Garden Road

could be a final

1. My recommendation is to keep him. There are many pros and cons regarding keeping Bob. There is an understanding that he is not producing much and not making money for the company, yet still gets paid. “What is he doing for us now?” Noel wondered at one point in a conversation with Rita. There are many arguments against that – the company has ‘many many artists’ that it needs to cater to and keep happy. Who else but Bob who has deep industry ties and connections. He single handedly signed up Sender with Powerful which continues to this day. Sure everyone is jumping on the internet and online bandwagon, but the company still needs the artist to produce music. Having someone like Bob, who is the only one on company payroll everyone loves – is a gift. You cannot replace personal connections – not in music industry, not in any industry. Keep him.
2. There will always be isolated cases of job and work dissatisfaction within any organization. And Coca-Cola’s case was no different than Wal-Mart’s where a large number of employees felt they were wronged. Coca-Cola settled the disputes and agreed to initiate and implement ‘diversity’ programs as part of the settlement. The diversity programs and initiatives have had an impact. Coca-Cola’s workforce is consisting of 41% women and 35% of other races. 20% of their executive level employees are minorities.

If I were the C-suit in charge of diversity, I would target wages and middle-management positions. Coca-Cola can fill out all top level management positions with diverse people, but if there is no change in middle-management diversity, it will continue to see cases of dissatisfaction which can grow into a large opposition and class-action suits.

1. The population of the country is continuously growing – toward a diverse and inclusive society. The workforce of any organization must reflect that. Companies not only deal with diverse workforce but also with diverse networks and groups. The suppliers, manufacturers, and distribution companies and so on – having a diverse workforce to understand, reflect and have cultural similarities directly adds to the company’s bottom line.
2. Explicit communication refers to a command-and-control, top-down and staff are expected to follow, e.g. ‘I need the report by 5’, ‘make sure to send the invoice to the client by end of business tomorrow’. Implicit communication is the opposite. It can be as general and vague and open to recipient’s interpretation. I would convey the message. In the U.S. most communications are explicit and to the point. ‘Tor, run the weekly report and email it to by 4.’ Perhaps in China or Japan, they communicate implicitly – not only with words, but with body language, tone and facial expression. To explicit cultures: ‘Good job on the report. Please review your work, again. I added some additional details I need.’

To implicit culture: ‘We are working very hard and long hours, but our client is not happy with the results. We need to make sure to check and double check our work before sending. ’

1. The problem with diversity is ‘diversity’ – the very name, shows how our differences not similarities. When Affirmative Action laws were passed, companies were forced to include minorities into their workforce to meet some made up number. As time went by, laws were changed and new ones are created. For companies, to comply with local, state and federal regulations – it has become a full time job. Implement diversity initiatives are not cheap – companies must spent resources to ensure their workforce is diverse and pay/settle with the government if they fail – as in case of Coca-Cola. Generational gaps are another diversity issue that companies are dealing with. We have identified and separated people into many groups/generations – so we can better understand and implement diversity? I think labeling and separating employees into group – whether it is Asian Club or GenX Club – excludes other employees and adds to the ‘diversity issue’ – does not solve them.

Advantage of having a diverse workforce is having a dynamic and diverse talent that is consistently innovating. They bring ideas from diverse backgrounds and cultures that are new, out of box and fresh. Each employee’s background, culture, upbringing, education and other feats only contribute to the company’s knowledge and growth. Other benefits of diversity are tremendous. The population of the country is continuously growing toward a diverse society. By 2050 half of the population will be consist of minorities. The workforce of any organization must reflect that – or face extinction (shutdown?). Companies must have diverse workforce to compete in this dynamic ‘flat-world’. They deal with diverse network of suppliers and manufacturers from China, distribution companies from Emirates and workers from India. Having a diverse workforce and culture to understand, reflect and have similarities with partners around the world directly affects company’s bottom line.

1. I need data from the area/city/state about diversity / culture / population mix to analyze and ensure a diverse pool of potential recruits. I will also start a co-op with an established non-profit organization that has deep ties to the neighborhood/city. For example Chicanos por la Causa is one of many organization that have roots in the Latino/Hispanic community in Phoenix –working with them will allow my organization to have direct access to pool of diverse talent.

