Assignment 4: Cultural Information Paper

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Your new employee is going to be moving overseas! Develop a cultural information paper that will help them understand how to make the transition. (NOTE: You are able to choose any country–please make sure the county of choice is logical for the position.)

Include in this paper:

  • a short introduction to the country,
  • the local customs,
  • what to expect, and
  • a list of what is needed to work in the country.
    • For example: Certain countries require a work visa. Include the requirements for the work visa.

Include country-specific information needed to live and work in that country such as:

  • transportation availability,
  • housing costs,
  • union influence,
  • work week,
  • typical vacation time, and
  • anything specific to the country we would not experience in the US.
    • For example: Some countries the children wear uniforms and go to school all year

This paper should be 6-8 pages.

NOTE: The position moving overseas is the job in your description from Week 3. Find creative ways to incorporate your work from that assignment into this one.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

  • Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
  • Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

Dr. Vic’s Tips: remember to write your paper as an HR manager with your audience being your employees going abroad. Do not just write a paper with no context – make sure you write it per the scenario above and as an HR manger.

Write a six to eight (6-8) page paper in which you:

Include in this paper:

  • a short introduction to the country,
  • the local customs,
  • what to expect, and
  • a list of what is needed to work in the country. For example: Certain countries require a work visa. Include the requirements for the work visa.

Dr. Vic’s Tips: 1) write about the country by giving a general description of the geographic area, provide brief (two-three sentence) history of the country, and any important cultural, religious, political, conflict, or trade information widely known throughout that country.

2) then write about any local customs from the region you will sending employees – customs can include language, holidays, traditions of the area, celebrated festivals etc.  3) write about the actual experience from what to expect on day 1 though to day-to-day routines, try to be specific here with realistic expectations. You can also write about day-to-day things like local transportation (the bus or metro system) currency needs, where the local grocery store is located , where the nearest in-network clinic or hospital is located, and who to call if anything happens. 4) write about the documetns your employees might need, visas, passports, copy of birth certificate, government ID, consulate or Embassy documents, and important contact info from the company.  If any of you have every sent employees abroad all of this likely sounds very familiar. 

Include country-specific information needed to live and work in that country such as:

  • transportation availability, 

Dr. Vic: cover available transportation options both locally and across the country. Trains, airports, local busses, taxi service and always provide an emergency transportation medium like a phone number employees can call to have a taxi or other transportation means come to them.

  • housing costs,

Dr. Vic: Cover how housing will be taken care of, for example will there be corporate housing, or will the employee need to find suitable reimbursable housing on their own – sometimes this is a very cost effective strategy for many smaller companies.

  • union influence,

Dr. Vic: provide union contact info if any and also union expectations.

  • work week,

Dr. Vic: Here cover the day-to-day and week-to-week work flow for employees, include work day schedule if different than 8a-5p – for example in some countries the work day lasts past 5:00pm and in other countries it ends before 5:00pm. Cover when lunch is typically taken and also when breaks, if any, can be taken.

  • typical vacation time, and

Dr. Vic: here cover vacation expectations especially if it is different than normal – that is, cover if vacation is earned at a different rate – for example if employee will earn vacation hours or credit diffident than normally. Also offer a trusted vacation travel agent phone number in order to facilitate employee’s safety as they might want to travel.

  • anything specific to the country we would not experience in the US. For example: Some countries the children wear uniforms and go to school all year

Dr. Vic: here try to focus on work customs and laws that might be different than normal in the U.S.  Offer a Hotline phone number employee can call with questions regarding work place expectations.

Dr. Vic: overall, concentrate on employee safety and expectation as you write this cultural information paper.

Use at least two (2) quality academic resources in this assignment. 

Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!  Dr. Vic.

 
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For Any External Resources That Are Used On The Project, Such As Subcontractors, Consultants, Or Vendors, The __________ Will Define Requirements Regarding Documentation, Approvals Required, And Distribution And Include Such Requirements In Subcontracts O

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Question 1

For any external resources that are used on the project, such as subcontractors, consultants, or vendors, the __________ will define requirements regarding documentation, approvals required, and distribution and include such requirements in subcontracts or purchase orders.

Question options:

project team

project manager

customer

project organization

Question 2

__________ can support team idea generation, brainstorming, problem solving, and decision making.

Question options:

Document management systems

Groupware

Content management systems

Web videoconferencing

Question 3

A project progress report might include the following EXCEPT:

Question options:

progress toward resolution of previously identified problems.

list of activities completed by each of the project team members.

accomplishments since prior report and milestones expected to be reached during next reporting period.

problems or potential problems since prior report and planned corrective actions.

Question 4

A project status review meeting is usually led or called by the:

Question options:

customer.

project manager.

project team.

team member that identified a problem.

Question 5

Listening is more than just letting the other person talk. It must be a/an:

Question options:

passive, not an active, process.

impatient, not a patient, process.

reactive, not a proactive, process.

active, not a passive, process.

Question 6

All of the following are suggestions for improving listening skills EXCEPT:

Question options:

asking questions.

engaging in active listening, providing verbal and nonverbal feedback to the person talking.

interrupting the speaker to state clarification.

focusing on the person talking.

Question 7

Projects that involve a design phase, such as an information system project, may require one or more technical __________ to ensure that the customer agrees with or approves of the design.

Question options:

project status review meetings

problem-solving meetings

post-project evaluation meetings

design review meetings

Question 8

Regular and open communication, trust, respect, open-mindedness, and a positive win-win attitude are keys to successful stakeholder:

Question options:

identification.

engagement.

communication.

monitoring and closing.

Question 9

The __________ needs to provide opportunities for regular two-way communication with each __________, not just when an issue or concern is identified.

Question options:

project manager; stakeholder

risk identifier; risk mitigater

communication plan manager; communication channel

communication coordinator; colleague

Question 10

__________ allows the live exchange of information among members of the project team.

Question options:

Teleconferencing

Written communication

Email

Verbal communication

Question 11

Written reports are __________ verbal reports in communicating information about a project.

Question options:

more important than

not as important as

less effective than

just as important as

Question 12

__________ is/are used to manage the content of a website, documents, or files.

Question options:

Document management systems

Groupware

Content management systems

Web videoconferencing

Question 13

The heart of communication is not words, but:

Question options:

understanding.

listening.

talking.

responding.

Question 14

__________ body language can include direct eye contact, a smile, hand gestures, leaning forward, and nodding acknowledgment or agreement.

Question options:

Positive

Neutral

Critical

Negative

Question 15

Before a project team meeting, the __________ should determine whether a meeting is really necessary, the purpose of the meeting, and who needs to participate in the meeting.

Question options:

team member that identified a problem

customer

project manager

project team

Question 16

__________ is/are another collaboration tool that can provide a central repository for project information and capture the efforts of team members into a managed content environment.

Question options:

Document management systems

Groupware

Content management systems

Web videoconferencing

Question 17

A final __________ when the contractor has completed the detailed specifications, drawings, screen and report formats, and such is to gain approval from the customer.

Question options:

project status review meeting

post-project evaluation meeting

problem-solving meeting

design review meeting

Question 18

__________ should be held on a regularly scheduled basis.

Question options:

Problem-solving meetings

Post-project evaluation meetings

Design review meetings

Project status review meetings

Question 19

Possible elements of a project __________ plan include documents, author or originator or person responsible for creating the documents, required date or frequency for document completion and distribution, recipients for documents in distribution list, actions required, and comments related to each document.

Question options:

document

communication

performance

revision

Question 20

__________, to some extent, even provide features that provide team members with greater access and flexibility for using various interactive telecommunication technologies and collaboration tools such as email, internet access, document management, etc.

Question options:

Document management systems

Groupware

Cell phones

Web videoconferencing

 
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Discussion 1 LBS 3001

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1 NICKEL AND DIMED

 

2 NICKEL AND DIMED

Praise for Nickel and Dimed “A brilliant on-the-job report from the dark side of the boom. No one since H. L. Mencken has assailed the smug rhetoric of prosperity with such scalpel- like precision and ferocious wit.”

– Mike Davis, author of Ecology of Fear “Eloquent … This book illuminates the invisible army that scrubs floors, waits tables, and straightens the racks at discount stores.”

– Sandy Block, USA Today “Courageous … Nickel and Dimed is a superb and frightening look into the lives of hard- working Americans … policy makers should be forced to read.”

– Tamara Straus, San Francisco Chronicle “I was absolutely knocked out by Barbara Ehrenreich’s remarkable odyssey. She has accomplished what no contemporary writer has even attempted-to be that `nobody’ who barely subsists on her essential labors. Not only is it must reading but it’s mesmeric. Bravo!”

– Studs Terkel, author of Working “Nickel and Dimed opens a window into the daily lives of the invisible workforce that fuels the service economy, and endows the men and women who populate it with the honor that is often lacking on the job. And it forces the reader to realize that all the good- news talk about welfare reform masks a harsher reality.”

– Katherine Newman, The Washington Post “With grace and wit, Ehrenreich discovers the irony of being `nickel and dimed’ during unprecedented prosperity … Living wages, she elegantly shows, might erase the shame that comes from our dependence `on the underpaid labor of others.'”

– Eileen Boris, The Boston Globe “It is not difficult to endorse Nickel and Dimed as a book that everyone who reads-yes, everyone – ought to read, for enjoyment, for consciousness-raising and as a call to action.”

– Steve Weinberg, Chicago Tribune “Unflinching, superb … Nickel and Dimed is an important book that should be read by anyone who has been lulled into middle-class complacency.”

– Vivien Labaton, Ms. “Brief but intense … Nickel and Dimed is an accessible yet relentless look at the lives of the American underclass.”

– David Ulin, Los Angeles Times

 

 

3 NICKEL AND DIMED

“Unforgettable … Nickel and Dimed is one of those rare books that will provoke both outrage and self-reflection. No one who reads this book will be able to resist its power to make them see the world in a new way.”

– Mitchell Duneier, author of Sidewalk “Observant, opinionated, and always lively … What makes Nickel and Dimed such an important book is how viscerally Ehrenreich demonstrates that the method of calculating the poverty threshold is ludicrously obsolete.”

– Laura Miller, Salon.com “In Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich expertly peals away the layers of selfdenial, self- interest, and self-protection that separate the rich from the poor, the served from the servers, the housed from the homeless. This brave and frank book is ultimately a challenge to create a less divided society.”

– Naomi Kein, author of No Logo “Piercing social criticism backed by first-rate reporting … Ehrenreich captures not only the tribulations of finding and performing low-wage work, but the humiliations as well.”

– Eric Wieffering, Minneapolis Star Tribune “Barbara Ehrenreich’s new book is absolutely riveting- it is terrific storytelling, filled with fury and delicious humor and stunning moments of the purest empathy with those who toil beside her.”

– Jonathan Kozol, author of Ordinary Resurrections “Engaging … Hopefully, Nickel and Dimed will expand public awareness of the real- world survival struggles that many faced even before the current economic downturn.”

– Steve Early, The Nation “Ehrenreich’s account is unforgettable-heart-wrenching, infuriating, funny, smart, and empowering … Nickel and Dimed is vintage Ehrenreich and will surely take its place among the classics of underground reportage.”

– Juliet Schor, author of The Overworked American “Compulsively readable … Ehrenreich proves, devastatingly, that jobs are not enough; that the minimum wage is an offensive joke; and that making a salary is not the same thing as making a living, as making a real fife.”

– Alex Ohlin, The Texas Observer “Ehrenreich writes with clarity, wit, and frankness…. Nickel and Dimed is one of the most important books to be published this year, a new entry in the tradition of reporting on poverty that includes George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier and Michael Harrington’s The Other America…. Someone should read this book to George W Bush.”

– Chancey Mabe, Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

 

 

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ALSO BY BARBARA EHRENREICH

Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War

The Snarling Citizen

Kipper’s Game

The Worst Years of Our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed

Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class

The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment

Re-making Love: The Feminization of Sex (with Elizabeth Hess and Gloria Jacobs)

For Her Own Good: 150 Years of the Experts’ Advice to Women

(with Deirdre English)

Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers (with Deirdre English)

Complaints and Disorders: The Sexual Politics of Sickness

(with Deirdre English)

The Mean Season: The Attack on the Welfare State (with Fred Block, Richard A. Cloward, and Frances Fox Piven)

 

 

 

5 NICKEL AND DIMED

 

Nickel — and —

Dimed ON (NOT) GETTING

BY IN AMERICA

Barbara Ehrenreich

A METROPOLITAN / OWL BOOK

Henry Holt and Company • New York

 

 

6 NICKEL AND DIMED

 

Henry Holt and Company, LLC Publishers since 1866 115 West 18th Street

New York, New York 10011

Henry Holt is a registered trademark of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Copyright © 2001 by Barbara Ehrenreich

All rights reserved. Distributed in Canada by H. B. Fenn and Company Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ehrenreich, Barbara.

Nickel and dimed: on (not) getting by in America / Barbara Ehrenreich. p. cm. ISBN 0-8050-6389-7 (pbk.) 1. Minimum wage – United States. 2. Unskilled labor – United States.

3. Poverty – United States. I. Title. HD4918.E375 2001 305.569’092-dc21 00-052514 [B]

Henry Holt books are available for special promotions and premiums. For details contact: Director, Special Markets.

First published in hardcover in 2001 by Metropolitan Books

First Owl Books Edition 2002

A Metropolitan / Owl Book

Designed by Kelly S. Too

Printed in the United States of America

3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4

 

 

7 NICKEL AND DIMED

 

contents

Introduction: Getting Ready 8

one Serving in Florida

13

two Scrubbing in Maine

33

three Selling in Minnesota

69

Evaluation 106

A Reader’s Guide

123

 

 

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Introduction: Getting Ready The idea that led to this book arose in comparatively sumptuous circumstances. Lewis Lapham, the editor of Harper’s, had taken me out for a $30 lunch at some understated French country-style place to discuss future articles I might write for his magazine. I had the salmon and field greens, I think, and was pitching him some ideas having to do with pop culture when the conversation drifted to one of my more familiar themes – poverty. How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled? How, in particular, we wondered, were the roughly four million women about to be booted into the labor market by welfare reform going to make it on $6 or $7 an hour? Then I said something that I have since had many opportunities to regret: “Someone ought to do the old-fashioned kind of journalism-you know, go out there and try it for themselves.” I meant someone much younger than myself, some hungry neophyte journalist with time on her hands. But Lapham got this crazy- looking half smile on his face and ended life as I knew it, for long stretches at least, with the single word “You.” The last time anyone had urged me to forsake my normal life for a run-of-the-mill low- paid job had been in the seventies, when dozens, perhaps hundreds, of sixties radicals started going into the factories to “proletarianize” themselves and organize the working class in the process. Not this girl. I felt sorry for the parents who had paid college tuition for these blue-collar wannabes and sorry, too, for the people they intended to uplift. In my own family, the low-wage way of life had never been many degrees of separation away; it was close enough, in any case, to make me treasure the gloriously autonomous, if not always well-paid, writing life. My sister has been through one low-paid job after another-phone company business rep, factory worker, receptionist-constantly struggling against what she calls “the hopelessness of being a wage slave.” My husband and companion of seventeen years was a $4.50-an-hour warehouse worker when I fell in with him, escaping eventually and with huge relief to become an organizer for the Teamsters.

 

 

9 NICKEL AND DIMED

My father had been a copper miner; uncles and grandfathers worked in the mines or for the Union Pacific. So to me, sitting at a desk all day was not only a privilege but a duty: something I owed to all those people in my life, living and dead, who’d had so much more to say than anyone ever got to hear. Adding to my misgivings, certain family members kept reminding me unhelpfully that I could do this project, after a fashion, without ever leaving my study. I could just pay myself a typical entry- level wage for eight hours a day, charge myself for room and board plus some plausible expenses like gas, and total up the numbers after a month. With the prevailing wages running at $6-$7 an hour in my town and rents at $400 a month or more, the numbers might, it seemed to me, just barely work out all right. But if the question was whether a single mother leaving welfare could survive without government assistance in the form of food stamps, Medicaid, and housing and child care subsidies, the answer was well known before I ever left the comforts of home. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, in 1998-the year I started this project- it took, on average nationwide, an hourly wage of $8.89 to afford a one-bedroom apartment, and the Preamble Center for Public Policy was estimating that the odds against a typical welfare recipient’s landing a job at such a “living wage” were about 97 to 1. Why should I bother to confirm these unpleasant facts? As the time when I could no longer avoid the assignment approached, I began to feel a little like the elderly man I once knew who used a calculator to balance his checkbook and then went back and checked the results by redoing each sum by hand. In the end, the only way to overcome my hesitation was by thinking of myself as a scientist, which is, in fact, what I was educated to be. I have a Ph.D. in biology, and I didn’t get it by sitting at a desk and fiddling with numbers. In that line of business, you can think all you want, but sooner or later you have to get to the bench and plunge into the everyday chaos of nature, where surprises lurk in the most mundane measurements. Maybe when I got into the project, I would discover some hidden economies in the world of the low-wage worker. After all, if almost 30 percent of the workforce toils for $8 an hour or less, as the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute reported in 1998, they may have found some tricks as yet unknown to me. Maybe I would even be able to detect in myself the bracing psychological effects of getting out of the house, as promised by the wonks who brought us welfare reform. Or, on the other hand, maybe there would be unexpected costs-physical, financial, emotional- to throw off all my calculations. The only way to find out was to get out there and get my hands dirty. In the spirit of science, I first decided on certain rules and parameters. Rule one, obviously enough, was that I could not, in my search for jobs, fall back on any skills derived from my education or usual work-not that there were a lot of want ads for essayists anyway. Two, I had to take the highest-paying job that was offered me and do my best to hold it; no Marxist rants or sneaking off to read novels in the ladies’ room. Three, I had to take the cheapest accommodations I could find, at least the cheapest that offered an acceptable level of safety and privacy, though my standards in this regard were hazy and, as it turned out, prone to deterioration over time.

 

 

10 NICKEL AND DIMED

I tried to stick to these rules, but in the course of the project, all of them were bent or broken at some time. In Key West, for example, where I began this project in the late spring of 1998, I once promoted myself to an interviewer for a waitressing job by telling her I could greet European tourists with the appropriate Bonjour or Guten Tag, but this was the only case in which I drew on any remnant of my actual education. In Minneapolis, my final destination, where I lived in the early summer of 2000, I broke another rule by failing to take the best-paying job that was offered, and you will have to judge my reasons for doing so yourself. And finally, toward the very end, I did break down and rant-stealthily, though, and never within hearing of management. There was also the problem of how to present myself to potential employers and, in particular, how to explain my dismal lack of relevant job experience. The truth, or at least a drastically stripped-down version thereof, seemed easiest: I described myself to interviewers as a divorced homemaker reentering the workforce after many years, which is true as far as it goes. Sometimes, though not always, I would throw in a few housecleaning jobs, citing as references former housemates and a friend in Key West whom I have at least helped with after-dinner cleanups now and then. Job application forms also want to know about education, and here I figured the Ph.D. would be no help at all, might even lead employers to suspect that I was an alcoholic washout or worse. So I confined myself to three years of college, listing my real- life alma mater. No one ever questioned my background, as it turned out, and only one employer out of several dozen bothered to check my references. When, on one occasion, an exceptionally chatty interviewer asked about hobbies, I said “writing” and she seemed to find nothing strange about this, although the job she was offering could have been performed perfectly well by an illiterate. Finally, I set some reassuring limits to whatever tribulations I might have to endure. First, I would always have a car. In Key West I drove my own; in other cities I used Rent-A- Wrecks, which I paid for with a credit card rather than my earnings. Yes, I could have walked more or limited myself to jobs accessible by public transportation. I just figured that a story about waiting for buses would not be very interesting to read. Second, I ruled out homelessness as an option. The idea was to spend a month in each setting and see whether I could find a job and earn, in that time, the money to pay a second month’s rent. If I was paying rent by the week and ran out of money I would simply declare the project at an end; no shelters or sleeping in cars for me. Furthermore, I had no intention of going hungry. If things ever got to the point where the next meal was in question, I promised myself as the time to begin the “experiment” approached, I would dig out my ATM card and cheat. So this is not a story of some death-defying “undercover” adventure. Almost anyone could do what I did – look for jobs, work those jobs, try to make ends meet. In fact, millions of Americans do it every day, and with a lot less fanfare and dithering. I AM, OF COURSE, VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE PEOPLE WHO NORMALLY fill America’s least attractive jobs, and in ways that both helped and limited me. Most obviously, I was only visiting a world that others inhabit full-time, often for most of their

 

 

11 NICKEL AND DIMED

lives. With all the real- life assets I’ve built up in middle age-bank account, IRA, health insurance, multiroom home-waiting indulgently in the background, there was no way I was going to “experience poverty” or find out how it “really feels” to be a long-term low- wage worker. My aim here was much more straightforward and objective-just to see whether I could match income to expenses, as the truly poor attempt to do every day. Besides, I’ve had enough unchosen encounters with poverty in my lifetime to know it’s not a place you would want to visit for touristic purposes; it just smells too much like fear. Unlike many low-wage workers, I have the further advantages of being white and a native English speaker. I don’t think this affected my chances of getting a job, given the willingness of employers to hire almost anyone in the tight labor market of 1998 to 2000, but it almost certainly affected the kinds of jobs I was offered. In Key West, I originally sought what I assumed would be a relatively easy job in hotel housekeeping and found myself steered instead into waitressing, no doubt because of my ethnicity and my English skills. As it happened, waitressing didn’t provide much of a financial advantage over housekeeping, at least not in the low-tip off-season when I worked in Key West. But the experience did help determine my choice of other localities in which to live and work. I ruled out places like New York and L.A., for example, where the working class consists mainly of people of color and a white woman with unaccented English seeking entry- level jobs might only look desperate or weird. I had other advantages-the car, for example-that set me off from many, though hardly all, of my coworkers. Ideally, at least if I were seeking to replicate the experience of a woman entering the workforce from welfare, I would have had a couple of children in tow, but mine are grown and no one was willing to lend me theirs for a month- long vacation in penury. In addition to being mobile and unencumbered, I am probably in a lot better health than most members of the long-term low-wage workforce. I had everything going for me. If there were other, subtler things different about me, no one ever pointed them out. Certainly I made no effort to play a role or fit into some imaginative stereotype of low- wage working women. I wore my usual clothes, wherever ordinary clothes were permitted, and my usual hairstyle and makeup. In conversations with coworkers, I talked about my real children, marital status, and relationships; there was no reason to invent a whole new life. I did modify my vocabulary, however, in one respect: at least when I was new at a job and worried about seeming brash or disrespectful, I censored the profanities that are – thanks largely to the Teamster influence – part of my normal speech. Other than that, I joked and teased, offered opinions, speculations, and, incidentally, a great deal of health-related advice, exactly as I would do in any other setting. Several times since completing this project I have been asked by acquaintances whether the people I worked with couldn’t, uh, tell – the supposition being that an educated per son is ineradicably different, and in a superior direction, from your workaday drones. I wish I could say that some supervisor or coworker told me even once that I was special in some enviable way – more intelligent, for example, or clearly better educated than most.

