Socio-economic Disadvantage for Managing Equality and Diversity at Work Assignment | Essay Help Services

The essay must be based on UK data and analyse

What are the implications of socio-economic disadvantage for managing equality and diversity at work? Critically assess the efforts of policy-makers and employers to tackle class-based inequality and disadvantageManaging Equality and Diversity at Work U21824
Further guidance on Assignment 2 essay
Here is the essay brief you have been given already, important things highlighted in red, numbered and
further explained below:
You should prepare an essay (3000 word maximumi) that answers ONE of the following six questions
(omitted here, please refer to original assignment questions document). Your essay should cover the main
theoretical positions relevant to the issue1, include a wide range of correctly referenced academic
research2 and policy evidence3 relevant to the argument you are putting forward, and provide a reasoned,
well argued conclusion4 that sums up your answer to the question as set5. As befits work of a Level 6
standard, we are looking for well evidenced critique6 and not poorly substantiated assertion7. Popular
sources from Internet sites8 and ‘opinion’ statements9 are not what is required and will be penalised. You
are advised to write using correct, precise terminology10 to maximise the ‘professional impact’ and
persuasiveness of your writing.
Bibliography is not included in the word count, but in-text citations are. There is no 10% margin on length
– please state your word count clearly on your assignment.
Guidance on the numbered, red sections above:
1. Your essay should include theory. This includes ‘broad’ theories of equality of diversity and more
specific theories relevant to your chosen question.
a. Broad theories include (but are not limited to) – e.g., social justice vs. business case; equality
of input vs. equality of output; long and short diversity agendas; intersectionality and so on.
Your essay should identify which of these positions you are aligning yourself with. You will
find literature on these topics in your core textbook’s early chapters (Kirton and Greene) and
any other textbook on equality and diversity. See also the early lectures of the unit.
b. More specific theories: I won’t list here as there would be too many, but one example related
to lookism might be ‘aesthetic labour’. You will find these kinds of theories discussed in all the
journal articles you will be reading to gather evidence for your argument, and of course in the
lecture slides and materials for the topic.
The important point to note here is that you should not just include statistics, government reports,
case examples and so on – you should discuss the ideas and theories that try to explain why these
things have occurred and continue to occur.
2. A wide range of academic research ideally means that you read at least two or three articles on each
point you want to make – or at very least don’t draw all the evidence for your point from one source.
The reason we insist on this is that otherwise you are just paraphrasing another person’s viewpoint
and that means you will struggle to develop a critical take on what you are discussing. For a good 2:1
grade, we would expect to see a minimum of around 1.5 – 2 pages of references for a 3000 word
essay. Good quality articles are those published in academic, peer reviewed publications – there are
some listed in the unit handbook, others have been referenced during lectures and seminars and
generally you’ll be fine with anything you find through the library databases (e.g., Ebsco, Business
Source Complete, Scopus etc.) and where you have selected ‘academic articles’ and/or ‘peer reviewed
publications’ from the advanced search box. That said, do pay attention to where and when the piece
was published – if it was in The Journal of Icelandic Mountain Managers in 1986 it may not be the
most applicable evidence for a point you are making about inequality in UK/ Europe in 2019.
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You should know what correctly referenced means by now, but common errors include not stating
page numbers in text for direct quotations, and including the search engine in the full reference at the
end of the essay – this is not necessary for a published article or book (even if you read parts of the
book on Google Books) – just reference the piece as if you had it in your hand in hard copy.
3. Policy evidence is also important to show what is happening ‘on the ground’ so to speak. Policy can be
formed by government (e.g. law, and ACAS guidance), pressure groups – e.g., best practice
documents on Stonewall (LGBTQ rights organization) or by employers/ industry groups such as the
CIPD.
4. What we mean by a reasoned, well argued conclusion is that you need to do more than just explain
about all the issues relating to the topic and then sum them up at the end. You need to decide on
what your answer to the question is going to be (also see point 5 below) and then set about
developing an argument that leads to that end point. Imagine you are having a conversation with
someone and you are trying to convince them that your answer is the best one. What reasons would
you give for your points? How would you come back on any counter-arguments they put forward?
This does not mean you only put forward one perspective, or ignore other positions that say
something different to your argument. The best way to convince someone you are right is to ‘shoot
down’ their objections and counter-arguments along the way. In an essay that means recognising that
alternative positions to yours exist, but then explaining why they can be disregarded, are not relevant,
can be overcome, etc. and therefore your argument is still valid.
5. Make sure you answer the question as it has been set, don’t ‘go off on one’ writing about what you
would prefer to write about, rather than sticking to what the question is asking you to do. Make sure
you understand exactly what the question is asking you to do – come and talk to one of us if you’re
not sure – please!
6. By Level 6 you should be very used to using evidence for your critical points. You should not make
statements without providing a reason why they are valid and then supporting that reason with some
evidence why the reader should believe you. So, the statement I just wrote should really read
something like:
You should not make statements without providing reasons why they are valid, because otherwise
the statement is really just your own view on something, and why should your view be convincing
or authoritative? Providing good reasons is a vital step in turning an ‘opinion’ into an argument,
according to Collins (2015) and the final stage in the process is providing evidence so the reader
can see for themselves, ‘…that this is not just your opinion, but is a view that is supported by
others’ published research and statistics’ (Agriwal 2009: 56.)
7. Poorly substantiated assertion is the opposite of well reasoned critique and evidence. It just means
that you have stated something with little or no evidence and so it reads as just you asserting your
opinion.
8. The internet is an amazing source of, and access point for, information. However, you need to be
discerning about what you use. Popular internet sites that are generalist business or study sites,
consultancy websites, the first thing that came up when you googled for a term, etc. are not usually
good sources of information because they are not necessarily persuasive or authoritative. Sites like
netMBA, businessballs.com, and so on are lazy places to find (often incorrect or over simplified)
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information. You pay a lot of money for your degree so use the library databases to find academic
articles!
9. By opinion statements we just mean statements that start ‘I think that…’ or ‘In my opinion…’. Please
see points 6 and 7 above to remind youself why opinion is not appropriate. BUT yes, we do want your
views on the topic! Remember that your ‘opinion’, when stated along with reasons why it is valid,
and supported by evidence for those reasons is no longer your opinion, but your position on a topic
(see Point 6 above!).
10. Please do not write in over-casual, ‘common sense’ language. Use the correct terms and precise
words for the issues you are describing so that we a) can understand what you mean and b) can seey
that you understand what you mean. Every field has its own language so that it can adequately and
precisely describe its elements. If you don’t use the right words, then you can’t show us that you
really understand the details of your topic – and that is what is needed for the higher mark bands.
i Please note 3000 words is the maximum. There is no +/- 10% margin for this assignment