Outreach programs that fund and provide assistance to minority students – graduating students can provide potential talent pool. Get word of diversity recruiting and initiatives among employees and get them excited. Referral programs thru existing employees also provide great potential pool of diverse talent.

1. Affirmative action is a law passed by congress to ensure minorities have an equal chance and opportunity at getting jobs. You are correct, forcing companies to meet quotas for certain groups is not the right way. But our program is not to meet quotas or fill out positions with certain group. It is to ensure we have the best and the brightest staff from a diverse group of talented people with diverse skills that meet out ‘business needs’ and  contribute to the growth of this company.
2. Issue: Diversity. In most companies it is just that. A program that will need to satisfy a regulation or meet the minimum guidelines set forth by the government. There is no additional effort by the company to truly embrace diversity and look beyond the race, age, sex, etc etc as set forth by the law. Organizations will need to look beyond the law and recruit talent from diverse talented and education workforce to meet their business needs. They do not merely need to meet a quota – that is no longer an issue nor was a solution.

Trend: Technological advances have forced many companies to recruit talent from outside the US. Aetna for example has many contract workers from India, China and other countries to meet and satisfy their business needs. In the coming decades this may become the rule and more companies will need to educate their workforce about different cultures and modify existing policies to ensure all workers are treated equally.

1. A. Yes. Slowly but surely. The entire diversity/AA issue is quite new. Most top level jobs take time to develop and recruit – especially promoting from within. Diversity is getting a foothold in the lower level positions and as time goes – top level positions will reflect that trend as well.

B. One of the methods should be to identify, develop and train from within. Many companies have diverse workforce – but are mostly in the lower level management positions. Organization should build on that momentum and develop/promote leaders from within the rank and file to the top leadership.

10. Web based Training: Pros: Cheap. Standard. Once size fits all. Easy to implement without any effort. Cons: cheap. Standard. Once size fits all. Easy to implement without any effort.

Internal Trainer: Familiar with the culture. Knows what they want to hear/know. Can have feedback / conversation with employees – pass on to the leadership. Personal relationship. Internal source – not that costly.

External Trainer: Does not know the culture. May have standard teaching method – same material for all companies. May not understand company needs  - train the way that is not fit for the company. Costly.

11. Assimilating workers into workforce – they hire workers from different/diverse groups and do nothing more. They have a workforce that maybe diverse but they don’t understand culture, differences and similarities about each other – misunderstanding, miscommunications and other issue arise when workers are not working or understanding to work toward a common (company) goal.

Integrating employee diversity: Companies hire from diverse workforce that bring different skills and talent. They have established policies, procedures and company culture that embraces diversity. They have employee education and integration programs that train employees to work and contribute toward a common goal – of growth and profitability.

12. The entire gender-transitioning issue is new and many companies do not know how to deal with it the ‘right way’. There is an overall negative outlook on the entire trans-gender population. I don’t believe performance issues and how they are evaluated should be directed toward any specific group. A transgender employee should be evaluated like any other employee. Employees performance criteria should be based expectations the company has set for that position. Discrimination and harassments at work may not be related to the performance – sure when an employee gets a bad review – they may refute it and file a complaint to Feds.

13. A. I agree with one of the recommendations: it is critical for companies to develop, implement and enforce a method of leadership – which allow managers the ability to understand their employees and their needs well. If leadership does not understand employees and their needs, they will not be able to have an effective team that works well together to achieve goals and meet target project dates. For example, when creating a team, a leader who is not aware and does not know his employees – may put employees who do not get along and/or do not have necessary skills to perforce the needed tasks. The inter-friction and lack of right skills for the task may cause delay in project delivery – and ultimately costing $$$. On the other hand, if they know their employees, they select the right employees with the right talent and skills for needed tasks and get the project out in time.

B. Companies should fill out positions with talented and skilled workforce that come from a diverse background and cultures. The U.S. population, the melting-pot has reached a point where the number of potential candidates comes from all sorts of groups. They are educated, diverse and multi-skilled workers – there isn’t an excuse left for the companies to ignore the population mix and do not reflect it in their workforce including top leadership.

If an Analysis. is this?

