Analyzing Equality and Diversity Strategies for Competitive Advantage

This project investigates equality and diversity strategies that can be adopted by organizations to gain a competitive advantage, using Marks and Spencer as a case study. The project outlines the background, aims, and objectives, including an analysis of the importance of equality and diversity, its impact on employee performance and behavior, and strategies for effective implementation. The project includes a project management plan covering costs, scope, time, quality, communication, risk, and resources, along with a Gantt chart and work breakdown structure. Qualitative research methods, specifically a thematic data analysis, were employed through surveys to collect primary data from 30 employees. The project concludes with recommendations based on the research and data analysis, emphasizing the value of undertaking such research to meet the stated objectives and ethical considerations.

MANAGING A
SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
PROJECT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Topic............................................................................................................................................1
Background..................................................................................................................................1
Overview of the company............................................................................................................1
Project Aim and Objective...........................................................................................................1
Project management plan.................................................................................................................2
Cost..............................................................................................................................................2
Scope............................................................................................................................................2
Time.............................................................................................................................................2
Quality.........................................................................................................................................2
Communication............................................................................................................................3
Risk..............................................................................................................................................3
Resources.....................................................................................................................................3
Gantt chart and work breakdown structure......................................................................................3
Gantt Chart...................................................................................................................................3
Work Breakdown Structure.........................................................................................................4
Qualitative and quantitative research methods appropriate for meeting project aims and
objectives.........................................................................................................................................5
Analysis of research and data by using appropriate tools and techniques.......................................7
Recommendations as a result of research and data analysis to draw valid and meaningful
conclusions....................................................................................................................................13
Recommendations......................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................14
Reflection on the value of undertaking the research to meet stated objectives.............................15
REREFENCES..............................................................................................................................17
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................18

Introduction
Topic
Main topic of this project is “Equality and diversity strategies that can help an organization
to gain competitive advantage”.
Background
Equality and diversity is one of the most important thing which is required to be focused
upon by organizations as it helps the company to bring improvement within their employee
morale, performance, and productivity (al Habibi, 2019). Developing or working upon equality
and diversity issues or strategies can help an organization to gain competitive advantage. Not
only this, it will also help them to improve their retention rate, reduce cost, reduce employee
turnover and enhances their ability to attract and recruit talented people.
Overview of the company
‘Marks and Spenser’ is a multinational British retailer that was founded in 1884 whose
main headquarter is in London. M & S sells all kinds of home products, clothing products and
food products. They have more than 80,000 employees working for them. Other than this they
have more than stores present in approximately 1460 locations. But majority of their stores are
present in UK itself i.e. they have more than 950 stores in UK itself. Other than Super market
they also have Marks and Spenser Bank which is owned by HSBC bank since 2004.
Project Aim and Objective
Aim
Main aim of this project is “To identify equality and diversity strategies that can be
adopted by organizations to gain competitive advantage. A case study on Marks and Spenser.”
Objectives
Main objectives of this research project are:
 To analyse importance of equality and diversity within an organization
 To evaluate impact of equality and diversity issues upon overall performance of employees.
 To analyse relationship between equality and diversity issues and employee’s behaviour
 To recommend equality and diversity strategies that can be used by organization to gain
competitive advantage.
Research questions
Main research questions of this research project are:
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 What are the ways in which equality and gender issues impact overall business performance?
 What is the relationship between equality and diversity issues and employee’s behaviour?
 What are the main strategies that can be used by organizations for managing equality and
diversity?
 Recommend some equality and diversity strategies that can be used by organization to gain
competitive advantage.
Project management plan
Project management plan is a plan that can be used by organization for analysing ways in
which a project can be controlled, monitored and executed (Heagney, 2016). Some of the most
important aspects of a project management plan are as follows:
Cost
Cost is one of the most important aspect of a project which helps in deciding success or
failure of a project. Cost required by Marks and Spenser for successfully implementing equality
and diversity techniques within their organization is £1000.
Scope
Competition within retail sector organization is continuously increasing which is making
it difficult for organizations like Marks and Spenser to gain competitive advantage and retain
their employees (Newton, 2016). Implementing equality and diversity techniques within the
organization will help M & S to gain competitive advantage and will also provide then with
opportunity to expand their business.
