The Case of Corotel Incorporated

The Case of Corotel Incorporated:

Corotel Incorporated is a telecommunication company located in South Carolina, which supplies and produces telecommunication software and devices such as switchboards for companies and house phones. Corotel is a medium sized organization with 260 employees. The 260 employees are broken up by specific departments such as Finance, Marketing IT, Human Resources, Operations, and Manufacturing, etc. Out of the 260 employees, 125 work in the warehouse. The warehouse contains Operations and Manufacturing departments.

Recently, there have been some changes in the Human Resources department. The Human Resource Director, John Waynesville, resigned from his position and moved on to another company a few months ago. This created a need for a new Director. After much recruiting, Allison Hayworth was selected as a good fit as the new Director of Human Resources at Corotel Inc. Hayworth had gained most of her experience by working as a Human Resources Director at a large health insurance company by the name of Vigor Corp. Vigor has a total of about 600 employees, a little over double the size of Corotel's workforce.

During Hayworth's time as the Human Resource Director at Vigor, she had implemented an affirmative action plan which was required by the government since they were federal contractors. The affirmative action plan would be used to boost diversity within the organization. With the help of a few corporate Human Resource consultants, Hayworth successfully put the affirmative action plan into place without a hitch. The major drawback tough was the time and money that was consumed into the project. The actual time spent on the project exceeded the goal set out when the project first began. All in all, the affirmative action plan was something that Vigor deemed necessary in their industry so they may reach out to all different types of communities.

At Corotel, diversity has never been an issue to most and has never been brought up in any context. The current employee base shows a good representation of all races and genders. Neither Human Resources nor the executive team ever felt that an affirmative action plan needed to be put in place. Corotel followed all laws and regulation in regards to avoidance of discriminatory practices and all were an Equal Employment Opportunity company.

So when Hayworth took over her roles as the Director of Human Resources and suggested implementing an affirmative action plan as she did at her last company, everyone was taken back. No one quiet understood why an affirmative action plan would be necessary with figures that show an even distribution of "protected classes" and having policies in place which prevent any discriminatory practices from occurring. Though, Hayworth saw something totally different. After a thorough review of the employee statistics, Hayworth saw a big problem at hand.

Hayworth saw a clear sign of the "glass ceiling effect". The glass ceiling effect refers to the lack of women and minorities in top managerial positions within an organization. This effect may occur for many reasons. One reason for the glass ceiling effect occurring being that women and minorities are often placed in positions that do not allow opportunities for advancement by hiring managers because the hiring managers do not find minority candidates fit for positions of higher power. Hayworth was astonished that this had not been noticed prior to her arrival at the organization. While the numbers look promising of a diverse organization, Hayworth dug deeper and realized that a majority of the minority or "protected class" was out on the floor in the warehouse within the Manufacturing and Operations departments.

Most of the positions currently occupied by persons of the protected class are very unstable and do not have room or opportunity for advancement. Hayworth felt that something needed to change as soon as possible to avoid any possible lawsuits in the future. She quickly called up a corporate Human Resource Consultant she had used in the past with Vigor. Hayworth explained the current issue at Corotel with Alicia Svuarez.

Alicia Svuarez was a Human Resource Consultant who specialized in affirmative action plans and other options available to improve diversity in organizations. Svuarez suggested that Hayworth meet with Human Resources and Executive teams to discuss the necessity of having an affirmative action plan put in place that would aid in more advancement opportunities for minorities. Svuarez went on to set up a date to come in and discuss options available for implementing a voluntary affirmative action plan once the teams and Hayworth had met and brainstormed a few ideas.

Team Meeting October 15, 2010:

At the team meeting, Hayworth explained why a voluntary affirmative action plan may be something that should be considered. She showed the team a few figures detailing the spread of minorities in the organization. Hayworth also outlined any areas where there seemed to be a sharp increase or decrease of minorities. She stated that if something was not done soon, this could easily create a problem in the future. Hayworth also mentioned bringing in Svuarez to help with the transition to an affirmative action plan.

The response Hayworth received from the participants of the meeting was not what she expected. Of course, she knew that there would be some hesitation, but definitely not a blatant disagreement to the whole idea. Many of the people fired back that there was no need for one and second of all there currently were not enough funds to support a project of this proportion. Many others stated that there are reasons why there is a spike in the minority head count for the Manufacturing and Operations departments. The reasons ranged from lack of education in a sector to "well, that is what they applied for"

Hayworth quickly realized that the team would not be convinced as easily as she expected. She knew what she had to do. Hayworth went on to ask all participants of the meeting to bring in specifics of affirmative action to the next meeting and whether they were for or against implementing an affirmative action plan here at Corotel after doing some extra research. A few participants spoke up and chose to bring in specifics on topics of their choice. The list goes as follows:

Maria Johnson: Affirmative Action Basics

Danyul Geraldine: Schools Enforcing Affirmative Action: Positive and Negative Effects

Fred Burgen: Corporations Who Implemented Affirmative Action: Positive and Negative Effects

Florence Lithium: Recent Statistics