The Influence of Lack of Organizational Diversity Direction and Leader Attitude on Diversity Activities

This research examines the effect of the absence of organizational diversity direction and leader attitude on diversity activities in workforce recruitment industry in Australia. The study aims to find out the relationship between the role of organizational diversity and leader attitude, analyze the different activities of diversity in the firm and absence of the leader engagement in the provision of the support to the workers, and determine the possible impact of the leader attitude and organizational diversity on initiatives of diversity. The research will use a mixed research method to collect data. Findings will be helpful to managers and decision-makers to identify problems and address them based on suggested theories and policies.

Running head: Research in Business 1
The Influence of Lack of Organizational Diversity Direction and Leader
Attitude on Diversity Activities
Subject BUSN20016 – Research in Business
Assessment 1 Project Outline
Student Name: Gagan Renjerla
Student Number: 12048484

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................................4
1.1. Problem statement.......................................................................................................................5
1.2. Aims and objectives.....................................................................................................................6
1.3. Research Questions......................................................................................................................6
2. Justification of the Project and the Potential Research Output.............................................................7
3. Conceptual Framework........................................................................................................................8
4. Study Methodology...........................................................................................................................10
5. Organization of the Study..................................................................................................................13
6. Project Budget and Budget Justification............................................................................................14
7. Gantt chart.........................................................................................................................................14
References.................................................................................................................................................16

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BUSN20016: Assessment of Assignment 1
Criteria Total marks
Marks
Obtained
1. A brief statement of the problem, research aim and objectives 4 3
2. A brief methodology 4 3
3. Sources of secondary data, data presentation and analysis
methods
4
3
4. Accurate referencing, use of correct English and logical
sequences between sentences and paragraphs
4
2.5
5. Topic presentation (for on-campus students)/ topic discussion
on the unit Moodle side (for distance mode students)
4 2.5
Total = 20 14
Penalty for late submission (5% reduction for each day of late
submission)
Penalty for high level of Turnitin similarity (Marker/UC decides)
GRAND TOTAL = 14

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1. Introduction
This assignment seeks to examine the effect of the absence of organizational diversity direction
as well as leader attitude on the activities. The Australian workforce recruitment industry has
been known for supporting the firms which operate in Australia by providing them with services
of searching, selecting, referring, and placement of employees (IBIS World, 2016; KPMG,
2016). In this country, the problem that workforce recruitment organizations have always battled
with on daily basis is the issues of diversity. In as much as some have a notion that diversity in
the place of work is simply fulfilling the quotas that are needed for the employee gender and
race, it seems to be much more than this perception. It is worth noting that diversity in the
working environment enhances imperative values such as respect, teamwork, and acceptance
regardless of the differences in gender, age, native language, race, sexual orientation, political
beliefs, communication styles, and religion among the workers (Madera, 2013). Therefore, the
current research will investigate the association between the direction of organizational diversity
and the attitude of the leader and the activities of diversity.
This paper has been structured in five main parts, where the project justification as well
as the potential research output will be discussed in the first section. The subsequent part will
comprise the conceptual framework developed for this study. A brief research methodology will
be explained in the fourth part where the technique which will be used in the collection of the
data will be a mixed research method. The next part will outline of how the actual research will
be organized. The budgetary considerations and the schedule for the research will be provided in
the last two sections of this paper.

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1.1. Problem statement
The population of Australia is becoming increasingly diverse as there are so many multinational
companies identify the need to manage the diverse workforces. It has been researched that an
organization that efficiently handles their workforce diversity might experience better results
(Australian Government, 2018). The major problem that has been identified is that due to diverse
workforce in the organization, workers get discouraged because of the challenges that come with
workers who have different behaviours and handle things differently. This issue arises based on
age, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, communication styles, political beliefs, and native
language among employees (Hood, 2017). Thus, there is a need for a proper training and support
from leaders to make them acquire relevant skills that would help them deal with other
employees who come from different backgrounds and nationalities. Additionally, this condition
calls for identifying and addressing issues within the company and attracting the talented
workforce in a respectful manner (Hor, 2012). International research has proven that a diverse
workforce enables organization to drive worth tangible and intangible benefits to businesses
(Australian Government, 2018). However, there are various organizations in Australia that
struggle to manage diversity efficiently. It has been found from the conducted diversity and
inclusion survey by Ferry and Diversity Council Australia that only 41% of businesses specified
they were at the stage of building foundation of diversity program (Australian Government,
2018). The leader’s attitude of the organization does not give proper response to the employee
who belongs from different background. Diversity at workplace can raise the number of issues
such as gender equality, ethnic and cultural differences, language and communication and
generations gaps (Alcázar, Fernández, & Gardey, 2013; Hood, 2017). For example, women in
Australia do not get same position in comparison with male, not even in position but also in

