Literature Review Report: Study Skills for Higher Education Module

This report presents a literature review on study skills within the context of higher education, emphasizing the importance of workplace equality. The review explores the concept of literature review itself, its role in academic research, and its significance for students. The report delves into the meaning of equality, its impact on employee retention and ethical business practices, and the role of the Equality Act 2010. It examines various forms of workplace discrimination, including direct and indirect discrimination, victimisation, and harassment, along with relevant legislation. The analysis and discussion section highlights the benefits of equality, such as increased employee confidence, productivity, and a positive brand image. The report concludes with recommendations for promoting fair treatment and fostering a culture of equality in the workplace, including the importance of training, flexible work arrangements, and mentorship programs.

Study Skills For Higher
Education

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Literature is the study or a published document of one person, reviewing literatures of
other authors is known as literature review. It is very importance for researches and academic
students in order to develop their knowledge and knowing more about subject matter. Study
described that Literature review aids scholar and students in conducting future study on the same
topic. Furthermore, study explained that Equality in workplace is very essential element that
supports companies in retaining skilled workers in the firm for longer duration and conducting
operations in ethical manner. In the recent times, most of the business are promoting people on
the bases of their performance. Equality act supports people from discrimination at workplace.
Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................1
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION...................................................................................................3
FINDINGS.......................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION...............................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Literature review is defined as a kind of paper which contain all the current knowledge,
findings done by researchers, also theories and practical aspect of a particular topic, it is also
known as secondary source means these do not contain original and new experimental work. It
helps students to prepare reports and MR P, it also helps research scholars in preparing thesis and
journal articles. It also helps in identifying problems in and justify research done by researchers.
Also, it plays an important role in academic writings by create a proper understanding among
students so that they can have a brief knowledge about the topic .The purpose of literature review
is to provide foundation of knowledge on the topic also identify need for additional research ,
inconsistencies such as conflicts in previous studies , gaps in research etc. other than this it also
identifies the relationship between work done for research and contribution for other
work(Sudha, 2018).
LITERATURE REVIEW
As per view of Sudha, (2018) equality means two people having same rights, status, and
opportunities or it can be defined as no discrimination and non fairness among two things or
people, everyone should have equal right to access and utilise resources and decision making.
Equality does not only mean to treat people in same manner but it is all about treating people in
such a way that result of each person can be the same. This means supporting people so that they
can achieve similar outcome. Equality of outcome should be such that everyone is valued,
recognised and respected. According to Sudha, (2018)Equality act describes that companies are
required to treat all its employees equally in organisation. Each firm has to follow this guideline
strictly. Firms are bound to analyses performance of workers and promote them on the bases of
their performance rather than race, age, gender etc. Unfair treatment can cause issues for
business. It is fundamental principles that higher authorities need to ensure equal treatment of
every worker. Promoting equality is beneficial for the business, as it helps in retaining skilled
people in the company for longer duration. Equality is helpful in developing relationship among
all workers and forming a cohesive team.
Falk and Hermle, (2018)argued that offering equal opportunities to all workers is
worthwhile decision because it supports in developing brand reputation and making people
loyal towards the brand.
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Chang and Milkman, (2019) argued that Equality at workplace is treating everybody
equal at workplace regardless of their race , gender religion, nationality, sex and age. At
workplace equality is making sure that people should have pay, equal opportunities and are
accepted for their differences. There are still some organisations or workplaces where it creates
discrimination among people in its organisation regarding race , gender , religion etc. So
discrimination can fall under many categories the first one is direct discrimination , is treating
someone less than others for ex. paying less salary than others because of their status in the
society, other type of discrimination is indirect discrimination is , applying different rule for
different person for ex. Applying rule of different qualification requirement for man and woman
or having job requirement that exclude disable people etc. The third type of discrimination is
victimisation means treating someone unfairly because they have complained about
discrimination happened with the person and harassment is behaving with someone which is
unwanted and unethical like bullying, sexual harassment , name calling etc.
According to Chang and Milkman, (2019) there are several laws made by legislation to
removing workplace discrimination like for ex. sex discrimination there is equal pay legislation
that means there should be pay equality between men and women. Further, it also includes
unequal treatment of women at the time of her pregnancy ,this kind of discrimination are
protected under Equality Act 2010.Equality act 2010 also protect people of all ages at workplace
regarding employment discrimination. In this act , people with disability are also protected ,
disability means partly, permanently disable and mental or physically ill people . There are
several laws made for discrimination against religion and race so that people at workplace can't
be differentiated on the basis of their colour, size ,nationality and ethnic origin . Other than that
every company having turnover of more than £36 million per year then it has to publish a slavery
and human trafficking statement that contains organisational structure , type of business , its
supply chain, its policies regarding slavery and human trafficking , training provide by the
organisation regarding human trafficking and slavery . Organisational structure , business
operation and supply chain in the statement will include countries in which company is carrying
its business operation , whether the company is a part of group , other companies in the group
cities in which its offices are located and cities in which office of other company's in the group
are located.
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As per the view of Chang and Milkman (2019) people love to work in environment if
they are empowered and being valued , an organisation can attract better talent and increase its
productivity by treating everybody equal in its organisation, on the other hand Hart, (2018)
states that a company or organisation can increase its competitiveness by diverse workforce that
can help an organisation in grabbing new opportunities because its diverse workforce may have
diverse knowledge that organisation can use in increasing competition. Also, if an organisation is
non discriminative then it can enhance its corporate reputation by maintaining equality among its
