Workplace Equality and Diversity: ThirdWay Group Case Study Analysis

This report examines the challenges organizations face in managing equality and diversity in the workplace, using ThirdWay Group as a case study. It outlines project aims, objectives, and a project management plan, including cost, quality, time, scope, communication, resources, and risk considerations. The report details a work breakdown structure and Gantt chart for systematic project management. It also explores research methodologies, including qualitative and quantitative methods, and data collection techniques. The study addresses the impact of the gender pay gap, challenges in implementing equality, and strategies for improvement. The report concludes with recommendations for enhancing project quality and organizational performance, incorporating reflections on the research process.

Managing a successful
Business Project

TOPIC
“To examine the issues that organisation face in managing equality and diversity at
workplace. A case study on ThirdWay Group.”
INTRODUCTION
Diversity states to the collection of different religion, culture, values, languages,
ethnicity, beliefs and others on the basis of similarity. Equality and diversity in working
environment mean a lot of things. They are in context of staff and individual, age, gender, race,
cultural, skills, beliefs etc. Diversity incorporates all of the components that make individuals
unique from one another and while there are infinite differences in humans (Adamson and et. al.,
2016). Equality indicates to the sameness like when all the workers are treated equally on the
basis of values, ethics, race, culture and others. Diversity and equality both components are
considered as internal factors of an organisation and they affiliate with it in direct manner in term
of achieving high level of profit and productivity in an effective manner. This written document
is supported to ThirdWay Group which is a private limited company and operate its business in
real estate industry. This firm was incorporated in 2009 and headquarters in London and
England. The report will discuss about report aims & objectives and project management plan
are developed to analyse the requirements of the task in an effective way. Further will, define
about different research methodologies and data collection methods to gather accurate
information in context of specific area of examination. The interpretation of the data and
information will also define by using and applying different methods and techniques. Finally,
providing appropriate recommendation for developing the quality of the project and performance
of the organisation (Altman, 2018). Furthermore, reflection will also describe which is based on
researcher experiences at the time of proceeding all the actions of project.
TASK 1
P1. Project aims and objectives
Overview of the company
ThirdWay Group is a best property specialists and this firm was established in 2009 and
headquartered in London and England. There are 200 employees make their contribution in
running the business of the company in most crucial manner in term of accomplish the desired
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success and growth (Polonsky and Waller, 2018). It is private sector company which deals in
commercial real estate industries.
Research aim
“The aim of this research project is “To identify the impact of gender pay gap on
employees performance. A case study on ThirdWay Group.”
Research objectives
 To analyse the consequences of gender, pay gap in ThirdWay Group within a 1 month of
time period.
 To identify the strategies that could be employ by the company to deal with issue of
gender pay gap in 2 months.
 To study the challenges which company face in implementing equality and diversity at
workplace in 3 months.
 To find out the impact of gender pay gap upon organisation's performance due to
inequality within 1 month.
Research questions
 What are the consequences of gender pay gap in ThirdWay Group within a 1 month of
time period.?
 What are the strategies that could be employ by the company to deal with issue of gender
pay gap in 2 months?
 What is the challenges which company face in implementing equality and diversity at
workplace in 3 months?
 What is the impact of gender pay gap upon organisation's performance due to inequality
within 1 month?
P2. Project management plan that covers different aspects
Project management plan
It is described as a written document which is utilised by a company in context of
facilitating brief and clear guidelines to execute and perform all the activities and operation
connected to the research project. This plan consists different activities like framing, creating,
implementing, performing and controlling affiliated with the project (Bass and Haxby, 2019).
The project management plan is utilized and implemented to investigation about the different
aspects that are needed for appropriate preparation in order to accomplish aims of the company
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within a specific time frame. This considers different aspects like cost, quality, resource, scope,
time, risk, communication and others which are explained as beneath:
Cost- This factor is an essential component to organise a particular written report as it
help in getting needed equipment, instruments and sources in adequate way. In context of this
research work, the investigator needed finance and monetary value for the accomplishment of
this investigation report so that accurate and appropriate results can gain by it. For this, the
researcher required overall cost to attain the task is estimated £500.
Quality- It consider as an crucial aspect because it is connected with project productivity
and sustainability in direct manner in term of different industries and population. The research
determine the existing marketplace that assist in collecting all revenant and effective data related
to investigation topic in direct way (Beaman, 2017). It helps other surveyors to conduct their
investigation study in crucial way. To administrate the quality of the project, researcher can
utilise diverse tools and techniques in form of various methodologies of research like qualitative
and quantitative methodology of investigation. It will help in maintaining relevancy and
credibility of the information and the quality of investigation.
