HND Business Unit 11: Research Project on Equality and Diversity

This research project explores the critical aspects of equality and diversity within the workplace, focusing on a case study of Walmart. The report begins with an introduction outlining the importance of fair treatment and respect among employees, setting the stage for an in-depth investigation into workplace discrimination based on factors such as race, gender, religion, and national origin. The research encompasses a comprehensive literature review that examines the concept of equality and diversity, its significance, prevalent issues of workplace discrimination, and strategies employed to address these challenges. The methodology section details the research approach, including the inductive approach, data collection methods such as surveys and interviews, and ethical considerations. The findings are presented in an executive summary, followed by a detailed discussion and conclusion. The report offers recommendations for promoting diversity and equality, along with a reflection on the research process and references to support the findings.

Research Project

Table of Contents
Topic: Equality and diversity in the workplace...............................................................................1
Research proposal............................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Aims and objectives.........................................................................................................................2
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................2
Theme 1: Concept of the equality and diversity..........................................................................2
Theme 2: Importance of the equality and diversity.....................................................................3
Theme 3: Issues of the work place discrimination and diversity.................................................3
Theme 4: Strategies used by the company for solving the issues................................................3
Theme 5: ways in which the company would promote the work place diversity........................4
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................4
RESEARCH PROJECT...................................................................................................................6
Executive summary..........................................................................................................................6
METHODOLOGIES.......................................................................................................................6
Results And Findings.....................................................................................................................11
Discussion......................................................................................................................................17
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................21

Recommendations..........................................................................................................................22
Reflection.......................................................................................................................................22
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................24
APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................26
Topic: Equality and diversity in the workplace
Research proposal
INTRODUCTION
Equality and diversity at the work place is important because employees of the company
are not treated equally. It would also be said as work place discrimination. Discrimination among
the employees of the company is done on the basis of the race, gender, religion and national
origin as well. Generally employees of the company are not treated equally and also not
respected because of the differences in the pay of the employees. Discrimination is harmful
because the employees of the company are not treated equally on the basis of the education and
qualification. There are severe effects of the work place discrimination on the employees and the
company image as well. It could result in increase in the fear and also employees of the company
are suffering from the heart problems as well. Government has started various laws and
regulation which are made for the protection of the employees. Discrimination between the
employees of the company is done between the employees of the company and also the
employers of the company are supporting the discrimination. The employees which are doing the
discrimination must be punished and strict actions must be taken on these employees.
Walmart is an American retail store which has build the departmental stores and also
groceries store as well. Walmart was founded by the Sam Walton and it was founded in the
1945. It is providing the products like the electronics, clothing and footwear and jewelry as well.
Company is engaged in the environment initiatives through which the company is contributing in
protecting the environment. Company is also providing the charity to the charity organizations as
well. Walmart has the 11438 stores in around 27 countries. The company is operating all the
stores form the united states Canada.
The report is focusing on the work place discrimination in the Walmart and the company
is focusing on the strategies which would also move the problems as well. The company has to
use the strategies for promoting the equality and diversity at the work place. Through these the
company would fulfil the objectives of the employees and employees of company would be

satisfied in working at the place. The aims and objectives of the company is specified in the
report and the company has to take the effective measures for coming up with the equality and
diversity problems faced by the employees in the organization (Kumar, 2019).
Aims and objectives
Aims: “To identify the issues and use the strategies which would help the Walmart to
overcome the issue of the equality and diversity.”
Objectives:
 To understand the concept of the equality and diversity.
 To understand the importance of the equality and diversity for Walmart.
 To identify issues of the work place discrimination and diversity in the Walmart.
 To identify strategies which would be used by the company for solving the issues.
 To recommend the ways in which the company can promote or develop work place
diversity.
Research questions:
1. What is concept of the equality and diversity?
2. What are advantages of work place diversity?
3. What are challenges and barriers in the work place discrimination?
4. What are strategies in which Walmart would solve the issues?
5. What are ways in which the company would promote or develop the work place
diversity?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theme 1: Concept of the equality and diversity
The companies in UK have to follow the practices which will eliminate the
discrimination between the employees. As per author …...(Zaidi 2015) Walmart need to improve
the strategies which are being followed in the company. The company need to work in the
efficient manner in which the company would solve the problems of the employees. The
employees of the company must be treated equally. Generally employees of the company are
discriminated on the basis of the race, caste, gender and many more. Some employees are form
the other culture and some form the other countries. As per author …..(Romani, Holck
Holgersson. and Muhr, 2017)These types of the employees are discriminated and not accepted
by the other employees of the company. The employees which are new to the company are not