 

 

12 NICKEL AND DIMED

But this never happened, I suspect because the only thing that really made me “special” was my inexperience. To state the proposition in reverse, low-wage workers are no more homogeneous in personality or ability than people who write for a living, and no less likely to be funny or bright. Anyone in the educated classes who thinks otherwise ought to broaden their circle of friends. There was always, of course, the difference that only I knew – that I wasn’t working for the money, I was doing research for an article and later a book. I went home every day not to anything resembling a normal domestic life but to a laptop on which I spent an hour or two recording the day’s events-very diligently, I should add, since note taking was seldom an option during the day. This deception, symbolized by the laptop that provided a link to my past and future, bothered me, at least in the case of people I cared about and wanted to know better. (I should mention here that names and identifying details have been altered to preserve the privacy of the people I worked with and encountered in other settings during the course of my research. In most cases, I have also changed the names of the places I worked and their exact locations to further ensure the anonymity of people I met.) In each setting, toward the end of my stay and after much anxious forethought, I “came out” to a few chosen coworkers. The result was always stunningly anticlimactic, my favorite response being, “Does this mean you’re not going to be back on the evening shift next week?” I’ve wondered a lot about why there wasn’t more astonishment or even indignation, and part of the answer probably lies in people’s notion of “writing.” Years ago, when I married my second husband, he proudly told his uncle, who was a valet parker at the time, that I was a writer. The uncle’s response: “Who isn’t?” Everyone literate “writes,” and some of the low-wage workers I have known or met through this project write journals and poems – even, in one case, a lengthy science fiction novel. But as I realized very late in this project, it may also be that I was exaggerating the extent of the “deception” to myself. There’s no way, for example, to pretend to be a waitress: the food either gets to the table or not. People knew me as a waitress, a cleaning person, a nursing home aide, or a retail clerk not because I acted like one but because that’s what I was, at least for the time I was with them. In every job, in every place I lived, the work absorbed all my energy and much of my intellect. I wasn’t kidding around. Even though I suspected from the start that the mathematics of wages and rents were working against me, I made a mighty effort to succeed. I make no claims for the relevance of my experiences to anyone else’s, because there is nothing typical about my story. Just bear in mind, when I stumble, that this is in fact the best-case scenario: a person with every advantage that ethnicity and education, health and motivation can confer attempting, in a time of exuberant prosperity, to survive in the economy’s lower depths.

 

 

13 NICKEL AND DIMED

one

Serving in Florida Mostly out of laziness, I decide to start my low-wage life in the town nearest to where I actually live, Key West, Florida, which with a population of about 25,000 is elbowing its way up to the status of a genuine city. The downside of familiarity, I soon realize, is that it’s not easy to go from being a consumer, thoughtlessly throwing money around in exchange for groceries and movies and gas, to being a worker in the very same place. I am terrified, especially at the beginning, of being recognized by some friendly bus iness owner or erstwhile neighbor and having to stammer out some explanation of my project. Happily, though, my fears turn out to be entirely unwarranted: during a month of poverty and toil, no one recognizes my face or my name, which goes unnoticed and for the most part unuttered. In this parallel universe where my father never got out of the mines and I never got through college, I am “baby,” “honey,” “blondie,” and, most commonly, “girl.” My first task is to find a place to live. I figure that if I can earn $7 an hour-which, from the want ads, seems doable – I can afford to spend $500 on rent or maybe, with severe economies, $600 and still have $400 or $500 left over for food and gas. In the Key West area, this pretty much confines me to flophouses and trailer homes- like the one, a pleasing fifteen-minute drive from town, that has no air-conditioning, no screens, no fans, no television, and, by way of diversion, only the challenge of evading the landlord’s Doberman pinscher. The big problem with this place, though, is the rent, which at $675 a month is well beyond my reach. All right, Key West is expensive. But so is New York City, or the Bay Area, or Jackson, Wyoming, or Telluride, or Boston, or any other place where tourists and the wealthy compete for living space with the people who clean their toilets and fry their hash browns. Still, it is a shock to realize that “trailer trash” has become, for me, a demographic category to aspire to.

 

 

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So I decide to make the common trade-off between affordability and convenience and go for a $500-a-month “efficiency” thirty miles up a two-lane highway from the employment opportunities of Key West, meaning forty-five minutes if there’s no road construction and I don’t get caught behind some sundazed Canadian tourists. I hate the drive, along a roadside studded with white crosses commemorating the more effective head-on collisions, but it’s a sweet little place-a cabin, more or less, set in the swampy backyard of the converted mobile home where my landlord, an affable TV repairman, lives with his bartender girlfriend. Anthropologically speaking, the trailer park would be preferable, but here I have a gleaming white floor and a firm mattress, and the few resident bugs are easily vanquished. The next piece of business is to comb through the want ads and find a job. I rule out various occupations for one reason or another: hotel front-desk clerk, for example, which to my surprise is regarded as unskilled and pays only $6 or $7 an hour, gets eliminated because it involves standing in one spot for eight hours a day. Waitressing is also something I’d like to avoid, because I remember it leaving me bone-tired when I was eighteen, and I’m decades of varicosities and back pain beyond that now. Telemarketing, one of the first refuges of the suddenly indigent, can be dismissed on grounds of personality. This leaves certain supermarket jobs, such as deli clerk, or housekeeping in the hotels and guest houses, which pays about $7 and, I imagine, is not too different from what I’ve been doing part-time, in my own home, all my life. So I put on what I take to be a respectable- looking outfit of ironed Bermuda shorts and scooped-neck T-shirt and set out for a tour of the local hotels and supermarkets. Best Western, Econo Lodge, and Hojo’s all let me fill out application forms, and these are, to my relief, mostly interested in whether I am a legal resident of the United States and have committed any felonies. My next stop is Winn-Dixie, the supermarket, which turns out to have a particularly onerous application process, featuring a twenty-minute “interview” by computer since, apparently, no human on the premises is deemed capable of representing the corporate point of view. I am conducted to a large room decorated with posters illustrating how to look “professional” (it helps to be white and, if female, permed) and warning of the slick promises that union organizers might try to tempt me with. The interview is multiple-choice: Do I have anything, such as child care problems, that might make it hard for me to get to work on time? Do I think safety on the job is the responsibility of management? Then, popping up cunningly out of the blue: How many dollars’ worth of stolen goods have I purchased in the last year? Would I turn in a fellow employee if I caught him stealing? Finally, “Are you an honest person?” Apparently I ace the interview, because I am told that all I have to do is show up in some doctor’s office tomorrow for a urine test. This seems to be a fairly general rule: if you want to stack Cheerios boxes or vacuum hotel rooms in chemically fascist America, you have to be willing to squat down and pee in front of a health worker (who has no doubt

 

 

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had to do the same thing herself.)1 The wages Winn-Dixie is offering-$6 and a couple of dimes to start with-are not enough, I decide, to compensate for this indignity. I lunch at Wendy’s, where $4.99 gets you unlimited refills at the Mexican part of the Super-bar, a comforting surfeit of refried beans and cheese sauce. A teenage employee, seeing me studying the want ads, kindly offers me an application form, which I fill out, though here, too, the pay is just $6 and change an hour. Then it’s off for a round of the locally owned inns and guest houses in Key West’s Old Town, which is where all the serious sightseeing and guzzling goes on, a couple of miles removed from the functional end of the island, where the dis count hotels make their homes. At The Palms, let’s call it, a bouncy manager actually takes me around to see the rooms and meet the current housekeepers, who, I note with satisfaction, look pretty much like me-faded ex-hippie types in shorts with long hair pulled back in braids. Mostly, though, no one speaks to me or even looks at me except to proffer an application form. At my last stop, a palatial B & B, I wait twenty minutes to meet “Max,” only to be told that there are no jobs now but there should be one soon, since “nobody lasts more than a couple weeks.” Three days go by like this and, to my chagrin, no one from the approximately twenty places at which I’ve applied calls me for an interview. I had been vain enough to worry about coming across as too educated for the jobs I sought, but no one even seems interested in finding out how overqualified i am. Only later will I realize that the want ads are not a reliable measure of the actual jobs available at any particular time. They are, as I should have guessed from Max’s comment, the employers’ insurance policy against the relentless turnover of the low-wage workforce. Most of the big hotels run ads almost continually, if only to build a supply of applicants to replace the current workers as they drift away or are fired, so finding a job is just a matter of being in the right place at the right time and flexible enough to take whatever is being offered that day. This finally happens to me at one of the big discount chain hotels where I go, as usual, for housekeeping and am sent instead to try out as a waitress at the attached “family restaurant,” a dismal spot looking out on a parking garage, which is featuring “Pollish sausage and BBQ sauce” on this 95-degree day. Phillip, the dapper young West Indian who introduces himself as the manager, interviews me with about as much enthusiasm as if he were a clerk processing me for Medicare, the principal questions being what shifts I can work and when I can start. I mutter about being woefully out of practice as a waitress, but he’s already on to the uniform: I’m to show up tomorrow wearing black slacks and black shoes; he’ll provide the rust-colored polo shirt with “Hearthside,” as we’ll call the place, embroidered on it, though I might want to wear my own shirt to get to work, ha ha. At the word tomorrow, something between fear and indignation rises in my chest. I want to say, “Thank you for your time, sir, but this is just an experiment, you know, not my actual life.”

1 Eighty-one percent of large employers now require preemployment drug testing, up from 21 percent in 1987. Among all employers, the rate of testing is highest in the South. The drug most likely to be detected- marijuana, which can be detected weeks after use-is also the most innocuous, while heroin and cocaine are generally undetectable three days after use. Alcohol, which clears the body within hours after ingestion, is not tested for.

 

 

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SO BEGINS MY CAREER AT THE HEARTHSIDE, WHERE FOR TWO WEEKS I work from 2:00 till 10:00 P.M. for $2.43 an hour plus tips.2 Employees are barred from using the front door, so I enter the first day through the kitchen, where a red-faced man with shoulder-length blond hair is throwing frozen steaks against the wall and yelling, “Fuck this shit!” “That’s just Billy,” explains Gail, the wiry middle-aged waitress who is assigned to train me. “He’s on the rag again”-a condition occasioned, in this instance, by the fact that the cook on the morning shift had forgotten to thaw out the steaks. For the next eight hours, I run after the agile Gail, absorbing bits of instruction along with fragments of personal tragedy. All food must be trayed, and the reason she’s so tired today is that she woke up in a cold sweat thinking of her boyfriend, who was killed a few months ago in a scuffle in an upstate prison. No refills on lemonade. And the reason he was in prison is that a few DUIs caught up with him, that’s all, could have happened to anyone. Carry the creamers to the table in a “monkey bowl,” never in your hand. And after he was gone she spent several months living in her truck, peeing in a plastic pee bottle and reading by candlelight at night, but you can’t live in a truck in the summer, since you need to have the windows down, which means anything can get in, from mosquitoes on up. At least Gail puts to rest any fears I had of appearing overqualified. From the first day on, I find that of all the things that I have left behind, such as home and identity, what I miss the most is competence. Not that I have ever felt 100 percent competent in the writing business, where one day’s success augurs nothing at all for the next. But in my writing life, I at least have some notion of procedure: do the research, make the outline, rough out a draft, etc. As a server, though, I am beset by requests as if by bees: more iced tea here, catsup over there, a to-go box for table 14, and where are the high chairs, anyway? Of the twenty-seven tables, up to six are usually mine at any time, though on slow afternoons or if Gail is off, I sometimes have the whole place to myself. There is the touch-screen computer-ordering system to master, which I suppose is meant to minimize server-cook contacts but in practice requires constant verbal fine-tuning: “That’s gravy on the mashed, OK? None on the meatloaf,” and so forth. Plus, something I had forgotten in the years since I was eighteen: about a third of a server’s job is “side work” invisible to customers- sweeping, scrubbing, slicing, refilling, and restocking. If it isn’t all done, every little bit of it, you’re going to face the 6:00 P.M. dinner rush defenseless and probably go down in flames. I screw up dozens of times at the beginning, sustained in my shame entirely by Gail’s support-“It’s OK, baby, everyone does that sometime”-because, to my total surprise and despite the scientific detachment I am doing my best to maintain, I care. The whole thing would, be a lot easier if I could just skate through it like Lily Tomlin in one of her waitress skits, but I was raised by the absurd Booker T. Washingtonian precept that says: If you’re going to do something, do it well. In fact, “well” isn’t good enough by half. Do it better than anyone has ever done it before. Or so said my father, who must have known what he was talking about because he managed to pull himself, and us with

2 According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers are not required to pay “tipped employees,” such as restaurant servers, more than $2.13 an hour in direct wages. However, if the sum of tips plus $2.13 an hour falls below the minimum wage, or $5.15 an hour, the employer is required to make up the difference. This fact was not mentioned by managers or otherwise publicized at either of the restaurants where I worked.

 

 

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him, up from the mile-deep copper mines of Butte to the leafy suburbs of the Northeast, ascending from boilermakers to martinis before booze beat out ambition. As in most endeavors I have encountered in my life, “doing it better than anyone” is not a reasonable goal. Still, when I wake up at 4 A.M. in my own cold sweat, I am not thinking about the writing deadlines I’m neglecting; I’m thinking of the table where I screwed up the order and one of the kids didn’t get his kiddie meal until the rest of the family had moved on to their Key lime pies. That’s the other powerful motivation-the customers, or “patients,” as I can’t help thinking of them on account of the mysterious vulnerability that seems to have left them temporarily unable to feed themselves. After a few days at Hearthside, I feel the service ethic kick in like a shot of oxytocin, the nurturance hormone. The plurality of my customers are hardworking locals-truck drivers, construction workers, even housekeepers from the attached hotel-and I want them to have the closest to a “fine dining” experience that the grubby circumstances will allow. No “you guys” for me; everyone over twelve is “sir” or “ma’am.” I ply them with iced tea and coffee refills; I return, midmeal, to inquire how everything is; I doll up their salads with chopped raw mushrooms, summer squash slices, or whatever bits of produce I can find that have survived their sojourn in the cold storage room mold-free. There is Benny, for example, a short, tight-muscled sewer repairman who cannot even think of eating until he has absorbed a half hour of air-conditioning and ice water. We chat about hyperthermia and electrolytes until he is ready to order some finicky combination like soup of the day, garden salad, and a side of grits. There are the German tourists who are so touched by my pidgin “Wilkommen” and “Ist alles gut?” that they actually tip. (Europeans, no doubt spoiled by their trade union-ridden, high-wage welfare states, generally do not know that they are supposed to tip. Some restaurants, the Hearthside included, allow servers to “grat” their foreign customers, or add a tip to the bill. Since this amount is added before the customers have a chance to tip or not tip, the practice amounts to an automatic penalty for imperfect English.) There are the two dirt- smudged lesbians, just off from their shift, who are impressed enough by my suave handling of the fly in the pifia colada that they take the time to praise me to Stu, the assistant manager. There’s Sam, the kindly retired cop who has to plug up his tracheotomy hole with one finger in order to force the cigarette smoke into his lungs. Sometimes I play with the fantasy that I am a princess who, in penance for some tiny transgression, has undertaken to feed each of her subjects by hand. But the nonprincesses working with me are just as indulgent, even when this means flouting management rules- as to, for example, the number of croutons that can go on a salad (six). “Put on all you want,” Gail whispers, “as long as Stu isn’t looking.” She dips into her own tip money to buy biscuits and gravy for an out-of-work mechanic who’s used up all his money on dental surgery, inspiring me to pick up the tab for his pie and milk. Maybe the same high levels of agape can be found throughout the “hospitality industry.” I remember the poster decorating one of the apartments I looked at, which said, “If you seek happiness for yourself you will never find it. Only when you seek happiness for others will it come to you,” or words to that effect-an odd sentiment, it seemed to me at the time, to find in the dank one-room basement apartment of a bellhop at the Best Western. At Hearthside, we utilize whatever bits of autonomy we have to ply our customers with the illicit calories

 

 

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that signal our love. It is our job as servers to assemble the salads and desserts, pour the dressings, and squirt the whipped cream. We also control the number of butter pats our customers get and the amount of sour cream on their baked potatoes. So if you wonder why Americans are so obese, consider the fact that waitresses both express their humanity and earn their tips through the covert distribution of fats. Ten days into it, this is beginning to look like a livable lifestyle. I like Gail, who is “looking at fifty,” agewise, but moves so fast she can alight in one place and then another without apparently being anywhere between. I clown around with Lionel, the teenage Haitian busboy, though we don’t have much vocabulary in common, and loiter near the main sink to listen to the older Haitian dishwashers’ musical Creole, which sounds, in their rich bass voices, like French on testosterone. I bond with Timmy, the fourteen-year- old white kid who buses at night, by telling him I don’t like people putting their baby seats right on the tables: it makes the baby look too much like a side dish. He snickers delightedly and in return, on a slow night, starts telling me the plots of all the jaws movies (which are perennial favorites in the shark-ridden Keys): “She looks around, and the water-skier isn’t there anymore, then SNAP! The whole boat goes . . .” I especially like Joan, the svelte fortyish hostess, who turns out to be a militant feminist, pulling me aside one day to explain that “men run everything – we don’t have a chance unless we stick together.” Accordingly, she backs me up when I get overpowered on the floor, and in return I give her a chunk of my tips or stand guard while she sneaks off for an unauthorized cigarette break. We all admire her for standing up to Billy and telling him, after some of his usual nastiness about the female server class, to “shut the fuck up.” I even warm up to Billy when, on a slow night and to make up for a particularly unwarranted attack on my abilities, or so I imagine, he tells me about his glory days as a young man at “coronary school” in Brooklyn, where he dated a knockout Puerto Rican chick – or do you say “culinary”? I finish up every night at 10:00 or 10:30, depending on how much side work I’ve been able to get done during the shift, and cruise home to the tapes I snatched at random when I left my real home – Marianne Faithfull, Tracy Chapman, Enigma, King Sunny Adé, Violent Femmes – just drained enough for the music to set my cranium resonating, but hardly dead. Midnight snack is Wheat Thins and Monterey Jack, accompanied by cheap white wine on ice and whatever AMC has to offer. To bed by 1:30 or 2:00, up at 9:00 or 10:00, read for an hour while my uniform whirls around in the landlord’s washing machine, and then it’s another eight hours spent following Mao’s central instruction, as laid out in the Little Red Book, which was: Serve the people. I COULD DRIFT ALONG LIKE THIS, IN SOME DREAMY PROLETARIAN idyll, except for two things. One is management. If I have kept this subject to the margins so far it is because I still flinch to think that I spent all those weeks under the surveillance of men (and later women) whose job it was to monitor my behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse. Not that managers and especially “assistant managers” in low-wage settings like this are exactly the class enemy. Mostly, in the restaurant business, they are former cooks still capable of pinch-hitting in the kitchen, just as in hotels they are likely

 

 

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to be former clerks, and paid a salary of only about $400 a week. But everyone knows they have crossed over to the other side, which is, crudely put, corporate as opposed to human. Cooks want to prepare tasty meals, servers want to serve them graciously, but managers are there for only one reason-to make sure that money is made for some theoretical entity, the corporation, which exists far away in Chicago or New York, if a corporation can be said to have a physical existence at all. Reflecting on her career, Gail tells me ruefully that she swore, years ago, never to work for a corporation again. “They don’t cut you no slack. You give and you give and they take.” Managers can sit – for hours at a time if they want – but it’s their job to see that no one else ever does, even when there’s nothing to do, and this is why, for servers, slow times can be as exhausting as rushes. You start dragging out each little chore because if the manager on duty catches you in an idle moment he will give you something far nastier to do. So I wipe, I clean, I consolidate catsup bottles and recheck the cheesecake supply, even tour the tables to make sure the customer evaluation forms are all standing perkily in their places-wondering all the time how many calories I burn in these strictly theatrical exercises. In desperation, I even take the desserts out of their glass display case and freshen them up with whipped cream and bright new maraschino cherries; anything to look busy. When, on a particularly dead afternoon, Stu finds me glancing at a USA Today a customer has left behind, he assigns me to vacuum the entire floor with the broken vacuum cleaner, which has a handle only two feet long, and the only way to do that without incurring orthopedic damage is to proceed from spot to spot on your knees. On my first Friday at Hearthside there is a “mandatory meeting for all restaurant employees,” which I attend, eager for insight into our overall marketing strategy and the niche (your basic Ohio cuisine with a tropical twist?) we aim to inhabit. But there is no “we” at this meeting. Phillip, our top manager except for an occasional “consultant” sent out by corporate headquarters, opens it with a sneer: “The break room – it’s disgusting. Butts in the ashtrays, newspapers lying around, crumbs.” This windowless little room, which also houses the time clock for the entire hotel, is where we stash our bags and civilian clothes and take our half-hour meal breaks. But a break room is not a right, he tells us, it can be taken away. We should also know that the lockers in the break room and whatever is in them can be searched at any time. Then comes gossip; there has been gossip; gossip (which seems to mean employees talking among themselves) must stop. Off-duty employees are henceforth barred from eating at the restaurant, because “other servers gather around them and gossip.” When Phillip has exhausted his agenda of rebukes, Joan complains about the condition of the ladies’ room and I throw in my two bits about the vacuum cleaner. But I don’t see any backup coming from my fellow servers, each of whom has slipped into her own personal funk; Gail, my role model, stares sorrowfully at a point six inches from her nose. The meeting ends when Andy, one of the cooks, gets up, muttering about breaking up his day off for this almighty bullshit. Just four days later we are suddenly summoned into the kitchen at 3:30 P.M., even though there are live tables on the floor. We all-about ten of us-stand around Phillip, who announces grimly that there has been a report of some “drug activity” on the night shift and that, as a result, we are now to be a “drug-free” workplace, meaning that all new hires

 

 

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will be tested and possibly also current employees on a random basis. I am glad that this part of the kitchen is so dark because I find myself blushing as hard as if I had been caught toking up in the ladies’ room myself: I haven’t been treated this way- lined up in the corridor, threatened with locker searches, peppered with carelessly aimed accusations-since at least junior high school. Back on the floor, Joan cracks, “Next they’ll be telling us we can’t have sex on the job.” When I ask Stu what happened to inspire the crackdown, he just mutters about “management decisions” and takes the opportunity to upbraid Gail and me for being too generous with the rolls. From now on there’s to be only one per customer and it goes out with the dinner, not with the salad. He’s also been riding the cooks, prompting Andy to come out of the kitchen and observe – with the serenity of a man whose customary implement is a butcher knife – that “Stu has a death wish today.” Later in the evening, the gossip crystallizes around the theory that Stu is himself the drug culprit, that he uses the restaurant phone to order up marijuana and sends one of the late servers out to fetch it for him. The server was caught and she may have ratted out Stu, at least enough to cast some suspicion on him, thus accounting for his pissy behavior. Who knows? Personally, I’m ready to believe anything bad about Stu, who serves no evident function and presumes too much on our common ethnicity, sidling up to me one night to engage in a little nativism directed at the Haitian immigrants: “I feel like I’m the foreigner here. They’re taking over the country.” Still later that evening, the drug in question escalates to crack. Lionel, the busboy, entertains us for the rest of the shift by stand ing just behind Stu’s back and sucking deliriously on an imaginary joint or maybe a pipe. The other problem, in addition to the less-than-nurturing management style, is that this job shows no sign of being financially viable. You might imagine, from a comfortable distance, that people who live; year in and year out, on $6 to $10 an hour have discovered some survival stratagems unknown to the middle class. But no. It’s not hard to get my coworkers talking about their living situations, because housing, in almost every case, is the principal source of disruption in their lives, the first thing they fill you in on when they arrive for their shifts. After a week, I have compiled the following survey:

Gail is sharing a room in a well-known downtown flophouse fo r $250 a week. Her roommate, a male friend, has begun hitting on her, driving her nuts, but the rent would be impossible alone. Claude, the Haitian cook, is desperate to get out of the tworoom apartment he shares with his girlfriend and two other, unrelated people. As far as I can determine, the other Haitian men live in similarly crowded situations. Annette, a twenty-year-old server who is six months pregnant and abandoned by her boyfriend, lives with her mother, a postal clerk. Marianne, who is a breakfast server, and her boyfriend are paying $170 a week for a one-person trailer.

