Research Project Proposal on Equality and Diversity in the Workplace

This research project proposal focuses on the theme of equality and diversity in the workplace, specifically exploring the influence of gender equality in strengthening leadership and management towards creating a positive working culture. The proposal includes an overview of the project, company, research question, sub-questions, problem statement, research aim and objectives, rationale for choosing the topic, literature review, methodology, and timeline.

Research Project Proposal
(Equality and diversity in the workplace)
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Overview of the project............................................................................................................3
Overview of the company........................................................................................................3
Research Question:..................................................................................................................3
Sub questions of research:......................................................................................................3
Problem statement....................................................................................................................4
Research aim:............................................................................................................................4
Research Objectives................................................................................................................4
Rationale for choosing the topic.............................................................................................4
Importance of Research topic.................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................6
What are the significances of gender equality at workplace of an organisation?...........6
How gender equality helps in strengthening leadership and management within Aston
Martin?........................................................................................................................................7
What are the importance of effective leadership and management in creating of
positive working culture?..........................................................................................................7
What ways will be required by Aston Martin for promoting gender equality at
workplace?.................................................................................................................................8
METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................................9
Qualitative and quantitative research....................................................................................9
Research Techniques..............................................................................................................9
Data Collection..........................................................................................................................9
Questionnaire..........................................................................................................................10
Sampling...................................................................................................................................11
Data analysis methods...........................................................................................................11
Research Ethics......................................................................................................................12
Research reliability and validity............................................................................................12
Research Limitations..............................................................................................................12
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TIMELINE.....................................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................15
Appendix.......................................................................................................................................17
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INTRODUCTION
Overview of the project
This project is based on the theme of equality and diversity in the workplace. It can be
defined as promoting equal opportunity or chance for all employees. Diversity means as
providing chance to each individual to accomplish their potential, free from discrimination and
prejudice. Gender equality in leadership and management is a chosen topic from the theme of
equality and diversity (Afsar, Badir and Kiani, 2016). Gender equality introduces to the equal
access and treatment of female and male employees at the workplace of an organisation. For
this Aston Martin is a chosen British manufacture of grand tourers and luxury sports cars. Along
with this, gender equality in leadership and management helps an organisation in creating
positive working culture by encountering a problem with all employees regardless of their
leadership qualities, skills or treatments. In order to complete, research project proposal, there
is requirement for using some activities which are development of aim and objectives, creation
of literature review, development of research methodology and implementing Gantt chart for
managing time of each activity.
Overview of the company
Aston Martin is a selected manufacture for automobiles and luxury goods. It was founded in
1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Company was headquartered in Gaydom, England,
and UK and served all area. Aston Martin Lagonda is the only autonomous British luxury
automotive manufacturer championing not only breakthrough in cutting edge design such as the
Vantage and DBS Superleggera, DB11, but also new technologies via research, development
and operation of lightweight materials as well as powertrain solutions. Along with this, Car
manufacturing organisations have a history of being a male-dominated enterprise. Female
employees have long been relegated to brand ambassadors and assistants, which las led to
small-minded decisions by the top brass (Aston Martin is Aiming for gender equality, 2018).
Research Question:
 What are the influence of gender equality in strengthening leadership and management
towards creating positive working culture at workplace of Aston Martin?
Sub questions of research:
 What are the significances of gender equality at workplace of an organisation?
 How gender equality helps in strengthening leadership and management within Aston
Martin?
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 What are the importance of effective leadership and management in creating of positive
working culture?
 What ways will be required by Aston Martin for promoting gender equality at workplace?
Problem statement
Gender inequality is a major problem that is faced by most of the organisation at
workplace. There are number of issues fuelling gender inequality within a workplace. These are
unequal pay, sexual harassment, racism, female employees are promoted less often male
employees, fear of asking to be paid when they are worth etc. These are main issues of gender
inequality at workplace. These issues also have negative impact over business performance
and productivity (Ali and Konrad, 2017).
