Month: August 2021

Discussion 8/2

  1. The linked article that I concentrated on was titled Make Your Meetings a Safe Space for Honest Conversation by Paul Axtell.  The reason Wynn chose to include this resource in her argument was because it solidified her idea that many employees struggle to have their misgivings voiced and actually taken into consideration.  Many of their voices are ignored altogether by superiors within the employee’s company.  Wynn’s entire argument relies on the fact that too many companies disregard their workers needs and concerns especially in relation to diversity and aspects of a person’s individual identity. 

Axtell’s article states a way in which managers can potentially create safe spaces where employees can share their concerns and issues, or just talk freely without the fear of not being heard.  He heard about this method from a meeting and it made an lasting impact on him, hence why he wanted to share it.  The person Axtell discovered it from would have occasional “no secrets” meetings, where the manager of his specialization would treat his employees to pizza and everyone would talk freely.  They would use broad openers to create conversation and encourage everyone to be as honest as they could.  This method would foster a sense of camaraderie, trust, and respect for everyone. 

He then goes through helpful advice for potential leaders to achieve these ‘safe places’.  The leaders should start with asking for permission, to address things that may already be assumed gives the group more trust since everything spelled out exactly.  Next, the leader should make sure that he/she empowers and encourages the people in the group to all share and contribute to the conversation in a way they are comfortable reaching out.  This should all be done while promoting the idea of safety within the talk and ensuring that everyone is listening and being respectful.

The reason this article goes so well with Wynn’s article is due to the fact that they contrast each other.  Wynn speaks about how companies tend to lack a sense of trust because organizations, in many cases, do not make the effort to address and change the inequalities on a companywide scale and, instead, blame the injustices on the individual and society.  By linking Axtell’s article, Wynn shows an exact way in which companies and leaders can promote unity and create trust between coworkers.

2. I think that people in charge of organizations and the men and women who hold leadership positions within organizations would benefit the most from Wynn’s article.  The reason I believe this is her target audience is because of the quote “If you were an executive tasked with reducing gender inequality in your organization, how would you do it?”  To me, this quote is the reason Wynn wrote this article: to address all the places organizations allow these inequalities to thrive, instead of stopping the issues at their roots.

The passage titled Recruiting is a place where the organization can make a big change and a place where these leaders can see where their biases often take place, creating the necessity to target them in this article.  This is “the very first moment organizations interact with potential candidates” and where “biases can infiltrate the process”.  Therefore, the superiors in these companies should address their inequality problems as soon as possible in the process.

Discussion 8/2

  1. In “Even at ‘Inclusive’ Companies, Women of Color Don’t Feel Supported”, by Beth A. Livingston and Tina R. Opie, the importance of connections between women of varying ethnicities/race in the workplace is examined. Through “shared sisterhood”, women can come together to “design strategies, dismantle structures that prevent advancement, or even just offer mutual support” (Livingston & Opie, p,1). However, due to the exclusionary attitudes and tone-deaf conversations, women of color are less likely to be emotionally vulnerable in the workplace. This hesitation to be open with another suppresses professional growth and productivity. After conducting a survey, the authors concluded that connections are unlikely to form until organizations recognize and address biases within. 

2. This article is hyperlinked to “emotional labor and taxation” in Wynn’s article. This phrase appears under one of the solutions (minimizing microaggressions) to create organizational change. This article is useful because it expands further than providing a simple explanation. In this piece, relevant research to emotional struggles in the workplace has been conducted and questions have been posed. I would like to personally research this topic further because it is an area I have never given much consideration.

I think white people would benefit from reading this article because it explains how even if an organization is labeled as “inclusive” that does not mean the work towards equity ends there. Additionally, I think that managers/executive positions would benefit from reading this because they are supervising behavior and setting the tone for the workplace. Additionally, I think women of color should read his because it encourages connections even if it is challenging. 

