Proposal and Ethical Form

This document provides a research proposal form and an ethical approval form for a project on workplace discrimination based on gender. It includes sections on the title, objectives, reasons for choosing the project, literature sources, activities and timescales, research approach and methodologies, and ethical considerations. The project aims to investigate the impact of gender discrimination in the workplace and explore ways to eliminate it. The document is relevant for students studying HND Computing (Year 2) at Sunderland College.

Proposal and ethical form

Table of Contents
RESEARCH PROPOSAL FORM...............................................................................................................3
Section One: Title, objective, responsibilities......................................................................................3
Section Two: Reasons for choosing this research project....................................................................3
Section Three: Literature sources searched.........................................................................................4
Section Four: Activities and timescales................................................................................................6
Section Five: Research approach and methodologies.........................................................................7
Section Six: Approval(to be completed by tutor and/or project proposal checker)............................7
RESEARCH ETHICS APPROVAL FORM...............................................................................................9
Section One: Basic Details....................................................................................................................9
Section Two: Project Summary............................................................................................................9
Section Three: Participants..................................................................................................................9
Section Four: Data storage and security............................................................................................11
Section Five: Ethical issues.................................................................................................................12
Section Six: Declaration.....................................................................................................................13
QUESTIONNAIRE...................................................................................................................................14

RESEARCH PROPOSAL FORM
Student Name and
ID Number:
Project Title:
Workplace discrimination on the basis of gender.
Unit Assessor:
Date:
Section One: Title, objective, responsibilities
Provide the title (or working title) of your proposed research project. This should be in the form of a question,
objective or hypothesis:
What are your research objectives (e.g. what is the question you want to answer? What do you want to learn how
to do? What do you want to find out?):
The present report is based on eliminating gender basis discrimination at workplace. Gender basis
discrimination arise the differences among male and female gender which arise complexities at
workplace. This report is related with the Waitrose company. It is brand of British Supermarkets
and selling groceries as part of the Britain large employee owned retailer, John Lewis Partnership.
It was founded in year 1904 by Wallace Waite, David Taylor, Arthur Rose. The Headquarter of
this company is in Bracknell and Victoria, England.
This project is important because it gives the understanding about discrimination on the basis of
gender and also give the suggestions regarding eliminating the gender basis discrimination from
workplace. This report helps in provide the information regarding treating all gender equally so
that it can provide the benefits to organisation in order to enhance performance as well as
productivity level.
Aim
"To determine the ways for eliminating gender basis discrimination at workplace”. A study on
Waitrose.
Overarching Question
How do you know to understand about the impact gender discrimination in the workplace and

what are the ways for eliminating gender basis discrimination at workplace?
OBJECTIVES
 To investigate the impact of E & D in the workplace.
 To explore the impact gender discrimination in the workplace.
 To research the way organisations are dealing with gender discrimination.
QUESTIONS
 How E&D impact in the workplace?
 What is the impact of gender discrimination in the workplace?
 What are different ways organisations used to dealing with gender discrimination?
Section Two: Reasons for choosing this research project
What are your reasons for choosing the project?
For example: links to other subjects you are studying, personal interest, future plans, knowledge/skills you want to
improve, why the topic is important).
The research conducts investigation from personal and professional context. In personal context,
researcher wants to maximsie its skills and gets understanding about the personal subject area. In
professional context, researcher can get the information about conducting research systematically
in future.
Section Three: Literature sources searched
Detail the use of key literature sources to support your research question, objective or hypothesis:
Impact of E & D in the workplace
On the basis of Mary Jones (2020) Equality refers to ensuring everybody which has equal
opportunity and not treated anyone differently against due to characteristics. Diversity is
explained as taking account of differences among groups and people and placing positive value
on differences. Equality and diversity is related to promoting the equality of opportunity to all, by
diversity providing the each people chance to attain potential and free from discrimination. The
organisations are legally needs to adhere practices which assure that discrimination is eliminated

