Clarks Shoes: Building a Diverse and Inclusive Workplace Project

This report, prepared for a BTEC HND in Business module, examines Clarks Shoes' strategies and initiatives for building a diverse and inclusive workplace. The project focuses on understanding the concept of an inclusive workforce, identifying effective strategies, and determining initiatives to promote equality and diversity. The report includes a project management plan with cost, time, quality, risk, communication, scope, and resource considerations. It utilizes WBS structure and Gantt chart for project management, employs both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, and presents findings from a survey of ten respondents. The report concludes with recommendations for data analysis and reflection on the study's objectives.

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MANAGING SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS PROJECT

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Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
TOPIC- ............................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Aims and Objectives ..............................................................................................................3
Project Management Plan ......................................................................................................4
WBS Structure and Gantt Chart ............................................................................................5
Research Methodology includes quantitative and qualitative approach in order to accomplish
set standards............................................................................................................................7
Questionnaire:.........................................................................................................................9
Study data gathered by using best tools and techniques.......................................................10
Provide appropriate recommendation for data analysis.......................................................20
Study the undertaking to accomplish set goals and objectives and own learning and
performance..........................................................................................................................20
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................21
APPENDIX I.................................................................................................................................22

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Equality and diversity play a vital role in growth and development of the business across
the globe. Various strategies are created in order to develop a diverse workplace. How
organization can build diversity in the premises is studied to frame tactics for effective results.
Project management plan is designed so that best result is achieved. Ten respondents are taken in
order to address to the question. Best tools and techniques are used so as to analyse the data in an
appropriate way. Along with this recommendation are given for further improvements in the
findings.
TOPIC-
“To determine the strategies and initiatives taken by business to build a diverse and
inclusive workplace.” A case study on Clarks shoes.
INTRODUCTION
Equality and diversity are determined as a legal obligation that is utilised to protect
individuals from discrimination which can be against caste, creed, gender, age, race, religion,
belief, etc. The organisations which are diverse and inclusive always deliver better and
innovative results (Bouncken and Reuschl, 2018). This report is based upon an enterprise named
Clarks shoes which is a British based organisation that deals with manufacturing and retailing of
shoes at multinational level. This project focuses upon strategies and initiatives brought by this
company for building diverse workplace and determine the aims and objectives of this report. A
project management plan is developed for this purpose and different tools are also used. Further
it covers small scale research that by using qualitative and quantitative research methods and its
presentation. At the end of the report, appropriate recommendations and reflection is given.
Aims and Objectives
Background of the company
Clarks shoes is a British based shoes manufacturer and retailer organisation that deals
with selling of shoes at international level. It was founded on 1825 by brothers James and Cyrus
Clark and its headquarter is in England. This organisation has around 1000 branded shoes
franchises around the world and it also deals in third party distribution. This enterprise believes
that for bringing up better innovation it is important for an enterprise to develop a diverse and
inclusive working culture.

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Aim
The aim of this project is, “To determine the strategies and initiatives that can be brought
up by companies to build a diverse and inclusive workplace.”
Objectives
The objectives towards which this research is conducted are-
 To study the concept of inclusive and diverse workforce.
 To identify the strategies that can be used by Clarks shoes to develop a diverse
workplace.
 To determine the initiatives that can be taken by Clarks shoes to bring equality and
diversity at workplace.
Questions
 What is the concept of inclusive and diverse workforce?
 What are the strategies that can be used by Clarks shoes for developing a diverse
workplace?
 What are the initiatives that can be taken by Clarks shoes for bringing equality and
diversity at workplace?
Literature Review:
To study the concept of inclusive and diverse workforce.
According to Lydia Dishman, 2019, inclusive and diverse workforce is important to
introduce in the working premises because through this firm is able to compete with its rivalry
prevailing in the open market place. Diversity is explained as, people working from several
background under one roof in order to achieve the set goals and objective in the specified
deadline. There are several issues faced by employees in inclusive and diverse workforce which
are, generation gap, growing trench etc.
As per the viewpoint of Neil Kokemuller, 2017, diverse workforce within a company
provides various advantages to both employer and employees. It ensures availability of
employees with different backgrounds and diverse skills which means the company as a whole
has more expertise and experience in critical areas that may influence the company (What Is
Organizational Diversity in the Workplace? 2017).
To identify the strategies that can be used by Clarks shoes to develop a diverse workplace.