Research aim:
To analysis the influence of gender equality in strengthening leadership and management
towards creating positive working culture. A study on Aston Martin.
Research Objectives
 To Explore about the significance of gender equality at workplace of an organisation.
 To determine the role of gender equality in strengthening leadership and management of
Aston Martin.
 To analysis the importance of effective leadership and management in creating of
positive working culture.
 To ascertain ways for promoting gender equality at workplace of Aston Martin.
Rationale for choosing the topic
Main reason for choosing this topic is to identify the importance of gender equality in
strengthening management and leadership towards developing of effective and positive working
culture. Along with this, by doing this research, researcher can easily identify role of gender
equality in management and leadership and significance of leadership and management in
developing of positive working culture. Another research for selecting this topic is to explore
different ways for promoting gender equality at workplace of company (Barak, 2016).
Importance of Research topic
This research is important because it encourage student’s learning about the about the
influence of gender equality in leadership as well as management. If this research is publish will
helps society, organisations and an individual by increasing their awareness about the
significant of gender equality in creating of positive working culture and strengthening of
leadership and management (Bryson, 2018).
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is a process of secondary data collection that will be used by researcher
for gathering in-depth and detailed information about the topic. For collecting secondary data,
there are different sources that will be followed within a study. These secondary sources are
magazines, books, articles, publication research etc. All these are relevant to the current study
and facilitate researcher in gathering of secondary data effectively. Main purpose of literature
review is to explore gaps in previous study (Chant, 2016). In previous study, there is information
about the gender equality and its role in leadership and management but there is lack of data
about the importance of gender equality for leadership and management in creating of positive
working culture. This is a main gap and in order to fulfil this gap, sub-questions of research will
be used. As it helps researcher in overcoming literature gap and also fulfilling research
objectives in systematic manner. These questions of the research will be explained as below:
What are the significances of gender equality at workplace of an organisation?
According to the Hurley Hall (2020), gender equality is important for an organisation
because it will help them by improving productivity, increasing innovation and growth,
encouraging more flexible working, increasing employee’s satisfaction, improving customer
targeting etc. These are main significances that will be beneficial for the growth and success of
an organisation at marketplace. There are some main significance of gender equality at
workplace of company will be explained as below:
Improved productivity: Gender equal workforce work more effectively and accurately in
many ways. One of the main advantages of enhanced gender equality at workplace is a more
productive and more cohesive workforce. Along with this, Gender equal employees are more
probable to have diverse perspectives as well as approaches, resulting in improved decisions
(Goetz, 2018).
Increased growth and innovation: Today’s each organisation wants to increased
innovation and growth easily. For this, an empowering, supportive and bias-free gender equal
workplace leads to an advance and innovation mindset. Main aspects of this are motivation to
obtain inspiration from away from the enterprise, to work across the business, and to be willing
to experiment. Therefore, gender equal workforce helps an organisation in improvement of
innovation by providing different and diverse view. It turns to helps business in enhancement of
its growth and success at marketplace (Gupta and et. al., 2019).
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How gender equality helps in strengthening leadership and management within Aston Martin?
According to the Nabors (2018), Car manufactures have a record of being a male-
dominated enterprise. Female employees have long been relegated to assistants as well as
brand ambassadors also, which has led to narrow-mined or prejudiced decisions by the upper
level brass. At Aston Martin Lagonda, leader and mangers has recognised that diversity is core
to their working principles of respect and fairness and drives innovation, strategic decision
making and creativity. Developing diverse workforce is essential for future success of company
by fulfilling needs of customers quickly. Along with this, gender equality is important in
management and leadership of Aston Martin. Gender equality helps in positive feeling of growth
opportunity, high level of trust on management practices and highly engaged deployment of
work. This turn to influence over business growth and success of company easily. Some
significance of leadership in strengthening management and leadership will be explained as
below:
Positive feeling of growth opportunity: Gender equality increase positive feeling of
growth opportunity among employees. It is a role of company to provide equal chance to their
male and female employees in making of any kind of decision. Female leader will support
company by increasing employee’s engagement in any situation because they have more
power as compare to male (Klein, 2016).
