.5 Data analysis plan................................................................................................................14
3.6 Ethical consideration...........................................................................................................15
3.7 Time plan.............................................................................................................................15
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17
2

TITLE
The title of this research work is “The analysis of the negative impact of violence or
stress in the working environment on firm’s profitability: A study on Waitrose”
CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Research
The work dynamics of the business is constantly changing and is getting complex day by day
because of the ever-changing consumer demand pattern and also the change in the competitive
structure of the business. The organisations need to respond quickly to these changes and
challenges that evolve in the business world and employees stay at the heart of all of these plans
to be implemented successfully (Awara, 2011). These constant change plan and workloads often
give rise to the violence or stress in the working environment of the organisation which
ultimately results in the loss of organisational productivity and goodwill leading adverse impact
on the overall profitability of the organisation (Ambro, and Praprotnik, 2012). Waitrose belongs
to the highly concentrated and competitive retail industry of the UK (Raonek, 2013). The
workloads for the employees in the retail industry are high compared to the other industry
because of the nature of the business which needs constant interactions with the customers and
responding to their calls accordingly (Chen, et al, 2015). With the changing patterns of the
operational activities as well as the demand for increased service excellence and work time the
work stress is eminent among the workers of the Waitrose that may harm the overall profitability
of the company as a whole.
1.2 Rationale for the proposed research
This research has been carried out to illustrate the negative impact that workplace violence has
on the overall profitability of the organisation in the context of the UK’s one of the leading retail
industry in the UK. The underlying research will judge the severity of the different factors that
lead to the workplace stress such as the bad management practices, long hours, heavy workloads,
short deadlines, job insecurity, abrupt changes in the organisational culture, lack of freedom,
boring and routine work and also lack of support from the management on the creation of the
workplace violence and also on the overall profitability of the Waitrose. The underlying research
will fill be significant for all the retail companies to know about the potential causes that lead to
1

workplace stress in retail organisation workplace and how they affect the employee’s
performance and also the profitability of the organisation.
There have been previous researchers on the employee’s stress and workplace violence
and their impact on the organisational profitability and also performances but limited researches
have been done in the context of the retail industry and the underlying research study will fill this
gap by illustrating how workplace stress or violence affect the profitability of retail organisation
in the context of Waitrose along with the key factors that lead to this. The research study will
also be helpful for the enthusiastic academicians who like to determine the causes that lead to the
workplace stress. The research work will also work as a ground for the future researchers who
will opt to conduct similar kind of research study. The research will also be useful to gain
academic knowledge regarding the key aspects of workplace violence and the precise impact
analysis of this on the profitability of the organisation. The underlying research will also be
helpful for the managers of the retail companies as well to effectively maintaining the workplace
stresses as the potential recommendations will be made by the end of this research to cut down
the workplace stress in the context of retail businesses.
1.3 Research questions/aim/objectives
1.3.1 Aim
The aim of this research is to determine the factors that lead to the workplace violence or
stress and the negative impact that these have on the profitability of the organisation in the
context of the Waitrose.
Another significant aim of this research project is to help the manager of the retail
organisation to deal with stress and violence effectively and also to assist them in delineating
proper strategies in handling them. This research study has also been conducted in the aim of
extending academic knowledge and deep ideas regarding the selected workplace violence issues
and its impact on the organisational profitability.
1.3.2 Research Objectives
The objectives that will be met by this research are:
 To ascertain different causes that lead to create stress and violence at the workplace in the
retail industry of UK.
 To determine the way in which stress leads to create violence at the workplace in
Waitrose.
2

 To find out the relationship between stress and violence in Waitrose and the way in
which they create negativity.
 To identify the link between violence and stress with that to the profitability of Waitrose.
 To understand the consequences of workplace violence or stress in Waitrose and the way
in which it impacts upon its overall profitability.
 To recommend ways in which workplace stress can be minimised and organisational
profitability can be enhanced in context to Waitrose.
1.3.3 Research Questions
The questions that are going to be addressed by these research are:
 What are the reasons behind workplace stress or violence in the retail industry of UK?
 How does stress results in causing violence in Waitrose?
 How stress and violence are relatively leads to create negativity at the workplace?
 What is the link between stress or violence and profitability of Waitrose?
 What are the possible consequences of stress and violence on the profitability of
Waitrose?
 What are the ways in which Waitrose can minimise stress and violence at its workplace
to enhance their overall profitability?
3