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According to Nitisha, 2017, organization can frame diverse workforce in the working
premises by framing strong strategies and motivating employees to be a part of change which is
taking place in the premises. By scanning the internal and external environment tactics should be
framed in order to build diverse workplace smoothly. Additionally,diverse workplace aid firm to
survive in the market for longer time duration.
To determine the initiatives that can be taken by Clarks shoes to bring equality and diversity at
workplace.
According to Aditi Pant, 2016, diversity can be introduced in the workplace by recruiting
skilled and capable employees from distinguish region for the vacant position. By this gradually
diverse culture can be build at workplace. It is beneficial for the organization because they are
able to accomplish their set goals and objectives in the specified time duration. By framing
strong policies equality and diversity can be build easily with less resistance from employees.
This helps the company to be in the leading position among its rivalry.
Project Management Plan
Project management plan is determined as a document that is used by various
organisations for the purpose of describing each and every phase of a project (Brennan, 2018).
The components which are concluded in this plan are initiation, plan, action, implementation,
control and closing. Here, this project plan is developed upon the how an organisation can bring
equality and diversity at workplace. It is elaborated as follows-
Cost- It is an amount that is required to implement a project so that its objectives can be
met. The cost which is required to implement this project in an appropriate manner is £250
which is distributed as follows-
Total Forecasted Budget
Particulars Amount
Cost of advertising £50
Technical Cost £100
Other Expenses £100
Total Cost £250

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Time- It is the period within which a specific project is required to be completed and all
the objectives must be fulfilled. The time taken to finish this project is 12 weeks.
Quality- The quality of this research is good because this research is conducted by
utilising all the necessary and relevant data. This research is conducted based on primary data
which makes it even more reliable (Bryson, 2018). For maintaining the quality and reliability of
data, investigator make sure that data is collected from authentic sources. The researcher ensures
that the quality and reliability of data is maintained so that valid conclusion of research can be
drawn.
Risk- It includes several barriers that is raised at the time of conduction of research and it
also affects the quality of the research. During this research the risk has been arise because of
less time and that will vanished after a period of time.
Communication- An adequate communication must be there to formulate a specific
research. While conducting this research, both oral and written communication is used and equal
opportunity is given to all team members to take decisions regarding this research.
Scope- This research will help the project manager and other team members to enhance
their specific skills such as research and analytical skills which will open up certain opportunities
for them in future. The scope of research is wide as it helps researcher in determining the
strategies and initiatives that assists in developing diverse and inclusive workplace culture. It
further helps scholars in conducting further studies on topic.
Resource- In order to conduct this research, there are various resources are utilised such
as human, technical, financial, physical and other resources (Hajro and Pudelko, 2017).
WBS Structure and Gantt Chart
There are various tools and techniques that can be used to develop an appropriate and
proper project management plan. For implementing this research, the tools that are used are
WBS Structure and Gantt Chart which are elaborated as follows-
WBS Structure- It is a tool that has been used for project management plan by which the
project is divided into several parts. It also helps the organisation to perform the work in
managerial form. It also provides the framework to the business that includes the complete cost
estimation that helps to control and monitor the different function of the structure. From this
structure the company can control and developed the best plan that leads to the growth of the

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company. This structure is normally used to differentiate the work and that helps in smooth
execution of the project. This could help the company as by this the differentiated work is assign
to those who have better knowledge of that particular braked project and that makes the outcome
even more effective (Honeyman and Jana, 2019). Whereas, this tool also provides the estimated
time, cost and risk that is required at the time of implementation of the project.
Gantt Chart- It is bar graph representation that is used to elaborate the complete
schedule of the project and also defines the relationship between the different activities that has
been performed during the completion of project. This chart has been used by the project
manager to get to know about the different factor that affects the different phase of the project.