Time
In order to successfully complete the project overall time period of 10 weeks is required by
marks and Spenser so that they can successfully achieve their desired aim and objectives in a
proper and effective manner.
Quality
In every project it is extremely important to maintain overall quality of a project (Kerzner, 2017)
. In order to maintain overall quality of the project M & S will conduct an internal audit and will
continuously monitor overall progress of the project so that quality of the project is not degraded.
2

Communication
M & S focuses upon maintaining free flow communication channel. This helps them to
keep a track of issue faced by their staff members so that they can analyse those issues and attain
best suitable solution to resolve their staff members problem.
Risk
Increasing competition in retail sector is one of the main risks that can impact overall
success of the business. Success of this project will help M & S to deal with external forces and
risk that an impact their overall business
Resources
It is one of the most important aspect of project planning which requires proper planning for the
success of the project (Brannen, ed., 2017)(Bernard, 2017). There are various kinds of resources
that are required by Marks and Spenser for success of this project. Some of the main resources
required by M & S are: employees who are required to be trained, HR manager and top
management to work upon current policies and practise in order to develop equality and diversity
strategies in order to gain competitive advantage.
Gantt chart and work breakdown structure
Gantt Chart
Gantt chart are one of the most useful things which is required to be focused within
project planning and scheduling of the project. Gantt chart helps in evaluating time duration
which is required for completing the whole project in a timely manner. It also helps in
management of all kinds of dependencies between sub- task or activities (Berger, 2018). It is
mostly used by project manager to identify relationship between activities, understand current
status of the project. Gantt chart helps in setting milestones for all the sub- activities of task
within which it is requited to be completed. Below Gantt chart will help in explaining all the
activities of the project, time duration required by every activity to be completed. This whole
project will be completed in 10 weeks’ time period i.e. this project will be carried out from 1
April 2020 to 9th June 2020.
Activity 1st week 2nd
week
3rd
week
4th
week
5th
week
6th
week
7th
week
8th
week
9th
week
10th
week
3

Introduction
Aim and
objectives
Project
management
plan
Research
methodology
Data
Collection
Data Analysis
Conclusion
and
Recommendat
ions
Submission
Work Breakdown Structure
Work breakdown structure is a kind of structure in project management in which whole
project is divided into small components that are required to be delivered. This helps in
managing whole project work in a proper and manageable sections (Rutberg and Bouikidis,
2018) . It helps the project manager to identify time duration required for all the sub- task so that
whole project can be completed in a proper time duration with manageable sections.
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Figure 1 Work Breakdown Structure
Qualitative and quantitative research methods appropriate for meeting
project aims and objectives
Research type
It is important to identify type of research which will be carried out by the researcher.
Identification of research type helps in identify qualitative or quantitative research methods that
are used within a research. Two most common type of research methods are: qualitative type of
research and quantitative type of research (Queirós, Faria and Almeida, 2017). Quantitative
research type focus upon collection of numerical data and analysing the problem with the help of
numerical or statistical methods. Whereas qualitative type of research focuses upon collection of
non- numerical data such as words, feelings, emotions, sounds and other non-numerical and
unquantifiable elements. All the qualitative data collected cannot be analysed with the help of
mathematical methods or techniques. In this research, researcher has focused upon qualitative
type of research because it is much easier to conduct a qualitative research as compared to
quantitative research.
Research Philosophy
Research philosophy helps in understanding nature and scope of the knowledge. Not only
this, it also helps in explaining the way in which data should be collected and analysed. There are
two main type of research philosophies: positivism and interpretivism. Positivism is a kind of
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research philosophy which is majorly used in quantitative type of research. It helps in viewing
factual knowledge which is majorly collected by observation. Whereas interpretivism research
philosophy is a kind of philosophy which is used in qualitative type of research in which study
elements are interpreted as per human interest into the study. For this study researcher have
focused upon interpretivism research philosophy as it is a qualitative type of research so
interpretivism research philosophy is most suitable.
