Workplace Diversity: Nestle India
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StrategicBusinessPlan11.docxRunning head: WORKPLACE DIVERSITY: NESTLE INDIA 1
WORKPLACE DIVERSITY: NESTLE INDIA 3
Workplace Diversity: Nestle India
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Workplace Diversity: Nestle India
Background Information
In current business settings, managers cannot underrate the impact of diversity in the organization. For the past few years, diversity’s concept has changed from being a constitutional obligation to strategic focus in profit-oriented organizations. As organizations and companies strive to achieve the goal of becoming an employer of choice and attain sustainable competitive advantage, the concept of diversity becomes critical (Shaari, 2020). However, embracing diversity alone cannot bring the desired success; there is a need for organizations to competently manage diversity by recognizing, acknowledging, appreciating, and implementing policies that safeguard diversity of employees. Indian employment law requires organizations operating in India to have diversity and inclusiveness policies. The paper evaluates the connection between workers diversity and organizational productivity.
Research Problem
Ingrained frameworks of inequality and hierarchy that make Indian society have paralyzed Nestle India operations, in which specific group of people get promoted, employed, compensated, and rewarded because of their caste, gender, religion, or birthplace, and a subordinate social status given to female and other marginalized groups (Philip, 2019).
The Purpose of the Study
The study attempts to explore and elaborate on and clarify the link between Nestle India workforce diversity and Nestle India performance.
The General objective
What is the relationship between workforce diversity and organizational performance?
Specific Objectives
1. To determine the link between ethnicity and organization performance
2. To determine work experience policies on organization performance.
3. To establish the approaches of workplace diversity on organization performance
Research Questions
1. What is the link between diversity at the workplace and organization performance?
2. What are approaches of workplace diversity on organizational performance?
3. What are the workplace diversity policies on organization productivity?
The Significance of the Study
The study benefits employees, management, and the organization in general in the respective areas of performance; and emphasis on the influence of workplace balance as real to an employee, management and the entire organization. It promotes the meeting of the legal requirement of Equal Employment Opportunity. If the recommendations are put in place, the organization will have high-level productivity, the exchange of a variety of ideas, and increase creativity.
The Rationale of the Study
The study topic is a current or emerging issue in all profit-oriented organizations across the world and is dynamic. In a study conducted by Upadhya (2007) revealed that there is a need to overcome market imperfections resulting from workforce imbalance to initiate market competitiveness. Donnely (2015), highlighted the significance of an organization that promotes diversity and inclusion management by having effective equal opportunity policies and practices. In addition to these two pieces of research on the topic, the existing relationship between diversity and performance aroused the researcher’s interests to conduct the study to get in-depth knowledge.
Scope of the Study
The research setting is Nestle India and will be conducted on the company’s employees and management. It will target 140 workers with 42 workers as sample size and will get restricted to two variables of workplace diversity and organization performance.
Study Assumptions
H1. Male and female workers have different perceptions regarding the influence of diversity on organizational performance.
H1. Diversity has a significant impact on organizational performance.
Literature Review
History of Research
According to Downey (2020), the concept of diversity in the workplace originated from America, whereby President Truman in 1948 desegregated the military with Executive Order 9981. This order illegalized discrimination of members of armed forces on the basis of their religion, color, race, or nation of origin. The effectiveness of the Order 9981 was felt in 1953, in which former discriminated African Americans soldiers, now 95% of them served in integrated units. After 40 years, a period in which technology had advanced, a journalist at the San Jose Mercury News and CNN Money started to investigate the workplace diversity at the Silicon Valley tech firms (Downey, 2020). The organizations under investigation blocked the U.S. Department of Labor from releasing data on the grounds of “business secrecy.”
Review of Key Studies
A study by Wahab, (2018) on ways that Malaysian Law enhances people with disability-focused on physical appearance as a critical element of diversity at the workplace. This research linked diversity and inclusivity as vital components of improving innovations, competitive advantage, and productivity. Companies’ commitments to promote diversity depend on the available labor laws or state laws that promote diversity among companies, particularly to create and support the employment of people with disability. Wahab found that workforce diversity is inevitable under the current globalization era. Differences that are resulting from varying age, disabilities, race, and gender if integrated lead to creativity and unique experiences in the workplace (Wahab, 2018). Malaysian legislation through various provisions promotes the concept of diversity at the workplace for people with disabilities.
According to research by Manaf et al., (2018) conducted on 1,083 workers from 80 companies in India, the researcher revealed that perceptions of workers differ depending on their religion, age, gender, and competency towards diversity problems that companies address. The main areas leading to varying perceptions among employees are recruitment, selection, and placement; the retention of diverse workers, and promotions at the workplace. The findings revealed that female workers and ethnic groups, value companies’ efforts of enhancing diversity more than men who dominate the workplaces. The research Guillaume et al., (2017) was based on the application of workplace diversity on relational demography such as an individual extent of dissimilarity from colleagues, teamwork, and organization in general. The researcher found that level of organizational outcome depends on the diversity management within the company. Also, cross-categorization, Faultline, and status variations between demographic subgroups make diversity critical.