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Whereas, all the activities are interrelated to each other and that all provide relative information
of each other that is helpful for the completion of task within a particular period of time
(Minbaeva, 2018).
Research Methodology includes quantitative and qualitative approach in order to accomplish set
standards.
Research Methodology is a well-organized process which is used to select, analyse,
process and identify information about the topic. This helps researcher to critically examine a
study's overall reliability and authenticity. The purpose of research methodology is to gather data
so that business can make better decision (Kumar, 2019).
Qualitative approach: Research uses this approach as there is less use of numerical
numbers ion the findings. It is easy to understand as there is no graphical presentation in it's data.

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Qualitative approach mainly focusses on quality of information due to which readers are
provided with authentic data and information (Northouse, 2017).
Quantitative approach: It uses more mathematical numbers in order to present their
accumulated information. There is wide variety of graphs, pie charts, diagrams etc. in their data.
It is complex in nature it consumes more time while understanding information from graphical
diagrams. But it makes the report more presentable in nature and large number of readers are
attracted towards findings.
There are two types of approaches such as qualitative and quantitate. In the current
project researcher adopts both qualitative approaches in their findings in order to get productive
outcomes from the findings. Qualitative approach helps to assemble high quality data for the
readers. However, it does not use any mathematical figure and diagram due to which reader can
easily grab information from the project.
Primary data collection method: This is widely used by the researcher in their findings
as the data gathered are fresh. It assists in providing authentic and feasible information to its
readers. It helps to provide accurate and correct information to the readers over the years.
Secondary data collection method: In this case, other investigator has already used the
assembled information and data in their findings. Due to which concluded results is not accurate
in nature. It makes readers unsatisfied with the findings. (O’SULLIVAN1a and KEARNEY,
2018).
Clarks shoes adopts primary data collection method in their findings they data are
directly collected from respondents which helps to conclude accurate results. It is time
consuming and costly but the outcomes are feasible which helps researcher to build goodwill in
the market for their findings.
Sampling: It is a process used for examining statistical analysis in that predetermined
number of observations are selected from large population. There are two type of sampling
which are probability sampling and non- probability sampling. Random sampling method is
used in the firm because it provides equal chance to be chosen. Systematic bias is abolished from
random sampling. The sample size was 10 communicators.
Research design: It is a method used for collecting data and inlaying measures of the
variables showcased in the research problem. Questionnaire, survey, case study and so on are
various sources through which research design can be gained.

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For the research project questionnaire is selected from research design as it helps in
gathering accurate and relevant information.
The below questionnaire is based on primary data collection method. Here, directly from
respondents the questions is asked and their perception is collected.

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Questionnaire:
Quantitative questions
Q1) Do you have understanding regarding phenomena of diverse and inclusive workplace
in Clarks shoes?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) Is it important to build diverse working environment in Clarks shoes?
a) Yes
b) No
Q3) How diverse background motivates Clarks shoes employees to gain set goals?
a) Create positive working environment
b) By providing reward and recognition
c) Through celebration
Q4) What are the ways by which Clarks shoes can build diverse and inclusive workplace?
a) Empower mangers
b) Create mentorship programs
c) Create diverse opportunities for workers involvement
Q5) What are the barriers faced by Clarks shoes while building diverse and inclusive
workplace?
a) Conflict raised
b) Productivity decreased
c) Employee turn out ratio raised
Q6) List the benefits which can be gained by Clarks shoes by building diverse sand
inclusive workplace?
a) Innovation take place
b) Competitive advantages are gained
c) Goodwill enhanced
Qualitative Questions:
Q7) What are the ways by which barriers related to diverse sand inclusive workplace in
Clarks shoes can be reduced?
a) Provide diversity training