The aim of this research is to identify the key challenges for employers in promoting equality and diversity in the workplace, focusing on ways in which organisations in the UK can increase their numbers of senior managers.
The research objectives are:
1. To explore how organisations can increase their percentage of senior managers
2. To identify they key barriers to women progressing to senior management positions in their chosen career
3. To examine the differences in challenges that men and women face in career progression, whilst identifying gender related issues
4. To explore ways that organisations can support women in progressing to senior positions.
Research Design
Throughout this study, a Mixed-Method approach will be adopted. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches will be utilized to increase the validity of findings, allow for better data collection instruments and lead to greater understanding of the subject field. A mixed methods study allows data to be collected through a number of means to lead to a final conclusion, so in-depth and contextualized aspects of qualitative research can be combined with efficient but less in depth outcomes of quantitative research to allow for accurate and concise findings.
Qualitative
Undertaking qualitative research is the most appropriate method to adopt when exploring people’s lives, motivations and comprehensions (Parahoo, 2006). Although, it has been scrutinized for its tendencies to be too descriptive, thus leaving findings open to misinterpretation (Parahoo, 2006). A major weakness associated with qualitative data involves the likelihood that simply too much data is collected, overwhelming the researcher and reducing the validity of its findings. However, as a mixed ...
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...suggests that the disadvantages of quantitative research often relate to errors in the collection process.
The quantitative method of research that will be adopted for this study will be a survey. Utilizing this form of deductive methodology in a positivistic paradigm will allow the statistical data to be interpreted according to the appropriate theory and allow its findings to be concise and appropriate to the research. A stratified sample will be adopted as the whole population of the organisation can be categorized depending on their views of equality in the workplace.
All employees of the organisation will be required to complete a short 10 minute survey containing carefully constructed questions; this will be the basis of the qualitative research in that the findings from the survey can be analysed in order to develop more detailed questions in the focus group.
Unfortunately, even today, women are still trying to prove themselves equal to men in many ways. The “glass ceiling” is perhaps one of the most familiar and evocative metaphors to surface from the 20th century. This expression has been used widely in the popular media as well as in official government reports. The image suggest that although it may be the case now that women are able to get through the front door professional hierarchies, at some point they hit an invisible barrier that blocks any further upward movement. “Below this barrier, women are able to get promoted; beyond this barrier, they are not”. Such a situation can be considered a limiting case for a more general phenomenon: situations in which the disadvantages women face relative to men strengthen as they move up executive hierarches. “Traditional approaches to recruitment, organization and job design, performance management and promotions are often designed in ways that are more suited to men than to women. This is what creates the glass ceiling”. Beyond the limit of job titles, the glass ceiling also creates a pay difference between men and women performing the same work requirements.
Described below is a critical appraisal of a qualitative article by Lisa Booth using the frame-work suggested by Ryan, Coughlan and Cronin 2007 to establish its believability, robustness, credibility and integrity (Ryan, Coughlan & Cronin, 2007).
The frame of qualitative research is broadly within the socially constructed, advocacy /participatory theories that assert that social construction determine meaning, and therefore, there are multiple truths to discover (Parylo, 2012). Some of the data from qualitative research is collected from interviews, observations, and field notes. The researcher adds codes to the data to allow for analysis and interpretation, taking into account the context and personal values of the researcher (Parylo, 2012). Creswell (2014) notes that qua...
While women were able to gain access to this highly male dominated profession, and in some cases they outnumber their male counterparts, researchers agree that women are still facing discriminatory barriers. While discrimination is more subtle nowadays compared to the blatant and stupid style of the recent past (Adcock, 2006) women are still experiencing discrimination which is preventing them from receiving equal pay, thus hindering their progress and altering their career paths. They still face an array of barriers to achieving equality in their careers, including the allocation of work, opportunities for advancement, income differentials...
