Unit 6 Managing a Successful Business Project

MANAGING A
SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS PROJECT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Formulate aims and objective for the project in accordance with the chosen scenario.........1
P2 Prepare an appropriate project management plan which covers aspects like scope, quality,
time, resources, risk, cost, communication.................................................................................2
P3 Devise a Gantt chart and Work breakdown structure to offer stages and time-frame for
project completion ......................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P4 Conduct a small level research by using quantitative and qualitative research method to
achieve project aims and objectives............................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P5 Analysis of data and research by using appropriate techniques and tools ...........................8
P6 Discuss appropriate recommendations for research and data analysis so meaningful and
valid conclusions can be drawn.................................................................................................15
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................16
P7 Reflect on value of taking appropriate research to achieve desired objectives and own
performance or learning ...........................................................................................................16
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

Title: To identify the strategies and initiatives that will assists in building equality and diversity
at workplace of an organisation.
INTRODUCTION
Equality is stated as one of the most important thing for a business firm that helps them in
providing equal opportunities and benefits to their employees. By this, a company is able to
sustain a positive reputation in a workplace. Diversity is stated as the variety of employees
sharing different religion, culture and values and working at a same place. In case of business
firms, both equality and diversity plays a vital role in managing and formulating appropriate
culture at workplace. By this, attainment of targets and goals will be easier and a company will
be able to achieve expected outcomes properly (Ackermann and Winston, 2019).
This assignment is prepared by considering Holiday Inn which is a America based UK
owned hotel headquartered in Denham, UK. This company provides accommodations, food
services, lodging, meetings and time share to their customers. This report will discuss about
objectives and aims of project along with a robust project management plan. Also, WBS and
Gantt chart is prepared so that stages and time needed for this project can be specified. Other
than this, data analysis and data interpretation will be carried out to conduct a small scale
research for collected data. At last, appropriate recommendations are given in accordance with
the research.
TASK 1
P1 Formulate aims and objective for the project in accordance with the chosen scenario
Aim: Main aim of the research is to formulate strategies about equality and diversity to
improve working performance of staff members in an organisation. A detailed study on Holiday
Inn.
Objectives:
 To develop understanding of the term equality and diversity in context of a business
organisation.
 To identify the impact of diversity or equality on working productivity and performance
of staff in Holiday Inn.
 To determine strategies for Holiday Inn in maintaining equality and diversity at
workplace.
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 To acknowledge the measures that will assists an organisation in eliminating the issues
associated with diversity and equality at workplace.
Questions:
 What do you understand by the term equality and diversity in context of a business
organisation ?
 What is the potential impact of gender pay gap on working productivity and performance
of staff in Holiday Inn ?
 What can be the strategies for Holiday Inn in maintaining equality and diversity at
workplace?
 What measures can be implemented by a company in eliminating the issues associated
with diversity and equality at workplace?
P2 Prepare an appropriate project management plan which covers aspects like scope, quality,
time, resources, risk, cost, communication.
Project management plan is defined as a document that includes information about
multiple phases of a project. An appropriate plan includes information about time, scope,
resources, costs, risks, communication and other aspects so that a project can be accomplished in
a timely and productive manner. Project management plan in context with project of Holiday Inn
is stated below:
 Scope: Scope of the concerned project in context with organisation is very broad. This is
because due to equality and diversity, employees will learn new concepts on regular basis
and by this their working productivity will improve. This will help the company in
accomplishing their tasks on time. For research, scope is wide as new concepts and
terminologies will be learned (Ashe and Nazroo, 2017).
 Quality: With the help of surveys and questionnaire, researcher can maintain quality of
research. Company can maintain quality of project by providing same opportunities to
their employees.
 Cost: The cost is stated as anything that can be measured in monetary terms. Cost is
generally the expanses which is incurred by a company in purchasing material, resources
and manpower so that project can be accomplished properly. In case of Holiday Inn,
estimated cost is 8000 pounds. This amount will be required to provide training and
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hiring diversified people so that D&E can be maintained in company. Form researcher
perspective, estimated cost is 100 pounds (Kulkarni and Gopakumar, 2014).