Chapter 02: Literature review
The literature review section articulates the previous researcher’s opinions, judgements
and findings and also arguments regarding a particular topic. There are different theories that
may be used to develop literature review for research such as it may be developed only by
summarising the key sources, can also be developed by depicting summary and synthesising
discussions along with that and also can also be developed by building own conceptual
framework. It can be augmented, historical, methodological and systematic as well. Literature
review is important because it helps to understand the problem being studied, helps to determine
the areas that the researcher needs to focus on, achieve deeper knowledge regarding the research
topic, identify the gaps of the previous research and form research objectives and questions
according to that. The criticism of literature review is that it may lack relation to current context
and in some cases it may lead to the biasness of conducting a research. The literature review used
in the underlying research will help to understand the key factors associated with the workplace
stress or violence mentioned by the previous researchers and their impact on the wider context of
the organisation related to generating negative profitability.
2.1 Workplace stress or violence
In the view of Alam (2015) workplace stress is the discomfort or the dissatisfaction that
the workers feel because of the uneven treatments and inconsistencies they encounter at the
workplace. Gadomska (2013) added to this discussion by saying that workplace violence is the
result of the workplace stress and both internal and external factors lead to the workplace stress.
Van Den Broeck (2016) depicted that both employees own psychological factors, as well as
intra-organisational factors, contribute to the workplace stress and violence. Alam (2015) listed
that the psychological factors include the individual behavioural factors, background, education,
experience and also the culture of the employees and these shape up the overall workplace
approach and outlook of the employees that lead to the employee stress. Burnes (2015) argued
that individual’s internal psychological factors can be altered and marked the organisational
factors as the key factors that contribute to the employee stress level and also have emphasized
that organisational factors can dominate and alter the psychological factors in the context of the
employee stress level or violence. Williams & Cooper (2012) justified this statement by stating
that workplace culture, nature of the work, freedom, challenges, deadline, expectations and also
4

the performance targets are the key contributing factors that formulate the overall stress level of
the employees and overstress depict high employee dissatisfaction which eventually results into
the higher employee turnover and also the lower performance and productivity from the
employees.
2.2 Factors contributing employee stress or violence
Carriquiry (2017) mentioned that most of the factors that lead to the employee stress and
violence can be controlled by the organisation and their impact can also be minimised to a large
extent if adequate measures are taken. Chen (2013) argued that the factors that lead to employee
stress and violence may vary individual to individual and can also vary according to the context
of the organisations. The key factors that lead to employee stress or violence can be depicted
below:
2.2.1 Long working hours
According to Williams & Cooper (2012) the working hours for the employees in most
countries are fixed by the legislative authorities but in real there less application to that as
organisations are always keen to maximise their benefits by influencing the employees to
perform more in hope of giving extra pay rise and career growth and also by allowing overtime
schedules that eventually result in extra work stress and load. Eriksen (2014) argued that though
the companies hope for extra productivity and performances of the employees by involving them
long period of time in the workplace but eventually it doesn’t pay off as a study conducted by
Hussey (2016) reveals that the average productivity rate for the employees who work for 8 hours
a day are far greater than the employees who work for 10 or more hours. Krøtel And Villadsen
(2015) added that because of the increased cost pressure from the competitor’s organisations are
forced to bring out the maximum benefits from their employees hence their performance
indicating factors and appraisal factors are connected to the average working hours of the
employees that force the employees to be more engaged in the workplace which eventually result
in the workplace stress and dissatisfaction.
2.2.3 Abrupt and constant changes in the organisation
Mohr et al (2011) opined that in the last two decades there have been major changes in
the business world due to the technological evolutions, globalisations and also ever changing
consumers demand pattern and these factors are forcing organisations to bring constant and
frequent changes in the internal processes of the organisations. Choudhury (2014) opined that
5

