Examining Equality & Diversity Strategies: M&S Case Study Report

This report presents a case study on Marks & Spencer (M&S), examining strategies for implementing equality and diversity within the organization. The research aims to determine the concept, advantages, and effective strategies for fostering equality and diversity at M&S. The project follows a structured approach, including project aims and objectives, a project management plan (PMP) covering cost, scope, time, quality, communication, risk, and resources, as well as a work breakdown structure (WBS) and Gantt chart for project management. The research employs both qualitative and quantitative research methods, including primary research with questionnaires and secondary research utilizing various sources. The report analyzes the data using appropriate tools and communicates recommendations based on the research findings, culminating in a reflection on the project's outcomes. The report provides a detailed analysis of the research methods, findings, and recommendations to support equality and diversity in the workplace.

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Table of Contents
TITLE: “To examine the role of various strategies which will support in executing equality &
diversity within the organisation.” A case study on M&S. .............................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Project aims and objectives....................................................................................................1
P2 Project Management Plan......................................................................................................2
P3 Work breakdown structure and Gantt chart...........................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P4 Small-scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
P5 Examine research and data by using appropriate tools..........................................................9
P6 Communicate appropriate recommendations......................................................................14
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................14
P7 Reflection.............................................................................................................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

TITLE: “To examine the role of various strategies which will support in
executing equality & diversity within the organisation.” A case study on
M&S.
INTRODUCTION
Equality as well as diversity within the organisation refers to provide value to equality,
human rights along with diversity among the workplace as well as in the overall society. This as
a result assist in promoting equal job opportunities to the staff members without any kind of
discrimination with the employees. In order to implement equality & diversity practices within
the business entity in an effective manner, managers are required to adopt various types of
policies and strategies. This as a result assist in accomplishing organisational goals and
objectives in an appropriate manner (Boekhorst, 2015). In order to conduct this research
effectively, chosen organisation is Marks and Spencer. It is a UK based multinational
organisation developed in the year 1884. It is the report which includes research objective, aim
which is associated with equality & diversity within the organisation. Along with this, it will
includes different types of research methods used by the investigator along with PMP, WBS,
Gantt Chart. Apart from this, appropriate recommendations will be provided by the investigator
at the end of this research.
TASK 1
P1 Project aims and objectives
Research aim:
“To examine the role of various strategies which will support in executing equality &
diversity within the organisation.” A case study on M&S.
Research Objectives:
 To determine the concept of both equality as well as diversity within the organisation
 To examine various advantages of equality & diversity gain by Marks and Spencer
 To identify different strategies and policies which help in executing equality & diversity
within the organisation.
Research Questions:
 What is the concept of both equality as well as diversity within the organisation?
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 What are various advantages of equality & diversity gain by Marks and Spencer?
 What are the different strategies and policies which help in executing equality &
diversity within the organisation?
P2 Project Management Plan
The Management plan is evaluated as the personal documentation which is doing the
working of blueprint for the people who are involved the research project. This is also an
important factor in order to know about the time duration of each activity. The plan consists of
various strategies which can support in the overall implementation of the activities. The different
factors of PMP includes risk, cost, time, quality, communication and resources (Cottrill, Denise
Lopez and Hoffman, 2014). In context of the current research the researcher has executed
effective Performance management system. The different factors of the plan are evaluated below
as:
Cost: This term referred to the monetary value which is being used for the
development of the services in the project. In context with the research the investigator
requires to have some monetary funds in order to carry out their investigations in rightful
manner. In the present research the investigator needs £ 40 for execution of business activities.
The amount which has been selected is sufficient in order to perform the investigation thus
gaining effective results. The budget is set for every business activity at the initial phase so that
future plans can be planned out according to the budget.
