A historic succession at xerox - Case Study Example

MANAGING DIVERSITY IN BUSINESSES Managing Diversity in Businesses This paper examines the historicevents of the succession of Xerox's first African American woman CEO. It drills down to evaluate the elements of diversity in businesses with emphasis to Xerox and also critiques the effective management of diversity in businesses. Keywords: Diversity, Xerox, Women, Minorities, Management The Succession of Ursula Burns The succession of Ursula Burns as CEO of Xerox was historic for two reasons. First of all, she was the first African American woman to occupy the topmost position of one of the world's largest corporation, a Fortune 500 Company (Byrnes & Crochett, 2009).

Secondly, Ursula Burns succeeded another woman. This is usually not the case since most female CEOs normally break through by taking over from other men. This is a general reflection of the fact that women, like many other minorities in America are often excluded from top level managerial positions. Reasons why Women & Minorities do not get top-level Positions There are several reasons why women are not found occupying top corporate positions around the country. Lamana & Riedman (2010, p285) identify three major reasaons why women are often excluded from such uttermost corporate positions.

First of all, most women are involved at the forefront of family lives. This is because once a woman marries, she is often involved more intensely in family matters. This implies that a woman will need to do draw a balance between the raising of a family and business life. In most organizations, rising to the top demands a almost all of a person' attention and due to the divided attention most women have because they combine work with family life, they end up losing out to men. Secondly, historical factors play major roles in hindering women from taking up top corporate positions.

This is because, from inception, women have been seen as keepers of the house whilst men are seen as bread winners. This creates a perception that an organization must be headed by a man who must earn more. This is the foundation of the third point. In America, the past fifty years has seen a constant trend of occupational segregation. This refers to the practice where some professions are male dominated whilst others are female dominated. This is rooted in the fact that each sex shows inclinations of specializing in certain areas.

In most cases, men specialize in higher income areas of businesses and areas that often lead to the top-level corporate managerial positions. On the other hand, women tend to specialize in areas that are qualitative in nature and this often distances them from the core of the company that can lead one to the top-most position. A typical example is the fact that most women doctors in large hospitals will prefer to specialize in pediatrics which keeps them away from the operational core of the hospital's organizational structure.

Men on the other hand specialize in areas that the hospital relies heavily on like general practice, surgery and the like. This puts them in the mainstream and gives them an upper hand in times of promotion. Burke & Mattis (1999, p26) also identify that there is a perception that once there is a woman represented on the board of directors of a company, it is enough. This therefore leads to a trend where it is always sufficient to have just one women in an male-dominated top-tier of management.

This therefore reduces the probability of hiring women for the top job unless there is an exceptional reason to do so. Minorities are generally discriminated against at work and they are giving limited promotional opportunities which hinder their chances of rising to the top position (Werner & De Simone, 2007). In 2006 alone, EEOC received over 27,000 charges of race based discrimination in America. Xerox & Diversity Ferris et al (2007) identify three major reasons why the management of diversity was effective and yielded high results for Xerox.

First of all Xerox attached strategic importance to diversity. This means that they treated it as important right from the top-level management and this flowed down to the other levels of management and was treated with uttermost priority. Secondly, Xerox had an aggressive equal employment opportunity policy that was strongly upheld. They sought to ensure that every employee was given equal rights and privileges. This created an environment where everyone was given the right to what he deserved and this was reflected in their policies and arrangements.

Thirdly, Xerox took affirmative action to ensure that the gaps between the diverse groups of the organization were bridged. This means that Xerox made a conscious effort to identify the hindrances and barriers to an egalitarian work environment and did everything possible to eliminate them. Ferris et al report that form the 1960s, Xerox made a conscious effort to ensure that the 30% of the workforce was made up of people from ethic and social minorities like African Americans, Latinos, women and the like.

This system of positive discrimination to these minority groups was consolidated by the fact that they trained the workers very well and used a liberal culture to assimilate all peoples from diverse backgrounds. A Xerox commercial in Hispanic Engineer states that Xerox believes in teams and diversity. It also states that the use of people from diverse backgrounds leads to “different choices that create different solutions”. This implies that Xerox gets people from all backgrounds who come with different competencies and this gives them the ability to get a wider range of solutions to their problems and boos their image with the public.

Contribution of Diversity Management to Business Success Effective diversity management involves “learning to appreciate and respond appropriately to the needs, attitudes, beliefs and values of different kinds of employee groups” (Jones & George, 2007 p171). When this is done, there are several positive attributes that it brings to a company. First of all, it improves the possible solutions that each team in the organization can offer to each business problem. This is because people from different backgrounds are encouraged to contribute their diverse ideas and views to the production process.

This inevitably leads to more solutions and better service delivery. Secondly, proper diversity management helps to maintain and retain valued and highly experienced staff members. This is because if they are happy with the work environment, even when they become skilled and can resign and do other jobs, might want to stay on. This improves the human resource base of the company and improves the overall outcomes of operations and work. Also, the use of good diversity management systems boosts the public image of a company.

This is because it presents a company as socially responsible and hence, this gives it a positive image by stakeholders from outside the company. In conclusion, diversity management is an important part of every business. References Byrnes, Nanette; Crochett, Roger (June 2009) “A Historic Succession at Xerox” Business Week Available online at: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_23/b4134018712853.htm Accessed: June, 10, 2011 Ferris, Gerald, R; Rosen, Sherman, D & Bauman, Darold T. (2007) Handbook of Human Resource Management Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Jones, Gareth & George, Jennifer (2007) Contemporary Management New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin Lamana, Mary Ann & Riedmann Agnes (2010) Managers, Families & Relationships: Making Choices in a Diverse Society Mason, OH: Cengage Werner, Jon M.

& De Simone Randy, L. (2007) Human Resource Development Mason, OH: Cengage Xerox Commercial (2003) Hispanic Engineer & IT June-July 2003 Career Communication Group Link http://xerox.com/diversity