Analyzing Workplace Equality and Diversity: Aston Martin Case Study

This project report examines how companies, specifically Aston Martin, address current issues of equality and diversity in the workplace. The study begins with an introduction to the concepts of equality and diversity, highlighting their importance in fostering a fair and unbiased work environment. The main body of the report outlines the project's aims and objectives, followed by the development of a project management plan, including scope, cost, time, quality, communication, risk, and resources. A work breakdown structure (WBS) and Gantt chart are provided to illustrate project timelines and task organization. The research methodology incorporates both qualitative and quantitative approaches, including primary and secondary research methods, with questionnaires and interviews used to gather data from Aston Martin employees. Data analysis is performed to identify key issues such as gender pay gaps and cultural biases, followed by recommendations for implementing equality and diversity practices. The project concludes with a reflection on the research process and findings.

HOW HAVE COMPANIES
RESPONDED TO
CURRENT ISSUES OF
EQUALITY AND
DIVERSITY IN THE
WORKPLACE?

Table of Contents
TOPIC..............................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
P1 Aims and objectives...............................................................................................................3
P2 Producing the project management plan................................................................................4
P3 WBS and Gantt Chart.............................................................................................................6
P4 Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods....................................................................8
P5 Data Analysis........................................................................................................................11
P6 Recommendations................................................................................................................19
P7 Reflection.............................................................................................................................19
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1
APPENDIX 1...................................................................................................................................2
APPENDIX 2...................................................................................................................................4

TOPIC
How companies are responding to current issues of equality and diversity in the workplace? A
case study on Aston Martin Lagonda.
INTRODUCTION
The concept of equality and diversity in the workplace is associated with the norms and
rules that are implied at the workplace upon the employees and how equivalent are the
opportunities for growth and promotion that is given to the employees of the company (Palinkas
and et. al., 2015). This concept encourages the employees to achieve their full potential by
making the work culture unprejudiced and free from bias. Aston Martin, which is a global
manufacturer of luxury cars is a British company and has been operating in the industry for more
than 100 years (Aston Martin, 2019). Throughout this period, they have tried to maintain the
work place ethics and culture where they have hired people from all backgrounds and classes and
given them equal opportunities to grow and prosper. There are a variety of issues that are
covered under the term equality and diversity such as the gender pay gap, cultural background
etc. and these need to be regularly evaluated at the work place. In order to study how well Aston
martin incorporates these factors, a small scale research can be conducted and this project will
highlight the role of equality and diversity in the company.
MAIN BODY
P1 Aims and objectives
Project Aim: The research carried out in this report will mainly aim at determining what are the
issues that are currently rising in the workplace of Aston Martin, such as, the gap in the salary of
male and female employees, the growth opportunities given to employees with different cultural
backgrounds etc. The research will then identify what are the possible solutions or strategies that
can be used to manage the workplace equality and diversity.
Project Objectives:
 To analyse the concept of equality and diversity in the workplace understanding the
current environment in Aston Martin.
 To identify the different issues under quality and diversity implementation in workplace.
 To determine the challenges arising in integration of equality and diversity in Aston
Marin.
 To recommend appropriate solutions for implementing equality and diversity practices.

P2 Producing the project management plan
The project management plan is that representation which is utilized by the project
manager in state to describe every phase of the project (Heagney, 2016). Such that it includes
range, plan, cost, attribute, human resource, communication, risk and procurement etc. in the
same way, in order to attain the aim i.e. to determine the issues which are raise in Aston martin,
researcher uses all the key elements which are as mention below:
Scope: When researcher perform this study, then it will be more beneficial to determine
the issues which is faced by Aston martin. Therefore, by study on this particular topic will help
to provide ways through which the company may easily overcome the issues such that gap in the
salary of male and female employees, the growth opportunities given to their employees who
belongs to different cultural background etc (Lientz and Rea, 2016). Further, another scope of
this study is such that researcher may gain knowledge related to the topic and as a result, it will
be helpful to apply the same in their future project as well.
Project cost: It is another important element of project management plan in which,
project manager describe how the money is assigned to complete the entire plan. Further,
researcher is also responsible for scatter all the material within their team in effective way.
Therefore, to attain the defined aim, the budget allocation is as mention below:
Cost breakdown Amount in GBP (£)
Expenditure of information
assemblage
25
Expenditure of travelling 36
Expenditure of information analysis
resources
80
Expenditure of communication of
results with stakeholders
90
Other cost 69
Total 300