Time- It indicates to the time frame which is needed to accomplish a task and work in an
effective manner. It is needed to execute the research actions and activities in effective manner
through research group and its members. Therefore, the investigator has analysed that this
research project requires 4 months of time for completing effective and accurate project report.
Scope-It is another effective aspect of project management plan and in context of current
research, it has large scope because this project is supported to a common problem of equality
and diversity in working environment in terms of gender pay gap (Taran, Goduscheit and Boer,
2015). It is outlined that it is one of the main issue in an organisation and with the help of it,
investigator identify appropriate solution for minimising complexity of gender pay gap that also
be efficacious for various other researchers.
Communication- Efficacious communication networks are needed to assure that
information and data which is offering to group members in appropriate manner by utilising
formal and informal methods and easy of communication in context of delivering information to
team. In this research, the investigator will use both formal and informal method with effective
communication channels like message, email, notice board, meeting and by making direct
communication.
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Resources- This aspect is affiliated to diverse components like finance, technology,
software, human resource and others. In this research project, surveyor determines the necessities
to conduct research and on the basis of that they devise effort to allocate resources properly (Bell
and Harrison, 2018). For performing research activities and operations, the investigator have
requirement of finance, human resource, internet, laptop and equipment etc. The investigator
frame plan in context of needs of human resources so that aims an objectives of research project
can be accomplish in effective manner.
Risk- It is obsessed with those components that each researcher come across at the time
of performing research and report effectively and efficiently (Thompson, 2016). Thus, the
surveyor has taken an initiative in authorising the work as per the potentiality of each
individualism who perform in the research to reduce the issues and complexities by using their
efforts in more adequate way. To minimise the risk the research can use effective methods of
data collection to minimise the risk. In this research project the investigator can face risk
regarding accuracy of information which is collected by the person for completing project.
Another risk can be in context of time and monetary value which is given to the individual for
completing research.
P3. Work break down structure and Gantt chart to provide time frames
To develop the project in systematic manner, it is needed to utilise tools and techniques to
allot the work, task and activities in systematic manner (Hass, 2017). In context of ThirdWay
Group by implementing Gantt chart and work breakdown structure, they can set different
strategies for completion of project and allotment each in proper time duration also as described
below:
Gantt chart- It is a horizontal bar chart that accepted by project administrator to
segregate the entire project in two small parts and kinds of works or activities in order to
accomplish the desired aims and goals. In addition to this, it is rarely utilised tool in project
management plan as it offers the visual or graphical presentation of the schedules that lead
regarding the plan by empowering the responsibilities to accomplish desirable outcomes. With
the assistance of this, surveyor can analyse the time limit for each and every activity so that the
project report can be completed on time (Healy, 2015). It is very useful for the researchers as it
displays the beginning and completion time of all components in order to accomplish them as
well as it minimise the cost by reducing waste.
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Work break down structure- It is one of the essential tool for investigator which assists
in segregating and dividing complex works and actions into chunks which offer sustainability in
performing the work in more crucial way (Hillson, 2017). With the utilisation and
implementation of WBS, the researcher can conduct research in most appropriate manner in term
of achieving set aims and objectives.
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Source: Work break down structure,(2020).
TASK 2
P4. Carry out small scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods
Research methodology
It refers to the theoretical path through which a research can be done. This process is used
to formulate the problem and area where it arises and provide the solutions and data which is
related to the study. There are various method used to examine the research which include:
quantitative research, qualitative research, primary data, secondary data etc. The main aim of this
methodology is to satisfy the researcher by providing the proper data and information related to
the study (Kendrick, 2015). Although this system is used for making the major decisions
regarding the organisation which include current or historical data. The major fact related to this
is to achieve the new insights toward a study and verify the important facts.
Quantitative method: This scientific method states that a researcher identify, collect and
analyse the data or information in terms of stastical or numerical way (Turner, 2016). This
process is used when the sample size is large which gives the proper result to the specific
question. This process is often quicker because it involves the use of application software for
accurate result. It always gives a pragmatic solution which identifies a cause and effect
relationship.
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Illustration: Work break down structure

The trump card of this method is to help the candidate not to report on a specific area
where research can be done. It can be done by using telephones, online sites and other remote
methods which allows the surveyors to take the information (Kirton and Greene, 2015). It also
done in a cost- effective manner and consumes less time in doing the research. Major
disadvantage of this research is that surveyors cannot follow- up any response which is given by
the participants and does not ask more questions which help in the survey process. It cannot be
useful when there is limited number of participants involved.
