Description
As the organisations are becoming more international that increased the level of competitions in the business world. That caused new challenges in the global markets and so the retail organisations are trying to develop new strategies for reducing those issues. Thus they recognize the importance of diverse work force and develop new strategies for managing them because the diverse work force is the success factor of an organization. So the effective management of them brings competitive advantages to the organization. That increases their importance and they try to implement new strategies for managing the people having different ethnic and socio economic back grounds. They keep different types of relations as per their cultures. So this need to be materialized and must observe best practices to manage them effectively (Albrecht 2000). So the organisations must consider the local state federal laws, local country profile, the country culture etc for the effective management of this diverse work force.
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Importance of Diverse Work Force in retail industry; a case study on Tesco, Plc
Objectives. Objectives can be used to analyse and evaluate the literature research, on the usefulness and the effectiveness of HRM practices which manage the diverse work force in retail industry. Its main objectives can be given as follows.
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To analyse the current HRM approaches used by the organisation for managing the diverse work force. To analyse the importance of diverse work force in retail industry. To analyse the advantages and disadvantages of diverse work forces in retail industry. To recognize the factors needed for attaining the competitive advantage through diverse work force in retail industry.
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In order to carry out the above objectives the following analysis are necessary. 1. What are the parameters that affect the relationship at work among employees of different cultures?
2.
What are the different HRM approaches taken by the organisation for managing diverse work force?
3. How the organisation can gain competitive advantages through diverse work force?
Introduction
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As the organisations are becoming more international that increased the level of competitions in the business world. That caused new challenges in the global markets and so the retail organisations are trying to develop new strategies for reducing those issues. Thus they recognize the importance of diverse work force and develop new strategies for managing them because the diverse work force is the success factor of an organization. So the effective management of them brings competitive advantages to the organization. That increases their importance and they try to implement new strategies for managing the people having different ethnic and socio economic back grounds. They keep different types of relations as per their cultures. So this need to be materialized and must observe best practices to manage them effectively (Albrecht 2000). So the organisations must consider the local state federal laws, local country profile, the country culture etc for the effective management of this diverse work force.
Research Background
This research proposal is intended to research and find out some real facts about the diverse work force in retail industries. The topic of the research is “the importance of diverse workforce in retail industry, a case study on Tesco”. The human resources are very essential for an organization because they are doing all the important functions of the organisations. As a retail industry is considered, there are work force from different countries, regions etc. So it is the duty of the management to handle and manage this diverse workforce effectively. As a valuable and important resource, they must be given important care because all the functions of the organisations are taking place with the help of these people. For that researcher can use the related primary or secondary data for collecting information about their importance in retail industry.
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Retail business is a booming industry of the current age. It is a vibrant industry with lots of fastest changes. The word retail is taken from word retailer, means cut into piece. They sell products and the services to customers for family as well as individual use. The retail industry can be divided into different types based on their size, the shape, the products and their services, the charging price etc. They may be chain stores, supermarkets, speciality stores, factory outlets, the franchises, discount stores etc. As the dynamic field, they offer employment opportunities for diverse work forces. They offer about two million jobs around the world (web, ref. 5)
Here the selected organization Tesco, as a retail industry, recruiting workforce from different countries and they give excellent services to the customers. The diverse workforce from different countries has different practices and culture. Hence this research aims at evaluating the importance of diverse workforce in Tesco for measuring its effectiveness and thus find out the pitfalls and recommend the right corrective action.
Literature Review. Introduction The present era of globalization, enforce the world to mingle with diverse work force from different backgrounds, cultures, believes etc. New developments in the social, economical, political and demographical environment changed the countries to the multicultural societies. In the present competitive environment it is essential for the retail organizations to take effective strategies to gain competitive advantages in the field. According to Green and his friends, the competitions arising from all continents and diverse work force are the part of this world economy (Green et al, 2002). Diverse work force are the main axis that runs the retail industry, so the success and the failures mainly based on the attitude of the diverse work force because of the relevance and interdependency of one country with all other countries (Gupta et al
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2001). So the importance of diverse work force is a main factor for the retail organizations and the managers have to decide upon the importance of these factors and move with it. The human resources are very essential for retail industry because they are doing all the important functions of the organisations. As a retail industry is considered, there are diverse work force from different countries, regions etc. So it is the duty of the management to handle and manage this diverse workforce effectively. As a valuable and important resource, they must be given important care because all the functions of the organisations are taking place with the help of this diverse work force. For that researcher can use the related primary or secondary data for collecting information about their importance in retail industry.
Managing the diverse work force is an important factor for the retail industry. For Tesco, an international retailer, having operations in about 14 countries, have lots of diverse work force. It manages this diverse work force worldwide and that brings some challenges also. So to manage the situation effectively they need to adopt some approaches. The dissertation focuses on the importance of diverse work force in retail industry and tries to analyze the strategies that help to manage this diverse work force in their organizations. Retail Industry Retail business is a booming industry of the current age. It is a vibrant industry with lots of fastest changes. The word retail is taken from word retailer, means cut into piece. They sell products and the services to customers for family as well as individual use. The retail industry can be divided into different types based on their size, the shape, the products and their services, the charging price etc. They may be chain stores, supermarkets, specialty stores, factory outlets, the franchises, discount stores etc. As the dynamic field, they offer employment opportunities for diverse work forces. They offer about two million jobs around the world (web, ref. 5)
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There are about three million people are working in the retail industry (data collected March 08). That is equal to the 11% of total UK employees. (UK Retail Futures 2011: Sector Summary, Data monitor). For about the 8% of gross domestic product, GDP, of UK is produced by retail sector. (Web reference 2). The retail sale in UK was about £265 billion in the 2007 that is more than combined economies of the countries like Portugal and Denmark (UK Retail Futures 2011: Sector Summary, Data monitor). The jobs in retail industry are related to the economics and the consumer trends. The retail market in UK may increase 15% in size in the coming 5 years with a value of £312bn (UK Retail Futures 2011: Sector Summary, Data monitor) even though it slows down the annual growth and may faces challenges. British retail consortium, the BRC, the trade association of the retailers is selling the wide range of products in all centers and stores. It helps to get the right information about the retail business. (www.brc.org.uk). in retail industry, the surviving sector is the electrical section and with a growth of 24% (UK Retail Futures 2011: Sector Summary, Data monitor). The retailers of home sector may face the tough period because of the falling prices of houses and the people are more cautious on moving homes.
The changing concepts of diverse work force. In this era of changing perspectives, there are many challenges in the business world because of the changes in the views of diverse work force and the retail organisation’s perspectives. The retail organisations try to attract very dedicated and talented diverse work force by offering them high salaries and retain the successful work force (Reference: web.04). The retail organisations are searching for the team leaders, the creative thinkers, and the consensus builders. Also the diverse work force is interested to work with the companies which offer them chances for the growth and the opportunities. The diverse work force gets these opportunities via cross functional teams, the lateral move and through different training programmes (Reference: web.04).
