INDIVIDUAL REPORT (CASE STUDY 1)

Managing Diversity at Spencer Owens & Co.

Pham Huong Trang

International Business
Supervisor: Jacek Mironski
Date of approval: September 4, 2015

Aalto University
School of Business
Bachelors Program in International Business
Mikkeli Campus

INTRODUCTION
From the case study, we can see that Spencer Owens & Co. is a very successful and admirable
international consulting firm, which is well known not only for its professional achievement,
but also for its relentless efforts of promoting diversity, gender and racial awareness. Its
affirmative action goals as well as its diversity programs are highly acclaimed. However, what
we have seen is just the surface of a matter, as Spencer Owens & Co. increasingly suffers
growing frictions and conflicts in relationship between white and minority employees
regarding the racial issues. Below, I will further discuss and analyze the case as well as the
root causes of the problems and give out my solutions.
ANALYSIS OF THE CASE AND ROOT CAUSES
The information from the case and especially the Response of Survey (Exhibit 1) have given
me surprising realizations of the situation in Spencer Owens & Co.
The firm has been well known for its culmination of efforts to increase diversity since the
mid-1980s. It has continuously and strongly applied its diversity programs and policies to
bring equality in the workforce and to achieve its Affirmative action goals. As a result, from
Exhibit 1, we can see that the managers are very committed not only to the companys
missions but also the diversity policies (approximately 70-80 percent love the organization
and think the company is successful with its affirmative action goals). However, their
employees do not think the same as most of the Support staff and the minority Program staff
(approximately 70 percent or more) disagree with the success of the diversity programs.
Furthermore, more than a half of Program staff (approximately 55 percent) believe that there
is still racial polarization in their departments.
In my opinion, despite the companys good intentions, their approaches as well as the
management skill are the direct causes leading to the growing conflicts as their programs are
lack of thorough understanding of cultures and simply based on stereotype. The sentences
promoted at the company I dont see people in color or Everyone is treated the same will
not help increase diversity or erase racism, instead, they just show that the company is
ignoring those issues and not trying to directly face it. Sensitivity Training and Networking
Groups can prove to be very effective in promoting awareness of racism, sexism and
individual prejudices if they can raise the real issues and truly solve them. However, I
believe that those diversity programs of Spencer Owens only raise awareness of the typical
and almost well-known problems of racial or sexual issues without really bringing out their
employees feelings and different views of each other. As Spencer Owens is a global company,
its employees come from different backgrounds with different cultures. Yet, the company
seems to only notice the artifacts of their employees cultures (which are clearly shown and
can be quite stereotypical) and forget about their deeper layers their underlying norms,
beliefs and assumptions, those that truly affects their personality as well as their behaviors.

Moreover, as Spencer Owens put too much attention on promoting diversity, building diverse
workforce, it has strayed from its ultimate and original goal of foreign and economic
development and its strength of hard-core quantitative (Ely, 2004, p.2) and consequently
upset long-term employees. The over-hyped diversity programs can also make minority
employees feel even more conscious about racial or sexual issues and put pressure into white
workers as a large amount of white Program staff (64 percent) and Support Staff (46 percent)
are hesitant to criticize As a result, they believe that the companys efforts of promoting
diversity is just a duty, not what it truly wants.
Further exploring Exhibit 1, I see that cultural differences also play a key role in the
employees conflict. Different cultures will lead to different views on one matter, which can
result in increasing disagreements, miscommunications and frictions. And because people
have a tendency of denying things they consider not right to their beliefs (Distefano &
Maznevski, 2000), minority or colored employees feel that they are confronted with racism
when their ideas are dismissed.
Overall, from my analysis and evidences above, I believe that the root causes of Spencer
Owens & Co. problems are Cultural differences, Stereotypes, the lack of Culture
understanding and false perspectives of the management team. While making the diversity
programs and affirmative action goals, the leaders of Spencer Owens have not put their best
efforts in researching their employees cultures as well as their thoughts on the whole plan.
Instead, they devise the program based on typical examples, typical trainings of those issues.
Thats why the Sensitivity Training or the Group Networking is considered superficial and do
not succeed. They even lead to more miscommunications between employees. Moreover, the
managers only focus on promoting diversity in workforce without considering applying it to
develop the company original goals of economic development.
CHANGES TO BE DONE
From the case and the exhibit, besides the racial and cultural conflicts, we can see that
Spencer Owens & Co. is an equalizers company, in which multicultural employees suppress
their feelings and opinions to work in harmony, yet their results are not as good as expected
(Distefano & Maznevski, 2000). Therefore, to change the situation, Spencer Owens leaders
need to first have a different goal. Instead of trying solely to build a unique environment, they
should see the differences in workforce as an opportunity to generate more creative ideas and
be more productive. With a determined goal, now, to truly solve this, the company should try
to accept the employees differences and build an environment where different values, beliefs
still work in harmony and bring out the best result. From my point of view, the first thing they
need to do is to conduct a thorough survey for the whole company to map out the employees
own differences and prejudices to identify which differences can help the company, which one
will hinder the development (it can be similar to Exhibit 1, but this time, the questions should

