This exercise puts students into the role of an associate at a marketing and sales agency. They are asked to develop specific recommendations to present to some senior leaders about how the firm can and should become more truly inclusive and just. They also must be specific about the objectives and metrics they believe must be agreed to, and who should be accountable for them, in order to insure progress.
This case describes the experience of five MBA students beginning their two-year residential program. The students are members of a learning team, and each is experiencing challenges orienting to the new program and to her or his teammates.
This version condenses the two parts of "K&S Industries Inc. in China: Transferring Knowledge (A) and (B)" into a single-use case. Suitable for the MBA, EMBA, GEMBA, and executive education programs, the case presents a manufacturer of semiconductor assembly equipment looking to achieve growth in its wire bonding tools segment-in particular, capillaries and dicing saw blades-through geographic expansion. At the time, it manufactured capillaries in Yokneam, Israel, and blades in Santa Clara, California. While much of the work on outsourcing to China focuses on the low cost and its tradeoffs, this case examines in depth the interaction between human capital and a firm's cost and capabilities. The expansion committee team is charged with designing and opening a new facility in Suzhou, China. Expanding operations to China meant cost savings, and it was where K&S's market had expanded. But it wasn't clear whether it made sense to move the capillary process, the dicing blade manufacturing, or both. And if K&S did move to China, it would keep the Israeli-based factory open but close the American-based. If both were moved, what order would make sense given that one existing factory would be closed down and the other kept open? And once those decisions were made, what exactly would the knowledge transfer look like?
This case is used in Darden's core Leading Organizations course and is appropriate for MBA, Executive MBA, GEMBA, and executive education programs. The manager of a baby product company's global customer support center observes friction among her staff about the only non-American on the team, whom the others accuse of increasing their call response rate time-thus effectively lowering their pay. When conflict arises on a multicultural team, to what extent can it be attributed to cultural differences and when should a manager become involved?
Charles Begley is the first ever managing director of diversity recruiting for GlobeBank, and he has worked hard to develop a pipeline of high-potential minority talent. He and his deputy director, Kumkum Bhatnagar, see an article their CEO has written for a business magazine website that downplays their efforts. Kumkum thinks the company should start pegging compensation to executives' minority hires and promotions. Charles resists her idea--particularly after his teenage son says he would never want to work for a company that used quotas. But two of Charles's high potentials complain about the low-level deals they're consistently stuck with, and when Charles approaches another senior executive to ask why, he gets stonewalled. Should he advocate for financial incentives to increase the number of minority promotions? With commentaries by Steve Reinemund, of Wake Forest University; John B. Veihmeyer, of KPMG; and George Borst, of Toyota Financial Services.
Charles Begley is the first ever managing director of diversity recruiting for GlobeBank, and he has worked hard to develop a pipeline of high-potential minority talent. He and his deputy director, Kumkum Bhatnagar, see an article their CEO has written for a business magazine website that downplays their efforts. Kumkum thinks the company should start pegging compensation to executives' minority hires and promotions. Charles resists her idea--particularly after his teenage son says he would never want to work for a company that used quotas. But two of Charles's high potentials complain about the low-level deals they're consistently stuck with, and when Charles approaches another senior executive to ask why, he gets stonewalled. Should he advocate for financial incentives to increase the number of minority promotions? With commentaries by Steve Reinemund, of Wake Forest University; John B. Veihmeyer, of KPMG; and George Borst, of Toyota Financial Services.
Charles Begley is the first ever managing director of diversity recruiting for GlobeBank, and he has worked hard to develop a pipeline of high-potential minority talent. He and his deputy director, Kumkum Bhatnagar, see an article their CEO has written for a business magazine website that downplays their efforts. Kumkum thinks the company should start pegging compensation to executives' minority hires and promotions. Charles resists her idea--particularly after his teenage son says he would never want to work for a company that used quotas. But two of Charles's high potentials complain about the low-level deals they're consistently stuck with, and when Charles approaches another senior executive to ask why, he gets stonewalled. Should he advocate for financial incentives to increase the number of minority promotions? With commentaries by Steve Reinemund, of Wake Forest University; John B. Veihmeyer, of KPMG; and George Borst, of Toyota Financial Services.
