Reebok's Strategies for Building an Inclusive Workforce Report

This report investigates Reebok's initiatives and strategies for building a diverse and inclusive workforce, focusing on the concepts of equality and diversity. It begins with an introduction outlining the aims, objectives, and rationale of the research, followed by a literature review examining existing research on Reebok's strategies, equality, and diversity. The research methodology, employing a qualitative approach with a deductive approach and a combination of primary and secondary data, is detailed, including sampling and data analysis techniques. The findings, analysis, and discussion section presents the results of a questionnaire administered to 25 managers, revealing insights into the company's promotion of equality and diversity, the strategies employed, and their impact on employee retention and productivity. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings, alternative research methods, and recommendations for improving the company's strategies for managing equality and diversity, emphasizing employee training and the implementation of equitable practices.

MANAGING A
SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
PROJECT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Aims and objectives...............................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................5
FINDING, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION.................................................................................5
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION.............................................................................11
Conclusion............................................................................................................................11
Recommendation..................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Background
Equality is defined as the ability of company to treat all its employees equal and not to
discriminate among the employees on the basis of many different factors such as age, gender,
income, caste, religion and many other different factors (O’Cinneide, 2016). Diversity is defined
as the ability of the company to respect the employees coming from the diverse cultural
background. For the business to be successful it is very necessary for the company to use
strategies which promotes equality and diversity to build diverse and inclusive workforce.
The present research is based on Reebok and how the company uses different strategies
to improve the diverse and inclusive workforce. Reebok is an English footwear company which
was founded in the year 1958 by Jeff Foster and Joseph William Foster which is headquartered
in Boston.
Aims and objectives
Aim
“To investigate the different types of initiatives and strategies to build a diverse and
inclusive workforce. A study on Reebok.”
Objectives
 To understand the concept of equality and diversity.
 To identify the various types of strategies used by the company to build diverse
workforce.
 To evaluate the impact of these strategies on the workforce of company. To recommend some suggestion to improve equality and diversity within the company.
Rationale
The reason behind choosing this topic is that this is the current topic going on in the
business parlance. This is majorly because the equality has become the latest trend within the
market and all the companies need to follow it (Jozwiak, 2019). Also, it is the personal interest of
the researcher to enhance their knowledge in terms of equality and diversity.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Ma, Yong and Zhang, (2018) sought to analyse the fact that, Reebok strategy is to
effectively position itself to be world's primary fitness brand. The main aim is to focus on
effectively change the way business tends to perceive and experience fitness. Reebok tend to

launch internal activities initiatives in order to encourage their employees to be more productive.
Cross fit is considered to be the key selling point which tends to provide every individual a
chance to complete each activity. They strategy is that it tends to develop effective training and
gym gadgets in order to attract large number of customers and also gain competitive position in
the market. On the contrary, Hodapp and et.al., (2015) argued that, Reebok seeks for strategic
partnership in order to effectively promote the wide range of products and services to the end
customers. Reebok major business strategy is to focus on various marketing and promotional
activities which is mainly focuses on fitness. This helps in targeting the customers who are
fitness freak and it also take various fitness initiatives and programmes in order to move more
people towards fitness.
Fernández, (2019) said that, equality is considered to be an effective concept which helps
in ensuring that all the individuals are treated with equal respect. The individual must not be
discriminated on the basis of religion, culture, gender, belief, age, disability, race, etc. On the
contrary, Ma, Yong and Zhang, (2018) argued that, equality helps in improving the performance,
boosting up the confidence of employees, understanding belief and mindset of other individuals.
Forrester and Bauhus, (2016) evaluated that, equality can be effectively judged on the basis of
education, social equality, civil equality, political equality and economic equality. Equality helps
in boosting up the morale of the individual in order to perform task with utmost efficiency and
productivity. Equality is mainly associated with complying with the Equality Act 2010 which
helps protecting people against any discriminating activity and provide support with proper legal
actions.
Lü and Bilige, (2018) evaluated that, diversity means each individual person is
considered to be different and they must be respected the way each individual is on the basis of
their belief, thoughts, physical abilities, race, gender, ideologies, etc. Understanding diversity
helps individuals in improving cultural insights, improved employee engagement, improved
reputation of the company, etc.
The main research gap of the study is mainly associated with the collection of true and
valid information from the valid sources. But the research was carried out by citing all the
information and attaining the research topic related with different types of initiatives and
strategies to build a diverse and inclusive workforce.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research type- the research type used by the researcher is qualitative because of the major
reason that the scholar wants to deeply and thoroughly understand the concept of equality and
diversity. For this the qualitative research is the best as it helps in understanding the concept in
detail (Wildemuth ed., 2016).
Research approach- out of the two-research approach that is inductive and deductive the
approach selected by the research to research for the strategies of building diverse and inclusive
workforce is the deductive approach. This is due to the fact that this helps the researcher in
reaching to the aim of the research.
Data collection- for the present research the scholar uses the combination of both the
primary and the secondary source of data. It is so both these sources help in collecting good and
specific data relating to the topic.
Sampling- for accomplishing the research on identifying different strategies for
constructing inclusive and diverse workforce the sample is chosen of 25 managers which are
chosen with help of random sampling method.
Data analysis- for analysing the data collected from the sample is done with the help of
the thematic analysis under which the data is analysed and then some interpretations are drawn
from it and presented in form of graphs.
Reliability and validity- this includes the fact that the data which is collected must be valid and
must be collected from the reliable sources so that the research is carried on with quality (Hartas,
ed., 2015).
FINDING, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Questionnaire
Name:
Age:
Gender:
1. Do you understand the concept of equality and diversity?
 Yes
 No
2. Is your company promoting equality and diversity?