Aetna was founded in 1853 in Hartford, Connecticut. It is one of the leading providers of health care services from medical, dental, pharmacy, group life, and disability insurance, to employee benefits throughout the United States. Aetna provides traditional and consumer directed health care products and services that include long-term care and Medicaid ‘medical management’ capabilities. Aetna covers over 30 million members nationwide (3). It has expanded around the globe with newest offices in Dubai and China.
As a member of the global community, providing Aetna Global Benefits to expatriates and global employers, it has adapted and embraced diversity in all aspects of its business. In 1962 when Aetna reached 16,000th employee, two-third of them were consisted of women. Aetna has been steadily growing – from market capital of just over $750,000 in 1878 to reported revenue of over $31 billion in 2009. It is a member of the Fortune 100 with over 30,000 employees and 18 million medical, 13 million dental and 8 million pharmacy members (1).
Aetna supports many communities and charitable and non-profit organizations around the country. Their focus on “corporate responsibility” (2) is apparent with their involvement and long tradition of giving. To further the cause, Aetna Foundation, a national health foundation that promotes wellness, health, and access to high-quality health care for everyone was established in 1972. Since then it has contributed over $394 million in grants and sponsorships to non-profit organizations for variety of health and education related issues. For example, In New York City, a $70,000 award to the Museum for African Art was given to support “Active Body, Active Mind” targeting senior citizens (4).
The diverse population growth in the U.S. in general and Phoenix metropolitan in particular has created many issues in management and integration for many organizations. They are increasingly faced with multiple challenges that they have to face every day. In 2008 “minorities” were roughly one-third of the U.S. population and by 2042 they will be the majority (Table1). This growing and diverse workforce presents challenging problems to small and large organizations alike including Aetna. The socio-economic and population expansion has greatly changed our society. From a majority homogeneous group, the faces of customers, clients, suppliers, employees and managers have been transforming into a dynamic mix of diverse people with various races, cultures and backgrounds. A predominantly ‘white’ and male organization does not represent the population and fails to reflect diversity in our society.
As a publicly traded organization, Aetna plays a significant role in acquiring and retaining top talent to keep up with the demanding and diverse consumers they serve. It is a difficult task to recruit, train and maintain a workforce that is reflective of society. As a health care provider in a diverse country, the business and its growth will depend on the ability to maintain and accommodate diversity within the organization. By 2050 two third of the U.S. population will consist of minorities (3). But minorities are still under-represented in Aetna’s management and leadership positions. Even though the company has placed many diversity programs over the years to integrate and provide opportunities to minorities, medium to high-level management and leadership jobs seems the exception to the rule – 40 percent of Aetna’s 2010 hires were people of color but only 16 percent of has made it to the management/supervisory positions (4). Many factors play direct and indirect role in creating a diverse workforce and culture. There isn’t a magic bullet for diversity. Most organizations have ‘diversity programs’ in place. They have special and mandatory training courses that each employee must take annually. But they fail to create a culture that embraces diversity. The under representation of minorities are often explained away by ‘we have diverse workforce’. Some companies meet the minimum requirements of the law and call it a diversity training program achieved (5).
There are also other restrictions both on the company and the potential employee’s parts that creates challenges in achieving diversity. Despite many laws, regulations including EEOC, Affirmative Action, Title IV of Civil Rights Act to protect employees from discrimination, the number of complaints against companies have skyrocketed in 2011 (16).
Diversity in a company is not something that happens automatically. Regardless of how diverse the population and society has become, most companies still struggle with diversity. Organizations play a major role in under representation of minorities. First, there is bias. Bias from the organization. Bias from the hiring managers. Secondly, according to Richard Ingersoll, a Penn State professor of education, “There’s been a victory for recruitment but not a victory for retention,” (6), and “corporations are losing women and minority professionals and managers at rates higher than they’re losing whites” as a result of direct and indirect discrimination within the organization (7).
To become a more diverse company, a new approach that measures both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the diversity at needs to be taken into consideration. A quantitative (numerical) study will measure whether Aetna has a diverse management in which minorities, women, gays and lesbians are proportionally represented across the board. A qualitative (experimental) study will measure which members of these groups are proportionally represented in different positions including top leadership throughout Aetna. To be effective in diversity management, everyone in the company from management and leadership to the custodian specialist must be involved. The organization’s culture must be ‘diversity’ attuned to attract the best and the brightest from a diverse culture and society. The management must be inter-culturally knowledgeable and new recruits should be judged and hired based on their qualities – not on the basis of gender, race, sexual orientation, etc., etc.
When the organization’s culture, plans, vision and goals are written and implemented toward attracting a diverse labor force. In an inclusive organization employees and constituents’ satisfaction will increase and contribute directly to company’s growth. All employees including management and leadership will consist of all different groups equally. They will work toward companies’ goals that benefits both the company and employees. Happy employees not remain with a successful but also contribute to the growth of the company.
To achieve the level of success, the focus on the following area for diversity and inclusion must be discussed among top leadership at Aetna.
• Management and Leadership – perception
• Existing Policies and Strategy
To gather more insight into public perception (publicly traded company) and Aetna commitment to diversity, the following were taken into consideration:
• Focus Group QandA and feedback sessions – I sat down couple of times with two young folks to discuss Aetna’s (management) perceptions
• An analysis of existing strategies and suggestions to improve diversity in management and leadership positions