Supply chain network design choices and the challenges in implementing and understanding how alternatives influence firm performance are key management skills that can be applied to the case of a global company, Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc. (K&S), and its expansion strategy. Suitable for the MBA, EMBA, GMBA, and executive education programs, the case explores the decision to expand the company's tool bonding capacity in order to manage its growth. The question becomes whether to grow current operations in Yokneam Israel or seek alternative sites. And if it was decided to seek a location outside of Israel, where exactly should the company go?
While much of the work on outsourcing to China focuses on the low cost and its tradeoffs, this case examines in depth the interaction between human capital and a firm's cost and capabilities. Suitable for the MBA, EMBA, GEMBA, and executive education programs, the case presents a manufacturer of semiconductor assembly equipment looking to achieve growth in its wire bonding tools segment-in particular, capillaries and dicing saw blades-through geographic expansion. At the time, it manufactured capillaries in Yokneam, Israel, and blades in Santa Clara, California. In the A case the team is charged with designing and opening a new facility in Suzhou, China. Expanding operations to China meant cost savings, and it was where K&S's market had expanded. But it wasn't clear whether it made sense to move the capillary process, the dicing blade manufacturing, or both. And if K&S did move to China, should it keep the Israeli- and American-based factories open as well? And once those decisions were made, what exactly would the knowledge transfer look like?
A finance manager at a large pharmaceutical company is on loan to a new new subsidiary, leading to an ambiguous reporting structure. When an executive three levels above him wants information his temporary supervisor has deemed confidential, his career appears to hang on what he does next. Developed for use in an MBA organizational behavior course, this case would work well in an executive education class on organizational design, career development, or leadership. While the events and people are real, the names of participants and the company are fictional.
How do we get a manager to recruit the best talent-and reward them for being a better manager for doing it-when we really want them to be a great banker? That was the question one of the top ranking female executives at JPMorgan Chase asked. This two part case offers an interesting and unique approach to diversity recruitment at a Fortune 500 company. With a white male champion-Jamie Dimon-at the helm, the material unfolds a view of how competent leaders do something interesting with diversity. In the A case, Diversity Recruiting Executive Mark Settles is hired, sets up a system, and nearly a year and a half later, the company has a strong pipeline of diverse talent for future consideration. Indeed, other Fortune 500 firms ask Settles to share recruiting best practices. But as he looks at the September 2008 issue of Fortune magazine, Settles can't help but wonder how his work has impacted JPMC. The mostly male faces of the cover caused Settles to step back for a second and consider whether his efforts were going to change the company. The B case describes several efforts that Settles sought to further integrate diversity into the talent life cycle, from recruiting to development, to creating an environment in which employees felt welcome as individuals and free to maximize their talents anywhere in the organization.
This first case in a two-part series offers a look at diversity recruitment in a Fortune 500 company. With a white male champion at the helm, the A case shows how competent leaders do something interesting with diversity in a hiring system that has a strong pipeline of diverse talent for future consideration. Other Fortune 500 firms ask it to share recruiting best practices. But the head of recruiting wonders if his work efforts will change JPMC when he sees mostly male faces of on the cover of a recent (2008) Fortune magazine.
"The diversity lady has a label on her forehead and talks about the standard message," one senior executive at a large corporation said. "It's the same message we got 20 years ago. We do it annually but employees never get any of that. I've never had a diversity talk to my staff." Traditional diversity initiatives generally focus on specific dimensions of difference such as gender, race, sexual orientation, able-bodiedness, or religion. This material involves role-plays among a diverse group of players that encourage inclusion of a broader scope of social-identity differences such as diversity of problem-solving styles and emotional intelligence differences.