Summary of The Findings of The Studies
Three studies by Guillaume et al., (2017), Manaf et al., (2018), and Wahab, (2018) focused on how diversity within the organization establishes and its impacts. The findings share the same concept that diversity is critical in the workplace. Age, gender, ethnicity, physical appearance, and race are significant elements identified by the findings to cause differences that bring workplace diversity. Diversity management approaches, such as government laws on diversity, are required to ensure equality across all employees.
Evaluation of Key Studies
The findings support the study objectives of the research proposal and give insights into the causes of differences at the workplace. They relate organizational performance to individual workers’ traits that shape the general performance, both at personal and corporate levels. From the research findings, the components of diversity have been identified, their impact on workers and relationships at the workplace. However, the findings have not highlighted strategies that companies have put in place to manage diversity to promote coerciveness among workers. Research helps in identification of areas of a knowledge gap that keeps the researcher on the right track of conducting relevant research.
Theoretical Framework and Research Methodology
Theoretical Framework
The study has both independent and dependent variables. Organizational performance has both an outcome and behavioral aspects as dependent variables. Employees’ personality traits, company policies on diversity, and training programs make independent variables of the study.
Independent Variable
Personality traits
Attitudes, perceptions, age, gender, disability, religion, race, birthplace
DEPENDANT VARIABLES Dépendent Variable
Organization Performance
Outcome aspect
Behavioral aspect
Company policies on diversity
Government laws on equality at workplace
Diversity training programs
Research Design
A quantitative design with descriptive approach will be used to describe workplace diversity within Nestle Company. Since the study emphasizes on a description of a particular group, sex, beliefs, gender, attitude, and age are significant variables for description among workers. It will be the best approach to how the variables relate to specific outcomes or occurrences within the company.
Target population, Sampling Techniques, and Sample Size
The study target population is Nestle company’s employees and consists of 140 individuals. Sampling method, random sampling will be applied to select 42 participants by ensuring each participant has an equal probability of being selected. These 42 respondents form the research sample size to facilitate the study.
Questionnaires
Participants will fill closed-ended questions. They are useful since they establish the number of participants who have certain beliefs. The questionnaires will be particular to provide short and precise answers regarding the issue under the study (Ratelle, 2019). The determination of the degree of validity and reliability relies on the questionnaire that will be structured with the guidance of the research objectives and distributed to a sample size of 7 employees nearby Letrix firm before the main study at Nestle India. Respondents used in the pilot test will be excluded from the actual study when determining the reliability of the research methods. This pilot study will assist the researcher in identifying the weakness and some complexities in the questionnaire for collecting data.
Administration of the Questionnaire
A questionnaire will be self-administered using the ‘drop and pick later’ approach to selected Neste India workers to gather information. After the permission is sought from the company’s top management, the researcher will administer the questionnaire to the participants and collect them after 12 hours. Participants will not indicate their names or anything on the questionnaire to ensure their confidentiality gets protected (Beal, 2019). Afterwards, the researcher will discuss with participants to note some aspects concerning the study topic.
Statistical Methods
Descriptive data analysis methods such as graphical representation will aid the analysis of numerical data obtained from measures of central tendency, measures of variability, and measures of divergence from normality (Zyphur, 2019). The analyzed descriptive data will reveal the existing relationship between variables in a sample. Also, inferential statistics will be used to make and describe inferences regarding the entire population.
References
Beal, C. C., Ogola, G., & Allen, L. (2019). Validity and Reliability of the Responses to Ischemic Stroke Symptoms Questionnaire. Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, 51(6), 287-291.
Donnelly, R. (2015). Tensions and challenges in the management of diversity and inclusion in IT services multinationals in India. Human Resource Management, 54(2), 199-215.
Downey, M. (2020). " Island of Integration": Desegregation of the Women's Army Corps at Fort Lee, Virginia, 1948-1954.
Guillaume, Y. R., Dawson, J. F., Otaye‐Ebede, L., Woods, S. A., & West, M. A. (2017). Harnessing demographic differences in organizations: What moderates the effects of workplace diversity? Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(2), 276-303.
Manaf, A. R. A., Othman, S. Z., Saad, Z. M., Jamaluddin, Z., & Noor, A. A. M. (2018). Employability of Persons with Disabilities: Job Coaches’ Perspectives. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(6), 254-269.
Philip, J., & Soumyaja, D. (2019). Workplace diversity and inclusion: policies and best practices for organizations employing transgender people in India. International Journal of Public Policy, 15(3-4), 299-314.
Shaari, N., Subramaniam, G., & Hassan, R. (2020). Workplace Diversity in Malaysia Multicultural Society: Prospects and Challenges. International Journal of Business and Economy, 2(1), 10-19.
Upadhya, C. (2007). Employment, exclusion, and ‘merit’ in the Indian IT industry. Economic and Political Weekly, 42(20), 1863-186.
Wahab, H. A., & Jaafar, H. J. (2018). Workplace diversity: How does Malaysian law promote people with disability? International Journal, 3(9), 14-23.
Zyphur, M. J., & Pierides, D. C. (2019). Statistics and probability have always been value-laden: An historical ontology of quantitative research methods. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-18.
Appendix A
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Identifying study topic |
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Review and revise of the topic |
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Pre-test items with representative sample |
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Questionnaire preparation |
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Participants’ recruitment |
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Statistical data analysis |
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Preparation and submission of the research project |
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