working efficiently but some times these employees are not adjusted in the business environment
and also these employees are discriminated by the other employees. The concept of the equality
and diversity is useful for the company.
Theme 2: Importance of the equality and diversity
According to the author …...(Butterby and Collins 2019) Company need to take the
efficient measures for the developing the business objectives. Developing the business objectives
is based on the equality and diversity and business environment of the company. The employees
would help the employees to develop and also have the positive impact on the performance of
the company. Through the diversity would, help the employees to reach more customers.
Diversity and equality is promoting in the company premises about the employees of the
company need to take the effective measures for the real change. Through diversity the
employees of the company would be able to reach more customers. As per author ...(Greene
2019) Diversity is also attracting the employees. Company would be able to recruit the talented
candidate for the past and company is not bounded by the boundaries. Company would increase
the business and will also creativity among the employees would be introduced. Organization
would have the benefit because the employees from the different culture have different skills and
the language skills as well.
Theme 3: Issues of the work place discrimination and diversity
As per the author …...(Hughes and Brown, 2018) Work place issues are affecting the
company performance and the productivity a swell. The employee of the company are not
accepting the new employees and the nor the respect is provided to the employees which are
working in the organization. The gender equality is main reason of the work place issues. Some
employees in the organization are old employees and some are new to the company so the
employees are facing the problem in the case of the generation gap. As per author.. (Köllen
2016) Some employees are form the different country and these employees are facing the
problems regarding the language and the communication as well. Employees of the company are
dealing with the stress and trauma so the employees need motivation from time to time and also
the employee of the company need colleagues to share the issues but if the employees are
discriminating than it would raise the conflicts among the employees in the company.

Theme 4: Strategies used by the company for solving the issues
According to the author...(Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright 2017) The company
must know about the work place issues and the company must now about the issues and the
company must be able to try to solve the issues. The company would try to use the strategies and
motivate the employees as well. Some employees fell discriminated and their language problems
so the employee of the company are provided the proper training. According to the author...
(Esther and Kumar, 2016) The employees of the company need to work in the efficient manner
and also the employee need to work in the efficient manner. In order to improve the
communication between the employees that employees of the company need to work in the
efficient manner and the performance of the employee would be increased as well.
Theme 5: ways in which the company would promote the work place diversity
As per author … (Alexander, Havercome and Mujtaba 2015) Company need to take the
effective ways for promoting the work place diversity. The company must try to educate the
managers and also communication between the employees must be clear and efficient. The
employee of the company are motivated to work in the team projects so that the employee of the
company would accept each easily. As per author..(Davis Frolova and Callahan, 2016) Company
must try to strengthen the employees relation so that the employees would improve the
performance and employees would also solve the conflicts among them. Proper training must be
provided to the employees for the promoting the diversity at the work place.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research types : The research is the study of the topic or problem which would be used
by using the scientific methods as well. Research is done on the two types qualitative and
quantitative research. Quantitative research is the type of the research which is done by the
collecting the data and analysing the data. Online survey and the questionnaires are the methods
through which the data would be collected as well. Qualitative research is the process in which
the inquiry of the topic is done and also the researcher is trying to understand the problems and
the issues as well (Flick 2015).
Research philosophy: research philosophy in which the data would be collected and the
collected and gathered as well. The philosophy includes the positivism and the Interpretivism. In
positivism, it is the belief that the reality is stable and the reality would be observed as well. In
Interpretivism it is the subject matter in which the intervention of the reality is understood and it

includes that the interpretations has the many realities and reality is different form the person to
person (Bresler and Stake 2017).
Research approach: Research approach is the hypothesis which is divide in to the three
types which include the deductive approach, inductive approach, abductive approach. The
research approach is divided on the basis of the logic and use of the data and theory as well.
Company is using the inductive approach and the inductive approach include the data collection
and also the themes must be identified. Inductive approach follow the observations, pattern and
theory. The approach is starting with the research questions and the aims and objectives as well.
Data collection: Data collection include the process in which the data is to be collected.
The data is collected through the interviews and surveys as well. Primary data is the data which
is collected form the first-hand sources. Primary data is collected through the survey and
interviews. Secondary data is the which is collected form someone other. Secondary sources of
data are the censuses and government departments a swell. The data is collected form the other
research purposes as well (Mackey and Gass 2015).
Data analysis: Data analysis is the process in which the data is cleaned and transformed
as well. Through the data analysis one would take the right decision. It is analysing the past and
the future of making the decisions as well. Data would be analysed by the text analyses and
statistical analysis as well. It includes the process in which the data is collected and then cleaned
and then interpreted and then visualized.
Ethical consideration: ethical considerations are the ethics which would include the
ethics that must be followed while pursuing the research. Research participants must not harmed
and faced in any way. Respect and dignity must be provided to the person which is doing the
research. Protection of the researcher must be ensured as well. Privacy of the data must be kept
and the researcher must also ensure that the data is checked and analysed as well.
Timeline
A time line of the research proposal is essential, because the research proposal include
the research and it is the never ending process. The process has breakdown into small parts so
that the research is done easily and it would be less stressful. The time line involve the activities
and the time given by the researcher on the topic. The time line is created through the process
and the process include the creating the task. After creating the task the example of the schedule

