Analyzing Equality and Diversity Strategies: Argos Ltd. Project Report

This report analyzes strategies for implementing equality and diversity within Argos Ltd., a British retail company. The project begins by defining the aims and objectives, which include understanding the meaning and use of equality and diversity, identifying initiatives, and analyzing strategies for a comprehensive working environment. A project management plan is prepared, covering aspects like cost, quality, resources, scope, communication, time, and risk. The plan includes a work breakdown structure and a Gantt chart to organize the project's activities. The research employs both qualitative and quantitative methods to gather data, and the report examines the data using appropriate tools, culminating in recommendations. Finally, the report provides a reflection on the value of the research in meeting objectives and improving learning and performance, concluding with a discussion of the findings and their implications for Argos Ltd.

Managing a Successful
Business Project

Table of Contents
TOPIC..............................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
Define aims and objectives of project........................................................................................1
Prepare a project management plan...........................................................................................2
Formulate work breakdown structure and Gantt chart for work completion.............................4
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................6
Develop a small-scale research by using qualitative and quantitative research methods..........6
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................9
Examine research and data using appropriate tools and techniques..........................................9
Communicate proper recommendations as a result of research and data analysis...................15
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................16
Provide reflection on the value of research undertakings to meet objectives, learning and
performance...............................................................................................................................16
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18

