Gender Equality in Leadership and Management: Research Proposal on B&Q

This research proposal examines the critical topic of gender equality in leadership and management, focusing on its impact within the multinational retail organization, Block & Quayle (B&Q). The study aims to assess how gender differences affect employees, identifying key factors contributing to gender inequality within multinational firms and proposing strategies to promote gender equality in leadership and management. The research employs a positivism philosophy, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative research approaches, including self-questionnaires to gather primary data from 20 respondents. The proposal outlines research objectives, questions, and a review of relevant literature, emphasizing the importance of gender equality for company goals, employee satisfaction, and organizational performance. The study also explores the impact of gender differences on individuals, factors that raise gender differences, and ways to promote gender equity in leadership and management systems.

Research Proposal Form
Student Name: ______________________ Student ID: ____________
Centre Name: _____________________
Tutor: ________________ Date: ___________________
Unit: ____________________
Proposed Title: __“Gender Equality in Leadership and
Management”____________________________________________
Section One: Title, objective, responsibilities
Title or working title of the research project (in the form of a question, objective or hypothesis)
“Gender Equality in Leadership and Management”
Research objectives (e.g what is the question you want to answer? What do you want to learn how
to do? What do you want to find out?):
Background of study
Gender Equality means state of equal ease of opportunities and resources access regardless of
gender, involving decision making and economic participation; and state of valuing distinct aspirations,
behaviours. General differences can be referred as those group differences between women and men
which are possibly because of sexually monomorphic psychological adaptations combined with
culturally dimorphic socialization. It is one of the major issues that employees face within the
organisation which directly impacts on their performance within the company and job satisfaction. In this
research proposal, the selected organisation is Block & Quayle which is the multinational DIY and home
improvement retailing organisation of Britain. The company was established in 1969 and is
headquartered in Eastleigh, England, United Kingdom. The organisation is facing issues due to gender
inequality within the organisation and in order to assess its impact on employees, this study is
undertaken. This report aims to assess the impact of gender difference on employees within the
organisation. It has some objectives which assist in accomplishing aim of the study.
Research Aim
The Aim in relation to this this investigation is “To assess the impact of gender difference on
employees within the organisation. A case study on Block & Quayle (B&Q)”.
Research Objectives
Objectives of research are the concise statements that addresses the purpose of study and outline the
steps which leads to accomplishment of research aim. The objectives in relation to this specific
investigation are as follows:
 To determine the importance of prioritising gender equality in strengthening leadership and
management system.
 To evaluate the impact of gender difference on individuals within the firm.
 To identify the factors that raise gender difference in leadership and management within
multinational firms.
 To recommend the ways through which B&Q can promote gender equality in its leadership and
management system.

Research Questions
Research questions can be stated question which is develop in a project to answer. It assists in
addressing the issue of the investigation. The questions of this study are as follows:
 What is the importance of prioritising gender equality in strengthening leadership and
management system?
 What is the impact of gender difference on individuals within the firm?
 Which are the factors that raise gender difference in leadership and management within
multinational firms?
 What are the different ways through which B&Q can promote gender equality in its leadership
and management system?
Section Two: Reasons for choosing this research project
Reasons for choosing the project (e.g links to other subjects you are studying, personal interest,
future plans, knowledge/skills you want to improve, why the topic is important):
Gender equity in leadership and management system is imperative for attainment of company’s goals
and stimulating growth or productivity of workplace. Conducting research on such a vast topic, therefore,
aid researcher in analysing the way, how promoting equality in leadership helps in providing job
satisfaction at workplace. For this purpose, Block & Quayle (B&Q) is chosen to analyse necessity of
promoting gender equity, because it is one of the multinational retailing firm that has more than 16,717
number of employees across its 300 physical and online stores. Currently, it operates business in UK and
Ireland market only, but to expand at global level, it is essential for B&Q to concern on promoting
gender equity at its workplace, so that international standards can be met.
This investigation is based on the aim “To assess the impact of gender difference on employees
within the organisation. A case study on Block & Quayle (B&Q)”. It assists researcher in gaining deep
insight on the significance of prioritizing gender equality in strengthening management and leadership
system. It also helps in determining the impact of gender difference on employees within company and
factors which increase gender difference in management and leadership within multinational firms. It
also helped in determine in different ways by which company can promote gender equality in
management and leadership.
