Project Report: Analyzing Equality and Diversity in Ford's Workplace

This report examines the impacts of equality and diversity in the workplace, focusing on Ford Motor Company as a case study. It begins with an introduction to project management, defining aims and objectives, and outlining a project management plan. The report details the use of a work breakdown structure and a Gantt chart for project planning and execution. It further delves into research methodologies, including qualitative and quantitative approaches, to gather and analyze data on the effects of diversity on Ford employees. Findings are presented using various tools and techniques, followed by recommendations for improving and promoting diversity within the company. The report concludes with a reflection on the value of the research and its contribution to achieving the stated objectives, providing a comprehensive analysis of workplace diversity and its management within the context of Ford's organizational environment.

MANAGING A
SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
PROJECT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P 1 Aim and objectives................................................................................................................1
Objectives:...................................................................................................................................2
P 2 Project management pan........................................................................................................2
P 3. Producing a work-breakdown structure and a Gantt chart...................................................4
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................6
P 4. Carrying out small scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research
method..........................................................................................................................................6
LO 3...............................................................................................................................................11
P 5. Findings and data utilizing various tools and techniques...................................................11
P 6. Communicating recommendations as a result of research.................................................19
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................20
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................21
P 7. Reflection on the value of undertaking the research to meet stated objective....................21
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................21
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................23

Topic: Equality and diversity in the workplace
INTRODUCTION
Project management and research project can be defined as the application of some
processes, knowledge, experience and methods in order to accomplish project aims and
objectives. Workplace diversity and equality is playing an important role as it can help an
organization in increasing their brand image and taking a competitive advantage (Cervi, da Silva
and Sant'Anna, 2015). Organization that promotes and encourage equality they give equal
opportunities to all individuals to achieve their potential, access and fair treatment. There is some
importance of promoting diversity within an organization such as it decreases labour turnover,
increases brand image, make innovative and creative pool of workforce within an organization.
Companies who have diverse workforce they can easily understand the needs and demands of
their potential customers. It increases employee’s satisfaction. It has some disadvantages as it can
sometimes create language and communication barriers because different culture of employees
has different knowledge of languages. They find difficulties in understanding each other. The
main aim of this research is to identify positive and negative impacts of equality and diversity on
employees of Ford as well as strategies to manage it in an efficient manner. For this purpose and
accomplishing goals, all steps will be followed like literature review which helps a researcher to
get different views on the topic.
LO 1
P 1 Aim and objectives
Background to the company and study
A project is a unique, transient endeavour which is undertaken to achieve planned
objectives. This project is based on Ford Motor company which is an American auto maker.
Headquarter of this company is in Dearborn, Michigan, US. Henry Ford founded this company is
in the year of 1903 and sells its commercial vehicles and auto mobiles around worldwide. This
company is being named in one of the top 5 companies for diversity and has also achieved
approximate 200 awards from organizations that recognize and appreciate the value of an
inclusive corporate culture.
This present report is going to show the importance of project management plan that
covers some aspects of time, cost, resources and risk involved in research. It will also show about
research methodologies like its types, design, approaches and targeted and selected people for
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gathering data (Lientz and Rea, 2016). Data collection as well as their analysis also plays a vital
role in completing a research successfully on a particular topic. Ethical consideration and
maintaining accuracy of research also helps researcher in making viewers believe about the
knowledge of researcher and importance of research. Accuracy and ethics makes research more
effective which can help in accomplishing pre-determined goals. This study will also cover all
steps and elements of research methodologies as it allows researcher to select the best type and
the way of collecting informations.
Aim: “To identify critical impacts of diversity and equality on employees working in an
organization and ways of managing it.” A case study on Ford.
Objectives:
 To identify the concept of building inclusive workforce.
 To identify increasing importance of diversity in Ford.
 To evaluate factors that creates diversity within an organization.
 To examine some ways of managing equality and diversity in Ford.
 To identify positive and negative impacts of workplace diversity on employees.
 To recommend some ways and strategies of improving and promote diversity for Ford.