changes are inevitable for the long-term sustainability of the business but these often lead to
workplace stresses and disagreements. Besides all the changes are not equally good and changes
mean the employees who are the key player connected to it needs to adjust themselves
differently to what they are not used to as added by Healey (2016) argued that the employees
often are unwilling to work under new organisational processes as it brings vagueness and adds
to a greater difficulty level and challenges if not communicated and implemented well and so a
feeling of discomfort works inside the minds of the employees when changes are announced.
Williams & Cooper (2012) commented that some changes may result into employee cut and
some changes may make it difficult for the older employees to cope up with and all these
uncertainties give rise to the protest and inconsistencies among themselves that hurt the company
badly in the long run.
2.2.4 Boring routine works
According to Cartwright & Cooper (2017) dynamic employees love challenges and
variations in the workplace but boring routine works where there is less opportunities for
creativities and differentiated thinking often lead to workplace stress and monotonousness. Raber
et al (2013) opined that workplace boringness depends on the nature of the business
organisations such as the retail industry which doesn’t produce their goods have less chances of
creativity and challenges at the workplace and employees are bound to repeat their daily tasks
over and over again which eventually results into monotonous attitudes and increases the overall
stress level of the employees. Powell & George-Warren (2014) argued that boringness doesn’t
only derive from the nature of the duty that employees perform but also is connected to the
career growth opportunities that the organisation enables to the employees. Loo (2016) marked
the career growth opportunity is one of the key motivational factors that ask for continuous effort
from the employees to perform better and contribute positively towards the growth of the
organisations and also help to keep the employees always motivated. Burnes (2015) opined that
career growth sets new set of targets and challenges for the employees that keep them always
active and committed to the organisation forming less stress and dissatisfaction in the workplace.
2.2.5 Changes of responsibilities
In the view of Carriquiry (2017) because of the changing working pattern and business
environment the organisations are asking for the multiple role-play from their employees because
of the operational cost-cutting pressure and so on and a person can’t be equally good at every
6

role he or she plays hence multiple role-play often leads to the stress and extra workloads of the
employees that ultimately result in inconsistent performances and also extra stress level of the
employees working in the organisation. Junare and Patel (2012) argued that aloof from the
multiple role-play requirement organisations shift and change the role of the employees as a part
of their organisational policy as well which is also a strong contributor to the workplace stress
level as new responsibilities mean new challenges and the employees may not have the same
level of comfort level and competency if they are asked to play new role abruptly. Eriksen
(2014) warned that organisations may face serious resistance from their employees in the event
of role play that may sometimes turn into workplace violence leading towards organisational
efficiencies but most of the organisations in recent times have no alternatives other than asking
their employees to be prepared for new challenges as the business environment is asking for new
capability build-up and changing technological infrastructure often ask for new skills from the
employees eventually leading towards extra stress level of the employees.
2.2.6 Job Insecurity
Hussey (2016) identified job insecurity is the basic and primary factor that contribute
significantly in creating workplace violence or stress as if employees are not sure of their
positions and sustainability in the organisation they will not be able to concentrate on their work
and will be always in agony which will result into the increase of stress level. Krøtel and
Villadsen (2015) argued that job insecurity doesn’t only relate the uncertainty of losing the job
anytime rather it also includes some factors such as the uncertainty associated with the salaries,
incentives, career growth opportunities, unequal treatment and so on and these factors also are
strong forces leading towards the creation of employee stress level at the workplace. Mohr et al
(2011) opined that because of the unreal performance expectations form the organisations the job
securities for the employees have reduced over the years and no matter how much good the
working environment is and how much salary does the organisation pay, the employees stress
won’t reduce if they are not secured their position in the job. Choudhury (2014) added to this by
saying that job insecurity creates fear and increased level of pressure that deters the best
contributions from the employees as employees remain over cautious of committing error in the
fear of losing the job. Healey (2016) marked job security as the fundamental factors for
workplace stress over everything as this plays vital role in delineating the overall contributions
from the employees.
7

