Critical Thinking

Case Study 1: Sustaining Success at St. Stevens Community College

Emma Barnes is a senior administrator at St. Stevens Community College (SSCC), and she has recently been asked to assess the sustainability of SSCC’s strategic mission and to develop a long-term plan for SSCC to overcome any pending challenges and capitalize on any potential opportunities. Established in 1965, SSCC is a midsized community college serving the local population that partners with students to maximize their college experience. SSCC’s competitive advantage is to be a high-quality educational option for diverse students at an affordable price and to serve a valuable role in the community. It provides small classes, cutting-edge classrooms, and great resources to enable students to get the most out of their educational experience. Based on all assessments, SSCC has been successful. In its 50-plus years, it has grown to more than 12,000 students and enjoys financial profits with enough funds to reinvest in maintaining the administrative infrastructure of the college, enhancing the technology in the classrooms, and bolstering the quality of the athletic facilities.

Despite the college’s success, Emma is worried that it may be experiencing the calm before the storm. There are several reasons for her concerns. First, many members of the faculty are approaching retirement age, and hiring faculty replacements is difficult because newly minted Ph.D.’s have many options for employment. Moreover, new hires are demanding salaries that are above what SSCC is typically able to afford. The quality of the faculty is a key attraction for students, and Emma worries that SSCC may not be able to maintain the level of education that it offers without planning now for the future. In addition, there has been a growing increase in the number of students who have decided to pursue distance education rather than attend community college, with the goal to attend a four-year university after the completion of an associate degree online. Finally, the composition of the student population continues to become increasingly diverse in terms of gender, race, national origin, and age. While everyone at SSCC agrees that it is a great asset, Emma wonders what implications the increased diversity of the student body might have for how SSCC moves forward.

While everything seems to be fine, Emma is determined to develop a plan to ensure that SSCC is able to take advantage of its opportunities and minimize its constraints. The problem is that she doesn’t have a clear answer for how do so.

Questions:

What is your assessment of the organizational and environmental challenges facing SSCC?

Which of these HR challenges would you view as most important and least important for Emma to consider as she develops a plan for the future?

Given your assessments of these challenges, what recommendations would you make to move forward in a way that ensures that SSCC is able to sustain its strategy of high-quality education at affordable prices? Explain the logic behind how you ranked the HR challenges.

Case Study 2: Changing the culture at Starbucks: Racial-Bias Training

On April 12, 2018, a manager at a Starbucks in Philadelphia called police to arrest two black men in the store. The two men were waiting for a friend to arrive for a business meeting when one of them, before he ordered any food or drink, asked to use the restroom. The white store manager responded by calling 911. Witnesses say that the black men had not done anything to warrant this response. The video of the arrest went viral quickly.

Both the chief executive officer (CEO) of Starbucks and the chairman met with the two men to publicly apologize for the incident. They also announced that the company would close all 8,000 of its stores on May 29 for racial-bias training designed to prevent discrimination at its locations in the United States. Topics to be included in the training were “implicit bias” and “conscious inclusion.” The company reached out to groups such as the Equal Justice Initiative and the NAACP for assistance in designing the antibias training. Starbucks already had policies that prohibit discrimination, but it now plans to add antidiscrimination and antiharassment training to the employee onboarding process in the future.

Employee reactions to the planned training were mixed. Some employees thought that it was a good move. Some saw it as a public relations stunt. Some questioned how much could be achieved in a few hours. Other employees shared their own experiences of ethnic and racial harassment from customers. Nonwhite employees make up 40 percent of the workforce at Starbucks.

This latest move by Starbucks to address issues of race follows a 2015 campaign in which the company had invited baristas to write “#Race Together” on cups and have dialogues with customers who asked about it. Many workers were uncomfortable with being assigned this responsibility.

Questions:

Discuss why Starbucks reacted to this incident as an employee training issue. How does the situation relate to the content of this chapter regarding discrimination?

Is a company responsible for the discriminatory behavior of its customers toward its employees? Could an employee charge the company with discrimination if subjected to harassment by a customer and, if so, under what law?

Research antibias discrimination programs. Use the information that you discover to develop an outline of the content and activities that are considered effective in such training.

Why do you think the 2015 #Race Together campaign failed? Can a company require employees to participate in such an activity? Why or why not?

What other options should Starbucks consider ensuring that future incidents such as the April 12 one do not occur?