Scope: This is a vital factor in every form of research as it helps in describing about
the desired scope in the actual life phase and zone of business. In relation to the present
form of research the scope factor is very wide for Marks and Spencer to carry out their
investigation on both the smaller and larger scale of the similar sector (Drews and Van den
Bergh, 2016). When the research is completed effectively then there will be large number of
opportunities for business. This will also result in developing new business direction for industry
thus enhancing their overall business shares.
Time: This factor is described as the potential amount of the time which is being used
for the completion of the project. The time duration for each business activity is set
according to the availability of the business resources. For the current research the time
period which is required is 6 months in order to complete the project effectively within the
feasible solutions can be easily attained for the business.
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Quality: It is another essential element where researchers need to maintain the
overall quality of research. This can be done by collecting all the required information and
data from well known and authenticated web sites (Durlak, 2015) . Along with this,
investigator need to gather all the information by adopting authentic sources, respondents
and secondary methods for maintaining the quality of information in an effective and
appropriate manner.
Communication: In order to execute all the research work in an effective and
appropriate manner, positive communication needs to be there. All the people associated
with the research required to communicate all the information within stipulated time frame.
In reference to current research which is conducted on the topic of equality & diversity
within organisation, investigator adopt some methods which includes mobile phones, email,
regular basis meetings and many more (Galpin, 2014) . This will assist in developing new and
innovative strategies so that research will be conducted in an appropriate manner.
Risk: For doing any kind of work there is some risk associated with that work. In the
present research one of the main risk which is linked with the investigation is that there
might misuse of the information gathered from respondents. This might affect the overall
authenticity and reliability which might create negative impact on the outcome of research.
Along with this, that may creates negative image of the company at the competitive
marketplace which affects the overall profitability of the organization.
Resources: It is the research which is mainly conducted on the topic of equality and
diversity within the organization requires ample number of resources. Some of the most essential
and significant resources includes land, labour, equipment, capital and many more. This as a
result assist researcher in order to conduct the whole research in an effective manner and produce
positive outcome within stipulated time frame(Glatthor, 2018).
P3 Work breakdown structure and Gantt chart
Work Break down structure
The work breaks down structure is evaluated as the most effective method of dividing the
overall components of larger types of projects into smaller ones in order to achieve effective
results in short time durations. The overall working is break down into the way it can be easily
managed. Dividing of the overall working into the team members results in enhancing business
productivity and achieving cost effective results for business organisation (Israel, 2017).
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Gantt chart
This term is evaluated as the presentation of the activities into the form of graph that can
be easily completed by the employees against the desired time frame. This is evaluated as the
visual form of presenting the graphs. In other words, it is mainly breaking of the components of
the project which had to be covered into fixed time period. The task is represented on both the
horizontal and vertical axis. The dependencies among different business activities is also
evaluated by this type of Gantt chart. This is an important factor for an organisation in order to
keep an update on the overall activities of the project and the additional resources required to
complete the project on time.
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TASK 2
P4 Small-scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research
While conducting a research, investigator adopt various methods and tools in order to
gather information and data. With the assistance of these tools, effective output will be produced
so that research objective will be fulfilled. Therefore, by using research methodology in an
appropriate manner, researcher will be able to attain goals and objectives of the company will be
accomplished (Quinlan, 2019). Some of the key essential methods used by researcher in the
present research are as follows:
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Primary research
Primary research refers to an in depth study about the facts and data by the investigator. It
is the method where raw or fresh data is collected by the researcher in an effective manner. Such
type of information is being collected by using questionnaire, survey, personal interview,
observations and many other sources (Mukhopadhyay and Gupta, 2014). This is the method
which is quite time consuming and costly way to gather required information.
Secondary research
Apart from primary research, another method for collecting information and data is
secondary methodology. It is the method which includes all the secondary method such as books,
articles, journals and other secondary sources for collecting information in an effective manner.
It is considered as low cost method with the help of which required data and information will be
gathered (Long, 2016). Researcher opt this method so that they can effectively gather all the
data and information within stipulated time frame in order to conduct the research in an effective
manner.
