Strategies for Equality and Diversity at Sunspel: A Detailed Analysis

This report analyzes strategies for equality and diversity within Sunspel, a UK-based garment retailer and manufacturer. It begins with an introduction to equality and diversity in the workplace, emphasizing their importance for organizational success. The report outlines project aims and objectives, including identifying the meaning of diversity and equality, acknowledging their positive impacts, understanding implementation strategies, and addressing associated issues. A project management plan is designed, covering cost, quality, scope, time, resources, risk, and communication. A Gantt chart and WBS structure are developed to manage project timelines and activities. Research is conducted using both qualitative and quantitative methods, including questionnaires distributed to staff and customers. Data analysis is performed to justify recommendations, and a reflection on the project's outcomes and learning is provided. The report concludes with recommendations for Sunspel to improve its diversity and equality practices.

MANAGING A
SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS PROJECT

Table of Contents
Title: “To analyse strategies role and importance that aid organisational management team in an
organisation while enforcing equality & diversity at workplace.” A study on Sunspel..................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Prepare desired aims & objectives for project work as per the selected topic................1
P2 Design an efficient project management plan including factors such as risk, time,
communication, cost, resources, quality and scope................................................................2
P3 Develop a Gantt chart and WBS structure according to project activities to identify the
timelines and stages for project completion...........................................................................4
M1 Formulate a project management plan, schedule associated project and milestones to
check and fulfil aims of project..............................................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P4 Conduct research at small scale level, using various research methods to accomplish
desired objectives and aims of project ...................................................................................6
M2 Acknowledge reliableness and accuracy for research methods used to perform research10
D1 Critical evaluation and analysis of project management processes and methodologies of
research applied during project ...........................................................................................10
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
P5 Research analysing and collection of data by desired techniques and tools...................10
P6 Recommend about research and analysis of data to carry to conclude a valid conclusion17
M3 Justify the usage of appropriate techniques & tools to get accurate data. Also, justify
suggested recommendations.................................................................................................18
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................18
P7 Reflection upon values of project and research undertaking to achieve desired objectives
and own performance & learning.........................................................................................18
M4 Evaluate need of project management process and usage of quality research methods in
fulfilling stated objectives....................................................................................................19
D2 Critically analyse and reflect upon outcomes of project, decision making and changes in
development of project plan.................................................................................................19

CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................19
REFERECNES..............................................................................................................................21
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................22

Title: “To analyse strategies role and importance that aid organisational
management team in an organisation while enforcing equality & diversity
at workplace.” A study on Sunspel.
INTRODUCTION
Equality in a business is defined as a situation in which all the workforce of organisation
is treated equally irrespective of their gender, socio-cultural background or other factors. If a
business firms have people from multiple origins, it will be called as diversified company. Both,
equality and diversity are important aspects if a company wants to operate in coordinated and
peaceful working environment (Ashe and Nazroo, 2017). This report is prepared in context with
Sunspel which is a UK based garment retailer and manufacturer, operating at medium level. This
company is established in 1860 and it headquarter is present in Derbyshire, UK. It is an
organisation where number of employees are around 51-200 and have their stores across the
whole wide world. Main products of this firm are Polo shirts, T-shirts and Boxer shorts. This
report is going to cover about aims & objectives for research. Also, management plan of project
will be prepared and a suitable research is going to be carried out. Other than this, analysis of
data is performed to justify suitable recommendations and conclusions. At last, a reflection will
be carried out to assess own learning and performance.
TASK 1
P1 Prepare desired aims & objectives for project work as per the selected topic
Diversity & Equality is a term which denotes the flexibility of company in providing
comfort to their employees. Equality pay or equal pay states that within a workplace structure
both men as well as women should get equal pay for the work of same job. In simple terms
equality pay is termed as equal pay for work of equal value. It is important for Sunspel to
consider these aspects so that talented people from multiple backgrounds can be part of their
organisation and they can achieve high advantage over their rivals without any issue (Cottrill,
Denise Lopez and Hoffman, 2014).
Title:“To analyse strategies role and importance that aid organisational management
team in an organisation while enforcing equality & diversity at workplace.” A study on Sunspel.
1