Management and Leadership
From leadership’s point of view, diversity simply makes sense. Diversity directly contributes to the bottom line and growth of the company. Aetna has been growing steadily over the years. According to reports, “diversity in the workforce are more profitable” (9) especially in the U.S. Aetna has embraced diversity from policy to implementation and has been successful thus far.
To measure how general public thought about diversity at Aetna, two focus group sessions were conducted. The involved parties were assured of their anonymity. The opinion of the focus group regarding management’s involvement and commitment was not positive. Insurance industry has had a black eye “Let’s face it, the insurance industry—in general—is not perceived to be an exciting place to work by college students and people seeking a career change.” Frank Heaps the managing director for Innovation in Insurance (15).
It was focus group’s perception that management lacked the necessary interest in diversity and cultural understanding to embrace recruiting young talent from diverse pool of graduates. “There won’t be an effort on their part” was an answer to “How much do you think the management is involved?” The management and leadership must demonstrate its involvement and commitment to diversity and inclusiveness. Their involvement and support for a culture of inclusive and diverse is curtail to the growth and success of the company.
When ask any final thoughts, “Over all the management probably don’t have the necessary interest in diversity” said the focus group “to be good at recruiting young and diverse candidates.” Aetna’s mission, values, and vision are to create an inclusive and dynamic culture. Top leadership must increase their level of sponsorship and support to group initiatives that promote team building exercises among inter-departmental staff. “Do you think managers have any knowledge to understand and manage young recruits?” was overwhelmingly “No”, Leadership is not prepared for to accept necessary changes to have an impact (10).
Policies and Strategy
Diversity is not about increasing visible differences (sex, age, color, etc) in the workforce but rather a strategic advantage that can be achieved from incorporating a variety of approaches and perspectives. Although Aetna has made great strides toward inclusion, management and leadership positions are lacking minorities. An effort must be made to recruit and/or promote management and leadership positions from the existing diverse pool of candidates within Aetna.
The diversity and inclusion programs embraced by Aetna are having great impact, but most are lower level positions. The same amount of effort must be directed at top positions as well. 76 percent of employees are from diverse groups, but only 16 percent of them are in management and supervisory positions and 15 percent in the top leadership positions. Effort and full leadership involvement toward new strategies on how to promote and recruit from ranks and file of employees must get underway. “A richly diverse America does not await us. It is upon us. It is our present and our future,” Susan Hockfield, MIT President said. Aetna’s core values are based on diversity and inclusive employees. “We cannot permit MIT to be a community of the past.” Philip Harlow, chief diversity and labor relations officer at Xerox. That statement is true for any company that wants to compete in 21st century marketplace. “There is no magic formula” for creating diverse workforce he concluded. Many companies struggle with diversity. They are missing one critical ingredient: strong leadership from the top (13).
“Our company’s evolution as a leader in diversity reflects profound changes in the marketplace. We actively engage the diversity of our employees to better understand the communities we serve.” Mark T. Bertolini, CEO. For example, people of color hold 16 percent of management and supervisory positions. The impact of diversity in all aspects of business is evident at Aetna. It’s relationships with the workforce, customers, suppliers, clients, constituents, and networks of health care professionals that involve many people from all walks of life is immaculate. At Aetna diversity is any mixture of differences and similarities in job function, life experience, discipline, education, socio-economic background, marital status, personality, gender, age, language, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, religion, family, etc.
According to its values “Aetna will be the industry leader in the diverse marketplace.” Aetna promises to deliver best-in-class service to its customers because they are part of the society. They must feel comfortable and welcomed when doing business with Aetna. Some of the strategies currently in place:
• Create innovative and tailored products and service solutions that will meet the unique needs of our constituents
• Develop a diverse supplier base reflecting our multi-cultural workforce environment that supports innovative ways to deliver best-in-class services