Research questions
1. What is the concept of building inclusive workforce?
2. What are some importance of diversity and equality in Ford?
3. What are some factors which creates equality and diversity within an organization?
4. What are some ways of managing equality in Ford?
5. What are negative and positive impacts of workplace diversity on employees?
6. How some strategies can improve and promote workplace diversity?
Rationale
There are some reasons of choosing this diversity topic. The first aim and reason of
selecting this topic is diversity is the current hot topic which is on rise and several companies are
taking advantages on this basis. It can help academic and commercial level to employers and
students in understanding the importance of maintaining diversity and equality at level. In
addition, it will also help all people as no one can discriminate them against race, gender, marital
status. By conducting the research on this topic and telling the importance of this promotion of
diversity can improve social living of people.
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P 2 Project management pan
Project management plan plays a vital role in conducting research. Project management
plan refers a document that consists of possible ways and guidelines that can help researcher in
controlling and executing project plan. Some elements which are covered in this plan are
described as follows:
Cost: Budget or cost is vital as scholar needs to estimate an amount of completing
research. Making a plan of budget can help them in carrying out all steps of research in an
effective manner. Without estimating and making a plan of budget and cost, it has to face several
problems like lack of cost, ineffective sources of finance etc. Diversity is the hot and wide topic
so, researcher will require of approximate £5000 for accomplishing its aim and objectives.
Quality: Quality is something which determines the effectiveness of a project and
research. Maintaining quality of research is important for scholar because by maintaining quality
it can make all people and the company believe that researcher has an excellent knowledge and
experience of conducting research. For maintaining quality, researcher needs to focus on
gathering authenticate and reliable data from reliable sources (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016).
Resources: Resources includes all those things which help directly and indirectly in
making the research successful. Some resource which are being included in this research are:
laptop, human resources, financial resources, technical resources, other equipment’s, skills,
knowledge etc. By making a smart use of all these research can definitely make a research
successful.
Communication: Communication means to exchange information. An effective
communication is all depends on the selection of the best communication mode according to the
project. For getting information regarding diversity and making all aware about it, researcher will
make use of E-mail and circulars. An effective communication seems a backbone or key of
success of research. So, the selection of the best mode of communication is important for
researcher to focus on.
Risk: Conducting research, collecting relevant information and making all information
safe is not easy. In conducting research, scholar has to face several problems. It is stated that
scholar estimate about the budget and make a plan. Sometimes estimations of a budget due to
lack of experience can create the problem of lack of cost and sources of that finance. Shortage of
time due to some situations like riots, weather condition and privacy of collected information are
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some types of risks which can occur. So, it is important for researcher to analyse risk assessment.
Scope: Scope means importance and limits to which this research project can help out
researcher and readers in accomplishing their goals. Scope in this research project also defines
some problems and milestones. The main aim of conducting this research is to identify the
importance of workplace diversity and equality and some ways of developing it. By analysing
business environment and organizational structure of Ford, researcher will analyse all factors
related to workplace diversity. In this study, scholar will emphasize on positive impacts on
maintaining and promoting diversity at workplace as well as all level. This will direct the study
in accurate manner with accurate facts and figures to understand the scope of workplace diversity
for the selected company and Ford (Schwalbe, 2015).
Time: Time is also called the most important element of project management whose plan
can help out researcher in managing time and complete the project before the given deadline.
Diversity is a wide topic so, researcher stated that he/she will complete this research within 12-15
days. By developing a research schedule of all required steps and activities he/she will compete
this research before or up to the set time.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Themes: To analyse concept, importance and ways of managing workplace diversity.
According to the Zhang and Lu, (2019) inclusive workplace refers a working
environment that values individuals and give them opportunity to speak up and treat equally. It is
a concept by which diversity is being put into action for creating an environment of respect and
integrity. There are several importance and benefits has shown and discussed by different
authors. As per the view of Cloutier and et.al., (2015) workplace diversity gives opportunity to
employees to increase their learning skills and improve their knowledge. When Different cultures
of employees work together then they are allowed to interact with each other and it increases
their interrelationship. On the other hand, Kundu and Mor, (2017) said that by employing
different cultures and backgrounds of employees at workplace, organization can increase its
brand image as it decrease conflicts among employees. Working in a team increases and make
friendly working environment. Working in an effective environment, employees feel valued and
stress free. They are more likely to live with the company which decreases labour turnover.