Aim: Main aim behind conducting this specific research is to understand value and role
of distinct strategies in implementing equality & diversity at workplace. This research is carried
out on Sunspel, a SME operating in UK.
Objectives:
 To identify the meaning of terms such as diversity and equality in context with business
organisation.
 To acknowledge the positive impacts of equality and diversity on overall performance
and productivity of Sunspel.
 To understand different strategies that can be adopted by Sunspel for maintaining
diversity and equality at their working premises.
 To acknowledge the solutions in overcoming issues associated with Diversity & Equality
within organisation.
Questions:
 What do you understand by terms diversity and equality in context with business
organisation?
 What are the positive impacts of equality and diversity on overall performance and
productivity of Sunspel?
 What are the potential strategies that can be adopted by Sunspel for maintaining diversity
and equality at their working premises?
 What are the solutions to overcome issues associated with Diversity & Equality within
organisation?
P2 Design an efficient project management plan including factors such as risk, time,
communication, cost, resources, quality and scope
Project management plan is basically a working document which comprises of all the
activities and tasks that are important to accomplish a project. It involves detailed information
about project so that all the work can be performed in a systematic manner. Information
associated with elements of PMP are mentioned below:
 Cost: Cost is the amount which can be acknowledged in monetary value. In context
to Sunspel, cost needed to accomplish project is 4000 pounds. Within this amount all
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the activities of project are needed to be completed. For researcher, needed amount is
100 pounds (Glukhov, Ilin and Levina, 2015).
 Quality: To increase quality level of project, the manager in Sunspel is required to adopt
strategies of Diversity & Equality in appropriate way. Also, research quality can be used
by using methodologies like Qualitative, Quantitative, interviews, questionnaire etc.
Using this tool will help the researcher in performing work systematically and efficiently.
 Scope: For Sunspel, scope of this project is really wide as it will helps the firm in
satisfying their employees due to which they will be retained in firm for large time. In
case of research, scope is high as the investigator will get wide information about
maintenance of Diversity & Equality in company.
 Time: Total time needed to work on this project is 12 weeks. In context with research,
required time period is around 4 week. The researcher is needed to accomplish all this
work within this time frame (Klarsfeld and et. al., 2016).
 Resources: Main resources that are needed by the project manager of company to
perform this project are high technology, internet, capital, funds, skilled workforce etc. in
case of research, required resources are money, time, internet, books, magazines etc.
 Risk: In case of equality and diversity project, main risks are related to non-cooperation
of employees, lack of capital, time mismanagement, failure in achieving deadlines,
technology fail etc. From investigator's perspective, main risks are lack of time, money,
guidance and no access to internet.
 Communication: Main communication methods which can be used by the project
manager to communicate with their team are video call, web conferencing, voice call,
Email etc. In context with researcher, major communication tool will be mobile phone,
SMS, internet (Kulkarni and Gopakumar, 2014).
P3 Develop a Gantt chart and WBS structure according to project activities to identify the
timelines and stages for project completion
WBS: This structure is a systematic method of bifurcating big projects into small
components so that each activity and process of project can be given proper attention. This
structure break down the entire project into small chunks of elements. By this, every aspect of
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project initiated by Sunspel will be performed in a manageable manner. This will increase the
overall productivity of the selected project (Mukhopadhyay and Gupta, 2014).
Gantt chart: This is basically a graphical representation for the tasks and activities
which are performed in a project. These activities of project or research are marked against time.
With the help of Gantt chart, a project manager can prioritise project activities as per given time.
By this, it can be assured that project is going to be accomplished on time and no kind of
contingency in accomplishing project will take place (Troutman, 2019).
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5