 
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LED599 Capstone Master Class/Thesis

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LED599, MOD 1 Case, SLP and discussion

 

Module 1 – Case Assignment

SENSEMAKING AND THE STRUCTURAL FRAME

Assignment Overview

In the Module 1 Case, you will write Chapter 1 of your thesis-style paper – relating to the Structural Frame. Using specific examples of “structure” as defined by Bolman and Deal, you will use the Structural Frame as a lens through which you will analyze the effectiveness of the Walt Disney Company.

 

Begin the Module 1 Case by visiting the Walt Disney Company website:

 

The Walt Disney Company. (2014). Retrieved on May 8, 2014 from http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/

 

Additional Case-related resources

 

The following resources should be helpful to you in your analysis of the Case. Chapter 6 of Bryman’s book relates (somewhat ominously) to “control and surveillance” activities at Disney:

 

Bryman, A. (2004). The Disneyization of society. London: Sage Publications. Retrieved from Ebrary.

 

Structure implies logistics. Certainly, the artful and skillful deployment of technology will often create useful intelligence – even competitive advantage. And so…is Mickey watching? Read “Big Mickey is Watching”:

 

Palmeri, C., & Faries, B. (2014). Big Mickey is watching. Bloomberg Businessweek, (4370), 22-23. Retrieved from EBSCO – Business Source Complete.

 

 

Case Assignment MOD 1

· After you have reviewed the contents of the Walt Disney Company website, completed the readings provided at the Background page of Module 1, and performed additional research from the library and the internet, write a 6-7 page paper in which you do the following:

 

· Using the following assumptions of the Structural Frame, complete an in-depth assessment of the Walt Disney Company:

 

· Organizations exist to achieve established goals and objectives.

 

· Organizations increase efficiency and enhance performance through specialization and a clear division of labor.

 

· Appropriate forms of coordination and control ensure that diverse efforts of individuals and units mesh.

 

· Organizations work best when rationality prevails over personal preferences and extraneous pressures.

 

· Structures must be designed to fit an organization’s circumstances (including its goals, technology, workforce, and environment).

 

· Problems and performance gaps arise from structural deficiencies and can be remedied through analysis and restructuring.

Keys to the Assignment

· The key aspects of this assignment that are to be covered in your 6-7 page paper include the following:

· Describe the organizational design used by the Walt Disney Company. Is Disney’s structure more or less effective as it relates to the company’s ability to accomplish its stated purpose (vision, mission)? Explain.

– Using Bolman and Deal’s Structural Frame, analyze two or three structural characteristics of the Walt Disney Company. Because you cannot cover all structural characteristics in a short paper, you will need to be selective; therefore, choose two or three characteristics that are of particular interest to you. These might include the Walt Disney Company’s strategic plans, more specific goals and objectives, or the company’s policies and procedures. Alternatively, you might select technology or some component -of Disney’s external environment (e.g., competition, legal, political, or social environments).

– For each structural characteristic that you have included in your Case, discuss the extent to which that structural characteristic has been effective or ineffective relative to assisting Disney attain its stated purpose. Defend your answer in the context of the six (6) assumptions given above (how well do the structural characteristics you’ve identified above ascribe to these assumptions, if at all?).

– Having had applied the Structural Frame to the Walt Disney Company, is there anything that you would you do differently? Conclude Chapter 1 of your paper by giving recommendations as to what Disney should do differently, and explain why.

– The background readings will not give you all the answers to the Case. Therefore, you will need to perform some research in the library, and use a minimum of 3-4 scholarly sources from the library to support and justify your understanding of the case.

– Your paper must demonstrate evidence of critical thinking (if you need tips on critical thinking, http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/college-and-university-students/799 is an excellent resource).

– Don’t simply restate facts – instead, be sure to interpret the facts you have accumulated from your research.

Remember that the Module 1 Case will serve as Chapter 1 of your session-long thesis-style paper.

Assignment Expectations

Your paper will be evaluated using the following five (5) criteria:

 

· Assignment-Driven Criteria: Does the paper fully address all Keys to the Assignment? Are the concepts behind the Keys to the Assignment addressed accurately and precisely using sound logic? Does the paper meet minimum length requirements?

· Critical thinking: Does the paper demonstrate graduate-level analysis, in which information derived from multiple sources, expert opinions, and assumptions has been critically evaluated and synthesized in the formulation of a logical set of conclusions? Does the paper address the topic with sufficient depth of discussion and analysis?

· Business Writing: Is the paper well-written (clear, developed logically, and well-organized)? Are the grammar, spelling, and vocabulary appropriate for graduate-level work? Are section headings included in all papers? Are paraphrasing and synthesis of concepts the primary means of responding to the Keys to the Assignment, or is justification/support instead conveyed through excessive use of direct quotations?

· Effective Use of Information (Information Literacy): Does the paper demonstrate effective research, as evidenced by student’s use of relevant and quality sources? Do additional sources used in paper provide strong support for conclusions drawn, and do they help in shaping the overall paper?

· Citing Sources: Does the student demonstrate understanding of APA Style of referencing, by inclusion of proper end references and in-text citations (for paraphrased text and direct quotations) as appropriate? Have all sources (e.g., references used from the Background page, the assignment readings, and outside research) been included, and are these properly cited? Have all end references been included within the body of the paper as in-text citations?

· _____________________________________________________________________

Module 1 – SLP Assignment

SENSEMAKING AND THE STRUCTURAL FRAME

SLP Overview

· In the Module 1 SLP, you will write a 3- to 4-page paper in which you will apply the Structural Frame to the organization in which you are currently employed (or in which you have worked previously).

 

· Overview of the LED599 SLP Sequence

 

· Before we begin the Module 1 SLP, two very important and related points should be emphasized, as they are fundamental to an understanding of the Module 1 SLP:

 

· All four frames can be used to assess any given organization, because all organizations have structural, human resources, political, and symbolic characteristics; and

 

· Different leaders use lenses – or frames – through which they view their organizations. Certain leaders will tend to use one frame predominantly, while others tend to be more balanced, choosing one of the frames depending on the circumstances. The important point here is that there is no “right” frame through which a leader should or must view any given organization or any particular set of organizational circumstances. At the same time, it is helpful for a leader to understand which frame (or frames) he/she is actively using. It is also critical that leaders be aware that there are four frames – not one – and that the use of others may be beneficial to effective sensemaking as well (importantly, this helps leaders to better avoid organizational “blind spots”).

SLP Assignment

· The Module 1 SLP requires that you write a 3- to 4-page paper, in which you address the following:

 

· After you briefly describe the organization in which you presently work – or in which you have previously worked – apply the Structural Frame to the organization, analyzing the effectiveness of two or three structural characteristics you have identified.

 

Keys to the Assignment

The key aspects of this assignment that should be covered in your paper include the following (note there are two parts to this SLP):

 

Part 1:

· In a minimum of two pages:

 

· Briefly describe your organization – name, what it does, size (number of employees, annual revenue, relative market share, etc.);

 

· Describe the organizational design of your chosen organization. Is it effective? Why or why not?

 

· Choose 2 or 3 structural characteristics of your organization (e.g., strategic planning process, goals, objectives, policies, procedures, rules, budgets and other allocation of resources, etc.); and

 

· Discuss the relative effectiveness of the structural characteristics you have identified. If you were CEO of your company, what (if anything) might you do differently? Why would you make any changes you suggest?

Part 2:

 

· Complete the Leadership Orientations Questionnaire, and score your results.

In a minimum of two pages:

· Report your scores for each of the Four Frames.

· After you have completed an in-depth self-assessment of your scores, discuss how your scores inform your personal leadership style. For instance, what do your scores (high and low) collectively suggest about your leadership tendencies and about the ways in which you personally make sense of organizational events?Might your low scores indicate areas in which you may have leadership “blind spots”?

SLP Assignment Expectations

Your paper will be evaluated using the following five (5) criteria:

 

Assignment-Driven Criteria: Does the paper fully address all Keys to the Assignment? Are the concepts behind the Keys to the Assignment addressed accurately and precisely using sound logic? Does the paper meet minimum length requirements?

Critical thinking: Does the paper demonstrate graduate-level analysis, in which information derived from multiple sources, expert opinions, and assumptions has been critically evaluated and synthesized in the formulation of a logical set of conclusions? Does the paper address the topic with sufficient depth of discussion and analysis?

Business Writing: Is the paper well-written (clear, developed logically, and well-organized)? Are the grammar, spelling, and vocabulary appropriate for graduate-level work? Are section headings included in all papers? Are paraphrasing and synthesis of concepts the primary means of responding to the Keys to the Assignment, or is justification/support instead conveyed through excessive use of direct quotations?

Effective Use of Information (Information Literacy): Does the paper demonstrate effective research, as evidenced by student’s use of relevant and quality sources? Do additional sources used in paper provide strong support for conclusions drawn, and do they help in shaping the overall paper?

Citing Sources: Does the student demonstrate understanding of APA Style of referencing, by inclusion of proper end references and in-text citations (for paraphrased text and direct quotations) as appropriate? Have all sources (e.g., references used from the Background page, the assignment readings, and outside research) been included, and are these properly cited? Have all end references been included within the body of the paper as in-text citations?

 

LED599, Masters – Discussion

Required at least 1 page discussion:

Discussion: University of Missouri (A) – Structural Frame

 

University of Missouri Link below:

https://tlc.trident.edu/d2l/le/content/137091/viewContent/3423382/View

 

Using the Structural Frame, choose a specific characteristic of the case – e.g., committees, budgets, strategy, etc., and explain in-depth how the Structural Frame informs the circumstances of the University of Missouri case.

 

From a structural perspective, is there anything you would have done differently? Explain, incorporating at least 1 or 2 assumptions of the Structural Frame into your response.

 

Remember to perform some outside research, to properly cite your sources, and to demonstrate evidence of critical thinking in your response.

 

Module 1 – Outcomes

SENSEMAKING AND THE STRUCTURAL FRAME

Module

Discuss the value of sensemaking and framing under conditions of high organizational complexity, uncertainty, and risk.

Using the four assumptions underlying Bolman and Deal’s Structural Frame, analyze the effectiveness of key structural components in your chosen organization.

Using the Leadership Orientations Questionnaire, perform a self-analysis of leadership style.

Case

Using the four assumptions underlying Bolman and Deal’s Structural Frame, analyze the effectiveness of key structural components of a selected organization.

SLP

Using the Leadership Orientations Questionnaire, perform a self-analysis of your personal leadership style, followed by an evaluation of the effectiveness of select Structural components that comprise your organization.

Discussion

Discuss the ways in which Bolman and Deal’s Structural Frame can be used as a lens by which to study the organization included in the session-long Discussion case.

 

References and Info

Module 1 – Background

SENSEMAKING AND THE STRUCTURAL FRAME

Welcome to Module 1 of LED599: MSL Integrative Project (capstone course). Over the sequence of this course, you will be completing four individual Case assignments, which will culminate in a 20- to 25-page session-ending thesis-style paper. We begin the Module 1 Background page by stating the requirements for the formatting of this final paper.

Part 1: Session long thesis style paper – Formatting requirements

 

So that you are familiar with the requirements for submitting the final 20- to 25-page thesis-style paper, following are formatting requirements (these will be restated in Module 4):

 

Use of proper APA Style of organization, formatting, referencing, and writing is required. See the APA Sample Paper and other formatting requirements at the Purdue OWL: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20090212013008_560.pdf

 

The final thesis-style paper will include the following sections: Title Page, Table of Contents, and References.

The final paper will consist of four (4) titled chapters (as written during the Module 1-4 Case sequence).

The body of the final paper must be a minimum of 20-25 pages in length (not including title page, references, etc.).

Part 2: Required Readings

 

In this initial module of the MSL capstone course, we introduce the Bolman and Deal Four Frames Model. We will also be reviewing the notion of sensemaking, given that sensemaking serves as a very good theoretical backdrop/ underpinning for our use of the Four Frames. Bolman and Deal suggest that leaders interpret organizational events differently because their perspectives are dependent upon the frame or frames they are actively using. Different leaders rely on different “frames.”

 

Bolman and Deal’s Four Frames is a widely-acclaimed theoretical model that is grounded in the notion of sensemaking. In his seminal 1995 book Sensemaking in Organizations (* footnote 1), Karl Weick says the following: “The concept of sensemaking is well named because, literally, it means the making of sense. Active agents construct sensible, sensable (** footnote 2) events. They ‘structure the unknown’” (Weick, 1995, p. 4).

 

[1] Source: Weick, K.E. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

 

[2] The spelling of the adjective “sensable” is not a typographical error. The spelling of the word “sensable,” derived from Huber and Daft (1987), is intended to refer to how events are perceived – i.e., how they are “sensed” by onlookers. Therefore, a “sensable” event may or may not be reflective of reality, but is descriptive of how events are perceived by individuals viewing and/or affected by them).

 

Because our world is increasingly complex, chaotic, and mutable, we need ways of making sense of it. Weick says that sensemaking is itself the process by which people structure the unknown. Of course, our need to make sense of things occurs on multiple levels; in organizations, sensemaking is a process that occurs at the individual, group, and organizational levels. More recently, Weick et al. (footnote 3), have said that sensemaking allows for clarity of the “situation [such that it] is comprehended explicitly in words and that serves as a springboard into action” (p. 409). Stated in plain terms, when we can’t clearly explain what is happening, it’s more likely than not that we don’t have a good understanding of what is really going on!

 

[3] Source: Weick, K.E., Sutcliffe, K.M., & Obstfeld, D. (2005). Organizing and the process of sensemaking and organizing. Organization Science, 16(4), 409-421.

 

The following excerpt, adapted from pages 24-27 of Bolman, L.G. & Deal, T.E. (2003). Reframing organizations: artistry, choice, and leadership (3rd ed.), helps to answer the question: Why should we be concerned with organizational sensemaking?

 

Human organizations can be exciting and challenging places. That is how things are usually depicted in management texts and corporate annual reports. But they are just as likely deceptive, confusing, and demoralizing. It is a mistake to assume that an organization is either a snake pit or a rose garden (Schwartz, 1986). Managers need to be mindful of several natural characteristics of life at work that create opportunities for the wise as well as traps for the unwary.

 

First, organizations are complex. They are populated by people, whose behavior is notoriously hard to understand and predict. Interactions among diverse individuals and groups make organizations even more complicated. Larger organizations have a bewildering array of people, departments, technologies, goals, and environments. The complexity is compounded with transactions across multiple organizations. Almost anything can affect anything else in collective activity. Permutations produce complex, causal knots very hard to disentangle.

 

Second, organizations are surprising. What you expect is often dramatically different from what happens. The solution to yesterday’s problems often creates future impediments to getting anything done. It may even create new possibilities for disaster. What goes around often comes around, to the detriment of an organization’s well-being. Taking action in a collective enterprise is like shooting a wobbly cue ball into a large and complex array of self-directed billiard balls. So many balls careen in so many directions that it is impossible to know how things will eventually sort out.

 

Third, organizations are deceptive. They defy expectations and then camouflage surprises. It is tempting but too easy to blame deception on individual character flaws or personality disorders. Subordinates legitimately fear that the boss will not listen or might punish them for being resistant or insubordinate. One person put it simply: “Communications in organizations are rarely candid, open, or timely.”

 

Fourth, organizations are ambiguous. The sum of complexity, unpredictability, and deception is rampant ambiguity. Figuring out what is really happening in businesses, hospitals, schools, or public agencies is difficult. Even if we think we know what is happening, it is hard to know what it means or what to do about it. When you incorporate additional organizations—or cultures—into the human equation, the level of ambiguity quickly becomes overwhelming. Ambiguity originates from a number of sources. Sometimes information is incomplete or vague. The same information may be interpreted in a variety of ways. At other times, ambiguity is deliberately created to hide problems or avoid conflict. Much of the time, events and processes are so complex, scattered, and uncoordinated no one can fully understand—let alone control—what is happening.

 

Adapted from McCaskey (1982), Bolman and Deal list some of the most important sources of organizational ambiguity as:

 

We are not sure what the problem is. Definitions are vague or competing, and any given problem is intertwined with other messy problems.

 

We are not sure what is really happening. Information is incomplete, ambiguous, and unreliable. People disagree on how to interpret information that is available.

 

We are not sure what we want. We all have multiple goals that are unclear or conflicting. Different people want different things. This leads to political and emotional conflict.

 

We do not have the resources we need. Shortages of time, attention, or money make difficult situations even more chaotic.

 

We are not sure who is supposed to do what. Roles are unclear, there is disagreement about who is responsible for what, and things keep shifting as players come and go.

 

We are not sure how to get what we want. Even if we agree on what we want, we are not sure (or we disagree) about how to make it happen.

 

We are not sure how to determine if we have succeeded. We are not sure what criteria to use to evaluate success. Or if we do know the criteria, we are not sure how to measure the outcome.

 

In this table adapted from Bolman and Deal’s Reframing Organizations (2003), commonplace organizational activities are viewed in the context of four frames – these are the Structural, Human Resources, Political, and Symbolic frames. Bolman and Deal say that “any event [in this table] can be framed in several ways and serve multiple purposes. Planning, for example, produces specific objectives. But it also creates arenas for airing conflict and becomes a sacred occasion to renegotiate symbolic meanings” (Bolman & Deal, 2003, p. 305).

 

Table 1: Four Interpretations of Organizational Process (pp. 306-7) ***

 

Process

 

Structural Frame

 

Human Resources Frame

 

Political Frame

 

Symbolic Frame

 

Strategic planning

 

Creating strategies to set objectives and coordinate resources

 

Gatherings to promote participation

 

Arena to air conflict and realign power

 

Ritual to signal responsibility, produce symbols, negotiate meanings

 

Decision making

 

Rational sequence to produce right decision

 

Open process to produce commitment

 

Opportunity to gain or exercise power

 

Ritual to confirm values and create opportunities for bonding

 

Reorganizing

 

Realign roles and responsibilities to fit tasks and environment

 

Maintain a balance between human needs and formal roles

 

Redistribute power and form new coalitions

 

Maintain an image of accountability and responsiveness; negotiate new social order

 

Evaluating

 

Way to distribute rewards or penalties and control performance

 

Process for helping individuals grow and improve

 

Opportunity to exercise power

 

Occasion to play roles in shared drama

 

Approaching conflict

 

Maintain organizational goals by having authorities resolve conflict

 

Develop relationships by having individuals confront conflict

 

Develop power by bargaining, forcing, or manipulating others to win

 

Develop shared values and use conflict to negotiate meaning

 

Goal setting

 

Keep organization headed in the right direction

 

Keep people involved and communication open

 

Provide opportunity for individuals and groups to make interests known

 

Develop symbols and shared values

 

Communication

 

Transmit facts and information

 

Exchange information, needs, and feelings

 

Influence or manipulate others

 

Tell stories

 

Meetings

 

Formal occasions for making decisions

 

Informal occasions for involvement, sharing feelings

 

Competitive occasions to win points

 

Sacred occasions to celebrate and transform the culture

 

Motivation

 

Economic incentives

 

Growth and self-actualization

 

Coercion, manipulation, and seduction

 

Symbols and celebrations

 

 

 

Table 2: Choosing a Frame (p. 310) ***

 

Question

 

If yes:

 

If no:

 

Are individual commitment and motivation essential to success?

 

Human resource; symbolic

 

Structural; political

 

Is the technical quality of the decision important?

 

Structural

 

Human resource; political; symbolic

 

Is there a high level of ambiguity and uncertainty?

 

Political; symbolic

 

Structural; human resource

 

Are conflict and scarce resources significant?

 

Political; symbolic

 

Structural; human resource

 

Are you working from the bottom up?

 

Political; symbolic

 

Structural; human resource

 

*** [3] Source: Bolman, L.G.& Deal, T.E. (2003). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (3rd ed.). San Francisco: John Wiley.