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salary, which is the major problem (French & Strachan, 2015). The leader’s attitude is vital for
the diversity activities and lack of commitment, collaboration and cultural intelligence raise the
conflict within an organization.
1.2. Research Aims and objectives
The core objective of this research is to study the role of organizational diversity direction as
well as the leader attitude on diversity activities in workforce recruitment industry in Australia.
The specific objectives of this research as given below:
1. To find out relationship between the role of organisational diversity and leader attitude.
2. To analyse the different activities of diversity in the firm and absence of the leader
engagement in the provision of the support to the workers.
3. To determine the possible impact of the leader attitude and organisational diversity on
initiatives of diversity.
1.3. The Questions of Research
The questions that this research will seek to respond to include:
1. What is the relationship between the role of organisational diversity and leader attitude?
2. How do the various firms’ diversity activities as well as absence of leader involvement
influence the employees?
3. What is the possible impact of organisational diversity and leader attitude on diversity
initiatives?

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2. The Justification of the Research and the Potential Output of the Study
Investigating the problem of this research study is important as it will contribute to a wider
knowledge and comprehensive understanding of the impact of the absence of the guidance of
organizational direction as well as leader attitude on diversity activities. The anticipated outcome
this research is that lack of organizational diversity direction as well as leader attitude has an
adverse impact on the activities of diversity within an organization. In practice, the findings
obtained from this study will be helpful to the managers as well as the decision-makers among
other stakeholders of the organizations. In particular, they will use this information to identify
the problems that they are facing and seek to address them based on the suggested theories and
policies as applied to business management aspects.
It is also worth mentioning that the research objectives will bring some reasonable
solution (s) to counter the problem being examined. In the first place, an examination of the
relationship between the role of organisational diversity and leader attitude will generate the
outcome which the organizations can use to address the various problems facing them in line
with organizational diversity. Additionally, the analysis of the different activities of diversity in
Australia workforce recruiting firms and lack of the engagement of leaders supporting the
workers will also play a central in addressing the problem being faced by the companies in
Australia. In this case, the top management of the firms will see the need to contact training to
their employees to ensure they have the skills that they need to work in diverse working
environment.
Moreover, this research project will be important to the researcher since it will demonstrate
the understanding of the issues of research the need to be addressed in the context of the topic
under investigation. One of the texts that seem to be the most interesting for this research is how

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the absence of the direction of organizational diversity and the attitude of leaders may influence
the activities of diversity within a firm. The interesting thing about this outcome is that one has
to conduct a thorough investigation to find out the relationships between the variables involved.
Furthermore, the researcher will benefit by advancing different skills as applied project
management, research methods, and time management among others. While undertaking the
research, the researcher will identify the gaps in the literature in the previous study which call for
more research in the future to address the aspects or problems that have not been tackled in the
prior research.
3. Conceptual Framework
There is a wider body of research investigating the connection that exists between
organizational diversity as well as leader attitude and how they impact different activities with a
company. The two main points of concern that these research seeks to investigate are discussed
based below on the basis of the literature from the previous research studies that have been
carried out on this subject.
3.1. The Relationship between the Role of Organisational Diversity and Leader
Attitude
Davis, Frolova, and Callahan (2016) conducted a study to explore the attitudes as well as
knowledge of the managers in Australian organizations concerning the concept of workforce
diversity management (WDM) and the incorporation as well as the practices of this aspect in the
companies (Robbins & Judge, 2013). This framework developed in this study has been used in
the current study to examine how workforce diversity and leader attitudes are connected. The
key findings for the research by Davis, Frolova, and Callahan revealed that there have been little