 Resources: Main resources needed by researcher are books, internet, money etc. In
context with Holiday Inn, resources will be capital, technological advancement, man
power etc.
 Time: Researcher will require 7 weeks to perform this research and company needs 10
weeks to incorporate strategies of diversity and equality at workplace so that each
employee can work comfortably.
 Risk: Main risk from researcher's perspective is shortage of time and money. For
Holiday Inn, main risks are lack of interest in employees, lack of money, time
mismanagement, inappropriate communication etc.
 Communication: To interact with respondents and other people, researcher can take the
help of SMS, e-mails, voice calls, video messaging etc. project manager and team of firm
can interact with each other with the help of telephonic conversation, web conferencing,
face to face interaction, meetings etc. By this all the issues and topics will be discussed in
a proper manner (Bell and Harrison, 2018).
P3 Devise a Gantt chart and Work breakdown structure to offer stages and time-frame for project
completion
Work breakdown structure: This is depicted as a systematic approach that benefits a
business firm in performing different projects of a company in efficient manner. This is basically
a project deliverable which benefits a company in dividing the work of project in manageable
chunks and sections. WBS helps an organisation in arranging their project work in accordance to
a hierarchy so that all the activities can be performed as per their priority. In this research, the
researcher has used WBS to divide all the work in small sections so that different activities can
be performed efficiently (Glukhov, Ilin and Levina, 2015).
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Gantt Chart: This is basically a visual graphic where all the activities and tasks
associated with a specific project are mentioned. This graph has two axis, at one axis all the
activities of project are described and on other axis, timings to accomplish the task is stated. By
using this chart, researcher of the project will be able to identify the time required to accomplish
each activity (Halibozek and Kovacich, 2017). Also, this visual representation will help an
organisation in reducing redundancy of work. By this, project member will be able to accomplish
their work in appropriate manner and without any compromise.
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TASK 2
P4 Conduct a small level research by using quantitative and qualitative research method to
achieve project aims and objectives
Research methodology is defined as a procedure in which data and information is
collected so that appropriate decisions for business can be taken in a timely manner. This kind of
methodology involves surveys, interview, publication researches and other techniques which
assists in gathering of historical and present information (Healy and Oikelome, 2017). There are
two approaches of research methodology which are stated below:
Qualitative approach: This research method is used to acknowledge deep understanding
of a culture, topic, event or an organisation. Depending upon the type of research topic, this
method will give detailed knowledge of events and data with the help of non statical methods.
Here, data is collected through interviews, focus groups, questionnaires etc.
Quantitative approach: This kind of research is based on statistics and numbers like
quotas, percentages or average. Here, all the data and information is analysed with the help of
statistical or mathematical methods. If numerical data will not be involved then it is not
considered as quantitative research. This type of data is collected with the help of surveys,
observations and secondary data (Hebl and Avery, 2012).
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For this particular research, both qualitative and quantitative technique of research
methodology is used by the researcher so that concerned research can be carried out in an
efficient manner.
Methods of data collection
Primary method of data collection: In order to collect primary data, researcher takes
the help of methods like experiments, interviews and surveys so that find hand information can
be collected. Data and information collected from these methods is not published or used by any
individual before. In order to collect primary data, research is going to use Questionnaire
(Nicholas and Steyn, 2017).
Secondary method of data collection: There are different ways from which secondary
data can be collected in a proper manner like books, journals, internet, literature review etc. All
of these methods include those data and information which is previously used by some
researcher to perform their research. In this research, secondary data is collected in the form of
qualitative questions (Hewins-Maroney and Williams, 2013).
Sampling: For this specific research, sampling is carried out on random basis. In this
research, 50 respondents are selected randomly and they will fill the questionnaire. Response
given by these 50 people will be considered as the response of entire population. Respondents to
fill this questionnaire are employees, customers and stakeholders of Holiday Inn.
