Gender Equality in Leadership and Management

This research proposal aims to assess the impact of gender difference on employees within the organization. It focuses on Block & Quayle (B&Q), a multinational DIY and home improvement retailing organization in Britain. The objectives include determining the importance of prioritizing gender equality in strengthening the leadership and management system, evaluating the impact of gender difference on individuals within the firm, identifying factors that raise gender difference in leadership and management within multinational firms, and recommending ways through which B&Q can promote gender equality in its leadership and management system.

Research Proposal
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Contents
TITLE: “Gender Equality in Leadership and Management”...........................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background of study....................................................................................................................3
Research Aim...............................................................................................................................3
Research Objectives.....................................................................................................................3
Research Questions......................................................................................................................4
Significance of research...............................................................................................................4
Literature Review............................................................................................................................4
Importance of prioritising the gender equality in strengthening he leadership and management
system..........................................................................................................................................4
The impact of gender difference on individuals within firm.......................................................5
Factors that raise gender difference in leadership and management within multinational firms 5
Recommend ways through which B&Q can promote gender equality in its leadership and
management system.....................................................................................................................6
Research Methods and Sources.......................................................................................................6
Research Philosophy....................................................................................................................6
Research Approach......................................................................................................................7
Research Choice..........................................................................................................................7
Research Strategy........................................................................................................................7
Data Collection and analysis.......................................................................................................7
Time Horizon...............................................................................................................................8
Sampling......................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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TITLE: “Gender Equality in Leadership and Management”
Introduction
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.
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 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?
Significance of research
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.
Literature Review
Importance of prioritising the gender equality in strengthening he leadership and management
system
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. 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
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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.
The impact of gender difference on individuals within firm
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 within multinational firms
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
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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.
Recommend ways through which B&Q can promote gender equality in its 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 managerial position. Other
than this, B&Q must focuses toward maintaining the diversity and gender balance within the
organisation and always try to encourage women to step forth and try to earn the position as per
their talent and capability.
Research Methods and Sources
Research Philosophy
It is consider to be set of beliefs created based on the findings of research community to
support the execution of research on effective manner by guiding over the actions to be
performed. The philosophies used within an investigation are realism, positivism and
interpretivism (Mohajan, 2018). Among them the positivism philosophy has been adopted within
this study which help in gathering and analysing the quantitative data for accomplishment of
research objectives.
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Research Approach
It is refers to one of the essential tools of methodology which support investigator in
evaluating the gathered data in rightful manner so that it can be further converted into
meaningful information in a manner that it leads to accomplishment of organisational goals. The
selection of research approach is based on the type of investigation adopted for performing the
investigation, the approaches mainly used within a study is either inductive or deductive
approach (Zangirolami-Raimundo, Echeimberg and Leone, 2018). Among them for current study
deductive approach remains more suitable as it supports in evaluating the quantitative data in
effective manner that leads to presentation of most accurate information which make the
presentation of data within investigation more valid and reliable.
Research Choice
Exploratory, descriptive and experimental are the three types of research choices which
can be considered by researcher while performing research. In this investigation, resultant make
use of descriptive research method in which detailed information about the impact of gender
difference on workforce within the organisation can be gathered. This research choice helps in
gaining deep insights on the topic and drawing valid and reliable outcome of research.
Qualitative and quantitative are the two methods among which quantitative method will be taken
into consideration by researcher as this help in collecting numerical information on the topic
which ensures accuracy in the outcomes of research.
Research Strategy
Research strategy can be stated as a step by step action plan which provides direction to the
efforts of researcher and enable them to conduct the study systematically. Case study, interview,
questionnaire, survey, descriptive literature review etc. are the methods through which data can
be collected. In this particular study, researcher will make use of questionnaire tool to gather
primary information of the topic. The main reason behind selecting this research strategy is that
it assists investigator in collecting firsthand information which is more appropriate for the study.
Data Collection and analysis
The two methods through which data can be collected includes primary and secondary
method. The fresh data is collected in the primary method and second hand data is collected in
secondary method which was already published. This research study makes use of both types of
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methods for performing data collection process appropriately. The main reason behind selection
of both the methods is to collect ample amount of information which help investigator in
drawing valid conclusion on the search.
Time Horizon
Sampling
Sampling includes two methods, probability and non-probability sampling. In this study,
researcher will use probability sampling method as this is the most appropriate method which
help in eliminating the biasness at the time of collecting data. Apart from this, simple random
sampling method is taken into consideration and all the participants of the research will be
selected randomly so that biasness can be eliminated. The sample size select by the researcher
will be 30 respondents who are the employees of Block & Quayle.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Mohajan, H.K., 2018. Qualitative research methodology in social sciences and related
subjects. Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People, 7(1), pp.23-48.
Zangirolami-Raimundo, J., Echeimberg, J.D.O. and Leone, C., 2018. Research methodology
topics: Cross-sectional studies. Journal of Human Growth and Development, 28(3),
pp.356-360.
Chang, E.H. and Milkman, K.L., 2020. Improving decisions that affect gender equality in the
workplace. Organizational Dynamics, 49(1), p.100709.
Stoet, G. and Geary, D.C., 2018. The gender-equality paradox in science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics education. Psychological science, 29(4), pp.581-593.
Falk, A. and Hermle, J., 2018. Relationship of gender differences in preferences to economic
development and gender equality. Science, 362(6412).
Verloo, M. ed., 2018. Varieties of opposition to gender equality in Europe (Vol. 100). Routledge.
Shannon, G., Jansen, M., Williams, K., Cáceres, C., Motta, A., Odhiambo, A., Eleveld, A. and
Mannell, J., 2019. Gender equality in science, medicine, and global health: where are we
at and why does it matter?. The Lancet, 393(10171), pp.560-569.
Online
Heilman, M.E. and Caleo, S., 2018. Combatting gender discrimination: A lack of fit
framework. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 21(5), pp.725-744.
Andrews. S., 2020. Leadership. [Online] Available through:
<https://trainingindustry.com/magazine/issue/gender-barriers-and-solutions-to-
leadership/>.
Pierre. K. S. 2017., How leaders can advance gender equality and enhance gender sensitivity.
[Online] Available through: <https://blog.impactpool.org/articles/5-tips-how-leaders-can-
advance-gender-equality>.
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