TOPIC
“To analyse strategies that can be implemented by an organisation for the purpose of
bringing equity as well as diversity at working environment.” A case study on Argos ltd.
INTRODUCTION
Equality refers to an approach that are used to treat their workforce equally in respect of
their gender, region, caste as well as nationality whereas, diversity refers to the different cultures
and generations of employees who are working together in an organization (Boddewyn, 2015).
These both concepts are very significant for a business that helps in motivating workers in order
to accomplish organizational goals and objectives in a successful manner. It is important to have
an inclusive and diverse workforce in the organisation so that equal opportunities of growth are
given to all the workers irrespective of their religion, caste, sex, age etc. this helps in increasing
the productivity and efficiency of workers so that their performance can help in achieving
organisational goals on time. It also helps in boosting the trust and confidence of workers which
is essential for the overall development of the company in the competitive global market. This
makes the study of this topic important so that organisations can apply equality and diversity in
their organisations which helps them in gaining a competitive advantage. In this report Argos
Ltd. is chosen that is a British catalogue retail organization which was founded in United
Kingdom and Ireland which was established in 1972. The company trades through online as well
as offline. Under this project discuss about research activity that are performed by a business in
order to deal with equality and diversity at their working environment. The purpose of this
research is to analyse and identify the diversity as well as equality at workplace in order to gain
correct and valuable informations which should be required to formulated strategies that are
applied in a company. For example: in this research disclose about the importance of initiative
and strategies which are required to bring workplace equality and diversity. This also covers
aims and objectives of research project as well as prepare project management plan accordance
with this. In addition, work breakdown structure and Gantt chart are formulated to decide the
framework of project and conduct small scale research as well by using the qualitative and
quantitative methods.
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LO 1
Define aims and objectives of project.
Company overview:
Argos ltd. Is a catalogue retailer which was founded in 1972 as it headquarters in
England, United Kingdom. It consider as a subsidiary of Sainsbury and trade through offline as
physical stores and online also. This is one of the largest street retailer of UK that having 883
shops across various parts of UK as well as Ireland. This company is currently focused on the
expansion strategy it has started franchising in countries such as China. While the expansional
demographic increase the workplace diversity as all employees are recruited from different
location, cultures as well as have unique features and expectations. In order to that, it is
necessary for the management of a company to have equality policy in order to maintain the
harmony at working environment.
Aim:
The aim of this project is “To analyse the strategies and initiatives which can be
implemented by Argos ltd. in order to carry out equality as well as diversity at their working
place.”
Objectives:
The main objectives of this research are as follows:
 To know about the meaning and use of equality as well as diversity in workforce.
 To identify the initiatives that can be interpreted by Argos ltd. to bring equality as well as
diversity working environment.
 To analyse several strategies that can be implemented by Argos ltd. in order develop
comprehensive working environment.
Prepare a project management plan.
Project management plan defines as an approach that are used to identify the company's
aims and objectives in order to prepare realistic as well as detailed plan for performing activities
in respects of fulfilment of objectives and goals appropriately (What is a project management
plan? 2016). This kind of plan is used to formulate an action plan that are in accordance with the
prediction of risks and issues as well as successfully organized and control all activities of
project. This helps in minimising the future risks, cost as well as completed in a well-managed
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way after focusing on their several aspects. These elements involve cost, quality, scope,
communication, risk as well as time and resources which helps in bringing diversity and equality
at Argos ltd. workplace.
These all determinants of project management plan are considered below:
Aspects
Cost This considered as a most important aspect as it includes the estimation of
entire projects that is to be needed in achieving their objectives effectively. A
company like Argos ltd. allocate £50000 in order to fulfilling the activities
such as investment in new assets, changes implementation, training and
development program for employees, fulfilling the needs of resources as well
as doing research and development activity that are require for effective
completion of project as per the research information. Whereas, researchers
also estimate their cost for conducting research in a appropriate manner and
collect valuable information as they required £7000.
Quality It is essential at a time of conducting research in order to gathering high
quality, valuable and reliable data's and information regarding a particular
topic (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017). Investigators use qualitative as well as
quantitative methods for this purpose whereas, project manager of Argos ltd.
takes benefits of reliable data for executing all activities appropriately within a
specified period of time. The manager of a company applies some kind of acts
to ensures the work quality such as quality of information act. Various quality
management tools can be used so that the authenticity and reliability of the
sources from which information are collected can be increased. Quality
control chart, flow chart etc. can be used in order to maintain the quality if the
research work so that the requirements of the project can be efficiently met.
Resources A project requires many resources like human, technological as well as
financial that helps in developing their workforce in order to meet
organizational objectives effectively. Project manager of Argos ltd. requires
money, efforts, latest technologies as well as planned schedule for satisfying
the needs and wants of the customers. Whereas, researchers need fund, time,
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fast speed of internet connection as well as efforts to collect reliable and
valuable information.
Scope Maintaining equality and diversity at workplace has wider scope as it
encourages to create a healthy working environment which indirectly supports
employees in increasing their performance and productivity level. On the
other side, Researchers understand the whole concept and uses of equality and
diversity which are helpful when undertaking future research.
Communication To bring diversity and equality at workplace management is required to take
initiatives as well as formulate effective strategies in order to implement
effective communication channels which includes meetings, seminars, notice
board etc. so that the policies can be easily communicated to the employees.
Investigator use emails and telephones for communicating with their
respondents and team member of research so that the reliability of gathered
data can be maintained (Burns, 2016).
Time Researchers would require a time period of 15 weeks in order to collect actual
information in a specified period of time. Whereas, company requires 3
months for implementing strategies and initiatives successfully as well as
systematically.
Risk It is a common aspect that are occurs at a time of performing activities.
Researchers may face risks related to the collection of inappropriate
information and sample size which delays in performance. Whereas,
company's manager cannot implement its strategies effectively due to the
inaccurate data so it creates negative working environment. For mitigate the
risk a researcher can use sampling methods for selecting appropriate sample
size in order to collect accurate informations which helps to managers in order
to implement effective strategies as per the collected data. Various risks such
as shortage if time, funds, inappropriate sources for data collection etc. can be
faced by the researcher. These risks can be efficiently dealt with by the use of
appropriate planning through WBS, Gantt Chart etc. which can help in using
the limited resources in an efficient manner so that desired results can be
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achieved on time.
Formulate work breakdown structure and Gantt chart for work completion.
Work breakdown structure used to decomposition the entire activities into small
divisions which are measurable are needs to complete project within the particular time
framework. With a purpose of minimise critical accidents and cleared that in an appropriate way
which is to be easily carried out by team members (Dai, 2014). This structure assists in
calculating entire costs of a specific activity and huge control over tasks as well as investigators
divide whole tasks into different schedules for completing research activity within the time-
frames. Whereas, a manager of project handling requires WBS in order to attain organisational
objectives effectively.
Gantt chart refers to the diagrammatic representation that is applied at a time of project
management in order to display and succeed all activities within the time period through MS
Excel or other tools. This will help in showing the start and end dates of event and allocate
required resources and money on each (Eriksson, 2015). The manager gets benefits of available
resources on time to complete the project as well as implementing strategies to adopts changes
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Diversity and
Inclusion
Introduction LO1
Aim
Objectives
Project
Management Plan
Cost
Scope
Time
Quality
Communication
Risk
Resources
LO2
Conduct Small
Scale Research
Research
Methodology
Quantitative
Method
Qualitative Method
Data Collection
Method
Sampling Method
Data Analysis
Method
LO3
Findings and
Analysis
Conclusion
and
Recommend
ations
LO4
Reflective
Statement
References
Books
Journal Articles
Professional and
Organisational
Report
Appendix
Questionnaire
Template