not just about racial issues, but also about working matters). From then, they can understand
the past problems more clearly, anticipate conflicts for the future and establish a common
ground between their employees. Particularly, they can ask their employees opinions,
suggestions on the Sensitivity Training, Networking Groups, Affirmative action goals. At the
same time, they also need to ask their employees points of view in one matter (from working
issues to social issues) to see their different reactions. To do this job, I think that the company
should use its Human Resources Team, as well as hire consultants with diverse backgrounds
to make sure the questions are the most suitable and the mapping process does not slip into
negative stereotypes.
After understanding their differences, the next thing to do is to adjust the companys diversity
programs and encourage the employees to actively take part in. The programs should include
activities that can help employees learn more about each other cultures and how to think from
each others perspectives. Furthermore, the sessions should also encourage employees speak
out their minds to solve any miscommunications, conflicts and stereotypes about each other.
Yet, I believe that to make the employees to take the sessions seriously can be a very difficult
job as the friction is already happening and the previous sessions proved to be inefficient.
Employees may join the session but only because its compulsory and they might not want to
share their minds with others. Thats when I think leaders should give out specific goals to
motivate them. For example, they can offer bonus if the productivity increase or they can set
out specific business goals for their employees to achieve. In this way, the employees will feel
a need to solve the problems and work together to get the benefits. The company should also
set detailed rules in the workplace, so that if employees, regardless of their races or sexes,
misbehave they can strictly reprimand them.
AFFIRMATIVE PROGRAMS
In my opinions, affirmative programs, in general are good ways to promote awareness of
social issues. Therefore, I will support if a company can establish an affirmative action plan
with careful research and understanding of social matter and cultures for its employees.
However, with an affirmative program like the one in Spencer Owens, I will be against as it is
mediocre, filled with stereotypes and typical situations. As a result, the employees will see it
as an compulsory class to attend, therefore, cannot learn anything from it. Moreover, it can
even make the workers feel even more serious and self-conscious about the issues. Thats
why, if a company design an affirmative plan, it should be suitable to different types of
employees in each company and be based on real situations happening in that workplace, not
those we only hear or see through media.
CONCLUSIONS
Overall, while Spencer Owens & Co. has a good intention of promoting diversity, their
strategies are lack of cultural understanding and through research. As a result, their diversity

programs are not welcomed by the staff. To change this, they need to adjust the programs so
that they are suitable with their employees and their workplace.
Bibliography
DiStefano, J, & Maznevski, M 2000, 'Creating Value with Diverse Teams in Global
Management', Organizational Dynamics, 29, 1, pp. 45-63, Business Source Complete,
EBSCOhost, viewed 4 September 2015.
Ely, R. (2000). Leadership. HBS No. 9-405-048. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School
Publishing.