as well as equality expectations are met at workplace. All the employees should be treated equally
and provides similar opportunities regardless of gender, age, culture, sexuality and disability.
Similar employees ensure that the company can provide the company with a wide variety of
ideas, expertise, services and energy to improve its competitiveness. The Equality and diversity
develops the positive and negative impact in workplace. The positive impact of equality and
diversity is that Organizations represent diversity has a much wider pool of talent at their
advantage and benefit from a larger audience, higher profitability and a higher image in the
culture. With its diverse workers, an inclusive atmosphere is only feasible in the long term. This is
recognition of human diversity, in which variations between people are actively pursued.
Other than this, the diversity develops the negative impact in the workplace as there are many
employees working from various backgrounds and their opinions or view points are different
from each other so this can arisen the conflict. From this issue, poor communication arises at
workplace and this can lead to enhance employee turnover.
Impact gender discrimination in the workplace
As per opinion of Sunhee Kim (2020) Gender discrimination is related to not to treated the
male and female employees on equal basis. The discrimination experience of employees due to
their gender or the race. Discrimination can be a major form of stress that can seriously impact an
employee's health; discrimination stress can induce psychological reactivity and influence mental
health. The gender discrimination impact on employee performance as this demotivates them and
they are not able to perform in better manner. Waitrose has reported 13.9% mean gender pay gap
for the fixed pay based. In general, discrimination against the women on the job is perceived to
have a detrimental effect on quality of life and systemic management efforts are being introduced
for the prevention of this form of discrimination.
Way organisations are dealing with gender discrimination
As per viewpoint of Jess Fuhl (2019) it is necessary for a Waitrose company to find out
the effective ways for eliminating gender basis discrimination at the workplace. There are various
ways give below:
Develop diversity from inside out- Company eliminated years of the experience needs
from job posting. This kind of process aids in encourages the qualified women in order to apply

for the job.
Remove gender pay gap- The pay gap between men and women cannot continue unless a
confidentiality culture in an organization is promoted. There is a need to be a new culture of
accessibility that encourage Waitrose organization to discuss the wage difference between
females and males and avoid asking applicants what their last job was paying.
Provide Training for Management- Employees should be able to identify and report
discrimination, but management must be able to respond adequately to discrimination complaints.
Consequently, employers are encouraged to have separate management training based on best
practices to resolve discrimination grievances. Managers of Waitrose will obtain daily training
and feedback on the current work environment enhancement and discrimination prevention
strategies, including stand-alone training.
Online
Fuhl, J., 2019. 10 ways to eliminate gender bias in the workplace. [Online]. Available through: <
https://www.sagepeople.com/about-us/news-hub/eliminate-gender-diversity-workforce/>.
Jones, M., 2020. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace. [Online]. Available through:
<https://petaurumsolutions.co.uk/blog/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-in-the-workplace/>.
Kim, S., 2020. The effect of gender discrimination in organization. [Online]. Available through:
<https://petaurumsolutions.co.uk/blog/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-in-the-workplace/>.
Section Four: Activities and timescales
What activities do you need to carry out during the research project (provide durations)?
For example: research, development, analysis of ideas, writing, data collection, numerical analysis, tutor meetings,
production of final outcome, evaluation, writing the report.

Milestone #1:
Target Date (Set by Tutor):
Milestone #2:
Target Date (Set by Tutor):
Section Five: Research approach and methodologies
What approach and methodologies are you likely to use?
Please give details of your reasons for choice and explain what your areas of research will cover.
Research Philosophy- Positivism research philosophy will be used because it provides specific
knowledge regarding subject area.
Research Approach- Deductive research approach will be used as this is based in quantitative
method and give the better research outcomes.
Research Choice- Quantitative method as research choice will be used because it gives the
authentic and reliable information.
Research Strategy- Questionnaire will be used as research strategy because it helps in collect
more data in less time period.
Data collection method- Primary method of data collection will be used and in this researcher

will use questionnaire.
Sampling- There will be random data sampling method used as it provides equal chance to
chosen respondents. There will be 40 respondents chosen and these are employees of company.
Section Six: Approval(to be completed by tutor and/or project proposal checker)
Comments and agreement from tutor
Tutor Approval: I confirm that the project is not work which has been or will be submitted for another
qualification and is appropriate. ☐
Name: Date:
Comments and agreement from project proposal checker (if applicable)
Project Proposal Checker Approval: I confirm that the project is appropriate. ☐
Name: Date:

RESEARCH ETHICS APPROVAL FORM
All students conducting research activity that involves human participants or the use of data collected
from human participants are required to gain ethical approval before commencing their research. Please
answer all relevant questions and note that your form may be returned if incomplete.
For further support and guidance please see your respective Unit Tutor.
Before completing this form, we advise that you discuss your proposed research fully with your Unit
Tutor. Please complete this form in good time before your research project is due to commence.
Section One: Basic Details
Student Name and
ID Number:
Project Title: Workplace discrimination on the basis of gender
Programme: HND Computing (Year 2)
Unit Assessor:
Intended Research
Start Date:
Intended Research
End Date:
Section Two: Project Summary
Please select the research methods you plan to use in your project (select all that apply)
Interviews☐ ☐✓Data analysis
Questionnaires✓☐ ☐Action research
Observations☐ ☐Focus groups
Use of personal records☐ ☐Other (please specify):
Section Three: Participants
Please answer the following questions, giving full details where necessary.
Will your research involve human participants? Yes ☐✓ ☐ No
Who are the participants? Tick all that apply:
☐Children aged 12–16
☐Young people aged 17–18
✓☐Adults
How will participants be recruited (identified and approached)?