2.2.7 Short and tight deadlines
Williams & Cooper (2012) mentioned that because of the restrictions of the total work
hours by law most of the organisations are asking the tasks that are given to the employees in a
relatively short time than the adequate level which brings more psychological pressure and
detreats the performance level of the employees leading towards workplace violence and stress.
Cartwright & Cooper (2017) opined that because of the increased performance pressures and
also the workloads the tight schedules are implemented by the company and also most of the
companies believe in the philosophy that the employees perform best under the pressure which is
eventually not the case as trying to reach the deadline in most cases employees mess up
everything and always suffer from anxiousness as well. Raber et al (2013) argued that short and
tight deadlines are logical if the organisation has the right resources and right persons in place
and organisations shouldn’t always go for short deadlines rather they can ask for short deadline
works at a fixed interval which result into greater acceptance from the employees reducing the
stress level and pressure from the employees.
2.2.8 Unsupportive work environment
Powell & George-Warren (2014) opined that even the challenging tasks get easier if the
workplace is supportive and congenial as the performance standard of the employees depend
much on the support and cooperation that the employees get from the workplace. Loo (2016)
workplace support and friendly attitudes from the co-workers help the employees to understand
the tough tasks and also to adapt with the changing and contradicting circumstances that lead to
the dissatisfactions and also the stress level of the workplace. Gadomska (2013) opined that
unsupportive workplace environment is the result of the bureaucratic organisational structure that
hinders the proper flow of communication and reach of the employees and without adequate
support employees remain unsure regarding their approaches that lead to confusion and rising
stress level in the mind of the employees as well. Alam (2015) argued that unsupportive
workplace environment is the result of some factors such as the absence of the safety equipment,
poor workplace decorations, lack of support from the co-workers, hostile attitudes from the
higher management and also the risks associated regarding the machineries and other stuffs in
the workplace and all these factors contribute equally towards the creation of workplace stress.
8

2.3 Impact of workplace stress or violence on the profitability of the organisation
In the view of Burnes (2015) workplace stress or violence leads towards the downfall in
the overall productivity and performance of the employees that negatively creates impact on the
organisational profitability overall. According to Carriquiry (2017) organisational profitability is
connected with some good indicators that depicts the good state of customer relationship
management, best uses of resources, increased productivity and also the consistencies in the
overall internal and external organisational processes. Junare and Patel (2012) articulated that
organisational profitability is the sound state of the organisation that is the result of the
excellence level of the performances of the functional departments of the organisation and
human resources remain at the heart of depicting the profitability of the organisation. Eriksen
(2014) added to this statement by opening that human resources are the key strategic asset for the
organisation as the competitive advantage and operational efficiencies are directly connected
with the competency and productivity of the human resources.
Hussey (2016) added that as human resources hold this much significance in the
organisation hence their satisfaction and comfort level are connected with the profitability of the
organisation and as the employee extra stress level creates fears, confusions and anxieties among
the employees hence it has an adverse impact on the profitability of the organisation. Krøtel And
Villadsen (2015) mentioned that everything in the organisation is connected to chain which
begins from the employees and if they are stressed out and are not being able to provide their
best performances it is more likely that this will have negative impact on the profitability of the
organisation overall by creating inconsistencies in the strategy implementation. Production target
reaches and also customer relationship management as well. Choudhury (2014) warned that
overstress among the employees may hurt the company badly especially for the companies that
depends much on the personal skill and competencies of the workers as loss of human resources
mean the loss of strategic assets for them which eventually jeopardizes their longtime
sustainability as well. Healey (2016) argued that though some pressure and stress in the
workplace may bring short-term benefits but eventually these are going to hurt the companies
severely in the long run as high employee dissatisfaction will mean higher employee turnover
and lower productivity and the end result is lower profitability of the organisations.
2.4 Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework for the underlying research is provided below:
9