Section Three: Literature sources searched
Use of key literature sources to support your research question, objective or hypothesis:
This section of research looks mainly at potential benefits of promoting gender equity in leadership and
management system, by extracting information from number of secondary sources as given below –
Importance of prioritising gender equality
As per Petrina Darah (2020), inequality in gender not only affects individuals at workplace, but also
impact on whole business environment as well as economy of a company. This term shows imbalance in
power of leadership and management among men and women, which raise discriminations in an
organisation. Prioritising the equality in gender is essential for ending discriminations, as well as
providing opportunities to female for women empowerment at workplace.
According to the view point of Chang, E.H. and Milkman, K.L., 2020, gender equality plays a significant
role within determining the leadership role as well as managing the quality of services within a company.
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The gender structure, social roles and relations all plays a significant role in influencing the actions
performed by employees within workplace and approaches used for handling the challenges as well as
responsibilities within leadership. The leaders are responsible for formulating effective strategies for
guiding and directing the employees to perform well toward a particular goal. But the subordinates
involve both male and females, for keeping both of them motivated it is crucial to develop a culture
where the females must get equal support and value as male employees get in order to keep all the
supervisors to remain motivated and get equally valued. For this the gender equality must be maintained
within the organisation and also provide equal opportunity to employees for getting promoted over the
position of leadership and management so that better decision can be taken with integrating the skills and
knowledge of all the employees together. This in turn help in improving the leadership and management
system by creating a culture of equality which in turn keep subordinate motivated toward their work
when they are treated equally.
Impact of gender difference on individuals
Indifference in gender leads to raise stress on individuals at workplace, with decrease in job satisfaction,
that further leads to increase labour turnover rate in firms as well.
As per the perception of Heilman, M.E. and Caleo, S., 2018, gender inequality within an organisation is
consider to be a complex phenomenon which seen within the organisational structure, practices and
processes. For women the most harmful gender inequality found within the human resource policies as
these practices directly affects the hiring, pay, training and promotions of women. The gender inequality
has a huge influence over employees working within the organisation. This is so because when the
management involve within such practices at higher level then it is also seen within the culture of
organisation here at each level employees are being discriminated in term of getting equal growth
opportunities. This in turn affect their performance as well as productivity by disappointing them from
the behaviour or discrimination they faces. Other than this the gender inequality also leads to increases in
employee turnover that in turn further affect its productivity as well as market performance all together.
Hence it can be said that the gender inequality performed within the organisation also influence over the
other employees working within same organisation in term of their retention, productivity and
performance that further affect the brand image within marketplace.
Factors that raise gender difference in leadership and management
Unequal pay, workplace stereotypes, racism, less promotion of women on leadership and management
position etc. are some factors which causes gender difference.
As per the view point of Andrews. S., 2020, within business world the women leaders are still remain at
minority. This can be seen from the Fortune report published where within 500 companies women hold
only 19 per cent of board members and 15 per cent are at executive officer position. There are certain
factors that leads to this gap among male and females while it is about the management and leadership
position. These are institutional mind which mainly includes stereotypes and gender bias that means they
believes that there remains a difference between what roles a male and female can effectively. Both of
them are not capable of doing a particular thing. Another factor is individual mindsets that involves
thoughts or behaviour that a particular woman might have which hold them back. As some of the women
have socialization pressures, risk aversion, lack of confidence or value a work life balance all such things
which never let them pushes her inner strength. Another factor can be found as lifestyle choice where
some women chose to have work life balance, caregiver and family choice as their main priority. Though
these choices are not negative but act as a barrier in letting the women to move freely toward their
promotions as it contribute toward creating a leadership gender gap among employees.
Ways to promote gender equity in leadership and management system
According to Pierre. K. S. 2017, gender inequality is a factor which creates barrier within an organisation
to reach up to a maximum level in term of its productivity, customer satisfaction and performance. This
is so because by maintaining gender equality there remains a culture of motivation and collaboration
among employees that support B&Q in enhancing their productivity and performance which further leads
to enhancing their brand image at marketplace. Hence, for promoting equality within leadership and
management system, B&Q is required to improve its HR policies where employees get equal chance to
get growth opportunity and leads the women also become an aspirant candidate to get promoted for
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managerial position. Other than this, B&Q must focuses toward maintaining the diversity and gender
balance within the organisation and always try to encourage women to step forth and try to earn the
position as per their talent and capability.