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understanding and appreciation of the workforce diversity, and particularly by non-HR
managers. The prior research acknowledges that in Australia, only few organizations have
recognized that becoming competitive in the modern global marketplace requires them to have
employees that are culturally diverse to serve a customer base that is also diverse (Madera,
2013). Therefore, the conceptual model designed in this study is built on the fact that there is a
need for the workforce diversity policy to address the current issues affecting the workforce
recruiting industry in Australia.
This study also establishes the attitudes of the leaders towards workforce diversity in
Australian organizations. French and Strachan (2015) have pointed out a negative attitude that
leaders have shown when managers are dealing with employees from different backgrounds,
ethnicity, and gender among others. Most importantly, women have been given little priority at
the place of work unlike men (Nielsen & Huse, 2010; Larkin, Bernardi, & Bosco, 2012; Smith,
2013). Because of this issue, Bernardi, Bosco, and Columb (2009) and French and Strachan
(2015) suggest the need for the workforce diversity policy which protects women amidst men
who dominate many aspects at the place of work. Several studies have suggested that the
attitudes of diversity relates to the aspects of awareness of the race as well as an individual’s
cultural heritage (Buttner, Lowe, & Billings-Harris, 2006; Leveson, Joiner, & Bakalis, 2009).
Therefore, it will be important to investigate how such policy would impact the diverse aspects
within the Australian organizations.
3.2. The Activities of Diversity in the Firm and Absence of the Leader Engagement
It has been noted that firms seem to be generally fail to prioritize WDM, where the levels of
senior manager involvement with this subjective are tentative (Davis, Frolova, & Callahan,

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2016). In this research, the framework used provides the comparison between the involvement of
male and female leaders toward diversity within an organization. Some research studies contend
that commitment as well as the support of diversity initiatives by the top management contributes
to the efforts of diversity change (Buttner, Lowe, & Billings-Harris, 2006; Davidson & Burke,
2011). The involvement of such leaders has been little based on the fact they are not fully
enlightened on the aspects of diversity. It is also worth to note that the HR managers have been
reluctant in endorsing the benefits that come with WDM (Mondy & Mondy, 2014). Researchers
also point out that HR forums have not clearly promoted WDM like other subjects. As a result, a
the firms might generally fail to view WDM as a crucial aspect to their businesses like other
topics of HR, including the retention of the talents, it is likely that this is the reason for HR
community not showing much interest in this subject (Davis, Frolova, & Callahan, 2016).
Therefore, the conceptual framework developed in this research will seek to dig deeper into this
issue and suggest the need for the HR managers to hold this topic important to boost
organizational diversity.
4. Study Methodology
Research Design
In this research study, the researcher has considered employing the mixed research method to
collect the data on the topic of research. In this technique, both qualitative as well as quantitative
approaches have been used to get the desired data (Wilson, 2016). A combination of methods has
been used since it offers the promise of greater flexibility while conducting the study and
particularly in the generation of better supported arguments from study data (Bazeley, 2015). Its
flexibility attribute is also experienced in the improved relevance to a larger stakeholder cycle.

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These assumptions, in part, gain support from the evidence of higher rates of citation in the
journal for combined approach as compared to the articles which have used only one method
(Bazeley, 2015).
Qualitative research approach has proved to be helpful in the collection of the
information and data with quality. Because of this outstanding feature, the method has been
chosen for this research to aid the evaluation of the concerns on the impacts of lack of the
direction of organizational diversity and leader attitude on the dealings of diversity. It is an
effectual approach since research can make changes in the frameworks and evaluation if required
(Flick, 2017). Quantitative data is effective approach to gather the information in numeric form
concerning the role of organizational diversity direction and leader attitude on diversity activities
in workforce recruitment industry in Australia. This data can be converted into graphs tables and
charts which is useful while making the comparison of the variables used in this research. The
main feature of this research is that its objective are measurable, which the quantitative research
method helps in analysing the collected data. In this case, surveys were conducted where well-
designed questionnaires were used to collect the data on the research topic.
The Collection of Data
To gather the information about the chosen topic, secondary data will be considered. Secondary
data is a kind of quantitative data that has already been accumulated by someone in their
different purpose. Journal articles were searched on the Internet using the keywords like
organizational diversity direction and leader attitude on diversity Activities. These sources
provide the secondary data regarding the influence of lack of organizational diversity direction
and leader attitude on diversity activities. Importantly, this data was obtained from the literature