Questionnaire
Quantitative questions :
Q1) Do have any knowledge about the terms diversity and equality in organisational
context?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) Do you feel that to achieve expected results an organisation is needed to maintain
diversity and equality at workplaces?
a) Yes it is important
b) No it is not important
Q3) What can be the potential drawbacks of diversity at a workplace?
a) Ideological differences among employees
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b) Reduced efficiency of employees
c) Conflicts and issues
Q4) What is the benefit of maintaining diversity at Holiday Inn?
a) More tolerance among employees
b) Variety of perspectives
Q5) In what manner strategies for diversity and equality is going to impact employees at
Holiday Inn?
a) Benefits in increasing motivation
b) High satisfaction among employees
c) Appropriate working culture
Q6) Do you believe adopting diversity and equality at Holiday Inn will help the business
firm in achieving competitive advantage?
a) Yes
b) No
Qualitative Questions
Q7) What are the potential advantages which can be attained by Holiday Inn through
introduction of equality and diversity in organisation?
Q8) How equality in company benefits in improving the productivity and performance of
staff members?
Q9) Discuss some ways by which diversity and equality can be adopted in a business
organisation?
Q10) Recommend some measures through which implementation of diversity at
workplace can be made appropriate...
Questionnaire
Quantitative questions:
Q1) Do have any knowledge about the terms diversity and
equality in organisational context?
Frequency
a) Yes 46
b) No 4
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Q2) Do you feel that to achieve expected results an organisation
is needed to maintain diversity and equality at workplaces?
Frequency
a) Yes it is important 42
b) No it is not important 8
Q3) What can be the potential drawbacks of diversity at a
workplace?
Frequency
a) Ideological differences among employees 10
b) Reduced efficiency of employees 10
c) No drawbacks 30
Q4) What is the benefit of maintaining diversity at Holiday Inn? Frequency
a) More tolerance among employees 15
b) Variety of perspectives 35
Q5) In what manner strategies for diversity and equality is going
to impact employees at Holiday Inn?
Frequency
a) Benefits in increasing motivation 15
b) High satisfaction among employees 15
c) Appropriate working culture 20
Q6) Do you believe adopting diversity and equality at Holiday
Inn will help the business firm in achieving competitive
advantage?
Frequency
a) Yes 40
b) No 10
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TASK 3
P5 Analysis of data and research by using appropriate techniques and tools
Data analysis is referred to the procedure of transforming, cleaning and shaping the
collected information or data so that useful information to take right business decisions can be
generated (Johnson, 2019). With the help of data analysis, new strategies can be prepared so that
equality and diversity at Holiday Inn can be prevailed in a proper manner. In order to perform
data analysis for this research, Thematic approach is used.
Theme 1: Concept of equality and diversity at workplaces
Q1) Do have any knowledge about the terms diversity and
equality in organisational context?
Frequency
a) Yes 46
b) No 4
9
a) Yes b) No
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50 46
4
Frequency

Interpretation: As per this depicted picture, it has been summarised that out of total of 50
persons, 46 people have some idea about the terms like equality and diversity in context of an
organisation. Other four people do not have any idea about the terms equality or diversity and
their role in working of an organisation.
Theme 2: To attain desired outcomes equality and diversity is needed in business organisation
Q2) Do you feel that to achieve expected results an organisation
is needed to maintain diversity and equality at workplaces?
Frequency
a) Yes it is important 42
b) No it is not important 8
Interpretation: In accordance with the response of 42 respondents out of 50 person, it
can be said that maintenance of equality and diversity at business firm is very essential for an
organisation to acquire their expected results. As these aspects will helps in sustaining a positive
10
a) Yes it is important b) No it is not important
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45 42
8
Frequency

working environment at workplace where other 8 persons do not agree with the above stated
facts. These people feel that equality and diversity do not play important role in attaining
expected results for an organisation.
Theme 3: Potential drawbacks associated with diversity in an organisation
Q3) What can be the potential drawbacks of diversity at a
workplace?