Employee. An employee is an individual, borrowed by the employers for doing certain jobs and
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there must be a strong relationship between the employee and the retail organisation. (Reference: web.02). An employee is a labour that works as the tool and her or his behaviour is manipulated for the profit of retail organisation and can be replaced when that is dilapidated (Aswathappa 2008). They are the resources of an organisation because they are being used for organisation’s benefit and also for the benefit of the society and the employee (Aswathappa 2008). The diverse work force consists of employees of different backgrounds. In this age of globalization, the distance from one continent to other has decreased and it shows the importance of the interdependency of one country with all other countries (Gupta et al 2001). This is a hot topic to be discussed and still there are controversy on globalization and it existence (Unger 1997). The controversy is also on that globalization supersedes the nation and its pros and con (Strange 1996, Wade 1996). But the accepted fact is it bring tremendous revolution and growth in the field of business and helped retail organizations to make their operations efficient, feasible and reliable (Gupta et al 2001). As a result of this globalization, the retail organizations became more international and this brought new challenges in this retail organization. This increased competitions so the retail organizations changed their planning and strategies with the help of effective diverse work force. The diverse work force is the success factor of an organization and the effective workforce will bring success and competitive advantage over others. This helps the retail organization to adopt new human resource management strategies (HRM) and techniques for the success in future. The diversity helps for employee developments. The changes in the society also make changes in the retail organization (EfH 2003). If the business is extended around the world it needed diverse work force of different places and countries. Thus these heterogeneous diverse work forces are capable of satisfying the diversified markets and the customers (Cunningham and Green 2007). It helps to know the new opportunities and gain competitive advantages. So retail organizations encourage diverse work force of different cultures for making its operation more effectively (Dwivedi, 2001). Retail organizations consider diverse work force as most important asset. So the diverse work force are expected to know the business functions, solve the problems, develop proper future plans and develop the organization to run (web
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reference.2). The diverse work force is the human resources for an organization and that is used for benefit of organization, society and the diverse work force itself. (Aswathappa 2008). The HRM concepts. HRM is applicable to all sections of the management like in selection, manpower planning, salary administration, performance appraisal, training and the management developments (Mishra 2001). As per Mishra, HRM has three main concepts they are. • The diverse work force working for retail organization is a valuable source and so it is essential to put effort and time for the development (Mishra 2001). • The human resources have own characteristics so it can’t treated as material resource and this adds human values in organization (Mishra 2001). • The human resources are not only considering like individuals but also must know the social realities, the units, the process etc of the organization (Mishra 2001). The human resource management comes from personal management and the behavioral science. It is a highly extensive and multidisciplinary approach from beginning till end. This helps the diverse work force to develop competency for doing the present and the future role in organization. These required the review of the management processes for developing new approaches in organization (Niskala M 2004). As per the nature of the workplace the managers have to understand the best practices using the very best strategies. As a result diverse work force can achieve their needs and the organizational goals at the same time (Stredwick 2005). The HRM is the management of the diverse work force and work of an organization. The personal management is the non strategic, separate business, the reactive, the short termed, and constrained. But HRM has wide concepts and that includes the development of the competencies of diverse work force and involves in the strategic management also. It is art than a science. That is it is an art with pitfalls, the judgment call, and it helps to learn from the past mistake (Mishra 2001).
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Different types of diversity in workplace. There are different types of diversity exists in work place. They may be of ethnicity, gender equality, socio economic, language, disability, culture, age, sexuality, gender identity etc. This list goes the long way and determines who are we as the individuals and doesn’t stop (Pelled et al 1999). Ethnicity is related to diverse work force’s origin and there are differences in their areas like education, employment, culture, language, gender, the socio economic environment, the religion, sexuality etc (Knight et al, 1999). Gender equality is also to be highlighted because women are longing for this equality for long. Then religious diversity is important as it is closely related to their dress code and the restrictions etc. The socio economic diversity is also related to religion, education ethnicity etc. This is unique because it tries to rank the diverse work force as per their backgrounds. It helps to find out the amount of tax to be paid. The social diversity measures the acorn census. So it is the measure of the social mobility and the extent to which diverse work force move out from it. The educational background is also related with socio economic group, the religion, gender etc because this related with the fees to be paid, the faith schools, single sex schools respectively (John et al, 1997). So it is important to give attention to the state schools and the fee paying schools (John et al, 1997). There are lots of people privately educated individuals working as excellent professionals. As per the reports of the Sutton trust, the proportion of privately educated lawyers and journalists are 70% and 54% (Sutton trust report, 2009).
The diversity is not black or white, male or female, young or old issues. As per Harris Sussman, it is connected with relations, connections, the interactions of the crossing lines. It consists of many things like the organizational life, the diverse work force’s life, and corporate capability, frame work of relations among the people, their learning exchange and the strategic mirror on world. So it needs the support from different places and the employers are interested with these kinds of diverse work force
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because of their excellence. They need to be encouraged for developing a vast culture. (Web ref. 7) As per the trend of today, most retail organizations expand their business to overseas for more expansion (Gwendolyn Cuizon, 2009). So they need to employ diverse workforce without any discrimination of gender, ethnicity, age or race (Gwendolyn Cuizon, 2009). As globalization is the overpowering trend in today’s business the diversity in workplace also is the best accepted perception in this environment. Need of diverse workforce. Today’s corporate culture consider various pressure of the labor market because of the constant changes in globalization, economy, technology, demography, flexibility, feminization of workforce etc (EfH, 2003). The corporate concepts, developments in the social scenario, the continuous changes, and the staff development procedures needed the importance of diversity in organisations (EfH, 2003). That is as the activities of the organisations spread to different countries, it requires the need of diverse work force from different places and cultures because these heterogeneous diverse work force can satisfy the requirements of the markets and the customers. (Cunningham and Green, 2007). Also diversity encourages the diverse work force and gives those opportunities for attaining competitive advantages for the retail organization. It helps the retail organisations for making efficient operations in different places by make use of the excellent diverse work force (Dwivedi, 2001) The management of diverse workforce. The retail organisations need diverse work force in their international operations for gaining better improvements because they need the service of them for dealing with people of different cultures and backgrounds. So for benefits and success all retail organisations must handle this diverse work force carefully (Amaram 2007). As per Roosevelt, the managing diversity is the broad managerial process that develops the environment to all diverse work forces to work with. (R. Roosevelt Thomas, 1995, Beyond Race and Gender). In the present scenario, America is the better example of this reflection of diverse work force in their retail organisations. There is a mixture of diverse work force from
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different race, religion, gender, age, and other social and environmental backgrounds. So America as the melting pot for diverse work force doesn’t cater the single group but cater the mixture of all these diverse work force for getting more and more prospects. The presence of diverse work force brings long term success because they bring innovative ideas, views and perspectives for the work. So other countries like UK also can treat this diverse work with serious consideration for gaining more productivity and success. So the managers have to capitalize on all these mixtures for better business opportunities and creativity.
Disadvantages of diverse work force.
The diversity causes some problems also. They can be given as follows;
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The cohesiveness of the diverse work force holds them together but when the diversity is forced in retail organization that may lead to the resistance to the changes from existing diverse work force. That may lead to conflicts in the retail organization (Aswathappa 2008)
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As the diversity consists of many cultures, if one culture is neglected, it causes the demonization or the frustrations from the members and so that it causes the adverse result on the productivity. It also leads to high absenteeism and the turnover (Amaram, 2007).
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The communication barriers create problems and issues. That is the misunderstanding may occur in any stage so that reduces the effectiveness of the groups (O Reilly ET al1989).