Research in Business 12
review from the prior studies on this subject. The qualitative method was used to explore the
information on this topic. It will be made with the help of journal articles which were obtained
from ABI/INFO database and the government reports published on this subject. Additionally, the
data on the government amendments, working condition, latest news about organization and
country and many more on the Internet and company Websites will be collected in relation to the
subject under investigation. The nature of this research is exploratory research in which the
motivation and problem solving method can be applied which can reduce the problem in the
organization due to lack of support of leaders’ attitude.
The kind of the data that will be gathered will be based on the different organization and
their organizational culture (Palinkas et al., 2015). Such data will be the relationship between the
role of organisational diversity and leader attitude. The different diversity activities in the
organization will also be another form of data that the researcher will collect in the context of
this study. Moreover, the data will involve the involvement of leader in the provision of the
support to the employees within an organization while working with multicultural employees.
Additionally, it will be important to collect the demographic data of the employees on the basis
of native language, race, age, sexual orientation, gender, religion, communication styles, and
political beliefs (Hood, 2017; Miller & Triana, 2009).
The data obtained from the surveys concerning the research topic will be used to give the
statistical comparison of the variables chosen for the quantitative study approach. The variables
will be both dependent and independent variables. While the independent variables chosen for
this study comprise organizational diversity and leader attitude, the dependent variable will
involve diversity activities. In the research, the graphs will be shown and drawn based on the
response of the participants from the survey. Each graph will bear details below it, which will

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offer a comprehensive understanding of the meaning of graph based on what it is describing,
contributing to drawing of the conclusion.
Analysis of the Research Findings
The findings obtained in when carrying out this study will be discussed in response to the
questions of research formed in Chapter One. To address these questions, it will be important for
the researcher to compare the findings obtained in this research with those provided in the
literature from the prior studies on the research topic. In this case, the trends in the relationship
between the independent and dependent variables will be discussed in relations to the subject
under investigation. Also, while exploring the relationships between the variables used in this
research, the researcher will identify the gap in the literature and suggest the need for further
study to fill them in the offing.
5. Organization of the Study
The research paper will be structured six main chapters. In the first chapter, the
researcher will give an introduction of the study. In this case, the purpose of the study, the
problem statement, and a brief background on the topic will be provided. The second chapter
will be the literature review where the researcher will critically review the previous work of the
researchers that has examined this topic of research. In the third chapter, it will be important to
discuss the research approaches that will be employed for the data gathering during in the course
of the research. In this case, the mixed research methodology where both quantitative and
qualitative research approaches will be used. The discussion of the research findings will be
provided in the fifth chapter. This part will involve comparing the results obtained in this
research and those provided in the literature from the previous studies concerning the topic of

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study. In a similar vein, the researcher will identify the gaps in the literature of this research and
suggest the need for the future to address such limitations. In the last chapter, the conclusion and
the recommendations will be provided. While the conclusion will entail giving the summary of
the key findings of the study, the recommendations will involve suggesting the ways of
improving organizational culture and leader attitude within Australian companies.
6. Project Budget and Budget Justification
While conducting the research study, it will be important to consider the budgetary implications.
Below is a proposed budget for each activity of this research. The estimated budget for the
success of this project is $10,000
Activity Cost
Conducting Reconnaissance 2,500
Literature search 500
Transport to collect data 4,000
Stationary and postage 1,500
Tapes 1,000
Photocopying 500
Total Cost 10,000
7. Gantt chart
The research is expected to take a total of 77 days, starting from June 4, 2018 to August 12,
2018. The schedule is as shown in the chart below.

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Name of the Task Duration (Days) Starting Date Date of Completion
Writing a research
proposal and sending
to the required
individuals or firms.
7 June 4, 2018 June 10, 2018
Writing literature
review
14 June 11, 2018 June 24, 2018
Collection of data 21 June 25, 2018 July 15, 2018
Analysis of the data 7 July 16, 2018 July 22, 2018
Preparation of the
report
28 July 23, 2018 August 12, 2018
Total 77 Days

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