The Best of Intentions - Case Study Example

Some of the key issues include the following: Business decisions which are made based on race or gender rather than an evaluation of strong or best performance Discriminatory clients or customers influence decision making in the AgFunds company. The issue of minorities is evident with the company having low expectations for blacks becoming successful. The company has made little effort in reforming customer attitudes and supporting their previous minority representatives Racial and cultural differences strongly influence company decisions which show racial biases.

Analysis and explanation of decisions will be made based on expert discussions. Researchers agree that Cynthia should offer Steve the job. According to Humphreys et al (2002), Cynthia should give Steve a good list of prospects after finding out the clients. These clients assume that she will not send to them a representative that under performs. Therefore, clients will be more open to Steve. Also, Cynthia needs to act as Steve’s sponsor through working with Steve but at the same time work with others to communicate the high expectations she has for him.

This effort may not be successful though because Peter Jones, Cynthia’s boss, believes that the clients are not yet ready for a black person to become their representative. That is why he shows unwillingness to risk proving that he is wrong. Therefore, Peter is denying Steve a chance to prove himself in a cross cultural environment. According to Morris (Humphreys et al, 2002), Cynthia should offer Steve a job because he has the right qualities and he is the best qualified candidate. He states that if Cynthia allows discriminating clients to influence her decision to hire Steve, it may put the AgFunds Company at risk of a discrimination claim.

He proposes that strong performance could be a great equalizer in the organizational culture. In this case, some prospective clients may be in need a high performer irrespective of race or gender because the district has been losing customers for fifteen years. Again this might not be possible because of Peter’s paternalism which is rather offensive and lack of effort by the company to change the attitude of customers. Also, the company lacks support to previous representatives considered as minorities.

Based on these facts, the causes of lack of effective communication across cultures is the clients’ unchanging attitude and the lack of support and mentorship for representatives from the black minority. Koehn & Leung (Humphreys et al, 2002) work in collaboration on research examining ethical problems that arise during cross cultural interactions. Koehn is for the opinion that Cynthia should offer the job to Steve if she thinks she is the right person. She says that Steve may be in a better position than other sales representatives at AgFunds to handle the Arkansas farmers.

This is based on several studies that have shown that minorities who were being treated as outsiders have often outperformed others in handling difficult and stressful situations. However, this might not apply in this case because Peter with other district managers may be already set to push Cynthia into not hiring Steve. Koehn’s and Leung’s research give an example of gender bias in decision making where male executives have over the years argued that female employees should not be given international postings.

They argue that nationals