In the context of strategies, it is said by Cascio, (2015) that training is the best way to increase
knowledge of employees about different cultures and languages. Due to different languages,
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employees face problem in communicating and interacting with each other. So with the help of
training, their skills can be improved.
P 3. Producing a work-breakdown structure and a Gantt chart
Work break down structure
Work break down structure is an effective tool that can help researcher in breaking down
several activities in a small group. It is already stated that research project consists of several
steps which need to be followed in a sequence (Creswell and Poth, 2017). If researcher skips one
step, then it cannot make the research successful and conduct further process. For solving this
problem, work break down structure is being used. There are some features of using this tool
such as: researcher can track progress in schedule, assign cost to each task, define the scope of
the project, create independent as well as measurable tasks and assign responsibility for each
tasks by dividing into a smaller group.
Gantt Chart
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Illustration 1: Work breakdown structure

Gantt chart is other main tool which contribute the same as work break down tool in
research project. It is a software activity which is being developed and created in different
context and different manner. It helps researcher in plan all activities as well as in tracking of all
processes. It is being mainly used for monitoring a project's progress as once its underway
(Padilla-Díaz, 2015).
Activities
Week
1
Week
2
Week
3
Week
4
Week
5
Week
6
Week
7
Week
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Research proposal
Establishment of aims
and objectives
Research methodologies
Data collection via
questionnaire.
Data analyses using
descriptive analyses
Interpretation of data
Recommendation for
promoting diversity
Completion of project
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LO 2
P 4. Carrying out small scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research method
Research methodologies
Research methodologies are the certain type of technique & procedure which are used for
analysing, processing, selecting & identifying the information of the given topic. For the
evaluation of reality & validity of a study by a reader, research methodologies are selected in a
research paper. How the collection, generation & analysation of data was done, are the questions
answered by research methodology selection (Vannini, 2015). Thus, research methodologies
allow the researcher to understand various resource methods.
Research philosophy
The way in which the collection, analysation & usage of information is done is referred
by research philosophy. To have awareness of the research, this data of information is utilized by
the scholars. And through this information researcher generate belief & assumptions. Research
philosophy mainly focuses on the development, sources & nature of knowledge. Three parts in
which it can be characterized i.e. interpretivism, realism & positivism. For the practical
implications, specific research philosophy will be selected by the researchers in ford,
To interpret element of the studies, researchers uses interprevitism research
philosophy. This study also incorporates interests of human towards the researches. The
independence idea, which is far enough from the minds of human is realism research philosophy
(Quinlan and et,al, 2019). Thus, such philosophies are relied on scientific assumptions
approaches. Positivism is the research philosophy that provides the knowledge on the basis of
natural phenomena's, this research philosophy allows gain of data & information to the
researcher through interpretation of reason & logics and through sensory experiences.
Thus, in ford organization researchers uses positivism research philosophy to collect,
analyse and use information which could be impacted on practical implications in the
organization. The main reason of selecting this approach is to get detailed informations and get
answers of all necessary questions related to the topic.
Research approach
Research approach of research methodologies is basically of two types inductive research
approach & deductive research approach. This approach is procedure & plan for the research.
Researches that are based on board assumptions to detailed method to collection, interpreting &
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analysis of data are the steps of research approach. Inductive research approach is the type of
research approach in which the researcher tends to collect the data based on its topics of interests.
After the suitable collection of data has been done the researchers will get back to bird’s eye
view of its data. Thus, the researchers work in developing a theory that could explain the patterns
of the data. Moreover, when inductive research approach is taken by the researchers,
researcher tends to start with observation set and move towards more general sets of proportion
(Mihas, 2019).
Deductive research approach this type of research approach is opposite to inductive
research approach. In this, the researcher starts with social theories. These social theories found
to be compelling by researcher & thus they test social theory implication with the data. Scientific
investigations are similar to deductive research approach. In this research approach the researcher
goes through the various theories which are written earlier and finally tests hypotheses which are
concluded from previous theory. The researcher of the ford uses the inductive research
approach, where they collect the appropriate amount of data and then interpret their collected
data in developing a theory which could explain it data patterns. It is mainly concerned with
development of the new theory and the main aim of selecting this approach is to get neabd new
and current data as well rather focusing on existing theory and data.