An excerpt for managers/executive positions:

“You can’t build meaningful connections between women of different races and ethnicities, let alone ask them to advocate for their collective advancement, if black and Hispanic women report being excluded from the relationships required to make an organization run.”

https://hbr.org/2019/08/even-at-inclusive-companies-women-of-color-dont-feel-supported

Discussions / Homework Week of 8/2

Response # 1

As the title implies, the article “Why Most Performance Evaluations are Biased, and How to Fix Them” by Lori Nishiura Mackenzie, JoAnne Wehner, and Shelly J. Correll, imparts some solid advice. Nishiura, et. al, researchers at the Stanford VMWare Women’s Leadership Lab, conducted studies of performance review procedures at three U.S. companies. These studies revealed patterns of ambiguity in evaluations for women. Research has shown that ambiguity or vagueness in procedure leads to implicit bias on performance reviews. It turns out that the most problematic area filled out on a performance assessment was the “open box” area where a manager can write the answer to an open-ended question like “Describe the ways the employee’s performance met your expectations.” The authors report that ambiguous questions like that often illicit a biased answer. The reasoning is that since there are no clearly established parameters in which to judge if the employee met expectations, managers fall back on their perceptions of the employee’s gender, race or other identity information to answer the question. Nishiura, et. al, offer several solutions to “constrain” the open box. They recommend creating a checklist to refer to when filling in boxes. That way, managers are consistently using the same criteria for all of their employees. Another key suggestion was for managers to establish a rubric by which employees will be evaluated by before the performance review. This ensures that the manager is basing their evaluation on actual evidence, not subjective feelings. Overall, this article is invaluable to anyone who is working. Afterall, every one of us will be evaluated and some of us will also be providing evaluations. As a side note, several of the managers written about in the article were relieved to finally have some structure and uniformity in the review process because they wanted to be fair but didn’t know how to. This piece provides an expanded lens in which to see how one of Alison Wynn’s six stages of the “employee life-cycle” in the “The Gender Policy Report” has a domino effect on what comes after performance reviews – Pay, Promotion and Termination Decisions, the crux of inequality issues for women and underrepresented groups.

Response # 2

I think company leaders would benefit most from reading Alison Wynn’s “The Gender Policy Report”. Wynn, a Research Associate at the Stanford VMWare Women’s Leadership Lab, puts forward several meaningful strategies for handling inequality in the workplace. Ms. Wynn has surely been successful in catching the eye of company executives when she states, “It may be easier to think of individualistic solutions—such as training ourselves to think differently and change our own behavior—or to blame larger societal forces we can’t control, rather than to change the intricate organizational procedures and practices that contribute to employment outcomes in complex ways. However, my research suggests that we must address organizational forms of inequality as well.” In this sentence, the author goes out of her way to include statements that reflect how executives she examined in a year-long case study understood what constituted inequality in an organization. It most likely will cause executives’ interest to be piqued and to wonder what Wynn’s suggestions are because they mistakenly thought they were already doing everything they could to reduce inequality. 

Discussion Questions Week of 8/2

Response to #1

In “Is Redemption Possible in the Aftermath of #MeToo” by Tovia Smith, a reporter at NPR, difficult questions regarding the reintegration of men who are accused of being predators and a part of the #MeToo movement are examined. The author notes that it has been two years since the #MeToo movement began to gain media attention as a result of Harvey Weinstein and stated that it is time to question whether or not some individuals are worthy of returning to society.

Smith presents the question of when the men guilty of their crimes should be allowed back into society. Through interviewing activists like Taran Burke, lawyers, and ethicists, Smith presents a compelling argument of what needs to be further examined. To eliminate sexual violence in the workplace, we must focus on undoing the harm that the perpetrators have accomplished. Undoing their harm, according to others can only be accomplished through rehabilitation and reintegration into society. Determining whether or not these individuals can return to society depends on the gravity of the crime at hand. Various elements such as the seriousness of the offense,  sincerity of the apology, and restitution to the victims are just some things that need to be examined.

This question that Smith presents to the reader is an extremely valuable one. In a world where one scandal replaces the next, it is important to understand that the perpetrators of sexual crimes in the workplace these past two years cannot be let off the hook. Factors that determine whether or not these individuals are still menaces in society must be examined, as not everyone can be rehabilitated. The article however states that through therapy and rehabilitation, change is possible, and we need to aim to reintegrate these individuals into society. This thankfully is not as easy as it seems. Organizations understand the weight that the #MeToo movement carries and the reputations that these perpetrators carry around with them. Therefore, it isn’t easy and most of them won’t be able to obtain a job that they previously held due to questions surrounding the organization’s reputation and liability.