• Build a workforce that are knowledgeable and fully understands the diverse communities where we do business
• Foster a culture of inclusion that grows a diverse talent pool and recognizes and rewards the contributions of every employee while allowing employees to do their best work
Existing policies and procedure may need to be modified to include new protected groups. The development and implementation of ‘diversity’ policies and procedures should include providing employees and constituents with an environment that is dynamic, fair, friendly and professional. Impartiality principles are a core element of the planning, recruitment, interview, and selection process for hiring best talent to meet business needs and compete in one of the most challenging industries (4). The organization has an effective diversity strategy in place to grow and recruit talented potential employees that reflect the diversities in our society. Looking at Aetna’s workforce by numbers (below), the organization has had an effective strategy to hire and retain diverse workforce that include women, veterans, people of color from all generations (11).
Gender
• 76 percent of Aetna’s employees are women
• Women hold 62 percent of management/supervisory positions
• Women hold 26 percent of senior leadership positions
• 31 percent of Aetna’s board directors are women
Race and ethnicity
• 31 percent of our employees are people of color
• People of color hold 16 percent of management/supervisory positions
• People of color hold 15 percent of senior leadership positions
• 23 percent of Aetna’s board of directors are people of color
• 40 percent of 2010 hires were people of color
Age/Generations
• Employees range in age from 18 to 85
• The average age of our employees is 44
• 1 percent of Aetna’s employees are in the Silent generation
(born between 1925 and 1945)
• 38 percent of Aetna’s employees are Baby Boomers
(born between 1946 and 1963)
• 46 percent of Aetna’s employees are in Generation X
(born between 1964 and 1978)
• 15 percent of Aetna’s employees are in Generation Y
(born between 1979 and 1994)
“The challenge of continually increasing our value to customers, shareholders and communities requires creativity and insights that only a diverse workforce can deliver” Mark B. ‘2010 Diversity Annual’ report, says that (12). The report emphasizes three aspects of programs that Aetna has implemented. Embraced. Empowered. Engaged.
Embraced: Aetna understands that when people join together to create change and innovate, their deepest insights emerge from both common and uncommon ground. Their greatest contributions arise from the way they live their lives, where they come from, what they treasure, and what they understand about our world.
Empowered: People are empowered to share their unique perspectives in a many ways to make Aetna more successful and a better place to work. They are encouraged to extend their momentum beyond Aetna’s walls – to nurture a greater understanding of diversity and its benefits in our communities and across the nation.
Engaged: Aetna is engaged in making diversity an integral part of the business. Diversity influences the way the company works with customers and business partners. It helps Aetna to identify and serve new markets.
Given Aetna’s history in successful integration of minorities in their workforce, they are ready to meet diversity challenges. Companies that have workforce that reflect the society proportionally will succeed in 21st century and beyond. They will continue to succeed in creating and implementing strategies that give equal opportunity to everyone regardless of who they are. A diverse society is made of people from all walks of life – from baby boomers to the Gen Ys and Aetna has been able to adapt and meet the challenges.
The following recommendations must be taken into consideration for dynamic new diversity strategies:
1. Identify various populations of employees in at Aetna.
2. Survey and study what each population/group needs to feel comfortable and included at work – a sense of what helps employees work together effectively and efficiently adds to employee morale.
3. Create a top-level committee who reports and discusses their findings to brainstorm new strategies for promoting diversity in the top leadership and management positions – as opposed to appointing members.
4. Establish a clear equal-opportunities policy and procedure for management recruitment and promotion – making sure it falls within the guidelines of Equal Employment Opportunities and related laws and regulations.
5. Re-establish hiring practices and policies that select the best candidates for the management positions without considering age, race or ethnicity, etc.
6. Promote and provide diversity training for all employees – especially the hiring managers.
7. Acknowledge that prejudice / discrimination will continue to exist at Aetna.
8. Set clear consequences for discrimination against anyone at Aetna and communicate and remind employees through intra-net, email and other established communication means.

