The document discusses cultural diversity issues at Cityside Financial Services between its Retail and External Deposits teams. The Retail team was composed mostly of black employees serving the local black community, while the External Deposits team had mostly white employees serving wealthy white clients. This led to tensions between the teams and lack of diversity in opportunities. The document recommends integrating the teams with cultural representation from both groups in each. It also suggests mentoring sessions, a diverse executive board, and policies promoting diversity to change the culture.
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While this sounds to be a good approach in order to build a
clientele which is understood by the retail employees it does
create tension between the Retail team and External deposits
team.
The main issue here is the class of the clientele which both
sectors have been dealing. The External deposits team have the
rich white privileged clientele which is offered various
premium services by the company while the Retail department
was composed of black employees while the External deposits
department had an All-white code with exception of one black
individual who was due to get promoted. He was transferred to
the retail department for promotion.
This is a clear case of not only a diverse workforce but a
diverse mindset.
The mindset of each class in the departments has different
shifts and their approach on collaboration and promotions in
the company are greatly influenced by the color of their skin.
Overviewofthecase
study
The case study provided a detailed insight on how a
diverse cultural workplace works and what
resistances and issues can arise with the passage of
time. Since Cityside financial services were in a
neighborhood of African American majority, the
Retail team was more centered on the African
American hiring.
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Purposeofthereport
Cityside Financial services case study
The main aim of this report has been to address the issues
which hinder the collaboration between the two departments.
• This report will analyze and recommend ways in which the cultural
diversity in the company could be modified and the diverse employees
could be provided with better opportunities to excel in the company
regardless of their color.
• By answering all the queries, the recommendation, time needed to
implement them and the resources needed to implement them will be
provided (Brislin, 2008).
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Answeringthequestions
1. How could these units work collaboratively in the
future?
• Both teams need to have proper cultural representation. Rather than
having black employees in retail and white in External deposits, both
classes should be divided in both departments in proper amalgams.
• Using the Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimension model, it is important to
break the ice and address the issues. The company norms need serious
modification in order to address the cultural restraints.
• By making teams culturally mixed and redefining the norms of the
company, the collaboration can be increased. The integration of black
and white employees in both teams will bring more trust, understanding
and cultural perspective in both employees classes allowing them to
work more collaboratively (Geert Hofstede, 1984).
2. If you integrate the functions would this solve the
problems?
• This will allow the employees form both cultures to understand each
other’s perspective and culture at work. It would be a great way to bring
more tolerance in the workplace while crating a sense of trust. This
trusts will be the key in order for the team to collaborate and work
together. It is suggested to ensure that the roles and responsibilities for a
culturally diverse team to be set precisely allowing the cultures in
minority in the team to get proper representation and opportunities to
excel in the team. Besides that, with face to face interactions, the
employees will be able to communicate well at work.
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Answering the questions
3. Would a top-down restructure highlight that there was real
racial tension in the organization, waiting to explode?
• A top down restructure will potentially avoid the racial tension by
making the ethnic groups to understand each other’s perspective and
collaborate with each other on a daily basis. With a top down restructure,
the potential explosion could be avoided.
• The main aim of the entire process is to ensure that proper awareness
about cultural narratives is created. This will go down in the process of
creating a culturally diverse workplace and teams, providing equal
opportunities to each individual to get to the top without any
discrimination on the basis of the color (Amaram, 2007).
5. If you integrate the functions would this solve the
problems?
• The creation of a hiring board is not going to take a long time. The
company at the higher management level needs representation from both
the cultures. This would take a hiring board of 5-6 individuals which
would tale a month of intensive hiring.
• For mentoring, there will be a need to carry out session and seminars on
regular basis. This mentoring session strategy can be carried out in both
teams on a regular basis fortnightly or monthly. The interactions could
be increased in these sessions as well (Marlene G. Fine, 1990).
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4. Faced with this situation, what would you do to change
the culture in the organization?
• This way the employees can easily relate to each other and understand
each other’s perspective as well. Personal histories experience could be
used in order to change the culture of the organization as well. With a
culturally diverse team, the overall culture can be changed. These
mentoring sessions will bring more collaboration, overall
communication and cooperation in the team while creating more
opportunities for each ethnic group in both situations (Martin, 2014).
• In order to change the culture in the team, the best way is to follow the
Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni where he addressed
that that best way to break the walls between the employees is by
increasing the face to face interactions.
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• Mentoring at the employee level will allow bringing more
diversity in the company and will hold every individual
accountable for their work. With proper mentoring in a diverse
team, the whole organization could be made diverse in terms of
gender and culture. With no African American or white
representation at the top level, many decisions of the financial
development can be biased and lack proper results since
expansion will only be possible if the target market attracted is
diverse.
• The executive management must set examples to make sure
that they have a diverse executive board. In the case of Kevin
Johnson who is in the executive board of Starbucks, he refused
to fill in his position at the board until and unless the board was
equipped with gender and culturally diverse representation. The
executive board members must bring diversity by examples in
Cityside Financial Services (Dencker, 2008).
Recommendations
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• Besides that, there must be a company policy in place to
set a ratio for the diverse representation at the employee
level as well as each department and staff level. This will
allow bringing more ideas, creativity and individual
characteristic from the diverse people who will become a
part of the organization (Kalev, 2006)
• It must be a part of the policy that the leadership at the
senior level acts as a mentor for the organization while
propagating diversity and better manager accountability.
With a diverse set of employees in the staffing, it will be
easy to get the diverse groups to be a part of the financial
services as clients since they would be able to associate
better with the company (Marlene G. Fine, 1990).
Recommendations
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References
• Amaram, D. I. (2007). Cultural Diversity: Implications For Workplace Management. Journal of Diversity
Management, 2(4), 1-6. Retrieved from https://clutejournals.com/index.php/JDM/article/view/5017
• Brislin, R. W. (2008). Working with Cultural Differences: Dealing Effectively with Diversity in the Workplace.
Greenwood Publishing Group. Retrieved from
https://books.google.com.pk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=wLFls4bED1QC&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=cultural+diversity+in+the+
workplace&ots=Rh0cNssDHd&sig=A5IP-
Y16JqGY8F1P8eHMrqwAWO8#v=onepage&q=cultural%20diversity%20in%20the%20workplace&f=false
• Dencker, J. (2008). (2008). Corporate restructuring and sex differences in managerial promotion. American
Sociological Review, 73(3), 455-476.
• Geert Hofstede, M. H. (1984). Hofstede's Culture Dimensions: An Independent Validation Using Rokeach's Value
Survey. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 15(4). Retrieved from
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022002184015004003
• Kalev, A. K. (2006). Best practices or best guesses? Assessing the efficacy of corporate Affirmative Action and
diversity policies. American Sociological Review, 71(4), 589-617.
• Marlene G. Fine, F. L. (1990). Cultural Diversity in the Workplace. Public Personnel Management, 19(3). Retrieved
from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/009102609001900307
• Martin, G. C. (2014). The Effects Of Cultural Diversity In The Workplace. Journal of Diversity Management, 9(2), 89-
92. Retrieved from https://www.clutejournals.com/index.php/JDM/article/view/8974
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