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It pays more cost and time so that it may decrease the benefits of the retail organization. Also if there are any problems for making general agreement and the opinions, that may cause the cultural clashes so that makes negative effects (Tsui et al, 1992).
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The opinion and resolution of the majority often neglects the opinion and participation of the minority (Amaram 2007).
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Advantages of diverse work force. In retail organization the diverse work force plays the key roles for their business developments and success. That is this diversity increases their organizational performances. The diversity helps to retain the best diverse talented bodies in organizations (Amaram 2007). Thus by having those diverse work force they can enhances the following things; • Increase the adaptability- The diverse work forces helps to solve different problems in sourcing, servicing, and the allocation of the resources. The diverse work forces have got practical talents and that helps to suggest flexible ideas for adapting to the fluctuating customer needs and the market situation (Greenberg 2004). • To increase the organizational flexibility- The presence of diverse work force helps the organization to challenge the very old assumptions so that they can construct better work style (Nelson and Quick 2000). • Widen the service range- The diverse experiences and the skills help the retail organization to serve diverse customers even in the global basis (Greenberg 2004). • Improve the employee morale- As the diverse cultures of diverse work force are valued and recognized, that increases the morale standard and thus gives an increase in retention (NEW 2008). • Lots of view point- As the diverse work force has variety of ideas and the experience that helps to meet the requirements of the customers, the retail organization and their business strategy (Greenberg 2004). • The innovation and the creativity- The innovative retail organisations creating more diverse work force for increasing their creativity (Nelson and Quick 2000). • High alignment with the vendors- The diversity helps to settle and deal with vendors of diverse cultural backgrounds in globally and thus enable the retail organization to understand and recognize their believes and values for keeping better relations with them (NEW 2008). • Excellent execution – As the diversity is recognized and encouraged the diverse work force is inspired for doing their high abilities and so that helps to
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increase the productivity, the profit and the return on their investments (Greenberg 2004).
The diversity enhances the quality of staff by entering the untouched pools of the talents. It increases the customer confidence because it gets the service of quality work force. The retail organisations have to make constant reviews on their progress by changing and adopting new approaches, plans, the policies and strategies. That in turn results in high morale and standard to the retail organisations and the diverse work force as well. Thus the best strategic approaches bring profits and developments to the retail organization. The long term plans and its success are as the result of its diverse talented work force because these diverse bodies donate fresh and innovative ideas, views, the perspectives, the values, the corporate values etc. Also the diverse work force helps to communicate with the diverse customers effectively. Thus by linking the strategies with special goals like the retention, the performances, the morale, the bottom line etc the organization can gain long term success. By building the business with the help of diverse talented bodies and personalities, they can allow the diversity to work for the success of retail organization.
Justification of research The changes of the market environments demand the right persons for right job for every organisation. As a retail organisation is considered, the environment is different for the diverse work force. The uncertainties in the business condition, high cost for hiring employees, maintaining the diverse work force etc demands the need for the better management of these employees. Also the changes of the government rules and the regulations on the employment procedures, the changes in the technology, the need of rightly skilled and trained labours for
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meeting the requirements of the organisations etc lead to the employee management (Pressley 1999). Also with emergence of globalization, there emerged so many new markets in the world and it increased the level of competition. So the organisations must beware of the consequences of this and must be very vigilant for better prospects. As a result they have to do effective management of their employees for performing well in the field. The human resource management (HRM) is concerned with the dimension of the employees within the organization. The human resources are people, who work for organisation (Harzing and Ruysseveldt 2004). So the management of those people is a need and important for the success of the retail organisation Hypothesis
Hypothesis
This section will be discussing the hypothesis which will be testing on while conducting this research. As stated earlier, this research will be mainly focussing on the concept called hypothesis.
Importance of Diverse Work Force in
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retail industry; a case study on Tesco, Plc
This research is based on
the functions of a retail industry and its importance of diverse work force. In this age of globalization, the distance from one continent to other has decreased and it shows the importance of the interdependency of one country with all other countries. As a result of this globalization, the organizations became more international and this brought new challenges in the organization.These concepts
are tested by the researcher by conducing primary research. The approach which he/she follows is discussed through the coming section of this chapter.
Research Methodology Introduction
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The research is the organized inquisition of a topic for discovering or devising the theories, the facts, the application etc. There are many factors that increased the need of diverse work force for more and better information. As the retail organizations become national and international in their operations, they need more information about the larger and more distant markets. As the income increase and buyers are more selective, this necessitates the diverse work force to need know for better information on retail organizations... So the retail organizations have to become more alert and so they need to collect all information on the diverse work force. Managers seek information about the customers, the competitors, diverse work force which influence the market. The research provides relevant and actionable information of the environment through various methods such as observing, interacting and asking questions. A research process constitutes sequence of activities which will help the retail organization for taking better decisions. It can be undertaken for identifying the importance of diverse work force in the present scenario, defining the problem or the purpose of the study. Then a theoretical frame work and analytical models are formulated to develop an approach to the effective management of diverse work force... Follow up of the research design and the presentation of the report is necessary for Communicating the results to the retail organizations. This part of the dissertation explains the kind of research which is conducted to achieve the research objectives. An overview of the research design comprising primary and secondary data, methods of data collection adopted and its analysis, different sampling techniques which are selected for this research work. Justifications for the design and data collection methods selected for the purpose of this research work are also given. Research philosophy As retail the business expands globally, retail organizations are becoming more and more competitive in nature for trying to increase their chances in the market. As a part of this strategy they are recruiting diverse work force for enhancing their services and for giving excellent services for their customers having diverse backgrounds. Here this research concentrates on the retail organization Tesco because it is increasing its global presence by becoming more competitive in the market. The
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diversity has different origins and has different policies in different countries. So it urges the need for managing the diverse work force in the retail organisations effectively by considering these diversities. This research is intended to research and find out some real facts about the diverse work force in retail industries. The topic of the research is “the importance of diverse workforce in retail industry, a case study on Tesco”. The human resources are very essential for the retail organization because they are doing all the important functions of the organisations. As a retail industry is considered, there is diverse work force from different places. So it is the duty of the management to handle and manage this diverse workforce effectively. As a valuable and important resource, diverse work force must be given important care because all the functions of the retail organisations are taking place with the help of this diverse work force.
This research focused on the importance of diverse work force in retail industry. There some issues related with communication and the languages, the advantages and disadvantages of diverse work force, challenges and problems raised because of diverse work forces are also analyzed. As the case study methods and case analysis are accepted research strategies of data collection, it is also considered. According to Yin (1994), “The case analysis or case study research is an empirical enquiry that investigates a Contemporary phenomenon within its real life context when the boundaries between Phenomenon and context are not clearly evident, and in which multiple sources of evidence are used.” Here as the research on the importance of diverse work force in retail industry Tesco, the researcher can use exploratory and explanatory research, case study analysis , qualitative and quantitative method, etc for carrying out this research because the And previous problem is less supported by theoretical background researches. So the researcher chose this methodology for this research. Research purpose
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As retail organisations became more international it creates different issues and challenges for the organization and so they need to manage the diverse work force effectively. The positive and better working environment increases the productivity of diverse work force thereby it increases the profit of the organization. The presence of diverse work force is an asset as it contains the very talented people, the broader services, the innovations etc. But the problems like communication issues, absenteeism, conflicts, turnover etc have to manage effectively for attaining the organizational goals. Purpose of this research is to inquire a systematic study to know more about the effective management of diverse work force in a retail industry by giving special consideration to Tesco in UK. So the purpose of this research is to analyze and evaluate the literature research, by giving importance of the diverse work force and its effective management in retail industry
Procedures of the research and its design.