Frequency
a) Ideological differences among employees 10
b) Reduced efficiency of employees 10
c) No drawbacks 30
Interpretation: As per this stated graph, it can be concluded that form the total of 50
respondents, 10 individuals feels that diversity at workplace can leads to ideological difference in
employees due to which conflicts can arise among them. Other 10 person feels that diversity will
leads towards reduced efficiency of workforce. Remaining 30 people believe that prevailing
diversity in an organisation do not posses any drawbacks.
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a) Ideological differences among employees
b) Reduced efficiency of employees
c) No drawbacks
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
10 10
30
Frequency

Theme 4: Advantages of maintaining diversity in Holiday Inn?
Q4) What is the benefit of maintaining diversity at Holiday Inn? Frequency
a) More tolerance among employees 15
b) Variety of perspectives 35
Interpretation: From the total of 50 people, 15 people believes that diversity will help the
employees of Holiday Inn to be more tolerate and other 35 respondents feels that indulgence of
diversity in a business firm will helps in gathering of variety of perspectives due to which taking
right business decisions will be easier.
Theme 5: Strategies of diversity and equality impacts employees of Holiday Inn positivity
Q5) In what manner strategies for diversity and equality is going
to impact employees at Holiday Inn?
Frequency
a) Benefits in increasing motivation 15
b) High satisfaction among employees 15
12
a) More tolerance among employees
b) Variety of perspectives
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
15
35
Frequency

c) Appropriate working culture 20
Interpretation: In accordance with the above described graph, this can be acknowledge
that out of 50 individuals, 15 respondents feel that strategies for D&E will helps in improving the
motivation level of workforce so that they can perform their work properly. Other 15 people feel,
these strategies will leads to increase the satisfaction of workers while working in Holiday Inn
due to more transparency whereas remaining 20 people believes that strategies of D&E will
assists the concerned firm in prevailing a positive working environment at workplace.
Theme 6: Adoption of D&E at workplace will help company in gaining competitive advantage
Q6) Do you believe adopting diversity and equality at Holiday
Inn will help the business firm in achieving competitive
advantage?
Frequency
a) Yes 40
13
a) Benefits in increasing motivation
b) High satisfaction among employees
c) Appropriate working culture
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
15 15
20
Frequency

b) No 10
Interpretation: In accordance to this above discussed graph, it has been analysed that out
of 50 persons, 40 individuals feels that adoption of equality and diversity helps a company in
gaining competitive advantage whereas other 10 people do not relate with the fact and considers
its wrong.
Qualitative Questions:
Q7) What are the potential advantages which can be attained by Holiday Inn through
introduction of equality and diversity in organisation?
Answer: In accordance with the response of workers, this has been stated that initiation of
diversity and equality helps in promoting innovation and learning in a company due to which
working capabilities of employees improves. But, some respondents feels that diversity can
bring communication gap among employees which can leads to workplace conflicts.
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a) Yes b) No
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
40
10
Frequency

Q8) How equality in company benefits in improving the productivity and performance of
staff members?
Answer: Response of employees and stakeholders states that equality in a company will
encourage the workers to perform their work with greater efficiency due to transparency in
organisational procedures. Due to this, overall productivity and working potential of employees
will improve. This will influence the performance of company in a positive manner.
Q9) Discuss some ways by which diversity and equality can be adopted in a business
organisation?
Answer: As per the opinion of employees in Holiday Inn, equality can be adopted by giving
equal consideration and treatments to all the staff without any partiality. In case of diversity,
these people states that by hiring people from different religions, caste, culture and ethnicities,
diversity can be maintained in Holiday Inn.
Q10) Recommend some measures through which implementation of diversity at
workplace can be made appropriate...
P6 Discuss appropriate recommendations for research and data analysis so meaningful and valid
conclusions can be drawn
There are some recommendations which can be given to the manager in Holiday Inn so
that they can incorporate strategies of equality and diversity in a proper manner. In context with
this, some strategies and recommendations are given beneath:
 Manager of Holiday Inn is recommended to hire people from different culture,
ethnicities, backgrounds and religions. Due to this, people from different areas will be
part of the hotel and diversity will be maintained in a proper manner.