Research Approach
There are two main types of research: inductive and deductive research approach.
Inductive research approach focuses upon observation and theories that are proposed at the end
of the research as a result of all the observations that has been done within the research process
(Patten and Newhart, 2017). This approach is mostly used with qualitative type of research.
Whereas, deductive approach is used with quantitative type of research. In this approach
hypothesis are developed on the basis of existing theories and by testing hypothesis conclusion is
reached. For this research, researcher have used interpretivism research approach as it is a
qualitative type of research, inductive approach is quite suitable as with the help of this approach
themes can be identified easily.
Data Collection
There are two types of data collection methods: primary and secondary data collection
method. Secondary data is a kind of data that has already been published and can be collected
from books, journals, articles, newspapers and from many more sources. This type of data helps
in building a base for the research. Whereas, primary data is a kind of data which is collected by
the researcher first time. This type of data can be collected by interviews, questionnaires survey
and by many mother methods. For this research, researcher have used primary data collection
methods. Primary data will be collected by conducting a survey in which participates will also to
fill a questionnaire. In questionnaire closed ended questions will be asked and one open ended
question will also be asked so that more information can be gathered.
Sampling
Selection of members from a large population in order to participate within a study is
known as sampling. Sampling helps in making a study manageable as it is not possible to include
each and every member of a population to participate within a study (Klarsfeld and et. al., 2016).
There are two main types of sampling methods: probability and non- probability sampling
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method. In probability method every member of the population has a known chance of
participating within the study whereas, in non- probability sampling method only some selected
members of population have some known chance of participating within a study. For this
research, have used non- probability sampling method for selection of respondents in order to
participate within a study. For this research 30 employees of marks and Spenser has been asked
to participate within a survey.
Data Analysis
There are two main type of data analysis methods: thematic and statistical method.
Thematic analysis method is used within qualitative type of research in which non- numerical
data is analysed by identifying common themes – topics, ideas and patterns of meaning that
come up repeatedly (Kyriakidou and et. al., 2016). Statistical data analysis method is used in
quantitative type of research in which with the help of statistical methods numerical data
collected is analysed. For this research researcher have used thematic data analysis method as it
is much suitable method for qualitative type of research.
Ethical Considerations
Ethical considerations are one of the most important part of a research which is required
to be adhered by the researcher. Some of the main ethical consideration that were considered for
this research are: Privacy of research participants were ensured and protected. Data protection
Act, 1998 was also adhered. None of the participants were forced to participated with the study,
in fact all the participants had the right to withdraw their names from the study if they wanted to
do so. Privacy of the participants were also ensured.
Analysis of research and data by using appropriate tools and techniques
Theme 1: Time period of working within Marks and Spencer
Question 1: How long have you been working within Marks and Spencer?
Options Respondents
Less than 1 year 4
Between 1 to 2 years 5
Between 2 to 5 years 12
More than 5 years 9
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Interpretation: From the above graph it has been interpreted that, 30 out of 4 employees of M&S
were working within the organization for less then a year, 5 of them were working within the
company for less then 2 years, 12 of them were working for 2 to 5 years and rest of the 9
respondents were working within the organization for more than 5 years. It can be said that
majority of the respondents had an experience of at least 2 years within the organization and only
few of them had were working with the organization for less than 2 years. From this
interpretation it can be analysed that majority of the respondents had an idea of equality and
diversity issues, policies and strategies of the organization in a much better and appropriate
manner (Palacios., 2016).
Theme 2: Presence of gender pay gap within the organization
Question 2: Do you think there is presence of gender pay gap within the organization?
Options Respondents
Strongly Agree 8
Agree 9
Disagree 8
Strongly disagree 5
Interpretation: From the above graph it has been interpreted that, 30 out of 8 respondents
strongly agree to the fact that there is presence of gender pay gap within an organization, 9 of
them simply agrees to the fact. However, 8 of them disagrees to the facto that there is presence of
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gender pay gap within Marks and Spencer and 5 of them strongly disagrees to the fact. From the
above interpretation it cannot be clearly said that whether there is presence of gender pay gap
within an organization or not. But majority of respondents do agree their gender pay gap is
present within the organization. It is important for Marks and Spencer to focus upon adopting
strategies in order to reduce this gender pay gap. Gender pay gap is one of the most common
type of inequality because of which overall motivation and satisfaction level of employees is
impacted (Palacios, 2016).
