What Happend to Coca-Cola and JP Morgan
- Considering that minority groups are one of Coca-Cola’s major target markets in the United States and that the company sells its products all over the world, how could a diverse workforce be considered as a strategic advantage to the organization?
Yes, it is at most important to have a workforce the represents the client / consumer base they are serving (targeting). And to answer this question further, I went to the Coca-Cola site and search diversity. On the ‘Diversity’ web section, they state the diversity is “at the heart of our business. We strive to create a work environment that provides all our associates equal access to information, development and opportunity.” Despite their settlement for racial and gender bias, their workforce is consist of 41% women and 35% of other races aside from Caucasian. I am not sure if they had to report all of this as a result of the law suit / settlement, but it seems that their workforce is pretty consistent with their stated goals to ‘embrace and operate in a multicultural world’.
The company’s to leadership including CEO and CAO, Muhtar Kent and Alexander Cummings are of minority groups which show company’s dedication and embracement of minorities. I must say that having a minority leadership does not necessarily translate into everyone having the same view – thus the settlement of the lawsuit, but it speaks volumes into how the company has evolved.
http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/diversity.html
http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/bios/bio_76.html
- With all of the positive changes that have been instituted at Coca-Cola since the settlement of the lawsuit in 2000, how is it possible that the survey administered by the Task Force revealed that minority employees still perceive that their career opportunities are not comparable to those of whites?
It seems that Coca-cola was not immune to the racism and bigotry that was all over the US before the civil rights movement. The company was described as ‘insular’ and predominated by the ‘good ol’ boys from the University of Georgia’. I think this company’s story is no different from many other companies that have learned thru trials and tribulations that having a diverse workforce in the 21st century is not only required, but also make business sense.
There are numbers and there are the perception that the employees have are perhaps the remains of what the company used to be. Even though 20% of their executive level employees are minorities, half of them get paid less than their counter part. I think this disparity in pay alone is one of the major factors on how the rest of the minority employees feel about job their job growth in the company.
- How does Parker’s triangle, “The Emotional Connection of Distinguishing Differences and Conflict,” help to explain (a) why so many minority employees joined the class action lawsuit and (b) how Coca-Cola failed to “manage diversity”?
“Attitudes are often influenced by emotions such as fear, anger, bitterness and hatred.” Looking at the triangle and what happened at Coca-Cola, it is clear that the management from mid-level to the top failed to respond to employees concerns and complaints. Before the suit, blank employees conveyed their complaints thru Rev. Joseph Wheeler, but the leadership failed to listen to him. “They ignore me, ignore me, ignore me” is not what one or any grieved employee wants to hear from the leadership – especially when they kept digging deeper by making race remarks (they have nothing in common except their race) and ignoring their own in-house numbers by Carl Ware co-chair of Diversity Advisory Council on race disparities in pay, performance evaluations, and promotions. It makes me think this council was set up to show the world they care – but in reality the case against them was getting stronger. I think once the word got out that the Coca-Cola Company does not care, employees attitudes changed and they all felt they were wronged. I doubt if the leadership had taken the initial four employees seriously and settled with them – without the noise, no one else would have joined the suit - even though they were being ‘systematically’ discriminated against since 1995.
Diversity at JPMorgan Chase
- Why does diversity matter to this firm?
I think the best short answer comes from is a line that describes how diversity driven JPM is when Mark is addressing the operating committee in one of his first presentations, ‘I just want this to be a more inclusive place so that when my son reaches the work force, he truly does have a fair and equal opportunity to be a managing director at JPMorgan Chase.’
Financial industries have been known for having all white, all male employee composition. But JPM was expanding and acquiring many small and medium size firms and with each acquisition, it added thousands of new employees from all walks of life. It had to create a program or bring someone whose full-time job would be to make JPM a diverse and inclusive place to work. JPM brought in Mark Settle to make JPMC to new stature as the Wall Street employer of choice among ‘underrepresented groups’ and being more connected to ‘top talent’ in the market is what will make them successful.
The company ‘prospects’ and customer base is as diverse as our society is getting, JPMC need to provide a ‘first class customer experience for the prospect.’ To recruit and retain best talent, Settles started engaging ‘executives in recruiting’ process and showing the company is serious about an inclusive workforce. One of Settles recruiting strategy was to ‘build relationships and acknowledge people’ of diverse and different groups.
- Are recruitment metrics developed with people-recruiting aligned with the firm’s human-capital practices? (20 points)
Although top management and executive teams at financial industry were made up of mostly white men (or that is the perception), I think long before Jamie Dimon took over the firm, JPM and banking industry had inclusive and diverse workforce. Heidi Miller, CEO of treasury and securities services, had said that the ‘critical point for changes in the banking industry started in the early 1970s with legislation that required regulated banks to hire women.’ She was one of the top executive in the operating committee who supported Dimon’s ‘desire to fix issues that seemingly prevented the firm from being more connected to top talent in the market’.
In 2008, JPM had 224,000 employees worldwide. Before JPM started official diversity programs and hired a full time executive to oversee it, as John Bradley says all banking industry “have been focused on having a diverse, inclusive workforce.” I think JPM decision to ensure they have laser-focused on having diverse workforce with hiring Settles and giving him support speaks volumes. Their top-down approach toward an inclusive workforce has worked well for JPM. For example Settles approach to met with each candidate personally to ‘understand their career aspirations’ shows the firms commitment to diversity. I especially like how his personal attention and engagement results surfaced immediately:
- Candidates had a good “customer experience.” They had a point of contact to check in with and were given constant feedback on their interviews and progress.
- JPMC’s efforts to raise the bar in the area of inclusion started to spread among top talent internally and externally.
- A diverse slate of prospects was created for future consideration across four broad disciplines—finance, sales and trading, marketing, and corporate, which included HR, legal, government relations, and operations.
- If you were Mark Settles, how would you interpret the Fortune magazine cover? (20 points)
If I were Mark, I’d take no offense or have any reaction to the magazine’s cover. I think we discussed a little about this in the class. Although companies are striving to recruit and retain top talent and diverse workforce, the upper management and/or the C-suites may not necessarily be of a diverse background – as we describe it. And the magazine reflects that viewpoint. The ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusiveness’ is a fairly new phenomenal in the US. Although many laws, regulations and perceptions have been changed to overcome racism and stereotyping, it still exists. I think getting to top management and executive levels to be as diverse as the rest of the workforce may take much longer – perhaps as long as it took to change some perception. One of the quotes from Heidi Miller can summarize the answer to this question: “I believe it is about talent management, not necessarily diversity.”