Online
Heilman, M.E. and Caleo, S., 2018. Combatting gender discrimination: A lack of fit framework. Group
Processes & Intergroup Relations, 21(5), pp.725-744.
Andrews. S., 2020. Leadership. [Online] Available through:
<https://trainingindustry.com/magazine/issue/gender-barriers-and-solutions-to-leadership/>.
Pierre. K. S. 2017., How leaders can advance gender equality and enhance gender sensitivity. [Online]
Available through: <https://blog.impactpool.org/articles/5-tips-how-leaders-can-advance-gender-
equality>.
Activities to be carried out during the research project (e.g research,
development and analysis of ideas, writing, data collection, numerical
analysis, tutor meetings, production of final outcome, evaluation, writing
the report):
Introduction of topic – 1 week
Aims and objectives – 1 week
Literature Review – 1 week
Research Methodology – 1 week
Data collection and analysis – 2 weeks
Conclusion – 1 week
Reflection – 1 week
Submission of final project – 1 week
How long this will
take:
Near about 10 weeks
Milestone one: _________________
Target date (set by tutor): ____________________
Milestone two: _______________________
Target date (set by tutor): ______________________
Gantt Chart
Section Five: Research approach and methodologies
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What type of research approach and methodologies are you likely to use and why? What your
areas of research will cover:
Research Philosophy
It is consider to be set of beliefs created based on the findings of research community to support the
execution of research on effective manner by guiding over the actions to be performed. The philosophies
used within an investigation are realism, positivism and interpretivism (Mohajan, 2018). Among them
the positivism philosophy has been adopted within this study which help in gathering and analysing the
quantitative data for accomplishment of research objectives.
Research approach – to conduct this research both qualitative and quantitative research
approaches will be used, where self-questionnaire will be conducted for collecting primary information
by choosing 20 respondents as sample size from stakeholders of B&Q Company. While journals and
articles are utilised for gathering secondary information under literature review section. It is refers to one
of the essential tools of methodology which support investigator in evaluating the gathered data in
rightful manner so that it can be further converted into meaningful information in a manner that it leads
to accomplishment of organisational goals. The selection of research approach is based on the type of
investigation adopted for performing the investigation, the approaches mainly used within a study is
either inductive or deductive approach (Zangirolami-Raimundo, Echeimberg and Leone, 2018). Among
them for current study deductive approach remains more suitable as it supports in evaluating the
quantitative data in effective manner that leads to presentation of most accurate information which make
the presentation of data within investigation more valid and reliable.
Research Choice
Exploratory, descriptive and experimental are the three types of research choices which can be
considered by researcher while performing research. In this investigation, resultant make use of
descriptive research method in which detailed information about the impact of gender difference on
workforce within the organisation can be gathered. This research choice helps in gaining deep insights on
the topic and drawing valid and reliable outcome of research. Qualitative and quantitative are the two
methods among which quantitative method will be taken into consideration by researcher as this help in
collecting numerical information on the topic which ensures accuracy in the outcomes of research.
Research Strategy
Research strategy can be stated as a step by step action plan which provides direction to the efforts
of researcher and enable them to conduct the study systematically. Case study, interview, questionnaire,
survey, descriptive literature review etc. are the methods through which data can be collected. In this
particular study, researcher will make use of questionnaire tool to gather primary information of the
topic. The main reason behind selecting this research strategy is that it assists investigator in collecting
firsthand information which is more appropriate for the study.
Data Collection and analysis
The two methods through which data can be collected includes primary and secondary method. The
fresh data is collected in the primary method and second hand data is collected in secondary method
which was already published. This research study makes use of both types of methods for performing
data collection process appropriately. The main reason behind selection of both the methods is to collect
ample amount of information which help investigator in drawing valid conclusion on the search.
Data analysis – to analyse theoretical information which is collected from secondary sources, inductive
approach will be used. While statistical tools like graphical representation will be used for interpreting
primary data.