 In case of equality, manager of company is recommended to offer each employees right
working environment and opportunities so that they can showcase their true working
potential. Due to transparency and equality, no employee will feel offended and
organisational productivity will enhance considerably (Klarsfeld and et. al., 2016).
 In order to improve the working capabilities of employees, manager in Holiday inn is
given recommendation of providing training to each employees. Due to this, workers
which are not efficient can improve themselves and provide equal contribution as an
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efficient employees is giving. By this, equality will be prevailed in organisation in a
proper manner.
 Other recommendation is that company can offer increment to staff on the basis of their
performance rather than their title. Also, females must be given paid leaves at the time of
pregnancy. By this equality and diversity can be incorporated in Holiday Inn in a proper
manner (Kulik, 2014).
TASK 4
P7 Reflect on value of taking appropriate research to achieve desired objectives and own
performance or learning
After accomplishment of this concerned research, I felt very happy as I have
appropriately understood the term like equality and diversity along with their importance in
appropriate working of a business organisation. This project will help the business organisation
in acknowledging various strategies so that diverse employees of a company can feel equal and
perform their work in a proper way. I feel that each minute which I spend on this project is
utilised as I have learned the right way to sustain a positive culture at workplace. By
understanding about diversity and equality, I have understand different ways to retain employees
for maximum time. In order to select this topic, I have taken guidance of my tutor.
Due to presence of technical and logical skills I was able to take right decisions and
formulate right objectives for this project. I have used multiple techniques of project
management and give special consideration to the quality of project. I have felt issues with
managing my finances and time. To overcome these problems I have prepared a time schedule
which help me in accomplishing project activities as per their priority. To overcome the problem
of funds shortage, I have taken help of my parents, friends and tutor. In this way, I was able to
perform my research in a productive and systematic manner.
CONCLUSION
According to the discussed report, this has been summarised that gaining competitive
advantage is only possible if a company have aspects of equality and diversity in their working.
There are different type of initiatives and strategies which can be recommended to the manager
of a company so that right strategies of D&E can be prevailed in a business firm. Some of these
strategies are equal pay to genders, active participation of employees, transparency in
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organisational procedures etc. By this compatibility of employees while performing work will
increase and they will be comfortable while working in diverse working environment. This will
helps in improving overall reputation of concerned business firm.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ackermann, A. and Winston, F., 2019. Intrapreneurship: Strategic Approaches for Managing
Disruptive Innovation in Clinical and Research Projects. Academic Entrepreneurship
for Medical and Health Scientists.1(5). p.6.
Ashe, S. and Nazroo, J., 2017. Equality, diversity and racism in the workplace: A qualitative
analysis of the 2015 race at work survey.
Bell, J. and Harrison, B. T., 2018. Vision and values in managing education: Successful
leadership principles and practice. Routledge.
Glukhov, V. V., Ilin, I. V. and Levina, A. I., 2015. Project management team structure for
internet providing companies. In Internet of Things, Smart Spaces, and Next Generation
Networks and Systems (pp. 543-553). Springer, Cham.
Halibozek, E. and Kovacich, G. L., 2017. The manager's handbook for corporate security:
establishing and managing a successful assets protection program. Butterworth-
Heinemann.
Healy, G. and Oikelome, F., 2017. Racial Inequality and Managing Diversity in the United
Kingdom and United States', Management and Diversity (International Perspectives on
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Volume 3).
Hebl, M. R. and Avery, D. R., 2012. Diversity in organizations. Handbook of Psychology,
Second Edition. 12.
Hewins-Maroney, B. and Williams, E., 2013. The role of public administrators in responding to
changing workforce demographics: Global challenges to preparing a diverse workforce.
Public Administration Quarterly. pp.456-490.
Johnson, A. B., 2019. Project of IT system for Business accelerator for managing cooperation
between startups and corporates (Doctoral dissertation, Instytut Organizacji Systemów
Produkcyjnych).
Klarsfeld, A. and et. al., 2016. Comparative equality and diversity: main findings and research
gaps. Cross cultural & Strategic Management. 23(3). pp.394-412.
