Leaders may mean well when they tout the economic payoffs of hiring more women and people of color, but there is no research support for the notion that diversifying the workforce automatically improves a company's performance. This article critiques the popular rhetoric about diversity and revisits an argument the authors made 25 years ago: To fully benefit from increased racial and gender diversity, organizations must adopt a learning orientation and be willing to change the corporate culture and power structure. Four actions are key for leaders: building trust and creating a workplace where people feel free to express themselves; actively combating bias and systems of oppression; embracing a variety of styles and voices inside the organization; and using employees' identity-related knowledge and experiences to learn how best to accomplish the firm's core work.
Any list of top CEOs reveals a stunning lack of diversity. Among the leaders of Fortune 500 companies, for example, just 32 are women, three are African-American, and not one is an African-American woman. What's going on? The authors studied the careers of the roughly 2,300 alumni of African descent who have graduated from Harvard Business School since its founding, focusing on the 67 African-American women who have attained top positions in corporations or professional services firms. These women thrived, they found, because of three characteristics that are key to resilience: emotional intelligence, authenticity, and agility. The women were adept at reading interpersonal dynamics and managing their own reactions; crafting their identities; and transforming obstacles into opportunities. Beyond personal strengths, the authors say, another factor was critical: nurturing relationships with mentors who recognized the women's talent and made it their business to support them. The insights gleaned are important not just for African-Americans and women; they're essential for any manager who recognizes that an organization's diversity is its strength.
This case continues the story of the evolution of GE's business initiatives Africa. Between November 2010 and March 2011 several significant structural changes and leadership appointments were announced at GE, which reflected the company's commitment to global growth in all its regions outside the U.S., including its business in sub-Saharan Africa. In November 2010, John Rice, vice chairman of GE and president and CEO of GE Technology Infrastructure, was named vice chairman of GE and president and CEO of Global Growth and Operations (GGO). In this new role, Rice was based in Hong Kong and in charge of GE's growth in regions outside the U.S. In March 2011, Jay Ireland, a 31-year GE veteran and corporate officer, was appointed president and CEO for GE Africa, effective April 15, reporting to Rice. Additionally, three senior executives were appointed to Ireland's team: Lazarus Angbazo was promoted from president and CEO, sub-Saharan Africa, to president and CEO, GE West, East & Central Africa and Africa commercial leader; Thomas Konditi, a native of Kenya, rejoined GE as CFO for Global Growth and Operations, GE Africa; and Tamla Oates-Forney was promoted from human resources leader for sub-Saharan Africa, GE Energy, to senior human resources manager, GE Africa. While many were optimistic about GE's future in Africa, several issues still needed to be considered.
This case profiles the evolution of Sodexo's diversity initiative. Diversity became a key priority for Sodexo, North America in 2001 after a class-action lawsuit was filed and certified in Washington, D.C. against Sodexo Marriot Services, Inc., the food services division that Sodexo had merged with in 1998. In 2002, Dr. Rohini Anand was hired by Michel Landel, CEO of Sodexo, North America. Soon thereafter, Anand was instated as chief diversity officer for Sodexo, North America. Anand and Landel worked with several executives to develop and implement systems that were conducive to a diversity strategy. The team started to build the human resource processes that would address many of the concerns in the lawsuit: training systems, selection systems, and a career posting center. By 2010, Sodexo, North America was continuing to gain traction on its diversity strategy, and a global diversity initiative for the group was underway. In addition, the company had developed diversity priorities focused on five different dimensions of difference from a global perspective: gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities, and age. However, more work still needed to be done to engage employees around the world in the company's diversity initiatives.
This case profiles the evolution of Teach Plus, a non-profit organization founded on the premise that in order for public schools to continuously improve urban student achievement, teaching must become a career that motivates and retains effective early career teachers. Teach Plus began as a pilot in fall 2007, launched by Celine Coggins, a former teacher and labor-management consultant, and incubated at the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In August 2009, Teach Plus became an independent 501 c3 with Coggins as CEO and Monique Burns Thompson, a social entrepreneur and former school district administrator as president. Since its inception, Teach Plus had demonstrated that its approach was effective in helping teachers to understand and directly influence policy. Through the T + Network, Teach Plus found evidence that reform-minded teachers existed in large numbers throughout urban school districts and that many were willing to share their perspectives with policymakers. Through the development of a public school turnaround initiative in Boston, Teach Plus showed that teacher-driven policy initiatives filled an important gap in the education reform landscape. By mid-2011, Teach Plus had grown to a network of more than 3,500 reform-minded teachers in five cities. While Teach Plus had reached significant scale in its first 18 months of operations, it also faced a significant strategic challenge. Moving forward, would Teach Plus best address its agenda as a "voice/advocacy" organization or as a "teacher turnaround" organization?
This case profiles the evolution of General Electric's African American Form (AAF), an employee affinity group, and its efforts to increase the company's involvement in Africa. The AAF formed in 1991 to help advance GE's recruitment, retention and development of black employees. By 1995, members of the AAF started asking Jack Welch whether the company was planning to develop business in Africa. After Welch invited the group to conduct due diligence, it was concluded that the timing was not right for GE to make a significant investment in Africa. Yet, when Jeffrey Immelt began attending the AAF Symposia in 2001, the question about GE's involvement in Africa resurfaced. In 2004, Immelt pledged $20 million to fund, "The Africa Project" (later renamed, "Developing Health Globally")-a GE philanthropic effort sponsored by the GE Foundation and the AAF to improve healthcare outcomes in Africa.