A marketing team, asked to compile a marketing deck in response to an urgent request by the head of a business, has completed the task. Still the team leader is concerned about the dynamics he observed during the meeting of his marketing group team. He has noticed that a recent recruit to the team, an African American, is being ignored when he contributes to the discussion although his ideas are solid ones. The leader is left with some nagging questions: What happened to this recruit in the meeting? Why wasn't he more integrated into the team? How was he feeling about the meeting? And most important, was there any way to make the collaborative process more effective the next time around?
Always a thorny issue but it had to be asked. Who was next in line? Management succession is a significant issue in many firms. Executives put all their energy into the business. But how much time is spent on bench strength planning? And what happens if the CEO is not ready to hand the reigns over and begin a life outside the office? This case presents transition challenges that many companies currently face-the retirement age of baby boomers and the takeover of the C level suite by the next generation.
Legal and cultural changes over the past 40 years ushered unprecedented numbers of women and people of color into companies' professional ranks. Laws now protect these traditionally underrepresented groups from blatant forms of discrimination in hiring and promotion. Meanwhile, political correctness has reset the standards for civility and respect in people's day-to-day interactions. Despite this obvious progress, the authors' research shows that political correctness is a double-edged sword. Although it has helped many employees feel unlimited by their race, gender, or religion, the PC rule book can hinder people's ability to develop effective relationships across race, gender, and religious lines. Companies need to equip workers with skills--not rules--for building these relationships. The authors offer the following five principles for healthy resolution of the tensions that commonly arise over differences: Pause to short-circuit the emotion and reflect; connect with others, affirming the importance of relationships; question yourself to identify blind spots and discover what makes you defensive; get genuine support that helps you gain a broader perspective; and shift your mind-set from one that says, "You need to change" to one that asks, "What can I change?" When people treat their cultural differences--and related conflicts and tensions--as opportunities to gain a more accurate view of themselves, one another, and the situation, trust builds and relationships become stronger. Leaders should put aside the PC rule book and instead model and encourage risk taking in the service of building the organization's relational capacity. The benefits will reverberate throughout every dimension of the company's work.
How do you facilitate changing a long-held mission into a new vision during an organizational restructuring? Ernesto Gomez, organizational development director for Lotz of Food, a leading grocery retailer headquartered in California, was asked to help the perishable team transition from a hierarchical and function-based business unit to one that would be more dynamic, versatile, and proactive. Expectations were high and came right from the top of the organization. The A case reveals the steps Gomez takes to understand the problems. Among the issues about team development, Gomez is conflicted over the lack of diversity among the organization's leadership and indeed on the entire team. More troubling is the organization's seeming lack of recognition of this fact--so much that Gomez wonders whether his own background has made this a bigger issue than it really is. In the B case, Gomez becomes more concerned about what extent he thinks his own biases and past experiences are shaping the way he sees this situation.
What happens when strained relationships develop between two people you value in your organization and they come to you for advice? David Walker was a senior attorney in a bustling white shoe law practice. During an especially busy time, Walker became party to an in-office dispute between his trusted administrative assistant, Susan Emson, and a respected colleague, Ramya Kumar. He had spent numerous hours listening to both sides tell their stories and was left with an impending sense that he had no answers. How was he ever going to help two people he valued greatly work out a compromise between their extremely polar positions? How did the dispute get to such a point? The case provides opportunities to explore the sources of interpersonal conflict, causes of escalation, and ways of diffusing and resolving it.
The influx of diversity in the workplace has brought a challenging set of managerial problems. Managers who handle these situations must be skillful in dealing with feedback, conflict, and talent assessment, but they must also be skilled in dealing with difference. This technical note explores leveraging difference and the path one can take to develop skills essential to leveraging difference.This note works well with "Leaders Who Make a Difference: Critical Skills for Leading a Diverse Workforce".