Managing Diversity: Issues and Solutions at Selco Builders Warehouse

This report, focusing on Selco Builders Warehouse, investigates issues and challenges arising from workplace diversity and equality. It begins with an introduction defining diversity and its impact, followed by an outline of the research aims and objectives, which include identifying diversity-related issues, analyzing their impact, and recommending solutions. The project management plan encompasses cost, time, and resource allocation. The report details research methodologies, including the selection of qualitative methods and an inductive approach, along with data collection strategies using primary and secondary sources. Key findings are presented using appropriate tools to analyze data from a sample of Selco Builders Warehouse employees. The report concludes with recommendations for addressing diversity issues and a reflection on the project's process and personal performance review.

Managing a Successful
Business Project
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
TASK A...........................................................................................................................................5
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................5
P1 Producing research aims and objectives.................................................................................5
P 2 Project management plan including cost, time, resources.....................................................6
P3 Producing work break down structure and Gantt chart..........................................................7
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................8
P4 Small scale research applying primary and secondary methods............................................8
Research methodologies..................................................................................................................8
LO 3...............................................................................................................................................11
P5 Key findings and data using appropriate tools.....................................................................11
P6 Recommendations results of findings.................................................................................17
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................18
P7 Reflection.............................................................................................................................18
TASK B.........................................................................................................................................18
Personal performance review....................................................................................................18
TASK C.........................................................................................................................................20
TASK D.........................................................................................................................................20
Project Log Book.......................................................................................................................20
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................21
.REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................21
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REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................22
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TOPIC: Issues and challenges arise out of diversity in the workplace and measurements to
resolve them.
INTRODUCTION
The actual meaning of diversity is to understand that each individual is unique and have different
skills and characteristics and recognize individual differences Diversity at workplace have
several benefits but on the other hand, it can create several problems like communication
barriers, misunderstanding, generation gaps etc. There are several ways of developing diversity
in an effective manner which can solve all problems that arise due to equality at workplace
(Barak, 2016).
Background of the study
This study is based on Selco Builders Warehouse that is the original self select builders
merchant in building material industry. It is a big company as it is operating over 60 locations
across England & Wales. It is mainly known for its qualitative real trade products and services at
affordable prices. It has several internal and external stakeholders that includes: Customers,
Builders, Plasterers and the Sparky. It has approximate 5000 employees. This company wants to
get a research report on some issues that arise out of equality as well as diversity in teh
workplace by research assistant of McLeod and partners.
This present research is going to show some main aim and objectives that is being developed
by researcher in the context of Selco Builders Warehouse. For accomplishing all pre determined
objectives, researcher will held an effective research by following a sequence of steps. Project
management plan includes cost, resources, time that shows estimated time, all required resources
as well as cost which will be required in conducting this research. It will also show the
importance of research methodologies that shows the type of approach selected by research as
per the topic. Work breakdown structure and Gantt chart also plays an important role as it shows
the real time and activities of this whole research.
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TASK A
LO 1
P1 Producing research aims and objectives
Aims and Objectives
Aim
“To identify issues related to diversity and equality at workplace and measurements
of solutions. A case study on Selco Builders Warehouse”
Objectives:
 To identify the concept and meaning of diversity and equality.
 To analyse issues that occur out of diversity in Selco Builders Warehouse.
 To identify some critical impacts of diversity and equality.
 To recommend some ways to solve diversity and equality related issues for Selco
Builders Warehouse
Research Questions:
1. What is the meaning of diversity?
2. What are some issues faced by Selco Builders Warehouse related to diversity and
equality?
3. What impacts does workplace diversity create for employees and Selco Builders
warehouse company.
4. How diversity issues can be resolved?
Rationale:
Diversity and equality is the main term that is creating some problems as well as some
benefits for organizations. The main reason of selecting this topic of diversity is to prevent
organizations against all those issues created by diversity by providing them some solutions. This
topic is the common topic which can be beneficial at academic as well as professional field.
Research problem:
At the time of conducting research there are several types of problem have to face by
researcher. Shortage of time and lack of sources of finance, human resources, effective technical
staff that can help researcher in research and development about in identifying issues related to
diversity and equality are some types of research problem. Rather than internal factors there are
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some external factors that can also create some problems in the path of success of research such
as climate and weather changes, resistance of participants pr sample selected for questionnaire.
P 2 Project management plan including cost, time, resources.
Project management plan plays a vital role in conducting research. With the help of project
management plan, researcher can estimate cost, time that can be used in completing whole
research.
Cost: Cost is an important element of PMP. In this step, researcher estimates of cost and
all expenses that can occurring conducting this research. For conducting this research estimated
cost will be £ 30,000 including all expenses like research, development, questionnaire, human
resources, technical tools etc.
Scope: Scope shows the importance and limits to which researcher as well as the company can
use this research project. This is also an important part to see the importance by researcher. This
topic of diversity is on the top and hot issue in an organization. This topic and research can be
helpful at academic and commercial level (Nicholas and Steyn, 2017).
Time: Time is also called an important element of this PMP that helps researcher in
competing the research on the time and deadline given by teh company. In this step, scholar
estimates time of completing this research in a successful manner. Estimated time of this
researcher can be 20-30 days.
Quality: Quality is one of the main element of project management plan that shows the
effectiveness of research conducted by scholar. It is important for researcher to maintain the best
quality while conducting researcher. For maintaining and creating a qualitative research,
researcher will use several quality control tools like KPI etc.
Communication: There are several communication tools that can be used by researcher
in the research project. The main aim of using communications tools is to communicate and
contact with customers and other people that are involved directly and indirectly with this
research project. For this research, scholar will use E-mail, Social media platforms to getting
information.