is analysed and the timeline avoids the procrastination. The timelines is the schedule of the
research done and the time it took to complete the task as well.
Activities Time frame
Selection of the topic 2 days
Aims and objectives of research 4 days after the topic was selected
Selecting the research methods After preparing the aims and objectives the
methodology took nearly 7 to 8 days.
Collection of data Data was collected in between 7 and 10 days
after doing the research methodology.
Analysis of data After collecting data, data was analyzed in
between 2 and 4 days.
RESEARCH PROJECT
Executive summary
The company is concentrating on the equality and diversity issues which are growing in
the company premises. Due to these the conflicts between the employee is increasing and the
employees of the company would not work in the effective manner. In order to solve the issues
the company has done the research on the issues faced by the employees in the company. The
research includes the research types, approaches, methodology and data collection as well. The
process of research the company has analysed the data which is generated from the employees.
The data for the research is collected form the employees by the way of interviews of the
employees. The employee of the company need to work in the efficient manner through which
the company would also improve the performance of the employees. The data given by the
employees which are working in the company is analysed by the researcher and some
recommendations are given by the researcher for overcoming the issues.
METHODOLOGIES
Research methodology is an important part of the whole research project as it is a
collection of several techniques that are being used by scholar to identify, analyse and process

informations relevant to the topic. In other words in the context of importance of research
methodologies (Quinlan and et.al., 2019). It can be said that methodology section allow
researcher to evaluate research project and the whole study' s reliability in an effective manner.
Research methodology specify the type of research. Approach and philosophy which is being
taken by researcher for making the research successful. It is beneficial for students and the
company for which researcher perform all steps and activities of research methodologies. Some
activities of research methodologies like
research types, approaches, philosophy, data collection and analysis of data are being discussed
as follows:
Research types:
Research types can be defined as a method of collecting data, analysis and interpretation
which mainly depends upon the research topic. As for this research, scholar wants to identify
some challenges, strategies of managing workplace diversity in order to know importance and
making all employees of Walmart feel valued and respected. There are mainly two types of
research such as qualitative and quantitative. In the type of quantitative research type, scholar
gets numeral data and informations for getting the answers of its questions on the basis of the
majority (Bagozzi and et.al., 2015). With the help of using numbers, researcher makes numerical
observations in order to know that where he/she requires improving relationship with target
people. Internet based surveys, common cards are some methods of getting this type of research
and data.
On the other hand, qualitative research, scholar collect non-numerical data and
informations. Data collected in the form of words by observing feelings, emotions and sounds. It
is the most important type and that is why most of the researcher focus on collecting this type of
data. For this study, researcher will make use of qualitative research type and informations
because it allows scholar to collect qualitative data and learn experiences, values and viewpoints
of target people. It can also be said that, researcher in this type, identify and seek answers of the
question of how and why which allows him/her to make the study successful and also improve
its image. Focus group, interviews, questionnaire are some methods of this type of data (Zilkenat
and et.al., 2016).
Research approach

