2 Diversity in Organizations Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Overview of the Organization

2

Diversity in Organizations

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Overview of the Organization

Sevinna Stores operates in the retail industry, offering household goods across 22 countries globally. The company is headquartered in Iowa, United States. Sevinna was founded by Abraha Porte and Nicole Jenkins in 1976. The store has been growing at an unprecedented rate over the last five decades, owing to its expansion and growth strategies. Employing more than 678 employees across the world, Sevinna is popular for its top-notch human resource policies and excellent customer service. The current CEO of the firm is Gary Jacobs, who has led the retail chain store for more than ten years now.

Sevinna majors in the sale of food, clothing, jewelry, decor, electronics, games, pet supplies, health products, school and office supplies, and pharmacy. Additionally, it owns several clubs and discount stores in various regions across Midwest. Continuing its focus on growth and expansion, Sevinna recently acquired a Chinese-based firm to cater to its Asian market. However, amid growth and diversification, the firm faced the threat of diversity issues, which could potentially taint its image and damage the reputation it has worked on for decades.

Diversity Issue

News about firms being sued for discrimination based on race and gender stereotypes have been spreading at a high rate of late (Storer, et al, 2020; Kele et al., 2022). According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, there were more than 21,000 filed charges of sex discrimination in fiscal year 2020, a 31% increase from 2019. Race discrimination lawsuits increased by almost 32% over the same period. Sevinna found itself within this trend when a former female employee sued the firm for mistreatment based on her race and gender. Sevinna’s workforce is comprised of various races and gender. 12% of the employees are black, and 21% are female. However, the number of those in higher positions is very limited, with only 1% of people of color in the top positions.

The former employee, a mother of two, sued the firm for failing to give her a safe and hygienic lactation room because of her race, as well as declining her request for a higher salary because of single mother stereotypes. the employee had been working at the store for more than ten years and had an exceptional work ethic. Owing to these allegations, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued the firm for violating federal laws on equal employment and human resource management practices. EEOC is seeking compensatory damages, back pay, and punitive damages for the former employee. It is also seeking injunctive relief for itself as a form of punishment to Sevinna stores to discourage future violations of federal laws.

Concerns Regarding the Paper

One of the major concerns I have regarding the paper is whether it should be written in the third person or first-person pronoun. For instance, the instructions require that we choose an organization we have worked in before or currently. That way, I may be tempted to use the first-person pronoun “I”. Conversely, this is professional and graduate-level writing, which is often written in third-person pronouns (Li et al., 2020). Owing to these insights, I would love to understand the best way to approach the rest of the paper in terms of the use of pronouns. Otherwise, the rest of the instructions and requirements seem clear and straightforward.

References

EEOC. (2023). Charge statistics (charges filed with EEOC) FY 1997 through FY 2022. US. https://www.eeoc.gov/data/charge-statistics-charges-filed-eeoc-fy-1997-through-fy-2022

Kele, J. E., Cassell, C., Ford, J., & Watson, K. (2022). Intersectional identities and career progression in retail: The experiences of minority‐ethnic women. Gender, Work & Organization, 29(4), 1178-1198.

Li, Y., Ma, X., Zhao, J., & Hu, J. (2020). Graduate-level research writing instruction: Two Chinese EAP teachers’ localized ESP genre-based pedagogy. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 43, 100813.

Storer, A., Schneider, D., & Harknett, K. (2020). What explains racial/ethnic inequality in job quality in the service sector? American Sociological Review, 85(4), 537-572.