 

This chapter from the National Defense University serves as an informative discussion of the relationship between sensemaking, framing and frames, and Bolman and Deal’s Four Frames Model:

 

Framing Perspectives. (n.d.). National Defense University. Retrieved on May 2, 2014 from http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ndu/strat-ldr-dm/pt1ch5.html

 

Here is an excellent slide presentation/ overview of the Four Frames:

 

Vincent, P. (2014). Four-frame model: Reframing organizations. Slideshare. Retrieved on May 1, 2014 from http://www.slideshare.net/PhilVincent1/fourframe-model

 

Next, read the following excerpt from Bolman, L.G. & Deal, T.E.(2003). Reframing organizations: artistry, choice, and leadership (3rd ed). San Francisco: John Wiley. Note the assumptions of the Structural Frame, as you will use these to guide the writing of your Module 1 Case:

 

Assumptions of the Structural Frame

 

The assumptions of the structural frame are reflected in current approaches to social architecture and organizational design. These assumptions reflect a belief in rationality and a faith that the right formal arrangements minimize problems and maximize performance. A human resource perspective emphasizes the importance of changing people (through training, rotation, promotion, or dismissal), but the structural perspective champions a pattern of well-thought-out roles and relationships. Properly designed, these formal arrangements can accommodate both collective goals and individual differences.

 

Six assumptions undergird the structural frame:

 

Organizations exist to achieve established goals and objectives.

Organizations increase efficiency and enhance performance through specialization and a clear division of labor.

Appropriate forms of coordination and control ensure that diverse efforts of individuals and units mesh.

Organizations work best when rationality prevails over personal preferences and extraneous pressures.

Structures must be designed to fit an organization’s circumstances (including its goals, technology, workforce, and environment).

Problems and performance gaps arise from structural deficiencies and can be remedied through analysis and restructuring (Bolman & Deal, 2003, pp. 44-45).It is important to recognize that the Structural Frame is theoretically rooted in the scientific management works of individuals like Frederick Winslow Taylor, Henri Fayol, Max Weber, and Frank and Lillian Gilbreth.

Dr. Jacobs’ slide presentation is a wonderfully comprehensive overview of the Structural Frame:

 

Jacobs, R.M. (n.d.). Theories of practice: The structural frame. Villanova University. Retrieved on May 8, 2014 from http://www83.homepage.villanova.edu/richard.jacobs/MPA%208002/Powerpoint/8002%20MPA/structural.ppt

 

Elaine Westbrooks’ excellent presentation on the Structural Frame follows here (be sure to review the embedded videos as well as the slides):

 

Westbrooks, E. (2012). Reframing organizations: The structural frame. Prezi. Retrieved on May 4, 2014 from http://prezi.com/e8hhfbnjodal/reframing-organizations-the-structural-frame/

 

Part 3: Optional and Session-Long Resources (these optional resources relate to Sensemaking and to Frames and Framing; you may want to refer back to these readings in future modules):

 

In this excerpt, the authors of the Four Frames Model – Bolman and Deal – discuss the tendency for modern organizations to resemble feudal hierarchies, in the sense that today’s organizations also have their versions of monarchs, lords, and serfs:

 

Bolman, L.G., & Deal, T.E. (n.d.). Monarchs, lords, and serfs. Lee Bolman.com. Retrieved from http://www.leebolman.com/Teaching%20materials/Monarchs%20lords%20etc.pdf

 

Here is a very good presentation on the origins of the structural perspective/ lens, structural tensions, and structural imperatives (“must-haves”):

 

Sensemaking

 

In this well-written and highly informative chapter of her book on leadership, Dr. Joan Gallos makes clear the relationship between sensemaking and use of Bolman and Deal’s Four Frames Model:

 

Gallos, J.V. (2008). Making sense of organizations: Leadership, frames, and everyday theories of the situation. In Joan V. Gallos (Ed.), Business Leadership: A Jossey-Bass Reader (161-179). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved from http://www.joangallos.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/making-sense-of-organizations.doc

 

In this journal article, Weick et al. observe how sensemaking relates to organizing:

 

Weick, K. E., Sutcliffe, K. M., & Obstfeld, D. (2005). Organizing and the process of sensemaking. Organization Science, 16(4), 409-421. Retrieved from ProQuest.

 

The following book chapter is an excellent reading on sensemaking:

 

Ancona, D. (2011). Sensemaking: Framing and acting in the unknown. In Scott A. Snook, Nitin N. Nohria, and Rakesh Khurana (Eds.), The Handbook for Teaching Leadership (3-19). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/42924_1.pdf

 

Here is the final report from the Command and Control Research Program’s (CCRP) Sensemaking Composium. This report is military-based, and includes discussion of such key (and related) constructs as “situational awareness” and individual and organizational sensemaking:

 

Leedom, D.K. (23-25 Oct. 2001). Final Report, from Sensemaking Symposium. Command and Control Research Program (CCRP), Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence. Retrieved from http://www.dodccrp.org/events/2001_sensemaking_symposium/docs/FinalReport/Sensemaking_Final_Report.htm

 

The following is a well-written, informative article that defines the concept of sensemaking, and describes how sensemaking is “both an individual and a social activity” (Social section, line 1) that is related to identity construction:

 

Marshall, T. (n.d.). Sense-making. The Atlas of New Librarianship. Retrieved on April 30, 2014 from http://www.newlibrarianship.org/wordpress/?page_id=1151

 

Frames and Framing

 

Remember that the four frames are present in every organization, no matter its size or type. Importantly, while each one of us has a preference for certain frames over others, no one frame is “best” – optimally, we will view the organization through the use of all four frames simultaneously, or through multi-frame thinking. While the use of a multi-frame approach may be challenging in practice, the use of a single frame is not only limiting, but it can even be misleading. For example, when an organization’s leadership places sole reliance on the Symbolic Frame, the importance of structure, or even the contribution of the organization’s people resources, may go unnoticed and unattended. Symbolism is vitally important in organizations; but an organization’s people, its strategies, and its structures are as equally important.

 

Dr. Joan V. Gallos’ book chapter discusses how organizational diagnosis can be performed using the Four Frames:

 

Gallos, J.V. (2006). Reframing complexity: A four dimensional approach to organizational diagnosis, development, and change. In Joan V. Gallos (Ed.), Organization Development: A Jossey-Bass Reader. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved on May 1, 2014 from http://www.joangallos.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/reframing-complexity-a-four-dimensional-approach.doc

 

Doug Greene’s presentation on reframing is a very good introduction to framing and discussion of the Four Frames Model:

 

Greene, D. (2010). Reframing organizations. Dr. Doug Greene. Retrieved on May 11, 2014 from http://www.drdouggreen.com/wp-content/Reframing-Organizations.pdf

 

Below is an early (Winter 1991) journal article by Bolman and Deal, in which the authors studied the Four Frames Model in two organizations:

 

Bolman, L.G., & Deal, T.E. (1991). Leadership and management effectiveness: A multi-frame, multi-sector analysis. Human Resource Management (1986-1998), 30(4), 509-531. Retrieved from ProQuest.

 

Following is an excellent outline overview of the Four Frames. Bolman and Deal have aptly subtitled the reframing process as “The Leadership Kaleidoscope”:

 

Bolman, L.G., & Deal, T.E. (n.d.). Reframing organizations: The leadership kaleidoscope. Retrieved on May 8, 2014 from http://www.tnellen.com/ted/tc/bolman.html

 

Be sure to visit Dr. Lee Bolman’s home page, an excellent source of information concerning frames and framing. Get the story directly from one of the original authors of the Four Frames Model:

 

Bolman, L. (2014). Reframing organizations teaching resources. Lee Bolman. Retrieved on May 8, 2014 from http://www.leebolman.com/reframing_teaching_resources.htm

 

Finally, be sure that you review the excellent summary tables included here:

 

Filipovitch, A.J. (2005). Framing organizations. Retrieved from http://krypton.mnsu.edu/~jp5985fj/courses/609/Frame/Reframing.html

 
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Assignment 4: Human Resource Business Partner (HRBP) Development

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Assignment 4: Human Resource Business Partner (HRBP) Development

Due Week 10 and worth 250 points

Your previous contributions addressing a variety of important topics outlined in all previous assignments for this course are deemed essential in supporting the business’ overall organizational structure and competitive advantage strategy. It is now time to consider developing your own HR department team to ensure they have the requisite skills and competencies necessary to perform at high levels over time. Effective and motivated HR business partners (HRBP) will be the key to translating HR and business strategy into action. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Body of Competency and Knowledge (BoCK) can be an invaluable resource to help develop and certify HR professionals. You must now explain to the management team the components of this model and how it can be leveraged to achieve operational success for the HR department. A 1-hour meeting has been scheduled and the CEO will be in attendance.

Create a 20-slide minimum PowerPoint presentation in which you:

  1. Include cover, presentation agenda, conclusion, and reference list slides, all of which may count toward total slide count.
  2. Provide a slide with an overview on the importance of having a highly developed staff of HR business partners. Be clear with your position. HINT: http://www.scottmadden.com/wp-content/uploads/userFiles/misc/8d0d88c7547b6e2b8f6f6fcba6a9d6b3.pdf
  3. Provide 1-4 slides introducing the SHRM BoCK model and its components. Be sure to highlight each of the areas of the model. NOTE: It is highly recommended to insert an image of the actual SHRM BoCK model into the presentation.
  4. Include in the remaining slides the following required presentation information:
  • Provide a minimum of three (3) to four (4) bullet points (more if needed) of information or discussion describing specifics on the SHRM-BoCK’s “Behavioral Competencies”
  • Provide a minimum of three (3) to four (4) bullet points (more if needed) of information or discussion describing specifics on the SHRM-BoCK’s “HR Expertise; Domains 1 & 2”
  • Provide a minimum of three (3) to four (4) bullet points (more if needed) of information or discussion describing specifics on the SHRM-BoCK’s “HR Expertise: Domains 3”
  • Provide a minimum of three (3) to four (4) bullet points (more if needed) of information or discussion describing specifics on certifying your HRBP’s.

5. Use at least four (4) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: You may only use the textbook for this course, HR textbooks from other HR courses, or journal articles specifically about HR management. You may also use any of the HR certification references listed in the student guide.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

  • Select any one of three professional PowerPoint templates provided by the instructor and located in the course information section (Required). Not using any required template will result in 5 deducted points.
  • Have headings for each major section that has the same font and size throughout the presentation. Font preference is Times New Roman and size at least 24 pt and no more than 28 pt.
  • Bullet information aligned neatly and properly using the same font as heading and at least 16 pt and no more than 20 pt. for text.
  • Images may be used but must be professional and relevant to the topic. The source(s) of all images must be credited with both citation and reference. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
  • Include throughout presentation citations and references for all information received from other sources.
  • All bullet point information must be descriptive and have a minimum of 3-4 full sentences. Presentation notes are not required as long as requirements for bullet points are met.

The specific course outcomes associated with this assignment are:

  • Defend the importance of having a highly-developed staff of HR business partners
  • Convince stakeholders of the value in using the SHRM BoCK model to achieve HR operational success.
 
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APA FORMAT ESSAY Case Study – Eliminating The Gender Pay Gap: Gap Inc. Leads The Way

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A research team led by Kellie McElhaney and Genevieve Smith, including Nitisha Baronia and Krupa Adusumilli, developed this case, assisted by Case Writer Susan Thomas Springer. We would like to give special thanks to the following individuals who provided critical insights at Gap Inc.: Art Peck, Michelle Banks, Debbie Edwards, Nancy Green, Julie Gruber, Dan Henkle, Danielle Katz, Erin Nolan, Andi Owen, Peter Pawlick, Sheila Peters, Lauri Shanahan, Bobbi Silten, Sabrina Simmons, Amy Solliday and Keith White. Copyright © 2017 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the express written permission of the Berkeley-Haas Case Series.

 

July 1, 2017

KELLIE MCELHANEY GENEVIEVE SMITH

Eliminating the Gender Pay Gap: Gap Inc. Leads the Way

 

“If change continues at the slower rate seen since 2001, women will not reach pay equity with men until 2152.”

The Simple Truth About the Gender Pay Gap, Spring 2017 Edition,

American Association of University Women (AAUW)

“Frankly, I would have always assumed that women were getting paid the same amount as men. I mean, they were doing

the same jobs. But, back when we started Gap… I don’t think it occurred to many people that women could be leaders.

I’m glad to know that things have changed.”

Doris Fisher, Co-Founder of Gap Inc. On Monday mornings, one Gap Inc. executive used to open his staff meetings chatting about a topic common across America’s corporate offices—the weekend’s football games. But thanks to Gap Inc.’s inclusive culture, one female employee felt comfortable sharing that the many non-football fans around the table felt left out of that conversation. So, he started warming up his meetings with less gender- specific topics. The corporate culture at Gap Inc. broke gender norms from the beginning. In 1969, Don and Doris Fisher opened the first Gap store in San Francisco as equal partners selling Levi’s and vinyl records simply

B5892

For the exclusive use of A. Anton, 2020.

This document is authorized for use only by Ana Anton in MAN 3301 Human Resource Management taught by Gladys Wills, Miami Dade College from May 2020 to Nov 2020.

 

 

GAP INC. 2

because they had a hard time buying a pair of jeans. The husband and wife founders grew the company together at a time when there were few women business leaders—yet they made pay equity and female leadership part of the company’s heritage. Today that store has grown into a global brand with e- commerce sites, 3,200 company-operated stores, and about 450 franchise stores in more than 90 countries worldwide. At the time of writing, The Gap Inc., a publicly traded company since 1976, was composed of five divisions: Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta, and Intermix. In 2014, Gap Inc. made history by becoming the first Fortune 500 company to announce that it pays female and male employees equally for equal work, on average across all its locations (controlling for observable variables). They commissioned a leading gender and diversity consulting firm named Exponential Talent to validate the methodology and numbers. Exponential found no meaningful or statistically significant difference in pay by gender across the global organization. Furthermore, when comparing pay of the median male and median female full-time employee, the female to male ratio was at parity,1 signifying the high representation of women at all levels of leadership and in managerial positions. Gap Inc.’s leadership in equal pay and gender equality has been publically recognized—for example, the company won the 2016 Catalyst Award.2 Since Gap Inc.’s announcement, other companies have followed suit in claiming “equal pay,” and the attention towards mitigating the gender pay gap by companies and governments continues to grow. On June 15, 2016, thousands of men and women gathered at the White House for the first United States of Women Summit, discussing issues such as leadership, educational opportunity, and equal pay for women. Leaders and change-makers from around the world—from celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey to political leaders including President Barack Obama—gathered to advance the state of women and the U.S. economy.3 At the conference, 28 companies signed the Equal Pay Pledge4 to take concrete actions, such as conducting annual pay analyses, to lower the national gender wage gap. Gap Inc. took the pledge as well, noting that despite having an exemplary track record for equal pay, they are committed to continuing their work. Gap Inc.’s company culture has enabled women to rise in the ranks through a variety of policies and practices including diminishing psychological barriers, encouraging mentorship, being family-friendly, and more. This culture of collaboration, inclusion, and close relationships – which can be considered more feminine traits – has built itself over time, creating a structure for women’s advancement and equal pay. U.S. Pay Gap History Today, women make up nearly half of the workforce in the United States; however, women continue to earn less than men. In 2016, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the female-to-male earnings ratio (based on the median earnings of men and women in 2015) is 0.8.5 Even when women do the same jobs as men, and controlling for observable variables, a gap persists: women earn between 93-95% of their

1 Peter Pawlick. Personal Communication, October 31, 2016. 2 See more here: http://www.catalyst.org/media/catalyst-announces-winner-2016-catalyst-award. 3 (2016). The united state of women. The United State of Women. Retrieved from http://www.theunitedstateofwomen.org/. 4 The pledge, which can be taken online, requires that companies “…commit to conducting an annual company-wide gender pay analysis across occupations; reviewing hiring and promotion processes and procedures to reduce unconscious bias and structural barriers; and embedding equal pay efforts into broader enterprise-wide equity initiatives.” Signing companies must also “…identify and promote other best practices that will close the national wage gap to ensure fundamental fairness for all workers.” Businesses that have taken the pledge have noted their specific commitments here. 5 Bernadette D. Proctor, Jessica L. Semega, Melissa A. Kollar. Income and Poverty in the United States: 2015. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2016/demo/p60-256.html

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male counterparts’ salaries.6 The wage gap, which is due to a variety of variables including social and cultural norms and unconscious bias, results in significant lost wages that add up over a woman’s lifetime and contribute to gender inequality. At the current pay gap, women will not see equal pay in the U.S. until 2059. For women of color, the rate is slower, with black women having to wait until 2124, and Hispanic women having to wait until 2248 for equal pay.7 Historically, there have been two important factors in decreasing the wage gap: the increase of females in the job market and reduction of occupational segregation. Ever since women entered the job market in larger numbers in the 1950s to work during the interwar and World War II periods, the rise of women in the job market has continued. Indeed, between 1947 and 2008, female employment among working-age women increased by approximately 0.6 percentage points per year. This growth has been due to several reasons, including medical advances (e.g., improved contraception and better maternal care) and technological advances that have made childcare and household work easier and more accessible to working women.8 This increased labor participation influenced wage convergence, and legislation for equal pay further pulled women into labor markets. There has been considerable progress in reducing the extent of occupational segregation. Since 1970, women have reduced their over-representation in administrative support and service jobs and have made significant inroads into management and traditionally male professions.9 However, trends have differed across educational groups. Highly educated women have made substantial progress moving into formerly male managerial and professional occupations, while less-educated women have made smaller gains integrating into traditionally male blue-collar occupations.10 Finally, (and related to reductions in occupational segregation) evolving social norms have naturally eased the gender pay gap as well.11

Measurement Methods There are multiple ways to explore “equal pay” and measure the gender wage gap within an organization.12 Organizational Pay Gap Analysis The broadest option is to compare the average salaries that women and men earn across an organization, at all levels. This high-level analysis tends to result in a larger wage gap, as many companies have a disproportionate number of men in higher paying managerial and leadership positions. As a result, women may seem to be earning a lower average salary than men in the company, not necessarily because each

6 C. Corbett and C. Hill. (2012). ERIC—Graduating to a pay gap: The earnings of women and men one year after college. American Association of University Women. 7 (2014). The gender wage gap: 2014. IWPR. Retrieved from http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/the-gender-wage-gap-2014/. 8 C. Olivetti and B. Petrongolo. (2016). The evolution of gender gaps in industrialized countries. Working paper. National Bureau of Economic Research. 9 F. Blau and L. Kahn. (2016). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. IZA, No. 9656. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp9656.pdf. 10 F. Blau and L. Kahn (2016). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. IZA, No. 9656. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp9656.pdf. 11 C. Olivetti and B. Petrongolo. (2016). The evolution of gender gaps in industrialized countries. Working paper. National Bureau of Economic Research. 12 WGEA.Pay equity toolkit. Retrieved on October 12, 2016 from https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/pay_equity_tookit_managers.pdf.

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woman is being offered a lower salary than her male counterpart, but because of a leadership gap illustrating that women are not moving up to the higher paying roles in the company. Level Pay Gap Analysis Compare average male and female pay at each level in the organizational hierarchy (analyst, manager, etc.) across all functional verticals, looking at pay gaps within each management tier regardless of their functional division. This mediates for some of the leadership representation gap; however, it does not consider how jobs within different functional divisions may be assigned different market values. Further, it may fail to account for the disproportionately high number of women in back-end or support positions. Like-For-Like Pay Gap Analysis Also called equal pay for work of “equal or comparable value,” this is perhaps the most detailed pay gap analysis and it is at this level of analysis that the gender wage gap often seems most narrow. This illustrates the direct difference in the salary that men and women earn in similar occupations, which is much smaller once the leadership gap is accounted for. Defining work that is of “equal or comparable value” can be difficult and requires a deep level of analysis and understanding of comparable work. The gender pay gap includes both explained (measurable) and unexplained (often difficult to measure) components. Measurable factors (other than type and level of work) include, for example, age, tenure in position, number of subordinates, and geography. Even when all measurable factors are considered, an unexplained gender pay gap persists. This reflects discrimination, implicit biases, social norms, and other factors that are difficult to measure—including possible gender differences in risk-taking, mobility, and ambition.

How Gap Inc. Measures Pay At Gap Inc., managers are provided with pay data for their overall team plus salary information that reflects the external market at minimum once each year during a pay review process. Sabrina Simmons, former CFO of Gap Inc., looked at the entire group as a whole to see where people were ranked and paid when a request for higher pay came in. Through this she examined and corrected for any disparities. Gap Inc. analyzes pay data annually and provides information to empower managers. Initially, Gap Inc. found limited research and a lack of existing methodologies to create a model to examine equal pay. After some study, they chose two methods of analysis. First, they performed organizational pay gap analysis, which shows a ratio of pay for full-time male versus female employees, not controlling for any variables or levels in the organization. Second, they performed like-for-like analysis, which shows a ratio of pay for all male and female employees, controlling for work of equal value and other measurable factors. In 2014, Gap Inc. conducted an analysis of both the median pay and average pay for all 34,114 female versus male full-time employees globally, not controlling for any variables or levels in the organization. The median female to male pay ratio was at parity. The average female to male ratio was slightly lower for women. However, this is representative of the fact that Gap has a higher percentage of women at entry-level positions. Moving into more senior positions in headquarters, the percentage of women and men even out.

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Another analysis was conducted to find the pay ratio between male and female employees when controlling for levels and measurable factors for all 129,387 employees (excluding Senior Vice Presidents and above), including part-time workers.13 In the case of part-time workers, hourly rates were annualized at 40 hours per week and monthly rates were annualized. Gap used a geographically sensitive method of comparing employee pay rates in like jobs across the entire organization. Pay ratios for male versus female employees were developed for each like job by controlling for select variables, including region (as the cost of labor varies by location). Those jobs were then grouped within defined job levels based on the employee’s contribution level,14 job responsibilities and skill/experience required. Other variables including time in position and team size were not controlled for in the analysis but provided additional context. The findings were statistically validated by an external management firm, that found that no significant or meaningful gender wage difference at Gap Inc. globally or within any of their major regions. While there have been minor fluctuations by level over the past 3 years, the results are consistent.