It is 2010, and Gary Swart, CEO of oDesk, is contemplating the next steps for his organization. Founded in 2004 in California, oDesk operates an online marketplace that matches Employers with Contractors. oDesk provides fact-based information on Contractors, including experience, skills, and certifications, to Employers, who use this information as a basis for interviewing and hiring Contractors. oDesk's online marketplace also includes a payment platform and tools that allow Employers to audit and verify Contractors' work and time sheets. oDesk collects commissions, approximately 10% of gross services, on all work that goes through its platform. oDesk has enjoyed robust growth since its inception and to date has focused on a very distinct market segment: small and medium-sized employers, Contractors who provide computer programming services, and U.S.-based employers hiring overseas Contractors. Swart believes that the time has come for oDesk to expand beyond this niche, but he is concerned about maintaining oDesk's strong reputation and market positioning and, as such, he wants to grow in a very focused manner. Should oDesk expand its customer focus to include large employers? Broaden the services its marketplace offers beyond computer programming? Widen its geographic reach? Each of these growth options offers opportunities and entails costs. Swart considers each of these in turn.
Describes the steps the vice-president of human resources takes in revamping an HR function that was noncooperative and, at times, competitive and introducing the company to the notion of HR as a strategic business partner. Explores changes made to the company's compensation, performance management, and succession planning processes.
This case profiles PepsiCo's diversity journey under the leadership of former chairman and CEO Steve Reinemund who instituted diversity as one of the company's strategic imperatives. It demonstrates the ways in which Reinemund partnered with his leadership team and employees throughout the organization to make diversity a key factor in PepsiCo's culture and performance. It also reveals how, regardless of the success, PepsiCo employees were openly speculating what it would mean for the diversity strategy that Reinemund would be turning the helm of PepsiCo over to Indra Nooyi, a 50-year old Indian-born woman, who would need to find her own voice and approach to leading the company and its diversity efforts.
This case profiles President Barack Hussein Obama's rise to the presidency as an "improbable candidate." The case illustrates the ways in which he overcame criticism from those who questioned his credibility and his values and skepticism from those who were unsure of whether America was ready to elect its first African American President. It also explores how President Obama was able to gain support from the American people despite lagging behind Senator Hillary Clinton, the presumed Democratic frontrunner, throughout much of the pre-primary period.
This exercise is designed to help students and professionals map their professional networks and to identify areas of strength and weakness in their networks. "Network" refers to the set of relationships that is critical to someone's ability to learn new skills and competencies, get things done, advance in his or her career, and develop personally and professionally. The exercise takes 15-20 minutes to complete.
The "Breaking Through Action Plan" is a developmental tool based on the book, Breaking Through: The Making of Minority Executives in Corporate America by David A. Thomas and John J. Gabarro. The Action Plan was originally designed as part of a facilitated session, but can also be used in conjunction with the book. The Action Plan guides individuals through an examination of the critical areas of competence, credibility, confidence, and relationships. Completing this Action Plan will allow individuals to reflect on these critical areas and help them determine appropriate and impactful steps to help further their development.
The case examines the tools a manager can use to keep her project on track and manage conflict and tension as Adobe prepares to launch Creative Suite 3, the biggest software release in the company's 25-year history. The protagonist, Yvonne Murray, is a group program manager at Adobe and responsible for coordinating the integration of her business unit's product-Device Central-in Creative Suite 3. Murray is copied on an email that warns the Device Central product team that Device Central may be pulled from the Creative Suite 3 marketing materials and from the launch entirely because it was in danger of missing a deadline. Murray wonders if and how to respond to the email that was addressed to her Device Central colleague, group product manager Carol Linburn.
The case examines the tools a manager can use to keep her project on track and manage conflict and tension as Adobe prepares to launch Creative Suite 3, the biggest software release in the company's 25-year history. The protagonist, Yvonne Murray, is a group program manager at Adobe and responsible for coordinating the integration of her business unit's product-Device Central-in Creative Suite 3. Murray is copied on an email that warns the Device Central product team that Device Central may be pulled from the Creative Suite 3 marketing materials and from the launch entirely because it was in danger of missing a deadline. Murray wonders if and how to respond to the email that was addressed to her Device Central colleague, group product manager Carol Linburn.
This case, set in 2008, examines how Google has worked to avoid potential negative byproducts of rapid growth such as bureaucracy, slow decision-making, lack of visibility, and organizational inconsistency. When the case protagonist, Kim Scott, started with Google in 2004, she wondered if she would still be there in several years as she liked small, entrepreneurial companies. In 2008, she was pleased that Google still had the same entrepreneurial energy that it had when she joined. She and her colleagues reflect on how Google has been able to maintain its culture as the company keeps doubling in size.
In 2005, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) leadership decided to take a hard look at issues of race and institutional barriers impeding the progress of African American and Hispanic students. Examines how a large, urban public school district attempts to systemically address and eliminate the district's minority student achievement gap. The (A) case gives an overview of MCPS' past efforts to address the district's minority student achievement gap leading up to July 2005. It shows how a school district with a long history of dealing with racial issues and the minority achievement gap continues to grapple with many of the same issues related to access, equity and belief systems. Picking up where the (A) case ends, the (B) case examines MCPS' new approach and specific efforts to narrow the district's achievement gap through data utilization, accountability mechanisms, and professional development after July 2005. The (B) case also details the leadership team's challenges in communicating about race. It is accompanied by a video supplement of MCPS Superintendent Jerry Weast speaking explicitly about race and the achievement gap to MCPS administrators.
Examines how a school district can differentiate its management of high-performing vs. high-need schools based on a variety of indicators, including performance and capacity at the school level.