appropriately. Moreover, researcher apply this chart while gather facts, information and figures
as well.
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LO 2
Develop a small-scale research by using qualitative and quantitative research methods.
While conducting research activity, proper investigation is essential that are
happened by using appropriate methods of research to collect reliable and valid information.
Along with this, relevant data's helps in doing research in appropriate manner and it will be
manageable to interpret (Fageha and Aibinu, 2013). In addition to this, information is
required systematic and set of study related to the specific topic of research should be
appropriate.
Research methods: There are basically two types of methods for doing research that are
considered as follows:
Qualitative research method: This form of data collection is used by investigators
for the purpose of successful completion of tasks in accordance of their research
information. This method is used for gathering theoretical data's, tools as well as methods
for successfully completion of tasks (Johanson and Mattsson, 2015). Literature review,
statements, author's prospective as well as other measures to complete as well as provide
deep investigation about a topic. This also helps in enhancing reader’s knowledge and it is
not included any kind of numeric data's and figures for the completion of tasks.
Quantitative method of research: It is defined as a method that are used various
types of statistical data's, figures and facts to perform the research in an appropriate manner.
This is totally depending on the numerical data's as it not focusing on theoretical
information. The whole content of research is provided along with the numerical figures.
Sources of data collection: It defines as a source that is in use by the investigator in order
to accomplished the investigation. Firstly, the method of data collection is chosen and after
that data is being accumulated in order to accomplished the research activity (Kendrick,
2015). There are mainly two types of sources which are used to collect data. These are
considered as follows:
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 Primary method of data collection: It considered as a collection of information as a
first hand which is fresh and applicable to use in task completion. This includes
survey, interviews as well as questionnaires in order to know about real facts of
persons.
 Secondary method of data collection: It refers to the collection of information as a
second time or use already available resources that are used before by other
investigators. It includes journals, magazines etc. and use already existing data to
support the issues and arguments (Wen and Qiang, 2019).
Sample Size: It is the determination of taking the selected numbers of observation which
includes in a statistical sample. It is an important factor that are make goals in order to make
interference about a population from a sample. In this research the sample size is 40 for
gathering the information.
Questionnaire: It defined as a specific set of questions that are formulated by researcher to
collect data's and information which helps in completing the tasks in a successful manner.
LO 3
Examine research and data using appropriate tools and techniques.
Theme 1. Understanding about equality and diversity at workplace.
Q1) Do you know about the concept of equality and diversity workplace
environment?
Frequency
a) Yes 25
b) No 15
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25
15
a) Yes
b) No
Interpretation: It can be interpreted from the above chart that 25 out of 40 respondents
know about the meaning and uses of diversified and equitable workplace but rest of the like 15
are not agree with the understanding of concepts of equality and diversity and its uses at working
environment of a company.
Theme 2. Essential to bring diverse environment.
Q2) Is it necessary to carry diverse working environment of Argos ltd.? Frequency
a) Yes 35
b) No 5
35
5
a) Yes
b) No
Interpretation: It can be investigating from the above graph that 35 answerers out of the
40 believes that diverse working place is needed in Argos ltd. in order to provide motivation to
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their employees for improving their performance (Martini, Pareto and Bosch, 2013). Whereas,
5 respondents think that there is no requirement of diverse kind of environment at their
company's workplace.
Theme 3. Impact of diversity and equality at workplace.
Q3) What will be the effect of delivering diversity and equality at
company's workplace?
Frequency
a) Positive workplace 10
b) Employees motivation 12
c) Both 18
10
12
18 a) Positive workplace
b) Employees motivation
c) Both
Interpretation: From the above diagram, it has been understood that 10 answerers
consider that diversity and equality will bring down a positive workplace environment. Whereas,
12 respondents think that it will advantage to employee motivation. The remaining 18 answerer
conceive that it will develop both positive workplace as well as motivate employees to perform
tasks in an effective manner.
Theme 4. Strategies which can be adopted by the company for bringing diverse and
inclusive environment of workplace.
Q4) What kind of strategies that can be formulated and implemented by
Argos ltd. for developing a diverse and comprehensive environment of
Frequency
10