Gap Inc. Empowers Managers and Employees Gap Inc. strives to minimize unconscious bias impacting pay through several mechanisms. First, Gap Inc. provides leaders with pay data for their teams at least once per year, and includes market-relevant pay ranges for each role, taking into account geography. They also provide managers with criteria and filters in making pay decisions. Not only do these practices reduce unconscious bias in pay, but according to Mercer (2016), organizations with a robust pay equity process and a dedicated team also have greater female representation. Mercer highlights that only 35% of organizations report a pay equity analysis process built on a robust statistical approach.15 The team that oversees pay at Gap Inc. shares with managers and HR partners where their employees are positioned relative to pay ranges that reflect the external market. Managers are provided with a distribution of employee pay in the pay range and are then free to make decisions in terms of paying talent appropriately. The data does not necessitate action from managers, but rather provides them with data to make informed decisions. A promotion/equity budget is a part of the overall annual pay increase budget and can be used to address equity issues. In discussing the pay data provided to managers, Senior Vice President of Loss Prevention at Gap Inc., Keith White says: “When operating eyes wide open and not just treating people as if they are in a vacuum, gender inequality in pay becomes a non-issue.” Gap Inc. has eliminated performance ratings in HQ and Distribution/Call Centers, and is in the process of expanding this change to stores in several brands. Eliminating performance ratings, which can have gender biases baked into them, does not mean that Gap Inc. has walked away from a focus on performance against goals. They established a Company performance standard and encourage managers to have more frequent and honest touch-base conversations about performance against goals. A team from Stanford recently analyzed the language of hundreds of performance reviews from technology and professional-service firms and found that managers are significantly more likely to critique female

13 Peter Pawlick. Personal Communication, October 17, 2016. 14 To determine contribution level, Gap has a methodology to level jobs looking at characteristics such as leadership, functional knowledge, area of impact, interpersonal skills, etc. These characteristics are then scored and ranked to drive the contribution level. There is inherently some subjectivity in this process. 15 Mercer. (2016). When women thrive, businesses thrive.

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employees for coming on too strong. In addition, women’s accomplishments are more likely to be seen as the result of team—rather than individual—efforts.16 Gap Inc. does not require that applicants provide previous salary information when submitting an employment application. One positive outcome is that for applicants who have been unfairly compensated for their skill and experience in prior positions, their new salary is not anchored to the past. The impact of this hiring policy has been most pronounced among women and minorities.17 Typically at Gap Inc., applicants choose to provide salary information and it is discussed during the hiring process, potentially used as a factor in salary negotiations. Also, Gap Inc. publishes the company’s compensation practices on GapWeb (the Company’s intranet site), which employees can access to understand the company’s pay practices. However, while managers receive pay data for employees on their team, employees can’t see specific pay ranges unless their managers choose to provide them with that information.

The Business Case for Gender Pay Equality Art Peck, CEO of Gap Inc., says other companies are realizing that recruiting and retaining more women capitalizes on talent and produces a win-win, because diverse teams result in stronger financial performance. Morgan Stanley’s 2016 report “Why it Pays to Invest in Gender Diversity” reveals that higher gender diversity translates to increased productivity, greater innovation, better decision making, and higher employee retention and satisfaction. Companies with more diversity tended to have a higher level of forward one-year return on equity (ROE), on average 0.7% better than their regional sector peers and 1.1% above those with low representation of women in the workplace.18 Simply put, Peck says, “What’s good for women is good for business.” Achieving equal pay at the organizational level signals more equal female representation at higher levels of the company. Evidence is becoming clearer that gender diverse teams and women in leadership make business sense by creating teams with a higher level of collective intelligence and skills. Diverse teams are smarter, more effective,19 and more creative.20 Indeed, gender diverse workforces perform better financially: a 2015 McKinsey study found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry means.21 Research continues to accrue regarding the business benefits for women in leadership positions. Companies with more women in executive management have been shown to financially outperform companies that have no women in senior roles. According to a U.S. study, Fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women on their top management teams experienced better financial performance on measures of ROE (35.1% higher) and Total Return to Shareholders (34% higher) than

16 R. Silverman. (2015). “Gender bias at work turns up in feedback.” Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://www.wsj.com/articles/gender-bias-at-work-turns-up-in-feedback-1443600759. 17 (2016). Leave no one behind: A call to action for gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. Retrieved from http://www.womenseconomicempowerment.org/reports/. 18 Morgan Stanley (2016). Why it Pays to Invest in Gender Diversity. https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/gender-diversity- investment-framework 19 A. Williams. (2010). Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups. Science, 330: 686 20 J. Marinova, J. Plantegna, and C. Remery. (2016). Gender diversity and firm performance: evidence from Dutch and Danish boardrooms,” The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27/15: 1777-1790. 21 (2015). Diversity matters. Mckinsey & Company.

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companies with the lowest women’s representation.22 Recent data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (2016) reveals that the more women in senior managerial positions and in corporate boards, the more profitable firms are.23 Further, firms with a larger share of women in senior roles have a significantly higher return on assets (ROA), even within narrowly defined industries.24 At the very top, the correlation between women at the C-suite level and firm profitability is demonstrated repeatedly, and magnitude of the estimated effects is not small: A profitable firm at which 30% of C-suite leaders are women could expect to add more than 1 percentage point to its net margin (which represents a 15% boost to profitability) compared to otherwise similar firms with no female leaders.25 Other companies, whose leaders recognize that doing the right thing is also good for business, are acting to reduce gender inequality. Marc Benioff, Co-Founder and CEO of Silicon Valley tech giant Salesforce, launched Women Surge in 2013 with the goal of achieving 100% equity for men and women in pay promotion and requiring meetings to include 30% women.26 HeForShe, a global movement that engages men for gender equality, has ten CEO Corporate Champions spanning ten industries, who employ more than one million people and have committed to accelerate progress towards parity in their workforce.27 Equal Pay Barriers Various factors inhibit women from entering the workforce—particularly full-time jobs—and impact their ability to advance. Cultural and Societal Barriers Many women who participate in the job market tend to self-select for lower paying, part-time, or flexible jobs—or stay out of the job market—largely due to unpaid care responsibilities and domestic work. Part- time work enables flexibility but often at the cost of lower hourly pay, reduced access to social protection, and weakened long-term career prospects.28 In this vein, women face a “motherhood penalty,” a difference in earnings between women with and women without children, that can be quantified. This results from attempts to balance work and family responsibilities that may involve part-time employment or career breaks. For the OECD countries, the gender pay gap increases steeply during childbearing and childrearing years.29 A business poll of the

22 Catalyst.org. (2004). The bottom line: Connecting corporate performance and gender diversity. 23 IMF. (2016). Unlocking female employment potential in Europe: Drivers and benefits. 24 L. Christiansen, L. Huidan, J. Pereira, P. Topalova, and R. Turk. (2016). Gender diversity in senior positions and firm performance: Evidence from Europe. IMF. 25 M. Noland, T. Moran, and B. Kotschwar. (2016). Is gender diversity profitable? Evidence from a global survey. Working paper, Peterson Institute for International Economics. 26 J. Bort. (2015). This is the woman that convinced Marc Benioff to guarantee equal pay for women at Salesforce. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/leyla-seka-inspired-benioff-on-equal-pay-2015-4. 27 Corporate Champions include: AccorHotels, Barclays, Koch Holding, McKinsey & Company, PwC, Schneigder Elextric, Tupperware Brands, Twitter, Unilever, and Vodafone. (2016). Corporate parity report. HeForShe. 28 ILO. (2016). Women at work: Trends 2016. J. Kahn, J. García-Manglano, and S. Bianchi. (2014). “The motherhood penalty at midlife: Long-term effects of children on women’s careers.” Journal of Marriage and Family, 76/1: 56-72. 29 OECD. (2012). Lack of support for motherhood hurting women’s career prospects, despite gains in education and employment. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/lackofsupportformotherhoodhurtingwomenscareerprospectsdespitegainsineducationandemploym entsaysoecd.htm.

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Department for International Development (DFID) in the United Kingdom revealed that the three most commonly cited barriers preventing women from advancing in the workplace were all related to the difficulties of balancing domestic and professional responsibilities.30 There is also some evidence of a premium for men, highlighting a positive relationship between a man’s wage and his number of children.31 Occupational Segregation Academic sorting and choices in education lead to “occupational segregation” when girls become older.32 Although women represent most of those in tertiary education globally, female university graduates remain less likely to receive degrees in scientific, technical, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) disciplines associated with careers in higher paying fields. Women are more likely to work in sectors that have lower average pay. Importantly, occupational choice is affected by social norms (tracing back to academic sorting), stereotypes, lack of role models, and lack of information about opportunities and pay differentials.33 Within all industries, a gender pay gap exists, although with significant variation. Interestingly, female- dominated industries—such as healthcare, social assistance, and insurance services—have particularly high gender pay gaps, likely because a fundamental issue remains that women are clustered in comparatively lower positions even in these industries.34 A study of U.S. census data from 1950 to 2000 found that when women moved into industries in large numbers, companies in those industries began paying less even after controlling for education, work experience, skills, race, and geography. This research demonstrates that when women take over a male- dominated field, pay for an industry drops by up to 57% (as is the case in the field of recreation). On the flipside, female-dominated industries that become dominated by men (e.g., computer programming) see an increase in pay.35 Research highlights that employers placed a lower value on work done by women.36 Employment in Lower-Level Positions Regardless of the sector, women tend to be employed in lower-level positions. There is a persistent gender gap at higher ranks of management and leadership. Data of Fortune 500 companies from 2011 reveal that while women are nearly half of managers, they are only 14.3% of executive officers, 3.8% of CEOs, and hold 16.6% of board seats.37 Occupation is the largest single factor accounting for the gender pay gap, with the second being industry—together they contribute to over 50% of the gender wage gap (see figure 3). Research reveals that the largest gender pay gap is in higher-paying white collar jobs.38 30 DFID. (2016). Women’s economic empowerment: DFID business survey. 31 ILO. (2016). Women at work. 32 S. Doughty. (2015). Why do we have a pay gap? The diversity perspective. Retrieved from http://www.victoria.ac.nz/som/clew/files/3-Doughty-Equal-Pay-Presentation-0515-.pdf. 33 McKinsey & Company. (2013). Women matter 2013: Gender diversity in top management: Moving corporate culture, moving boundaries. 34 Commonwealth Government of Australia. (2013). What is the gender pay gap? Workplace Gender Equality Agency. Retrieved from https://www.wgea.gov.au/addressing-pay-equity/what-gender-pay-gap. 35 R. Oldenziel. (2001). Making technology masculine: Men, women and modern machines in America, 1870-1945. Amsterdam University Press. 36 P. Allison, P. England, and A. Levanon. (2009). “Occupational feminization and pay: Assessing causal dynamics using 1950- 2000 U.S. Census Data,” Social Forces, 88/2: 865-891. 37 (2011). Fortune 500 women executive officers and top earners. Catalyst Census. 38 F. Blau and L. Kahn. (2016). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. IZA, No. 9656. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp9656.pdf.

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Lower representation of women at higher levels could be due to limited female talent in the pipeline or barriers that prevent women’s advancement, such as the glass ceiling. These barriers include discrimination, work-family conflicts, and reduced interest in high-level positions. Oftentimes higher- paying white-collar jobs demand longer and less flexible hours resulting in work-family conflicts.39 In addition, several studies find that women are less likely to be promoted, all else equal, while other studies highlight that women instead exit at higher rates by choice.40 Lower proportions of women in managerial and leadership roles further perpetuate pay and promotion gaps, because managers often promote based on those who meet their own characteristics. This trend, known as “ingroup favoritism,” prevents women from climbing up the career ladder in companies where there are not many women in leadership.41 Personal and Psychological Traits Research finds that men place a higher value on money, have higher self-esteem, believe that they control their own fate, and are less risk averse, more competitive, more self-confident, and more disagreeable than women. These traits can contribute towards the pay gap. For example, women are slightly less likely to opt for jobs that include performance pay, as they are less attracted to competitive environments than men, which may decrease their ability to overcome the wage structures that they are already within.42 In addition, women are less likely than men to negotiate for themselves.43 When they do choose to negotiate, one study found that women ask for an average of $7,000 less than the men.44 Also, their managers are less likely to want to work with them due to violating gender norms about appropriate female negotiating behavior.45 Discrimination and Unconscious Bias Unconscious biases are the automatic, mental short-cuts used to process information and make decisions quickly. These biases are based on experience and cultural stereotypes. Unexplained factors contributing to the gender pay gap (or unconscious bias) accounts for 38% of the gender pay gap overall.46 (Exhibit 1)

39 F. Blau and L. Kahn. (2016). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. IZA, No. 9656. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp9656.pdf. 40 F. Blau and L. Kahn. (2016). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. IZA, No. 9656. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp9656.pdf. 41 “Why the ‘position gap’ is more important than the wage gap for women in tech.” Washington Post. Retrieved on October 12, 2016 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/04/14/why-the-position-gap-is-more-important-than-the- wage-gap-for-women-in-tech/. 42 A.Manning, and F. Saidi. (2010). “Understanding the gender pay gap: What’s competition got to do with it?” Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 63/4: 681-698. 43 L. Babcock. (2003). “Nice girls don’t ask.” Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2003/10/nice-girls-dont- ask. 44 NPR.org. Why women don’t ask for more money. Retrieved on October 12, 2016 from http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/04/08/300290240/why-women-dont-ask-for-more-money. 45 (2016). Leave no one behind: A call to action for gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. Retrieved from http://www.womenseconomicempowerment.org/reports/. 46 F. Blau and L. Kahn. (2016). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. IZA, No. 9656. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp9656.pdf.

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Factors Supporting Equal Pay Diving deeper into Gap Inc.’s culture, practices and policies illustrate how other companies can achieve equal pay and a higher representation of female leadership.

Part of the DNA Gap Inc. was formed on the principles of equality from day one when founders Don and Doris Fisher created the company by each investing an equal amount of money to open their first store.47 Both were heavily involved in the development of the Gap brand and laid the groundwork for a culture of inclusivity and equality. Dan Henkle, former President of Gap Foundation and Senior Vice President of Global Sustainability says, “Gap Inc. has had senior women around the table from the beginning, including Doris. Both made decisions and set the tone that all employees have a voice, and that no matter where one sits in the organization he or she can influence where the company is going.” Amy Solliday, Vice President of Old Navy Store Operations says, “The moral compass as a company has absolutely come from the Fishers. Don and Doris had an equal partnership.” Solliday sees these core principles in action when employees are given raises and promotions based on their own merits, leadership abilities and skills. Solliday says that gender equality and diversity are important topics to female Gap Inc. employees, specifically career growth and how to talk to managers about compensation. In describing the Gap Inc. culture today, leadership highlights a culture with traditionally feminine leadership characteristics. The most common words describing the culture are: collaborative, team/relationship-driven, and nice/friendly. The company was also consistently described as values- driven. Gap Inc.’s values extend to its Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Council that guides the company’s strategy and serves as an advisory group, comprised of executives throughout the company that work closely with human resources, corporate, and store leaders. Keith White, who leads the D&I Council, says they are “not your father’s diversity council” and aren’t afraid to lean in on big issues, from racially motivated shootings to discriminatory bills against transgender people. The Council connects its activities with business outcomes and supports employee activities such as business resources groups (BRGs), which provide opportunities for learning, mentoring, and networking. The largest BRG is focused specifically on women: Women in Leadership (GapWIL). It has more than 800 male and female members, including members from headquarters, field, and global offices. GapWIL was first envisioned to help women wanting to progress to senior leadership but soon included other topics of importance to employees including flexibility, pay, and mobility. For example, GapWIL allows women to network while learning about personality types and tendencies in the workplace. This heritage story has stuck with the company and influenced principles and accompanying practices over time and geography. Sheila Peters, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Old Navy, shared an illustrative example: “When working with Bill Fisher (son of Don and Doris) to expand the company to Japan, where there are immense gender inequalities in the world of work, Gap had the opportunity to hire female talent at a lower price than male counterparts. In response to being encouraged to do so, Bill Fisher responded, ‘Why would we do that?’”

47 Gender equality principles: Gap Inc. equal pay for equal work. Gender Equality Principles. Retrieved on October 13, 2016 from http://genderprinciples.org/index.php?p=107.

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GAP INC. 11

Role Models Along with history is the importance of role models. As of October 2016, 53% of Gap Inc.’s leadership team (8 of 15) were women, and 80% of brand presidents (4 of 5) were women48—compared to 13% of the average number of women executives in the retail sector.49 In recruiting and retaining women, representation of women in leadership proves critical. A 2016 study by Rockefeller Foundation finds that 66% of Americans believe it is especially important for women starting their careers to have women in leadership positions as role models. The desire is especially immense among millennial women (82%). The same study found that the presence of women in leadership positions is an important consideration in choosing where to work—with 76% of women saying it is somewhat important to them.50 Sheila Peters says there have “always been strong women in leadership who attracted other women.” Simply, more women in leadership roles provide more motivation for women to succeed. A Catalyst survey found that 64% of women see the absence of role models as a barrier to their career development.51 Overall, having women at all levels may contribute towards a culture in which men are accepting of women as leaders and women are confident that they can rise in the ranks. This may create a cyclical effect of gender equality and inclusion. CEO Peck along with many male and female Gap Inc. executives say gender inequality at their company is simply “a non-issue.” Peck says women in leadership is a priority and that he values the collaboration and leadership styles in many women that “bring groups together.” Peck has promoted and hired more women than men to the leadership team, and in October 2016, 80% of brand presidents were women. Peck says, “It’s about core values and the best talent.”

Female Representation In addition to the role model impact of having women in leadership, research shows that when women are more highly represented at higher ranks, women at the lower ranks fare better in terms of representation and wages.52 Women make up 75% of employees at Gap globally, ensuring a strong female pipeline. (Exhibit 2) Indeed, over 80% of current female and 74% of current male executives were promoted internally or rehired. This representation does not extend to the board of directors, where women comprise 27% (or 3 of 11) members (2016); however, this is still above the average of 16.6% women on Fortune 500 boards. While gender equality and representation through the ranks has not been a specific effort or targeted initiative, bringing women on the board has been.

Mentorship and Sponsorship A 2016 study by Rockefeller Foundation found that among women who had mentors in the workplace, 63% say their mentor was another woman; this number rises to 72% for millennial women.53 At Gap Inc.,

48 (2016). Internal data, Danielle Katz, Gap. Email. 49 Women in leadership. U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Retrieved on October 16, 2016 from https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/sites/default/files/legacy/cwb/Women_in_Leadership_Research_Center_for_Women_in_ Business.pdf. 50 Rockefeller Foundation & Global Strategy Group. (2016). Women in leadership: Why it matters. Retrieved on October 13, 2016 from https://assets.rockefellerfoundation.org/app/uploads/20160512082818/Women-in-Leadership-Why-It-Matters.pdf. 51 McKinsey & Company. (2007). Women matter: Gender diversity, a corporate performance driver. 52 F. Blau and L. Kahn. (2016). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. IZA, No. 9656. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp9656.pdf. 53 (2016). Women in leadership: Why it matters. Rockefeller Foundation & Global Strategy Group. Retrieved on October 13, 2016 from https://assets.rockefellerfoundation.org/app/uploads/20160512082818/Women-in-Leadership-Why-It-Matters.pdf.

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GAP INC. 12

mentorship and sponsorship of young women has been a trend over time. Solliday recalled a mentor of hers from the past who, “Saw something in me that she believed in… And she gave me a sense of confidence that I might not have had.” In addition to mentorship, the importance of sponsorship is seen in the promotion of women and the development of a strong pipeline of female talent. Sponsors are frequently managers who believe in the personal value and potential of their protégés.54 They can decide on the promotion of their protégés and allow them to act independently and to take risks. In addition to mentoring and sponsoring other women, female leaders have the ability to affect policy and cultural change within the company. Nancy Green, President of Athleta, recalls having fewer female role models earlier in her career that were working mothers, which has changed over time. The company realized that “they needed to adapt and be a company that could support women having children.” Green was one of the trailblazers who helped adapt the company to be more accommodating for women with children. After having her first child and deciding to resign, a mentor told her, “You have so much potential… If we can’t figure it out then shame on us. Come back and give it a try.” Green stayed and has since climbed through the ranks, now serving as President & CEO of Athleta. Overall, women in leadership at Gap Inc. have historically asked about, observed, and understood what other women need— and acted on this information. Women at Gap Inc. talk about trying to leave only to have their managers ask what would it take for them to stay? Green considers it important to “pay it forward” so she mentors and sponsors other women. Also, she ensures that when women on her team have kids, she creates a supportive environment including the same conditions that were created for her, such as flexible working schedules. Green is not alone. Andi Owen, former Global President of Banana Republic, describes it as a “huge responsibility to pave the way for those behind you” through giving advice and mentoring people informally and formally. Owen notes that at any one time, she has four to 10 mentees that she supports. Former Executive Vice President of Global Talent and Sustainability, Bobbi Silten, encourages women to “fight for their worth” and respects women asking for higher salaries. This open encouragement is important: studies reveal that when it is explicitly stated that wages are negotiable, the gender difference in negotiation disappears and even reverses; suggesting that, for women, the gender difference in negotiation can be overcome if it’s signaled to be appropriate.55

Flexible and Family-Friendly Practices Flexible work has become the norm in many departments of Gap Inc. “If you have to drop off your kids in the morning, it’s fine,” says Solliday. “It’s no one’s business what you are doing, as long as you are getting your work done. Whether you are male or female, you have a life and obligations that don’t fit on the weekends.” Silten uses a “three-tier escalation policy” so staff can enjoy a child’s soccer game without feeling they need to constantly check their devices. Employees get an email if something is not urgent, a text if it’s somewhat urgent, and a call if it needs immediate attention. Silten says that working styles regarding 54 S. Hewlett. (2013). Forget a mentor, find a sponsor: The new way to fast-track your career. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. 55 F. Blau and L. Kahn. (2016). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. IZA, No. 9656. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp9656.pdf.

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GAP INC. 13

flexible time depend on the manager. She tells employees: “I’m not interested if you’re at your desk at 9. Get your work done, that’s what matters.” Flexible schedules aren’t just important for women but for all employees. Keith White, father of three, says having a “flexible work schedule was invaluable. I remember taking half the calls from the truck in the parking lot while my son was playing baseball. Gap Inc. really promotes the flexible schedule and is able to leverage technology to allow people to manage their lives with more balance and freedom.” The fact that employees in leadership positions are also taking advantage of flexible work signals affirms that it is an appropriate behavior for all employees. Leadership has continued to shape culture over time and has influenced HR policies to provide support systems for women, specifically mothers. One specific example of leadership influencing policies and culture is demonstrated by Lauri Shanahan, a past Chief Administrator Officer and Chief Legal Officer at Gap. She took advantage of a family-friendly approach to maternity leave which she created. Gap Inc.’s phase in/phase out program allows employees to temporarily reduce their work hours before, during or after maternity or family leaves of absence. Both Gap Inc. employees and existing research show that flexible working opportunities are important to female representation at higher levels of a company. A 2016 survey of 1,030 individuals in Australian business, government, and not-for-profit organizations by Bain & Company found that: “An organization with flexible arrangements as the norm signals a workplace with progressive policies and actions, and more engaged employees.” Further, women working flexibly were stronger advocates for their organizations than women who were not working flexibly, and are equally, if not more, committed to reaching their full career potential.56 While flexibility can be important for women in particular, research highlights that choosing flexibility can traditionally result in wage penalties because it comes at the cost of choosing part-time work or lower paying sectors and occupations.57 In 2009, Gap Outlet implemented a pilot program offering flexible scheduling called the Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE). The results-driven model allows employees to work when and where they like, given they achieve expected business results. Following the positive results of the pilot, which included higher job and life satisfaction levels, in 2010-2011 the company expanded ROWE and encouraged individual business leaders to adopt their own flexible work arrangements based on their business needs. In the U.S., departments that elected to participate in ROWE appointed a lead who attended training through HR and then introduced ROWE to interested team members. The concept of ROWE is also introduced during new employee orientation for non-retail employees58 who are encouraged to raise the subject directly with their managers. The company has also made efforts to improve scheduling stability and flexibility for store employees by providing advance notice of work schedules and eliminating unpredictable on-call shifts. The range of Gap Inc.’s available family-friendly policies varies by location, based on local policies and requirements. For example, in the UK, Gap Inc. is currently one of only a few retail organizations offering to match enhanced maternity pay to both parents under the local Shared Parenting Leave policy. Gap Japan offers flexible working options and summer hours, including half-day Fridays during the summer, that give employees more autonomy.