In the context of present research, it has been said that investigator in this research adopt
both primary and secondary method for research so that required information and data will be
collected so that research will be conducted effectively. This will assist in developing positive
outcome in an effective manner which creates ample number of opportunities for the company.
In case of primary research respondents use questionnaires method where total number of
respondents are 50. And on the other hand in case of secondary method, researcher use all the
secondary sources such as websites, online sources, books, journal and many more so that
positive outcome will be produced within given time frame.
Qualitative research
It refers to a market investigation method in order to collect all the non numerical data
and information which will used to enhance the understanding of opinions and reasons. All the
data which is collected by using this methodology includes behaviour of human in a specific
situation. This is the method which consists of observation, personal interview, group
discussions and many more. All the questions which are going to be asked by using this research
methods includes open ended questions which are in the form of semi structured manner
(Kumar, 2019).
Quantitative research
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On the other hand, quantitative research refers to a systematic method of gathering all the
numerical information and data which includes statistical as well as mathematical data.
Quantitative research is the method of data collection generally used by the investigator when
population size is large. It is the methodology which includes online survey, sampling methods,
online polls, correlation research, cross sectional surveys and many more. Along with this it is
the method where researchers use close ended questions.
In order to examine overall collected data and information researchers will adopt
qualitative method of research so that they will be able to gather all the authentic data.
Furthermore, it will produce positive results which is based on perception of human being.
Questionnaire: It refers to the set of ample number of questions which are
developed by researcher so that they will be able to grab maximum data from their
respondents in an effective manner. In the present research, it has been said that total
number of respondents are 50 chosen by researcher to conduct the investigation appropriate
(Harland, 2014) . All these respondents selected by researchers are stakeholders and
employees of Marks and Spencer.
Questionnaire
Q1) Do you know about the concept of equality & diversity at the organisation? Frequency
a) Yes 40
b) No 10
Q2) Do you agree with the statement that practices which are associated with
equality as well as diversity gave various benefits to the organisation?
Frequency
a) Agree 30
b) Disagree 20
Q3) Do you think, by implementing equality & diversity practices helps Marks
and Spencer in order to accomplish their business objectives?
Frequency
a) Yes 35
b) No 15
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Q4) According to your view point, what are the main advantages of
implementing equality and diversity practices gained by Marks and Spencer?
Frequency
a) Quick achievement of goals and objectives 15
b) Better workplace environment 15
c) Higher growth opportunities 20
Q5) Which one of the following is one of the best strategy adopted by Marks
and Spencer by which they can easily execute equality as well as diversity
practices within the organisation?
Frequency
a) Effective leadership style 25
b) Top to down approach 10
c) Raise employee participation within the organisation 15
Q 6) Do you think by executing equality as well as diversity practices within the
organisation affect operational functions of Marks and Spencer?
Frequency
a) Agree 45
b) Disagree 5
Q 7) According to you, what is the main issue faced by staff members of Marks
and Spencer within the organisation?
Frequency
a) Anxiety within the company 16
b) Demoralization among staff members 14
c) Inappropriate guidance by top management team 20
Q8) Do you think, implementation of equality & diversity practices helps
Marks & Spencer in order to retain their staff members for a long period of
time.
Frequency
a) Agree 42
b) Disagree 8
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TASK 3
P5 Examine research and data by using appropriate tools
Q1) Do you know about the concept of equality & diversity at the organisation? Frequency
a) Yes 40
b) No 10
Interpretation: From the above presented graph when it was asked to respondents about of
equality and diversity in organisations there was a positive response of 40 respondents out of 50.
The remaining 10 respondents negative view and they responded by negative answer that they
have no idea about the concept of equality and diversity organizations.
Q2) Do you agree with the statement that practices which are associated with
equality as well as diversity gave various benefits to the organisation?
Frequency
a) Agree 30
b) Disagree 20
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