Theme 3: Focus upon taking appropriate measures to maintain equality and diversity within the
organization
Question 3: Do you think Marks and Spender is focusing upon taking appropriate measures to
maintain equality and diversity within the organization?
Options Respondents
Strongly Agree 12
Agree 13
Disagree 3
Strongly disagree 2
Interpretation: From the above graph it has been interpreted that, 30 out of 12 respondents
strongly agree to the fact that Marks and Spencer is focusing upon taking appropriate measures
to maintain equality and diversity within the company, 13 of them simply agrees to the fact.
However, 3 of them disagrees to it and 2 of them strongly disagrees to the fact.
Theme 4: Presence of proper policy that helps in reducing equality and diversity issues within
organization
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Question 4: Do you think organization has a proper policy that helps in reducing equality and
diversity issues within organization?
Options Respondents
Strongly Agree 10
Agree 9
Disagree 8
Strongly disagree 3
Interpretation: From the above graph it has been interpreted that, 30 out of 10 respondents
strongly agrees that presence of proper organizational policies helps an organization to reduce
issues related to equality and diversity, 9 participants agrees to it. However, 8 of them simply
disagrees to it and 3 employees strongly disagrees to the question.
Theme 5: Organization provide proper training to their employees to reduce chances of
occurrence of equality and diversity issues
Question 5: Do you think organization provide proper training to their employees to reduce
chances of occurrence of equality and diversity issues within an organization?
Options Respondents
Strongly Agree 14
Agree 8
Disagree 6
Strongly disagree 2
10

Interpretation: From the above graph it has been interpreted that, 30 out of 14 employees
strongly agrees that provision of proper training can reduce chances of equality and diversity
issues occurrence, 8 employees simply agrees to the question, 6 of them disagrees and rest of
them strongly disagrees to the question.
Theme 6: Requirement to bring changes within company policies
Question 6: Is there a requirement to bring changes within company policies?
Options Respondents
Strongly Agree 11
Agree 10
Disagree 4
Strongly disagree 3
No idea 2
Interpretation: From the above graph it has been interpreted that, 30 out of 11 respondents said
that there is a requirement to bring changes within company policies, 10 employees simply
11

agrees to it, 4 of the disagrees to it, 3 employees strongly disagrees and remaining 2 employees
did not have any idea about it.
Theme 7: Equality and diversity strategies help an organization to gain competitive advantage
Question 7: Does equality and diversity strategies help an organization to gain competitive
advantage?
Options Respondents
Strongly Agree 14
Agree 8
Disagree 3
Strongly disagree 2
No idea 3
Interpretation: From the above graph it has been interpreted that, 30 out of approximately 14
employees says that equality and diversity strategies help an organization to gain competitive
advantage and strongly agrees to it, 8 of them simply agrees to the question but 5 of them says
that equality and diversity strategies does not help an organization to gain competitive advantage
whereas 3 of them had no idea about it.
Theme 8: Recommended ways according to you with the help of which Marks and Spencer can
reduce issues related to equality and diversity
Question 8: What are the recommended ways according to you with the help of which Marks
and Spencer can reduce issues related to equality and diversity within the organization?
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Interpretation: All the employees provided different answers but there were five common
answers recorded from all the employees. From all the 30 employees four different strategies
were identified with the help of which Marks and Spencer can reduce issues related to equality
and diversity within the organization and only one employee had no idea about what type of
strategies can be used. 8 employees said that Transparency within salary is one of the best
strategies, 9 said enhancement of performance management is the best strategy, 7 said training
provision is the best strategy and only 5 people said that enhancement if HR policies is one of the
best practises.
Recommendations as a result of research and data analysis to draw valid and
meaningful conclusions
Recommendations
There are few recommendations that can be used by Marks and Spencer to identify
equality and diversity strategies that can be adopted by them to gain competitive advantage.
