RESEARCH METHODS FOR BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

COURSEWORK A: INTRODUCTION TO RMBM

Contents

1. Working title

An investigation on the impact of workplace diversity on employee engagement: A case study of McDonald’s, UK

2. Introduction

In the current competitive business environment, the organisations are forced to interact with the clients and customers belonging to the varied culture. This emphasis the firms on integrating employees belonging in varied class in to the workforce for delivering best corporate performances. Workplace diversity is the inclusion of employees belonging in varied culture, beliefs, norms and attitudes into the workforce (Hays-Thomas, 2016). Saxena (2014) mentioned that the employee engagement is highly dependent upon the workplace diversity of the organisation. In line with the above findings, Joseph and Selvaraj (2015) highlights that workplace diversity brings out considerable benefits to the organisation in terms of developing mutual respect, conflict elimination, employee productivity enhancement, etc.

Though McDonald’s is a leading fast food chain which invests more on diversity and inclusions practices, the reports of Shah (2016) highly criticised the firm for involving in the worst practices such as racial discrimination and sexual harassment on employees. The current study aims to explore the impact of workplace diversity on employee engagement by considering McDonald’s as case study.

3. Rationale

3.1 What is the research issue?

Byrd and Scott (2014) highlighted that assuring workplace diversity facilitates firms to eliminate the chances of conflicts and supports to nurture mutual respect, workplace collaboration and communications for adding value to overall employee engagement. However, Saxena (2014) reported that the issues stemming up from the workplace mainly workplace discriminations are more prevalent in UK fast food sector. Thus, through this study, the researcher aims to assess the importance of workplace diversity on employee engagement by focussing on UK fast food industry.

3.2 Why is it an issue and why now?

McDonald’s in the UK is one among the leading fast food restaurant chain with more than 375,000 employees serving across the world. However, Patton (2016) identified the clear violations of anti-discrimination laws at the workplace of McDonald’s. Shah (2016) reported that eleven former employees were racially harassed at the workplace by the superiors of McDonald’s and they were terminated on that basis. Besides, the superiors of McDonald’s have also made sexual harassment towards female employees by commenting them with inappropriate words (Peck, 2016). These assaults led McDonald’s to face overall employee disengagement with their job tasks and thus higher employee turnover rate in the firm.

3.3 How and when it is going to be investigated?

For the current study, the researcher will be considering both primary and secondary data. The researcher will collect primary data by conducting interview and survey with the managers and employees of McDonald’s respectively. The secondary data required for the current study will be gathered by accessing various secondary sources such as books, magazines, online journals, etc. The researcher will be collecting the primary data required for the study immediately after the preparation of literature review. The completion of the current study takes less than four months.

3.4 What could this research shed light on?

Through this study, the researcher aims to highlight the impacts of workplace discrimination on employee engagement. The results of the current study will be more supportive for McDonald’s and the similar firms in the fast food chain to bring out necessary improvements in its workplace diversity for adding value to employee engagement.

References

Byrd, M.Y. and Scott, C.L. (2014) Diversity in the workforce: current issues and emerging trends. London: Routledge.

Hays-Thomas, R. (2016) Managing workplace diversity and inclusion: a psychological perspective. London: Routledge.

Joseph, D.R. and Selvaraj, P.C. (2015) ‘The effects of work force diversity on employee performance in Singapore organisations’ International Journal of Business Administration, 6(2), pp.17-29.

Patton, L. (2016) McDonald’s workers file sexual harassment complaint. Available at: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2016/10/06/mcdonalds-sex-harassment/91655042/ (Accessed: 18 March 2017).

Peck, E. (2016) McDonald’s workers detail horrifying sexual harassment. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/mcdonalds-harassment-complaint_us_57f5385ae4b0b7aafe0b4584 (Accessed: 18 March 2017).

Saxena, A. (2014) ‘Workforce diversity: a key to improve productivity’ Procedia Economics and Finance, 11, pp.76-85.

Shah, S. (2016) Sexual harassment and racial discrimination lawsuit against McDonald’s. Available at: http://www.eandblaw.com/employment-discrimination-blog/2016/03/23/sexual-harassment-racial-discrimination-mcdonalds/ (Accessed: 18 March 2017).

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