For conducting this research one can collect data using different methods and procedures. The researcher can use the primary as well as the secondary data. For this research the researcher can use the following:
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Preparation - Read the literature about the topic, its importance and also Collect the opinion of diverse work force using questionnaire and analyze the data using the collected information.
learns about the organisation from various secondary data.
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Conduct an interview with the manager to get more information about the diverse work force.
Thus the researcher can collect data from the available sources and then conduct the primary research with the manager to know the issues in relation with the management of diverse work force. The collected data, can be evaluated and then recorded for future reference and make use for further research. Primary Data Collection This type of data can be collected from the direct sources like interview with the manager, collect information from diverse work force using the questionnaire etc. Secondary Data Collection This type of data can collected from the existing sources such as books, websites, articles, journals, company’s web site etc.
Here case study analysis can be used as an effective tool for carrying the research and can collect information from the review of literature and from the primary and secondary sources. Then visit some Tesco units and try to collect information from there. The researcher can distribute questionnaire among the employees and collect their opinion and suggestions. After that arrange the meeting with the managers and conduct interview with them for collecting more information about the related problems and issues. Here the researcher uses both the qualitative and quantitative methods for the research. The qualitative method used is the interview with the HR managers of Tesco, London, and the quantitative method used is the collection of data from employees of Tesco using the questionnaire. suggestions for further research. Data collection methods The data can be collected using the primary as well as the secondary research. The primary data collection is called the field research and the secondary research is called the desk research From the collected data and information one can put forward the findings and can make recommendations and
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Primary research The primary data is the first hand information on the topic. It is using for getting the correct information on the research. It is the data collected in first time and not found in previous research. For this the researcher can use the methods like interview with the HR managers, the questionnaire techniques, observation etc.
Figure 3.6.1-Source of the Primary data (Source- Ghauri et al, 1995)
Questionnaire Here the researcher can use questionnaire technique for collecting information on the importance and the effective management of diverse work force in Tesco. In this technique, the data is collecting using the questions and the response of the diverse work force can be observed and collected. Questions are prepared to encourage the respondents and tried to reduce the errors. “Questionnaire is a formalized set of questions for obtaining information from respondents.” (Malhotra, 2002). As per the view of Malhotra, the questionnaires have 3 specific objectives and they can be given as follows.
1. The research must make the set of the specific questions in which the
respondents can able and willing to an answer. (Malhotra, 2002).
2. The questionnaire must minimize the demand on the respondents, and must
encourage them to participate in the procedure devoid of any bias in the response. (Malhotra, 2002). 3. The questionnaire must reduce responsive errors. (Malhotra, 2002). The researcher can use structured or the non structured questionnaires. The structured questions the questions must be in an arranged order. These can be
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disguised, that is the purpose of survey is hidden to respondents or it can be non disguised where the purpose of the research is revealed to them. In nonstructured questionnaires, questions are non structured that is not in the arranged form and the researcher can ask as per the situation of the research. Interview The interview can be done using the pre arranged questions so that it saves the time. All the related information can be collected using the pre planed questions and can be noted down. So that it helps the interviewer to collect the relevant and right information on the related topic.
Secondary research In this the data can be collected using the secondary existing sources. So the researcher must be alert that the data collected must be relevant to the present situation. It is the data collecting for finding more information for an additional purpose. So it needed the vigilant analysis for getting the relevant information from a collection of existing data. The secondary data can be evaluated using different criteria. They can be given as follows. • • • • • Check the data if it is relevant and useful for the related research. Check if the data can apply at the specified time. Check the level of errors and the accuracy of data. Check the reality of bias. Check the methodologies, collected data, the rate of the response, its analysis, size of sample, techniques on the sampling, design of the questionnaires etc. • • Check the objective of the data collection. Check the nature, the definitions, the measures, the relationships etc of the data. The secondary data also can collect using outside sources or retail organization itself. The retail organisations internal sources contain the annual report, the sales report etc. The external sources contain the text books, the journals, the newspapers, the professional body, internet sources etc.
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Internal sources The internal sources are the retail organization’s annual report, and their website. Here for Tesco, the researcher can use the annual report, the website etc for collecting the data. External sources The external sources are the text books, the publications, the journal articles etc. For the text books and publications the researcher can use the university libraries and other local libraries.
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The journal articles - There are many journals available for the research. They are the chartered management institute CMI, the digital library etc. They gave the information on the issues of diverse work force, but many of them didn’t give detail information on diversity.
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Newspaper articles- The articles in newspaper also gave information on the topic and that gives the relevant knowledge on the topic. Internet sources- The different internet sources like the Google, the Nike etc helped the researcher to collect the secondary data. It is the easiest way for collecting the information on the topic.
The types of the research There are different types of research based on their nature. Based on purpose, they can be the exploratory, the descriptive, the analytical or the predictive methods, based on the process, they can be the quantitative or the qualitative method, based on the outcome, they may be the applied or the basic research, based on logics they can be the deductive or the inductive methods. Exploratory method looks for finding more ideas, principles etc. The descriptive method it promotes more examinations than exploratory method. Analytical method also examines further more to know about the real reason. The preductive method tries to generalize the analysis based on the some general relations. The quantitative method analyzes the data using the quantifiable tools such as graphs, charts, tables, questionnaire etc. The qualitative method analyzes the data based on the events, non numerical data like the interview etc. Applies research
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also find out the real cause of the problems and for solving it gives the solution and it applies the cause effect method. The deductive and inductive methods work based on the logic that it is applied. For doing this researcher can use the case study method , the explorative method as it gives more ideas on the topic, the descriptive method, as it find out real reason for that, the qualitative method like interview, the quantitative method and further improvement of the topic. The research diagram can draw to know more about the process. The following diagrams give an idea about the research process. like the questionnaire, tables, charts, graphs etc. All these methods help for the knowledge
Research limitations. For conducting this research the researcher faced some issues like the ethical, the legal issues etc. As Tesco, is the leading retailer in UK, they are not willing to expose the detailed information regarding their employees like their personal details as it is
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related with the legal and confidential issues. Also the ethical issues like the time, it was difficult to meet all the managers together because of their timings. Also due to time constraints it was not able to meet the top level managers. As this research is conducted within the fixed time frame it was not able to meet the top level management because of the time constraints. Then come to the research materials, most of the journals do not provides detailed information about diverse work force at workplace in retail organisations. In the secondary research the researcher have to assess the reliability and accuracy of the data as it was collected by somebody else. These data have to rearrange properly and to make it useful for the current topic. It needs the critical assessment to recognize the bias. Another issue faced was on the generalization of the collected data. Then the researcher can’t make a correct evaluation on the sample group as they have diverse opinion and so there were some bias in opinions. So the researcher had to be vigilant on all these matters
doc_525054526.doc
As the organisations are becoming more international that increased the level of competitions in the business world. That caused new challenges in the global markets and so the retail organisations are trying to develop new strategies for reducing those issues. Thus they recognize the importance of diverse work force and develop new strategies for managing them because the diverse work force is the success factor of an organization. So the effective management of them brings competitive advantages to the organization. That increases their importance and they try to implement new strategies for managing the people having different ethnic and socio economic back grounds. They keep different types of relations as per their cultures. So this need to be materialized and must observe best practices to manage them effectively (Albrecht 2000). So the organisations must consider the local state federal laws, local country profile, the country culture etc for the effective management of this diverse work force.