Kulik, C. T., 2014. Working below and above the line: the research–practice gap in diversity
management. Human Resource Management Journal. 24(2). pp.129-144.
Kulkarni, M. and Gopakumar, K. V., 2014. Career management strategies of people with
disabilities. Human Resource Management. 53(3). pp.445-466.
Nicholas, J. M. and Steyn, H., 2017. Project management for engineering, business and
technology. Routledge.
Phillips, B. N. And et. al., 2016. Disability diversity training in the workplace: Systematic
review and future directions. Journal of occupational rehabilitation. 26(3). pp.264-275.
Pinto, E. B. and et. al., 2016. Managing a successful university-industry collaborative funded
innovation programme. In ISPIM Conference Proceedings (p. 1). The International
Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM).
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Troutman, D. I., 2019. Managing Projects for More Efficiency in the Healthcare and Payment
Industry: Determination of Key Characteristics and Skills of Successful Project
Managers.
Webb, A., 2017. Project management for successful product innovation. Routledge.
Young, T. L., 2016. Successful project management. Kogan Page Publishers.
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APPENDIX I
Template for evidence collection to be attached with the report by the learner:
Project Logbook for the chosen organisation:
Name of the learner: Name of the Supervisor:
Project Title: Date:
Update of weekly research/ tasks achieved
(Account for a minimum of six weeks with dates) What have you completed?
 Did you fulfil Task requirements?
 Are you on track and within deadlines set?
 Did you need to make any changes to your
project management plan?
Comments
I have completed research on “To
identify the strategies that will help in
sustaining diversity and equality at
workplace.”
yes
Yes, I was on right track
No
Any risks and / or issues identified? Did you identify risks/issues with a lack of
skills required for undertaking research
tasks?
Yes, due to time management skills I
faced issues.
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 Did you identify any additional risks/issues
that have an impact on the project
management plan?
Yes, I had encountered shortage of
money.
Problems encountered What barriers did you face?
 How did you overcome them?
Lack of money and time
I have taken help from my family and
friends.
New Ideas and change of project direction
No
What Have I learnt about myself this week?
 How did I feel when I had to deal with
tasks/problems?
 Did I find it useful to complete the tasks?
I feel quite nervous
Yes, these tasks helps me in improving
my knowledge.
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 How well have I performed? What did I
contribute?
 What can I improve on next week?
 How might this learning apply in the
future?
I have performed good and delivered
my best efforts.
I can improve my analysing and
evaluating skills.
This will help me in conducting future
research appropriately.
Tasks planned for next week
 Which tasks are priority?
 Have you set aside sufficient time for
completion?
Data collecting
Yes
Project plan status to date (on, ahead, behind)
Supervisor comments to address
Signature of the Supervisor and date:
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APPENDIX II
Template for Performance Review to be attached with the report by the learner:
1. What was the Project supposed to accomplish?
The project aims to accomplish the research on “To determine the strategies/initiatives which
will help in building diversity and equality at workplace.”. A study on Holiday Inn.
2. Did the project succeed in its aims/ how do you know? Specifically, please outline
any evaluation and assessment undertaken.
Yes. Evaluation is carried out on the basis of questionnaire.
3. What things do you think worked well and why? Evaluate all aspects of the project
(e.g initial inception, project activities and project outcomes) from a range of
perspectives.
Data collection was carried out properly due to formation of questionnaire.
4. What problems emerged during the project and how were they tackled? Was there
timely identification of issues and resolution during the project process?
Main problem is linked with shortage of funds and time. These are tackled by taking guidance of
friends and family. Yes issues were identified on time.
5. What did you learn from undertaking the project?
Now I have learned about the equality & diversity within office.
6. How would you rate your performance as a management consultant leading the
project?
I will give myself 9 out of 10.
7. What strengths and weakness of your performance did you identify?
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Strength is communication skills and weaknesses is time management.
8. How will this inform and support your continuous professional development?
This research helps me in acknowledging new concepts about diversity and equality
which will leads to CPD.
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