Gender Equality in Leadership and Management

Research Proposal Form
Student Name: ______________________ Student ID: ____________
Centre Name: _____________________
Tutor: ________________ Date: ___________________
Unit: ____________________
Proposed Title: __“Gender Equality in Leadership and
Management”____________________________________________
Section One: Title, objective, responsibilities
Title or working title of the research project (in the form of a question, objective or hypothesis)
“Gender Equality in Leadership and Management”
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?):
Background of study
Gender Equality means state of equal ease of opportunities and resources access regardless of
gender, involving decision making and economic participation; and state of valuing distinct aspirations,
behaviours. General differences can be referred as those group differences between women and men
which are possibly because of sexually monomorphic psychological adaptations combined with
culturally dimorphic socialization. It is one of the major issues that employees face within the
organisation which directly impacts on their performance within the company and job satisfaction. In this
research proposal, the selected organisation is Block & Quayle which is the multinational DIY and home
improvement retailing organisation of Britain. The company was established in 1969 and is
headquartered in Eastleigh, England, United Kingdom. The organisation is facing issues due to gender
inequality within the organisation and in order to assess its impact on employees, this study is
undertaken. This report aims to assess the impact of gender difference on employees within the
organisation. It has some objectives which assist in accomplishing aim of the study.
Research Aim
The Aim in relation to this this investigation is “To assess the impact of gender difference on
employees within the organisation. A case study on Block & Quayle (B&Q)”.
Research Objectives
Objectives of research are the concise statements that addresses the purpose of study and outline the
steps which leads to accomplishment of research aim. The objectives in relation to this specific
investigation are as follows:
 To determine the importance of prioritising gender equality in strengthening leadership and
management system.
 To evaluate the impact of gender difference on individuals within the firm.
 To identify the factors that raise gender difference in leadership and management within
multinational firms.
 To recommend the ways through which B&Q can promote gender equality in its leadership and
management system.

Research Questions
Research questions can be stated question which is develop in a project to answer. It assists in
addressing the issue of the investigation. The questions of this study are as follows:
 What is the importance of prioritising gender equality in strengthening leadership and
management system?
 What is the impact of gender difference on individuals within the firm?
 Which are the factors that raise gender difference in leadership and management within
multinational firms?
 What are the different ways through which B&Q can promote gender equality in its leadership
and management system?
Section Two: Reasons for choosing this research project
Reasons for choosing the project (e.g links to other subjects you are studying, personal interest,
future plans, knowledge/skills you want to improve, why the topic is important):
Gender equity in leadership and management system is imperative for attainment of company’s goals
and stimulating growth or productivity of workplace. Conducting research on such a vast topic, therefore,
aid researcher in analysing the way, how promoting equality in leadership helps in providing job
satisfaction at workplace. For this purpose, Block & Quayle (B&Q) is chosen to analyse necessity of
promoting gender equity, because it is one of the multinational retailing firm that has more than 16,717
number of employees across its 300 physical and online stores. Currently, it operates business in UK and
Ireland market only, but to expand at global level, it is essential for B&Q to concern on promoting
gender equity at its workplace, so that international standards can be met.
This investigation is based on the aim “To assess the impact of gender difference on employees
within the organisation. A case study on Block & Quayle (B&Q)”. It assists researcher in gaining deep
insight on the significance of prioritizing gender equality in strengthening management and leadership
system. It also helps in determining the impact of gender difference on employees within company and
factors which increase gender difference in management and leadership within multinational firms. It
also helped in determine in different ways by which company can promote gender equality in
management and leadership.
Section Three: Literature sources searched
Use of key literature sources to support your research question, objective or hypothesis:
This section of research looks mainly at potential benefits of promoting gender equity in leadership and
management system, by extracting information from number of secondary sources as given below –
Importance of prioritising gender equality
As per Petrina Darah (2020), inequality in gender not only affects individuals at workplace, but also
impact on whole business environment as well as economy of a company. This term shows imbalance in
power of leadership and management among men and women, which raise discriminations in an
organisation. Prioritising the equality in gender is essential for ending discriminations, as well as
providing opportunities to female for women empowerment at workplace.