This source adds a tremendous amount of value to Wynn’s article. The article “Individual Change Won’t Create Gender Equality in Organizations” addresses the issue of female underrepresentation in the tech industry, with only 25% of jobs being held by women. The toxic workplace culture creates an environment that does not support female leaders, instead, fostering one where sexual harassment is deemed somewhat normal. Along with this, the article examines the idea that change doesn’t occur on an individual level, however, a transition into a workplace that promotes equality can only be accomplished through organizational change. Smith’s article on the #MeToo movement examines what steps society needs to take as a whole towards rehabilitating perpetrators. It is not something that can only be accomplished by themselves, rather the justice system, therapists, the perpetrators, and regular individuals need to recognize the role that they have in creating an environment that does not tolerate SA.

             Both articles, in summary, recognize that change needs to happen on a larger scale. Changing one individual through classes does not promote change. Changing the way that society as a whole approach various issues creates long-term change and hopefully prevents incidents like this from occurring in the future or being seen as normal.

Response to #2

Leaders who want to gain a new perspective on how to promote positive change in their organization would benefit the most from Wynn’s article. This includes HR reps (more specifically, talent acquisition groups), managers, and people who have the ability to act to change their organization. This includes CEOs and COOs. Wynn wants the steps and the issues addressed within the article to be applied to every industry, as she believes that the framework can be applied to every organization to promote equality.

HR reps are an important target group for this article because for the steps that she lays out for organizational change, they are all directed towards HR responsibilities. For the first two elements, recruiting and hiring, those are often done by the talent acquisition department which is why  I stated that they are a more specific target audience than just HR representatives. Giving HR representatives clear, well laid out steps on how to approach the issue of equality in the workplace allows for HR to address equality in the workplace. Furthermore, Wynn addresses that organizations not only pursue equality related to gender, but for all types.

One of the main points that Wynn also makes in her article is the idea that we cannot blame society, or ourselves, for all causes of inequality, as “It may be easier to think of individualistic solutions- such as training ourselves to think differently and change our own behavior- or to blame larger societal forces we can’t control, rather than to change the intricate organizational procedures and practices that contribute to employment outcomes in complex ways. However, my research suggests that we must address organizational forms of inequality as well” . This is where she targets CEOs, COOs, and managers as well.

It is important that in the leadership positions  in the organization accept fault on areas where they are lacking or fail to live up to expectations on equality. In order to promote change within the organization, understanding the shortcomings of the organizations will prove critical in creating the change necessary to create for an equal opportunity, safe environment. Managers that recognize their organizations lack equality are able to create an environment where change is possible. They have the ability to control the way that the organization approaches issues of equality or procedures.  This is why I believe that she is mainly targeting leaders within the organization, because they have the ability to change the organizations procedures, and culture.

If you really think about the message that Wynn is trying to send to the reader, she is really just targeting anyone that is a part of an organization. She recognizes that although one person might not spark change in an organization, if you have a collective group of people within that organization that promote the idea of changing certain procedures, then an organization may be able to change. Therefore, Wynn is targeting pretty much anyone that is in an organization in my opinion.

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Discussion Questions wk 8/2

1)

The article “In ‘Brotopia’, Silicon Valley Disrupts Everything but the Boys’ Club”, Jennifer Szalai analyzes Emily Changs book “Breaking up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley” in order to make sense of the privilege men in the technology industry have. She expresses that men in this industry have been able to profit off of their wealth and power so they can indulge in all the things that were previously denied to them which are “mainly stuff, status and sex.”. Szalai mentions a group of men who created a company and rather than hire female engineers, they decided to hire their friends. She attributes this to the idea that “women in leadership will create an environment for more leadership”, which would be a hinderance to the way the men were able to abuse their power and wealth. When men are in power they are able to get away with many things which is what Jennifer concludes from Chang’s book. Men in this industry were able to get away with numerous cases of sexual harassment and online trolling.

This article contributes to Wynn’s article because it supports the claims she has explored in her writing. Wynn says that women only make up “25% of computing jobs and 5% of leadership positions in tech”. Szalai expands on this when she mentions that the men in the tech company did not want to hire women and instead resorted to hiring their male friends. When Wynn mentions the disrespectful treatment of women in the tech industry Szalai’s article supports this because she goes on to mention that the men in these positions had been able to get away with cases of sexual harassment without any consequences.

2)

I think this article would benefit many people because it highlights the flaws in the tech industry. I believe the target audience is people who are in a position of power in this industry and many other male dominated industries. This article tackles the issue of entitlement and unfair practices in the tech industry based on gender which can be very enlightening to people in these positions who may have not thought about it. The sentence from this article that I believe is very significant “From its earliest days the industry has self-selected for men:first, antisocial nerds, then, decades later, self-confident and risk-taking bros”. This would work for this intended audience because it provides an introduction to way the industry has favored men for years and the changes that have emerged in these men.