Research design
Combining of various component of research by researcher through various techniques &
methods is called research design. To efficiently handle the research problem, combining of
components is done in some logical reasonable manner. How the research will be conducted by
particular methodology is suggested by this research methodology (Yeakley and Caballero, Hand
2016). Basically research design is based on gathering and analysing measures of variables
which helps scholar in resolving research issue by the researchers. Research design can be
classified into various categories i.e. descriptive research design, conclusive research design &
exploratory research design. Descriptive research design the researcher is only interested to
describe the situations that belongs to its research study. This design is created by gathering,
analysing and collecting data. The descriptive research design is basically theory-based research.
Implementation of this research, the researcher could answer why & how of research.
Conclusive research design: conclusive research design is the research design that
enables the scholar or the researcher in generating a summarized theory of the research to reach
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the conclusion. Thus, this research design facilitates the researcher in reaching conclusion as well
as in decision-making process. Exploratory research design helps to get the insights of the
research the by the scholars to search or explore through any situations is called exploratory
research design. In this researcher thought & idea is key of the research design. The research
design used by ford is descriptive research design (Creswell and Poth, 2017). To reach the
objectives & aims of the organization, the researcher uses this design approach to gather
appropriate information. It describes all factors, problems and aims of the research in a detailed
manner.
Data collection
In any established system, the process to measure & gather information on target variable
is called data collection. Data collection allows scholars to generate outcomes based on the
answers to relevant questions. Information that answers relevant questions & control over the
evidences is the main aim of this process. Data collection can be classified into two categories
i.e. secondary data collection method & primary data collection method.
Secondary data collection method of research methodology: collection of information
through various sources in which the information is already gathered by the previous researcher
is called secondary data collection method of research methodology. In this data collection
method scholars tend to collect the data from the various data sources such as articles, books,
blog etc.. Since, the data readily available at the other sources, this method is proved to be less
complex than primary data collection method.
Primary data collection method of research methodology: in this approach of data
collection method of research methodologies the scholar tends to collect information by
conducting interviews, surveys experiments field observations etc. thus, when the data is
collected for the first time by the scholars or researchers then it comes to the category of primary
data collection method (Padilla-Díaz, 2015). This technique consumes time & proved to be
expensive in comparison to secondary data collection method.
The scholars in the ford uses primary data collections method for the enhancement of
operational & marketing functions of their business. Primary data collection and all sources of
primary data gives new data. As compared to secondary it is called first-hand data which is not
used before by anyone. It can decrease the chances of plagiarism so, it is the main reason of
selecting this.
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Data analysis
The main aim of data analysis is to help in business decision-making, the discovery of
useful information is evaluated using statistical & analytical tool, thus such process is called data
analyses. There are basically two types of data analysation techniques quantitative data
analysation technique & qualitative data analysation technique. This research methodology is
used to get deeper manner of the given information. In order to bring out the data interpretations
this research methodology explains the study in more leading & explaining manner.
Quantitative data analysis method: The data analysation technique which uses numeric
data form along with the mathematical calculations is quantitative method of data analysis. The
variable differences & calculation of frequencies carried out by this data analysation technique.
Qualitative research data analysis method: The determination of reaching goal & study
which does not have the involvement of statistical data & calculation is the technique of data
analysation which is called qualitative research data analysis. This method evolves non-numeric
information. For instance, information gathered through test documents, image, audio or video
recording, notes etc. The scholars at the ford organization uses qualitative research data analysis
method as this gives scholars the ability to reach organizational objectives & aim. This tool helps
ford researcher by providing thematic interpretations along with graph & tables. For data analysis
thematic tool and analysis will be done with the help of questionnaires.
Sampling
When from a large population, observations of predetermined public are taken into
account by statistical analysation then this process is called sampling. Sampling of research
methodologies can be mainly classified into two categories i.e. probability sampling & non-
probability sampling. It is the best technique used by the scholars in order to check who all are
contributing in the won views of the research through questionnaire in form of structure. 20
samples has been used for gathering informations.
Probability sampling method: when everyone is allowed to take part in a study then this
method falls in the probability sampling. Cluster, multistage, simple, systematic & scarified
method are all included in probability sampling method. Simple random probability sampling
method is the method of where each item in the population has even chances & more likely to be
selected in sample.
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