Time: Every project is conjugate to a specific time limit and that is why, in order to
complete the task, the investigator requires 10 weeks to complete the project and it is further
elaborated in the Gantt chart in which every task is describe in detailed manner.
Quality: It plays an essential part in the success because when the task produces a
deliverable there are always a quality standards and also have a several aspect of quality
management (Wroblewski and De Micheli, 2017). Further, researcher should make sure that the
selected resources should be good in quality so that it will be easily meet the standards and helps
to attain the defined aim and objectives as well. Further, to measure the standard of quality,
researcher may also use the quality control techniques so that they will easily measure the
progress of the project too.
Communication: Another important part of the project management plan in which
researcher should make sure that there should be proper communication with the stakeholder so
that they also provide suggestion ti improve the quality of resources which are used in the
research. While on the other side, due to having poor communication with the stakeholder, it
makes the situation worse and lack of communication is consider the biggest reason to arise
issues (Chen, Kang and Lee, 2017). For instance, researcher may involve all the stakeholder in
order to check the progress report in every month by using email as a communication method in
which the entire description of the aim and research is written in detail manner. Moreover, every
project has a regular communication needs and it is further address within a project management
plan and the communication method involves project updates, investor circulars, progress report
and many more.
Risk: while performing a research, project manager may faces different types of risk and
they should make sure that risk register should be properly maintained in order to attain defined
aim and objectives. Further, for the current project, lack of funding is consider a risk, not having
efficient human resources and as a result, the project got affected In opposite way. That is why,
ensure that risk register should be updated in order to identify the ways through which the risk in
minimized.
Resources: It is another key element which is consider an important part of the project
management plan such that having a good resources will help the investigation to fitting the
defined aim and goal (Harding, Nelson and Glover, 2016). In the same way, for the current
project, researcher opt human resource who have good potential to complete the project and

leads it towards further level of success. Also, fire those person who have enough knowledge and
through their expertise, risk are minimized On the other side, resources also includes the
equipment which are linked with advance technology that helps the researcher to complete the
project and also uses financial resources and without it, project is next to be possible.
P3 WBS and Gantt Chart
Work Breakdown Structure can be defined as a tool that helps in segregating the entire
project into smaller tasks that are grouped under different classifications so that the task becomes
more manageable and process gets simplified (Mohammad and et. al., 2016).
Gantt Chart specifies the time that it will take to complete the different activities and the
stipulated time that will be taken for the completion of that activity.
Task/ Weeks Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Problem
Identification
Aims and
Objectives
Developing
research
methodology
Developing
questionnaire
Selection of
sample
Primary data
collection
Secondary data
collection
Interpretation of
data
Conclusion and
recommendation
Report
completion and
submission
Feedback from
teacher
Modified report
submission
P4 Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods
Research, specifically business research can be defined as a process through which all
the detailed information regarding the business practices is acquired and such information that is

collected is analysed and evaluated to develop the major solutions and implement them in the
company. The data can be collected using different techniques and tools that have been
illustrated below:
Primary Research: Primary research involves collection of data on a first hand basis i.e. the
researcher himself collects all the data and uses different methods to collect data from
appropriate samples by adopting different methods (Jahagirdar and et. al., 2015). These method
can be qualitative or quantitative i.e. the data can be collected in the numerical manner or in
theoretical manner. In the current report, primary research will be done by collecting the
opinions and facts associated with the company by selecting a sample of employees working in
Aston Martin and obtaining their view.
Secondary Research: This involves collection of data that is relevant to the research in
secondary manner i.e. taking reference from the already published literature, journals, articles
and other case studies or research that was conducted earlier and has already been published
(Pieterse, 2019). In the current research, the researched has taken reference from the secondary
literature which was the journal articles and case studies related to Aston Martin that was
published earlier and other research articles related to the working environment which will be
used and cited wherever , the researcher finds them relevant in the research.
Quantitative Research: Quantitative research on the other hand helps in collection of numerical
data and figures that are associated with the research and the analysis is also done in quantifiable
manner addressing the “how much” aspect (Fletcher, 2017). Questionnaire is one method of
collecting the data where a selected number of respondents answer a particular set of questions
that is common for everyone. Sampling can be done in random or non-random manner where,
random sampling involves selecting of respondents without any particular criteria and under non-
random sampling, there is a particular selection criteria. In the current research, researcher will
use questionnaire method in order to collect the primary data from the 30 employees working in
Aston Martin Company that will be selected on the basis of simple random method.
Qualitative Research: The qualitative research involves collection of data through methods
which help in gathering the facts and theories that are related to the research topic and helps in
understanding the social phenomena focusing on the “what” aspect. Interview method is used
under qualitative research where the interviewer obtains the view point of interviewee. Purposive
sampling helps in selecting samples who meet a pre-formulated criteria (Crane and et. al., 2019).