Risk: Risk analysis and measurements is also important. Researcher has to face several
risk while conducting research. Risk of shortage of fiancé source, lack of information via
primary and secondary sources, ineffective human resources etc. For solving these problems,
researcher will use balance score card.
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Resources: There is a requirement of many resources for making this research successful and
authenticate (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016). Tangible and intangible resources can make the
project effective. Some resources which are being used by researcher are Laptop, human
resources, finance etc.
P3 Producing work break down structure and Gantt chart
Figure 1Work break down
Gantt chart
Activity 2-3
days
3-5
days
6-9
days 10-14
days
15-18
days
18-21
days
22-25
days 26-27
days
28-29
days
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Developing
aims and
objectives
Management of
project plan
Drafting
Methodologies
Designing
questionnaire
Collection of
data
Analysing data
and
interpretation
Discussion and
Conclusion
Submission
LO 2
P4 Small scale research applying primary and secondary methods
Research is called the most important part of whole research as with its help, scholar
conducts and complete whole research.
Research methodologies
Research methodologies plays a vital role because it consists of several elements and steps.
Research types, designs, research approach, research philosophies and data collection are some
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steps of research methodologies. The main aim of following each step of research methodology
is to select the main type of research on which basis, scholar perform further steps. Some steps
and elements of research methodologies are described as follows:
Research types
There are mainly 2 types of research such as qualitative and quantitative. The selection of
type is all depend on researcher and the topic. According to the topic researcher select whether
qualitative or quantitative (Kumar, 2019). In the type of qualitative, all data and information are
collected by observations, human behaviours and attitudes in the form of quality and theory.
Researcher tries to understand feelings and behaviours of human and individuals if he/she wants
to collect qualitative type of data. On the other hand, quantitative research type is concerned
with numbers and figures. There is no need to understand feelings and observe humans. All data
are being collected in numbers by the numbers of total individuals and their answers. Researcher
uses qualitative type whose sources are observations and interviews.
Research approaches
Research approach is a process consisted several steps of broad assumption of detailed
method of data collection and analysis. There are 2 approaches of research such as inductive and
deductive. Inductive approach is all about developing a new theory. On the other hand,
deductive is all about existing theory in which researcher have to analyse and develop
hypothesis. Which approach will researcher select is all depend on the type of research. For
qualitative research, inductive approach is being used. For quantitative type, deductive is used.
So, research will use inductive research approach.
Research philosophies
A research philosophy is belief about the ways in which data about a phenomenon should be
collected, analysed and used. It increases the knowledge and understanding if researcher about
the main topic. The main aim of conducting this research is to identify issues and challenges
arise due to diversity and equality at workplace in the context of Selco Builders Warehouse.
Positivism, interpretivism and realism are called 3 philosophies of research. Interpretivism is
being selected by research for conducting this research project because the type of research is
qualitative. Interpretivism is related with Qualitative type and is derived from action theory
(Zaman and Memon, 2016).
Research designs
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Research design is an outline and an overall strategy by which researcher can integrate all
components of research. Descriptive, experimental, semi-experimental and co relational are
designs of research. The purpose and role of research design is to ensure that the obtained
evidence makes a researcher able to effectively address all research problems. With the help of
descriptive design, researcher focuses on describing the main problem related to research. This
design is used by researcher.
Data collection
Data collection is also main important element and part of research methodologies. Without
following this step and collecting data, scholar even cannot complete research. Primary and
secondary are 2 type of gathering information. Primary means new and secondary means second
hand. With the help of primary data, researcher get new data which cannot be used before. On
the other hand, with secondary type, researcher collect existing dat that may or may not be used
before. Observations and focus group are sources of primary data collection. Articles, books and
journals are sources of secondary data collection. Researcher will use both sources of data
collection (Wang, Wu and Zhu, 2018).
Sampling
Sample means a group of people and individuals which researcher take for getting
information among a large population. The main aim of following this step is to get authenticates
data as researcher cannot ask questions with the whole population. There are mainly 2 types of
sampling such as probability and non-probability. In the type of probability sampling, each
population element has a known chance for being chosen. Non-probability type of sampling has
a non-zero chance of being chosen. Researcher will select random sampling for giving equal
opportunities to all people. Researcher cannot be bias with the help of this type of sampling. 20
sample is being used by scholar and sample are employees of Selco Builders Warehouse.
Data analysis
Data analysis is the last step of research methodologies. It is important for scholar to analysis
data after collecting data. Qualitative and quantitative are 2 types of data analysis which is also
depend on the type of research. For making all data authenticate and accurate researcher requires
to analyse them. There are some tools of making data accurate. Sometimes data from primary
and secondary sources can be irrelevant, so researcher analyse them and make them correct.
Qualitative data analysis is being used by researcher (Yeakley and Caballero, 2016.).
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LO 3
P5 Key findings and data using appropriate tools
Findings
1. Do employees of all cultures are respected equally?
2. Do employees from different culture and background feel comfortable to interact with
each others ?
3. Do you feel agree that your firm’s policies discourage discrimination?
4. According to you what is the main negative impact of diversity and equality?
5. What are some measurements taken by your company to solve discrimination related
issues?
6. Do you think that development of diversity can contribute to firm’s growth?
7. What are some reasons that creating problems of diversity and equality at your
workplace?
8. Recommend some ways of solving diversity and equality related issues?
.................
Theme 1. Do employees of all cultures are respected equally?
Participants Answers
12 Yes
8 No
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Interpretation: It is interpreted from the above that 12 and most of the employees believe that
all employees from different cultures are respected equally. On the other hand, 8 employees of
Selco Builders Warehouse feel that company do not respect all employees equally.
Theme 2 Employees from different culture and background feel comfortable to interact with
each others ?
Participants Answers
7 Yes
9 No
4 Neutral
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