Impact of Pay Gap on Employee Performance: A Study

This research project proposal investigates the impact of pay gaps on employee interest and performance within the beauty industry, specifically focusing on L'Oreal. The study aims to understand the concept of pay gaps in the context of equality and diversity, identify the effects of these gaps on employees, assess strategies to reduce their impact, and provide recommendations to L'Oreal. The proposal outlines the research objectives, rationales, literature review, activities, timescales, research methodologies (qualitative and quantitative), data collection methods, sampling techniques, and ethical considerations. It utilizes both primary and secondary data sources, including questionnaires for data collection from 20 managers of L’Oreal Company. The project also includes a detailed timeline, Gantt chart, and ethical approval form to ensure the research adheres to ethical standards.

RESEARCH PROJECT

Contents
Research Proposal Form........................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................10
APPENDIX.........................................................................................................................................11
Research Ethics approval form........................................................................................................11

Research Proposal Form
Student Name: ______________________ Student ID: ____________
Centre Name: _____________________
Tutor: ________________ Date: ___________________
Unit: ____________________
Proposed Title: “To investigate the impact of pay gap in respect of affecting the employee’s
interest and their performances in context of beauty industry.”
Section One: Title, objective, responsibilities
Title or working title of the research project (in the form of a question, objective or
hypothesis)
INTRODUCTION
Equality and diversity refers to maintaining equal relation with the employees
regarding assigning equal task to every employees by viewing their capacity and skills.
Present research is based upon the topic relating to the examining the pay gaps between the
employees which affecting their interest and performances to provide productive results
(Syed, Ali and Hennekam, 2018). Pay gaps refers to paying remuneration to different
employees by viewing their skills and experienced to accomplish the task in better way.
Present report is based upon the study of the L’Oreal Company which was founded in 1909
by Eugene Schueller dealing in wider range of beauty products. At present they are engaged
with around 86,000 employees carrying the business worldwide.
Aim and objectives:
Aim: To examine the impact of how the pay gap affects the integrity of employees and their
performances in the organization- A study on L’Oreal beauty Company.
Objectives:
 To understand the concept of pay gap in equality and diversity
 To identify the impact of pay gap on employees and their performances in the
organization
 To assess the strategies that helps in reducing the impact of pay gap on employees and
their performances at work place.
 To provide recommendation to L’Oreal company regarding adapting the best
strategies to reduce the impact of pay gap on employees and their performances.
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?):
Research Question

1. What is the meaning of the pay gap in context of equality and diversity?
2. How the impact of pay gap affects the interest of employees and their performances in
the organization?
3. What are the strategies that helps in reducing the impact of pay gap on employees and
their performances at work place?
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):
Rational:
The reason behind choosing this topic is that researcher carry the interest on the
beauty products and thus it’s interesting to examine the working style of L’Oreal Company
and also the strategies which the HR uses to retain the employees interest. Another reason of
selecting this topic is that lot of authors had already conduct the research relevant to this
topic, thus it requires less resources and time to gather the information relevant to this topic.
Section Three: Literature sources searched
Use of key literature sources to support your research question, objective or hypothesis:
Sultan and Wong (2019) stated that pay gap refers to paying different amount to the
employees who are working at the same scale. Thus, through this manner, the crises raised
regarding employees turnover and also low productivity in the organization. Bravo and et.al.,
(2017) argued that pay gap is mainly undertaken by the owners regarding differentiating the
capability and skills of the person and also the person is recruited by their knowledge and
experiences and accordingly remuneration is decided and allotted.

According to Meara, Pastore and Webster (2017) the impact raised in respect of less
productivity in the organization regarding not working as a team. If employees are
differentiated on the bases of salary or wages, it results in bringing crises between the
employees to work as a team and also follow the guidance which is instructed by the
superiors (How Gender Pay Gap Affects Your Business, 2020). Another impact is examined
through carrying the effective communication with the employees. As if employees are
differentiated, they not communicate directly with the superiors regarding attaining the task.
Pakurár and et.al., (2019) suggested that by maintaining transparency at work place
helps in reducing the impact of pay gap between the employees. By imposing similar work
policies helps in reducing the impact of discriminating regarding paying unequal money to
the employees (Chuang and Lin, 2017). Thus, company policies are equivalent for every
employees and also if in any case it is higher, the reason behind the higher wages is to be
described.
Azmat (2019) highlights the matters that communication is the best procedure through
which the issues regarding pay gap is to be recovered at work place. As if the issue raised,
facing barriers between the employees in respect of pay gap, by carrying effective
communication with the employees resulting in reducing the impact in better way.
Section Four: Activities and timescales
Activities to be carried out during the research project (e.g
research, development and analysis of ideas, writing, data
collection, numerical analysis, tutor meetings, production of final
outcome, evaluation, writing the report):
Task Mode Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Auto
Scheduled
Formulation of
research aim and
objective
5 days Fri
4/24/20
Thu
4/30/20
Auto
Scheduled
Reviewing the
literature 6 days Fri 5/1/20 Fri 5/8/20 1
Auto
Scheduled
Research methods
selection 8 days Mon
5/11/20
Wed
5/20/20 2
Auto
Scheduled
Formulation of
questionnaire 3 days Thu
5/21/20
Mon
5/25/20 3
Auto Sending 4 days Tue Fri 2,4
How long this
will take:

Scheduled questionnaire for data
collection 5/26/20 5/29/20
Auto
Scheduled Collecting of data 6 days Mon
6/1/20
Mon
6/8/20 5
Auto
Scheduled Data interpretation 10 days Tue
6/9/20
Mon
6/22/20 6
Auto
Scheduled
Conclusion and
Recommendation 4 days Tue
6/23/20
Fri
6/26/20 7
Auto
Scheduled Formatting 2 days Mon
6/29/20
Tue
6/30/20 8
Auto
Scheduled Taking feedback 4 days Wed
7/1/20
Mon
7/6/20 9
Auto
Scheduled
Doing changes as per
the feedback
provided
6 days Tue
7/7/20
Tue
7/14/20 10
Auto
Scheduled Final submission 1 day Wed
7/15/20
Wed
7/15/20 11
Milestone one: _________________
Target date (set by tutor): ____________________
Milestone two: _______________________
Target date (set by tutor): ______________________
Gantt Chart

Section Five: Research approach and methodologies
What type of research approach and methodologies are you likely to use and why?
What your areas of research will cover:
Research types: It covers two methods such as qualitative and quantitative method. In this
research, researcher will apply the qualitative method in which they raise questionnaire from
the participant regarding gathering the information relating to reducing the issues of pay gap
with the employees.
Research approach: It carries the appropriate planning to gather the information and by this
manner, it includes two types such as inductive and deductive. In this research, researcher
will choose the inductive method in which by using qualitative method, they can gather the
internal information by using various sources (Kumar, 2019).
Research philosophies: In this ideas and belief are undertaken to gather the information and
by this aspects two method are raised, interpretivism and positivism. To carry the research in

better manner, researcher will apply the interpretivism method in which they interpret the
information which is collected from various authors’ research.
Data collection: Data is collected by using two sources primary and secondary. To present the
unique information, researcher will prefer both eth method to carry the research work. By
using primary method they can present original and unique information and in respect of
secondary method, they can gather the information from various articles, books, magazines
etc (Bresler and Stake, 2017).
Sampling: It is mainly used regarding collecting the data from random people and thus, in
this research, researcher will chose 20 managers of L’Oreal Company regarding reducing the
issues of pay gap and also share the strategies regarding retaining employees interest at work
place.
Data analysis: In this method, information is to be presented on the bases of theme. Thus, the
data which is gathered from primary and secondary are mainly presented through the
thematic format (Wiek and Lang, 2016).
Ethical consideration: In this research, researcher had to maintain ethics in respect carrying
the consent form which is to be signed by the participants regarding taking permission from
disclosing any information in the research (Attia and Edge, 2017).
Reliability and validity: It refers to the two method to measure the accuracy of the research.
In respect of reliability, it refers to examining the consistency of the information. In case of
validity, it refers to accuracy of the information which is gathered from authentic sites
(Ørngreen and Levinsen, 2017).
Comments and agreement from tutor
Comments (optional):
I confirm that the project is not work which has been or will be submitted for another
qualification and is appropriate.
Agreed: ________________ (name)_______________ Date ______________
Comments and agreement form project proposal checker( IV sampling)
Comments (Optional):

I confirm that the project is appropriate.
Agreed /Disagree: (Name of the IV)
Date