 Agree
 Strongly agree
 Neutral
 Strongly disagree
 Disagree
3. In accordance to you does equality and diversity promotes employee’s retention?
 Yes
 No
4. Do your company implement any strategy for building diverse and equitable workforce?
 Yes
 No
5. From the following which strategies are used by company in order to manage diversity and
equality?
 Educate employees
 Involve employees in decision making process
 Providing flexibility to work
 All of the above
6. From the below what are the impact of maintenance of equality and diversity within
workforce?
 Retaining best employees
 Increase in productivity
 Increase in goodwill
 All of the above
7. Some recommendation for improving the strategy for managing equality and diversity at
workplace?
Theme 1: Yes, concept of equality and diversity is understandable
PARTICULARS RESPONDENT % OF RESPONDENT
Yes 15 60
No 10 40
Total 25 100

Interpretation: from the analysis of the above data it is concluded that maximum of the
respondent states that they have the knowledge of the concept of equality and diversity. This is
because of the reason that this is the current topic going on in the business world. However, rest
of the participants states that they do not have proper knowledge of the concept.
Theme 2: Strongly agree that company promotes diversity and equality
PARTICULARS RESPONDENT % OF RESPONDENT
Agree 5 20
Strongly agree 10 40
Neutral 2 8
Strongly disagree 4 16
Disagree 4 16
Total 25 100

Interpretation: with the analysis of the above data it is inferred that majority of the respondent
strongly agrees that the company promotes the concept of diversity and equality in the company.
But some other participants do not agree to this fact.
Theme 3: Yes, employee retention is promoted by equality and diversity
PARTICULARS RESPONDENT % OF RESPONDENT
Yes 16 64
No 9 36
Total 25 100

Interpretation: from the analysis of the above data it is interpreted that maximum of the
participants agrees that employee retention is done if company uses equality and diversity. This
is because of the reason that if company promotes equality then the employees will not leave the
company. However, the rest of the employees do not agree to this.
Theme 4: Yes, the company uses different strategies for maintaining equitable and diverse
workforce
PARTICULARS RESPONDENT % OF RESPONDENT
Yes 20 80
No 5 20
Total 25 100
Interpretation: with the help of the data analysis of the above question it is concluded that
maximum of the participants states that the company uses the different strategies to increase
equality and diversity within the workplace. It is so because of the reason that if there will not be
equality and diversity then no employee will like to work with the company. However, rest of the
employees do not assent with this fact.
Theme 5: All of the above are the strategies used by the company
PARTICULARS RESPONDENT % OF RESPONDENT
Educate employees 5 20
Involve employees in decision
making process 5 20
Providing flexibility to work 5 20

All of the above 10 40
Total 25 100
Interpretation: from the analysis of the above question it is inferred that all of the above are the
strategies which company uses to promote equality and diversity within the workplace. It is so
because of the reason that all these strategies help in improving equality and diversity at the
workplace. However, rest of the employees agree to these facts but on the individual basis.
Theme 6: All of the above is the impact of using equitable policies within the workplace
PARTICULARS RESPONDENT % OF RESPONDENT
Retaining best employees 5 20
Increase in productivity 4 16
Increase in goodwill 4 16
All of the above 12 48
Total 25 100

Interpretation: with the help of the above data analysis it is summarised that all of the given
option is the impact of the use of different strategies used for maintain equality and diversity that
is increases in goodwill, increase in productivity and retention of best employees.
Theme 7: Some recommendation for improvement
Interpretation: from the analysis of the above it can be recommended to the company that it
needs to use some policies which do not discriminate among the employees on certain different
basis. Also, the company needs to educate their employee and senior management for using
equitable practices within the company so that the employees are motivated to work in the
company.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Conclusion
From the above research it can be concluded that the maintenance of equality and
diversity is very necessary for the business to be successful. The present research was used to
analyse the role of equality and diversity in maintaining diverse and inclusive workforce. This is
due to the fact that it is very necessary to be in the competitive world and to treat the employees
fairly and equitable otherwise the employee will go to their competitors. In the whole research it
was concluded that the different strategies like educating employees, providing flexibility of
work and many other different strategies are used in retaining the employees.
Alternative research methods

The researcher in place of qualitative research could have used quantitative research method as it
is more practical and numerical way of reaching to any conclusion. Also, instead of deductive
approach of research, the scholar could have used the inductive approach. This is majorly
because of the reason that this approach is more suitable with the quantitative approach of
research. Also, in place of combination of both the sources more preference can be given to
secondary source. This is because this source is more relevant as it involves the different
viewpoints of the different authors.
Recommendation
The major recommendation is to train all the employees to use fair practices of work and not to
behave differently from the other employees who are coming from different cultural background.
Another recommendation for the company is to organize some informal meetings and gathering
so that the employees coming from different cultural background can interact with one another
so that they can do work together in a coordinated way.