Research approach also provide the way in which activities of data collection as well as
analysis is being performed by researcher. It is a combination of some steps of broad assumption
of detailed methods. The best selection of research approach allows researcher to go on the right
direction for conducting research in an effective manner. Inductive and deductive are two
approaches of research (Singh, 2015). It can be said that the selection of research approach is not
a difficult task because it depends upon the type of research which researcher select. After
selecting research type, he/she can easily identify the approach of research. Inductive research
approach involves the search for pattern from observation and the development of explanations
by generating a new theory for getting accurate and qualitative informations related to the topic.
For this research, this type has been selected because it is suitable for qualitative research type.
By observing a pattern, scholar try to get informations and develop theory.
Whereas, deductive is a broad assumptions and collect hypothetical data because it is
tests an existing theory. In this type, there are a chances of having poor quality of data because it
is not a new theory. It can be successful only when all the premises set in the inductive study are
true and the terms are clear. It starts with an existing theory as well as collect data to test the
hypothesis (Horrigan-Kelly, Millar and Dowling, 2016).
Research philosophy
Research philosophy is a feeling or belief about the way in which data relevant to the
topic is collected and analysed. Positivism, Interpretivism and realism are some philosophies of
research. In the type of positivism research philosophy, researcher only use factual and real
knowledge through observation. The role of scholar in this type is limited in the main context
and part of data collection and interpretation. Statistical analysis are being used in positivism
research philosophy. It allows researcher to know about social trends and nature and it is based
and relevant for quantitative research type. Realism research philosophy is based on scientific
evidences with the main aim of explaining natural phenomenon. Researcher generally avoid
selecting this philosophy because it is not based on realistic data and natural feelings of human as
based on perception (Yusuf, Adams and Dingley, 2016).
On the other hand, interpretivism research philosophy, allows researcher to get detailed
informations or depth analysis of the main topic and concepts. It is beneficial for researcher
because it increases knowledge and understanding of scholar of situations. The main aim of
conducting this research is to analyse all challenges that occur due to workplace diversity along

with strategies to manage it at workplace. So, with the help of interpretivism philosophy, and as
a social actor he/she appreciate differences between people. For this study, scholar has made use
of this philosophy as the type of research is qualitative.
Data collection:
Data collection means to gather informations that can help researcher to make its research
successful and accomplish pre determined aims and objectives. The main aim of this topic is to
identify challenges related to workplace diversity as well as solutions to overcome problems. So,
it is important for researcher to get realistic data by knowing experience and feelings of target
people regarding to the topic. Data collection have mainly 2 techniques of collecting data and
informations by using the best source. There are 2 types of data collection such as primary and
secondary. In primary data collection, informations are gathered by sample population with the
help of questionnaire, interview and survey. For this study, researcher will use primary data
collection because informations gathered from this type are brand new and never used before.
There are fewer chances of getting influenced by this type. Primary data and resources of
collecting new data gives personalize opinion (Neelankavil, 2015).
On the other hand, secondary data collection are existing data as it is collected from
internet, books and journals, articles etc. Secondary data are being used before that is why it is
called second hand data. There are some chances of getting influenced and receiving irrelevant
data. So, researcher has mainly focused on primary and make less use of secondary data
collection.
Data analysis:
Data analysis means to interpret and mould data for making it more relevant and
accurate. After collecting data from the target people, researcher find a need to make some
changes in informations as he/she believes that all people do not give realistic answers. So with
the help of data analysis tool, researcher make realistic and authentic data. There are 2 types for
analysing data such as qualitative and quantitative (Mihas, 2019). Quantitative analysis is being
done by making use of statistical tools like SPSS that shows mean, correlations about the data.
On the other hand, qualitative data analysis is being done by using systematic review and
themes. For this study, scholar has used qualitative tools for data analysis because the type of
research is qualitative. Scholar will use central theme for interpreting data on the basis of
responses achieved by target people and participants.

Sampling:
Sampling means to select a group of people from the whole population for getting
answers relevant to the topic, For this research, scholar wants to identify challenges and solutions
for managing workplace diversity at Walmart. For making the research feasible and easy in
terms of complexity, size of numbers, time, researcher perform this step. Probability and non-
probability are 2 types of sampling and targeting people for getting informations. In the type of
probability, each participant is given equal and fair chance to give answers asked by researcher.
Whereas, in non-probability type of sampling, specific criteria is needed to used to choose
sample population.
So, it is important for researcher to get authenticate informations and for that researcher
has selected 20 employees of Walmart as participants in random probability sampling
Ethical consideration
Ethics also plays a vital role in conducting research project and making it successful.
Ethics means to perform all activities without hurting direct and indirect participants of
researcher. To know the difference between the right and the wrong is important for researcher to
identify for making research successful. There are some ethics and ethical consideration which
needed to be taken into account while collecting data and performing all activities of research
project (Amaratunga and et.al., 2016).
It is important for researcher to maintain privacy and keep all data of them safe. To not
share any type of detail to anyone. To not force anyone and participant to give informations and
answers of questions asked by researcher. To provide each detail to all participants of research in
a polite manner. All these shows that research is being done in an ethic manner which improves
brand image of the company and researcher as well.
Results And Findings
Questionnaire
1. Do you have proper knowledge about workplace diversity and equality?
 Yes
 No