employees and stakeholders that can be a part of its CSR activity.
According to (Goetz, 2018) there are many other benefits of equality at workplace like it
reduces employee turnover that can build experienced human resource in the organisation.
women are more educated than men that can make great business sense by gaining competitive
advantage in long run by attracting best talent, regardless of their gender. Also gender equality
increases business performance by giving chance to every employee in decision making without
any discrimination , as opinion of different employees, that comes from different place will give
more effective solution of problem considered in decision making. Hart, (2018) states that more
equality brings more peace at workplace , as it create healthy environment that leads to non
violence and which ultimately brings peace at workplace. Gender equality helps women
workforce in making equal participation and promotes women leadership. As per Littleton,
(2018) gender equality makes children's life better as teenagers in countries in which there is
high gender equality helps and support their parents that gives higher level of life satisfaction
than those countries which having less gender equality. As per Hart, (2018)gender imbalance
around housework can lead to friction in relationships of husband and wife that create situation
of divorce , household work should be shared between both husband and wife this will reduce
burden of one member.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
From above discussion it can be determined that gender equality is an important part of
worklife otherwise it will lead to non violence , injustice also it creates lots of stress because of
unfair treatment this causes employees to become absent and employees will not work because
of health issues that reduces business productivity. These type of health issues can increase
health claims and increase insurance costs. Also gender inequality leads to decrease in job
satisfaction because discrimination restricts an individual to reach at higher level of post. In
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addition to this inequality leads to create bad reputation of a company in public that affect the
brand image of the organisation. So equality at workplace not only helps in improving worklife
but also helps in maintaining household work. From above discussion it can be identified that
countries with having higher equality are more powerful than countries with low equality at
workplace , equality helps in boosting confidence among employees that motivates them to take
part in decision making .Equality starts from culture , like in some organisation people have
mindset that 'this is the job for women' and 'that is always a men's job'.In addition to this there
are many obstacle in managing inequality because of mindset of the person , they still treat
women and men in different way because of that women face greater difficulty , they are sill
receiving low pay as compare to men for the same job apart from that society influences women
to do low wage rate jobs, so this mindset of people should be changed to bring equality otherwise
it will not only impact the people at work place but also create bad image of the company and it
will have major impact on the youth .there are some trade unions and association that consider
problems related to inequality like Citizen advice bureau that helps people at workplace in
understanding rights and laws related to inequality and discrimination at workplace , the another
organisation is Stonewall that is specially made for LGBT community that is facing inequality
in the society. Another organisation is ACSA , that is formed to educate employees how to deal
with discrimination at workplace, apart from that there is a support service called as Equality
Advisor Support Service that helps in knowing things that help victims of discrimination to find
solution.
FINDINGS
From above discussion and analysis it can found that equality at workplace helps in
create and build image and brand value of the company in international market, it builds quality
in human inventory in the organisation and it is the responsibility of human resource department
to higher those people, who are capable and fit for the job and not on the basis of references .
Also from above study it can be found that this inequality can be managed by removing gap
between man and woman regarding job pay, means paying equal salary to both men and women
for same job and position or on the basis of performance , also gender inequality can be managed
by imparting training to people in the organisation regarding benefits of equality and
consequences of inequality(Stoet and Geary, 2018) .Other than this from above analysis it can be
found that companies should clearly mention that they want to hire and promote women,
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companies should make flexible worklife balance to both man and woman which will also
contribute to equality that is the sign of good culture of the company and ultimately leads to
retain employees in their business .In addition to this it can be found out that if companies or
organisation indulge very much into inequality that it will restrict pool of in the organisation
companies, ultimately not able to survive in long run. For managing inequality by mentoring
coaching and networking (Falk and Hermle, 2018).
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
From above study it can be concluded that fair treatment at workplace can boost
productivity of a company , equality comes from culture not from perception and attitude ,
means it is the human tendency to treat someone or something fair or unfair , it is an deliberate
act, so it can be recommended that equality should be there in workplace , and it can be done
through drive skill and development equally to every member in the company for the same post,
companies should bring those people in the organisation that can become role models to other
that can help other people to understand the importance of equality. In addition to this
organisation should eliminate those procedures and criteria that differ man and women.(Falk and
Hermle, 2018).
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chang, E. H. and Milkman, K. L., 2019. Improving decisions that affect gender equality in the
workplace. Organizational Dynamics.
Devillard, S., Hunt, V. and Yee, L., 2018. Still looking for room at the top: Ten years of research
on women in the workplace.Retrieved from McKinsey & Company website: https://www.
mckinsey. com/featured-insights/gender-equality/still-looking-for-room-atthe-top-ten-
years-of-research-on-women-in-the-workplace.
Dworkin, R., 2018. Equality. In Political Philosophy in the Twenty-First Century (pp. 15-29).
Routledge.
Falk, A. and Hermle, J., 2018. Relationship of gender differences in preferences to economic
development and gender equality. Science. 362(6412). p.eaas9899.
Goetz, A. M., 2018. National women’s machinery: State-based institutions to advocate for
gender equality. In Mainstreaming gender, democratizing the state?. Manchester
University Press.
Hart, C., 2018. Doing a literature review: Releasing the research imagination. Sage.
Le Grand, J., 2018. The strategy of equality: redistribution and the social services (Vol. 13).
Routledge.
Littleton, C. A., 2018. Reconstructing Sexual Equality [1987]. In Feminist legal theory (pp. 35-
56). Routledge.
Stoet, G. and Geary, D. C., 2018. The gender-equality paradox in science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics education. Psychological science. 29(4). pp.581-593.
Sudha, G., 2018. Promoting Gender Equality through Education in India. Bonfring International
Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, 3(Special Issue Special Issue-
03), pp.31-34.
Online
Definition of Equality in the Workplace.2019.[online].Available
through.<https://smallbusiness.chron.com/definition-equality-workplace-14653.html>
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