Yvette Hyater-Adams & Terry Larsen CoreState Financial Corp (Essay Sample)

CASE STUDY
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CASE STUDY
The case study revolves around a Black executive woman who narrates her experience on the launch of a three-day diversity awareness workshop session at the CoreStates Financial Corp. This experience was written down by one of the agents from Elsie Y. Cross and Associates who were the consultants. They were to write the experience of the three day workshop. The Black executive woman missed the first two days of the workshop because she was on a maternity leave. She had to come participate in the third day because she felt obligated it was her duty because she held a high office among the Black community. During the two days she was absent the topics that were discussed were about the people of color and women which she missed. This were topics she clearly related to and she had to speak out. She was a smart woman as she was aware if she spoke anything contradictory in the presence of the CEO it would limit her career development. Her thoughts on the topics were jotted down and she did not expect for them to be read out and she was reluctant to write her own experience and decided to include only the information that was in her head. She believed if leaders were to read, write and dialogue about their social or cultural it would create self-awareness and improve interactions with each other. The Black woman executive masked and avoided emotions and she carried with her stories relating to gender and race everywhere she went. When she was narrating her stories no one cared or noticed and regularly received compliments from while male peers and superiors on the way she handled people.
The mask that she had was validated by the dominant heterosexual, white and male business culture. Unpacking stories relating to her sexual orientation, race and gender lead to strengthening her leadership skills because she discovered the same identity groups with subordinates and those with dominant roles. Writing about her struggles, taking risks and feelings fostered a relationship across power, diversity and authority. Writing reflectively and imaginatively helped her deal with emotional distress, ideas for personal change and doubts. This writings led her to coaching executives and this she later called them transformative narratives as they were aimed to change the lives of the people. She believed that change starts with a single individual (Elbow, 1998).The transformative narratives came from real and imagined visual, written and spoken stories which offered insight, vision and self-awareness. The transformative narratives offer a practical method that builds emotional intelligence and facilitates diversity awareness. The transformative narrative process is connected with other fields of study as it is interdisciplinary. Transformative narratives offer a unique blend of creative expression, reasoning, and reflection, making it versatile for business applications.
This case study tries to fight social injustices that are related to gender and race from the experience of the tales of a Black executive woman that happen in the business world. It is seen from the text that companies need to face social change. The formation of trade unions, issues related to the migrant workers and fair trade are all the aspects of social change that the companies need to face. The writer views social change as valuing human rights and systems working together for all the people. In the United States the people that are heterosexual, whites, men are rewarded by having a greater success when compared to people of color, women, lesbians /gays/bisexuals and transgendered. This shows that the people are discriminated according to their race, sexual orientation and gender. The leaders of the organizations need to check the social identity groups to see who does what in the organization, who leads the day to day operations of the firm, the organizational social power and economic structures. The internal social just work is meant to reduce disparities and social injustices affecting people and processes. Storytelling has been found to slowly stop racism in the society by people sharing their experiences with others in the diversity training programs (Bell, 2010) . This will lead to all people of all races to live harmoniously and bring about equality. The stories bring about emotions and feelings and what people find hard to speak about can easily be said through literature such as poems.
In the training the Black and African women talked about the challenges of trying to be something else other than themselves. They were put in a position whereby they had to conform to be like other people. This black women were forced to assimilate into actions and behaviors of their white male counterparts. If they did not do so they felt that this would limit their career development. The colleagues of the writer even at an early stage in her career before she became an executive would be advised by her colleagues who were white men to fit in. This being done to the black women meant that they lost their identity while working with the white male counterparts (Bowman, 2004). The Black executive writer would read out other people’s poems and relate it to her own experience and then read out her writings loudly. She gained courage over a period of time and started wearing her natural hair, wore brighter tailored clothing and shared more about herself. When she did this her career developed as an African American executive and this was beneficial to her career aspirations.
Research conducted has shown that the people who hold up their emotions and do not speak out their mind have their immune system weakening making them susceptible to illness. This is due to the fact that they become stressed mentally and physically. The silenced populations especially the Latinos, Asian and African American have the highest rate of immune related diseases (Denning, 2011). The communities of color that hold back their stories prove more harm than good to them. The use of literature on the silenced population has been used to relieve the stress that they have and they are able to share their experiences with others. When they share their experiences they are able to easily connect with other people.
Diversity learning has been used for people to understand the difference of people in the society by making them comprehend all the details that revolve about diversity. Empathy is a necessary emotional skill required by the leader especially when bridging differences (Jordan, Hartling, Walker, 2004). The transformative narrative approach allows people to have empathy when they listen to stories of others and get to feel their experience. There is quite a difference between stories and narratives according Marsha Rossiter. The diversity stories have led to the development of memoirs where anyone can read about the personal insights, business strategies and struggles. Leaders need to share their diversity stories and though this may make them vulnerable making them human and not machines.
The transformative narrative has four core elements which are literature, writing, listening and dialogue. Most organizations have narrative structures that contain stories and the organization usually have one story which they identify themselves with. The four core elements of transformative literature need to be applies with the leaders. When selecting the literature material to be used by the leaders’ one has to use the material that is relevant and not the favorite. Reflective writing is whereby the leaders have to write about their own personal experiences. Reflective writing is focused on the act of self-inquiry. Sharing on what one has written is an act of disclosure which helps one in connecting with others. The leaders are also taught on freewriting which is a technique meant for them to write information that is contained in their subconscious. The leaders are then trained on active listening which is essential for them to be keen listeners. Listening to the narratives and telling them to narrate in their own words usually assists in knowing whether they are active listeners. The other type of listening is known as the constructivist listening which is aimed at the speaker expressing feelings, constructing personal understandings and use their full intelligence to respond creatively to situations. Responding creatively to situations makes one to be a creative thinker. A person who thinks critically has the following abilities:
* Solve problems systematically.
* Comprehend logical connections between ideas.
* Reflect on the justification of others beliefs and values.
* Identify the relevance and importance of ideas.
* Detect inconsistencies and mistakes in reasoning.
* Identify, construct and eval...