Gender Discrimination and Its Effect on an Employees Behaviour and Morale - Research Proposal Example

Research proposal: Gender discrimination and its effect on an employee’s behaviour and morale 0 Introduction: Gender discrimination is a problem, which unfortunately exists in most cultures and countries across the world. Despite significant amount of local and international legislation to prevent gender discrimination, its menace continues to exist across the world. Therefore, the aim of this research is to evaluate and understand how the gender discrimination affects an individual’s morale and behaviour at work. 2.0 Aim of the research: The aim of the research is to evaluate “Gender discrimination and its effect on employees moral and behavior” 2.1 Objectives of the research: To critically evaluate how gender discrimination affects an employee in her social life. To understand methods in which gender discrimination takes place at work place. To critically evaluate against which age group gender discrimination is the highest at work place. To critically evaluate how discrimination affects an individual’s self esteem and confidence. 3.0 Background of the research: This research analysis aims to evaluate the effect of gender discrimination on an employee behaviour and morale using a sample of 500 female employees working in five different fields. These fields include medicine, engineering, education, retail and hospitality. Often females are seen as weak and fragile in different cultures across the world, and unfit for working in certain sectors of the economy. Hence females across the world are discriminated against in a number of different ways. According to Wayne (1995), the definition of discrimination in law is rather unclear. However, it can be defined as a process where one group of the society (either the male or female gender), is given an unfair advantage over another group. Moreover, such discrimination tends to have a very negative effect upon the behaviour and attitude of an individual at work place, as when someone is constantly discriminated, it affects their self esteem and self belief. A research conducted in Sweden by Bihagen & Ohls (2006) showed that in Sweden, females to an extent face discrimination. Moreover, in their research, Bihagen & Ohls (2006) observed that gender penalty or punishment was more severe for women with young kids. Further, they stated in their research that young and elder women are more likely to face discrimination at work in Sweden in comparison to middle aged women. According to their research, women tend to have lesser opportunities in Sweden than their male colleagues to grow and prosper in their respective fields of work. A similar research related to gender discrimination was carried out by Zafarullah (2000) in Bangladesh. Zafarullah stated in his research that in Bangladesh from lower level jobs to higher level Jobs women tended to face high level of discrimination.  Zafarullah concluded in his research that such an extensive level of discrimination had a negative impact on the productivity, behaviour and self-esteem of the female workers in Bangladesh.   A research was conducted by Grun (2004) in South Africa on difference in salaries between male and female employees. Grun observed within the research that female employees in South Africa had comparatively lower salaries than their male colleagues. The various researches discussed above and others present within the literature all point out that in most cultures across the world discrimination of some sort is always present behind the glass ceiling. Furthermore, the above discussion shows that there has been a lot of research on gender discrimination. Nonetheless, not many researchers have focused on actually measuring the effect of discrimination on an individual. Therefore, this research aims to positively contribute to the literature on gender discrimination by actually trying to understand in what ways gender discrimination affects the behaviour, morale and self esteem of an individual at work. This research will be carried out using mostly primary information collected from survey and interviews. The thing which differentiates this research from others presents within the literature is that this research will not be confined to a single sector or field, rather it measures how discrimination affects the behaviour and morale of women working in five different fields. Hence, by using research participants from different backgrounds/fields an overall more authentic and reliable conclusion can be reached regarding how discrimination affects the behaviour and morale of a female worker.  4.0 Research Methodology: This section of the research proposal discusses the research philosophy and how the research will be designed. The later part of this section discusses how the data for the research will be collected and acquired. 4.1 Research philosophy: There are three types of research philosophies these are interpretivism, realism and positivist.  Nonetheless, keeping in mind the aim and objectives of the research, it is recommended that positivism research philosophy should be selected for this research analysis.  The positivism philosophy emphasizes that through adequate research and collection of data, it is possible to find the truth about any topic or research question. Hence, this approach will provide the right level of optimism required to answer the research aim and objectives (Tensen, 2012). 4.2 Research approach and design: Research approach is extremely important as it helps the researcher determine what the research is ought to achieve. There are two kinds of approaches which a researcher can follow, these are deductive and inductive. The research approach selected for this particular research analysis is the inductive approach. The reason for selecting the inductive approach is that, this research aims to collect factual information using primary and secondary sources of information to develop new theory related to gender discrimination and its effect upon an individual morals and behavior. Hence, the objective of the research is to create new literature and theory related to gender discrimination, rather than to test any hypothesis or theories from the past, hence the selection of inductive approach is justified (Tensen, 2012).  