Qualitative method: It can be defined as a social science method that focuses on
analysing, identifying and collection of data through open- ended and casual communication and
it is also called exploratory research.
It helps to identify what a candidate think and why they think and develops the ideas
relating to problem in a hypothetical way. This probing method include personal interviews,
observation, group discussion etc. where sample size is minimum and respondent are selected
randomly. This phenomenon is measured in terms of qualitative form not in quantitative that
means capturing an individual's opinion and emotions.
Advantages of qualitative research is that it helps to give the proper and detailed
information regarding participant's feeling, opinion, experience and language. Cons of this
method is that it only provides perspective data which is based on the comparison and not on the
scientific solutions (Wearne and White-Hunt, 2016). There is a fear of losing data that the
surveyor collects for research because it divide in a multiple sessions which sometimes creates
misleading conclusions.
From the above define research methodologies, in this current investigation report, the
investigator use qualitative methodology of investigation because it assist in providing effective
and detailed information about the study. This method is used by the investigation because it
provide detailed and brief information about a particular topic which assist in better
understanding regarding subject. Qualitative method provide deep and detail information and
looks deeper then analysing and counts by recording attitudes, feelings and behaviours. The main
reason of using this methods in research to gather information to encourage individual to expand
on their responses to open up new topic areas not initially considered.
Data collection
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It defines the activity of collecting and examining data from an appropriate source to find
a relevant solution to the problem area. While gathering the information, the surveyor should
identify the problem generate in the research and solve it by doing hypothetical test that
evaluates all outcomes and choose the suitable information (Klein, 2016). The data can be
collected in two ways i.e. primary source and secondary source.
Primary source-When the data is gathered originally by the researcher for very first time
is called primary data or first-hand data. It is the process of investigating data through
questionnaires, interviews, personal observation and an experiments (Young, 2016). The
investigator is the sole- owner of the study and ensures that it gives the standard quality and
statistical power for a particular work. The major source for collecting the primary information is
supported to the population sample. first hand collection of data is beneficial for the surveyor to
collect the relevant information which shows the originality. Major drawback of this type of
study is expensive and time consuming which disappoints in doing the proper study.
Secondary source- Information which is not collected originally by the researcher but
acquire from journals, books, government records, business magazines, libraries and internet etc.
are refer as secondary data (Martinsson and Griffin, 2016). Generally, it is economic in nature
and less time consuming because the facts and ideas are collected from primary data. This type
of data is based on the intrinsic and extrinsic source of information which covers the wide area.
The trump-card of this method is that it saves the efforts and money. It also helps to understand
the complex problem which is related to the study. Secondary collection of data is not much
appropriate and there is no guarantee over quality which is the major issue in this process.
From the preceding described data collection methods and ways, in present investigation
report, the researcher will use primary source of data collection because it is an effective method
which help in appropriate completion of the report by providing pure and accurate information.
In primary source of data collection the researcher will use questionnaire to collect information
then it will assist in providing correct pure information about equality and diversity at workplace.
Sampling- It refers to analysing the statistical procedure which is related to the
population. This tool assists in choosing or adopting the sample from the larger number of
population. It also help the researcher to increase the accuracy in collection of data. For this the
surveyor use the random sampling method with sample size of 30.
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Questionnaire- It is a written document which consisting of a series of questions with
the motive of collecting and gathering information from selected group of people and
respondents (Nicholas and Steyn, 2017). It is an effective tool which help in collecting pure and
first hand information.
Questionnaire
Q1. Are you aware with the concept of equality and diversity?
(a) Yes
(b) No
Q2. Do you think that the company should focus on equality and diversity at the
workplace?
(a) Agree
(b) Disagree
Q3. What can be potential causes and acts that facilitate development of equality and
diversity at workplace?
(a) Effective interactions of economies and culture
(b) Accessibility of cheap labour
(c) Global presence of the company
Q4. What are advantages of resolving the problems of gender pay gap in ThirdWay
Group?
(a) Develop retention rate
(b) Enhance employee’s motivation
(c) Improve productivity
Q5. What strategy can be considered by ThirdWay Group to assure the equality between
workforce regarding pay?
(a) Effective cultural training
(b) According to workforce performance
(c) Both
Q6. What can be potential adverse implication and negative effects of development of
concept of equality and diversity?
(a) Complexity in decision making
(b) Ineffective communication
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