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Importance of Diverse Work Force in retail industry; a case study on Tesco, Plc
Objectives. Objectives can be used to analyse and evaluate the literature research, on the usefulness and the effectiveness of HRM practices which manage the diverse work force in retail industry. Its main objectives can be given as follows.
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To analyse the current HRM approaches used by the organisation for managing the diverse work force. To analyse the importance of diverse work force in retail industry. To analyse the advantages and disadvantages of diverse work forces in retail industry. To recognize the factors needed for attaining the competitive advantage through diverse work force in retail industry.
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In order to carry out the above objectives the following analysis are necessary. 1. What are the parameters that affect the relationship at work among employees of different cultures?
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What are the different HRM approaches taken by the organisation for managing diverse work force?
3. How the organisation can gain competitive advantages through diverse work force?
Introduction
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As the organisations are becoming more international that increased the level of competitions in the business world. That caused new challenges in the global markets and so the retail organisations are trying to develop new strategies for reducing those issues. Thus they recognize the importance of diverse work force and develop new strategies for managing them because the diverse work force is the success factor of an organization. So the effective management of them brings competitive advantages to the organization. That increases their importance and they try to implement new strategies for managing the people having different ethnic and socio economic back grounds. They keep different types of relations as per their cultures. So this need to be materialized and must observe best practices to manage them effectively (Albrecht 2000). So the organisations must consider the local state federal laws, local country profile, the country culture etc for the effective management of this diverse work force.
Research Background
This research proposal is intended to research and find out some real facts about the diverse work force in retail industries. The topic of the research is “the importance of diverse workforce in retail industry, a case study on Tesco”. The human resources are very essential for an organization because they are doing all the important functions of the organisations. As a retail industry is considered, there are work force from different countries, regions etc. So it is the duty of the management to handle and manage this diverse workforce effectively. As a valuable and important resource, they must be given important care because all the functions of the organisations are taking place with the help of these people. For that researcher can use the related primary or secondary data for collecting information about their importance in retail industry.
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Retail business is a booming industry of the current age. It is a vibrant industry with lots of fastest changes. The word retail is taken from word retailer, means cut into piece. They sell products and the services to customers for family as well as individual use. The retail industry can be divided into different types based on their size, the shape, the products and their services, the charging price etc. They may be chain stores, supermarkets, speciality stores, factory outlets, the franchises, discount stores etc. As the dynamic field, they offer employment opportunities for diverse work forces. They offer about two million jobs around the world (web, ref. 5)
Here the selected organization Tesco, as a retail industry, recruiting workforce from different countries and they give excellent services to the customers. The diverse workforce from different countries has different practices and culture. Hence this research aims at evaluating the importance of diverse workforce in Tesco for measuring its effectiveness and thus find out the pitfalls and recommend the right corrective action.
Literature Review. Introduction The present era of globalization, enforce the world to mingle with diverse work force from different backgrounds, cultures, believes etc. New developments in the social, economical, political and demographical environment changed the countries to the multicultural societies. In the present competitive environment it is essential for the retail organizations to take effective strategies to gain competitive advantages in the field. According to Green and his friends, the competitions arising from all continents and diverse work force are the part of this world economy (Green et al, 2002). Diverse work force are the main axis that runs the retail industry, so the success and the failures mainly based on the attitude of the diverse work force because of the relevance and interdependency of one country with all other countries (Gupta et al
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2001). So the importance of diverse work force is a main factor for the retail organizations and the managers have to decide upon the importance of these factors and move with it. The human resources are very essential for retail industry because they are doing all the important functions of the organisations. As a retail industry is considered, there are diverse work force from different countries, regions etc. So it is the duty of the management to handle and manage this diverse workforce effectively. As a valuable and important resource, they must be given important care because all the functions of the organisations are taking place with the help of this diverse work force. For that researcher can use the related primary or secondary data for collecting information about their importance in retail industry.
Managing the diverse work force is an important factor for the retail industry. For Tesco, an international retailer, having operations in about 14 countries, have lots of diverse work force. It manages this diverse work force worldwide and that brings some challenges also. So to manage the situation effectively they need to adopt some approaches. The dissertation focuses on the importance of diverse work force in retail industry and tries to analyze the strategies that help to manage this diverse work force in their organizations. Retail Industry Retail business is a booming industry of the current age. It is a vibrant industry with lots of fastest changes. The word retail is taken from word retailer, means cut into piece. They sell products and the services to customers for family as well as individual use. The retail industry can be divided into different types based on their size, the shape, the products and their services, the charging price etc. They may be chain stores, supermarkets, specialty stores, factory outlets, the franchises, discount stores etc. As the dynamic field, they offer employment opportunities for diverse work forces. They offer about two million jobs around the world (web, ref. 5)
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There are about three million people are working in the retail industry (data collected March 08). That is equal to the 11% of total UK employees. (UK Retail Futures 2011: Sector Summary, Data monitor). For about the 8% of gross domestic product, GDP, of UK is produced by retail sector. (Web reference 2). The retail sale in UK was about £265 billion in the 2007 that is more than combined economies of the countries like Portugal and Denmark (UK Retail Futures 2011: Sector Summary, Data monitor). The jobs in retail industry are related to the economics and the consumer trends. The retail market in UK may increase 15% in size in the coming 5 years with a value of £312bn (UK Retail Futures 2011: Sector Summary, Data monitor) even though it slows down the annual growth and may faces challenges. British retail consortium, the BRC, the trade association of the retailers is selling the wide range of products in all centers and stores. It helps to get the right information about the retail business. (www.brc.org.uk). in retail industry, the surviving sector is the electrical section and with a growth of 24% (UK Retail Futures 2011: Sector Summary, Data monitor). The retailers of home sector may face the tough period because of the falling prices of houses and the people are more cautious on moving homes.
The changing concepts of diverse work force. In this era of changing perspectives, there are many challenges in the business world because of the changes in the views of diverse work force and the retail organisation’s perspectives. The retail organisations try to attract very dedicated and talented diverse work force by offering them high salaries and retain the successful work force (Reference: web.04). The retail organisations are searching for the team leaders, the creative thinkers, and the consensus builders. Also the diverse work force is interested to work with the companies which offer them chances for the growth and the opportunities. The diverse work force gets these opportunities via cross functional teams, the lateral move and through different training programmes (Reference: web.04).