Discussion Questions Week 8/2

#1 The journal article, “Individual Change Won’t Create Gender Equality in Organizations,” authored by Alison Wynn, points out that gender bias as well as disparity are still very present in today’s workplace and decision makers need to step up to decrease this. Jessi Hempel in the article, “Why Are There Few Women in Tech?” explores this concept from a pre-employment recruiting standpoint as to how companies alienate women and thus do not end up with qualified female candidates with science, technology engineering, or math (STEM) degrees.

The article discusses preliminary recruiting sessions in well-known colleges, which apparently routinely discourage women from applying to their tech organizations. The gaffes that tech companies make while attempting to recruit female candidates are numerous and clearly indicate not only an unwelcoming environment for women, but rather a misogynistic environment within the organization.

As Alison Wynn indicates, this atmosphere is crystal clear from the start of staff recruiting sessions. Women were relegated to refreshment control and handing out swag (did I hear the term secretary whispered?). Female engineers were not given featured roles in presentations but rather served as window dressing and if they did get a word in…they had the real possibility of being rudely interrupted by a male colleague. Of the sessions Wynn’s research team observed, only 22 percent featured female engineers talking about technical work. When those women did speak, according to the sessions observed, male presenters spoke over them. Moreover, recruiters used gender stereotypes of women in sexy attire and discussed porn. Seriously? Is this a frat house party or recruitment of individuals with an Ivy League degree?

As expected, many women walked out of the recruitment meetings without submitting an application. In the words of Albert Einstein: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If organizations expect to recruit female candidates, they must change the manner in which they interact with potential candidates. Failure to do this will continue the inequality in the organizations.

 #2 Who do I think would most benefit from reading this article? I think decision makers from HR managers to CEOs to recruitment team members need to not only read this article but to take a cold hard look at the manner in which they recruit individuals. While this article focused on female recruitment, I suspect we could add other demographics to this as well. I can’t even begin to contemplate what the recruiters would think of someone with a disability (my research paper area). By actively including female candidates in their recruiting efforts an organization can move forward and make the most of its diversity by creating an inclusive, equitable and sustainable culture and work environment. The diversity of women creates the potential for greater innovation and productivity, inclusion is what enables organizations to realize the business benefits of this potential. Equity refers to fair treatment in access, opportunity and advancement for these individuals. Work in this area involves identifying and working to remove barriers to fair treatment for this group. Obviously one way as the article suggests, is to recruit more females into tech firms.

Wynn’s group research however shows some of the problems in the recruiting teams sent to bring more females into the firms. These are a few of their findings.

In an attempt to appear approachable, presenters often made comments that disparaged women or depicted them as sexualized objects rather than talented technical colleagues. For example, in one session, a man mentioned the “better gender ratio” at the company’s Los Angeles office compared with its Silicon Valley office. “I had no girlfriends at [University Name], but now I’m married,” he said, suggesting that the better odds had helped get him hitched.

This type of informal banter occasionally devolved into overtly sexualized comments. One presenter from a small startup mentioned porn a couple of times. Another, when talking about a project that would allow banking on ships, suggested that sailors needed access to cash for prostitutes.

I think if HR managers, CEOs and recruitment team members were to look at these findings with an unbiased eye, they might recognize this certainly is not the way to encourage women to work with them. I also believe if their legal staff were to review these statements, there might be other issues at hand as well.

Frankly when I read through this article for the first time, I almost laughed because the examples were almost so ludicrous. Is this real life? Sadly it is. Effective recruitment means companies recruit individuals with a collective mixture of not just similarities but differences to provide the company with a diverse group of employees. Until the recruiters and their firms learn how to present information in an unbiased manner, there will continue to be a lack of females in the tech field.

Discussion Questions Week of 8/2

Response to #1

In “Research: Vague Feedback is Holding Women Back,” Shelley J. Correll and Caroline Simard identify a major problem in the employee performance evaluation process that is making it harder for women to advance into upper-level management roles. The authors are associated with the VMWare Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab at Stanford University, where they conducted a study of performance evaluations at several high-tech companies. They found a noticeable difference between the way men and women received feedback on their performance. It turns out, men receive much more specific and detailed information about their performance than women, who tend to receive feedback in more general and vague ways. The authors hypothesize that because men receive critical and concrete feedback, they can make specific and measurable adjustments that demonstrate improvement. In contrast, because women tend to receive vague feedback along the lines of “people like working with you” or “you had a great year,” they do not have a chance to make adjustments that will demonstrate improvements in performance. Additionally, when women did receive specific feedback, it tended to relate to their communications style rather than ways to develop technical expertise that would help them advance. I found it interesting that nowhere in the article did it state that male reviewers were more likely to give these types of biased performance reviews, which I took to mean that female managers are also perpetuating the problem.