M1 Formulate a project management plan, schedule associated project and milestones to check
and fulfil aims of project
Formulated project plan is going to help the researcher in creating and increasing their
knowledge about investigation and other aspects associated with it. Also, activities of project
management benefits a company in checking and monitoring all the important activities of the
project so that all the work can be accomplish according to the systematic schedule (Cottrill,
Denise Lopez and Hoffman, 2014). There are various elements associated with PMP like time,
communication, cost, resource, risk, scope, quality etc. All these aspects helps in attainment of
project objectives. Other than this, tools like Gantt chart and WBS helps in attainment of project
objectives in a timely manner.
TASK 2
P4 Conduct research at small scale level, using various research methods to accomplish desired
objectives and aims of project
Research methodology is a systematic study and investigation of materials so that facts or
conclusion can be established. With the use of research methodology, research on a specific
project can be conducted in a systematic manner (Hewins-Maroney and Williams, 2013). By
this, collection of accurate data can be assured. There are two methods to carry out a research i.e.
quantitative and qualitative methods which are stated below in a detailed manner.
 Qualitative research method: This is a method to conduct a market research with the
help of texts and picture. This kind of research-practice do not involve any numerical
data. Data associated with this research is collected through behaviour of humans in
different situations. This research can be conducted with the help of methods like
observations, discussions, group focus etc. In this research, open ended questions are
asked to respondents.
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 Quantitative research method: This is a systematic way to conduct research and
collecting data with the usage of statistical and mathematical data. This research tactics is
used when respondents are very large in number. It involves methods like correlation
research, online polls, surveys, sampling methods etc. this covers close ended questions
which shows its structured aspect while data collection (Kumar, 2019).
Other than this, there are two ways to collected desired data. These methods are primary
research and secondary research methods. These methods are very different from each other but
their end goal is to collect reliable and accurate information. In primary method, data and
information is gathered for first time. This is the reason, it is time and cost consuming. To collect
data, methods like questionnaire, interviews, telephonic conversations can be used (Quinlan and
et. al., 2019). Secondary research is very different than primary research as here data is gathered
through already existing sources. Best way to collect data is through books, journals, internet etc.
In this research, both primary and secondary methods are used. Primary method is used in
the form of questionnaire and secondary research is carried out by using internet. Questionnaire
prepared for this research will be filled by 50 respondents. These people will be selected on
random basis and their answers will be treated as opinion of entire population. Respondents for
the questionnaire are staff and customers of Sunspel.
QUESTIONNAIRE
Quantitative Questions
Q1) Do you acknowledge the concepts like equality and diversity in relation to business
firms?
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) Do you believe both equality and diversity plays an essential role in increasing the
organisational performance?
a) Yes
b) No
Q3) What are the main advantage for Sunspel by introducing Diversity & Equality within
workplace?
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a) Retain expert employees
b) Creation of positive work relationships
c) Increased performance
Q4) What can be the potential strategies adopted by management of Sunspel to overcome
problems related to Diversity & Equality at their company?
a) Treating staff members fairly
b) Adoption of equal pay Act
c) Training employees about diversity issues
Q5)What influence does equality and diversity have on the performance of employees?
a) Positive influence
b) Negative influence
c) No influence
Q6) How management in Sunspel can show their support for equality & diversity at the
workplace?
a) Through employer Commitment
b) By training
c) Legal Mandate
Q7) Do you believe executing of Diversity & Equality benefit Sunspel in retaining their
staff members for maximum time period?
a) Yes
b) No
Qualitative Questions
Q8) Mention various issues that can be faced by a firm while implementation of diversity
and equality at their organisation?
Q9) Discuss some ways through which barriers in implementation of Diversity & Equality
can be overcome by Sunspel?
Q10) Recommend measure by which business firms can acknowledge the impact of
Diversity & Equality in attaining high performance and productivity........
Quantitative Questions
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Q1) Do you acknowledge the concepts like equality and diversity in
relation to business firms?
Frequency
a) Yes 42
b) No 8
Q2) Do you believe both equality and diversity plays an essential
role in increasing the organisational performance?
Frequency
a) Yes 36
b) No 14
Q3) What are the main advantage for Sunspel by introducing
Diversity & Equality within workplace?
Frequency
a) Retaining expert employees 25
b) Creation of positive work relationships 15
c) Increased performance 10
Q4) What can be the potential strategies adopted by management
of Sunspel to overcome problems related to Diversity & Equality at
their company?
Frequency
a) Treating staff members fairly 20
b) Adoption of equal pay Act 15
c) Training employees about diversity issues 15
Q5)What influence does equality and diversity have on the
performance of employees?
Frequency
a) Positive influence 30
b) Negative influence 15
c) No influence 5
Q6) How management in Sunspel can show their support for
equality & diversity at the workplace?
Frequency
9