Highly engaged deployment of work: By having equal opportunity, it will help leadership
and management to deploy work among employees which turn to impact over business
success. This will also helps in retention of employees for long time period (McCarthy, 2017).
What are the importance of effective leadership and management in creating of positive working
culture?
According to the Cates (2019), at workplace, leadership and management are important
for an organisation because they will help in developing of positive working culture. Leadership
refers to the art of encouraging a group of employees to act towards attaining a common goal.
Leader has responsible by directing employees with a strategy to meet organisational needs.
Management introduces to the process of effective planning, quick decision making, organising,
leading, controlling the human resources, information, physical and financial resources of
company to reach its goals and objectives effectively and efficiently. There are some
importances of management and leadership that will support Aston Martin in creating of positive
working culture. This will be explained as below:
Taking meaningful action: This is an effective strategy that will support business leader
and manger in creating of positive working culture. For this, they are responsible to collect
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feedbacks from the employees who have to face issue of gender inequality at workplace. By
collecting feedback, business leader and manger are liable to take an action and overcome
such type of issue from employees. Therefore, this strategy can support foster employee
engagement as well as work towards creating a stronger positive culture (McKinnon and et. al.,
2016).
Actively Listen: Leaders and mangers if the Aston Martin cannot assume that their
workers feel heard. They should be diligent regarding encouraging truthful feedback from their
mangers. In order to make positive working culture, leadership and management are important
because it will help in encouraging employees by using an always-on engagement chat
experience that can give a great platform for collecting employee feedback (Mitonga-Monga,
Flotman and Cilliers, 2016).
What ways will be required by Aston Martin for promoting gender equality at workplace?
According to the Rongala (2019), in today’s dynamic business environment, accomplishing
gender equality is measured to be the important factor for growth and competitiveness of any
organization. There are number of ways that will be required for promoting gender equality at
workplace of Aston Martin. Some effective ways will be described as below:
Altering Hiring Practices to increase diversity: In order to increase gender diversity
through altering hiring practices, there are some ways that will be used by Aston Martin. These
ways are developing an inclusive gender diverse workforce, having a diverse interview panel,
learning from exit interviews, promoting gender equality with better job description, proactively
sourcing gender divers’ pipeline etc. These are considering more effective and essential ways
for increasing diversity that turn to impact on business to promote gender equality and gain
better advantages easily (Razavi, 2016).
Considering Leadership Roles for both male and female: Individuals with accurate
attributes ought to have a leader’s role and responsibility. An excellent way to promote and
encourage gender equality at workplace is by granting leadership roles and duties for deserving
employees, in context of their gender. For this Aston Martin provide equal opportunities to both
male as well as female employees. This opportunity mainly related with the leadership role at
workplace. As it will help an organisation in retention of top talent and achievement of long term
goals and objectives easily (Seo, Huang and Han, 2017).
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METHODOLOGY
Research methodology refers to the effective process of collecting information from the
number of research methods. This is an important section of research because without this
researcher cannot gather reliable and valid information about the topic (Van der Vleuten, 2016).
There are some useful methods according to the existing topic which will be explained as below:
Qualitative and quantitative research
There are mainly two types of study or research which are qualitative and quantitative.
Qualitative research is used for analysing what an individual think and feel about the topic.
Quantitative research is use for collecting numerical information by using logical, statistical and
mathematical technique. Therefore, both qualitative and quantitative research are important but
for collecting information regarding the gender equality and its importance on strengthening
management and leadership, quantitative research has been applied as it helps researcher to
collect data in form of numerical without taking maximum time (Walker, 2018). On the other
hand, qualitative type of research is not much useful for current study because it require
additional time as well as resources.