According to the view point of Chang, E.H. and Milkman, K.L., 2020, gender equality plays a significant
role within determining the leadership role as well as managing the quality of services within a company.
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The gender structure, social roles and relations all plays a significant role in influencing the actions
performed by employees within workplace and approaches used for handling the challenges as well as
responsibilities within leadership. The leaders are responsible for formulating effective strategies for
guiding and directing the employees to perform well toward a particular goal. But the subordinates
involve both male and females, for keeping both of them motivated it is crucial to develop a culture
where the females must get equal support and value as male employees get in order to keep all the
supervisors to remain motivated and get equally valued. For this the gender equality must be maintained
within the organisation and also provide equal opportunity to employees for getting promoted over the
position of leadership and management so that better decision can be taken with integrating the skills and
knowledge of all the employees together. This in turn help in improving the leadership and management
system by creating a culture of equality which in turn keep subordinate motivated toward their work
when they are treated equally.
Impact of gender difference on individuals
Indifference in gender leads to raise stress on individuals at workplace, with decrease in job satisfaction,
that further leads to increase labour turnover rate in firms as well.
As per the perception of Heilman, M.E. and Caleo, S., 2018, gender inequality within an organisation is
consider to be a complex phenomenon which seen within the organisational structure, practices and
processes. For women the most harmful gender inequality found within the human resource policies as
these practices directly affects the hiring, pay, training and promotions of women. The gender inequality
has a huge influence over employees working within the organisation. This is so because when the
management involve within such practices at higher level then it is also seen within the culture of
organisation here at each level employees are being discriminated in term of getting equal growth
opportunities. This in turn affect their performance as well as productivity by disappointing them from
the behaviour or discrimination they faces. Other than this the gender inequality also leads to increases in
employee turnover that in turn further affect its productivity as well as market performance all together.
Hence it can be said that the gender inequality performed within the organisation also influence over the
other employees working within same organisation in term of their retention, productivity and
performance that further affect the brand image within marketplace.
Factors that raise gender difference in leadership and management
Unequal pay, workplace stereotypes, racism, less promotion of women on leadership and management
position etc. are some factors which causes gender difference.
As per the view point of Andrews. S., 2020, within business world the women leaders are still remain at
minority. This can be seen from the Fortune report published where within 500 companies women hold
only 19 per cent of board members and 15 per cent are at executive officer position. There are certain
factors that leads to this gap among male and females while it is about the management and leadership
position. These are institutional mind which mainly includes stereotypes and gender bias that means they
believes that there remains a difference between what roles a male and female can effectively. Both of
them are not capable of doing a particular thing. Another factor is individual mindsets that involves
thoughts or behaviour that a particular woman might have which hold them back. As some of the women
have socialization pressures, risk aversion, lack of confidence or value a work life balance all such things
which never let them pushes her inner strength. Another factor can be found as lifestyle choice where
some women chose to have work life balance, caregiver and family choice as their main priority. Though
these choices are not negative but act as a barrier in letting the women to move freely toward their
promotions as it contribute toward creating a leadership gender gap among employees.
Ways to promote gender equity in leadership and management system
According to Pierre. K. S. 2017, gender inequality is a factor which creates barrier within an organisation
to reach up to a maximum level in term of its productivity, customer satisfaction and performance. This
is so because by maintaining gender equality there remains a culture of motivation and collaboration
among employees that support B&Q in enhancing their productivity and performance which further leads
to enhancing their brand image at marketplace. Hence, for promoting equality within leadership and
management system, B&Q is required to improve its HR policies where employees get equal chance to
get growth opportunity and leads the women also become an aspirant candidate to get promoted for
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