Some of the recommendations are as follows: Provision of time to time training and development
activities to the employees is one of the best strategies that can be used by Marks and Spencer to
gain competitive advantage. Time to time training provision helps the organization to work upon
their workforce so that they can contribute in getting diverse ideas which can be fruitful for the
organization to think about diverse ideas to gain competitive advantage. By focusing upon
integrating equality strategies within recruitment and selection. Integration of equality strategies
within recruitment and selection helps in increasing opportunities for employees with training
and promotion within workplace (Ainscow, 2016). Not only this, it also helps in increasing
opportunities for the organization to get the right candidate for the job. It is one of the best
strategies with the help of which organization can eliminate discrimination within the workplace
environment, increase equality and diversity within the organization. This will further help the
organization to motivate their employees. Bringing changes within performance management is
another strategy that can help an organization to motivate their employees, reduce equality and
diversification issues such as gender pay inequality and many more. Reducing changes of these
issues to occur within the organization can help in increasing chances of increasing gaining
competitive advantage. Another strategy that can help Marks and Spencer to gain competitive
advantage is inclusion strategy. To embrace all kinds of differences is inclusion strategy i.e.
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creating a working culture or environment that values differences between people is known as
inclusion strategy. This type of culture is tolerable and helps the HR to recognize personal
strengths of their employees so that they can provide effective training to their employees,
provide guidance to them so that they can work upon enhancing their overall strength and
performance which will further help the organization to gain competitive advantage. Diversity as
Hr strategy is another one of the main strategies that can help an organization to gain competitive
advantage. This strategy will help the HR department to retain their employees, enhance their
overall quality of service, increase reliability upon workforce which will further help them to
achieve their pre- defined goals in a proper manner, which can further the organization in gaining
competitive advantage.
Conclusion
From the above project it has been summarized that in order to complete a project in a
proper and successful manner then in such case it is important for project manager to develop
project management plan. Project management plan helps in identifying overall time duration
required to complete the project, cost associated with completion of the project, defining proper
scope of the project, maintaining quality of the project and effective communication within a
project. Not only this effective project plan also helps in identifying risk associated with the
project and resources required to complete it within specified time duration. From the above data
collection and analysis, it has been summarized that there are various kinds of equality and
diversity issues that can be faced by employees of an organization that can work as a barrier for
them in gaining competitive advantage. Gender pay gap is one of the min issue which is faced by
employees which can directly impact their overall motivation and can eventually impact their
overall performance, it is important for organization to focus upon resolving or minimizing these
issues so that they can gain competitive advantage. It has also been summarized that it is
important for organizations to bring changes within their current policies and practises and adopt
equality and diversity strategies so that current issues related to equality and diversity within the
organization can be reduced and productivity of the organization can be increased. There are
various kinds of strategies that can be used by organization to gain competitive advantage.
Organizations can focus upon adopting these strategies so that they can focus upon reducing
issues related to gender inequality, diversity and many more which will further help them to gain
competitive advantage.
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Reflection on the value of undertaking the research to meet stated objectives
There are various kinds of models that can be used for reflecting values on overall
research project. Kolb's reflective cycle is one of the most common type of model that can be
used reflecting values on research project in a much better and appropriate manner. this model
has four main stages for reflective writing that are: Concrete experience, reflective observation,
abstract conceptualization and active experimentation.
Concrete experience: While conducting this research work there were various kinds of issues that
were faced by me. Most of the challenges faced by the researcher were in terms of primary data
collection. It was a bit difficult to collect required primary data as it was the first time, I was
carrying out a primary research.
Reflective Observation: While carrying out this research I understand that primary data
collection and analysis is extremely important to meet all the main objectives of this research. In
primary data collection I was feeling a bit hesitant to communicate with employees of marks and
Spencer to collect al the primary data. Another difficulty faced by me was during designing of a
questionnaire. It was extremely important to identify important and appropriate questions that are
required to be asked so that collected data can be analysed and main research objectives can be
meet. Another difficulty faced by me was in terms of collection of data from employees. Most of
the employees took much more time to answer all the questionnaire and some of them were quite
straight forward to answer the questions which helped me in analysis of primary data collected.