Research Techniques
There are various techniques of gathering information about the particular area of study.
These techniques are interview, observation, focus group, questionnaire, modelling and so on.
These are essential but according to the current research proposal, questionnaire is more useful
because it provide reliable data within lesser time duration (Gaur and Kumar, 2018).
Questionnaire is a cost effective method as compare to other techniques, therefore for doing
this research, questionnaire will be applied.
Data Collection
There are two effective sources of data collection which named are primary source and
secondary source. For collecting primary information, questionnaire has been chosen because it
helps in collecting of quantitative information about the influence of gender equality in minimum
time period. On the other side, there are many numbers of sources for collection secondary data
for literature review. These sources are magazines, publication research, books, articles and
many others. All these are has been applied for literature review in fulfilling research gap and
collecting secondary data (Gjesfjeld and et. al., 2020) .
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Questionnaire
Questionnaire is an important and useful instrument of primary data collection that will be
applied within a study because it facilitate in gathering of reliable information (Güven, 2018).
According to the research topic there are some questions will be prepared which are shown as
below:
Q1) Are you familiar with the concept of equality and diversity at workplace of
Aston Martin?
Frequency
a) Yes 30
b) No 10
Q2) As per your knowledge gender equality is a part of equality and diversity? Frequency
a) Yes 25
b) No 15
Q3) What are the roles of gender equality at workplace of Aston Martin? Frequency
a) Increased organisational performance 10
b) Enhanced ability of company to attract talent 10
c) Retain knowledgeable workforce for long time 10
d) Improved national productivity of company 10
Q4) What are the influences of gender equality in strengthening leadership and
management within an organisation?
Frequency
a) Positive feeling of growth opportunity 16
b) High level of trust on management practices 14
c) Highly engaged deployment of work 10
Q5) According to you, what are the significance of leadership and management in
developing positive working culture?
Frequency
a) Communicate organisational value and mission 15
b) Building of trustworthy relationship 15
c) Measuring goals and provide feedback frequently 10
Q6) Does positive working culture supports your company in retention of
knowledgeable and top talent at workplace?
Frequency
a) Strong agree 15
b) Agree 20
c) Disagree 3
d) Strongly disagree 2
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Q7) In your opinion, female employees are more capable in leadership and
management as compare to male employees?
Frequency
a) Yes 25
b) No 15
Q8) What are ways that may be require by Aston Martin for promoting gender
equality at their workplace?
Frequency
a) Altering hiring practice to increase diversity 10
b) Considering leadership roles for male and female 10
c) Equal pay 10
d) Developing an open-mined and positive atmosphere 10
Q9) What are the legislation, regulatory requirement and code of practices used by
Aston Martin for managing gender equality at workplace?
Frequency
a) Equal act of 2010 20
b) Adherence of industry regulations 10
c) Fulfil of organisation standards 10
Sampling
Sampling is a process in which researcher select a sample size out of entire population.
There are two techniques which are effective in selecting of sampling such as probability and
non-probability. For selecting sample for current study, probability sampling has been used
because it support in selecting of sample on random basis. With the use of probability sampling
40 mangers of Aston Martin will be recruited randomly. In order to distribute questionnaire
among 40 mangers, researcher will used random device management. It is a best way for
distributing questionnaire as it allows researcher to deliver questionnaire inside mobile apps,
where respondents are engaged and can be incentivized non-monetarily (Kelly and et. al.,
2018).
Data analysis methods
Data analysis refers to the process of analysing information or data regarding specific
area of study. There are two approaches which are inductive and deductive, inductive approach
will be used for analysing qualitative type of information, whereas deductive approach has been
applied for analysis quantitative data. Within a study deductive approach is more fit because it
helps in analysing of quantitative information regarding the gender equality within leadership
and management. Along with this, for analysing quantitative information, content analysis as an
analytical tool has been used because it not take more time and provide valid results. In this
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tool, number of themes will be created on each question as it facilitate in analysing quantitative
data within lesser time duration. Apart from this, there are some steps for analysing quantitative
data which are making of frequency table, presenting effective graphs and interpreting data
systematically (Page and et. al., 2019).