Employee. An employee is an individual, borrowed by the employers for doing certain jobs and
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there must be a strong relationship between the employee and the retail organisation. (Reference: web.02). An employee is a labour that works as the tool and her or his behaviour is manipulated for the profit of retail organisation and can be replaced when that is dilapidated (Aswathappa 2008). They are the resources of an organisation because they are being used for organisation’s benefit and also for the benefit of the society and the employee (Aswathappa 2008). The diverse work force consists of employees of different backgrounds. In this age of globalization, the distance from one continent to other has decreased and it shows the importance of the interdependency of one country with all other countries (Gupta et al 2001). This is a hot topic to be discussed and still there are controversy on globalization and it existence (Unger 1997). The controversy is also on that globalization supersedes the nation and its pros and con (Strange 1996, Wade 1996). But the accepted fact is it bring tremendous revolution and growth in the field of business and helped retail organizations to make their operations efficient, feasible and reliable (Gupta et al 2001). As a result of this globalization, the retail organizations became more international and this brought new challenges in this retail organization. This increased competitions so the retail organizations changed their planning and strategies with the help of effective diverse work force. The diverse work force is the success factor of an organization and the effective workforce will bring success and competitive advantage over others. This helps the retail organization to adopt new human resource management strategies (HRM) and techniques for the success in future. The diversity helps for employee developments. The changes in the society also make changes in the retail organization (EfH 2003). If the business is extended around the world it needed diverse work force of different places and countries. Thus these heterogeneous diverse work forces are capable of satisfying the diversified markets and the customers (Cunningham and Green 2007). It helps to know the new opportunities and gain competitive advantages. So retail organizations encourage diverse work force of different cultures for making its operation more effectively (Dwivedi, 2001). Retail organizations consider diverse work force as most important asset. So the diverse work force are expected to know the business functions, solve the problems, develop proper future plans and develop the organization to run (web
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reference.2). The diverse work force is the human resources for an organization and that is used for benefit of organization, society and the diverse work force itself. (Aswathappa 2008). The HRM concepts. HRM is applicable to all sections of the management like in selection, manpower planning, salary administration, performance appraisal, training and the management developments (Mishra 2001). As per Mishra, HRM has three main concepts they are. • The diverse work force working for retail organization is a valuable source and so it is essential to put effort and time for the development (Mishra 2001). • The human resources have own characteristics so it can’t treated as material resource and this adds human values in organization (Mishra 2001). • The human resources are not only considering like individuals but also must know the social realities, the units, the process etc of the organization (Mishra 2001). The human resource management comes from personal management and the behavioral science. It is a highly extensive and multidisciplinary approach from beginning till end. This helps the diverse work force to develop competency for doing the present and the future role in organization. These required the review of the management processes for developing new approaches in organization (Niskala M 2004). As per the nature of the workplace the managers have to understand the best practices using the very best strategies. As a result diverse work force can achieve their needs and the organizational goals at the same time (Stredwick 2005). The HRM is the management of the diverse work force and work of an organization. The personal management is the non strategic, separate business, the reactive, the short termed, and constrained. But HRM has wide concepts and that includes the development of the competencies of diverse work force and involves in the strategic management also. It is art than a science. That is it is an art with pitfalls, the judgment call, and it helps to learn from the past mistake (Mishra 2001).
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Different types of diversity in workplace. There are different types of diversity exists in work place. They may be of ethnicity, gender equality, socio economic, language, disability, culture, age, sexuality, gender identity etc. This list goes the long way and determines who are we as the individuals and doesn’t stop (Pelled et al 1999). Ethnicity is related to diverse work force’s origin and there are differences in their areas like education, employment, culture, language, gender, the socio economic environment, the religion, sexuality etc (Knight et al, 1999). Gender equality is also to be highlighted because women are longing for this equality for long. Then religious diversity is important as it is closely related to their dress code and the restrictions etc. The socio economic diversity is also related to religion, education ethnicity etc. This is unique because it tries to rank the diverse work force as per their backgrounds. It helps to find out the amount of tax to be paid. The social diversity measures the acorn census. So it is the measure of the social mobility and the extent to which diverse work force move out from it. The educational background is also related with socio economic group, the religion, gender etc because this related with the fees to be paid, the faith schools, single sex schools respectively (John et al, 1997). So it is important to give attention to the state schools and the fee paying schools (John et al, 1997). There are lots of people privately educated individuals working as excellent professionals. As per the reports of the Sutton trust, the proportion of privately educated lawyers and journalists are 70% and 54% (Sutton trust report, 2009).
The diversity is not black or white, male or female, young or old issues. As per Harris Sussman, it is connected with relations, connections, the interactions of the crossing lines. It consists of many things like the organizational life, the diverse work force’s life, and corporate capability, frame work of relations among the people, their learning exchange and the strategic mirror on world. So it needs the support from different places and the employers are interested with these kinds of diverse work force
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because of their excellence. They need to be encouraged for developing a vast culture. (Web ref. 7) As per the trend of today, most retail organizations expand their business to overseas for more expansion (Gwendolyn Cuizon, 2009). So they need to employ diverse workforce without any discrimination of gender, ethnicity, age or race (Gwendolyn Cuizon, 2009). As globalization is the overpowering trend in today’s business the diversity in workplace also is the best accepted perception in this environment. Need of diverse workforce. Today’s corporate culture consider various pressure of the labor market because of the constant changes in globalization, economy, technology, demography, flexibility, feminization of workforce etc (EfH, 2003). The corporate concepts, developments in the social scenario, the continuous changes, and the staff development procedures needed the importance of diversity in organisations (EfH, 2003). That is as the activities of the organisations spread to different countries, it requires the need of diverse work force from different places and cultures because these heterogeneous diverse work force can satisfy the requirements of the markets and the customers. (Cunningham and Green, 2007). Also diversity encourages the diverse work force and gives those opportunities for attaining competitive advantages for the retail organization. It helps the retail organisations for making efficient operations in different places by make use of the excellent diverse work force (Dwivedi, 2001) The management of diverse workforce. The retail organisations need diverse work force in their international operations for gaining better improvements because they need the service of them for dealing with people of different cultures and backgrounds. So for benefits and success all retail organisations must handle this diverse work force carefully (Amaram 2007). As per Roosevelt, the managing diversity is the broad managerial process that develops the environment to all diverse work forces to work with. (R. Roosevelt Thomas, 1995, Beyond Race and Gender). In the present scenario, America is the better example of this reflection of diverse work force in their retail organisations. There is a mixture of diverse work force from
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different race, religion, gender, age, and other social and environmental backgrounds. So America as the melting pot for diverse work force doesn’t cater the single group but cater the mixture of all these diverse work force for getting more and more prospects. The presence of diverse work force brings long term success because they bring innovative ideas, views and perspectives for the work. So other countries like UK also can treat this diverse work with serious consideration for gaining more productivity and success. So the managers have to capitalize on all these mixtures for better business opportunities and creativity.
Disadvantages of diverse work force.
The diversity causes some problems also. They can be given as follows;
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The cohesiveness of the diverse work force holds them together but when the diversity is forced in retail organization that may lead to the resistance to the changes from existing diverse work force. That may lead to conflicts in the retail organization (Aswathappa 2008)
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As the diversity consists of many cultures, if one culture is neglected, it causes the demonization or the frustrations from the members and so that it causes the adverse result on the productivity. It also leads to high absenteeism and the turnover (Amaram, 2007).
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The communication barriers create problems and issues. That is the misunderstanding may occur in any stage so that reduces the effectiveness of the groups (O Reilly ET al1989).