Sampling method – Random sampling method will be used for choosing 20 respondents from
stakeholders of B&Q, where prior information about primary research and rationale behind it, will be
provided to them through e-mails. Sampling includes two methods, probability and non-probability
sampling. In this study, researcher will use probability sampling method as this is the most appropriate
method which help in eliminating the biasness at the time of collecting data. Apart from this, simple
random sampling method is taken into consideration and all the participants of the research will be
selected randomly so that biasness can be eliminated. The sample size select by the researcher will be 30
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respondents who are the employees of Block & Quayle.
Comments and agreement from tutor
Comments (optional):
I confirm that the project is not work which has been or will be submitted for another qualification
and is appropriate.
Agreed: ________________ (name)_______________ Date ______________
Comments and agreement form project proposal checker( IV sampling)
Comments (Optional):
I confirm that the project is appropriate.
Agreed /Disagree: (Name of the IV) Date
Page Break
Research Ethics approval form
All students conducting research activity that involves human participants or the use of data collected form
human participants are required to gain ethical approval before commencing their research. Please answer all
relevant questions and note that your form may be returned if incomplete.
For further support and guidance please see your respective Unit Tutor:
Before completing this form, we advise that you discuss your proposed research fully with your unit tutor.
Please complete this form in good time before your research project is due to commence.
Section 1: Basic details:
Project title:
“Gender Equality in Leadership and Management”
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Student name:
Student ID number:
Programme:
College Name:
Intended research start date:
Intended research end date:
Section 2 Project summary
Please select all research methods that you plan to use as a part of your project:
 Interviews Yes No
 Questionnaires Yes No
 Observations Yes No
 Use of personal records Yes No
 Data Analysis Yes No
 Action Research Yes No
 Focus Groups Yes No
 Others (Please specify) :
Section 3: Participants
Please answer the following questions, giving full details where necessary.
Will your research involve human participants?
Who are the participants? Tick all that apply:
Ages 12-16: Young people aged: 17-18 Adults:
How will participants be recruited (identified an approached)? Through online survey
Describe the processes you will use to inform participants about what you are doing:
Through email
How will you obtain consent from participants? Will this be written? How will it be made clear to
participants that they may withdraw consent to participate at any time?
By providing importance and reason behind research investigation, as well as give surety to them that
any kind of personal information will not be disclosed after completion of project
Studies involving questionnaires: will participants be given the option of omitting questions that do not
wish to answer?
Yes No
If no please explain why below and ensure that you cover any ethical issues arising from this
Studies involving observation:
Confirm whether participants will be asked for their informed consent to be observed.
Yes No
Will you debrief participants at the end of their participation (i.e give them a brief explanation of the
study)?
Yes No
Will participants be given information about the findings of your study?(This could be a brief summary
of your findings in general)
Yes No
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Section 4: Data Storage and Security
Confirm that all personal data will be stored and processed in compliance with the Data Protection Act
(1998)
Yes No
Who will have access to the data and personal information?
only project team
During the research:
Where will the data be stored?
In pen drive
Will mobile devices such as USB storage and laptops be used
Yes No
If Yes, please provide further details:
After the research:
Where will the data be stored?
In pen drive
How long will the data and records be kept for and in what format?
Till project completion
Will data be kept for use by other researchers? Yes No
Section 5 : Ethical Issues
Are there any particular features of your proposed work, which may raise ethical concerns? If so, please
outline how you will deal with these:
It is important that you demonstrate your awareness of potential risks that may arise because of your
research. Please consider/address all issues that may apply. Ethical concerns may include, but are not
limited to the following :
 Informed consent.
 Potentially vulnerable participants.
 Sensitive topics
 Risk to participants and /or researchers
 Confidentiality/anonymity
 Disclosures/ limits to confidentiality
 Data storage and security, both during and after the research (including transfer, sharing,
encryption, protection).
 Reporting
 Dissemination and use of your findings.
Section 6: Declaration
I have read, understood and will abide by the institution’s Research and Ethics Policy: Yes No
I have discussed the ethical issues relating to my research with my Unit Tutor:
Yes No
I confirm that to the best of my knowledge:
The above information is correct, and this is a full description of the ethical issues that may arise in
the course of my research
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Name: Date:
Please submit your completed form to your supervisor and also attach to the Research Project
when submitting the full Research Projecton Turnitin.
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