References
1. http://www.aetna.com/about-aetna-insurance/aetna-corporate-profile/facts.html
2. http://www.aetna.com/about-aetna-insurance/aetna-corporate-profile/diversity/index.html
3. http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/
4. http://www.aetna.com/about-aetna-insurance/aetna-corporate-profile/corporate-bios/index.html
5. http://www.psc.gov.sk.ca/Default.aspx?DN=078f3edd-e80b-4a26-9ada-819f91671c53
6. http://www.miller-mccune.com/education/minority-teachers-hard-to-get-and-hard-to-keep-25852/
7. http://knowwpcarey.com/article.cfm?aid=649
8. http://www.chubb.com/diversity/chubb4450.html
9. http://www.villagelife.org/news/archives/diversity.html
10. Focus group QandA and Feedback Sessions held on 2/1/2012 and 2/8/2012
11. http://www.aetna.com/about-aetna-insurance/aetna-corporate-profile/diversity/workforce-workplace.html
12. http://www.aetna.com/diversityannualreport/index.html
13. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/diversity-congress-tt1119.html
14. http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/bookshelf/the-world-is-flat
15. http://www.insurancenetworking.com/blogs/insurance_technology_employment_recruiting_labor_health_care-25406-1.html
16. http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/reports/index.cfm

The Body Ritual Among the Nacirema/Extended

1. What message do you think the author was trying to convey in his description of this culture?
I think the overall message was that these people being so close to us need to be studied and integrated into a civilized society. Another message is that no matter what part of the world you are from and how weird your ‘rituals’ sound to outsiders, you are part of the mankind and should have the same opportunities as the rest. Diversity and uniqueness is part of all human beings. Our uniqueness makes us diverse. We are all different in any aspect of life and looks you can think of. Our difference starts from the finger-prints and expands to our culture. Understanding what, why, who and how about ‘other’ people will enable us to work and live with each other regardless of where we came from. But I highly doubt I am able to say what Miner was trying to convey in his shortsighted, humorous and condescending analysis of people he had no idea about.

2. Why are some behaviors described as “magic”?

Each family member of the Nacirema tribe had built a shrine in their houses. Inside the shrine were many ‘charms and magical potions’ which they seemed to think they cannot live without. These items were collected from different ‘specialized practitioners’ including the medicine and foot-in-mouth men. The medicine men prescribed the ingredients for the ‘magic’ potions and another specialist filled them – just like we fill out prescriptions from the pharmacy. These fine specialized folks required more gifts to provide/make the ‘charm’ or medicine. After using the charms they didn’t get rid of them from the medicine cabinet / shrine, but rather kept them in a charm-box (medicine bottles) because the medicines in them were specifically designed for certain illness (like Tylenol for ache and pain).
They didn’t have labels or a way to distinguish each ‘charm’. I suspect they used a homemade box and they all looked alike. They kept all of these magic medicines inside the shrines forever. They thought of them as magical boxes that couldn’t be disposed of. We keep our medicines in our cabinets and think of them anything but magical. These tribes didn’t have the (50’s) modern lives and to them these medicines that healed many illnesses were magic.
3. Why are some behaviors described as “rituals”? Do you think this is a fair label?
Some of their behaviors are described as ‘rituals’ because the author, Horace Miner couldn’t find a better way or didn’t have enough knowledge to describe them. I think as he studied them, he noticed (and wrote about) a shrine in each household – and how these ceremonies were religiously pursued contributed in author calling these behaviors ‘rituals.’ In Nacirema society every family has their own dedicated shrine. “While each family has at least one shrine, the rituals associated with it are not family ceremonies but are private and secret.” Shrines as defined by Merriam-Webster are a ‘place in which devotion is paid to a saint or deity.’ Since rituals are performed by symbolic values and are religious or traditional in nature, Miner thought of their actions (even though in private) as ‘rituals’. Although I think if they were ‘secret and private’, how would Miner know they were ‘rituals’? Given how we describe and perceive as ‘rituals’, I think it’s fair to say he labeled some of their behavior ‘rituals’.
4. Does the humorous approach to this culture bother you? Do you feel that the description is belittling or sarcastic in tone?
After doing some more research on Nicirema, Miner’s approach to this culture does not bother me a bit. Miner visited them back in the 50’s. He was the first to visit them and discovered new people and culture. The field of human knowledge including that of anthropology has greatly improved and expanded. At that time, when Miner wrote about a ‘other’ culture that he newly discovered, he didn’t have enough information on ‘other’ people to compare and the only way he could describe their culture and behavior was to satirize them. There are more scholarly investigative work done by Willard Walker and Neil Thompson and others since and they provide much better critique and commentary about this fine culture – which seems to have disappeared (1). As Neil Thomson puts it, “Nicirema were the dominant group in the complex of North American cultures”. Given how complex and unknown this culture was at the time Miner wrote his paper, it is no surprise that he had to approach this culture in a humorous ways. At later time archeologists discovered ‘large number of documents’ relating to Nicirema and have a better understanding of their culture and ‘rituals’.