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It pays more cost and time so that it may decrease the benefits of the retail organization. Also if there are any problems for making general agreement and the opinions, that may cause the cultural clashes so that makes negative effects (Tsui et al, 1992).
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The opinion and resolution of the majority often neglects the opinion and participation of the minority (Amaram 2007).
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Advantages of diverse work force. In retail organization the diverse work force plays the key roles for their business developments and success. That is this diversity increases their organizational performances. The diversity helps to retain the best diverse talented bodies in organizations (Amaram 2007). Thus by having those diverse work force they can enhances the following things; • Increase the adaptability- The diverse work forces helps to solve different problems in sourcing, servicing, and the allocation of the resources. The diverse work forces have got practical talents and that helps to suggest flexible ideas for adapting to the fluctuating customer needs and the market situation (Greenberg 2004). • To increase the organizational flexibility- The presence of diverse work force helps the organization to challenge the very old assumptions so that they can construct better work style (Nelson and Quick 2000). • Widen the service range- The diverse experiences and the skills help the retail organization to serve diverse customers even in the global basis (Greenberg 2004). • Improve the employee morale- As the diverse cultures of diverse work force are valued and recognized, that increases the morale standard and thus gives an increase in retention (NEW 2008). • Lots of view point- As the diverse work force has variety of ideas and the experience that helps to meet the requirements of the customers, the retail organization and their business strategy (Greenberg 2004). • The innovation and the creativity- The innovative retail organisations creating more diverse work force for increasing their creativity (Nelson and Quick 2000). • High alignment with the vendors- The diversity helps to settle and deal with vendors of diverse cultural backgrounds in globally and thus enable the retail organization to understand and recognize their believes and values for keeping better relations with them (NEW 2008). • Excellent execution – As the diversity is recognized and encouraged the diverse work force is inspired for doing their high abilities and so that helps to
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increase the productivity, the profit and the return on their investments (Greenberg 2004).
The diversity enhances the quality of staff by entering the untouched pools of the talents. It increases the customer confidence because it gets the service of quality work force. The retail organisations have to make constant reviews on their progress by changing and adopting new approaches, plans, the policies and strategies. That in turn results in high morale and standard to the retail organisations and the diverse work force as well. Thus the best strategic approaches bring profits and developments to the retail organization. The long term plans and its success are as the result of its diverse talented work force because these diverse bodies donate fresh and innovative ideas, views, the perspectives, the values, the corporate values etc. Also the diverse work force helps to communicate with the diverse customers effectively. Thus by linking the strategies with special goals like the retention, the performances, the morale, the bottom line etc the organization can gain long term success. By building the business with the help of diverse talented bodies and personalities, they can allow the diversity to work for the success of retail organization.
Justification of research The changes of the market environments demand the right persons for right job for every organisation. As a retail organisation is considered, the environment is different for the diverse work force. The uncertainties in the business condition, high cost for hiring employees, maintaining the diverse work force etc demands the need for the better management of these employees. Also the changes of the government rules and the regulations on the employment procedures, the changes in the technology, the need of rightly skilled and trained labours for
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meeting the requirements of the organisations etc lead to the employee management (Pressley 1999). Also with emergence of globalization, there emerged so many new markets in the world and it increased the level of competition. So the organisations must beware of the consequences of this and must be very vigilant for better prospects. As a result they have to do effective management of their employees for performing well in the field. The human resource management (HRM) is concerned with the dimension of the employees within the organization. The human resources are people, who work for organisation (Harzing and Ruysseveldt 2004). So the management of those people is a need and important for the success of the retail organisation Hypothesis
Hypothesis
This section will be discussing the hypothesis which will be testing on while conducting this research. As stated earlier, this research will be mainly focussing on the concept called hypothesis.
Importance of Diverse Work Force in
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retail industry; a case study on Tesco, Plc
This research is based on
the functions of a retail industry and its importance of diverse work force. In this age of globalization, the distance from one continent to other has decreased and it shows the importance of the interdependency of one country with all other countries. As a result of this globalization, the organizations became more international and this brought new challenges in the organization.These concepts
are tested by the researcher by conducing primary research. The approach which he/she follows is discussed through the coming section of this chapter.
Research Methodology Introduction
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The research is the organized inquisition of a topic for discovering or devising the theories, the facts, the application etc. There are many factors that increased the need of diverse work force for more and better information. As the retail organizations become national and international in their operations, they need more information about the larger and more distant markets. As the income increase and buyers are more selective, this necessitates the diverse work force to need know for better information on retail organizations... So the retail organizations have to become more alert and so they need to collect all information on the diverse work force. Managers seek information about the customers, the competitors, diverse work force which influence the market. The research provides relevant and actionable information of the environment through various methods such as observing, interacting and asking questions. A research process constitutes sequence of activities which will help the retail organization for taking better decisions. It can be undertaken for identifying the importance of diverse work force in the present scenario, defining the problem or the purpose of the study. Then a theoretical frame work and analytical models are formulated to develop an approach to the effective management of diverse work force... Follow up of the research design and the presentation of the report is necessary for Communicating the results to the retail organizations. This part of the dissertation explains the kind of research which is conducted to achieve the research objectives. An overview of the research design comprising primary and secondary data, methods of data collection adopted and its analysis, different sampling techniques which are selected for this research work. Justifications for the design and data collection methods selected for the purpose of this research work are also given. Research philosophy As retail the business expands globally, retail organizations are becoming more and more competitive in nature for trying to increase their chances in the market. As a part of this strategy they are recruiting diverse work force for enhancing their services and for giving excellent services for their customers having diverse backgrounds. Here this research concentrates on the retail organization Tesco because it is increasing its global presence by becoming more competitive in the market. The
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diversity has different origins and has different policies in different countries. So it urges the need for managing the diverse work force in the retail organisations effectively by considering these diversities. This research is intended to research and find out some real facts about the diverse work force in retail industries. The topic of the research is “the importance of diverse workforce in retail industry, a case study on Tesco”. The human resources are very essential for the retail organization because they are doing all the important functions of the organisations. As a retail industry is considered, there is diverse work force from different places. So it is the duty of the management to handle and manage this diverse workforce effectively. As a valuable and important resource, diverse work force must be given important care because all the functions of the retail organisations are taking place with the help of this diverse work force.
This research focused on the importance of diverse work force in retail industry. There some issues related with communication and the languages, the advantages and disadvantages of diverse work force, challenges and problems raised because of diverse work forces are also analyzed. As the case study methods and case analysis are accepted research strategies of data collection, it is also considered. According to Yin (1994), “The case analysis or case study research is an empirical enquiry that investigates a Contemporary phenomenon within its real life context when the boundaries between Phenomenon and context are not clearly evident, and in which multiple sources of evidence are used.” Here as the research on the importance of diverse work force in retail industry Tesco, the researcher can use exploratory and explanatory research, case study analysis , qualitative and quantitative method, etc for carrying out this research because the And previous problem is less supported by theoretical background researches. So the researcher chose this methodology for this research. Research purpose
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As retail organisations became more international it creates different issues and challenges for the organization and so they need to manage the diverse work force effectively. The positive and better working environment increases the productivity of diverse work force thereby it increases the profit of the organization. The presence of diverse work force is an asset as it contains the very talented people, the broader services, the innovations etc. But the problems like communication issues, absenteeism, conflicts, turnover etc have to manage effectively for attaining the organizational goals. Purpose of this research is to inquire a systematic study to know more about the effective management of diverse work force in a retail industry by giving special consideration to Tesco in UK. So the purpose of this research is to analyze and evaluate the literature research, by giving importance of the diverse work force and its effective management in retail industry
Procedures of the research and its design.
