How can international human resources

managers effectively manage diversity in

multinational company? - Case study Tesco.

Introduction:
This chapter presents the background of the research on How can international human
resources managers effectively manage diversity in multinational company?- Case
study Tesco. The company overview of Tesco in UK, background of the research,
organisation background, rationale statement, research questions, and purpose of the
research conducted the aim and objectives of the research identified by researcher.

In this research, selected company will be Tesco Metro (Whitton, Branch) London outlet
where different cultural people working. Tesco is one of the UK's major retail
supermarkets. Tesco is an international retailer where there are working different
countries and cross-cultural people. This research is a collection of how the Tesco

Company has used diversity to support their business goals and valuable learning and
what makes good diversity practice.
Background of the Research
Managing Diversity
Managing diversity means maximizing diversity's potential benefits such as greater
cultural awareness and broader language skills, while minimizing the potential barriers
such as prejudices and bias that can undermine the companys performance. Dessler
(2008, p.61) referred to diversity as potentially a double-edged sword. Generally
diversity refers to the variety or multiplicity of demographic features that characterize a
company's workforce, in terms of race, sex, culture, national origin, age and religion.
Many organisations have implemented various types of initiatives within the last few
decades in an effort to deal with diversity. A possible missing link between how the
human resource managers deal with diversity and its impact on the organisation is a
diversity strategy that is executed using a planned approach to systemically manage
diversity (Leopold & Harris 2009).

The increasing diversity and changing demographics of the UK workforce, the

expansion of anti-discrimination legislation, legal rights for individuals with caring
responsibilities and government policy commitment to the work-life balance have
created new challenges for employers across employment sectors. This research
explores some of the issues that arise for employers, managers and employees in the
development and application of multinational organisational human resourcing policies
which are intended to promote equality of treatment and recognize diversity in the
workforce. The 2004 WERS survey (Bamber et al., 2006) found that 73 percent of
workplaces had a final written equal opportunities policy or a policy on managing
diversity compared to 64 percent in 1998. This figure increased to 98 percent in the
public sector (97 percent in 1998) with the incidence of formal policy being higher in
large workplaces which means that most employees work in establishments with a
formal policy. This was evident in the 2007 CIPD annual recruitment and retention

survey which revealed that only half of the 905 participating organisations had a formal
diversity strategy although again the public sector is more proactive with 83 percent
reporting

strategic

approach

to

diversity.

1.0 Research Aim

The aim of the dissertation is to analyse the competitive advantage of the organization
that are managing people as assets which are fundamental. And to examine diversity,
equality and discrimination issues in a multinational company, in the particular way of
human resource managers to manage work with different culture people. Tesco has
been used as a case study in this dissertation.
1.1 Research Objectives
1) An international human resource managers needs to know the way of managing
people in the organisation. An overview of what a manager needs to do in relations to
managing people in a changing environment which will be include at diversity issues
and international human resource management policies.
2) To observe a multicultural company from the perspectives of diverse social peoples.
3) For an organisation to succeed on a global scale, radical shifts in business
procedures are required. To become a successful global manager is to develop a global
outlook.
4) A global manager needs to know what point an organisation has reached in the
globalization process, and where it wants to go. Understand the process and recognize
the strategies that will give the organisation a global advantage.
5) Understanding people as individuals and recognizing their differences as well as
drawing up some general principles for managing them like motivates them, job
satisfaction, and job design.
6) Recruiting, and selecting the right people.

This research will disclose some essential factors which help organisations to maintain
their diversity effectively within the organisation and make a fair working environment of
employees within the organisation.
1.2 Research Questions

As human resource manager in a multinational company needs to consider the

following major issues:
1. How people manage a group of different culture people?
2. What is the communication within work?
3. How do the managers manage diversity and equal opportunity within the service?
4. How can the manager influence teams performance?
5. How can the manager help people learn and develop?
6. How can the manager help people to manage change?
7. How he is motivating people?
8. How can the manager handle equal opportunity?
9. What strategy managers should apply to get a good result from employees?
How a human resource manager can handle all those areas and successfully the
organisation's mission with different country's people.
1.3 Research Methodology
According to Barber (1998) research methodology is a credence system or inquest
pattern that provides a philosophical base or frame of reference for approaching
research that complements a content area of inquiry. It is the overall approach to
studying about topic and includes issues need to think about the constraints, analysis
the principles of method and ethical choices within the research.

Methodology refers to more than a simple set of methods where the rational and the
philosophical assumptions are motivating a particular study relative to the logical
method, (Cohen et al. 2007).
Saunders et al. (2007) develops a conceptual Research Onion' that provides the
structure of research methodology. These research onions are as follows:
After realise the research onion, in this dissertation research methods will present the
research philosophy, approach, design and sampling, a structured questionnaire is
being used to data collection procedures and shows the right direction to achieve an
outcome.

1.4 Ethical issue

The ethical issues are arising in relations between researchers and research
participants in the course of an investigation. This focus by no means exhausts the
range of ethical issues and dilemmas that arise in relation to the funding of business
research or how findings are used by non-researchers. Ethical standards also require
that researchers not put participants in a situation where they might be at risk of harm
as a result of their participation, (Bryman & Bell, 2003).
In this research, the participants will take part voluntarily and are informed of the
research aim and objectives. All personal details of participants will be kept in privacy
being be stored separately from the findings and will not be disclosed within the
dissertation. The recording permission will be asked for in advance, supportive
participants in focus groups that their identities remain safe. The research is not for
commercial use.

1.5 Research Plan

Dat
27/12/2015

Topic
Reading
research

Remark
the
methods

book Discuss with the lecture

for

business

students

to

chooses a research topic

Approval of research topic Discussed with lecturer to

31/12/2015

by my lecturer

refine my final topic via

email

Writing research Aims and Yet to be completed/ still

02/01/16

Objectives,

Research writing them for lecturers

Questions, Hypothesis, etc approval

Literacy review
4th /8th /01/2016

Yet to carry out this task

for my project

Use
10th /19th /03/2016

of

Methodology

appropriate
to

data e.g.

collect Yet to carry out this task

for my project

Use of questioners
Use of primary data
Use of secondary data

Analysis of data collection

Use of Microsoft word

Yet to be done

4th /18th /04/2016

Use of Microsoft power

point
Use of Microsoft spread
sheet

Conclusion of research to
20th /04/ 2016

Yet to be done

do proof reading
Feedback from Lecture

References
Amit ,R. and Shoemaker ,P..J..H (1993) 'Strategic assets and organisational rent.
'Strategic Management journal, 14,
Bryman, A. and Bell, E. (2003). Business research methods. Oxford University Press.
Barber,

A.E

(1998)

Recruiting

Employees:

Individual

and

Organizational

Perspectives.Thousand Oaks , CA: Sage

Cohen, J., J.C. Furtado, M. Barlow, V. Alexeev, and J. Cherry. 2012b. Asymmetric
seasonal

temperature

trends.

Geophysical

Research

Letters

39,

L04705,

http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1029/2011GL050582.
Dessler, B.(2008) The impact of HRM on organizational performance: progress and
prospects. Academy of Management Journal ,39,
Bratton,J. and Gold ,J.(2007) 'Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice' 3rd
edn. Palgrave MacMillan

Leopold,J and Harris,T.(2009) 'Human Resource Management: A contemporary

approach' 5th edn. Prentice Hall
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2007) Research Methods for Business
Students, 4th edition, Prentice Hall