But the main challenge faced by me was lack of previous experience and lack of previous
knowledge of the research that has been conducted in this field. Primary data collected helped
me in understand the main aim and objective in a much better manner which further helped in
completing the research in a much better manner.
Abstract Conceptualization: However, completion of this research helped me in identifying
some of the major areas of strength and weakness while conducting this research. One of the
main skill that was required to be improved within me was decision making skills. It is important
for me to improve my decision making skills because with improved decision making skills I
will be able to take important decisions about type of methods that are required to be taken in a
much more better and appropriate manner which will further help me in achieving research
objectives in a much more better and appropriate manner. One of my main strength in this
15

project was my communication skills. I was able to communicate with my respondents despite of
the hesitation I was able to make them understand main aim and objectives of the research paper,
make employees understand importance of this research and motivate them to participate within
the research study. My research skills were another one of my main strength. Despite of the first
time of conducting the research, I was able to complete the all the sub- task in a proper manner. I
was able to collect all the required data and resources that were required in completion of the
project in a proper manner.
Active experimentation: In future I will use focus more upon adopting statistical analysis and
will focus upon doing quantitative data analysis so that I can quantify the results and reach to an
appropriate solution. I will focus more upon secondary research so that I will be able to develop
a base for the research which will further help me in reach to a conclusion of answering the
research questions in a much better and appropriate manner.
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REREFENCES
Books and Journals
Ainscow, M., 2016. Diversity and equity: A global education challenge. New Zealand Journal of
Educational Studies. 51(2). pp.143-155.
al Habibi, B., 2019. HR practices of Marks & Spencer, Selfridges, Primark, and
Sainsbury’s (Doctoral dissertation, University of Science & Technology).
Berger, A.A., 2018. Media and communication research methods: An introduction to qualitative
and quantitative approaches. Sage Publications.
Bernard, H.R., 2017. Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative
approaches. Rowman & Littlefield.
Brannen, J. ed., 2017. Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research. Routledge.
Heagney, J., 2016. Fundamentals of project management. Amacom.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Klarsfeld, A., and et. al., 2016. Comparative equality and diversity: main findings and research
gaps. Cross Cultural & Strategic Management.
Kyriakidou, O., and et. al., 2016. Equality, diversity and inclusion in accounting. Critical
perspectives on accounting. 35. pp.1-12.
Newton, R., 2016. Project Management Step by Step: How to plan and manage a highly
successful project. Pearson UK.
Patten, M.L. and Newhart, M., 2017. Understanding research methods: An overview of the
essentials. Taylor & Francis.
Queirós, A., Faria, D. and Almeida, F., 2017. Strengths and limitations of qualitative and
quantitative research methods. European Journal of Education Studies.
Rutberg, S. and Bouikidis, C.D., 2018. Focusing on the fundamentals: A simplistic
differentiation between qualitative and quantitative research. Nephrology Nursing
Journal. 45(2). pp.209-213.
Palacios, J.M., 2016. Equality and diversity in democracy: how can we democratize
inclusively?. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal.
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APPENDIX
Questionnaire
1. How long have you been working within Marks and Spencer?
 Less than 1 year
 Between 1 to 2 years
 Between 2 to 5 years
 More than 5 years
2. Do you think there is presence of gender pay gap within the organization?
 Strongly Agree
 Agree
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
3. Do you think Marks and Spender is focusing upon taking appropriate measures to maintain
equality and diversity within the organization?
 Strongly Agree
 Agree
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
4. Do you think organization has a proper policy that helps in reducing equality and diversity
issues within organization?
 Strongly Agree
 Agree
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
5. Do you think organization provide proper training to their employees to reduce chances of
occurrence of equality and diversity issues within an organization?
 Strongly Agree
 Agree
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
6. Is there a requirement to bring changes within company policies?
18

 Strongly Agree
 Agree
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
 No idea
7. Does equality and diversity strategies help an organization to gain competitive advantage?
 Strongly Agree
 Agree
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
 No idea
8. What are the recommended ways according to you with the help of which Marks and
Spencer can reduce issues related to equality and diversity within the organization?
19