After You Read The Managing Diversity At Spencer Owens Co

After You Read The Managing Diversity At Spencer Owens Co Case You

After you read the Managing Diversity at Spencer Owens & Co. case (you did it a couple of days ago) reply to the following 3 statements below. Focus on expanding on or clarify an important point, offering an additional argument to support a position taken in an answer, identify areas where you think the writer misunderstood a concept or applied it incorrectly, or disagreeing with a point or position made in an answer.

Statement1: 1. How well has Spencer Owens done in its diversity efforts? Spencer Owens has done well with its diversity efforts. The company implemented an affirmative action plan in the mid-1980s and has continued those efforts through today. To implement their plan, the company set hiring goals and communicated them to all employees, which created accountability and would ensure that different groups would diversify their hires. At one point, the company claimed to have the most diverse staff in the industry. They have also continued to offer sensitivity trainings to their employees as well as continuously taken surveys to gauge employee thoughts to try and make improvements.

2. What explains why the firm is now having trouble? Racial problems began when Spencer Owens fired a female, African American manager for legitimate business reasons. Some employees agreed with the company’s decision and others did not, and this created a racial divide. Some people are not receptive to change. It also turned out that many non- minority staff members thought that while it appeared the company was meeting diversity goals, that the quality of work was suffering. They feared that these new minority hires were changing the way the company operated and that they were suggesting things they shouldn’t. On the other hand, minorities had an issue with the affirmative action plan because they felt like they were there to check a box but did not feel accepted and valued based on their merit and felt like their ideas weren’t being taken into consideration. There was no cohesiveness between the different employee groups.

3. What should the leader do to turn things around? The problem in this case study is all too real and relatable to someone working in the corporate world. I believe that the leader made a good first step to come up with a solution to this problem. They started by sending out a survey to company employees to get a better understanding of how widespread the racial misconceptions were. The leader at this company could also introduce new company-wide mandatory trainings on diversity and inclusion. Unfortunately, there is no one thing that any company can do to eradicate racism completely, but if they continue to take steps toward change, people will respond to that, and the company’s overall culture will improve over time.

Statement2: Overall, it is seen that Spencer Owens have done a great job at bringing in and promoting diversity. They have no issue with the idea of having diversity at their company and the case mentions that in the 90s, 50% of their managers were women and then 30% were people of color. It really did seem as if they were way ahead of the times. The company even had sensitivity training that was required for every staff member. On the outside, it seemed as if their diversity efforts were successful, and all was well.

While the diversity efforts looked flawless on the outside, the reality was far from that. Spencer Owens did have diversity when solely looking at the numbers. However, they seriously lacked inclusion efforts. The firm struggled because of the tension between white employees and minority employees. Minority employees felt as if their ideas and contributions in group settings were completely disregarded. White employees, and mostly managers, felt as if it was hard to coach/mentor/correct minority employees because they feared being called racist. There was so much tension and the company truly felt divided, especially after the termination of Sahara Johnson. There needs to be a lot of work done in order to correct the issue. First, I noticed that the sensitivity training covered a few different topics, but it did not include the idea of equity (unless it was included, and it just wasn't stated in the article). Equity is the process of acknowledging that not everyone has had the same access to the same resources, education, etc. The article mentioned that white employees felt as if the minority employees did not produce quality work. One thing that could have helped is realizing that the minority employees may not have had the same access to the same education that white employees did. They may also be dealing with hardships outside of work that are impacting their work productivity and quality. Additionally, in the survey that was distributed, it was seen that there were some major differences in answers. For question 7, it asked employees to answer if they felt that "minorities' were overly confrontational when questioning the actions of whites". We see the biggest difference on the program staff level, with 58% of white employees answering yes, and only 11% of minority staff answering yes. There are some very clear differences here. Another way to help turn things around is by establishing group norms on each team in the company. This can allow every member of the team to feel included by voicing their opinions, respecting differences and actually collaborating on tasks. The last thing that a leader could consider doing is making everyone more aware of their actions and how they come off. Teams need to recognize differences and that different people with different backgrounds will be able to bring different ideas/solutions to the table and that is the sole purpose of collaborating. Hopefully these changes can start to ease the tension and eventually make a positive impact on the internal DEI struggles that Spencer Owens is facing.

Statement3: 1. How well has Spencer Owens done in its diversity efforts? I believe that Spencer Owens has set high standards for other workplaces in his diversity efforts. I believe that he has treated staff members with equality and respect. I believe this because 50% of the firm’s 150 managers were women, and 30% were people of color. Owens also implemented a requirement for staff to attend sensitivity training sessions. This helped bring awareness to racism, sexism, and homophobia. These efforts show me that Owens doesn’t just want to look like he has diversity in his organization, but wants diversity in his organization.

2. What explains why the firm is now having trouble? I believe the firm is having trouble because they lost touch of their original goal, which is to work together and to “not see color”. I believe initially they had programs in place such as the training sessions to refresh people’s minds about treating each other with respect. Now, there is a disconnect between white employees and non-white employees. We read that non-white employees felt that they were not valued and what they had to offer was undermined. As well as, white managers fearing to voice issues that came up because they thought they would be called racist.

3. What should the leader do to turn things around? I believe to turn this issue around the leader needs to implement annual sensitivity sessions again and require that employees go. I also believe the organization should fix their inclusion framework. As of now they have employees who feel that they are not included in the work they are doing. The leader must implement inclusion practices into the firm’s environment.