Research Ethics
Research ethics is important because it will help researcher in completion of full project
ethically and legally. There are some useful principles of research ethics that must be following
by investigator by doing researcher over gender equality. These principles are obtaining
informed consent, providing the right to withdraw, avoiding deceptive practices, minimising the
risk of harm, protecting confidentiality and defending anonymity. By following these principles of
research ethics researcher can easily get valid outcomes (Schoonderbeek, 2018).
Research reliability and validity
In order to test reliability and validity of the research information, questionnaire is most
effective and useful technique that will be used by research. With the help of questionnaire
researcher become able to gather valid and reliable information that helps in achieving research
objectives (Wu and et. al., 2018).
Research Limitations
There are some common and main limitations that may be face by researcher while doing
this research. These limitations are access of data, lack of time, lack of financial resources, data
collection, sample bias and many others. All these are major limitations that may be face by
researcher while doing this investigation. Along with this, there is another limitation which are
respondents opinion that are not match with available options in close ended questions. In order
to overcome this limitation, 1 close open-ended question will be prepared. There is respondents
are free to provide their opinion about the research topic (Wu and et. al., 2018).
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TIMELINE
This is an important and significant part of the research project because it will help
investigator in completion of research within allotted time period. For this section of research,
Gantt chart will be used by researcher as a useful tool of time management. This tool helps
researcher in identification of time of each activities. In this chart, researcher will developed
some activities that are useful according to the current topic. Therefore, Gantt chart is important
tool that will be used within a study for completing each activities of research within given time
duration and in systematic manner (McKinnon and et. al., 2016). Gantt chart of current project
will be shown as below apart from number of activities and their starting and ending data. These
are:
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Afsar, B., Badir, Y. and Kiani, U. S., 2016. Linking spiritual leadership and employee pro-
environmental behavior: The influence of workplace spirituality, intrinsic motivation,
and environmental passion. Journal of Environmental Psychology. 45. pp.79-88.
Ali, M. and Konrad, A. M., 2017. Antecedents and consequences of diversity and equality
management systems: The importance of gender diversity in the TMT and lower to
middle management. European Management Journal. 35(4). pp.440-453.
Barak, M. E. M., 2016. Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage
Publications.
Bryson, J. M., 2018. Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to
strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. John Wiley & Sons.
Chant, S., 2016. Women, girls and world poverty: empowerment, equality or
essentialism?. International Development Planning Review. 38(1). pp.1-24.
Gaur, A. and Kumar, M., 2018. A systematic approach to conducting review studies: An
assessment of content analysis in 25 years of IB research. Journal of World
Business. 53(2). pp.280-289.
Gjesfjeld, E. And et. al., 2020. A quantitative workflow for modeling diversification in material
culture. PLoS One. 15(2). p.e0227579.
Goetz, A. M., 2018. National women’s machinery: State-based institutions to advocate for
gender equality. Manchester University Press.
Gupta, G. R. and et. al., 2019. Gender equality and gender norms: framing the opportunities for
health. The Lancet.
Güven, B., 2018. The Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Organizational Citizenship
Behavior. Journal of Business & Economic Policy 5(3). pp.54-66..
Kelly, M. and et. al., 2018. Considering axiological integrity: a methodological analysis of
qualitative evidence syntheses, and its implications for health professions
education. Advances in Health Sciences Education. 23(4). pp.833-851.
Klein, U., 2016, January. Gender equality and diversity politics in higher education: Conflicts,
challenges and requirements for collaboration. In Women's Studies International
Forum (Vol. 54, pp. 147-156). Pergamon.