It is primarily evident that a lot of amendments have been made in the field of employment to achieve a sense of work place equality for men and women. However, there is the understanding that the topic of inequality and inequity is still persistent in contemporary society. It is manifest that there are a numerous amount of barriers that females endure in the workplace environment, and this binary is occurring because of their gender roles. This paper’s intent is to recognize that the concept of gender stratification experienced in the occupational spectrum causes the downward social mobility for females. The focus of this paper is to further investigate the argument that women in the workplace are still facing numerous amounts of impediments,
There are many elements involved in conducting a proper research. The two general types of research designs are qualitative and quantitative. These types of designs are different in many ways. Quantitative is an objective research typically focused on numerical data. Qualitative research is subjective research focused on narrative data. This paper further elaborates on many elements that separate quantitative research from qualitative research.
This will be a discussion of qualitative research. It will define qualitative research, as well as look at the similarities and differences in the quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. Furthermore, this discussion will look into qualitative case study research and phenomenological research, with further contemplation of purposes, methods, and limitations for these two methods.
Qualitative research is an approach that attempts to situate an activity that locates the observer in the world by providing the study to occur in their natural setting and by attempting to make sense of, or interpret information (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). A characteristic of qualitative research is to use a variety of empirical materials such as personal experience, interviews, and questionnaires. It is imperative to understand the task at hand and how to fully carry out the study when using a qualitative research approach in order to find out the information needed. One view of qualitative research is it involves examining individual’s experiences and documenting those experiences in detail (Jones, 2011). By documenting these observations the researcher is ensuring validity in his or her data and giving the correct creditability to those who participated in the study.
The author could have employed other methods of qualitative research such as, narrative analysis, grounded theory, discourse analysis, data display and analysis, content analysis and quantifying qualitative data and computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAPDAS) (Saunders et al., 2016). Nevertheless, these approaches seem cumbersome sometimes and take a long time to complete (Willig, 1999; Braun and Clarke, 2006 and Smith and Bekker,
focused on the key qualitative research methods. For each article review, a brief description, guided by Myers (2013), and a critique, guided Pratt (2009), is provided. A summary of the five articles identifying the research method, data collection technique, data analysis approach and critique is provided in Table 1. The narrative review of each article coupled with figures and tables to organize and visualize thoughts (Pratt, 2009) follows the summary table.
Quantitative research is the oldest form of research; it is incredibly formal, stemming from positivism paradigm, or the outside looking in approach. The method is about trying to establish cause and affect relationships between variables. This method can be considered non biased as the researcher isn’t us...
Also, the majority of women have been able to secure employment from traditionally female occupations such as teaching compared to male-dominated careers like engineering. Moreover, democratic country like the United States of America has recognized gender inequality as a fundamental issue and espouse equal right between men and women in contributing to social, economic and cultural life. Despite this improvement, gender inequality persists as women are not represented and treated equally in the workplace (Michialidis, Morphitou, & Theophylatou, 2012). The increasing number of women in the workplace has not provided equal opportunity for career advancement for females due to the way women are treated in an organization and the society. Also, attaining an executive position seem impossible for women due to the glass ceiling effects which defines the invisible and artificial barrier created by attitudinal and organizational prejudices, which inhibit women from attaining top executive positions (Wirth
Liamputtong, P. & Ezzy, D., 2005, Qualitative research methods, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Victoria, pp. 12-31.
Qualitative and Quantitative study designs both can be beneficial in research design. They both provide valuable options for researchers in the field. These techniques can either be used separately in a research study or they can be combined to achieve maximum information. This paper will define the terms qualitative and quantitative; describe the similarities and differences between each; discuss how qualitative and/or quantitative research designs or techniques could be used in the evaluation of my proposed research; and discuss why linking analysis to study design is important.
We believe it is clear that both qualitative and quantitative research have many benefits and many costs. In some situations the qualitative approach will be more appropriate; in other situations the quantitative approach will be more appropriate.