In this research, researcher will use qualitative analysis by using the interview method where the
scholar will be able to collect what different employees and experts, who have been selected
using purposive sampling, think about the workplace of Aston Martin and therefore analysed the
viewpoints presented thus drawing appropriate conclusions.
QUESTIONNAIRE
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Address:
Mail ID:
Q1. For how long have you been working in this company?
 0-6 years
 6-11 years
 11-16 years
 More than 16 years
Q2. Are you aware with the concept of equality and diversity in the workplace?
 Yes
 No
Q3. According to you, which are the prominent issues that your company is facing currently?
 Gender Pay gap
 Unjustified working hours
 Biasness between rules for male and female employees
 Biasness on the basis of cultural background
 All of the above
Q4. Do you think that equality and diversity in workplace will resolve these issues?
 Agree
 Strongly Agree
 Neutral
 Disagree
 Strongly Disagree

Q5. According to you, how can equality and diversity be encouraged in the company?
 Giving equal growth opportunities
 Developing appropriate payment strategies
 Hiring employees belonging to different cultural backgrounds
 Maintaining equal balance between male-female employee ratio
 All of above
Q6. Will implementation of equality and diversity help in motivating the employees of the
company?
 Yes
 No
Q7. What will be the major advantages of incorporating equality and diversity in Aston Martin?
 Increase employee motivation
 Improve the work culture
 Enhance productivity
 All of above
Q8. What will be the major challenges in implementing equality and diversity practices in Aston
Martin?
 Change in the current working policies
 Protests from certain employee segment
 Rigidity from management
 All of the above
Q9. Are you satisfied with the current working practices in Aston Martin?
 Yes
 No
 Neutral/ Doesn’t Matter to me
Q10. What would you recommend or suggest for the company
________________________________________________________
P5 Data Analysis
Data analysis and interpretation involves analysing the data that has been collected
using certain tools and models which are different for both qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Coding analysis is a technique which can be used in both qualitative or quantitative analysis and
helps in analysing the data by categorising these themes in different headings so that analysis is
facilitated (Bryman, 2017). In the current research, qualitative analysis was done by
identification of key factors and then explaining the relevance of these factors. Under
quantitative analysis, questionnaire method has been used to collect data and then analyse it
accordingly.
Quantitative Analysis: A sample of 30 employees working in the Aston Martin was selected
using simple random sampling technique and they were then given questionnaire to fill.
Theme 1: Duration of Work
Q1) For how long have you been working in this company? Frequency
 0-6 years 8
 6-11 years 5
 11-16 years 12
 More than 16 years 5
Total 30
It can be interpreted that majority of the people i.e. 40% have been working for a long time
period of 11 to 16 years and this is followed by and this shows that the employee retention
capacity of Aston Martin is high and despite adversity in the workplace, employees are satisfied.
Theme 2: Awareness of the concept of equality and diversity
Q2. Are you aware with the concept of equality and diversity in the Frequency

workplace?
 Yes 19
 No 11
Total 30
The majority of the people depicted that they were aware of the concept of equality and diversity
and could identify when it was being implemented in the work place therefore being depicted in
the results that will show that the employees are ready for change.
Theme 3: Prominent issues in the company
Q3. According to you, which are the prominent issues that your company
is facing currently?
Frequency
 Gender Pay gap 8
 Unjustified working hours 5
 Biasness between rules for male and female employees 10
 Biasness on the basis of cultural background 2
 All of the above 5
Total 30