56 Bain & Company. (2016). The power of flexibility: A key enabler to boost gender parity and employee engagement. Retrieved from http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/the-power-of-flexibility.aspx. 57 F. Blau and L. Kahn. (2016). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. IZA, No. 9656. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp9656.pdf. 58 Non-retail employees include all employees that do not work in physical Gap retail stores (e.g., marketing, corporate, legal, finance departments).

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GAP INC. 14

In addition to maternity and paternity leave, companies need to be aware of and work to combat maternity/paternity leave bias, which is often an unconscious byproduct on the part of managers and peers. Employees who take maternity/paternity leave tend to suffer disproportionately lower ratings when it comes time for promotions or performance evaluations primarily because they are compared with their peers who did not take any time off. In a Mercer (2016) survey, only 29% of organizations said they give their managers training to counter unconscious bias and support employees through the maternity/paternity leave and return-to-work processes. Companies should thus include training for managers on unconscious bias related to maternity/paternity leave, and how to support employees in the return to work. Overall, Gap Inc. leadership emphasizes that the culture celebrates new parents. Peters says, “When someone has a baby, there is no bias about it… It’s seen as an opportunity for another person to get an opportunity.” This “glass-half-full perspective” allows other employees to take on greater roles and prove themselves. Finally, Gap Inc. has several mechanisms to support child and elderly care.59 First, U.S. employees, including part-time and seasonal workers, can register for free on Care.com, which is a resource and referral service for child and elder care, as well as other support services such as pet care and personal care. Second, for full-time U.S. employees, Gap Inc. offers 10 subsidized back-up childcare visits per employee per calendar year when an employee’s regular care is unavailable. Third, full-time U.S. employees have preferred and priority access to day care: if employees enroll in one of the many Gap Inc. partner centers, registration fees are credited upon enrollment and certain centers offer a tuition discount.60 Gap Inc. executives who are mothers have emphasized the value of a childcare center near headquarters that is a partner of Gap Inc. Providing paid paternity leave helps distribute childcare more evenly between parents, tackles gender stereotyping, and increases a mother’s productivity.61 Offering paid paternity leave is not a novel concept: over half of OECD countries offer fathers paid paternity leave.62 There are benefits for both the parents and the workplace. For example, in Sweden, each additional month a father remained on parental leave increased a mother’s earnings by almost 7%.63 In addition, while flexibility is critical to keeping a strong pipeline of female staff through the leadership ranks, it’s valuable for companies to provide some boundaries beyond office hours and weekends. Technological advances have blurred work/home boundaries and encourage consistent connection. Given the societal and cultural norms that place higher expectations on women to care for children, elderly, and

59 It is important not only to have support for caring of children, but also the elderly; caring for the elderly may reduce female labor force participation and hours worked. 60 (2016). Gap policies. Personal communication. 61 (2016). Leave no one behind: A call to action for gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. Retrieved from http://www.womenseconomicempowerment.org/reports/. 62 OECD. (2016). Backgrounder on father’s leave and its use. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/els/ family/Backgrounder- fathers-use-of-leave.pdf. 63 (2016). Leave no one behind: A call to action for gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. Retrieved from http://www.womenseconomicempowerment.org/reports/.

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GAP INC. 15

the household, women in leadership ranks will continue to face challenges in balancing work and life responsibilities until these norms change. For Every Generation Gap Inc. has stayed ahead of its time to embrace the next generation of employees and customers. Nobody knows that better than Nancy Green, who began as a merchandising trainee with Gap in 1986, worked her way up through multiple Gap Inc. divisions plus two other retailers, became the President and CEO of Athleta, and had four children along the way. Through the years, Green has thrived in a culture where she views the core values as challenging, dynamic, and supportive. Employees who weren’t in tune with that spirit became dinosaurs who didn’t last. Today’s Gap Inc. leadership, true to the company’s pioneering founders, continues to look ahead at cultural expectations and best business practices to stay progressive tomorrow. Case Discussion Questions 1. Gender equality and women in leadership have been part of Gap’s DNA since it was founded in 1969

by a husband and wife team. Since most companies lack that cultural heritage, how would you lead your company to instill the value of pay equality? What obstacles in corporate culture and hiring and promotion practices would you have to change?

2. Is it feasible to change a company’s culture around diversity and inclusion, or does this have to be

something that is instilled from when a company is founded? 3. One particularly important issue is that women tend to leave the workforce and not return in their

child-bearing years, or feel that they fall behind in this time (note, this stems from women tending to be the primary caretakers and conducting the majority of “unpaid care”). What are some ways companies can support new parents who take parental leave and provide an environment to keep those workers in the workforce? What are the larger cultural shifts that are needed? What roles can and should companies play in tackling these larger cultural shifts?

4. Do you think equal pay should be examined at the organizational level or at the like-for-like

level? What factors in compensation (other than simply pay) could and should be analyzed in pay reviews?

5. Some cities, states, and countries have moved to require companies to gather pay data and report

publicly. Do you think that this should be a role of government? Do you think this approach will work? Do you think the carrot or the stick is a better method?

6. What may be some of the unintended consequences of attempts to mitigate the gender pay gap? How

can we ensure that conversations about the gender pay gap also recognize that certain minorities, particularly Hispanic and African American, make much less?

7. How could Gap continue to improve its pay equity processes?

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GAP INC. 16

Exhibit 1 Explanatory Variables for the Gender Wage Gap64

Variables 2010 Effect of Gender Gap in Explanatory Variables (% of Gender Gap Explained)

Education -5.9% Experience 14.1% Region .3% Race 4.3% Unionization -1.3% Industry 17.6% Occupation 32.9% Total explained 62% Total unexplained 38% Total pay gap 100%

Source: IZA Exhibit 2 Average corporate talent pipeline vs. Gap Inc.’s talent pipeline 65

Source: Women in the Workplace

64 F. Blau and L. Kahn. (2016). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. IZA, No. 9656. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp9656.pdf. 65 Women in the Workplace, in which LeanIn.org and McKinsey examined the employee pipeline of 118 corporations.

0

20

40

60

80

Entry-level Manager/ Sr. Manager

Vice Presidents

C-Suite

45 37

17 17

73 61.7

51 53

% w

om en Avg. Pipeline, 2015, %

Gap Inc. Pipeline, 2016, %

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GAP INC. 17

Exhibit 3 What are other companies doing? To make the transition from childbirth to working more accessible to new parents, Salesforce introduced a gradual return program that offers new parents the flexibility to work reduced hours—still at full pay—for the first four consecutive weeks of returning to work. Accenture, through its Maternity Returners Program, provides career guidance to newly returning mothers to help them transition back into their roles.66 Sources: Salesforce, Accenture Various companies have instituted childcare support structures that span over the course of parenthood for many women and men. Child care options can range anywhere between cash bonuses as seen with Facebook where couples who give birth or adopt get $4,000 in “baby cash,” to “on-campus child care and “mother’s rooms,” as seen at Google. Patagonia, a leader in the “on-campus child care” space has found that 100% of moms have returned to work at Patagonia over the past 5 years after they instituted an on-site child care center. Patagonia has demonstrated a business case for on-site childcare through tax benefits, increased employee engagement, and employee retention.67 Sources: Fortune, Fast Company Google guarantees birth moms receive 18 weeks of paid maternity leave, up from 12 weeks in 2007. Google’s increase in paid maternity has led to “new mothers at Google being no more likely to quit than the average employee.” Google also offers primary caregivers, regardless of gender, up to 12 weeks of paid baby-bonding leave. This includes adoptive and surrogate caregivers. Microsoft offers 12 weeks of full paid maternity and paternity leave, with an additional eight weeks of paid leave for mothers. Outside of the tech sector, Bank of America, for example, offers 16 weeks of paid maternity, paternity, and adoption leave.68 Sources: Bohnet, I., Entrepreneur

66 (1) “Equality at Salesforce: The Equal Pay Assessment Update,” Salesforce Blog, accessed October 12, 2016, https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/03/equality-at-salesforce-equal-pay.html. (2) Accenture, “Accenture Careers for Women,” accessed October 12, 2016, https://www.accenture.com/us-en/careers/team-culture-diversity-women#block-empowering-women. 67 (1) Fortune, 2013: http://fortune.com/2013/10/14/which-tech-company-offers-the-best-child-care/. (2) Fast Company, 2016: https://www.fastcompany.com/3062792/second-shift/patagonias-ceo-explains-how-to-make-onsite-child-care-pay-for-itself_. 68 Source: (1) Bohnet, I., 2016, “What Works: Gender Equality by Design.” (2) https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/249467

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  • Measurement Methods
  • How Gap Inc. Measures Pay
    • Gap Inc. Empowers Managers and Employees
  • The Business Case for Gender Pay Equality
    • Part of the DNA
    • Female Representation
    • Mentorship and Sponsorship
    • Flexible and Family-Friendly Practices
 
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Case Study C W Williams Community Center: A Community Asset

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Bright Dark Blues Grays Night

16 CASE C. W. Williams

Health Center: A Community Asset

The Metrolina Health Center was started by Dr. Charles Warren “C. W.” Williams and several medical colleagues with a $25,000 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services. Concerned about the health needs of the poor and wanting to make the world a better place for those less fortunate, Dr. Williams, Charlotte’s first African American to serve on the surgical staff of Charlotte Memorial Hospital (Charlotte’s largest hospital), enlisted the aid of Dr. John Murphy, a local dentist; Peggy Beckwith, director of the Sickle Cell Association; and health planner Bob Ellis to create a health facility for the unserved and underserved population of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. The health facility received its corporate status in 1980. Dr. Williams died in 1982 when the health facility was still in its infancy. Thereafter, the Metrolina Comprehensive Health Center was renamed the C. W. Williams Health Center.

“We’re celebrating our fifteenth year of operation at C. W. Williams, and I’m celebrating my first full year as CEO,” commented Michelle Marrs. “I’m feeling really good about a lot

This case was written by Linda E. Swayne, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Peter M. Ginter, University of Alabama at Birmingham. It is intended as a basis for classroom discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective

handling of an administrative situation. Used with permission from Linda Swayne.

C E N T E R : H E A LT H A C O M M U N I T Y A S S E T C . W. W I L L I A M S

Exhibit 16/1: C. W. Williams Health Center Mission, Vision, and Values Statements

Mission

To promote a healthier future for our community by consistently providing excellent, accessible health care with pride, compassion, and respect.

Values

Respect each individual, patient, and staff member as well as our community as a valued entity that must be treasured. Consistently provide the highest quality patient care with pride and compassion. Partner with other organizations to respond to the social, health, and economic development needs of our community. Operate in an efficient, well-staffed, comfortable environment as an autonomous and financially sound organization.

Vision

Committed to the pioneering vision of Dr. Charles Warren Williams, Charlotte’s first Black surgeon, we will move into the twenty-first century promoting a healthier and brighter future for our com munity. This means: C. W. Williams Health Center will offer personal, high-quality, affordable, comprehensive health services that improve the quality of life for all. C. W. Williams Health Center, while partnering with other health care organizations, will expand its high-quality health services into areas of need. No longer will patients be required to travel long distances to receive the medical care they deserve. C. W. Williams Health Center will come to them! C. W. Williams Health Center will be well managed using state-of-the-art technology, accelerating into the twenty-first century as a leading provider of comprehensive community-based health services. C. W. Williams Health Center will be viewed as Mecklenburg County’s premier community health agency, providing care with RESPECT: R eliable health care E fficient operations S upportive staff P ersonal care E ffective systems C lean environments T imely services

of things – we are fully staffed for the first time in two years, and we are a significant player in a pilot program by North Carolina to manage the health care of Medicaid patients in Mecklenburg County (Charlotte area) through private HMOs. We’re the only organization that’s approved to serve Medicaid recipients that’s not an HMO. We have a contract for primary care case management. We’re used to providing care for the Medicaid population and we’re used to providing health education. It’s part of our original mission (see Exhibit 16/1) and has been since the beginning of C. W. Williams.”

H E A LT H

1 6 :

Exhibit 16/2: Michelle Marrs, Chief Executive Officer of C. W. Williams Health Center

Michelle Marrs had over 20 years’ experience working in a variety of health care settings and delivery systems. On earning her BS degree, she began her career as a community health educator working in the prevention of alcoholism and substance abuse among youth and women. In 1976 she pursued graduate education at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Graduate School of Education, earning a masters of education with a concentration in administration, planning, and social policy. She worked for the US Public Health Service, Division of Health Services Delivery; the University of Massachusetts Medical Center as director of the Patient Care Studies Department and administrator of the Radiation Oncology Department; the Mattapan Community Health Center (a comprehensive community-based primary care health facility in Boston) as director; and as medical office administrator for Kaiser Permanente. Marrs was appointed chief executive officer of the C. W. Williams Health Center in November 1994.

Michelle continued, “I’ve been in health care for quite a while but things are really changing rapidly now. The center might be forced to align with one of the two hospitals because of managed care changes. Although we don’t want to take away the patient’s choice, it might happen. In order for me to do all that I should be doing externally, I need more help internally. I believe we should have a director of finance. We have a great opportunity to buy another location so that we can serve more patients, but this is a relatively unstable time in health care. Buying another facility would be a stretch financially, but the location would be perfect. The asking price does seem high, though. . . .” (Exhibit 16/2 contains a biographical sketch of Ms. Marrs.)

Community Health Centers1

When the nation’s resources were mobilized during the early 1960s to fight the War on Poverty, it was discovered that poor health and lack of basic medical care were major obstacles to the educational and job training progress of the poor. A system of preventive and comprehensive medical care was necessary to battle poverty. A new health care model for poor communities was started in 1963 through the vision and efforts of two New England physicians – Count Geiger and Jack Gibson of the Tufts Medical School – to open the first two neighborhood health centers in Mound Bayou, in rural Mississippi, and in a Boston housing project. In 1966, an amendment to the Economic Opportunity Act formally established the Comprehensive Health Center Program. By 1971, a total of 150 health cent ers had been established. By 1990, more than 540 community and migrant health centers at 1,400 service sites had received federal grants totaling $547 million to supplement their budgets of $1.3 billion. By 1996, the numbers had increased to 700 centers at 2,400 delivery sites providing service to over 9 million people. Community health centers had a public health perspective; however, they were similar to private practices staffed by physicians, nurses, and allied health pro fessionals. They differed from the typical medical office in that they offered a broader range of services, such as social services and health education. Health

C O M M U N I T Y

Exhibit 16/3: Ethnicity of Urban and Rural Health Center Patients

Urban Health Center African American/Black Patients 37.0% Rural Health Center African American/Black Patients 19.6%
White/Non-Hispanic Native American 29.9% 0.8% White/Non-Hispanic Native American 49.3% 1.1%
Asian/Pacific Islander 3.2% Asian/Pacific Islander 2.9%
Hispanic/Latino Other 27.2% 1.9% Hispanic/Latino Other 26.5% 0.6%

centers removed the financial and nonfinancial barriers to health care. In addi tion, health centers were owned by the community and operated by a local volunteer governing board. Federally funded health centers were required to have patients as a majority of the governing board. The use of patients to govern was a major factor in keeping the centers responsive to patients and generating acceptance by them. Because of the increasing complexity of health care delivery, many board members were taking advantage of training opportunities through their state and national associations to better manage the facility.

Community Health Centers Provide Care for the Medically Underserved

Federally subsidized health centers must, by law, serve populations that are identified by the Public Health Service as medically underserved. Half of the medically underserved population lived in rural areas where there were few medical resources. The other half were located in economically depressed inner city communities where individuals lived in poverty, lacked health insurance, or had special needs such as homelessness, AIDS, or substance abuse. Approximately 60 percent of health center patients were minorities in urban areas whereas 50 percent were white/non-Hispanics in rural areas (see Exhibit 16/3). Typically, 50 percent of health center patients did not have private health insur ance; nor did they qualify for public health insurance (Medicaid or Medicare). That compared to 13.4 percent of the US population that was uninsured (see Exhibit 16/4).

Exhibit 16/4: Insurance Status of US Health Center Patients, C. W. Williams Health Center

Patients, the US Population, and North Carolina Population

Health Center Patients US Population North Carolina Population C. W. Williams Health Center Patients
Uninsured Private Insurance 42.7% 13.9% 13.4% 63.2% 14% 64% 21% 10%
Public Insurance 42.9% 23.4% 22% 69%

H E A LT H

1 6 :

Over 80 percent of health center patients had incomes below the federal poverty level ($28,700 for a family of four in 1994). Most of the remaining 20 percent were between 100 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

Community Health Centers Are Cost Effective

Numerous national studies have indicated that the kind of ongoing primary care management provided by community health centers resulted in significantly low ered costs for inpatient hospital care and specialty care. Because illnesses were diagnosed and treated at an earlier stage, more expensive care interventions were often not needed. Hospital admission rates were 22 to 67 percent lower for health center patients than for community residents. A study of six New York city and state health centers found that Medicaid beneficiaries were 22 to 30 percent less costly to treat than those not served by health centers.2 A Washington state study found that the average cost to Medicaid per hospital bill was $49 for health center patients versus $74 for commercial sector patients.3 Health center indigent patients were less likely to make emergency room visits – a reduction of 13 per cent overall and 38 percent for pediatric care. In addition, defensive medicine (the practice of ordering every and all diagnostic tests to avoid malpractice claims) was less frequently used. Community health center physicians had some of the lowest medical malpractice loss ratios in the nation.

Not only were community health centers cost efficient, patients were highly satisfied with the care received. A total of 96 percent were satisfied or very satisfied with the care they received, and 97 percent indicated they would recommend the health center to their friends and families.4 Only 4 percent were not so satisfied, and only 3 percent would not recommend their health center to others.

Movement to Managed Care

In 1990, a little over 2 million Medicaid beneficiaries were enrolled in man aged care plans; in 1993 the number had increased to 8 million; and in 1995 over 11 million Medicaid beneficiaries were enrolled. Medicaid beneficiaries and other low-income Americans had higher rates of illness and disability than others, and thus accumulated significantly higher costs of medical care.5

C. W. Williams Health Center

C. W. Williams was beginning to recognize the impact of managed care. Like much of the South, the Carolinas had been slow to accept managed care. The major reasons seemed to be the rural nature of many Southern states, markets that were not as attractive to major managed care organizations, dominant insur ers that continued to provide fee-for-service ensuring choice of physicians and hospitals, and medical inflation that accelerated more slowly than in other areas.

Major changes began to occur, however, beginning in 1993; by 1996 managed care was being implemented in many areas at an accelerated pace.

Challenges for C. W. Williams

Michelle reported, “One of my greatest challenges has been how to handle the changes imposed by the shift from a primarily fee-for-service to a managed care environment. Local physicians who in the past had the flexibility, loyalty, and availability to assist C. W. Williams by providing part-time assistance or volunteer efforts during the physician shortage are now employed by managed care organizations or involved in contractual relationships that prohibit them from working with us. The few remaining primary care solo or small group practices are struggling for survival themselves and seldom are available to provide patient sessions or assist with our hospital call-rotation schedule. The rigorous call-rotation schedule of a small primary care facility like C. W. Williams is frequently unattractive to available physicians seeking opportunities, even when a market competitive compensation package is offered. Many of these physician recruitment and retention issues are being driven by the rapid changes brought on by the impact of managed care in the local community. It is a real challenge to recruit physicians to provide the necessary access to medical care for our patients.”

She continued, “My next greatest challenge is investment in technology to facili tate this transition to managed care. Technology is expensive, yet I know it is crucial to our survival and success. We also need more space, but I don’t know if this is a good time for expansion.”

She concluded, “One of the pressing and perhaps most difficult efforts has been the careful and strategic consideration of the need to affiliate to some degree with one of the two area hospitals in order to more fully integrate and broaden the range of services to patients of our center. Although a decision has not been made at this juncture, the organization has made significant strides to comprehend the needs of this community, consider the pros and cons of either choice, and continue providing the best care possible under some very difficult circumstances.”

Hospital Affiliation

Traditionally, the patients of C. W. Williams Health Center that needed hospital ization were admitted to Charlotte Memorial Hospital, a large regional hospital that was designated at the Trauma 1 level – one of five designated by the state of North Carolina to handle major trauma cases 24 hours a day, 7 days per week (full staffing) as well as perform research in the area of trauma. Uncompensated inpatient care was financed by the county. Charlotte Memorial became Carolinas Medical Center (CMC) in 1984 when it began a program to develop a totally inte grated system. In 1995, C. W. Williams provided Carolinas Medical Center with more than 3,000 patient bed days; however, the patients were usually seen by their

H E A LT H

Services

1 6 :

regular C. W. Williams physicians. As Carolinas Medical Center purchased physi cian practices (over 300 doctors were employed by the system) and purchased or managed many of the surrounding community hospitals, some C. W. Williams patients became concerned that CMC would take over C. W. Williams and that their community health center would no longer exist.

“My preference is that our patients have a choice of where they would prefer to go for hospitalization. Our older patients expect to go to Carolinas Medical, but many of our middle-aged patients have expressed a preference for Presbyterian. Both hospitals have indicated an interest in our patients,” according to Michelle. She continued, “We may not really have a choice, however. We recently received information that reported the 12 largest hospitals in the state, including the teach ing hospitals – Duke, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carolinas Medical Center, and East Carolina – have formed a consortium and will contract with the state to pay for Medicaid patients. At the same time all 20 of the health centers in the state – including us at C. W. Williams – are cooperating to develop a health maintenance organization. We expect to gain approval for the HMO by July 1997. Since 60 percent of our patients are Medicaid, if the state contracts with the new consortium, then we will be required to send our patients to Carolinas Medical Center.”