4.3 Methods to collect data: Considering the unique aim and objectives of the research, it is recommended that a combination of both primary and secondary information should be collected. 4.3.1 Secondary information: Secondary information provides data for creating the theoretical framework of the research. The sources of secondary information from which bulk of the data and literature will be collected are academic journals such as science direct and emerald. Moreover, secondary information will also be acquired from various local and international news papers and their websites. 4.3.2 Primary information: The primary information will be collected using questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaire-survey: A survey will be conducted, where questionnaires will be given to more than 500 female employees working in five different sectors of the economy, namely engineering, medicine, education, hospitality and retail. The questionnaire will contain 6 questions and there will be 4 options for each question based on the likert scale. Interviews: Around 50 female workers will be selected for interview 10 from each field.  Each participant will take part in a structured interview. The reason for using structured interview is that it will allow the researcher to acquire precisely the information that is needed to answer the research questions and achieve its objectives. The interview will consist of 4-5 open ended questions, which allow the interviewee to answer the in detail, allowing the researcher to extract maximum information related to the interview questions from the research participants (Blaikie, 2008). 5.0 Sampling method: Research sampling is important, as it is often not possible to analyze each and every part of the data that is collected. Moreover, in a research based upon primary information, it is important to use a suitable method of data sampling which allows the researcher to select a sample of data that produce results which fairly represents the overall population.    The research participants as discussed above will be 500 women working in five different fields of life (fields include, education, medicine, hospitality, engineering and retail). On the other hand, for the interview, there will be a total of 50 participants 10 from each of the field.  Hence, once the data is collected from the entire research population random data sampling technique will be used. Using random sampling method out of the 500 questionnaires filled out in the survey, a sample of 150 questionnaires will be selected. Similarly from the total of 50 interviews conducted, a sample of 10 interviews will be selected randomly to be analyzed in detail for the purpose of the research (Singh, 2008). 6.0 Research ethics: Research ethics can be considered as one of the most important elements of any research. Therefore, this research on evaluating the effect of gender discrimination on the behaviour and morale of an employee will be conducted ethically and professionally accordance with the university guideline for research ethics. Some of the important elements of research ethics, and how they will be implemented are discussed as under. 6.1 Research participants consent: The research participants will be told in advance about the purpose of research, and their formal consent will be acquired before them being made part of the research. Moreover, it will be ensured that by no means or way the participants are influenced to answer in a certain way, rather they will be given adequate time, independence and space to fill out the questionnaire survey and participate in the interview. 6.2 Unbiased approach and researcher’s objectivity: The research will be conducted in an unbiased manner.  In every process of the research from collecting data, processing data and interpreting/analyzing data, each step will be carried out objectively to ensure that all the ethical and professional requirements for carrying out the research are adequately met. 6.3 Confidentiality: The personal data and information collected from the research participants will be kept confidential and highly secure. The information collected will not be shared to any third party without the consent of the research participant. Moreover, the research participants will be given an option to fill in their name or leave it anonymous. Furthermore, any other detail of the research participants acquired as part of the research will be kept secure to ensure that research participants’ personal information remains protected. (Denscombe, 2007) References Bihagen, E., & Ohls, M. (2006). The glass ceiling–where is it? Womens and mens career prospects in the private vs. the public sector in Sweden 1979–2000. The Sociological Review, 54(1), 20-47. Blaikie, N., 2008. Designing Social Research. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Polity press. Denscombe, M., 2007. The Good Research Guide. 3rd ed. Berkshire ( UK): Mcgraw Hill. Grun, C. (2004). Direct and indirect gender discrimination in the South African labour market. International Journal of Manpower, 25(3/4), 321-342. Singh, S., 2008. Advanced Sampling Theory With Applications: How Michael ""Selected"" Amy. Amsterdam Netherland: Kluwer academic publishing. Tensen, B., 2012. Research Strategies for a Digital Age. 4th ed. OHIO USA: Cengage learning. Wayne, F. C., 1995. Managing Human Resource, Productivity, Quality of work. 4th ed. new york: McGraw Hill international. Zafarullah, H., 2000. Through the brick wall and the glass ceiling: women in the civil services in Bengladash. Work and organization, 7(3), pp. 197-209. Read More