5. Imagine that you are a member of the author’s culture described in this article. What stereotypes could you have about this culture and its people if this reading is your only source of information?
If I lived in the 50’s, I am sure I would have had very different point of view on ‘other’ people. After reading Miner’s piece on these people, I would have thought these people are crazy and weird. Why would they keep collecting these ‘magical’ materials prescribed by the medicine men and provided by some other (pharmacist?) practitioner? I’d probably have more questions about why would they do such things having a shrine in each household. Why is it private and secret? Are they hiding something from the outsiders? Don’t they know better? They live here in North America. We should incorporate them into our civil society.
Some of their ‘rituals’ seems barbaric. Why are women subjected to torture? They ‘bake’ their head in ovens? Scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp object is no way of living in 19th century – we ought to go there and change their lifestyle for better and teach them how to live.

Diversity at JPMorgan Chase
1. Is Settles’ model sustainable? Why or why not? Remember to defend your answer with material from the case.
Settles model for diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace works fine and is sustainable. The only problem is it applies to lower level positions. The article sounds pretty good when it comes to diversity and how an organization should implement a “multipronged effort to attract, retain, and develop top diverse talent.” Mark Settles, the Diversity Recruiting Executive designated and charged with making JPMC a diverse and inclusive company.
The model as described in this article/case study can be sustainable, but I see two issues with it. First, the timing of this program (2007/2008) is when we experience the Economic Crisis (2). Financial industry was especially hit hard. On October 15, 2008, the Guardian reported that ‘JP Morgan revealed that its quarterly profits fell by 84% to $527m’. Given an 84% loss in your profits, I doubt any organization can manage to stay alive with the same workforce as the year before. Second, numbers speak for themselves. The numbers at the end of the article and it is not even close to what they expect the results to be. Over 90% of their Execs and senior leadership are White, less than 3% Hispanic and only 3% Black. Most of the diversity program’s efforts seem to be dedicated to lower level staff.
According to US Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC), financial industry is lacking far behind other industries in diversity and inclusiveness and promotion “chances are unfavorable to women, African Americans, Hispanics and Asians when compared to white males” (4). According to data provided in the study, less than 10 percent of top level C-suits is from diverse groups. It is no surprise that JPMC reflect this trend. They certainly are doing a “great job at the front end” getting low level employees in the door, but when it comes to higher level position: FAIL. The good news I think is that they are making an effort and over time, these newcomers may rise to the top level positions. As of this case study, JPMC is far from being called a ‘diverse’ company – their diversity homepage is titled ‘Our commitment to diversity starts from the top’ (5). When I see numbers, I will believe that Settle’s model works and should be followed by other companies.
 

References

1. http://web.archive.org/web/20040807032053/http://naturalhistorymag.com/editors_pick/1972_12_pick.html
2. http://wiki.lexisnexis.com/academic/index.php?title=Economic_Crisis_2008
3. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/15/useconomy-banking-jpmorgan-wellsfargo
4. http://www.ebglaw.com/files/7064_article_1325.pdf
5. http://www.jpmorganchase.com/corporate/Corporate-Responsibility/diversity.htm