As a result of these findings, Correll and Simard make several recommendations to help managers give better feedback to women and level the playing field, such as setting a goal to discuss three specific business outcomes with each employee, avoiding vague language and praise, and striving to write reviews of the same length for all employees. In sum, providing actionable feedback is the key.

The Correll and Simard article supports Alison Wynn’s article in a couple of ways. Because Wynn’s article provides only a high-level overview of areas in the employee life cycle where organizations can improve gender equality, she does not go into depth in any specific area. The Correll and Simard article provides a rationale for making improvements to the performance evaluation process as well as recommendations for how to go about doing it. Correll and Simard can also devote more space to defining a “vague” evaluation and the ramifications. I found the link to the supporting article to be an effective way for Wynn to offer more details to readers who wanted them, without detracting from her overall goals.

Response to #2

In “Individual Change Won’t Create Gender Equality in Organizations,” Alison Wynn explores an issue that I have questioned for some time. Can we expect organizations to bear the burden of changing the people who work there? Or should an organization focus on the changing things it can control, like policies and processes? Based on her research studies, she argues that organizations are more likely to create change by focusing on the organization itself. After reading her article, I would say I definitely agree.

Wynn is targeting executives and leaders of organizations with this message. When she writes: “The executives in my sample trended toward two primary explanations for inequality: placing responsibility on individual men and/or women, and blaming the larger society,” she not only reveals her intended audience but also raises an important point. When people get asked about a complex problem, they often talk in a way to justify or rationalize why the problem exists instead of talking about ways to fix it. In a way, this type of reaction is a defense of the status quo and deflects the issue away from the responsible parties. If there’s any group that has the power to change the status quo in an organization, it’s the organization’s leaders. So I’m glad to see her directly address them in this way. Additionally, the framework for change that she recommends offers very practical advice that is not too difficult or disruptive for executives to implement. In a way, she is saying that a lot of small changes can result in a big improvement in gender equality overall.

Discussion Questions Week 8/2

Question 1

In the journal article “Women are Working more than ever, but they still take on most Household Responsibilities” Maggie Germano explores the responsibilities that women take on in addition to their job. She explains that while women have definitely gained more equality in the workplace than we had 50 years ago, we have yet to achieve true equality in the workplace and in more places than just the office. Germano gives statistics and discusses how women are treated differently in the workplace in regards to their lives at home. Having children, caring for sick and/or elderly family members both are most likely taken care of by the women in the relationship and therefore their jobs are affected.

The value in this article is that it is drawing attention to how much women do in a day and how their jobs and income is negatively affected by it. Why should a women be penalized for having a child if it does not affect how much work they do or how they do it? Why do men not get penalized as much for the same thing? Germano makes these points in ways that are not attacking or accusing businesses or companies but simply pointing out that these practices are unfair and need to be changed. This adds an example to Wynn’s point in her article “Individual Change Won’t Create Gender Equality in Organizations”. It is supporting her ideas and giving evidence to her argument.

Question 2

Alison Wynn’s article “Individual Change Won’t Create Gender Equality in Organizations” discusses the idea that individuals are not enough to fix gender inequality in the workplace. She identifies different ways that employees can work together to dissolve inequality in their company and offices. I think that all men would benefit the most from reading her article, not just men who have authority or are higher up at their company but all of them. I believe so because those are the people who are participating in inequality. They are the ones who are sexually harassing and discriminating against women. Are they the only ones, most likely not. Unfortunately, there most likely are women who discriminate against other women. But men are the rings leaders of it all and by changing their behaviors, women will be more comfortable in the office.

I liked the question that she posed in the beginning of the article, “If you were an executive tasked with reducing gender inequality in your organization, how would you do it?”. I think that this is a good question for everyone to ask themselves when hearing about gender inequality, or all kinds for that matter. I think that there are definitely people, especially men, who participate in gender equality without particularly realizing it. If they all asked themselves Wynn’s question, their actions might come to light in their minds. They could point out things that should be done to fix inequality and along the way realize ways that they have been making it worse.