Facing extreme scrutiny in the public eye, the Board of Directors is considering a number of courses of action. You and your team are one of five different

Dravities Industries

Company Background

Dravities Industries is a multinational conglomerate based in Norfolk, VA. It operates in a number of industries, but most heavily in building technologies, information systems, and infrastructure development. The company was founded in the early 20thcentury as a manufacturer of heavy equipment. Using mostly mergers and acquisitions, it grew in size and complexity until it gained a spot on the DOW Jones Industrial Average in 1979. Dravities Industries remained on the DOW Jones until 2001, when company performance declined following a series of poor investments.

Dravities remains a global economic powerhouse but has a severely diminished capacity. Though it still draws hundreds of millions in profit every year, the company seems to lack a clear vision or the ability to make strategic moves in the evolving marketplace. The company has gone through three CEOs in the last eight years. None of them have been able to hit the three-year mark or affect any change in the company’s culture or performance. Productivity of work teams and individuals in the company appears stagnate and perhaps in decline. With no notable innovations in the last ten years, the company appears to be coasting on past successes. Overall, Dravities employs 87,000 workers across the globe with roughly a third of those being in the state of Virginia.

Recent Organizational Issues

In early 2021 audio of a recording was leaked to a reporter of a meeting in which senior executives used degrading and demeaning terminology to discuss employees from underrepresented groups. They could be heard referring to one individual from the accounting department as “the little colored girl” and talking about another employee in the manufacturing department as seeming “to be lacking that Mexican work ethic” – the employee in question was of Cuban-American descent. When discussing a promotion for an employee from their operations in Nigeria, one that would require relocating the employee to the headquarters in Virginia, one executive commented, “We don’t need to let any more of them into our country – let’s find someone else.”

Multiple national news outlets picked up the story and conducted a series of interviews with employees, many of whom requested anonymity to speak with journalists, which further revealed a widespread culture of misogyny and bigotry. Many employees talked about making complaints and trying to address management concerning the culture, only to be threatened, dismissed, or passed over for promotions. By August 2019, the company was facing a class action lawsuit wherein the complainants alleged:

• A toxic culture of prejudice and hostility toward ethnic groups and women in the employee population.

o 23% of the workforce are from non-white racial demographics, but less than 2% of promotions in the last five years have gone to an individual in one of these groups.

o 42% of the workforce was made up of women, but only 12% of middle management were women, and there were no women in upper-level management.

o People from non-white racial demographics make $.89 on the $1.00 compared to white employees, in the case of women, they make $.82 on the $1.00 – these both hold true even in comparable positions in the organization.

Rubric for Organizational Case Study

Criteria Points Possible Points awarded

Completion of requested criteria. Did the student follow the instructions and fully answer each part of the prompt, providing sufficient information to explain the position taken? Is the student's answer comprehensive in nature?

40

Inclusion of course material. Did the student reference or utilize concepts presented in the text to discuss the issue? Does the response demonstrate understanding and application of the course content?

25

Critical thought. Did the student’s answer explore the complexity of organizational life? Does it consider the multitude of possible responses, emotions, and alternative courses of action?

25

Quality of work. Is the assignment error free? Did the student use complete sentences and college level presentation of ideas (e.g. coherent thoughts and clear syntax)?

10

Total 100