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Attia, M. and Edge, J., 2017. Be (com) ing a reflexive researcher: a developmental approach
to research methodology. Open Review of Educational Research. 4(1). pp.33-45.
Azmat, G., 2019. Gender diversity in teams. IZA World of Labor.
Bravo, R and et.al., 2017. Managing brand identity: effects on the employees. International
Journal of Bank Marketing.
Bresler, L. and Stake, R. E., 2017. Qualitative research methodology in music education.
In Critical Essays in Music Education. (pp. 113-128). Routledge.
Chuang, S. H. and Lin, H. N., 2017. Performance implications of information-value offering
in e-service systems: Examining the resource-based perspective and innovation
strategy. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems. 26(1). pp.22-38.
Kumar, R., 2019. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage
Publications Limited.
Meara, K., Pastore, F. and Webster, A., 2017. Is the gender pay gap in the US just the result
of gender segregation at work?.
Ørngreen, R. and Levinsen, K., 2017. Workshops as a Research Methodology. Electronic
Journal of E-learning. 15(1). pp.70-81.
Pakurár, M and et.al., 2019. The service quality dimensions that affect customer satisfaction
in the Jordanian banking sector. Sustainability. 11(4). p.1113.
Sultan, P. and Wong, H. Y., 2019. How service quality affects university brand performance,
university brand image and behavioural intention: The mediating effects of
satisfaction and trust and moderating roles of gender and study mode. Journal of
Brand Management. 26(3). pp.332-347.
Syed, J., Ali, F. and Hennekam, S., 2018. Gender equality in employment in Saudi Arabia: a
relational perspective. Career Development International.
Wiek, A. and Lang, D. J., 2016. Transformational sustainability research methodology.
In Sustainability science. (pp. 31-41). Springer, Dordrecht.
Online
How Gender Pay Gap Affects Your Business. 2020. [Online]. Available through: <
https://blog.vantagecircle.com/gender-pay-gap/>.

APPENDIX
Research Ethics approval form
Section 1: Basic details:
Project title: “To investigate the impact of pay gap in respect of affecting the employee’s
interest and their performances in context of beauty industry.”
Student name:
Student ID number:
Programme:
College Name:
Intended research start date:
Intended research end date:
Section 2 Project summary
Please select all research methods that you plan to use as a part of your project:
 Interviews Yes No
 Questionnaires Yes No
 Observations Yes No
 Use of personal records Yes No
 Data Analysis Yes No
 Action Research Yes No
 Focus Groups Yes No
 Others (Please specify) :
Section 3: Participants
Please answer the following questions, giving full details where necessary.
Will your research involve human participants? Yes
Who are the participants? Tick all that apply:
Ages 12-16: Young people aged: 17-18 Adults: 18>
How will participants be recruited (identified an approached)?
Email,Text
Describe the processes you will use to inform participants about what you are doing:
Direct interaction and email
How will you obtain consent from participants? Will this be written? How will it be made clear to participants
that they may withdraw consent to participate at any time?
Ethical approval form
Studies involving questionnaires: will participants be given the option of omitting questions that do not wish to
answer? Yes No
If no please explain why below and ensure that you cover any ethical issues arising from this
Studies involving observation: Confirm whether participants will be asked for their informed consent to be
observed. Yes No
Will you debrief participants at the end of their participation (i.e give them a brief explanation of the study)?
Yes No
Will participants be given information about the findings of your study?(This could be a brief summary of
your findings in general) Yes No
Section 4: Data Storage and Security
Confirm that all personal data will be stored and processed in compliance with the Data Protection Act (1998)
Yes No

Who will have access to the data and personal information?
Through laptops
During the research: laptops
Where will the data be stored? Pen drive
Will mobile devices such as USB storage and laptops be used
Yes No
If Yes, please provide further details:
After the research:
Where will the data be stored?
Hard drive
How long will the data and records be kept for and in what format? Till data analysis
Will data be kept for use by other researchers? Yes No
Section 5 : Ethical Issues
Are there any particular features of your proposed work, which may raise ethical concerns? If so, please
outline how you will deal with these:
It is important that you demonstrate your awareness of potential risks that may arise because of your research.
Please consider/address all issues that may apply. Ethical concerns may include, but are not limited to the
following :
 Informed consent.
 Potentially vulnerable participants.
 Sensitive topics
 Risk to participants and /or researchers
 Confidentiality/anonymity
 Disclosures/ limits to confidentiality
 Data storage and security, both during and after the research (including transfer, sharing, encryption,
protection).
 Reporting
 Dissemination and use of your findings.
Section 6: Declaration
I have read, understood and will abide by the institution’s Research and Ethics Policy: Yes
No
I have discussed the ethical issues relating to my research with my Unit Tutor:
Yes No
I confirm that to the best of my knowledge:
The above information is correct, and this is a full description of the ethical issues that may arise in the
course of my research