The participants will be recruiting by random sampling method.
Describe the processes you will use to inform participants about what you are doing:
To inform the participants, researcher will use email method.
How will you obtain consent from participants? Will this be written? How will it be made clear to
participants that they may withdraw consent to participate at any time?
The consent from participants will be obtained by using random sampling method. It will be in
written form.
Studies involving questionnaires:
Will participants be given the option of omitting questions
they do not wish to answer? Yes ✓☐ ☐ No
If No please explain why below and ensure that you cover any ethical issues arising from this.
Studies involving observation:
Confirm whether participants will be asked for their informed
consent to be observed. Yes ☐ ☐ No
Will you debrief participants at the end of their participation
(i.e. give them a brief explanation of the study)? Yes ☐✓ ☐ No
Will participants be given information about the findings of
your study, such as a brief summary of your findings? Yes ☐✓ ☐ No

Section Four: Data storage and security
Confirm that all personal data will be stored and processed in
compliance with the Data Protection Act (1998): Yes ✓ ☐ ☐ No
Who will have access to the data and personal information?
Researcher and organization both will have to access data and personal information.
During the Research:
Where will the data be stored?
It will be stored in personal computer.
Will mobile devices (such as USB storage and laptops) be used? Yes ✓ ☐ ☐ No
If yes, please provide further details:
After the Research:
Where will the data be stored?
It will be stored in personal computer.
How long will the data and records be kept for and in what format?
It will be kept for 2 years and in word format
Will data be kept for use by other researchers? Yes ☐ ☐ No

Section Five: Ethical issues
Are there any particular features of your proposed work which may raise ethical concerns? If so, please
outline how you will deal with these.
It is important that you demonstrate your awareness of potential risks that may arise as a result of your
research. Please consider/address all issues that may apply. Ethical concerns may include, but are not
limited to the following:
 Informed consent.
 Potentially vulnerable
participants.
 Sensitive topics.
 Risks to participants
and/or researchers.
 Confidentiality/anonymity.
 Disclosures/limits to
confidentiality.
 Dissemination and use of your
findings.
 Data storage and security, both
during and after the research
(including transfer, sharing,
encryption, protection).
 Reporting.
Section Six: Declaration
I have read, understood and will abide by Sunderland College’s
Research Ethics Policy Yes ☐ ☐ No
I have discussed the ethical issues relating to my research with
my Unit Tutor: Yes ☐ ☐ No
I confirm that to the best of my knowledge the above information is correct and that this is a full
description of the ethics issues that may arise in the course of my research.

Name: Date:
Please submit your completed form to the Unit Assessor named in Section One.

QUESTIONNAIRE
Q1) Have you heard of the Equality Act 2010?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) What impact does equality and diversity has in the workplace?
a) Positive impact
b) Negative impact
Q3a) As an employee, have you ever felt discriminated in the workplace?
a) Yes
b) No
Q3b) If yes did this impact your performance level?
a) Yes
b) No
Q4) In your opinion what are the causes of gender discrimination in the workplace?
a) Abusive relationship
b) Communication issue
c) Leadership style
d) organisation structures
Q5) Do you think that gender discrimination arise the conflict at workplace?
a) Yes
b) No
Q6) What issues are faced by companies due to gender discrimination? (Please select all that
apply)
a) Increase absenteeism

b) Increase employee turnover
c) Minimise organisational profit
d) Any other (please state)
Q7) What measures do workplaces take to eliminate gender discrimination in the workplace?
(Please select all that apply)
a) Educate employees
b) Provide training
c) Develop equality policies
d) Any other (please state)
Q8) Should organisations treat all genders equally at workplace?
a) Yes
b) No
Q9) Does gender equality contribute to employee retention??
a) Yes
b) No
Q10) What recommendations would you give to your organisation to combat gender
discrimination