For conducting this research one can collect data using different methods and procedures. The researcher can use the primary as well as the secondary data. For this research the researcher can use the following:
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Preparation - Read the literature about the topic, its importance and also Collect the opinion of diverse work force using questionnaire and analyze the data using the collected information.
learns about the organisation from various secondary data.
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Conduct an interview with the manager to get more information about the diverse work force.
Thus the researcher can collect data from the available sources and then conduct the primary research with the manager to know the issues in relation with the management of diverse work force. The collected data, can be evaluated and then recorded for future reference and make use for further research. Primary Data Collection This type of data can be collected from the direct sources like interview with the manager, collect information from diverse work force using the questionnaire etc. Secondary Data Collection This type of data can collected from the existing sources such as books, websites, articles, journals, company’s web site etc.
Here case study analysis can be used as an effective tool for carrying the research and can collect information from the review of literature and from the primary and secondary sources. Then visit some Tesco units and try to collect information from there. The researcher can distribute questionnaire among the employees and collect their opinion and suggestions. After that arrange the meeting with the managers and conduct interview with them for collecting more information about the related problems and issues. Here the researcher uses both the qualitative and quantitative methods for the research. The qualitative method used is the interview with the HR managers of Tesco, London, and the quantitative method used is the collection of data from employees of Tesco using the questionnaire. suggestions for further research. Data collection methods The data can be collected using the primary as well as the secondary research. The primary data collection is called the field research and the secondary research is called the desk research From the collected data and information one can put forward the findings and can make recommendations and
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Primary research The primary data is the first hand information on the topic. It is using for getting the correct information on the research. It is the data collected in first time and not found in previous research. For this the researcher can use the methods like interview with the HR managers, the questionnaire techniques, observation etc.
Figure 3.6.1-Source of the Primary data (Source- Ghauri et al, 1995)
Questionnaire Here the researcher can use questionnaire technique for collecting information on the importance and the effective management of diverse work force in Tesco. In this technique, the data is collecting using the questions and the response of the diverse work force can be observed and collected. Questions are prepared to encourage the respondents and tried to reduce the errors. “Questionnaire is a formalized set of questions for obtaining information from respondents.” (Malhotra, 2002). As per the view of Malhotra, the questionnaires have 3 specific objectives and they can be given as follows.
1. The research must make the set of the specific questions in which the
respondents can able and willing to an answer. (Malhotra, 2002).
2. The questionnaire must minimize the demand on the respondents, and must
encourage them to participate in the procedure devoid of any bias in the response. (Malhotra, 2002). 3. The questionnaire must reduce responsive errors. (Malhotra, 2002). The researcher can use structured or the non structured questionnaires. The structured questions the questions must be in an arranged order. These can be
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disguised, that is the purpose of survey is hidden to respondents or it can be non disguised where the purpose of the research is revealed to them. In nonstructured questionnaires, questions are non structured that is not in the arranged form and the researcher can ask as per the situation of the research. Interview The interview can be done using the pre arranged questions so that it saves the time. All the related information can be collected using the pre planed questions and can be noted down. So that it helps the interviewer to collect the relevant and right information on the related topic.
Secondary research In this the data can be collected using the secondary existing sources. So the researcher must be alert that the data collected must be relevant to the present situation. It is the data collecting for finding more information for an additional purpose. So it needed the vigilant analysis for getting the relevant information from a collection of existing data. The secondary data can be evaluated using different criteria. They can be given as follows. • • • • • Check the data if it is relevant and useful for the related research. Check if the data can apply at the specified time. Check the level of errors and the accuracy of data. Check the reality of bias. Check the methodologies, collected data, the rate of the response, its analysis, size of sample, techniques on the sampling, design of the questionnaires etc. • • Check the objective of the data collection. Check the nature, the definitions, the measures, the relationships etc of the data. The secondary data also can collect using outside sources or retail organization itself. The retail organisations internal sources contain the annual report, the sales report etc. The external sources contain the text books, the journals, the newspapers, the professional body, internet sources etc.
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Internal sources The internal sources are the retail organization’s annual report, and their website. Here for Tesco, the researcher can use the annual report, the website etc for collecting the data. External sources The external sources are the text books, the publications, the journal articles etc. For the text books and publications the researcher can use the university libraries and other local libraries.
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The journal articles - There are many journals available for the research. They are the chartered management institute CMI, the digital library etc. They gave the information on the issues of diverse work force, but many of them didn’t give detail information on diversity.
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Newspaper articles- The articles in newspaper also gave information on the topic and that gives the relevant knowledge on the topic. Internet sources- The different internet sources like the Google, the Nike etc helped the researcher to collect the secondary data. It is the easiest way for collecting the information on the topic.
The types of the research There are different types of research based on their nature. Based on purpose, they can be the exploratory, the descriptive, the analytical or the predictive methods, based on the process, they can be the quantitative or the qualitative method, based on the outcome, they may be the applied or the basic research, based on logics they can be the deductive or the inductive methods. Exploratory method looks for finding more ideas, principles etc. The descriptive method it promotes more examinations than exploratory method. Analytical method also examines further more to know about the real reason. The preductive method tries to generalize the analysis based on the some general relations. The quantitative method analyzes the data using the quantifiable tools such as graphs, charts, tables, questionnaire etc. The qualitative method analyzes the data based on the events, non numerical data like the interview etc. Applies research
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also find out the real cause of the problems and for solving it gives the solution and it applies the cause effect method. The deductive and inductive methods work based on the logic that it is applied. For doing this researcher can use the case study method , the explorative method as it gives more ideas on the topic, the descriptive method, as it find out real reason for that, the qualitative method like interview, the quantitative method and further improvement of the topic. The research diagram can draw to know more about the process. The following diagrams give an idea about the research process. like the questionnaire, tables, charts, graphs etc. All these methods help for the knowledge
Research limitations. For conducting this research the researcher faced some issues like the ethical, the legal issues etc. As Tesco, is the leading retailer in UK, they are not willing to expose the detailed information regarding their employees like their personal details as it is
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related with the legal and confidential issues. Also the ethical issues like the time, it was difficult to meet all the managers together because of their timings. Also due to time constraints it was not able to meet the top level managers. As this research is conducted within the fixed time frame it was not able to meet the top level management because of the time constraints. Then come to the research materials, most of the journals do not provides detailed information about diverse work force at workplace in retail organisations. In the secondary research the researcher have to assess the reliability and accuracy of the data as it was collected by somebody else. These data have to rearrange properly and to make it useful for the current topic. It needs the critical assessment to recognize the bias. Another issue faced was on the generalization of the collected data. Then the researcher can’t make a correct evaluation on the sample group as they have diverse opinion and so there were some bias in opinions. So the researcher had to be vigilant on all these matters
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