McCarthy, L., 2017. Empowering women through corporate social responsibility: A feminist
Foucauldian critique. Business Ethics Quarterly, 27(4), pp.603-631.
McKinnon, K., Carnegie, M., Gibson, K. and Rowland, C., 2016. Gender equality and economic
empowerment in the Solomon Islands and Fiji: a place-based approach. Gender,
Place & Culture. 23(10). pp.1376-1391.
Mitonga-Monga, J., Flotman, A. P. and Cilliers, F., 2016. Workplace ethics culture and work
engagement: The mediating effect of ethical leadership in a developing world
context. Journal of Psychology in Africa. 26(4). pp.326-333.
Page, V. and et. al., 2019. Towards a Methodology to Test UAVs in Hazardous Environments.
Razavi, S., 2016. The 2030 Agenda: challenges of implementation to attain gender equality and
women's rights. Gender & Development. 24(1). pp.25-41.
Schoonderbeek, M., 2018. A Theory of" Design by Reserach". Ardeth, (01), pp.62-79.
Seo, G., Huang, W. and Han, S. H. C., 2017. Conceptual review of underrepresentation of
women in senior leadership positions from a perspective of gendered social status in
the workplace: Implication for HRD research and practice. Human Resource
Development Review. 16(1). pp.35-59.
Van der Vleuten, A., 2016. The price of gender equality: Member states and governance in the
European Union. Routledge.
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Walker, M., 2018. Aspirations and equality in higher education: Gender in a South African
University. Cambridge journal of education. 48(1). pp.123-139.
Wu, Y. and et. al., 2018. A survey of physical layer security techniques for 5G wireless networks
and challenges ahead. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. 36(4).
pp.679-695.
Online
Rongala. A., 2019, Ways to promote gender equality at workplace. [Online]. Available through <
https://www.invensislearning.com/blog/workplace-gender-equality/>
Nabors. A., 2018, Aston Martin is Aiming for gender equality. [Online]. Available through <
https://blog.dupontregistry.com/industry-reports/aston-martin-is-aiming-for-gender-
equality/>
Cates. J., 2019, Ways leadership van build a positive culture. [Online]. Available through <
https://www.business2community.com/leadership/6-ways-leadership-can-build-a-
positive-culture-02267088>
Hurley Hall. S., 2020, Benefits of gender equality in the workplace. [Online]. Available through
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cms-34678>
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Appendix
Questionnaire
Q1) Are you familiar with the concept of equality and diversity at workplace of Aston Martin?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) As per your knowledge gender equality is a part of equality and diversity?
a) Yes
b) No
Q3) What are the roles of gender equality at workplace of Aston Martin?
a) Increased organisational performance
b) Enhanced ability of company to attract talent
c) Retain knowledgeable workforce for long time
d) Improved national productivity of company
Q4) What are the influences of gender equality in strengthening leadership and management
within an organisation?
a) Positive feeling of growth opportunity
b) High level of trust on management practices
c) Highly engaged deployment of work
Q5) According to you, what are the significance of leadership and management in developing
positive working culture?
a) Communicate organisational value and mission
b) Building of trustworthy relationship
c) Measuring goals and provide feedback frequently
Q6) Does positive working culture supports your company in retention of knowledgeable and top
talent at workplace?
a) Strong agree
b) Agree
c) Disagree
d) Strongly disagree
Q7) In your opinion, female employees are more capable in leadership and management as
compare to male employees?
a) Yes
b) No
17

Q8) What are ways that may be require by Aston Martin for promoting gender equality at their
workplace?
a) Altering hiring practice to increase diversity
b) Considering leadership roles for male and female
c) Equal pay
d) Developing an open-mined and positive atmosphere
Q9) What are the legislation, regulatory requirement and code of practices used by Aston Martin
for managing gender equality at workplace?
a) Equal act of 2010
b) Adherence of industry regulations
c) Fulfil of organisation standards
Q10) Provide any recommendations for Aston martin in context of gender equality.....
18