Scenario You need to carry out a piece of primary research on the subject of equality and diversity in the workplace. Equality in this context means ensuring that everybody has the same access to the same opportunities without any discrimination.  For example, people are not rejected for a job, denied a promotion, given less important work, awarded lower performance appraisal marks or treated in any other way that is unfair because of their race, age, gender, sexu

Scenario

You need to carry out a piece of primary research on the subject of equality and diversity in the workplace. Equality in this context means ensuring that everybody has the same access to the same opportunities without any discrimination.  For example, people are not rejected for a job, denied a promotion, given less important work, awarded lower performance appraisal marks or treated in any other way that is unfair because of their race, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, etc.
Diversity in this context means placing valuing on and respecting people’s different backgrounds, knowledge, skills, and experiences and using these differences to create a productive and effective workforce.
Specifically, your topic needs to look at what issues and challenges may arise out of equality and diversity in the workplace, and what measures could be taken to resolve them?  You are doing your research within a limited word count and timeframe, so you cannot address this topic in general terms – it must be focussed on a specific organization to which you can gain access to gather primary data.
 
The organization could be in the UK, your home country (if not the UK), or anywhere else.  Given the limitations within which you are working, you should focus on either equality or diversity, not both. You may also decide to look at equality in relation to a specific characteristic – for example, racial equality – rather than equality generally within the organization.
The proposed research should be a realistic one for a student to do in the time available.  You are not expected to propose a topic that would require a large research team or take years to complete!
As your research report will include a short literature review, it is also important to consider whether there is enough literature when choosing your subject. This should not be a problem – there is a lot of material about equality and diversity in the workplace and finding one or two examples on which to model your own research should be perfectly possible and would be a very good idea.

Task 1

Based on the topic above, you are expected to create a project plan that addresses the feasibility of your research project. The plan needs to include:

1. A brief explanation of your proposed research topic and why you have chosen it.
2. An aim and some objectives for your proposed research.
3. A brief discussion of the scope and limitations of your proposed research.
4. Resources and cost considerations relating to your proposed research.
5. A project plan, Gantt chart, or work breakdown structure in order to provide timeframes and stages for completion of your research.
6. A risk register covering the five main risks with the proposed research, including the size of each risk, planned mitigation measures, and residual risk.
7. Ethical issues approval form – complete the form at Annex 1.

Task 2

When your project plan has been approved, you will be able to carry out the research project. The required elements of the research report are set out in the diagram below, along with an indication of the length of the respective sections.  There is no need for a contents list for the report.