  1. W. Williams Health Center provides primary and preventive health services including: medical, radiology, laboratory, pharmacy, subspecialty, and inpatient managed care; health education/promotion; community outreach; and transporta- tion to care (Exhibit 16/5 lists all services). The center was strongly linked to the Charlotte community, and it worked with other public and private health services to coordinate resources for effective patient care. No one was denied care because
  2. f an inability to pay. A little over 20 percent of the patients at C. W. Williams were uninsured.

The full-time staff included five physicians, two physician assistants (PAs), two nurses, one X-ray technician, one pharmacist, and a staff of 28. Of the five physicians, one was an internist, two were in family practice, and two were pediatricians. The PAs “floated” to work wherever help was most needed. With the help of one assistant, the pharmacist filled more than 20,000 prescriptions annually.

Patients at C. W. Williams

All first-time patients at C. W. Williams were asked what type of insurance they had. If they had some type of insurance – private, Medicare, Medicaid – an appointment was immediately scheduled. If the new patient had no insurance, he or she was asked if they would be interested in applying for the C. W. Williams discount program (the discount could amount to as much as 100 percent, but

Exhibit 16/5: C. W. Williams Health Center Services

Primary Care and Preventive Services Diagnostic Laboratory Diagnostic X-ray (basic) Pharmacy EMS (crash cart and CPR-trained staff) Family Planning Immunizations (MD-directed as well as open clinic – no relationship required) Prenatal Care and Gynecology Health Education Parenting Education Translation Services Substance Abuse and Counseling Nutrition Counseling Diagnostic Testing:

HIV Mammogram Pap Smears TB Testing Vision/Hearing Testing Lead Testing Pregnancy Test Drug Screening

every person was asked to pay something). The discount was based on income and the number of people in the household. If the response was “no,” the caller was informed that payment was expected at the time services were rendered. Visa, Mastercard, cash, and personal check (with two forms of identification) were accepted. At C. W. Williams, all health care was made affordable. C. W. Williams made reminder calls to the patient’s home (or neighbor’s or relative’s telephone) several days prior to the appointment. When patients arrived at the center, they provided their name to the nurse at the front reception desk and then took a seat in a large waiting room. The pharmacy window was near the front door for the convenience of patients who were simply picking up a prescription. The reception desk, pharmacy, and waiting room occupied the first floor.

When the patient’s name was called, he or she was taken by elevator to the second floor where there were ten examination rooms. After seeing the physician, physician assistant, or nurse, the patient was escorted back down the elevator to the pharmacy if a prescription was needed and then to the reception desk to pay. Pharmaceuticals were discounted and a special program by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals provided over $60,000 worth of drugs in 1995 for medically indigent patients. The center’s patient population was 64 percent female between the ages of 15 and 44 (see Exhibit 16/6). Nearly 80 percent of patients were African Americans, 18 percent were white, and 2 percent were other minorities. Patients

H E A LT H C E N T E R : C . W. W I L L I A M S A C O M M U N I T Y 1 6 : C A S E A S S E T

Exhibit 16/6: C. W. Williams Health Center Patients by Age and Sex

Females

<1 1–4 5–11 12–14 15–17 18–19 20–34 35–44 45–64 65+

Males

<1 1–4 5–11 12–14 15–17 18–19 20–34 35–44 45–64 65+

Total

1991

343 434 322 376 361 264 749 869 583 400 4,701

367 439 440 171 180 126 296 313 229 151 2,712 7,413

1992

408 552 572 197 168 152 1,250 617 567 488 4,971

471 516 644 175 133 67 389 296 316 248 3,255 8,226

1993

263 692 494 150 146 85 967 479 617 531 4,424

328 707 598 128 79 28 219 182 273 190 2,732 7,156

1994

198 647 641 148 121 82 964 532 658 527 4,518

199 625 846 120 76 23 187 205 294 190 2,765 7,283

1995

101 417 658 124 92 67 712 467 658 524 3,820

119 410 738 104 155 69 126 132 235 181 2,269 6,089

Exhibit 16/7: Patient Satisfaction Study

Rank

1 2 3 4 5 6

Selected Service Indicators

Helpfulness/attitudes of medical staff Clean/comfortable/convenient facility Relationship with physician/nurse Quality of health services Ability to satisfy all medical needs Helpfulness/attitudes of nonmedical staff

Mean Score

3.82 3.65 3.58 3.28 3.20 2.72

were quite satisfied with the services provided as indicated in

patient sur veys conducted by the center. Paralleling national studies, 97 percent of C. W. Williams patients would recommend the center to family or friends. Selected service indicators by rank from the patient satisfaction study are included as Exhibit 16/7.

C. W. Williams Organization

The center was managed by a board of directors, responsible for developing policy and hiring the CEO.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The federal government required that all community health centers have a board of directors that was made up of at least 51 percent patients or citizens who lived in the community. The board chairman of C. W. Williams, Mr. Daniel Dooley, was a center patient. C. W. Williams had a board of 15, all of whom were African Americans and four of whom were patients and out of the workforce. Two mem bers of the board were managers/directors from the Public Health Department (which was under the management of CMC). There were two other health professionals – a nurse and a physician. Other board members included a CPA, a financial planner, an insurance agent, a vice president for human resources, an executive in a search firm, and a former professor of economics. A majority of the board had not had a great deal of exposure to the changes occurring in the health care industry (aside from their own personal situations); nor were they trained in strategic management.

The center was operated by Michelle Marrs as CEO, who had an operations officer and medical director reporting to her (see Exhibit 16/8 for an organiza tion chart).

Eventually the director of finance, who had worked at the center for over ten years, resigned. “She was offered another position within C. W. Williams,” said Michelle, “but she declined to take it. Frankly, I have to have someone with greater expertise in finance. With capitation on the horizon, we need to do some very critical planning to better manage our finances and make sure we are receiving as much reimbursement from Washington as we are entitled.” There were some disagreements between the board and Ms. Marrs over responsi bilities. Employees frequently appealed to the chairman and other members of the board when they felt that they had not been treated fairly. Ms. Marrs would prefer the board to be more involved in setting strategic direction for C. W. Williams. “A two-year strategic plan was developed late in 1995 that has not been moved along, embraced, and further developed. Committees have not met on a regular basis to actualize stated objectives.”

THE STAFF

C. W. Williams Was Financially Strong

The center received an increasing amount of federal grant money for the first ten years of its operation as the number of patients grew, but leveled off as most government allocations were reduced (see Exhibit 16/9). Although the amount collected from Medicare was increasing, the amount collected compared with the full charge was decreasing (see Exhibit 16/10). Exhibits 16/11 to 16/14 provide details of the financial situation.

Carolina ACCESS – A Pilot Program

In fiscal year 1994 ( July 1, 1994 to June 30, 1995), North Carolina served more than 950,000 Medicaid recipients at a cost of over $3.5 billion. The aged, blind, and disabled accounted for 26 percent of the eligibles and 65 percent of the expenditures. Families and children accounted for 74 percent of the eligibles and 35 percent of the expenditures. Services were heavily concentrated in two areas: inpatient hospital – accounting for 20 percent of expenses – and nursing facility/intermediate care/mentally retarded services – accounting for 34 percent of expenses. Mecklenburg County had the highest number of eligibles within the state at 50,849 people, representing 7 percent of the Medicaid population. What started out in 1986 as a contract with Kaiser Permanente to provide medi cal services for recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children in four counties became a complex mixture of three models of managed care. Carolina ACCESS was North Carolina Medicaid’s primary care case management model of managed care. It began a pilot program named “Health Care Connections” in Mecklenburg County on June 1, 1996.

Exhibit 16/9: C. W. Williams Funding Sources

Funding Source

Grant (Federal) Medicare Medicaid Third-Party Pay Uninsured Self-Pay Grant (Miscellaneous)

Total

1991

740,000 152,042 381,109 25,673 300,748 0 1,599,572

1992

1993

666,524 157,891 453,712 14,128 441,508 0 1,733,763

1994

1995

689,361 258,104 641,069 84,347 174,992 0 1,847,873

720,584 260,389 562,380 90,253 262,817 11,500 1,907,923

720,584 301,444 456,043 51,799 338,272 48,000 1,916,142

Exhibit 16/10: Funding Accounts Receivable

Exhibit 16/10: Funding Accounts Receivable
Full Charge 1994 Amount Collected Full Charge 1995 Amount Collected
Medicare Medicaid 436,853 914,212 260,389 562,380 369,306 725,175 301,444 456,043
Insured Patient Fees 99,202 899,055 90,253 262,817 61,021 754,864 51,799 338,272

H E A LT H C E N T E R : C . W. W I L L I A M S A C O M M U N I T Y 1 6 : C A S E A S S E T

Exhibit 16/11: C. W. Williams Health Center Balance Sheets

1992–1993 1993–1994 1994–1995 1995–1996
Assets Current Assets Cash 280,550 335,258 339,459 132,925
Certificates of Deposit Accounts Receivable (net) 23,413 213,815 24,496 285,934 25,446 202,865 529,826 160,230
Accounts Receivable (other) 5,661 4,721 2,936 10,069
Security Deposits Notes Receivable 1,847 -0- 97 -0- -0- 29,825 -0- 10,403
Inventory Prepaid Loans 26,191 12,087 23,777 21,605 30,217 9,722 26,844 11,159
Investments 269 269 269 51,628
Total Current Assets 563,833 696,157 640,739 933,084
Property and Equipment Land 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000
Building Building Renovations 311,039 904,434 311,039 904,434 311,039 909,754 311,039 915,949
Equipment Less Depreciation 282,333 (393,392) 312,892 (452,432) 328,063 (523,384) 387,178 (597,275)
Total Property and Equipment 1,114,414 1,085,933 1,035,472 1,026,891
Total Assets 1,678,247 1,782,090 1,676,211 1,959,975
Liabilities and Net Assets Liabilities
Accounts Payable Vacation Expense Accounts 11,066 36,694 31,582 42,857 13,136 19,457 34,039 28,144
Deferred Revenue 42,641 37,910 43,400 59,433
Total Liabilities 90,401 112,349 75,993 121,616
Net Assets Unrestricted Temporary Restricted -0- -0- -0- 1,838,350 -0-
Total Net Assets 1,587,846 1,669,741 1,600,218 1,838,350
Total Liabilities and Net Assets 1,678,247 1,782,090 1,676,211 1,959,976
Health Care Connections

The state of North Carolina wanted to move 42,000 Mecklenburg County Medicaid recipients into managed care. The state contracted with six health plans and C. W. Williams, as a federally qualified health center, to serve the Mecklenburg County Medicaid population. Because one organization was dropped from the program, Medicaid recipients were to choose one of the following plans to provide their health care:

Atlantic Health Plans (type: HMO; hospital affiliation: Carolinas Medical Center, University Hospital, Mercy Hospital, Mercy South, Union Regional Medical, Kings Mountain Hospital). Kaiser Permanente (type: HMO; hospital affiliation: Presbyterian Hospital, Presbyterian Hospital – Matthews, Presbyterian Orthopedic, Presbyterian Specialty Hospital). Maxicare North Carolina, Inc. (type: HMO; hospital affiliation: Presbyterian Hospital, Presbyterian Hospital – Matthews, Presbyterian Orthopedic, Presbyterian Specialty Hospital). Optimum Choice/Mid-Atlantic Medical (type: HMO; hospital affiliation: Presbyterian Hospital, Presbyterian Hospital – Matthews, Presbyterian Orthopedic, Presbyterian Specialty Hospital). Plan of NC, Inc. (type: HMO; hospital affiliation: Carolinas Medical The Wellness Center, University Hospital, Mercy Hospital, Mercy South, Union Regional Medical, Kings Mountain Hospital). C. W. Williams Health Center (type: partially federally funded, community health center; hospital affiliation: Carolinas Medical Center, University Hospital, Mercy Hospital, Mercy South, Union Regional Medical, Kings Mountain Hospital or Presbyterian Hospital, Presbyterian Hospital – Matthews, Presbyterian Orthopedic, Presbyterian Specialty Hospital).

Exhibit 16/12: Statement of Support, Revenue, Expenses, and Change in Fund Balances

Contributed Support and Revenue 1992–1993 1993–1994 1995–1996 1994–1995
Contributed 720,584 720,712 732,584 768,584
Earned Revenue Patient Fees 1,186,497 1,213,919 1,183,904 1,129,030
Medicare Contributions 465,248 5,676
Interest Income Dividend Income 7,228 9,666 12,567 14,115 2,387
Rental Income 1,980
Miscellaneous Income 5,962 5,941 11,055 4,772
Total Earned Total Contributed Support and Revenue 1,227,109 1,202,104 1,947,821 1,922,688 1,201,243 1,629,491 1,933,827 2,398,075
Expenses Program 1,782,312 1,840,447 2,157,768 2,002,633
Other 442 349 2,166 217
Total Expenses 1,782,754 1,840,796 2,002,850 2,159,934
Increase (decrease) in Net Net Assets (beginning of Assets year) 81,892 165,062 1,587,849 1,310,155 (69,523) 238,141 1,600,218 1,669,741
Adjustment 112,629* -0- -0- -0-
Net Assets (end of year) 1,587,846 1,669,741 1,600,218 1,838,359

*Federal grant funds earned but not drawn down in prior years were not recognized as revenue. The error had no effect on net income for fiscal year ended March 31, 1992.

H E A LT H C E N T E R : C . W. W I L L I A M S A C O M M U N I T Y A S S E T 1 6 : C A S E

Exhibit 16/13: Statement of Functional Expenditures, Fiscal Year Ended March 31

Personnel Salaries 1992–1993 937,119 1993–1994 1,016,194 1995–1996 1994–1995 1,181,639 1,102,373
Benefits 190,300 210,228 210,674 211,705
Total 1,127,419 1,226,422 1,313,047 1,393,344
Other
Accounting Bank Charges 5,250 840 5,985 300 6,397 7,200 1,001 213
Building Consultants Maintenance 38,842 26,674 54,132 2,733 49,586 53,828 44,923a 39,565
Contract MDs Dues/Publications/Conferences -0- 17,371 -0- 21,655 87,159 -0- 24,258 22,066
Equipment Insurance Maintenance 28,732 15,182 27,365 3,146 30,402 27,352 3,215 3,292
Legal Fees 688 2,774 3,582 3,652
Marketing Patient Services 6,358 28,959 1,958 28,222 15,730 5,734 43,815 35,397
Pharmacy Physician Recruiting 271,542 14,171 237,761 32,929 188,061 225,762 56,173 21,395
Postage Printing 8,435 729 11,622 963 14,182 10,019 2,405 9,696
Supplies Telephone 73,020 16,755 62,828 17,967 84,064 72,977 20,914 25,002
Travel – Board Travel – Staff 2,713 13,889 1,202 14,576 3,476 4,977 15,978 12,631
Utilities 15,782 18,305 16,548 16,536
Total Other 585,932 546,423 618,633 690,530
Total Personnel and Other 1,713,351 1,772,845 1,931,680 2,083,874
Depreciation (68,966) (67,604) (70,952) (73,891)
Total Expenses 1,782,317 1,840,449 2,002,632 2,157,765
aIncludes contracted medical director.

An integral part of the selection process was the use of a health benefits advisor to assist families in choosing the appropriate plan. By law, none of the organiza tions was permitted to promote its plan to Medicaid recipients. Rather, the Public Consulting Group of Charlotte was awarded the contract to be an independent enrollment counselor to assist Medicaid recipients in their choices of health care options.

“More than 33,000 of the Medicaid recipients were women and children. Sixty percent of the group had no medical relationship. Slightly over 50 percent of C. W. Williams’s patients are Medicaid recipients,” said Michelle Marrs. See Exhibit 16/15 for C. W. Williams users by pay source.

Exhibit 16/14: C. W. Williams Health Center Statement of Cash Flows, Fiscal Year Ended

March 31

March 31
Net Cash Flow from Operations 1992–1993 1993–1994 1995–1996 1994–1995
Increase in Net Assets Noncash Income Expense Depreciation 81,892 165,062 68,966 67,604 (69,523) 238,141 73,891 70,952
Increase in Deposits Decrease in Receivables (1,750) 1,750 (86,620) (71,179) -0- -0- 55,028 65,328
(Increase) in Prepaid Expenses (2,277) (9,518) (1,437) 11,980
(Increase) Decrease Increase in Payables in Inventory (4,105) 2,414 14,094 20,516 (6,440) 3,373 (18,445) 20,903
Increase (Decrease) (Increase) in Notes in Vacation Expense Accrual Receivable (8,583) 6,163 -0- -0- (23,400) 8,688 -0- (10,403)
Increase in Deferred Revenue (2,992) (4,731) 5,490 16,032
Net Cash Flow from Operations 141,795 94,911 25,642 414,516
Cash Flow from Investing in Fixed Assets (52,547) (39,120) (20,491) (65,311)
Purchase Marketable Securities -0- -0- -0- (51,359)
Net Cash Used by Investments (52,547) (39,120) (20,491) (116,670)
Net Cash from Financing Activities 112,629 -0- -0- -0-
Increase in Cash 201,877 55,791 297,846 5,151
Cash + Cash Equivalents Beginning of Year April 1 130,274 332,151 387,942 393,093
End of Year March 31 387,942 332,151 393,093 690,939

“We have about 8,000 patients coming to us for about 30,000 visits,” accord ing to Michelle (see Exhibit 16/16). “So there are approximately 4,000 people who currently come to us for health care that are now required to choose a health plan. The state decided that an independent agency had to sign people up so that there would be no ‘bounty’ hunting for enrollees. In the first month, about 2,300 Medicaid recipients enrolled in the pilot program. Almost half of the people who signed up chose Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. It has a history of serving Medicaid patients. We received the next highest number of enrollees, because we too have a history of serving this market. We had 402 enrollees dur ing that first month. Of those, only 38 were previous patients. What we don’t know yet is whether we have lost any patients to other programs. The lack of up-to-date information is frustrating. We need a better information system.” Michelle continued, “We decided that we could provide care for up to 8,000 Medicaid patients at C. W. Williams. I embrace managed care for a number of reasons: patients must choose a primary care provider, patients will be encour aged to take an active role in their health care, and there will be less duplication of medical services and costs. In the past, some doctors have shied away from Medicaid patients because they didn’t want to be bothered with the paperwork, the medical services weren’t fully compensated, and Medicaid patients tended to have numerous health problems.”

Exhibit 16/15: Users by Pay Source

Exhibit 16/15: Users by Pay Source
Source Percent of Number of Users Users Income to C. W. Williams Number of Encounters
1994–1995
Medicare Medicaid 13% 791 56% 3,410 301,444 456,043 2,392 10,305
Full Pay 10% 609 318,424 1,840
Uninsured 21% 1,279 42,421 3,865
1993–1994 6,089 1,118,332 18,402
Medicare Medicaid 12% 1,037 53% 4,579 195,352 585,446 2,880 12,720
Full Pay 11% 950 178,525 2,640
Uninsured 24% 2,074 101,569 5,760
1992–1993 8,640 1,060,892 24,000
Medicare Medicaid 10% 853 36% 3,072 189,927 401,355 2,304 8,294
Full Pay 10% 853 158,473 2,304
Uninsured 44% 3,755 186,708 10,138
1991–1992 8,533 936,463 23,040
Medicare Medicaid 20% 1,614 30% 2,419 162,980 312,680 4,032 6,048
Full Pay 10% 806 157,101 2,016
Uninsured 40% 3,225 159,855 8,064
8,064 792,616 20,160

Exhibit 16/16: C. W. Williams Health Center Patient Visits

Primary Care Visits

Internal Medicine Family Practice Pediatrics Gynecology Midlevel Practitioners

Total

Subspecialty/Ancillary Service Visits

Podiatry Mammography Immunizations Perinatal X-ray Dental Pharmacy Prescriptions Hospital Laboratory Health Education Other Medical Specialists

Total

8,248 4,573 2,643 236 3,609 19,309

82 101 1,766 429 1,152 17 20,868 1,762 13,103 412 1,032 40,724

“There are seven different companies that applied and were given authority to provide health care for Medicaid recipients in Mecklenburg County. Although I understand one had to withdraw, we are the only one that is not an HMO. Although we don’t provide hospitalization, we do provide for patients’ care whether they need an office visit or to be hospitalized. Our physicians provide care while the patient is in the hospital.”

She continued, “Medicaid beneficiaries have to be recertified every six months. We are three months into the sign-up process or approximately halfway. Kaiser has enrolled the highest number, about one-third of the beneficiaries (see Exhibit 16/17). We have enrolled over 12 percent. The independent enrollment counselor is responsible for helping Medicaid recipients enroll during the initial 12 months. I expect the numbers to dwindle for the last six months of that time period. Changes will primarily come from new patients to the area and patients who are unhappy with their initial choice.”

Medicaid patients were going to be a challenge for managed care. Because many of them were used to going to the emergency room for care, they were not in the habit of making or keeping appointments. Some facilities overbooked appointments to try to utilize medical staff efficiently; however, the practice caused very long waits at times. Other complicating factors included lack of telephones for contacting patients for reminder calls or physician follow-ups, lack of trans portation, the number of high-risk patients as a result of poverty or lifestyle factors, and patients that did not follow doctors’ orders.

Health Connection Enrollment

Medicaid recipients were required to be recertified every six months in the state of North Carolina. During this process, a time was allocated for the Public Consulting Group of Charlotte to make a presentation about the managed care choices avail able. The presentation included a discussion of:

managed care and HMOs and how they were similar to and different from previous Medicaid practices; benefits of Health Care Connections such as having a medical home, a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week hotline to ask questions about medical care, physician choice, and plan choice; and

Exhibit 16/17: ACCESS Enrollment Data for the Week Ended September 6, 1996

Atlantic

Week Totals Month-to-date Year-to-date

229 229 3,708 Project-to-date 3,708

Kaiser Permanente

347 347 5,384 5,384

Maxi-care

66 66 1,164 1,164

Optimum Choice

114 114 1,507 1,507

Wellness

C. W.

Plan Williams

189 189 2,238 2,238

Total

124 124

1,069 1,069 2,016 16,017 16,017 2,016 16,017 16,017

H E A LT H

1 6 :

methods to choose a plan based on wanting to use a doctor that the patient had used before, hospital choice (some plans were associated with a specific hospital), and location (for easy access).

If Medicaid recipients did not choose a plan that day, they had ten working days to call in on the hotline to choose a plan. If they had not done so by that deadline, they were randomly assigned to a plan. Public Consulting Group’s health benefits advisors (HBAs) made the presentations and then assisted each individual in determining what choice he or she would like to make and filling out the paperwork. More than 80 percent of the Medicaid recipients who went through the recertification process and heard the presentation decided on site. Most others called back on the hotline after more carefully studying the information. About 3 percent were randomly assigned because they did not select a plan. New Medicaid recipients were provided individualized presentations because they tended to be new to the community, had recently developed a health prob lem, or were pregnant. Because they might have less information than those who had been “in the system” for some time, it took a more detailed explanation from the HBA.

HBAs presented the information in a fair, factual, and useful manner for ses sion attendees. For the first several months they attempted to thoroughly explain the difference between an HMO and a “partially federally funded community health center,” but the HBAs decided it was too confusing to the audience and did not really make a difference in their health care. For the past month they explained “managed care” more carefully and touched lightly on HMOs. C. W. Williams was presented as one of the choices, although some of the HBAs mentioned that it was the only choice that had evening and weekend hours for appointments.

Strategic Plan for C. W. Williams

With the help of Michelle Marrs, the C. W. Williams Board of Directors was beginning to develop a strategic plan. Exhibit 16/18 provides the SWOT analysis that was developed. “Part of our strategic plan was to go to the people – make it easier for our patients to visit C. W. Williams by establishing satellite clinics. We recently became aware of a building that is for sale that would meet our needs. The owner would like to sell to us. He’s older and likes the idea that the building will ‘do some good for people,’ but he’s asking $479,000. The location is near a large number of Medicaid beneficiaries plus a middle-class area of minority patients that could add to our insured population. I just don’t know if we should take the risk to buy the building. We own our current building and have no debt. We are running out of space at C. W. Williams. We have two examination rooms for each physician and all patients have to wait on the first floor and then be called to the second floor when a room becomes free.

I know that ideally for the greatest efficiency we should have three exam rooms for each doctor.”

W H AT T O D O

Exhibit 16/18: C. W. Williams Health Center SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Community-based business Primary care provider with walk-in component Large patient base Fast, discounted pharmacy Cash reserve Laboratory/X-ray Clean facility in good location Satellites Good reputation with community and funders Resources for disabled patients Strong leadership/management Growth potential Property owned with good parking Excellent quality of care Culturally sensitive staff Nice environment Dedicated board and staff

Opportunities

Many in the community are uninsured and have

multiple medical care needs

A number of universities are located in the

Charlotte area Health care reform Oversupply of physicians means that many will not set up private practices or be able to join just any practice Managed care Charlotte market

Weaknesses

Need for deputy director Lack of RN/triage director Staffing and staffing pattern Managed care readiness Number of providers Recruitment and retention Limited referrals Limited services No social worker/nutritionist/health educator No on-site Medicaid eligibility Weak relationship with community MDs Limited hours of operation Transportation Organizational structure Management information systems Market share at risk of erosion Staff orientation to managed care

Threats

Uncertain financial future of health care in

general

Health care reform Competition from other health care providers

for the medically underserved

Loss of patients as they choose HMOs rather

than C. W. Williams Managed care Reimbursement restructuring Shortage of health care professionals

“We have had an architect look at the proposed facility. He estimated that it would take about $500,000 for remodeling. According to the tax records, the building and land are worth about $250,000. Since we don’t yet know how many patients we will actually receive from Health Care Connection or how many of our patients will choose an HMO, it’s hard to decide if we should take the risk.”

What to Do

“At the end of the week I sometimes wonder what I’ve accomplished,” Michelle stated. “I seem to spend a lot of time putting out fires when I should be concen trating on developing a strategic plan and writing more grants.”

H E A LT H

NOTES

1 6 :

  1. This section is adapted from Mickey Goodson, A Quick History (National Association of Community Health Centers Publication, undated).
  2. Utilization and Costs to Medicaid of AFDC Recipients in New York Served and Not Served by Community Health Centers (Columbia, MD: Center for Health Policy Studies, June 1994).
  3. Using Medicaid Fee-for-Service Data to Develop Com- munity Health Center Policy (Seattle, WA: Washington Association of Community Health Centers and Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, 1994).
  1. Key Points: A National Survey of Patient Experiences in Community and Migrant Health Centers (New York: Commonwealth Fund, 1994).
  2. Health Insurance of Minorities in the US (Report by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, US Department of Health and Human Services, 1992) and Green Book, Overview of Entitlement Programs Under the Jurisdiction of the Ways and Means Committee (US House
    • f Representatives, 1994).

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Using Information In Human Resources

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Read assignment brief to follow it as checklist

Identify a problem for the research project

Write a research question

Identify the stakeholders – CEO/Managers/Employees/Customers etc

Find at least 3-4 research articles that are relevant to your study

Make notes against each study and then identify similar or different themes Write your literature review – must include compare and contrast of author  viewpoints

Add in a critique of the literature

Write recommendations and conclusions based on your research

I need you to confirm the research question with me before you complete the paper

The organization should be Saudi Aramco

You must follow the instruction in Live Session Slides file

How to best tackle this assessment (Hints and Tips)

• This is a study of the purpose, value and relevance of secondary research

• Do not carry out topic related primary research

• Pick an area of the business / organisation that would benefit from improvement – include a graph/pie chart (your own work)

• Select three key secondary sources

• Critically review them

• Feel free to make assumptions about the methodology (primary research) used

• Write a report (2500 words +/- 10%)

• Draw conclusions from your review of these texts

• Make recommendations to your identified key stakeholder

 
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Hcs 499 Benchmark Assignment—Goals For Stevens District Hospital, Part 2

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For Part 2 of the Goals for Stevens District Hospital assignment, you will use the same format you used in Week Three. In this assignment, you will identify 3 additional goals that support the mission and vision of the hospital. For each goal, you will write a 260- to 350-word analysis based on your review of the data provided in the Stevens District Hospital strategic planning scenario and your SWOT analysis.

Financial or Economic Goal

Identify a clear, actionable, and measurable financial or economic goal for the organization that clearly supports the mission and vision.

Analyze how this goal supports the mission and vision of the hospital.

Explain how you would measure progress toward the goal.

  • Discuss milestones necessary for progress.
  • Discuss the criteria you would use to measure that the goal was completed.

Legal or Regulatory Goal

Identify a clear, actionable, and measurable legal or regulatory goal for the organization that clearly supports the mission and vision.

Analyze how this goal supports the mission and vision of the hospital.

Explain how you would measure progress toward the goal.

  • Discuss milestones necessary for progress.
  • Discuss the criteria you would use to measure that the goal was completed.

Risk or Quality Management Goal

Identify a clear, actionable, and measurable risk or quality management goal for the organization that clearly supports the mission and vision.

Analyze how this goal supports the mission and vision of the hospital.

Explain how you would measure progress toward the goal.

  • Discuss milestones necessary for progress.
  • Discuss the criteria you would use to measure that the goal was completed.

References (format using correct APA guidelines)

Cite 4 peer-reviewed, scholarly, or similar references to support your assignment.

Use correct APA in-text citation guidelines and include references above.

 
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2000-2500 Word Essay (8-10 Pages) In APA Format On Ponzi Schemes

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Running Head: Ponzi Schemes 1

Ponzi Schemes 11

Running head (Header not in proper APA format)

Ponzi Schemes Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Center please.

Latoya Smith

Bethel University

 

MOD 450

Dr. Angelo Lamar

February 14, 2019

 

Abstract

Ponzi schemes date back in 1920’s when Charles Ponzi got involved in a disreputable money generating scheme. Initially the scheme had been tried without success but Charles managed to be the first person to embezzle millions from rather ignorant and innocent credulous people. This is the main reason the scheme bears Ponzi’s name. Later in 2008, one of the Ponzi’s conspirators was brought to the light. Madoff had conned investors of their money for close to thirty years. Unfortunately, the conned investors were all classy and literate. This paper is aimed at providing brief history of the Ponzi schemes and an illustration of how Ponzi schemes work. The second aim of the paper is to give examples of historically popular Ponzi schemers. In addition the paper provides some common characteristics of Ponzi schemes to be able to facilitate easy identification of illegal Ponzi schemes. The paper ends by providing hints on how to avoid unlawful and notorious Ponzi schemes. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Keep up the good work here.

 

Introduction Comment by Lamar, Angelo: The title to your paper should go above this heading.

Ponzi schemes are typical fraudulent investments in which the owner promises the investors abnormally high financial returns from their investment. The scheme operator does not invest the investors’ money; instead, the operator uses the funds from new investors to pay the already existing investors their dividends. The schemes operate smoothly until they lack adequate subsequent investors to sustain payment of dividends to existing investors. This is according to the federal bureau of investigation’s definition of Ponzi schemes. A Ponzi scheme may also seize to operate when the notorious, illegal and fraudulent business is discovered by the government or any other legal authority. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: If so, where is the citation? If information does not come from you then give credit to where it came from.

According to the business dictionary Ponzi schemes are scams which operate on the hope of continued increase in the number of incoming investors to facilitate paying the returns to the former investors. The operations come to a halt when the amount of money getting out of the business exceeds the incoming amount. However, the schemers are wise enough to flee before the business crashes down. In this scenario the schemer tends to escape with large sums of money belonging to the investors and this equates to theft, cheat and may lead to legal interventions. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: If so, where is your citation? If information does not come from you then give credit to where it came from.

History of Ponzi schemes

Ponzi scheme has its history dating back in 1920 when Charles Ponzi got involved in a disreputable money generating scheme. Initially the scheme had been tried without success but Charles managed to be the first person to embezzle millions from rather ignorant and innocent credulous people. Today Ponzi schemes refer to an investment deception in which the conniver promises investors of deriving high returns from an investment that is said to have little or no risks involved. However, the conniver uses the money contributed by a new investor to pay the former investors. The secret behind Ponzi schemes is the ability of the schemer to continue attracting new investors to be able to pay returns to the already recruited investors without redress. Ponzi schemes however tend to be discovered when the schemer fails to convince and recruit new investors lacking sufficient funds to pay returns to the existing investors. The scheme may also fail when the legal channels become aware of the business operations. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Where is your citation?

Ponzi schemes have their names derived from Charles Ponzi who was an Italian fraud and cheat who made money by deceiving investors. The embezzler used to promise investors a fifty percent returns on investments in approximately three months. Annually, banks would charge interest rates of 5% which made Ponzi preferable (Dulitzky), 2018). Ponzi schemes became international within a very short period of time. Eventually, Ponzi began to use new investor’s funds to pay the existing investors. With Ponzi schemes new amounts of money were involved and this made his strategy to become popular unlike previous attempts to carry out this fraudulent business and hence the name Ponzi schemes (Surendranath R. Jory, 2011). Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Why did you close the parentheses twice? Everything belongs within. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Author’s last name only with date.

Popular Ponzi schemers

Bernard Madoff is one of Ponzi’s historical conspirators ((Dulitzky), 2018). He ran a Ponzi scheme for over thirty years. In his business at Madoff Securities, Madoff managed to embezzle millions of funds from intellectuals who found themselves victims of this fraudulent business. It is bewildering that indeed educated, professionals, intellectuals, society respectable figures could so easily get swindled into losing millions of dollars to a scheme that was formed by a simple man named Charles Ponzi. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: What format is this?

Madoff will remain the most popular Ponzi schemer because of the thousands who became victims of his fraudulent business. In December 2008, Madoff’s business was exposed and handed over to the authorities. He pled guilty and majority questioned his great reputation. After discovery of Madoff’s scam many other schemes got exposed because financial authorities became vigilant in securitizing investors in this market. Madoff’s scheme was however the largest Ponzi scheme in the US. In approximation, Madoff had accumulated 65 billion US dollars. Investors lost estimated 17.3 billion (Maglich, 2012). Half of the investors lost money was recovered by Irving Picard by May 2012.

Allen Stanford is another fraudster through the Stanford bank investment. He was the chairman of the Stanford Financial group. Allen operated businesses aimed at selling certificates of deposits to investors (Maglich, 2012). This business contained virtually zero risk. In return Allen promised his investors high returns that are not common in ideal investments. Stanford was arrested, and the court ruling was postponed when Stanford claimed a prison beating caused him to have amnesia. Stanford was later convicted and imprisoned for twenty years in the federal correction facility. Approximately, 4.5 to 6 Billion were lost by investors under this scheme.

Peter’s group worldwide is another Ponzi scheme that was owned and operated by Thomas Petters. He was a businessman in the popular brands Polaroid and Sun Country Airlines. Petters business was betrayed by two of his employees who confessed to the FBI about a Ponzi scheme that had accumulated about 4Billion US dollars (Maglich, 2012). The operator typically engineered bank statements to obtain loans to funders. Subsequently, Petters would then formulate purchase orders to attract more lenders. Eventually, loans that were unpaid accumulated and this prompted Petters to seek more from other lenders. The airlines went bankrupt and then Petters was arrested and convicted in 2009 for conspiracy and fraud. He was imprisoned for fifty years in 2010. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: All paragraphs are to be indented.

Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler (lawyer) is another scam that involved the sale of interests to settle lawsuits by Scott Rothstein (Maglich, 2012). This was pure fraud because there were no actual lawsuit settlements. Scott constructed bank statements and legal documents in an attempt to sway and persuade investors that the scheme was legal. Investors continued to buy shares which supplied the scheme with incoming funds to pay the initial investors. The scheme was later discovered by law firms and Scott immediately fled to morocco carrying along millions of investors’ money. Later on Scott was lured to return to the US and was charged with fraud and imprisoned for fifty years upon pleading guilty. Estimated 1.4 billion of investors’ money was lost in this Scheme. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Indent Paragraph

Another popular Ponzi scheme is the MRI International Inc. that was operated by Fujinaga Edwin that led to the loss of eight hundred million US dollars of mainly Japanese investors (Maglich, 2012). MRI International Inc. was basically a non-existing business and the name was used to convince investors that it was a real business. Fijinaga and MRI International Inc. managed to convince investors that they bought accounts from US medical and insurance advisors. This Ponzi scheme promised investors huge profits once the targeted amount was collected from the insurance company. The investors were offered tour to the US to visit the MRI International Inc. office that was located in Las Vegas and more than eight thousand investors were conned in this scheme. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Indent Paragraph

Zeek Rewards is also a Ponzi scheme that led to the loss of approximately 600 million US dollars of investors’ money. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit in 2012 seeking to investigate the scheme (Maglich, 2012). The court mandated the duty to Kenneth Bell to investigate the scheme who found that the scheme had over 2 million members who had invested in Zeek Rewards. The scheme sold interests to investors through an online platform popularly linked by zeekler.com that was not licensed. Zeekrewards.com was an online auction site, were you could bid on products like iPad for as low as $1, and basically it was used for, investors who needed to cash out their money requested it online and had to wait for the check. Zeek rewards CEO Paul Burks, however was convicted in 2016 and sentenced to twenty years in prison for running one of the historical Ponzi schemes in the US. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Cite here.

Nevin Shapiro founded Capitol Investment USA Inc. that promised investors exemplary returns through a grocery business (Maglich, 2012). The business involved buying of groceries that were lowly priced and reselling them at higher prices. The schemer described the business as risk free and with higher returns. The investors were promised between 10 and 26% returns from their investment. The schemer managed to accumulate close to a billion US Dollars using funds from new investors to repay returns to older investors. In 2011, Nevin was charged with fraud and sentenced to, to 20 years in jail (Maglich, 2012).

Illustration of a Typical Ponzi scheme

To elaborate how a Ponzi scheme manages to extract funds form investors without them noticing that it is fraud, a tabular presentation of a Ponzi scheme promising a 20% return on investment is used.

Year Funds Needed Amounts Raised ($1,000s) # of Investors
0 $ 100,000  $ 50.00  $ 50.00 2
1 $ 120,000  $ 40.00  $ 40.00  $ 40.00 3
2 $ 144,000  $ 48.00  $ 48.00  $ 48.00 3
3 $ 172,800  $ 43.20  $ 43.20  $ 43.20  $ 43.20 4
4 $ 207,360  $ 41.47  $ 41.47  $ 41.47  $ 41.47  $ 41.47 5
 

Source: https://www.onefpa.org/journal/Pages/Ponzi%20Schemes%20A%20Critical%20Analysis.aspx

From the table above, it is clear that initially, 100,000 US dollars was required to start the scheme. This implies that the schemer needed two investors each to contribute half of the amount. A 29% return on the investment requires the schemer to repay 120,000 US dollars to the first two investors, 600,000$ each. To generate the 120,000$ in the first year, the scheme will need to convince 3 new investors each to contribute 40,000$ making a total of the needed amount for the first two investors (Surendranath R. Jory, 2011). Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Indent paragraph Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Author’s last name and date only.

By the second year, the schemer would need 144,000$ to repay the three new investors which will force him to recruit four new investors each to contribute 48,000$. By the end of the third year, the schemer will be required to repay 57,600 $ which will force recruitment of four new investors each to contribute 43,200$. The trend will continue until more and more investors have been recruited into the scheme (Surendranath R. Jory, 2011). Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Indent paragraph

Ponzi schemes are however are not as simple to run as shown in the figure above. Usually, they seek to attract many initial investors and high initial contribution. For example, in the Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, the scheme contained thousands of investors and contributions were in billions of dollars. Clients who are investors in the Madoff scheme included firms such as Tremont group holdings, Greenwich advisors, international banks, pension funds, insurance and medical companies, rich individuals all representing the diverse origin of schemes victims. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Indent

Detecting Ponzi Schemes

To be able to avoid falling victims of Ponzi Schemes, individuals need to be aware of the warning signs of a Ponzi fraudulent scheme. Ponzi schemes can be detected easily because they bear a common set of characteristics. These characteristics are the red flags that people should get conversant with to be able to protect themselves and their friends and relatives from falling victims of Ponzi schemes. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Indent.

The most common feature of Ponzi scheme is high investment returns zero or minimal risk (Surendranath R. Jory, 2011). Basically, no single investment literally lacks some percentage risk. There are no guaranteed zero risk investment and this statement should serve as a warning that the business is a scam.

The second characteristic is the abnormally consistent high returns (US SEC, 2018). Normal businesses fluctuate and rise periodically. An investment that promises consistent returns stand to be questioned. Market conditions are the factors that dictate business returns depending with the seasons. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Move up

The third feature is the lack of registration (US SEC, 2018). Ponzi schemes are not legally registered because they operate unlawful businesses. The schemes do not conform to state and federal laws and thus cannot be registered. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Move up.

Financial investments are required by law to be operated by professionals who must be licensed under federal and state laws (Surendranath R. Jory, 2011). For schemers, the operators are not professionals and neither are they licensed(US SEC, 2018). This means that operators are unrecognized and firms are unregistered and unacknowledged.

Ponzi schemes operate in cagey, complicated and private premises with complex strategies and unreliable structures. Investments need to understandable and with clear information from which to draw information. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Move up

Another common feature of Ponzi Schemes is that they have no qualifications for investing. Instead investment is open to all. Ponzi schemes do not embrace technological based data records but rely on paperwork (US SEC, 2018).

This is to prevent existence of evidence of fraud. Paper records can be easily erased and manipulated. With Ponzi schemes investors cannot easily access their investment funds. Some usually advise investors to accumulate investment returns into greater returns which never become a reality. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Move up

The last common feature of Ponzi scheme is that they make use of affinity fraud. This entails use of a trusted individual to bring more investors into the scheme. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Move up

Avoiding and Regulating Ponzi Schemes

Individuals have been provided with checklists and the red flags of Ponzi schemes to prevent them from falling victims. However, people still become victims either because they trust the promoter or because they do not have adequate knowledge regarding the schemes. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Indent.

When one becomes a prey in a Ponzi scheme, they are encouraged to seek help from a financial advisor. There are legal punishments that are accorded participation in this fraudulent illegal business. However, a victim must seek legal redress to expose a fraudulent business. Upon exposure, a Ponzi scheme is sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the legal system appoints a legal trustee to recover the lost money. This benefits even the other investors who had not realized that the investment was a scam. The money is recovered from assets, and the consequences may extend to the bankers of the Ponzi scheme perpetrator. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Indent

In cases where a Ponzi scheme perpetrator had contributed to charity using the embezzled funds, the amount donated may be required to be returned when the scheme is exposed regardless of the state of the receiver. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Indent

Conclusion

In conclusion, Ponzi schemes are fraudulent investments that began as early as the 1920’s. The business involves incorporating investors into a non-existent investment promising high returns on the investment. Investors are paid using the funds of new investors who are convinced into the scheme by an influential character into the scheme. Technology and innovation in this fraudulent business are also perceivable. The industry has grown and its products also diversified. People need to be vigilant and be on the lookout for the warning signs of a Ponzi scheme to avoid becoming victims. It is imperative that investors differentiate between legal pyramid schemes and fraudulent Ponzi schemes. Comment by Lamar, Angelo: Indent.

 

References

(Dulitzky), D. K. (2018, March 5). The Challenges of Identifying and Preventing Ponzi Schemes. Retrieved Feb 7, 2019, from NYU JLB: https://www.nyujlb.org/single-post/2018/03/05/The-Challenges-of-Identifying-and-Preventing-Ponzi-Schemes

Maglich, J. (2012, May 20). Top Pozi Schemes. Retrieved Feb 11, 2019, from Ponzitracker: http://www.ponzitracker.com/top-ponzi-schemes/

Schain, P. J. (2011). The Never Ending Attraction of the Ponzi Scheme. Retrieved Feb 7, 2019, from Sacred Heart University: https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=http://int.search.myway.com/search/GGmain.jhtml?p2=&ptb=53C68D6A-8052-4221-9DC4-FD2622AF635B&n=&cn=US&ln=en&si=&tpr=hpsb&trs=wtt&brwsid=48bce492-f84d-4e2c-953e-d2c542921485&st=tab&searchfo

Surendranath R. Jory, P. a. (2011). Ponzi Schemes: A Critical Analysis. Journal of Financial Planning.

US SEC. (2018). Ponzi schemes Using virtual Currencies. Investor Education, 1-3.

Ms. Smith please find my comments above as it relates to your assignment. I have pointed out several errors that appear to repeat itself over and over throughout your assignments. Try to make a mental note or write them down and keep it close to you when writing to avoid these errors in the future. The information written in the assignment itself is good along with sentence structure and flow of thoughts, but one huge thing you forgot is that the majority of the information used was to come from your coursebook and not what is considered as secondary sources. You did not learn anything in class from the listed references so how can you construct a paper from them? You write the majority of information from the book you learn from. There is enough information in there to write your own book if you desired. Remember this in the future. Have a good weekend and I enjoyed you in class.

 
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